The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, an opponent that had conceded 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or did there exist any cohesion holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the board had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for fiscal problems. Rumours that he could resign were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining first five games, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to determine if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
A single player remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this season. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his owning club were attempting to remain there a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed initially when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league 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, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to identify the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
