The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign unraveling, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for financial irregularities. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the remaining first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if progress is being made or imploding.
Matteo's Unexpected Presence
At least one man remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was still trying to work out the nature of his skill set. Originally described as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
