And then it's turned in! Lorenzo Pellegrini proves that he can still lead this side,
lead Roma in the big matches and produce the biggest of goal!
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Seria Spotlight, this is episode 105 and we are
your hosts Matt and Jake and here it is Merry Christmas! We're late and we didn't for sure
have a Christmas on the last one so we apologize for that and it wasn't Christmas yet. No way but I
guess you're right actually, we can't anticipate when we're gonna record during the busy holidays plus
you know that you and I we both don't really like planning right? No we hate planning. We're very
sporadic in fact if you notice three seasons of Seria Spotlight and the release date of each episode
is different every week. Well come on we stick to Tuesday, Wednesday when it comes to recording
as early as we can I guess. It will be Monday and Thursday I would say. Well Merry Christmas to
all of you listening, have a happy new year just so that we can anticipate that and not be not
be late again. Thank you for sticking around this year and we look forward to dishing out content
for you throughout 2024. Yes stay tuned keep those eyes keep those eyes keep those eyes nice and
peeled. Yes nice I spice. Yes also we didn't have a break this year so apologies that this episode
is significantly late because you will be listening to this on Friday the day of some other Seria
fixtures but it'll serve as a nice reminder of what happened while you know you were missing
football because you're having lunch here dinner there drinks there so consider this a nice reminder.
It'll get you in the zone. Seria or during Christmas time is not something we're used to I usually
there's a break. Yeah yeah a bit weird yes our goal of the week came from Pellegrini.
You know? Vendication thy name is Lorenzo. What did you say? It had been a while a long time coming
for Pellegrini had fallen out of favor he was at one point one of Italy's best midfielders
and Roma's captain at one point he lost the armband he lost the starting spot and he became
more of a kind of rotation player coming off the bench in all his games. Well he had been injured
for a while. He did he has struggled with injuries in his career but this was a nice confidence boost
form scoring on the on the volley like that. We had a few close contenders for second place
Barrella, Gildiz and Ilitch I thought scored fantastic goals do you think Ilitch's goal was
intentional? No you could literally see him looking inside the box and seeing how he's gonna ping it
now I don't care I thought it was a magnificent goal nonetheless I don't care what you were trying
to do the ball left your foot and hit the back of the net the keeper was rooted to the spot
it was beautiful. I do think that when it comes to team play Barrella's goal was was
extraordinary. It was incredible. He played the ball to Arnautovic himself Arnautovic at his back
towards goal that give and go is delicious that backheel by Arnautovic back to Barrella
rounds the keeper then Gildiz as well on his debut I believe. Yes his first start for Juventus Montella
Vincenzo Montella yes Vincenzo Montella you remember him at Fiorentina and at Milan gave him
a few starts for Turkey actually Gildiz has been quite instrumental for this for the
Turkey national team so it's clear to see why the guy is so calm under pressure floating between
three players and then finishing so calmly and intelligently at the near post and that was a
very mature goal. Yeah Juve have got a bunch of talented young wingers don't they know so they're
probably returning next year to Juve I don't think they need me anymore bro. Yeah I don't think they
need Allegri anymore. Go for a proactive approach you've got the talent definitely. So don't forget
to like follow rate date chat the lot. Thank you for giving us five stars on Spotify if you could
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number on the Patreon app. Do join it's fun. It's good fun. It's very fun. He seems to be
Australian as well. Nice. Oh we've got a bunch of Aussies now. David and Anthony as well. Yeah
there you go. All right very good guys. Before we get into the round down I believe we should update
our listeners bro a little bit on what's been going on in the Coppa Italia and what is next.
So the round of 16 of the Coppa Italia has commenced. Lots of your beating general 1-0 to go
through. Fiorentina and Parma drew 2-0 but Fiorentina absolutely demolished them on penalties
4-1. Napoli lost to Frazzinone. Those who were listening to our last episode with a
further live reaction to seeing that score on our phones. Frazzinone smashed them 4-0 after
De Laurenti said that it's not fair that Frazzinone get to compete in Serie A with all those big name
clubs. That's a nice revenge by Frazzinone. And Bologna beat Inter away from home 2-1
to advance to the quarterfinals. Now that leaves Milan they need to face Calieri,
Atlanta need to face Sassuolo, Roma need to face Cremonesi and Juve need to face Salernitano.
And then we can move on to the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia. Yep and then we've got the
latter stages of the Coppa Italia which are always so fun to tune into midweek.
As for the rundown in order of the games that we're going to be covering to cover matchday 17,
we'll start things off with the very violent Derby del Sol where Roma got away against Napoli
with a 2-0 victory. Not many people know it's a Derby but it's essentially the center of Italy
against the south of Italy. We make Derbies out of nothing in Italy. Inter 2 let's you a nil
Inter maintaining that 4 point advantage over Juve. However Juve did get past Frazzinone away
from home with the score of 2-1 with their momentarily just one point behind Inter. Salernitano 2,
Milan 2, Pippon Zaghi's return to face his former side ended with an upset for Milan and a good
result for Salernitano. A rare Mike Mandian mistake made that possible for Salernitano.
Bologna 1, Atalanta nil was it against the run of play perhaps but big teams win games that
perhaps they don't deserve to win. Monza nil Fiorentina 1 another goal keeping error over here
by this time by DeGregoria another uncharacteristical error gave Fiorentina the lead through a Beltran
goal and Polinil Lazio 2 clean victory over there by Lazio away from home. Sasuolo 1, Genoa 2.
I found this stat recently at sets that Sasuolo have conceded in every single game that they've
played so far. Caleb Ecuban scored a goal here for Genoa getting his first of the season. Verona
2, Kaliari nil, Kaliari were doing well until they got a red card and Torino 1, Odinesa 1.
That was where Illich went across the ball but the ball hit the back of the net.
Brilliant run down bro, sporadic national amazing. I think we can jump in and start with the Derby
del Sole. Yes, del La Sole or del Sole. I'm pretty sure it's del Sole. Okay, okay, let's just call it
Roman Napoli. And Roman Napoli actually ended 2 nil to Roma who are much stronger at home than
they are away from home. Of course, this is a historical thing with Roma considering the nature
of the Olympic and the nature of their fan base and their songs, you know, it always gives them
that extra push. Yeah. For absentees, of course, Roma were missing Abraham award, debala, cumbula
and smalling the usual suspects quite frankly. While Napoli were missing Elmas, Lindstrom and
Oliveira to injury. Elmas, of course, has recently been confirmed to believing he's going to Leipzig
in Germany. Yeah, that makes Zelensky also who might be leaving in January heading to winter.
These are talking points for later, of course. So let's go through the lineups because this was
quite the clash of the Titans, okay, the underperforming Titans. Rui Patricio was in goal for
Roma while Mancini, Lorente and Indica were at the back. Christensen was on the right and Zelensky
on the left with Christante, Paredes and Bové in the middle. Lukaku and Bellotti started up front
together. This Roma side was basically designed to go to war. Yeah. That's a day played players
who will literally make it a nightmare for Napoli physically and mentally. Yeah. Now, Napoli on the
other hand lined up with a 4-3-3 formation with Meret and Goul, Mario Rui out on the left,
a dealer in the right with Juan Jesus and the Rahmani at the back. Zelensky, Lobotka and
Anguissa were in midfield with Gvardskeli out on the left, Ozim and up front and Poletano out on
the right. So yes, as I mentioned, you could see this match on the emet to be battled between
two struggling sides coming into the game. Napoli were two points ahead of Roma in sixth.
Roma proved to be the more streetwise team dictating the tempo of the match and frustrating
their opponents to the point of expulsion. And they started from the get-go. You get to see in
the 30th minute, Mourinho grabbed the face of Gvardskeli, a lot of seasons MVP and shot Basta,
Basta, Basta grabbed his face when Klosso and we literally got into his head like early on in the
first half and that pretty much set the tone for the entire game. Napoli were shown two red cards
at the end of the game out of sheer frustration, one to Poletano and one to Victor Ozim and
yeah, let's just go through a quick summary of how things played through. So Roma started off
on the front foot, surprisingly enough, showcasing relentless pressure. I was particularly impressed
with Bovet throughout the whole game, but particularly his start. He struck the post and
then forced Meret into a great save after Bellotti had put it on a plate for him. That was a good
save because that was a tap in for Bovet. Napoli struggled to create in the first half in general,
their best chance came through an Oziman bicycle kick from a corner that led to the path of
Anguissa, but the Cameroonian failed to connect with it. Napoli started the second half with
improved attacking intent through Zelinski and Gvardskeli, but really failed to trouble Rui
Patricio significantly. The first red card was shown to a very frustrated Matteo Poletano for
violent conduct after having his shirt pulled by Zelinski on a counterattack and he decided to kick
him. He lunged at him, it wasn't a crazy kick, it didn't hurt him or anything, but the fact that he
lashed out at his opponent meant a major red card. Pellegrini scored a sensational volley just 10
minutes later, this would be the 76th minute after a sequence of blocked and miss hit shots.
In the 83rd minute Lukaku attempted to chip Meret after being played through brilliantly by
Christante, but Meret pulled off another great save and 10 minutes after the opener,
Oziman was shown his second yellow card for a clumsy challenge to be honest.
The Roma man did make a bit of a meal out of it, but it was still a second yellow,
not a straight red. Roma had clearly managed to get under Napoli's skin in typical Morinio
fashion. Lukaku linked up with Indica at the end, it wasn't all that pretty by Indica, but he got
the ball to Lukaku who fainted, took another touch and sealed the deal in the 96th minute
while Napoli's eight remaining outfield players were trying to find an equalizer. Bro, what a game.
Amazing game, amazing game. This is a classic Roma victory, it's not often that we see Roma beat
other teams in the top seven, but when they do, this is exactly how they do it, they go to war.
If there's one thing Morinio likes to do, you see him as well in the Europa League final,
for example, the second he's not a favorite in the game, that's the style of play he likes to take.
He knows that his team possibly performs better when it's a scrap, when it's a scrap a lot of
these players come out to play, and I think Napoli play worse when it's a scrap, and as
champions, perhaps a bruised ego at the moment, they could get frustrated, and that's exactly
what they did, they frustrated them. You see Morinio in the beginning, like you said, going
straight to the MVP and getting in his head, and that led to, you know, all right, Roma got a bunch
of yellow cards themselves, but Napoli lost this game, and now they're missing Polita on Victor
Rossiman for the next game, so Roma have done some serious, serious damage to Napoli over here.
Absolutely, and I was particularly impressed by the approach of Roma, you know, just fielding
as many physical players as possible, you know, you look at that midfield, it's rough, and Bellotti
and Lukaku up front, they're going to do a lot of pressing for you, you know, but an interesting
statistic I saw was that Roma had 19 fouls, while Napoli had 12. Roma had seven yellow cards,
Napoli had four, yet Roma finished with 11 men and two goals, while Napoli finished with nine men
and zero goals, so that's just, that's just tactical fouls versus frustrated fouls. It was
all part of the game plan, and it just goes to show because Roma are just as frustrated as a side
as Napoli are, with the way things are going this season, but this game, Roma showed that they have
a certain level of maturity that perhaps the defending champions don't have, and as you mentioned,
they've got a bruised ego at the moment, so maybe they weren't willing to scrap it out with
Roma the same way that Roma were willing to do so. Yeah, I think so, and as well, Roma just have
continuity on their side at the moment, no? You look at Napoli, there's their second manager,
the season, third manager in six months when you win the game, when you look at it,
that way, after the highs of last season, now they're facing a reality where look, the competition
has increased, you've got Juve, you've got Inter, you've got all these guys that have really stepped
up this season, and they're in a spot where they're weaker, and this was essentially, if you look at,
I believe a couple of matchdays ago, these teams are essentially fighting for that fourth spot,
so the derby they saw this year carries a bit more importance to it than it has previously,
and Roma went prepared, they went prepared, they're like, this means a lot, we need that fourth spot,
they haven't gotten Champions League under Morinio yet since he's been there,
this is his third fucking season, there's no fucking around, we're gonna get a game like this,
we're gonna throw our bodies on the line, we're gonna press the oblivion, I was, it's almost a
blessing in disguise that, I might say something crazy here, that the ball was out of this game,
not because Bellotti has more quality or because he plays better, but for the press, Bellotti is
excellent at pressing, it doesn't stop running El Gallo. Yeah, the way things panned out, yes,
it could be deemed that way, of course, it's just fortunate for them that they managed to get that
red card, because I don't think that they could have scored had it not been for the red card,
and in fact that's when they capitalized and when they really started to get close, like granted,
Bovet hit the post early on, and then Bellotti set up also in the first half, but you know how it
gets with Morinio in the second half, especially he tends to settle for a draw, but yes bro,
absolutely, I was very impressed with Bovet at this game, he won most of his duels, be them on
the ground, be them in the air, he showed solid defensive attributes, while also good offensive
flair as well, I was very impressed by him. Yeah, he was pretty much everywhere man, he had just
some statistics for you over here, he had a 75% pass success rate, he had 39 touches of the ball,
but I don't think most of his good performance could be deemed by when he had possession of the
ball, because he was so good off the ball. Yeah, absolutely, he had a very intelligent player,
he's only 21 years old, he's been playing with Roma for his entire life since his youth career,
he's already got 47 appearances and two goals, so good on you, Eduardo Bovet.
I thought Mario Rui was bad. Ah, not his best game at all, it's almost, he's at a bit of an
awkward point in his career, Mario Rui, he was doing so well on their spalletti and I feel like
the attacking liberty and the freedom to cross and to attack and to advance with midfield coverage
was was suiting him really well, but the more defensive responsibility you give to Mario Rui,
the worse he's going to perform. I mean, he was so good for the past few seasons and think about
it, for the past few seasons he had had Kim Min Jae lost season before that, he had Kullibadi
covering for him, so he almost afforded to go forward and be that Dimarko style left back,
but now the second that he goes up with Juan Jesus and Rahmani starting alongside each other,
that's not a solid defense, you know what I mean, so the second he goes up they're left exposed
and it's almost like he's unsure of his responsibilities, should I be going forward,
should I be staying back, he was often caught in no man's land, I genuinely believe that for the system
Oliveira is probably a better fit than a flat four at the back. Yeah, probably, what you get with
Mario Rui and then is the the corners, set pieces, the crossing prowess, he has a very good understanding
with Victor Rosiman of course, but just not the way they're lining up, that flat back four barely
advances, okay yeah so for me it was a clear, a clearly deserved victory for Roma, yeah I think
so, they did what they had to do, although it's not a sexy way to win a game the way that they did
it, that's what Roma had to do and that's what they did, but it's different you know, we often see
teams blow other teams out of the water or we see teams scrap, but this was a psychological battle
that Roma fought and they won it and it worked to a team, it was a master class, and it's not like
they lost a bunch of players due to suspension over there because not all the other ones, it's the
losers that are facing the the suspensions, so they're going to be weakened for the next game,
they racked up a couple of yellows but there are worse things in the world, absolutely, yeah
and Morinio's master class is the reason we have chosen him for our episode artwork, if you're
wondering where those come from, I draw those myself and you can buy them from the shop, if
you're a patron they're free, you can download all of them, and if you're not they only cost three
euros, so feel free to go and get yourself a nice desktop background or a print, you know, yeah
okay I should be back, sorry if you guys couldn't hear me too clearly, there was a bit of a technical
issue with my mic, not quite sure what happened but hopefully it won't persist, yeah, one thing I
wanted to talk about brother is Napoli's moves in the January transfer, because it's slightly,
it looks like they don't have a plan and they're just offloading anyone that they can, so Elmas
is off to Leipzig, and Zelinski is probably off to winter, they're gonna try to push to make it
happen in January, they being in there of course, but you should be, I highly doubt that they'd be
mad to let them go to enter in January, I mean well firstly they need to pay because this contract
won't be up, and what's all what happened with the Samaritan's deal for example, we know in
turn that they can't do it, it'll be bizarre if they manage to pull that off, and claims of bankruptcy
being imminent for in there, it's like 181 million or something, this news comes out every year,
they always manage to wiggle out of it, I'm not quite sure about the details of it of course, but
we'll stay tuned, tuned, we'll read and we'll try to share as much knowledge as possible with you guys.
It's weird that like Zelinski and Elmas, because they're the only two players they have playing that
role, like the Trek War Testa role, yeah kind of a free role right, even though Elmas was deployed
as a kind of vice-guvara for a lot, it's not really his natural position, you know, absolutely yes,
and Inter really could use some midfield reinforcement, so Zelinski would be quite nice for that,
he'd fit nicely, incredibly there I think, even though he's not been great this season,
no, no, he kind of does this vanishing acting games at that, Zannoli the substitute right back
of the Lorenzo's off to Genoa and loan a very good coup for Genoa, but he was a loan last year,
who was your loan at last year's loan? Zannoli was, I want to say Sampdoria, he was their only
shining light, remember? Yes, yes at the latter stage, I'd just say I'd got enough goals I believe as well.
And I believe there was one incredible assist, we're like saying that the only positive right now
in the Sampdoria side is Zannoli, Farone should be coming in to replace him if all goes as planned.
That's good, that's good, and then Farone should get the fuck out of there, get out of that Sampdoria.
The sinking ship, instead of leading the team as he was and has been the captain this entire time.
I got a gentle reminder on TikTok about how it was Farone who cleared the wall off the line with
his hand in the derby, in the relegation playoff, and then in Zolaam, it's the penalty Montepo
saved, that was fucking nuts. Incredible man, he sunk them on his own with that, and then in Zolaam
it's the penalty of course, I went to Fjörentina. What a leader. There is also, ah yes, so Ozzyman
might be going to Afkorn, do you think they should buy a striker as well? They've got Diego
Semion, I feel like they're in decent hands with him, he's a good striker, Raspador if he wants to
play there, he's looked really really good this year, I don't think that'd be a desperate need for
one no. Yeah, the problem is the offensive plan, right, I mean Semion and Raspador might not thrive
as there's no system to feed Semion for example, but as we mentioned and highlighted every single
episode that relies a lot on individual effort for Napoli to actually create attacks, so maybe it's
not ideal for Semion who thrived when he had the entire Hellas Varana squad feeding him, the entire
team was playing for him. So we'll see what happens there, they'll definitely miss Ozzyman
because he's a type of striker who can make something out of nothing very quickly. Yeah,
when it comes to Roma by the way, they're looking at names to replace in Dika during Afkorn,
in Dika nowadays represents the Ivory Coast, he used to represent France, Bonochi and Demiral
are the names being mentioned, I think that one is clearly better than the other. Yeah, Demiral,
of course. I mean they're both not incredibly solid, Demiral's good but he's inconsistent with
his fitness and he's currently playing in Saudi, which makes you worse. When you're playing in
a league of lower quality, it makes you a worse player. But is it even a league of lower quality
at this point when you look at the players who are playing? Yes, there are five, six teams,
let's say five teams that have a couple of superstars, you know, their training facilities
are still what they are, their other oppositions, remember there are 15 other teams, they're still
what they are. No, of course, of course, absolutely, it is lower quality football. However, he hasn't
been there for very long, so it's not like he's been there for three years, you know,
he'll let himself go, he's only been there for I think it's less than a season. But yeah, I think
Demiral could be a good card for Mourinho to whip out, Bonochi's leadership skills of course could
be useful as well. We'll see what route they go down. Both of them have their pros and their
cons, right? Demiral of course, his fitness being the main, the main con. But yeah, bro, I think
that's it. When it comes to the standings, Roma are currently in sixth with 28 points, while
Napoli are in seventh with 27 points as Roma leapfrog their rivals. Yes, sir, Inter to let Chenille,
we should speak about that now. So Inter responded to you as earlier when against Fosnall,
and maintaining the four point gap at the top. Inter were aiming to forget the midweek elimination
from Coppa Italia against Bologna after losing 2-1 after extra time. Letcher had Anquist injured,
Pongratric was doubtful, but he started the match. Injured or suspended players were Inter
included Lautaro Martinez, which is probably the biggest loss they could have in their team.
D'Amfri's DeMarco and Quadrado, so Cardo's Augusto started on the left and Arnautovic
started alongside Rammu. We were discussing in the earlier episode who should start.
Is it going to be Arnautovic or Sanchez? Arnautovic or Sanchez, but Arnautovic clearly was
preferred over here. In the tenth minute, Miketarian set up Arnautovic nicely with a square pass into
the box, but Arnautovic was denied by Falco and F from just 6 yards out, should have done better.
Inter had a stunning passage of attacking play in the 21st minute with slick and sexy football
being showcased outside the opposition area, but unfortunately for them, Arnautovic's finishing
touch straight just wide, another miss for Arnautovic over there. In the 40th minute,
Bissex volley from Chalenoğlu's accurate cross stuck the woodwork, but then just two minutes later,
this time the Chalenoğlu Bissex combination ended with a goal. The centre back heading
in an in-swinger free kick cross from Chalenoğlu. In the 58th minute, just after half time,
referee Matteo Marcenaro awarded a bizarre penalty to Lecce, which was quickly shot down by VAR,
which showcased no handball by Augusto and at the ball, just struck his back. There was absolutely
zero contact with the arm, which was by the way against the body, so I really don't know what
Matteo Marcenaro saw over there, and I don't know why he had to go to the VAR screen to confirm
that there was no contact, because I'm sure through this walkie talkie fucking system that they have,
they could have said, listen, like, you're wrong, like, you really don't know what to see.
