The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned the transfer ban they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Rumours that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining initial five matches, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it has been hard to determine if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Presence
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio this year. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to remain there a while longer. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to reduce their roster without replacements.
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 matches in the league with the club in 2022-23, all but one of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Uncovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Billed as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
