The feeling at their home stadium was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had conceded a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress unraveling, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, but then he admitted that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Rumours that his departure was imminent were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club became as messy on the pitch as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other first five games, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Surprising Return
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to be at Lazio this season. He completed last season with Parma on loan and, during the summer break, his parent club were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was still trying to work out the exact type of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
