The feeling at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed ten goals while managing only two goals in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign unraveling, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Reports that he could resign were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized in their performances as they were off it, defeating 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 has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Presence
At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed originally during Sarri's previous tenure, back then just 20 years old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His True Position
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to determine the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
