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The mood at their home stadium was anything but joyful on Saturday afternoon. The Biancocelesti found themselves behind against Torino, a side that had conceded ten goals while managing only two goals in their previous five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up their most recent demonstration in an ongoing feud with club owner Claudio Lotito.

This Year's Efforts Falling Apart?

Was Lazio's season falling apart, or was there ever a binding element holding it together to start with? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as head coach in the summer transfer window, but then he to later acknowledge that the club had failed to disclose a registration embargo they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Speculation that he might quit were not true, but he acknowledged that Lotito had "deceived" him.

The Roman club became as messy during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the rest of their initial five matches, including the Rome derby. At any given moment, it has been hard to determine if they're getting better or self-destructing.

Cancellieri's Unexpected Return

A single player remained positive throughout. Matteo Cancellieri wasn't originally meant to be at Lazio during this campaign. He completed last season at Parma as a loanee and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were advocating for him to remain there temporarily. The transfer ban necessitated a reconsideration. Lazio could not afford to thin their squad without replacements.

He joined originally during Sarri's previous tenure, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He made 20 league appearances in Lazio colors in the 2022-23 season, all but one of those as a substitute. The club's longtime sporting director, Igli Tare, who departed 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 True Position

Maybe Sarri was persistently working to determine the exact type of the player's talent. Originally described as a flank player upon signing, Cancellieri instead found himself much of that season as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile at No 9. Across 63 games while playing for Empoli and Parma in the past two years, his tally was seven goals. Shoehorn