The atmosphere at their home stadium was far from happy during the weekend fixture. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had allowed 10 goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Coming Unstitched?
Was Lazio's season unraveling, or had there never been a thread keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team in the summer transfer window, but then he publicly stated that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Reports that he might quit were unfounded, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic during matches as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, observers have struggled to determine if they're getting better or collapsing.
Cancellieri's Surprising Comeback
At least one man continued to smile amid the chaos. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to feature for Lazio this year. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, early this summer, Lazio were pushing for him to extend his stay a while longer. The registration embargo necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad with no new signings.
He signed in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old product of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 league appearances with the club in 2022-23, all but one of those coming off the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."
Uncovering His Best Role
Perhaps the manager was still trying to work out the nature of Cancellieri's abilities. Labeled as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as a struggling deputy to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances on loan at Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
