The feeling at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had allowed ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the management had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were set to be hit with for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, which included the capital clash. At any given moment, it's been difficult to ascertain if they're getting better or imploding.
The Youngster's Surprising Presence
At least one man remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He was on the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, early this summer, his owning club were attempting to stay there a while longer. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to thin their squad without replacements.
Cancellieri arrived in the first place under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 Serie A appearances for Lazio in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those as a substitute. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn
