The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for fiscal problems. Reports that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Surprising Return
A single player continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season with Parma on loan and, early this summer, his owning club were attempting to remain there for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, all but one of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, later stated Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to identify the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for 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
