The atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their most recent demonstration in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were about to receive for accounting issues. Speculation that he could resign were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they're getting better or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, early this summer, his owning club were pushing for him to extend his stay for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to thin their squad with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived originally under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, almost all of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the specific characteristics of his skill set. Labeled as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
