The feeling at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while netting just two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Falling Apart?
Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element keeping it intact from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were about to receive for accounting issues. Speculation that he might quit were without basis, but he did say that Lotito had "swindled" him.
The Biancocelesti became as messy on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the rest of their initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. From one game to the next, observers have struggled to tell if they are improving or imploding.
Matteo's Surprising Presence
One individual kept smiling amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this season. He spent the last one with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there a while longer. The registration embargo forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team without replacements.
He signed originally under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances for Lazio in 2022-23, almost all of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed following that term, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star but then not selecting him."
Finding His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was persistently working to identify the nature of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger upon signing, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