Yeah, that was quite a clear mistake, it's true, I don't know why they didn't just give the instructions
from above, he was being like, hey listen, I didn't touch his hand. I guess because the referee made
the call, he'll have to revert it himself. Yep, perhaps, perhaps. It's not like an offside, you know,
where there's the whole mathematics and the whole line behind it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in case he's
corrupt. In the 77th minute, Inter sealed the deal with a great team goal, Barella played the
ball forward to Arnauto, which with his back towards goal, backheeled the ball back to Barella,
who made a very clever run and finished cleanly by rounding the keeper. The team celebrated
with Arnauto, which for his sublime assist after a tough day at the office for the veteran striker,
who's yet to open his account despite various opportunities in this match. In the 83rd minute
let's show him down to 10 men, when Lamek Banda was shown a red card for descent, a straight red card,
so I can only imagine what he said. And in the 87th minute Falco Arnauto produced two miraculous
saves, the first to deny Pavarra at the far post and the second from a follow-up attempt by Aslani
from some serious distance with the keeper tipping the ball over the bar. Good win for Inter. Solid,
Solid, absolutely solid. And they just showed everyone that they don't even need Lautaro Martinez
as the bomber of the league. They had a severely misfiring Arnauto, which up front, and they still
managed to get their job done. And not only did they get their job done, but that misfiring Arnauto,
which also fucking managed to play one of the most beautiful assists I've seen this season.
Not to mention, Jan Bisek having kind of like a Malik Chow emergence into the league,
had to have shown that he's extremely competent on the ball. We highlighted how good he is and
how skilled he is at keeping possession of how press resistant he is in the last episode.
This match we hit the crossbar, I believe, and then he scored the goal right off the
court. Yeah, that's it. Do you think? The technique on that header, eh? Weird. Weird,
worked. It worked. He like almost jumped up and like closed his body into a ball and hit it back.
Or like, his head upwards, you know? Sergio Ramos has a brilliant one like that when he was young
against Barca, and the A-class court, he came 3-3 when Messi scored the hat-trick. Which version
of Ramos is this? Slickback lizard Ramos? Right back Ramos with long hair and the white headband.
The lizard Ramos. The fucking maniac. Is Bisek a potential starter when Inter are fully fit at
the back? Honestly, man, yes. Yes. So you look at, you've got Bastoni, Archébi, Bisek, you have
De Vrij, who's out, I think Bisek can comfortably bench De Vrij. Nowadays, yes. Nowadays, yes.
De Vrij, three seasons ago, was top. He was the shit. He was incredible. But it's been quite the
regression since then. I think Bisek is on the up and this would be wise, actually,
take it for more playing time ahead of De Vrij. Other than that, you know, I mean,
yes, that's the man he has to this place. So I think you can totally do it.
Pretty much. Probably starting alongside Bastoni and Archébi. Yeah. I think.
Darmion as well would be a candidate for that centre-back position. But to be honest, Darmion is
just a squad player that he can pop into fit any hole. They don't need rotation anyway. So
Darmion would still be playing everywhere. These were the substitute full-backs as well for
Inter. Wing-backs rather. Yeah. So Gustav and Darmion did a fantastic job. I think so. I think so.
Arnautovic's performance. So you said how Inter, they don't even need a Lauter-Romey team as to
win a game. I think they would have won it so much more easily if he was on the pitch
because he just seemed, he seems like someone that's been playing in Saudi. Arnautovic,
he seems a step behind. He's not getting any younger. He's not getting any younger. No,
but you see, for example, what Zeco is capable of doing for Inter. The thing is, when you have
veteran players like this, so Arnautovic is 34 years old, last season he started the season with
a bank for Bologna scored plenty of goals. Then he got injured and he kept getting injured almost
towards the end of the season and he was poached by Inter. So now he finds himself in his first
season at Inter at 34 years old. The problem is when it comes to players at that age, there's no
time to settle. There's no period of adjustment you brought in and you need to have an immediate
impact. We forget that Arnautovic needs to settle into this Inter side. He needs to get used to
the way they play. That's a totally different system to what he was used to at Bologna. So
is it, my question on my point is, is it fair to criticize veteran players harsher or more harshly,
rather? I think that as a veteran league player who's been at Bologna before, sure you need time
to settle, but what you get when you invest in a player that has proven himself in a league
is that the adjustment period should be shorter. Now obviously he's not starting many games because
there's Turram and Lautaro who are untouchable. He was out for around six months last season,
I believe it or his cruciate ligament last year at Bologna. I think that was the extent of it.
I know he had a serious injury, not sure if that was the one, but fucking it.
He had a tough injury for sure. I don't think it's a matter of him getting used to the system
because he seemed to be at the right place at the right time and his link-up play and his
hold-up play was good. It's just about his finishing was off. It could be a matter of
confidence, it could be a matter of misfortune, it could be many things. And it was like the
whole thing of the game, given out of which his first goal and everyone celebrating with him for
the assistant, it must suck to be the player when that's the case. It's all about you not being able
to score. He seemed visibly frustrated, yelling at himself and hitting himself on the head.
Like it was like Dobby and Harry Potter. Yeah, CDK is the fucking CEO of that. Even if he gets
like an assistant a goal in a game, like everyone's just like celebrating with him, like he's playing
well. Well, he's gonna have his opportunities to get a goal and I'm sure our and out of which
is not gonna be the kind of guy to struggle too much to get a goal in the future. If you want,
we can discuss Jelinski to winter again. I don't think there's any need to do that.
Yes, you will fit in nicely over there considering Fratese doesn't seem to have settled as well as
he would have hoped Fratese. Mentor from the group chat said that maybe interview him as too selfish.
When I watched Fratese, so I get that he can be that kind of player, but from watching him at
Inter he didn't seem that way to me. Obviously in Zagis, he's things differently to to Jake and Matt
from Seria spotlight, you know, but I didn't see him to be that way. I think it's more of a question
of where does he fit into this team because Zelinski to me, direct replacement for Miketarian.
Bangon fucking medzala is the is the word the exactly medzala. The half winger. Exactly. So
he'll definitely slot in perfectly over there. Fratese is more a replacement for Barella.
Yeah, that's the way I see it. Box the box midfielder and quite tidy up front if they need to push
him up further. I feel like Fratese is literally a budget Barella man. And he's always got goals.
He's a hard worker. He's 24 years old. He's got time on his side and he's got a very good player
to mentor him. Yeah. So I don't think he's out of favor. I think it's just a question of where.
We also saw, by the way, this game, we saw a trial and ogle giving the ball away a lot in
the final third in his half. And that's I don't know if it happened last week as well. And we
addressed it or we spoke about it off the board. He was no, we discussed how he's not as press
resistant. Absolutely. Number six. And he was dispossessed in the last match by
Rovella. And then Rovella had that chance. Yeah, that puts him in my opinion,
a tier below Lobotka and Ben-Assar when it comes to that six position. Shala noglou has
strengths that Ben-Assar and Lobotka do not have. But as a six on my team, I know who I would want
personally. Do you know how many times Shala noglou lost possession in this game? 15 times.
15 times. There we go. That's not what you want from your anchor. Perhaps not.
Perhaps not. It was a bit of a scrappy game, of course. By the end, they had to make use of the
players, the rotation players, moving on to lecture a little bit. Barna does a naughty boy.
And we've highlighted that Barna's a naughty boy over here. And he's got a toad. He's got a toad and
fucking referees often forgive him because he's often picked on because of his height, five foot
three. Yeah. So quite often he'll get out muscles, get frustrated, he'll lash out and referees close
and I, you know, because they go, well, that must be frustrating. He's so much smaller. It's the opposite.
You know, for example, what Frank Kessie used to experience at Milan being so big and like in a 50-50,
the player like, oh, the second he's hit like a yellow card to Kessie. It's like, come on, dude.
There was a shoulder to shoulder. He's just very strong. So, so yeah, Banda probably deserved
this red card as well as probably deserving many more this season alone. I mean, probably man. Yeah,
but Banda, he, so he's got attitude problems. And the thing that annoys me is that he really
lets it affect his performance. Like when he's pissed off, he looks like, you know, when you
hit someone a bit too hard and a five aside, and then they get the point, they start dribbling
and they kick the ball really hard. They shoot the ball really hard. Like they're throwing a little
time. They play with anger. They play with anger. But Banda does that. He doesn't have a,
he does it like in the worst way possible. It's not like Barardi where he gets pissed off and you
can see it in his face and then everything he tries to do, he tries to make it work. With Banda
just lashing out, kicking randomly, flailing his arms. It's reckless. You know, it can really,
really cost your team. Also, bro, not sold on Roberto Piccoli. I'm not sure he should be starting
over at Kristovic. The positions Piccoli's finding himself in where he just teased and power shots
from out of the box. I would love to see Kristovic with his back towards goal in those situations
because he's a very smart player, smarter than Piccoli. I want to know what happened.
The dry spell, right? I mean dry spell and Piccoli started scoring, so he's getting the
trance he deserves to be fair. Yeah, and I mean, to be fair, he's been scoring. It's just,
obviously, if we were to judge from on his performance against Inter, then let's look at
the team's performance and not just how Piccoli failed to score. Remember that this guy probably,
there's some clause in his contract since he's on loan from Atalanta, which states that he needs
to play a certain amount of minutes, right? Yeah, yeah, that's a fair point. But if you just look
at how he performed this game, granted he was a striker for Electric against Inter. Let's keep
that in mind. But he was on the pitch for 73 minutes. He touched the ball 16 times. He played
eight passes and failed four of them. He had five ground duels. He didn't win any of them. He won
one out of three aerial duels and he lost possession 11 times. Atalanta had 16 touches. That's wild.
You know, that's not a good performance at all. It's not a good performance at all, but he's,
he's, they played with a lone striker with strefets out on one side, banned out on the other. They're
like the two shortest players in Serie A and then Piccoli in the middle between fucking Acherebi
Bastoni and Bissec just getting fucking boom every, every single time that he gets the ball. Like
he was set up for failure in this game. Probably Christovic would have had a nightmare in this
game as well. I think Christopher should have been better because his movement is better. You just
need to hold the ball up and wait. Piccoli has the habit of turning and shooting and I can't
understand that. Christovic is amazing at holding the ball up. I think Christovic is a, is a better
striker, but we'll see who gets more minutes in the future. I am hoping it's Christovic.
Shout out Pongrejuic by the way, who was uncertain for the game and had a pretty fucking solid game.
Yeah, he played the entire game and he was doubtful. He wasn't supposed to play. I'm not quite sure
what's wrong with him, but. Did you hear what Basquirotto said before the game in the dressing
room? No. He said, um, it's nothing funny. I just hype, you know, he was like, um, I played
in the lower tiers and I worked my way up for games like this, but he said that I'm like no one
reacted. God. I just said it and looked down. Why is this about you, bro? Like the guy was
journaling out loud. Like, like nice try, you know, the players around them don't even speak Italian.
Yeah, I mean, let's try and 12th on 20 points, not, not too shabby. Um, but okay. 12th on 20
points is only six points away from 18th place. Uh, Calieri, well, seven points ahead of 18th
place Calieri, which is not a distant margin. Interferst 44 points, four points ahead of you there.
