The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a side that had let in ten goals while netting just two in their last five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or was there ever any cohesion maintaining its structure in the first place? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, only for him publicly stated that the club had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio were just as chaotic during matches as off the field, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, it's been difficult to tell if they're getting better or imploding.
The Youngster's Unexpected Comeback
At least one man kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this season. He completed the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, during the summer break, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there temporarily. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
He joined in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, the vast majority of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a wide forward upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
