🔗 Share this article

The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy this past Saturday. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had conceded 10 goals while scoring only two in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.

This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?

Had their campaign falling apart, or was there ever a thread maintaining its structure to start with? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, before he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a registration embargo they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Speculation that he might quit were unfounded, but he stated that Lotito had "deceived" him.

The Biancocelesti were just as chaotic in their performances as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but falling short in the remaining opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it's been difficult to ascertain if progress is being made or self-destructing.

Cancellieri's Unexpected Comeback

A single player remained positive through it. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to be at Lazio this season. He spent last season with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to extend his stay a while longer. The transfer ban forced a rethink. The club couldn't risk to weaken their team without replacements.

He signed originally when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He made 20 Serie A appearances in Lazio colors in 2022-23, almost all of those from the bench. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who left at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star then never playing him."

Discovering His True Position

Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn