The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had conceded ten goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their latest protest in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, only for him publicly stated that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were facing for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to tell if they are improving or self-destructing.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
One individual kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his parent club were advocating for him to extend his stay temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.
He joined originally when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential then never playing him."
Finding His Best Role
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to identify the nature of his skill set. Billed as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
