The mood at their home stadium was far from happy this past Saturday. The home side was losing against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
A Season Unraveling?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, but then he admitted that the board had failed to disclose the transfer ban they were facing for financial irregularities. Rumours that he might quit were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "misled" him.
The Roman club became as messy during matches as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but losing their other initial five matches, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it's been difficult to determine if progress is being made or imploding.
The Youngster's Unexpected Comeback
At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He was on last season with Parma on loan and, at the start of the off-season, his parent club were advocating for him to stay there temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. They were unable to weaken their team with no new signings.
He signed in the first place during Sarri's previous tenure, then a 20-year-old alumnus of Verona's academy. He recorded 20 Serie A appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, the vast majority of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed at the end of that season, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom then never playing him."
Discovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was persistently working to work out the specific characteristics of Cancellieri's abilities. Originally described as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile in the striker role. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn
