The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed ten goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure in the first place? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned the transfer ban they were facing for fiscal problems. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy 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, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it's been difficult to ascertain if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Comeback
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this season. He spent the last one with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, the vast majority of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His True Position
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
