The mood at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element holding it together from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the board had not mentioned the transfer ban they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it has been hard to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Unforeseen Return
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to be at Lazio this year. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the nature of the player's talent. Billed as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