I think we should talk about Frosina, bro. Frosi one, you've a two. Right. Frosi, of course,
being frozen on it for those of you who don't understand humor. Um, first of all, of course,
we're missing quite a few players, Abraham, which is still out in dread. Yes, the 17 year old wonder
kid out on the wing was not available. Um, collage or Kali, I'm not sure he's Albanian. Please, if
there's anyone who knows how to pronounce that DM me, I mean, man, I is Albanian. Yes, but as a
man, I remember that whole thing. Bro. Market, some, but Satelli, Iona and Reiner were all out
for frozen on all important players, mostly all important players. Um, and they did miss them.
In fact, and KSI was out for Juventus, the shillio, fudge, early, keen and Pogba, of course,
the usual suspect speaking of naughty, naughty boys. Um, as to the lineups, it was a three, four,
two, one for frozen on it. Interestingly enough with coyote Georgia starting up front against
his former team. And there are also actually a few former team. My ass is still owned by you.
These guys are all owned by you. We're on loan at frozen on it as Berentia,
Sule and coyote Georgia. I think the best performer of the lot was probably Sule, but not
nothing crazy. This game. Yeah. And for you, it was a three, five, two with milk and yield is up
front yield is getting his first start for Juventus at 18 years old is the young Turkish talent that's
been favored by Vincenzo Montella at the Turkish national team as mentioned earlier. Also interestingly
enough, um, gutty was benched for Alexander for this game. Okay. So the match began with a stunning
display of prowess by the young talent yield is who scored an early goal for Juventus after
it. Rati gave possession away because of his first touch. It was poor. Yeah. Um,
to Rati has made quite a few mistakes recently. Yeah, he can't stop making mistakes at the moment.
To Rati yield is slipped through three men casually and hammered into the near post. However,
frozen on it responded valiantly, um, leveling the score through bias early in the second half.
Funnily enough, bias only came on because Leroy had fallen injured. Monterey easy played him through
brilliantly and bias finished expertly, um, giving equalizing for frozen on it. Harui's curling
strike was well saved by Shezny and about the 70th minute on McKenny's volley rattled the crossbar
shortly after it was like a standing scissor kick it out. I am the game's pivotal moment came as
Vladovic, um, making a significant impact after being introduced, sealed the victory for Juventus
with a superb header after frozen on it decided not to press McKenny out wide. Um, I don't know
what the hell that was. That was amateur bro. That was, that was so bad. You have a professional
football player out on the wing and you give him that much space. Like the guy's been playing as a
wingback like granted, he's not the most technically gifted player in the world, but you, you close him
down there. I mean, when you have that much time and space, you could make an average player look
real fucking good, man. And not saying McKenny's an average player, but as well, you said he was
playing as a right wingback. Yeah. So maybe he could whooping across close him down, man. Jesus
Christ. There's this fucking Vladovic lurking in the box. Absolutely. Um, he was correct.
He wasn't actually playing as a right wingback this game, but he has recently. Yes. Yes. Yes.
But as in because he often plays as a right wing back, he could obviously deliver across like
yeah, absolutely. Um, he's been fucking fantastic. By the way, the season mechanic really has been,
I think that he's, he's really, um, come a long way since his first season at UVA.
Um, who's even loaned out to leads that for a while like, so this is, this is a very good trajectory
he's on. Vladovic nearly made it at a brace in the second half only to be denied by Vaar. He was
in an obviously offside position. Um, you were able to hang on and confirm all three points.
So yeah, funnily enough, in the offside goal, by the way, um, Tarrati was beaten at his near post.
Um, what do you think man? Do you keep playing him? Tarrati. Yeah. Depends on who the hell do
they have on the bench? It's Michele Cerafolini who has had five appearances for Fiorintina,
was loaned out to the likes of Cossenza, Biscoglia, Biscoglia, Regina, Regina, sorry,
Regina had 19 appearances for Regina, but this guy, that's it. He's never had more than 19 appearances
for a team in a season and it was for Regina. So, so I don't know how ready he is. I mean,
24 years old, so by the way, Cerafolini, he's not even experienced. What fucking wait till January
and sign up, Berisha of sorts, you know what I mean? Maybe. Yeah, there are plenty of good
keepers in Syria. Maybe try, try bringing Kranjo on a loan, for example, that, that'll be good to
get to get him some minutes. I'm starting to think that Kranjo will only ever play when he's out on
a loan because the second he's owned by someone, he never gets a fucking minute. Poor guy. But he's
he's having a nightmare right now to Rati. It's like every match that he's playing. First is stop
passing the ball back to him. Jesus for the love of God. And secondly, just keep someone on the
near post. Tarrati started off the season playing very well. He, well, not start of the season,
last season he played very well and the season was all right from the get go. He became very
confident. He went out and said that he's a he's an Inter fan and that he's often seen with the
Curvan or and hasn't had a good game since. So I don't know if that's a coincidence or not.
Yes, he's also let's not forget that to Rati is on loan from Saswalo. So loaning in another goalkeeper
might prove from Saswalo. Another clots for them. Yeah. But of course for his age, of course,
he's a very talented goalkeeper. 22 years old is actually like 14 years old and goalkeeping
years. So it's not been easy for him at all. Yeah. Sheznia on the other hand, incredible,
incredible shot stopper. Yeah, I mean, it's no secret. I think people forget that this is the
same Sheznia that played in the World Cup last year and saved Messi's penalty. You know what I
mean? All the that because that gave him a lot of fame among the mainstream. But yeah, great
goalkeeper was wearing a hat. It was really cool. For each check personally, if I were a goalkeeper
and it was sunny address where sunglasses were a cool pair of Ray Banz or the Morpheus sunglasses
was shape. Would you go? I think I'd go big tinted and round. Oh, kind of morphys but bigger.
I'd wear like those sporty American ones like the people go jogging in. Yeah, that was a
hero dynamic. Yep. Those are fucking cool, man. But you have to be a loser to wear hat. But anyway.
For a musta and I was having a nightmare because the second we used to play another team and not
being a training, I was that I was to get panic attacks and I used to concede seven like that's
something that used to happen. And once I was wearing a hat and the ball bounced off my hat
and went in in comical fashion. Like the ball was looping over me. I was running back like with
I was running backwards essentially and looking up and when I looked up the ball hit my cap and
went into the back of the neck. Damn. How did you react? I mean, slam your hat to the ground and like
no, bro, I'm taking it. I was super fucking anxious like as if I would make it about me.
Just stand there. Hope no one realized. Let's put where your hat lower over your eyes. Okay.
I wanted to make a point as well. Yes, yes, yes, yes, this is it, bro. So last week,
you've conceded three minutes into the second half against Genoa. This week, they conceded
six minutes into the second half against Fresno and an improvement.
Massive improvement. It seems to happen against newly promoted teams.
They need to wake up on that second half. Yeah, I honestly genuinely it might be
a lapse in concentration like absolutely, man. Honestly, might be exactly for a team to hit you
so early on in the second half. It has to be that, you know, it takes your wife to settle back into
the game. That needs to be addressed by a legary, of course, but thankfully, thankfully for them,
they got it done this game. Yeah. I'm not going to tell you went off injured again. He's on the
map this season. And Nicolusi came in and pinging the few balls upon entry. He looked pretty good
at least giving me with some hope that he will be back at his best. That is however a role that
they should focus on filling in in January. I think that's the that's the difference between
that. That's what's stopping you from taking that next step. A real anchor in that midfield.
Yep. Imagine this team with Benocera Lobotka. I know we always mention those two because they're
literally the best two examples we could give. There was a point. Maxim Lopez was on the right
trajectory. Now he joined Fjord and he hasn't quite hit the ground running. Hey man, back in his day
when he was like killing it, that's a swallow. Great, great shout for the side. Even Torreira,
man. Where the hell is Torreira now? Torreira had gone back to Arsenal and then I don't know where
he ended up after. He disappeared off the face of the earth. After that, yeah. Remo motherfucking
Froyler is another six who really didn't hit it off in the prem because sometimes they don't
understand football. So yeah, he's back at Bologna. Yeah. As far as this game goes, I think we're
done. I want to highlight how poor Rabiot's pass accuracy was this game upon his return from
suspension. At 68% accurate passes. He completed 25 out of 37 passes. Not his best game. No,
no. Perhaps not. I just also want to mention, Frosinone, I don't think they're safe. Like
obviously no one is safe and that kind of thing from relegation. But yes, they're expressive.
Yes, they're dangerous. They're explosive. They're terrible defensively though, bro.
They are very, very bad defensively. It's not good at all. And they're bad when they're not in the
game anymore. Like not when they're not in the game. When they concede and they're down, they
don't have that courage or experience to rise up and fucking get back in the game. You know what
I mean? Like Kaliaridu. They do need experience as we mentioned in the last episode, but they need
to bring in a few reinforcements in January because they have 19 points. And remember,
teams have been relegated with 30 points. So it's still early on and they're still not safe,
of course. And it's often teams who lack experience get relegated and throw back to Venetia.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Standings. So as for now, Frosinone are fine. They're in 14th with 19 points.
While Juventus find themselves in second with 40 points behind Inter.
Yeah. Salernetana to Milan 2. The return of Peponzagi that is another Inzagi that's really
sticking it to Milan this season. All the Inzagi are just taking it in turns on Milan.
Yeah, just to fuck Milan. Milan had a strong start in 11. They had a lot of players back from
injury. They started their preferred 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, however you want to look at it,
with the midfield 3 of Ben-Nasser, Reinders and Loftus-Chic, which is like the dream scenario
for Milan this season. The attacking trident of Leao, Polisic and Giroux. And the defense,
obviously, yeah. Tomoria alongside Kier. Kier obviously not being the preferred choice, but
he can do a decent job over there. Salernetana on the other hand, just a couple of injuries for
them in Maggiore and Ochoa. So they had Costil in goal, naturally. I wonder if he took that
selfie with Giroux after the game. I think it don't be Giroux. The official Milan account actually
tweeted a video of Costil warming up, then it pans to Giroux warming up, and they're doing the
exact same things. It's hilarious. Like one touches the left-eye road, the other one touches the left
eye road. So funny. The Milan were coming off a very convincing 3-in-1 victory against Monza,
where they had started with a 3 at the back, but it wasn't the case in this match. They decided to
opt for the 4 at the back formation. Salernetana on the other hand, they were coming off a
devastating 4-1 loss to Atalanta. In the sixth minute, Brother Rich Smith's hit shot proved to
be a dangerous cross, and they almost opened the scoring, but Manjane denied him, quite comfortably,
to be honest. In the 15th minute, Milan actually took the lead, as Reinders found Liao in the box.
Then Rafa crossed the ball, and it was deflected, and it fell to Tomori, who headed in for the opening
goal. He had a failed knee-slide celebration. Yeah, that needs to be addressed, though. Is it any
coincidence that he went off injured after? I don't know, man. That was the same thing as
Oka 4 last week, and you see Oka 4 celebrating, and he seems to pull up, and I see Tomori
attempting a knee-slide in Salerno. Are you mad? You pointed out that you thought he was
joking. I thought he was mocking the claim that Oka 4 injured himself celebrating, but it turns
out, yes, he tried the knee-slide, and he might have hurt himself like that. Yeah, I don't know.
