The mood at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, an opponent that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or did there exist a binding element holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, before he admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for financial irregularities. Reports that he might quit were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Return
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He was on last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were pushing for him to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived initially when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in 2022-23, almost all of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Finding His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
