The atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign falling apart, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him publicly stated that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
The Youngster's Surprising Return
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this season. He was on the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, Lazio were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was still trying to identify the exact type of his skill set. Billed as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
