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The atmosphere at their home stadium was decidedly gloomy this past Saturday. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a team that had let in ten goals while netting just two in their previous five league matches. Fans from the Curva Nord were concluding their ongoing dissent in a continuous dispute with chairman Claudio Lotito.

A Season Coming Unstitched?

Was Lazio's season coming unstitched, or had there never been any cohesion keeping it intact to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach during the off-season, but then he to later acknowledge that the board had not mentioned a ban on new signings they were facing for accounting issues. Rumours that he might quit were without basis, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "misled" him.

Lazio were just as chaotic on the pitch as they were off it, beating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. At any given moment, it has been hard to tell if they are improving or self-destructing.

The Youngster's Unforeseen Comeback

At least one man kept smiling throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to feature for Lazio during this campaign. He was on the last one at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to stay there temporarily. The signing restriction forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to reduce their roster without replacements.

Cancellieri arrived originally when Sarri was last in charge, back then just 20 years old alumnus of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 matches in the league for Lazio in 2022-23, all but one of those from the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, who left after that campaign, subsequently claimed Sarri of "informing all Cancellieri had superstar potential only to bench him consistently."

Discovering His Best Role

It's possible the coach was still trying to work out the exact type of the player's talent. Labeled as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri yet was deployed for the majority of that term as an unconvincing alternative to Ciro Immobile at No 9. In 63 appearances while playing for Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he scored seven times. Shoehorn