Hello and welcome back to another episode of Seria R Spotlight, this is episode 108
and we are hosts Matt and Jake here to bring you guys all the updates about matchday 20
along with a few more updates that have happened over the past few weeks.
Absolutely our goal of the week was Can Jevas strike against Napoli, had a lovely pullback
and a curler into the top corner, it was very difficult to choose a goal of the week for
this one, Theo Hernandez had a fantastic goal after being flicked in behind by Giroux,
CDK had a rocket Vlove which had two incredible goals, Lovrech had a great goal as well, Hakkan,
Chalanoglu, Petania they all had fantastic goals, it was very difficult to choose, let
us know in the poll down below if you're listening on Spotify who had the best goal.
Yeah I thought yeah I agree with our decision obviously regarding Can Jevas being goal of
the week, however Theo's was a very very close second that flick on by Giroux and then the
finish, the powerful finish in off the crossbar against Roma was fantastic and that is a good
segue into some breaking news before we kick off anything else podcast related but unless
you're living under a rock you would have heard that Mourinho has been sacked by Roma
a couple of days after the defeat to Milan but I guess it has something to do with the
fact that they are in ninth place and the lots of loss on the Coppa maybe.
Yeah, yeah.
Are we gonna discuss what we think about this now or shall we say it for later?
I guess we could put out some opinions now.
I have, I am of the belief that this was a rash and stupid decision quite frankly because
Mourinho is a Cup manager, right?
He's always been a fantastic knockout manager and no matter what squad he has he seems to
be able to get them to the finish line.
We saw that after, it had been years over a decade since Roma had won a trophy and he
got them the conference league then the next year he made the Europa League final when they
should have probably won it and now he's sacked and they're still competing in the Europa
League.
I think that it was very stupid because think about the ambitions that Roma have this season.
If they want to do well in the league, okay granted, they should bring in a manager who
does well in the league, right, instead of him.
Now what they've done is they've basically confirmed their exit from the European tournament,
right, because let's be real, they're all season gonna get them as far as Mourinho
would have.
Breaking news, there are CSS replacement.
Yes, there are CSS replacement who has only managed Spal and I believe he had them.
He was part of the technical team of the Italian national team as well and that only
lasted nine games.
Exactly, yes.
And he had, I have it here actually somewhere, 17.64% win percentage at Spal and was sacked
after taking them down to 18th place in Serie B.
So not a very good replacement, they're thinking very short term over here, they're probably
thinking let's get this over the line so we can rebuild next season and bring someone
in.
But this is a lose situation because if their Ossid does well then suddenly they have to
keep him, they have to renew his contract and that's how he's only destined to fail
because no managers, well not no managers but they're of the minority.
Unexperienced managers do not do well at big teams and we've seen it with Milan fans,
you've seen it with Milan fans.
In Zardy, Seidor, Rocky.
The minority and then you have the likes of Guardiola and Zidane granted yes but they're
in the minority.
Absolutely, you see Tiago Motta and he was with the PSG minors before he did anything
else and went to Spazia, lower league team, now he's at Bologna and he's looking at that
next step, that is what.
So I just don't see the point in sacking Mourinho, just let him ride out the season and then
make your change at the end of the season when his contract is up, what do they get
from sacking him now?
Yeah, we share the same opinion over here, I do think as well it maybe has something
to do with his discipline because I do believe that he's almost spent as much time off the
pitch than he has on the pitch this season and obviously he had a lengthy ban at the
beginning, he got a red card twice in a singular week, both in the Coppa and then in the league.
It's absolutely crazy but like you're saying, I do feel like there was a bit of panic button
pressing because at the end of the day you look at Roma, they're down in ninth, they're
five points behind fourth though, they're in the Europa League and I'm not saying that
these are successes that should be celebrated but it's something they can work with, something
they can work on, they could still have a decently successful season, maybe they make
Europa again, maybe they make Champions League and maybe, who knows, maybe they win the Europa
League.
Absolutely, that's it, Mourinho made these fans dream, the fans loved him.
When the announcer is calling out the players' names, Mourinho's name is tranted out louder
than anyone else.
Yes, oh man and he loved Roma, absolutely adored Roma, did you see the video of him
crying in his car with the Roma fans?
And you heard the fans, right, they were absolutely devastated, they were like, no,
I can't believe you missed it.
For sure, for sure, I mean at least look, I don't think that Mourinho was a long term
strategy considering that he has never been a long term strategy for any of the teams
that he's represented but he's there for three seasons and he's going to win your trophies,
you know what I mean?
However, sacking him halfway through a season to bring in Derossi, it just screams bad management
to me.
But let's hold off from further discussing this because we really are taking away some
of our talking points from the Milan game.
We have some updates with regards to the Supercoppa Italiana and the Coppa Italia, so let's start
off with the Coppa Italia.
Last time we recorded it was actually when Fiorentina Bologna was being played, I did
make it home in time for penalties.
Fiorentina did win on penalties, I believe it was Stefan Posch who missed his penalty.