When you go to knee-slide, and the ground is really dry, so you end up busting your knees and
f**king flying. Well, that's what happened to Tomori. In the 29th minute, Ben-Assar almost scored
a known goal after mish-heading and attacking cross-by-Kondreva, forcing Mike into a good save.
Welcome back, Ben-Assar. In the 40th minute, Kastanos almost equalized, sliding into connect
with a Kondreva cross-butt manjanda knight and well. Two minutes later, Salernitana equalized
with Fasios, header from Kondreva's corner, exploiting Milan's struggles at defending set pieces.
In the 68th minute, Salernitana took a shock lead as Tomori went down with a muscle injury,
and Manjana-Mistret Kondreva's strike from distance letting it slip through his gloves and into the
near post. Florenzi came on for Tomori to take on left back, with Teos slipping in at centre back,
since Simik had already come on from 4K at half-time. In the 82nd minute, Jovic, subbed in
for Ben-Assar, had two chances but Kostil denied his header and his follow-up shot, and then in
the 98th minute Jovic redeemed himself, volleying in Jeroz' knockdown to salvage a point for Milan.
There's so much to talk about, so so much to talk about, but Milan at full strength,
failing to get three points against last placed Salernitana, I think this fucking confirms
how bad the situation is in Milan at the moment. Because the approach wasn't terrible by Milan,
and statistically the performance wasn't bad, Milan were by far the super-year team. Now,
what bothers me is the lack of reaction when certain things happen on the pitch. What bothers me
is how you have a player like Rafael Leao, who is absolutely insane and unplayable on the break
and driving to the buy line and cutting back or crossing in or you know doing what he does best,
and then you have a player like that who for some reason has the liberty to shoot from anywhere he
wants to fucking try dribble down the middle. I can't understand it, I can't understand the lack
of discipline and this isn't only Leao, it's fucking everyone from Reinders, we've been saying it all
season from the to, I don't know, man Ruben Loftus-Streak, I don't know what happened to him after
that PSG game, he was a fucking war tank, he seems to be playing with a knock or something, I don't
know what it is, I think he's just one of those players that's either fully fit and brilliant,
and because of the effort he puts in when he's fully fit and brilliant, he plays with a knock
for like five games after, you know what I mean, that's his profile and that's what Milan knew they
were getting when they signed them. The injury crisis at the back is just ridiculous at this
moment, like Milan had to recall Gabia back from Villarreal, like are you serious, you know,
come on is it that fucking badly, how is this happening, you know, now apparently the physiotherapist
might get sacked, like come on, of course man, something needs to be done, something is obviously
broken over here, something isn't functional, that's just my opinion in a nutshell, man, plus not to
mention that it was unfortunate for Milan as well, he had one on characters, Mike Manjane mistake
at the New York Post, like Kondreva, fucking in 2017, I tweeted bro, I tweeted, Kondreva scares me
as a player, he won't hit a single cross all game, but then he'll score from 50 yards out, he's an
unpredictable donkey, that was my tweet in 2017, last week I retweeted it, I'm like this is an
eternal tweet, this is the eternal reality of Kondreva, Kondreva can just fucking have it from
anywhere and I don't know if it's fortune, maybe he was born with the ability to turn anything,
he touches into gold, but that's just crazy how he beat Mike Manjane from there, man. Yeah, I think
I pretty much mirror what you're saying in Milan lost this game because of a lack of
tactical discipline and the lack of structure that there is within the team and that can only come
from one place in my opinion, which is purely losing the dressing room, I think Leao with
fucking three men open in front of him, he cuts inside and goes for a shot in the manner which
he doesn't and shooting and passing are his fucking worst qualities, Leao is good at one thing,
get the ball, run, cut it back, if you want run into a good position and go for a goal, sure, but
his judgment in certain positions is god awful, god awful, his shooting is terrible.
Long range shooting specifically. Yeah, Loftus Cheek, disappointing performance by him, Reinder's
similar to Leao in the sense that look up, look at your teammates and try pick a pass,
you don't have to try score every single game, it just seems like it's and this is what happens
when you make so many signings and you put 11 new signings pretty much next to each other,
is there's individualism in football, the way you win a match is by winning the midfield
battle, it's you have to dominate the center of the pitch and then you need to focus on the
wide players, Milan cannot dominate games with Ben Nasser, Reinder's and Loftus Cheek still
fucking getting used to each other, Reinder's and Loftus Cheek looked like they fucking,
like they were a match made in heaven in the opening matches of the season,
Khrunich was doing a good job but obviously now he's fallen out of favor and then it was Adli
and then it was Musa, then it was Adli again, it was Musa again and now Ben Nasser is back in,
that is the instability that is in the in the center of Milan's pitch, Milan aren't going to win
the league from Leaou running down the wing cutting it back and Jirou tapping in or winning a penalty
and Jirou scoring the penalty, that's not how you win a league, Milan need to address this situation
that is a lack of tactical discipline and essentially a midfield that is constantly
getting run over because that's what that midfield is doing, it's getting run over,
let me talk about something that I noticed in the game which was the set pieces in this match,
both for Milan offensively and defensively, so offensively Milan have a new system,
so you'll notice that Milan have been a bit more successful, fucking,
masha'Allah from set pieces and a large part of that has to do with Leaou being placed at the
far post for free kicks and for corners, he's taking on a bit of a dragous in role where
he's not great at heading the ball towards goal but he's tall, you could ping the ball to him and
he could head it into a more dangerous area, right, this worked in Milan's match against
Monsa where Simic scored thanks to Leaou's contribution, that was the same system,
so that is what Milan are doing offensively, defensively, so Kier was man marking Fazio
in each and every Salernetana set piece, he was occasionally even being double marked,
right, by Kier and left his cheek, so it's not a matter of Milan not respecting Fazio's ability
in the air because they respected it a lot, what Salernetana did was they picked this up and they
placed blockers between Kier and Fazio, so they put two players between them creating distance
between them allowing Fazio the liberty to move freely, he didn't have Kier holding him down or
Kier putting pressure on him, if you look at the goal that's literally what happens, Kier was far
away from him trying to catch up to him and then left his cheek, tried to intervene to no avail
and he got the goal over there, so Salernetana over there they were really smart and they managed to
fuck Milan through a little tactical adjustment, brilliant observations of course, I also want to
highlight the lack of urgency man, quite simply like Milan are starting off games pretty well,
you know you remember the curse of the first half, Milan wouldn't score in the first half,
that was the whole thing, the first half would always be wasted, now Milan are getting early
goals, but then the problems they're not fucking reacting when the other team equalizes, like
or they're hanging onto that slender lead and missing many chances being wasteful and allowing
the team back into the game, the Napoli game, the Verona game, so many man, yes I think it's just
an inability to react, an inability, a lack of communication between the players and the management
we've seen, we've heard the players what they said, we didn't know whether to attack, we didn't
know whether to press to push up, to hold back, you know we have players saying this about the
manager, that's miserability, in this case for example okay granted you're one one in the first
half, you go out in the second half react, you know, you're full fucking squad, you're the full team
offensively, you have no one missing, it's been Milan have been plagued with injuries for so long,
you know, yeah the other shocking statistic, there was nothing man and not to mention sorry
one more thing, these individual areas that are costing goals, the same it was Manjan, Adli not
tracking back and that one goal and then the other would chouquets and not tracking back, you have
all these fucking individual areas, it's too much, yeah, what's yours dad? Across all teams, Milan
are fifth highest for shots against, both in total and per 90 minutes, so in total Milan have conceded
229 shots in the opening 17 matches of the season and per 90, they average 12 shots conceded,
every single game a team shoots at least 12 times against well an average of not at least, okay there
are the injuries in the fence or the injuries in midfield at the start of the season, there's the
fact that Milan don't have a fucking holding midfielder, but there's the fact that they don't
close these players down, that's the fact and the misbalance in the midfield
from fucking preparation in the summer, there's no defensive player in midfield and the only one
that there is, Kronich is off the fucking turkey, to Fenerbahce, what a league by the way, the
Turkish league, but yes man I feel like it's taken a bit of a depressing turn, yes I have, I feel
like these are important points though, Tomori will be out for two months after an MRI highlighted
puns helped me, a myotendinous lesion of the right femoral bicep, in other words a serious muscle
injury, he's looking at a minimum of two months out due to the severity of the problem now,
Cia and Kalulu are also out for the foreseeable future, Gabya has returned from his loan at
VIA Real which is just sad, now Milan have been linked with Jakub Kibir and Clement Langley,
I like Kibir, he's at Arsenal right? Is he playing? I don't know, I think he's in and out,
I know Langley hasn't really been playing for us in Villa, that's a really good sign but who knows
it might prove to be a coup, maybe I mean any reinforcements we'll do at the back at the moment
and bring an update on Nick Bonucci from Rome, back at Milan, honestly I'd rather see Patrick
Starr playing as a centre back than Bonucci, Milan del Gho from the arm, there's also Juan Miranda
from Betis which is a left back option where Milan are in desperate need for a backup for
Teo Hernandez and then they're also interested in Seru, let me try this, Seru Gurasi, Seru
Gurasi is a 27 year old french 6 foot 2 striker who plays at Stuttgart, he's currently got 17 goals
in 14 matches, I also heard that Milan, listen to this, Milan weren't interested in getting
another striker because Jovic has been so good, Jovic is injured now, honestly this is a good one,
because how many times do the management, do they not learn, like you've got Jovic he hit
good form but the other guy is 37 years old, so like you know, I like by another striker you
should have three, like Okafor is barely fucking, he struggles so much with injuries and then you
have Jovic okay, he's had four good weeks but don't forget the rest, yeah, Straderik what if he goes
back to that form, you know, bring in another striker, Milan clearly need a striker, but anyway,
yes please, yeah, but I mean that is the shambolic state that Milan are at the moment, naturally
the next point I'm going to bring up is Piori, it almost seems done that he's not going to be Milan's
manager next season, we've heard four names which are such an upgrade for Milan and where they want
to be, stylistic updates, stylistically they are upgrades, but when it comes to achievements,
they're all downgrades, well apart from one of them, but the rest are downgrades, I mean there's
Motta, okay, like you're saying from an achievement perspective it's hard to beat Piori since he won
the Scudetto at Milan, but Contel is the only one that would be an upgrade from that perspective,
but there's Motta, Deserbi and Contel, was there another one, there's a fourth one,
I believe those were the names I've seen so, ah, about it, about as an interim, no,
I don't think at any point Milan suck Piori and employ about it because there are two ways that
can go, one is he actually gives the bare minimum which would be a fourth place finish or an Europa
League fucking victory and for some reason they redeem Abate and then we're stuck, Milan are stuck
with Abate, we're for the foreseeable future which isn't exactly a good thing, granted I don't think
he's a terrible manager, he's a bad manager, I have no opinion of him as a manager because it's too
early to call, but ex players tend to be the most under qualified employees, yeah, that there are
when it comes to management, Contel would arrive, he would win the league within two seasons,
probably immediately, win the league, but the problem is how he'll leave the club, you know,
I think that Contel has shown that his strategy involves a lot of complaining, a lot of
pushing and nagging for what he wants, what he wants is often short term, he doesn't really care
about developing youth, he cares about immediate results and he'll bring in players who are
fucking towards the end of their careers and he'll push for them to the point of developing
up an uninflated contract, you know, and it's not exactly ideal, he is the best candidate and he is
the only upgrade in theory from the coaches we've mentioned, however I would love the Zerbi or Mata,
literally I don't want to, yeah I would definitely love the Zerbi or Mata, those are the two ideals
because as well they're young progressive managers, you know, more suited for Milan style, you get
that Gaghan press, you know, you get rapid counter attacking football as well, that's the dream,
that's the dream, Contel though just to not disagree with you on one thing, the way he leaves
clubs, when he left Juve, Juve won six more scud at the NRO with or five, I don't know,
without Leagri and when he left Inter and they got in Zaghi, they've also seen success,
so it's not like this is gonna set Milan back, this decision will set Milan back ages, it actually
might give Milan some pull power, it might get Milan some, it is against Milan's values, no,
but what Milan's values are causing is inexperience within the same squad, you look at the way that
Milan lined up and you look at the way Milan are lining up, it's a bunch of players that have never
played in Serie A before or else they're players that are still at Milan, no signings from the same
league and so on so forth, so that philosophy does need tweaking, you can't just keep signing players
like that, you do need some experience and if Contel comes in and says, this one we're gonna
sign a 30 year old midfielder or a 30 year old right wing back who used to be a striker or a
left winger two seasons ago, fuck it, fuck it, there are stages that you need to go through
in football to get back to the top and maybe this is one of them. Your point on the post
Conte era at Juve and at Inter is a very fair one, yes, good job, however Milan's history as well
another point against Conte is that Milan are always expected to do well in Europe, no?
