The atmosphere at Lazio's home ground was anything but joyful during the weekend fixture. The home side was losing against Torino, a team 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 finishing their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Had their campaign unraveling, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, before he admitted that the club had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "misled" him.
Lazio appeared equally disorganized during matches as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, observers have struggled to ascertain if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
A single player remained positive amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to be at Lazio during this campaign. He spent the previous campaign on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were pushing for him to stay there temporarily. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster without replacements.
He signed initially during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Finding His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was still trying to identify the nature of the player's talent. Originally described as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. During 63 outings during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