It was, it was a fantastic shootout, every penalty was perfect before that one.
And we got to see Jere Nina's dance moves as well, very interesting.
I just found it odd that he danced when they weren't over the line yet but sure.
So Fiorentina beat Bologna on penalties, Lazio beat Roma with the score of 1-0, Atalanta
beat Milan 2-1 away from home, Atalanta just on fire at the moment and…
It's Koopminers man, he's good.
Bro, by the way, thank you for that kit.
For those of you who listen regularly, you'd know that for Christmas Matthew got me a Koopminers
kit.
Koopminers Awake is the right one.
The exact same one that he knocked Milan out wearing.
Thanks to his brace, yeah.
Thanks bro.
So Koopminers beat Milan 2-1 away from home and Juve beat Fosnone, a foreign shock that
Fosnone conceded four goals.
The semifinals are now Juve against Lazio which is taking place on the 3rd of April and
Fiorentina against Atalanta also on the 3rd of April.
Do keep in mind that the Coppa is always a one-legged fixture until the semifinals.
The semifinals are then two legs, home and away and then the final again one leg.
Very, very strange layout to a tournament in my opinion.
Yeah, they do the same thing with the…
I believe with the playoffs, they do the same thing as the Serie B playoffs.
We also this week, tomorrow or today if you're listening in Australia or wherever the fuck
or tomorrow morning…
18th January baby.
18th January is a good way to put it.
There's Napoli Fiorentina in the Supercoppa Ataliana semifinal along with Inter, Lazio
on Friday 19th January as well in the semifinal.
Now you might be thinking, isn't the Supercoppa Ataliana final the winners of the Coppa versus
the winners of the league?
Yes, but there was an opportunity for the league to make more money.
11 million euros.
11 million euros and you know what, I think it's strange that they've done this but
the league needs money.
You could see it…
What's taking it away from the fans?
And you're taking it away from the teams because it should be one game where you have
the chance of winning a trophy for your successes in the earlier season.
It's being played in Saudi Arabia, right?
Yes, in Riyadh.
And apparently they're upset because it's not going to attract as many viewers as they
hoped because there's no Juventus and there's no Milan.
They were like, what is this?
So the way they're doing it this year is basically the winners and the runners-up of
the Coppa, hence Inter and Fiorentina, versus the winners and runners-up of the league,
hence Napoli and Lazio.
So it's the winners of the league facing the runners-up of the Coppa and the winners
of the Coppa versus the runners-up of the league.
At least like that, they're making it more likely that both winners will progress and
that there isn't a repeat fixture.
So at least there's that thought behind it.
We also have news that we've got a drop, guys, a surprise podcast episode and we've
been teasing it for a while towards the end of our episode saying, stay tuned for something
special.
Yes, really good marketing by us.
Stay tuned, guys.
It's happening.
We've got an interview with Joseph Manala lined up.
Those of you who will remember Joseph Manala, you've been following football for a while.
In 2014 he was accused of being, what was it, 42 years old?
Yeah, 42.
He was a Italian at the launch and investigation on the slots of 17-year-old prodigy, essentially
called named Joseph Manala.
He's currently playing for Slim A Wanderers and Molta, the age of 27 years old.
A woman who should land him for an interview, a 30-minute interview and it'll be out on
Monday.
Yeah, very exciting stuff.
Can I just say what a top quality guy he is?
So humble.
Very, very humble.
We spent some time with him after as well.
Catching up, he played under Davide Nicola, bro.
He spoke so highly of him and by the way, Nicola's been appointed at Empoli.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh my God.
Yeah, it really went under the radar.
Oh my God.
That's massive because Empoli can't seem to find a goal and what Joseph Manala told
us is that, he said this after the interview, Davide Nicola is the type of manager that
makes you want to die for.
Yeah.
Well, that's why he played for the manager.
He did what he did twice.
He told us that Nicola makes football about life.
Yeah.
And he mentioned that Nicola lost a son when he was younger.
Oh yeah.
And he uses that experience as well to motivate the players and to transcend kind of life
into football.
Yeah.
The Salernetana, the Salernetana fans have till today, a day named after him, son Manala
day.
Hey, hey.
But anyways, we're not going to give you more information about it because, you know,
you won't listen.
We do have video in this.
We are still getting started with video, something we're not used to.
So it is off of my iPhone.
I wouldn't say the quality is bad.
I'd say it's quite...
No, maybe the layout's a bit bad.
Yeah, maybe the...
I'm sad behind you.
Look, we're in the process of and, you know, with the patron, Patreon money, hopefully
we could invest in some good cameras, a better setup in the studio.
We're doing good, man.
We're doing good.
This was a step in the right direction for us.
It was our first interview with a footballer.
Great to have someone who has experienced the highs of Italian football, both in Syria
and Serie B, and also going through that controversy.
It's good to feel that emotion in an interview as well.
So I do believe it's a good watch, guys.
So do tune in to watch.
And yeah, we'll have more in the pipeline.
Malta is attracting some more big name players or big name coaches trying to get some experience.
We've got Camronese coaching Floriana.
We've got Marchetti playing in goal for Hamrundi.
Yes, sir.
These are players with a lot of pedigree in Italy.
We've had Mikkole playing with Mirker Kara.
How I wish, bro.
That would have been nuts.
I love Mikkole.
I imagine the stories he has.
We mentioned that it's possible for us to actually potentially buy a camera very soon
because we're doing quite well because of the patrons.
The patrons have given us some consistent income.
Thank you very much, guys.
Thank you, Tim.
Thank you, Sluj Macnoodle, Andrew Batman, Kyle, David, Michael, Anthony, Luca, Argento,
Mattias, Matteo, Mike, Donna, Lukmintov, Jose, Lena, and the Allen, and Ed.
Thank you.
Frustrating to read out all the names, maybe for some listeners, but these guys deserve
all the credit they can possibly get because they are giving something back to the podcast.
They are a piece of this.
They are our official partners.
We speak to these guys every day.
I do care about every single one of them.
They're really thrilled.
They're really all right.
They're always at games, there's always some content coming in.
Oh, man.
I believe it was Andrew Batman.
Andrew Batman was recently at the Sociedad Atletic Bilbao Derby.
It's so cool just seeing these videos.
You've got families out with their kids.
It's like a celebration on a day like that.
You take the day off and you go out.
I mean, you're 13-year-old drinking whiskey in public.
He said that it reminded him of what football means to society in general.
Which is nice, yes.
In other news, we're also announcing the winner of our giveaway tomorrow, exactly.
Also on the 18th of January.
So this is officially our last chance to enter.
The giveaway will be doing it in the evening in order to give everyone the chance to enter.
Thank you.
For those of you who don't know, it's a sweater with our logo on it.
Yes, thank you very much to Embroidered Malta.
It is an embroidered logo, so it does look very, very cool.
It is handmade.
Thank you again to Embroidered Malta for helping us out over there and giving us the opportunity
to give back to the community.
So yep, last chance to enter, guys.
Shall we?
Yes, let's get into the rundown of this week.
So we'll start things off, obviously, with Milan 3 Roma.
One brilliant performance by Milan.
I would say horrible performance by Roma as well.
They lacked everything in this game and it did inevitably lead to the sacking of Jose
Morinio.
Monza 1 Inter 5.
It was a show that Inter put on fantastic performances all around and Monza, defensively,
they left a lot to be desired.
Juve 3 Sasvolo Nyl.
This was last night, two fantastic goals by Vladovic and Chiesa, just putting that cherry
on top.
Fiorentina 2 Udinesa.
Two Fiorentina fought back twice in order to draw this game in their own stadium.
Udinesa looking more powerful as the season progresses.
Very different to last season.
Lazio 1 Lecce Nyl.
It was a great finish by Philippa Andersen to give them that slender 1-nil lead.
Atalanta 5.
Frozinone Nyl, we saw a brilliant CDK goal.
We saw Edison get on the score sheet, we saw Copminers get on the score sheet, we saw
Holm getting his first goal for Atalanta and Frozinone just absolutely abysmal defending.
Just abysmal all around to be honest man.
Napoli 2 Salernetana 1.
This is somewhat of a Southern derby between these two sides and it was Rachmani who got
the winning goal for Napoli.
We saw a little foul that went under the radar over there, we're going to address the inter
one a couple of weeks ago.
Let's address this one as well.
Absolutely, absolutely.
Nzagi wasn't very happy.
No, no.
Then again, the Nzagi's have got quite a temper on them.
There was Kaliari 2 Bologna 1.
It was another occasion where Bologna dropped points.
Another occasion where Kaliari gained points.
Brilliant goal by Petania and it was an own goal by Kala Fiori that took Kaliari over
the line.
Verona 2 Empoli 1.
It was Juric and Ngongj who got the winning goals for them in Ngongj breaking news 19 million
Napoli.
Apparently so.
That's mental.
Yep.
I just heard today man.
And Gen 1 Nil, Torino Nil and it was a fantastic performance by Vanja Milinković-Safic and also
one of my favorite defenders in the league.
Alessandro Buongiorno.
Buongiorno.
But I think we should start bro with Milan 3 Roma 1.
Makes sense.
The reverse fixture of course was a 2-1 victory for Milan.
Those of you who remember it will remember Jiru scoring a penalty, Leao scoring a Spinazzoli
Madonna.
I've done that before as well.
Spinazzola scoring late on.
Tomori got a red card actually.
This time Milan were home of course and Zlatan and Habib were at the game.
Yes.
Habib Nurmagomedov.
That's the one.
He's a fantastic, what would you call him?
An MMA fighter at 29 and oh his style is wrestling.
He beat up Conor, Dustin, Gay Tree, everyone.
If he takes you to the ground it's over.
It's done.
His technique.
This guy grew up in Dagestan wrestling bears and everyone he fights are like it's not even
his strength it's his technique.
So there you go small kings.
Roma started out this game with a surprise change in goal as his Villar entered the fray.
It was a 3-5-2 formation with Laurent Taimancini and Christensen at the back with Spinazzola
out on the left, Celica out on the right.
Bovaparedes and Christante in the middle with Lukaku and Delshara we started up front
as Debala was still unavailable.
Also please note Morinio was also unavailable for this so he got sacked without even being
at the game that he lost.
Mian was in goal for Milan as they deployed their 4-3-3 formation slash 4-2-3-1 debatable
and the kind of changes during the game as well.
We also see kind of a 3 at the back thing going on sometimes at points in the game.
I like it.
I like it too.
Calabria was out on the right, Tejonandes was out on the left with Kier and Gabya as
the centre back partnership.
Of course Gabya being recalled from his loan at Villarreal because of the crisis.
Loftus, Schrieck, Adley and Reinders were in the middle with Pulisic out on the right,
Lea on the left and Giroux up front.
Milan, whether drama's initial storm they displayed good defensive work.
Purely had Reinders marking Cristante, Loftus, Schrieck disrupting Paredes and Pulisic shadowing
Bove.
They seized the lead, Milan with a beautiful move in the 11th minute which saw Adley fake
a shot.
That's another goal.
Oh my god, how did we get Adley?
I'll put them in the pot.
Don't worry.
You're seen baby.
You're seen.
What a goal.
You've got Christensen when flying and then he just slothed at home post, Svilar beautifully
and then you could see in the celebration the passion in his face.
Adley and a Tifoso Rossonero.
See man.
You can tell and even apparently he's been getting offers.
He's been getting offers.
He was linked to Salernitana at one point.
These would be good moves for his career but he doesn't want to hear any of that.
I love him so much.
He wants to become a regular player for Milan and hard work pays off because he's doing
brilliantly right now.
All that was missing to be honest was his defensive work and he's totally improved it.
And especially playing in a three man midfield he's a bit more protected.
Yeah, and in a game like this he suits it so much because again, Roma are going to let
you have the ball and they're going to let you be creative.
And when he has time, space on the ball at his feet, there are few players in Milan's
team that can move the ball around the way he does.
And keep in mind this is a natural number 10.
So when he found himself in a situation like that just outside the area, the faint and
the finish is something that can come naturally to him.
Absolutely, yes.
He's a little bit more of a traditional kind of phantazista right the way he plays.
There's something so old school about him.
We said in the last episode he's got a real 90s feel to him.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah, in the second half Roma reshuffled their cards.
They brought on Pellegrini to try to inject some life into the game but it was in the
56th minute that a cross came into the box into Roma's area.
Kier headed it across goal to Olivier Giroud who headed into the back of the net and suddenly
Milan are to nail up.
However, Calabria in the 68th minute missed a very good opportunity to make it three.
And then on the attack after him is that opportunity he gave away penalty a very clumsy challenge.
Very stupid, naive challenge, right?
Rash, very rash.
Exactly.
And he knew it.
Before that, he has a top game.
He was brilliant.
Apart from that of course.
Paréides scored the penalty, Manon held the ball, he had a bit of a moment.
Dribbled it a bit like a basketball dribble kind of thing.
But then of course the confirmation of the victory came in the 84th minute when Giroud
just flicked the ball onto Theo Hernandez beautifully.
What a flick on by Giroud.
Theo Hernandez of course did what he does best.
He smashed the ball as hard as he possibly could off the crossbar and into the net.
And then you can see Cardinal and Ibrahimovic understand exchanging a look like holy shit.
Do you see that?
The French trio for Milan.
The three musketeers, bro.
The French connection.
What fantastic players honestly.
And look, those of you who listen regularly again will know that there was a point in
time where I was really slandering Giroud saying that Milan can't be focusing and relying
on a 38 year old striker for the whole season.
I don't think that this game proved my point wrong.
You can deploy Giroud situationally.
In a game where you're going to dominate possession and the opposition team is going
to let you have the ball, you afford to play Giroud.
Against a team like Inter or a European fixture for example or maybe Napoli of last season
where you have a team that's dominating the ball and pushing you and forcing you into
your own box and you need to rely somewhat on the counter Giroud limits you.
So it's not exactly an anti Giroud agenda.
I love Giroud.
I have a Giroud kit.
He's one of my favourite players of Milan.
I have great memories of him in the Scudetto season.
And I was screaming for him for years before Milan actually signed him because Milan were
always linked to him.
However, yes, it would be nice to have a more mobile option for those big games and it's
a good thing Jovic has found some form because it has given Milan that outlet.
I continue to say even I wouldn't say that you ever slandered Giroud by the way.
I think you made the very valid point of Milan just like they used to rely on Slatham who
was 39 and now relying on Giroud when he's 38 and Milan are playing 2-3 matches a week
which doesn't make sense.
Especially at that age of you get an injury then that could be detrimental for your career.
I think stylistically, experience wise and everything Giroud is the perfect striker
for the Milan system.
However, he shouldn't be relied on because of his age.
I do like that Jovic brings a very similar profile when it comes to skill control and
hold up play and creativity.
However he doesn't have that physical presence in the box that Giroud has.
I think profile wise Giroud is absolutely perfect for Milan.
At 38, he is still excellent.
He's in top condition.
He has hardly suffered any injuries this season.
Touch wood.
Stop it man.
And yes man, if it weren't for that limitation of him not being able to get those loose balls
simply because of course he's quite leggy at his age.
But yes, you can't say anything about his work rate and his professionalism because
he's in top condition, works hard, leaves everything on the pitch, presses until he's
taken off.
Sometimes he's the 80-something minute he's been playing all game and he's still pressing
up there.
It's fantastic to see.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, so this game, so Piori who is undefeated against Mourinho, he's the only manager
to have played Mourinho six times and remain undefeated.
Everyone was saying that Piori might be at risk of getting sacked and all of a sudden
it was he who got Mourinho sacked.
So there are seizing charge now.
And those day one listeners, once again I'm going to keep mentioning this episode for
you our day one.
They remember that we had a very good friend of ours, Mittoul.
Yes, absolutely.
He used to write a few articles for us back in the day, they're still on our website if
you want to go to seriaspotlight.com.
He sent us a pros and cons list that he had made about Derossi from his time at Spal,
which I would like to read out right now.
So here's pros.
Understands the club from inside and outside as he was born and bred in Rome.
Roma Academy product went on to become the second biggest footballing legend of Roma.
Of the thought, of course.
Regarded as one of the finest CDMs of his generation with great on-pitch football knowledge.
Very true, yes.
He was Italy's assistant coach under Mancini when Italy lifted the Euro trophy in 2021.
The cons.
So far he has only managed one team as a senior coach.
It was Spal, they finished 18th and they had a win percentage of 17.64.
And although he has the guidance of big coaches as he's worked under them, taking Roma s job
will still be a very big step for him as he is and experienced no proper CV and he got
the UEFA license in only 2020.
So yes, we've spoken about this already a little bit bro, but do you think Derossi will
make it to the end of the season?
I don't know.
I don't know if this is this signing Roma accepting their fate for the season.
Because that's what it seems like to me.
It doesn't seem like the move of an ambitious team.
What can Derossi give you?
That more in your couldn't.
What the only thing I can think of is an initial burst.
Because you know, a new coach comes in, everyone wants to impress him.
Anyone will do that.
Literally.
Now, do they want, do the owners want a puppet?
Do they want a leader who has been there and just simply there out of motivation?
Because that doesn't work.
You can't just have a motivator in Italy.
You need a tactician.
You need a genius.
You need someone who, alright, he knows the team, but does he know the team?
Does he know how this starting 11 should operate?
Does he know how to get the best out of these players?
When we talk about club legends taking over, I always find that it's a bit risky from an
ego perspective.
Now you'll tell me Derossi loves the club.
Same way Totty loves the club.
Same way Zlatan loved Milan, for example.
All valid.
However, could there be a world where his ego would want to stop Pellegrini from matching
the amount of accolades that Derossi has achieved?
In this case, okay, I'm sure that's a thing first of all.
Because yes, football players are there because they're highly competitive.
The example because Pellegrini is obviously nowhere near yet.
He's still young-ish.
You know what I mean?
No, I think Derossi has always been the type of manager, the type of player, sorry, to
put the team first.
The classic example was during the Euros with Ventura, when they failed to qualify for the
World Cup and Ventura told him to warm up and he was like, what the fuck are you telling
me to warm up for?
You should tell him to warm up and he points out in Sinja.
He's like, we need a goal.
I'm not going to give you a goal right now.
I could have got another cap for the Italian national team, but in reality, he wanted to
progress to the next level.
I don't think that his ego would per se be an issue.
I think the main issue simply is that he is underqualified and it's as simple as that.
You would have been better off bringing in fucking, what the hell, Balardini.
You know, you would have been better off bringing in Yakini.
These guys, at least they've managed teams for years.
It's been 20 years of management for those guys.
I just don't understand it.
I can't understand it at all.
That's what it comes down to, because at least bring in someone with a unique skill set or
someone that has something that Mourinho was missing.
Exactly, bring in someone who's domestically consistent, something like that.
It's not like there aren't options.
Now, I know Roma are constantly living on a tight ass budget and this was a quick solution,
but why did you need a quick solution?
You could have felt out the rest of the season under Mourinho.
You're probably still paying his salary until the end of the season.
I just don't get it.
It's tough to put my finger out.
I really think that Roma are accepting their fate over here.
I'm unsure whether they'll get Europe or not.
I'm confused though by this exact thing.
We need to see.
There are five points off a fourth spot right now.
Five points off a fourth spot.
They're in a European competition.
I don't get it.
Maybe the style didn't quite, maybe they were tired of the style of football he was playing.
But now, not last summer, they knew two seasons of Mourinho before.
Why halfway through the season, really?
It shocked me completely because the Freedkins have always, always, always defended Mourinho.
