The atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or did there exist a binding element holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized in their performances as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
A single player continued to smile through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this season. He spent last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to extend his stay temporarily. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His True Position
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a wide forward on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
