The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had allowed a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion holding it together in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, but then he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
A single player remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season on loan at Parma and, early this summer, Lazio were advocating for him to extend his stay for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He signed initially under Sarri's first spell, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to work out the exact type of his skill set. Labeled as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
