The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, only for him to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if they're getting better or self-destructing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Return
One individual continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this year. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his parent club were advocating for him to remain there for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, the vast majority of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a flank player on arrival, Cancellieri nevertheless spent much of that season as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn