The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while managing only two goals in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or was there ever a binding element maintaining its structure in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, before he admitted that the board had failed to disclose a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Reports that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other initial five matches, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it's been difficult to determine if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. The club couldn't risk to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left following that term, subsequently claimed Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was still trying to work out the nature of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. During 63 outings while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn