The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager during the off-season, before he to later acknowledge that the board had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Reports that he could resign were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it's been difficult to tell if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
A single player kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the nature of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
