The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, an opponent that had conceded a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or was there ever any cohesion holding it together to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he admitted that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining first five games, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, it has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Return
At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there a while longer. The signing restriction led to a change of plans. They were unable to reduce their roster with no new signings.
He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to determine the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
