The feeling at Lazio's home ground was far from happy during the weekend fixture. Lazio were trailing against Torino, a team that had conceded ten goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their ongoing dissent in an ongoing feud with president Claudio Lotito.
This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?
Was the team's progress falling apart, or did there exist any cohesion holding it together from the beginning? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri to lead the team during the off-season, before he admitted that the board had omitted to inform him about a registration embargo they were set to be hit with for accounting issues. Speculation that his departure was imminent were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club became as messy on the pitch as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in their other opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if progress is being made or imploding.
Cancellieri's Unexpected Return
One individual continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to remain with Lazio this season. He was on the last one on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were attempting to stay there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. They were unable to thin their squad lacking backup options.
He signed initially when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those from the bench. Their former sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended at the end of that season, would later accuse Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri would be a star only to bench him consistently."
Discovering His Natural Fit
It's possible the coach was continuing to attempt to determine the exact type of Cancellieri's abilities. Billed as an attacking winger on arrival, Cancellieri yet was deployed for most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. Across 63 games during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
