The feeling at their home stadium was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he might quit were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to ascertain if progress is being made or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Return
A single player kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He spent the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, during the summer break, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The signing restriction necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He joined initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, the vast majority of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, would later accuse Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
