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The mood at their home stadium was far from happy on Saturday afternoon. The home side was losing against Torino, a team that had let in a total of 10 goals while scoring only two in their last five league matches. Ultras from the Curva Nord were finishing their latest protest in a long-running conflict with chairman Claudio Lotito.

A Season Falling Apart?

Had their campaign coming unstitched, or had there never been a binding element holding it together in the first place? The club brought back Maurizio Sarri as manager in the summer transfer window, only for him to later acknowledge that the management had omitted to inform him about a ban on new signings they were about to receive for fiscal problems. Rumours that he could resign were not true, but he stated that Lotito had "swindled" him.

The Roman club were just as chaotic during matches as off the field, defeating Verona 4-0 and Genoa 3-0 but being defeated in the remaining opening fixtures, featuring the derby della Capitale. Throughout this period, it has been hard to tell if they are improving or imploding.

Matteo's Unforeseen Comeback

At least one man continued to smile throughout. Matteo Cancellieri had not been expected to remain with Lazio this year. He spent last season on loan at Parma and, at the start of the off-season, his owning club were attempting to extend his stay for another season. The registration embargo forced a rethink. Lazio could not afford to weaken their team lacking backup options.

He joined initially under Sarri's first spell, at that time a 20-year-old graduate of Verona's academy. He accumulated 20 league appearances with the club in the 2022-23 season, almost all of those coming off the bench. The ex- sporting director, Igli Tare, whose tenure ended following that term, later stated Sarri of "promising everyone Cancellieri was destined for stardom only to bench him consistently."

Finding His True Position

Maybe Sarri was continuing to attempt to identify the specific characteristics of his skill set. Billed as a flank player when he joined, Cancellieri instead found himself most of that campaign as an ineffective backup to Ciro Immobile as center forward. In 63 appearances during spells with Empoli and Parma over the last two seasons, he netted seven goals. Shoehorn