The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had allowed 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their most recent demonstration in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
A Season Falling Apart?
Had their campaign unraveling, or did there exist a thread keeping it intact in the first place? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri to lead the team this summer, before he admitted that the club had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were facing for financial irregularities. Reports that he could resign were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, including the Rome derby. Throughout this period, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or collapsing.
The Youngster's Unforeseen Return
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this season. He spent the previous campaign with Parma on loan and, early this summer, his parent club were pushing for him to stay there a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. They were unable to thin their squad without replacements.
He signed in the first place when Sarri was last in charge, at that time a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 matches in the league with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those coming off the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Finding His Best Role
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as a wide forward when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
