The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Supporters from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure from the beginning? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as head coach this summer, but then he admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about the transfer ban they were facing for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other initial five matches, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to tell if they're getting better or imploding.
The Youngster's Unexpected Return
One individual remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio during this campaign. He completed last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The transfer ban led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
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 2022-23, all but one of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Best Role
It's possible the coach was still trying to identify the exact type of his skill set. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri nevertheless spent the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