Yeah Conte doesn't do well in Europe at all, he's a domestic coach and I feel like since Milan
overachieved and had an incredible season where they won the league, I don't feel like they're in a
rush particularly to win the league again, I don't think they're desperate for a league when what I'm
saying is I think they do afford to take a less, take more of a risk with the coaching selection
and bring in someone like Motta or Deserbi and give them what they want, these two coaches
especially Deserbi, they haven't had players of the quality that there are at Milan right now
and I like Deserbi because you know like Kevin Prince Boateng said you're not going to take the
piss with Deserbi, no, no, no, he is still such disciplined, he will fund such expressive football
man, he will fucking pull his pants down and scream in your face man, that's what he does,
so good luck not passing when there's that guy on the touch tonight and then Motta I feel like if
you give Motta a project for fucking five years he'll make a travel winning team, you know what I mean
so promising, I really like the way that Bologna can be pragmatic as well, not just beautifully
expressive but you know bringing Motta, bringing Xerxes as well, oh for sure 100%, bringing anyone
bringing Xerxes, bro I think we should really move on because we're fucking well over an hour in
and we're on game three is it? No, yes, no, game four, game four, okay next game you're sorry
Milan are in third on 33 points, there are seven points behind Juve who are in second and they're
only two points ahead of Bologna in fourth and three points ahead of Fiorentina in fifth, here we go
Armila gonna make champions league, Salerno and Tyler dead last on nine points and one of those
points came in this game, fuck this man, next, speaking of Thiago Motta speaking of Xerxes
speaking of fuck this, it's Bologna one, Atalanta nil, yes, for Bologna they were missing Saumauro
and Carlson, don't think that'd be too bothered, for Atalanta they were missing Palomino, Toloi
of course El Bilal, Toure and Vorliki, remember Vorliki we mentioned them once, I've never
actually seen him play, but I have absolutely no recollection, come on we mentioned them once on
the on the point and we laughed at his name, it could be Vorliki, I'm pretty sure it's perhaps
Vorliki, I prefer Vorliki, Skorupski was in goal for Bologna, the return of Skorupski after
Ravallia, it was fucking fantastic, the opportunity he got he really really took it man, he was so
good, he even saved a lot of our penalty, yeah the interesting change over here in the Bologna 11
was that they started with John Lecoumi as the as the left back to provide a bit more defensive
stability, yeah because you know you know we all know how Atalanta can be, they can overpower you,
that Froyle and Moro in the middle and Doi out on the right Salamacchus on the left Ferguson
and Zergsy playing up front, of course for Atalanta it was a 3-4-1-2 formation, huge
wills of this time starting with Lecoumin and Decay Talara up front with Rue Gerry and Hatteber
out on the wings and Karnasekki in goal, yeah now this was this was kind of a chess match,
that has to be said Atalanta dictated most of the play and occupied most of the possession,
Bologna seemed to want to hit on the counter attack, the game was decided by Lewis Ferguson's
late header in the 86th minute and Bologna climbed to fourth position defying Atalanta as
attempts in a game characterized by strategic maneuvering and scarce goal scoring opportunities.
Now both teams engaged in calculated passes and phases of play in the first half, there were
sporadic attempts from Salamacchus and Lukman, Lukman and Kupminers failed to hit the target
with their opportunities and Skorupski did extremely well to save Ederson's 1v1, he also did very well
to kind of come out and distract Lukman who failed to hit the target in a 1v1 so despite not saving
that Lukman opportunity when he was 1v1 he made himself big enough for Lukman to hit the target
so that counts as a save you know, yeah the second half witnessed early changes we saw Fabian replacing
Moro and immediately taking a shot off target it was quite a good opportunity to be honest
and Atalanta tried to mount the pressure with opportunities from Kupminers, Lukman and Decay
but they all failed to convert it was painful Lukman just couldn't hit the target, Decay didn't
have enough sting in his step Kupminers just kept getting unlucky with his header looping over
and then he had a ball coming in he would have just had to tap it in but out of nowhere Froyler
the ex Atalanta man slides in and just gets the slightest touch on the ball to stop it from going
to Kupminers yeah Bologna's offensive sparks emerged when Xerxes whenever Xerxes got the ball
basically there was a point he got the ball you know he just glides left then he moves right
then he glides forward you know he set up Fabian incredibly who missed a crucial chance yeah um
yeah then there were tactical substitutions Muriel and Skamaka came on for Atalanta
or Solini and Abousheh came on for Bologna and then the breakthrough arrived of course in the
86 minute courtesy of a trademark fantastic incredible Orsulini corner absolutely bro
that's a hilarious thing by the way that story you said when you were preparing and everyone's
like oh this fantastic Orsulini corner like how fantastic is everyone saying like superb
how can corner by Orsulini how good can it be man it's a corner you know it was fun I
I didn't even I hadn't even watched the highlights that I told you Jay comes to this apparently
there's a spectacular corner where they were like oh that's a corner you know and then this
time it was another fucking incredible corner to find Ferguson's head who netted the goal he was
marked by Scalvini by the way yeah yeah yeah interesting to to to know it uh-huh no no Scalvini
as much as obviously we rave about him especially me because of his style of play and what he's
capable of doing moving forward remember he's a 19 year old guy playing as a as a center back
and that still needs to brush up a lot defensively of course this has a lot of work to do defensively
but he shows great promise yeah he's lucky it's uh he's he's the perfect center back for a three at
the back I feel and perfect within his age and within his capabilities naturally there was a
moment man he got the ball um on the opponent's byline the way he kept it in he looked like a
fucking winger or something yeah he's so technically and he's good man he's really really good especially
going forward kind of reminds me of the Bastoni mode you know when it comes to advancing it's like
the worst back three defensively that you could have because it always be in the opposition box
would consist of Bastoni Martinez Cuarta and and Scalvini yeah they would never defend you know
it's true it's true he's buying the mode in Italy had had contact taken over Italy
um he'd have Scalvini and Bastoni on rotation probably for sure there are two perfect center
backs for for that system man you I don't feel like you could play them both though no unless you
you change it up you know one of them stays back yeah you know maybe Bastoni is quite good from
playing balls from deep well Scalvini is very good at holding up a play on the other yeah yeah
but anyways more about the history was made bro this game um Ferguson's match winning header
made him the highest ever goal scoring scott in Serie A oh wow okay yeah he's now scored 11 goals
in Italy's top flight overtaking Dennis Law's record set at Torino in 1961 1961 okay go Lewis
go Lewis it's your birthday it's your birthday yo no it's very good for scottish football as well
that they have players playing very well in Italy of course we saw Josh Doig um Hickey was playing
very well at Bologna I imagine Hickey still at Bologna but yeah um when it comes to this game
of course I did some digging by the way on Xerxes to see what his contract situations like because
nice because he was obviously owned by by Munich and initially loaned out right but then he was
actually bought right by by Bologna however there are conflicting reports there's build in Germany
the newspaper they claim that Bayern have a 20 to 25 million buyback clause while Gadzetta de los
sport claim that um he has a 40 they have a 40 million euro buyback clause either way he's so
gonna fucking end up at Bayern Munich a man yeah vice-cain um they also have however very important
to know there's a 50 percent resale clause as well so if a massive offer comes in they might push for
it you know would they rather me uh fair enough so they could make 20 million for if they sell if
if someone buys him for 40 million Bologna by the way got him for 8 million crazy man so good business
yeah very good business um John LeCoumin who started as a left back for Bologna a bit of information
on him um he's been at Bologna since 2022 he has 32 appearances he's a Colombian international
he's six foot one and he's 25 years old that's John LeCoumin thank you very much brother for that no
problem well Ferguson the spotlight was on him earlier on it's 24 years old okay um he started
his career with Hamilton Academica moved to Aberdeen where he played 132 games and scored 27
goals and moved to Bologna in 2022 he's been featuring for the scottish scottish international
team since 2021 and has played 10 games for them so it's definitely uphill in his career from here
loose Ferguson and I expect international recognition for him yeah yeah okay but yes this is but we sorry
sorry please let's we forget Calafiori it's just 21 years old absolutely and Calafiori
don't forget um Roma could use a player like him yeah um but I think of course Mota managed to
bring something out of this player that possibly he didn't even know existed exactly converting him
into a center back but yes as I mentioned earlier Mota has this this ability to win games like a
like a seasoned top team he makes his team look like a cool calm experienced team where they can
get hit to all game but then they'll sucker punch you at the end of the game and that will be enough
for them to win it you know man this is this is a shot's on goal Bologna sorry to interrupt you again
I'm horrible I'm gonna punch you in the face one one shot on goal for Bologna this game that's what
it takes that that that's like this doesn't even piss me off like when a team never doesn't deserve to
win when it's a tight game like that um probably at Al-Anta where where the more convincing team
in the game and Bologna get to get away with a victory over there that's a fucking team that's
fighting for Europe man that's a team that's fighting for you there's a game you don't deserve
win it anyway absolutely man yeah and this is a great maturity yeah this is a piping hot at Al-Anta
by the way yeah because thank you so much Christ headphone users be with you because they beat Milan
3 2 and then they beat Salah and Etana 4 1 and obviously there was that midweek where they beat
the Rakov 4 nil as well yeah so it's not like it's an out of sorts at Al-Anta it's a strong
at Al-Anta team that they beat absolutely absolutely man um pardon by the way we must
sound terrible right now we've been sick Christmas time everyone in the world has been so have you
seen this conspiracy yeah the cough the cough people in New York have the cough and and people in
fucking Malta have the cough what's funny is that I never noticed that coughs were different I saw
there was a cough it's like once I went to a festival I had zigged the amount of dust there was
a fucking bathroom in the morning I'd be taking my shower everyone around me
coughing and spitting it was like I was in a fucking god I don't even know man it's like I was at war
I'll see you somewhere in that shower yeah having too good a time oh jeez but no what we're talking
about um Bologna are in fourth with 31 points while Al-Anta are in eighth with 26 months
Monza nil Fiorentina won some notable absentees for both teams Nico Gonzalez, Giacomo B-blah
Jesus let me start that again Nico Gonzalez, Giacomo Bonaventura, Lucas Martinez, Quarta,
Gretao Castrovilli and Dodo all out for Fiorentina while Andrea Carboni, Gianluca Caprari and Papugomes
Gretao Castrovilli and Dodo all out for Fiorentina while Andrea Carboni Gianluca Caprari and Papugomes
Gretao Castrovilli and Dodo all out for Fiorentina while Andrea Carboni Gianluca Caprari and Papugomes naturally for Monza a lot of injuries so I am going to go through the lineup for Fiorentina
naturally for Monza a lot of injuries so I am going to go through the lineup for Fiorentina
and Papugomes naturally for Monza a lot of injuries so I am going to go through the lineup for Fiorentina
top scorer who was forced into playing the pass. In the second half, Colombo and Turia
came on for Monza and in Zola replaced Beltran for fear and Tina. That will fix absolutely
everything. In the 48 minute Turia is in Swinging Dangerous Cross found Kiryakopolis
who missed the target after arriving late. But after that there wasn't anything notable
that I found to include in the run down. Technically this is a 1-0 victory for fear and Tina who
got a goal very early on and they managed to maintain the result. I think that personally
Monza played a very good game defensively and it did take that one uncharacteristically
error to give fear and Tina the opportunity to score.