Till the day before.
Yes, literally.
And it's even weirder when you notice the fact that Pinto is no longer Roma's sporting
director and they actually don't have a sporting director.
What's the plan here, Chief?
What's going on?
I would honestly hate to be a Roma fan right now.
Shout out to all you Roma fans.
I hope it turns out alright.
I do really like the club.
I'm really fond of them.
And I just hope that this is like a, like a, like a mutta coming through.
I hope it does well honestly.
I hope it does well because there are, see, as a footballer, one of my favourite defensive
midfielders in Italian football history, honestly.
Fantastic.
It was a true gladiator on the picture and many like him.
This game was also featured, by the way, a new haircut for Teo Hernandez.
Absolutely.
What a cutie patootie man.
He's got a perm.
And I think the person who loved it the most was Giroud.
Yeah.
He's constantly playing with it.
Yeah.
Constantly.
Quite funny.
Giroud acts up with his teammates.
He does remember the Hohlenbappe thing with the little man.
There was, I thought Gabbia had a fantastic performance.
I'm so impressed by Gabbia.
I've never understood the criticism that Gabbia got.
He's not a freak of nature like Tomori is when you're, when you're physically just
so much, when you physically superior to your opponent, Gabbia is like a real person, you
know.
But he played well, man.
He played super.
Yeah.
He played like a veteran player.
It was a good, let's call it a debut, because it was returning to the club naturally.
He played it safe a lot.
You know, he had a smart performance.
He, what impressed me was his decision making when it came to the press.
So when there was a player ahead of him, in front of him, who's receiving the ball, he
knew when to hold back and he knew when to go for the interception or go and barge the
player he knew when to commit a foul.
This is because obviously it's the experience he has within the team.
He's played alongside Kier before he's played alongside Theo before.
And to me, as much as I found it, like bringing back Gabbia was a bit of a panic button in
hindsight was also a smart decision because you're bringing in someone who is capped
for the team a number of times.
And you own him.
You don't have to actually spend.
It was a good decision, clearly.
And yeah, now's the time for him to really make a name for himself.
So because, you know, when everyone's fit in reality, he's going to be fiddled again.
So now's the time for him to really get his name out there.
One thing I forgot to mention about Geru and how impressive he is that he's had double
figures this season for three seasons and the last person to do that was Pato.
Pato.
Another monster.
Yeah.
Aha, Milan haven't had a consistent striker in a while and I'm glad Geru is that guy.
Right.
You know what you didn't mention?
Moussa.
Yeah.
That's my next point.
Moussa came on and in the 89th minute he dribbled everyone and hit the post.
Everyone hit dribble.
The guys, Jake's not even exaggerating.
No, not even exaggerating.
That would have actually been our goal of the week had it gone in.
Honestly, honestly, it would have been.
It was absolutely crazy.
But also good in game management by Piori in this game.
I have to say because that's the main criticism that I've had in the past of Piori and that
I typically still have.
But with this injection of youth that Milan have, it has increased the amount of weapons
that he has, the amount of options that he has.
And I love that he trusts them.
Yes.
Sometimes a little bit too much.
Like for example, Milan have crashed out of the Coppa Italia now, right?
Personally, I don't think there was a reason to start Jimenez from the first minute in
a fucking knockout game against Atalanta in a tournament where you have Inter out and
you have Napoli out.
You know, you've got Bologna, Fiorentina, Juventus.
Like it's, I don't think it was a stopper.
So that was a little bit questionable in my opinion.
But yes, otherwise he's balanced them pretty well.
Other than that, yes.
Yeah, I do think that the 3-5-2 now, I know previously after watching Jimenez for the
first time, I said, wow, a 3-5-2 with, or a 3-4-3 rather, with Theo left centre back
and Jimenez left wing back would be lit.
But of course, long term in the future in a couple of seasons.
But yeah.
Yeah, I think we're going to move on to the next one.
Milan are currently in third with 42 points as they have gained some consistency in the
league, while Roma find themselves in ninth with 29 points and a noob manager.
Yes, sir.
Next up is Monza 1, Inter, 5, very dominant display over here by Inter.
As obviously the score line suggests, Inter were coming off a 2-1 victory against Helas
Verona, whilst Monza were coming off a 3-2 away win against Rosinone.
The failing to win in their two matches against Monza last season, where they drew 1 and lost
1, Inter won the reverse fixture against Monza this season with a score of 2-0 with
a brace from Lautaro Martinez on the opening day of this area season, making it 2 out of
2 this season for the Nerazzurri.
Inter came into this match as winter champions but struggled in recent games with controversial
goals for the draw in Genoa and win over Helas Verona.
The Marco return to the starting lineup with Juan Cuadrado injured, whilst the host had
Michele DiGregoria out injured, Caprari, Papugomes and Jose Maschi in out of action.
Daniel Maldini was on the bench for Monza in this game, which is super cool.
Monza lined up in a 3-4-1 formation with Sorrentino in goal and the backline of Calderola, Gallardini,
question mark, question mark and D'Ambrosio.
Pereira as the left back, Churia as the right wing back with Pesina and Bondo in the double
pivot, Carbone and Colpani playing behind Dani Mota.
For Inter it was the classic 3-5-2 with Summer in goal and the backline of Pavar, De Vrij
and Bastoni, D'Armian out on the right, the markout on the left and the midfielder of
Varela, Cialano blue and Miquetarian with the formidable Lautaro Martinez and Turam up
front.
Now I'll just breeze through the happenings of this game because we'll be here all night,
Cialano blue converted his 7th penalty of the season in the 11th minute where he sent
Sorrentino the wrong way after a handball in the area by former Inter player Gallardini,
now turned centre back for some reason.
Not really, it's always on the bench.
But it's always kind of fallen out of favour, I believe he was injured and he's not really
been utilised.
It's just weird that they're playing D'Armian and Gallardini, two non-centre backs and a
3 at the back formation.
D'Armian just played a 3 at the back at Inter for example, not even to bother about that
but Gallardini is just not it at centre back.
Lautaro slid and finished into an empty net in the 14th minute after a low cross by De
Marco, De Vrij did very well to initially carry the ball forward over here, not something
we see often, in the 29th minute Pesina's header was chalked off after a VAR check deemed
him offside, it was marginal, in the 58th minute Palladino was sent off for a descent
telling the referee something about his mother.
Two minutes later Cialano blue got his 2nd of the night, McItharian crossed the ball
to Thuram who instead of shooting back killed the ball to Hakkan who finished with power,
it was great vision by Thuram.
And I believe McItharian was pointing to Cialano blue when he played the ball to Thuram, like
play on the back heel, that is great vision as well by McItharian, that's what experience
gets you.
In the 68th minute Monza pulled one back through a penalty by Pesina where he sent Summer
the wrong way, he once again went for that Georginio style penalty which he totally screwed
up against Napoli so it does show that the kid has got some cahounds.
In the 83rd minute was another penalty, again for Inter Lautaro smashed the ball in from
the penalty spot after Acpa-Aq Pro clumsily brought down Frateri moments after coming
on for Pesina, in the 87th minute Thuram made sure to send Calderola back to where their
Bremen's reserve team with a delicious feint before slotting cleanly into the near corner.
So Monza won Inter five, it was Monza's biggest ever home loss in Serie A.
Yes, to be fair they've only been in Serie A for this is their second season so it's
just fun with these stats, Carlos Augusto Monza's all time top scorer.
But yeah Monza have had a tough run in now, so they've had, so Juve, Genoa, Milan, Fiorentina,
Napoli, Frosinone and now Inter.
Like no wonder Paladino's not sacked because of the negative run of form you know what
I mean.
Inter blew them away, last week we highlighted the importance of Di Marco, he had just come
back from injury but he wasn't quite himself, this game he was himself again and they just
ran rampant on it.
And they've got their flow back.
Absolutely man, he connects that back line to the strikers so well and just seeing Thuram
and Martina just having a field day like that, even Hakan had a very good game.
Yeah, excellent game.
I want to talk a bit about Galliardini being played as a centre back, you said there's
a crisis but as far as I'm concerned the only injuries they've got is to their goalkeeper,
to Caprari, to Gomez and to Maschin.
So if they have got a crisis it's their fault.
It's a lack of personnel, possibly a lack of planning.
And yeah I'm looking at their bench right now, there's Pablo Mari who should be maybe
featuring.
Mari it's on.
You know Mari had a good season last year.
It's on, exactly had a fantastic season last year.
He was amazing at the back, displaying great technique as well, pretty much being flawless
every single game, holding the ball, building, play with Thuria.
And I think even earlier this season he was playing quite well as well.
So it's strange how he's fallen off his favourite role of us onto a central midfielder.
And you know Galliardini rather than starting in midfield, his midfield role was replaced
by Warren Bondo who you know we've only seen him feature five times.
He played 318 minutes this season so it just doesn't seem like a very wise setup when you're
facing a team like Inter.
Not at all, especially when you have veteran centrebacks on the bench, Bondo's only 20
years old and you've got Galliardini, an ex-interplayer, you can just pop him in the middle and hope
that he, you know, you can just put Galliardini, he's a bit of a, he's an aggressive player,
he's a talker, he'll kick you, he'll talk to you, he's a dirty player.
Put him on Charlie Nogluman in the midfield, try to disrupt them like that.
I don't know when he was centreback, it doesn't make any sense.
Agreed and in fact, you see them conceding five goals.
I mean, okay, Inter are Inter and Inter are capable of scoring, I mean they scored five
goals against Milan this season.
You know what I mean, like Inter, this is what Inter do.
However, Monza did look out of place when they were defending.
They often looked out of position, they often didn't maintain that back line and there were
holes that Inter were directly attacking.
I mean, case in point is Lautaro's goal where he slid in.
How easy was it for Lautaro to slot in between two of those centrebacks?
One of them commits to go on to DeMarco and a hole is created.
