The atmosphere at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, but then he to later acknowledge that the club had not mentioned the transfer ban they were facing for fiscal problems. Rumours that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic during matches as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
A single player continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team without replacements.
He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league with the club in 2022-23, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom but then not selecting him."
Uncovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to work out the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