Yes and Monza seemed to have lost a little bit of their sting haven't they recently?
They've not been on a good run of form by their standards. I feel like Colpani's form
has kind of dipped as well and it's just not quite ticking for them going together. I can't
quite place what the problem is. I noticed that this was a five at the back start for
Monza.
Yeah, well, three-five to be honest.
They're very defensive minded players. They're not the quickest when you see Pereira and
Kiryakopolis. They're not the type that are going to bomb up and down always.
That's right, but Kiryakopolis had two opportunities to score. He was bombing forward.
Yes, naturally he will always, but even if you look at the heat map it's mostly in this
half.
Yeah, that's true.
And the same thing with Pereira. He was barely on the ball to be honest, but when he was
at that halfway line. But yeah, they do need to sort themselves out. On the other hand,
Fiorentina got a moment of luck, took it and managed to hold on.
Yeah, pretty much. A lot of injuries for Fiorentina, which obviously influenced the slightly weaker
performance that Fiorentina had over here and why they didn't play that sexier brand
of football they typically used to playing, albeit they haven't really done that all season.
But I was really hoping that Monza would take advantage of that and just let loose a little
bit more, attack a little bit more, have a bit more bite. They attempted to do that in
the second half by changing the formation to a 3-4-3, bringing on Colombo and Churia.
But Fiorentina did well defensively. They did well to maintain the 1-0.
Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if Monza will make any moves in the market and I wonder honestly
coming into the season what their ambitions were. Do they want to finish mid-table or
do they want to push for Europe? How on track are they with their ambitions? That's something
I'm curious to know. And I guess the way Palladino will speak in the coming months will reveal
that. And we'll see what happens to him at the end of the season as well because he's
a very good manager. Yeah, he is. And he has been playing a nice
brand of football. However, this loss marks Monza's sixth in Serie A this season. Naturally,
let's forget this is their second season in Serie A. Ever. And they're doing alright.
They're doing fine. And keep in mind that last season they managed to finish quite high
up when they had that dreadful start to the season. They were in the opening seven matches.
We were saying they're potentially the worst team in the league at the moment. We said
that they'd pick up so on and so forth. But they've had a better start than they did then.
So they could aim for top ten. Absolutely. That's because Berlusconi had decided to stick
with the manager who promoted them, who got them promoted through the playoffs. I can't
quite remember his name at the moment. No, not even me.
However, then Palladino took over as an interim manager and proved to be a very good candidate
to remain. And he has stayed and Monza are building something beautiful. So let's not
let that distract us. Yep. Well said, Monza are in eleventh on
twenty-one points, while Sfjörntina are in fifth on thirty points, just one point behind
Bologna. L'Otzja took on Empoli away from home and won two nil. And this was a pivotal
away victory for them because they were on a two month winless streak on the road.
L'Otzja. Whoa. They were missing. Well, not they were missing. Two key players fell injured
during the game in Mobile and Luis Alberto. And this obviously affected the continuity
of the game, but they managed to prevail and to do well, of course. So Empoli were missing
their hitman Kaputa up front, while L'Otzja were missing Lazzari and Roman Uoli coming
into this game. It was a 4-3-3 against a 4-3-3. And L'Otzja started the game quite assertively
and Gwendouzi broke the deadlock just nine minutes in capitalizing on a chaotic goal
mouth scramble, which involved Luis Alberto shot being cleared off the line by L'Opeto.
Okay, then L'Otzja on the mobile fell injured in the twenty-second and twenty-fifth minute,
leading to substitutions. They brought on, well, Sardari brought on Kamada and Castellanias.
I was going to call Kamada, Kamada. It happens to me so much, bro.
It's thrown an R there. I want to talk about both these Kamada and Castellanias, not because
they did anything, but because of two observations. I'll mention them later on. So Empoli seized
the chance to mount the comeback, pressuring L'Otzja's defense, but provided incredible
saves and stopped them from equalizing. He was a wall this game.
Yeah, Sofa score gave him an 8.9 rating for a goalkeeper.
He was incredible. So second half as Heroics continued.
He denied Kambi Aghi, Maldini, Fazini. By the way, I did not know Maldini was this good.
Maldini had a very good game. He had a very good game. It's very involved in this game.
The second goal came in the sixty-seventh minute through Mathias Zakanny and it took his third
attempt, third rebound to score. And if you just watched Kamada on the line,
you can see that he doesn't even smile, he doesn't even blink, he doesn't even react when
Zakanny scores that goal. It's fucking weird. It's weird.
Not even a yes. Yeah, nothing. Nothing. Fuck. No reaction. No reaction.
Zero. Super, super strange. Almost like that multi-stick talker that eats really spicy food.
No reaction. No reaction. No reaction. No reaction. Kamada. That's Kamada. No reaction to Zakanny's goal.
And yes, I wanted to highlight Castellani, because at the end of the game, he missed the one on one
and he fucking ruined the opportunity to make a pun that Castellani scored at the Castellani.
Oh my god. I didn't manage to do it. He needs to wait another entire season.
So yes, expertly done by Lazio. I think that Providell deserves a heap of praise over here,
because he was absolutely fantastic. You look at Spalletti's job right now with Italy.
He's got to choose between Di Gregorio, Vicario, Donnarumma and Providell. He can only call up
three. Who's he calling up? Say them again. Donnarumma, Providell, Vicario, Di Gregorio.
He will call up. Meret and Meret and Meret. What he will do, Meret, no. He's not that good this
season. Spalletti knows him from Napoli. But fuck that. This isn't a friend business.
He's going to call up Donnarumma, Vicario, Providell. I think he should call up Donnarumma,
Vicario, Di Gregorio. That's what I think. But he'll call up Providell.
He'll call up Meret. For sure he'll call up Meret. Of course, of course. God forbid. Meret
really hasn't been special this season. I mean, he's been okay. He's been nowhere on the other
ones levels. Nowhere, nowhere near. But yeah, I still think he'll call him up. But yeah. As per
the standings. Let's give him a sec guys, don't worry. Ampolis hit the 19th with 12 points,
while Lazio hit the 9th with 24 points. Sasuolo won Genoa 2. Can we call this a
relegation battle? Yeah, you can. I guess. Why not? Genoa secured a crucial comeback in this game,
winning 2-1. Sasuolo faced defensive issues, continuing their trend of conceding in every
match this season. Sasuolo haven't kept a clean sheet this season.
Genoa's Retegui, Messias and Kutlu were unavailable, while Sasuolo missed Berardi,
Defrel, Viti, Rakic, Augustine Alvarez and Pedro Obyang. Castillo started in place of Berardi,
and Ecoban started in place of Retegui. In the 28th minute, Pinamonte opened the
scoring against his former team after a counterattack led by Lauri Ante. The French man did
very well to break away, but almost fucked it at the end due to a soft pass to Pinamonte,
putting the striker on their backs of pressure from Genoa's backtracking defenders. Pinamonte
did well, although Dragosin did manage to get a significant touch. By the way, Sasuolo have some
new fans. They took a bunch of school kids out, which is such a smart thing to do. It's a great
thing to do their first cultural experience, because Sasuolo really secures a couple of fans
for the future, but it was Hileis. You see Milan's fans with the kurva fucking chanting like a bunch
of army men, and you see when Sasuolo scored, yeah, just a bunch of kids celebrating.
They have the players celebrating, and the fans to the crowd, and their children are green-hot.
They were losing their minds, understand? It was fucking funny, man, go on, watch it, guys.
It's like what you don't expect to see, like with the camera, fans of the fans, and their children.
I do think it's a good idea to get some kids involved. In the 44th minute,
Martinez denied Henrique brilliantly following a square pass by Lauri Ante from the byline.
In the 55th minute, Concili denied Goodman's in a 1v1 scenario, great save by Concili.
In the 63rd minute, Goodman scored from the spot following
VAR spotting a clumsy, early handball in the box. His hand was up when the cross was coming in,
so he essentially punched the ball in the nice one, early. Possibly early, who knows?
I don't care. I don't care if it's early or early. Do you care if it's simic or simic? Yes,
and it's simic. Thank you, Lana. So with with early or early, do you care? Bro,
have you seen him play? In any of the three Saswolo centrebacks, Ruan, Ehrlich, and Ferrari,
I don't care. I don't even want to talk about Saswolo's defense. I don't because it's not even like
they keep a man onside by accident or fucking, I don't know, they fail to make a tackle or they
make a genuine mistake. But they're all like just clumsy, stupid fuck ups every time. I don't know
how anyone stands it. I don't know how Mintoff hasn't stopped supporting Saswolo because it's
ridiculous. It's an illness. It's ingrained in them. Everyone that they get as a centreback is
fucking up and fucking up and fucking up. You put your hand up like that across this coming in.
What is this, bro? Season one, I had made a joke, what is this? Pallon water. It was one of them.
Like, bro, it's the same shit. It's the same shit all the time with them. Dionysio must be the next
manager out. Yes, let me just finish the play by play 86 minutes. Ekuban banged in the winner
after beating Ehrlich to the ball in a counterattack and finishing powerfully into the bottom corner.
