The atmosphere at the Stadio Olimpico was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while scoring only two in their most recent five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their latest protest in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.
The Campaign Unraveling?
Was the team's progress coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread maintaining its structure to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the club had not mentioned a registration embargo they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.
The Roman club appeared equally disorganized in their performances as behind the scenes, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, which included the capital clash. From one game to the next, it's been difficult to determine if progress is being made or self-destructing.
Matteo's Unexpected Return
A single player continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri was not even supposed to remain with Lazio this year. He was on the previous campaign at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, Lazio were pushing for him to remain there for another season. The registration embargo led to a change of plans. They were unable to weaken their team lacking backup options.
He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, back then just 20 years old product of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league in Lazio colors in 2022-23, all but one of those coming off the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed after that campaign, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom but then not selecting him."
Discovering His True Position
Maybe Sarri was persistently working to work out the nature of his skill set. Labeled as an attacking winger when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. During 63 outings on loan at Empoli and Parma during recent campaigns, he scored seven times. Shoehorn
