The mood at the Stadio Olimpico was decidedly gloomy on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had allowed 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or was there ever a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, only for him admitted that the management had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he did say that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized on the pitch as off the field, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in their other initial five matches, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or collapsing.
Matteo's Surprising Comeback
One individual kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, his owning club were advocating for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He joined in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances with the club in 2022-23, almost all of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Finding His Natural Fit
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
