The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with club owner Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together to start with? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, but then he to later acknowledge that the management had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that his departure was imminent were without basis, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Roman club were just as chaotic in their performances as they were off it, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
Cancellieri's Surprising Comeback
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. 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 extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
Cancellieri arrived originally when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those as a substitute. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "telling everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was continuing to attempt to determine the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
