The feeling at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Coming Unstitched?
Had their campaign coming unstitched, or had there never been a binding element maintaining its structure from the beginning? Lazio reinstated Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, only for him publicly stated that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Rumours that his departure was imminent were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, overcoming Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their first five games, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, observers have struggled to determine if they are improving or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Unforeseen Return
At least one man kept smiling through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there for another season. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
He signed originally during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in 2022-23, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, subsequently claimed Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of his skill set. 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 during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
