The feeling at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, an opponent that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or did there exist a binding element keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, but then he publicly stated that the board had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to tell if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Presence
A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio this season. He spent the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad lacking backup options.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league for Lazio in 2022-23, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the nature of his skill set. Billed as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