That's his first goal in 90s matches. I'm so happy for him. Ekuban has been good.
It's his first goal since Barry. Not done, man. He scored against Barry in a 4-3 victory last season.
Not done, no. Yeah, his first goal in 19 matches, literally. But he assisted Goodminton in the last
game and he scored an important winner over here. It's obviously rare for a newly promoted team to
get three points in the season, so Ekuban should be happy with that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Now they have Inter next. So let's see if Khaled can keep it up. Yeah, yeah. Are Saswolo regressing
the same way Verona were regressing a couple of seasons ago? That's very interesting. I think
they're investing more, granted. It's nothing spectacular, but they are bringing in players.
Hellas Verona didn't really make any investments and now news has come out that they're facing
bankruptcy. It's not looking good for them at all. They were selling and selling and selling,
just weakening and weakening and weakening. Saswolo, granted, are not as strong as they once were.
But the players they have are young and do have a good markup value. The worst thing that could
happen to Saswolo right now is relegation and they have to sell these fucking players that they
invested in for a cheat. Exactly. Honestly, they need to see what they're going to do. I think
they need a new manager. I do think that they need a new manager. Will that save them? I think
they have a good enough team to be saved the same way Verona had a good team two seasons ago though.
And then you look at this squad that they have and it's unrecognizable. And I do think that
that could really happen with Saswolo. They could fall off and fall off and fall off. And it's
not like they're an incredibly marketed team with a lot of appeal for people to join. So I think
Saswolo are regressing into a Serie B team again, slowly, slowly. Sorry if you've mentioned
the Serdee. What was Baraday? Injured, flu. Flu. In January. Convenient. Very convenient.
Pinamonte the season has been better. Thumbs up and smiley face. He's actually been himself
for Saswolo. He has been a bright point for them. And Genoa props to their counter attacking
football man. On the break they are fucking dangerous. They could hold their own. They hit
you on the break and they could get you. Saswolo are in 15th place on 16 points. There are three
points ahead of 18th place Kalyari while Genoa are in 13th place on 19 points.
Yeah. Hellas Verona beat Kalyari Tunel. I was not expecting that. I know right. Verona of course
were missing Farani, Rustic and Serda while Kalyari were missing Rogosho Mordov and Capradossi.
Basically look this is how the game went. I'm going to give you the raw version.
So the game started and Kalyari were all over them. They were wasteful but they were dominant.
They were all over Hellas Verona and the game was only looking to go one way. In the 51st minute
Makumbu gets his second yellow card and is sent off. In the 53rd minute just two minutes later
Cyril and Gonsh hits on the break and scores. At this point in the 59th minute
Ranieri decides to bring on Lovumbo to try to do something. But because of the fact that he benches
Lovumbo to start the game. We actually praised this decision. You bring him on when everyone
started and he's even better than he would genuinely be. In this game it showed that he was wasted.
Because had you started off the game when Kalyari were piling up that pressure and he had a player
like Zito Lovumbo over there you would have got a goal and the first half for sure. But the problem
is in the second half you got a red card and then you brought him on. So it's a waste. It's a waste.
You're playing a man down and then your best player has come on and has to do the running
for two people. So it's actually an advantage. I'm not a massive fan of keeping tricks up your
sleeve and doing this and that. I think in a game against Verona maybe you do that against Inter
for example. Keep something up your sleeve and then shock because you need to do something special
against the bigger teams. But against Verona you get a goal in the first half courtesy of Zito
Lovumbo or you get a couple of goals in the first half and that's game one. I think he just wanted
to introduce a gear in the second half that Helas Verona literally didn't have. Fair enough. But
yeah it bit him in the ass definitely. It was impressive how Kalyari started the game though
all they were lacking was the goal. They were playing really well. And Vard, they did actually
score but Vard is allowed for offside. It was goal Daniga. Yeah. Jürich and then eventually
later on Mr. Heder was well saved by Skoufet who looks like Kranjo. I would say that. And then
later on Umbula did really well driving down the wing. He chopped inside, played the ball to
Jürich who calmly placed it into the bottom corner for Helas Verona to beat Kalyari to near.
Yeah big win for Verona man. Verona were in need of this and then a relegation six-pointer.
You're kidding me man. Super important victory for them. Yes and they currently find themselves
in 16th with 14 points while Kalyari are down 18th with 13 points. The relegation battle
has intensified and in January we'll get a clear idea of what's gonna happen. Yep yep. Torino won
Udines won. Torino had Bellanova, Linnetti, Inguesson and Schurz out injured Udines. I feel
like they've had the same fucking seven players out injured for the entire season. Bujol, Brenner,
Davis, Delafeuille, Bosse and Semedo. Payero naturally suspended after he got a red card in the
last match against Aswolo in the 2-2 draw. Early attempts Torino initiated several attacks early
on. They started the game off way stronger than Udines. This Zapata Sanabria thing up front is
proving to be super effective. I think it gives Torino some flair and it gives them a lot of
muscle up front and yeah it's working pretty well. Sylvester made a crucial save on Vlasic's
attempt in the 4th minute. There were chances for both teams throughout the match but both teams
struggled to break through each other's lines of defense. Illich had some shots from distance but
nothing to write home about. Udines took a shock lead through substitute Zaraga in the 80th minute
capitalizing on a defensive lapse. Zaraga's cushioned volley of Ferreira's cross went through
the gloves of Vania and into the back of the net. Could keep her down better? My opinion, yes,
I don't think it should go down as an error as certain articles said it was when it's that
fucking close to the goal. You can't ask for much. In a twist of fate, Illich's T-Rocross
looped over Sylvester in the 88th minute leading to Torino's late equalizer. The goal, although
possibly unintentional, secured a deserved draw for Torino, throughout this game I do think that
Torino were significantly better than Udines and I think they deserved much more from this game.
It's just that finishing touch sometimes despite having those two strikers up front for them
isn't there for Torino. Like they dominated possession, 65% ball possession. But to be
honest man, props to Udines's defense. They had a very good game. It's a combination of two things,
right? It's the same problem that Torino have faced all season, which Udines admitted to the
fact that there's a missing piece and his side can't seem to get the goals they need to close
games out. And on the other hand, Udines proved to be such a compact side and so were they getting
draws man. So it was never going to be. This had draw written all over it from the beginning.
Yeah, Torino, Udines, you probably put a draw on that knowing you and your...
Yeah, you know me, bro.
You know me, baby. You know how it is. Yeah. But honestly, props to the defense of Udines with
Joao Ferreira, New Empires and Thomas Christensen. They did put in a very solid performance over
there. They weren't giving Duván Zapata in any space, time or anything. They were on him like
the plague. Dude, one point I wanted to make about Udines. I think they should go for a 4-3-3
manager. They have so many technically gifted players. They've got Lorenzo, look up frontman.
You've got the likes of Ferreira, Samard Zitsch. You know, honestly, I think it could work.
I think it could work. Yeah, it seems like, aha. You're probably right. I agree with you there.
4-3-3 Ferreira out on the right. I'm not quite sure that half as a left winger.
That's you. Well, they will eventually have Duván. They have many technical gifted players.
They even have Papundis. Simone Papundis. Papundis. Very great. Put them out there. Why not?
Many of the likes of, you know, you can easily find three midfielders over here.
Yeah, but I think what Udines I want to do over here with this 3 at the back, this isn't an
inter 3 at the back. You know what I mean? This is fucking defensive city with three center backs.
We don't want to do anything. We just want to play in Serie A.
Exactly. That's where the Neusers are right now. How crazy when you think about it, man.
A year ago, today, they had that start to the season that they did and now they find themselves in
this situation. They're all a fur, bro. My God, literally, bro. It's they're all a fur. So important.
It can be so good when he's fit. I just wonder if he'll ever be the same again.
I mean, at that age, following all those injuries, how does that affect now?
He's not even that old, but he must be 34, you know.
He's weak from his injuries. What the fuck? He said it himself.
He's 29. Yeah, he's not old, bro. He just has a terrible injury record, man.
And that's crazy. And it's really hindering his career.
They're struggling with the Neusers. I mean, they're in 17th, bro, on 14 points, one point above
Calliari in 18th. Hot dog. Hot, hot, diggity dog. They're going to need to rack up some points
if they want to survive the season. There are some new contenders for relegation that they
weren't last year, this year. And Sasvala under the Neuse.
You mean how? Sasvala under the Neuse. I don't think either of them would get promoted.
How demoted, sorry, relegated rather. I thought you said Eir Minnau, because he had a point.
Eir Minnau, to gas you up as your hype man. No, I don't think either of them would get
relegated. I keep saying promoted. But they're contenders. So think about how Verona became
contenders for relegation over the past two seasons. No, the teams are regressing. You're
absolutely right. You're Spathon. They're worsening every year and Sasvala, for example, considering
their economic power because they have sold players for very high prices. Scamaca, Raspidori,
Poletano, it's endless. This is endless of players. There are many we're forgetting as well, Fratese.
So yeah, it's just the lack of reinvestment or rather reinvesting a little bit too much in young
talent, maybe. Not addressing the defensive issues. Yep, I think you're absolutely right over there
and a couple of teams are falling victim to that. You know what we did? Forget the mention.
That fucking Ricardo Sopanar started the game of football. Ah, yes, he started the game for Verona.
He started and he was all right. Ngong and Duda were, to be honest, statistically much better
than him. I didn't really do much, but it's a good start for Sopanar. Let's get going.
Let's get going. Yeah, he just needs more playing time. How does he supposed to perform when he
hasn't even been on the pitch this season? Torino are in 10th on 24th place. That's so Torino.
Odener is at 17th on 14 points. Yep, new relegation contenders. Yes, guys, we have been
saying a spotlight. Thank you very much for listening, as always. If you've made it this far,
especially, remember to do what you have to do. Like create a chat. Exactly. And we will see you
all probably in a few days time for a listener. Yep, for the listener questions. Yeah, we'll do
that with that very soon. In the meantime, if you're going out for New Year's Eve and I see one of
you driving, shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you. That's how people die. Okay, who do you think
you are? Balotelli, Nyanga? You're not Balotelli, you're not Nyang. Nyang is playing in Turkey,
by the way. Really? Yes. All right, how's he doing? I mean, our football manager kicked my ass.
That was a good real life. But anyway, yes, guys, stay safe throughout this very fun period,
enjoy it, and don't be too crazy. Love you all. We'll see you soon. All the best.
This is Serie A Spotlight. If you like Serie A or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good
opportunity for you to listen once a week and you'll get filled in. In the football weekend,
that's like the main dish. But then a few days later, you drop your episode and that's like the
dessert. And the dessert is just perfect. It's good, okay? It makes it feel like we're all sitting
in a room together, just be assing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise
nobody will ask you to send boob pics. I love how you go into so much detail and show so much
passion towards each and every team. Literally, no team is left undiscussed. When I listen to you,
it's like I'm talking to you in a pub. It's like I'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me.