That's what you get when you try to play your own brand of football, right?
Monza here didn't settle, they didn't just park two banks of fucking four and two pressing
strikers.
They actually tried to play their game and they got demolished.
That's the downside of it.
You look at the way Salah and Netan have been playing, for example, they're not getting
smashed.
They're putting out a defensive system every time, but their strikers' main purpose is
being to disrupt passing lanes, to cut out passing lanes and so on.
So maybe Monza could have been wise for them to go for something like this for this game?
At half time they kind of realised, but I didn't realise because at half time he changed
it to a 4-2-3-1 formation.
I'm pretty sure Galiardini was not a centreback anymore after the first half.
But enough about Monza because I think it's really time to highlight Inter.
Lautaro Martinez, remarkable form that he's on right now.
He is miles ahead of everyone in the top scorer charts.
I'm not even sure who's second.
I think Giroux might be second with 10.
And Lautaro has got 18 goals in 18 Serie A appearances.
It's crazy.
He's doing really well, man.
Which is mental.
They're not missing Lukaku at all.
No.
Luka?
No.
I almost forgot that Lukaku was at Inter last year.
No matter who is next to Lautaro.
It's almost like Lautaro is the king.
The last time Lautaro wasn't the king for Inter up front is when they had Contes Lukaku.
Contes Lukaku was an absolute monster.
He was the main man.
But now it seems that Lautaro has taken that role and Thuram has become the Lautaro of that
season.
Yes, exactly.
As that.
Chalano Glu scored a brace in this game.
He scored seven out of seven penalties, which he had this season, Inter have had like a
hundred.
But he got a yellow card and he's missing the Fiorentina game away from home.
Which knowing Gonzagi who would not be very happy about that.
And if you look at Inter's performance, sorry, Fixtures coming up, it is quite a crazy run
and they have.
So the next game is so before Fiorentina away, they're playing Glacio in the semifinals of
the Coppa Italiana and then they play Fiorentina away from home in the league and then they
play Juve at home in there with Italia and then Roma away and keep in mind this is the
Rossi's Roma which they play.
So formidable.
And then they play Salernetana who let's let's be real.
They're a tough gig.
Tough fucking gig.
Very tough gig.
And then after that they've got Atletico Madrid and then okay, Lecce, but then they face Atalanta.
So they do have a tough run in and then after that, you know, they've got Bologna, Atletico,
Napoli.
If there's a time, because keep in mind the fixtures that I just mentioned, this is when
the Champions League is going to be on as well.
If there's a time where Inter are going to drop points, this period is the one over the
next two months.
If Juve want to win the league, they need to bank on Inter's fatigue in these big games,
playing Atletico and then playing God knows who in the quarterfinals if they make it through
and then they've got the Super Coppa Italiana and then they've got the, no, they're out
of the Coppa.
They're out of the Coppa.
But still a tight fixture list.
And then you've actually have a chance to go ahead of them because of course, because
of the Super Coppa Italiana, a few fixtures have been postponed from the coming matchday.
I hate that.
For Fanta, especially man.
For Fanta College, what is the worst?
By the way, if you do six political, you're a fucking nightmare.
You're crazy.
Stop listening.
If you do that, we're anti that.
We wait.
We wait two months for fucking Petania to play.
You know what that means?
Then January comes.
And they leave.
They leave.
They never going to play.
The sub comes up.
You're a man.
You're a man down.
But yeah, this is going to be very telling.
As I said, Juve have the opportunity to go ahead of Inter.
And if you remember to Milan's Scudetto winning season, Inter had that game in hand for so
long until it was played against Bologna and they fucking lost it.
Yeah, man.
Crazy.
So let's see this.
I screamed more during that game than I did in the Saasuala game.
I swear on my life.
Rod.
What a hero.
What a song.
We should get him on the pod.
We should get Rod on the pod.
Slip him.
Slip him 50 Euro on the cheeky wink.
Thanks brother.
Inter are apparently inching closer to ceiling.
Medita Remy.
For the summer.
Yes.
Look, look me in the eyes right now.
I'm looking.
Look me in the eyes.
Turam and Tarremi can fuck off.
Can fuck off.
The lack of respect they have towards Milan.
This is becoming a proper, proper, proper rivalry right now.
We're talking over here.
So many side stories man.
Frattese chose Inter over Milan as well.
Exactly.
Have Inter got Inter have left Milan for Inter.
Inter have more pull power than Milan.
Of course.
Yes.
Absolutely.
There's the fact that they made it to a Champions League final.
They're the biggest Italian name at the moment in world football.
At the moment.
Simply because of their Champions League run and the fact that they've been challenging
for the Scudetto for a while now on their head in their project.
However, however, if you do look a bit more deeply into the situation, you'll know that
Milan actually have a sturdier project than Inter.
I mean, yes, because Milan aren't 900 zillion in debt.
Inter have a lot of debt.
They're struggling to stay afloat.
What they do have is a fantastic sporting director and a great team with good pull power
at the moment.
So they're managing to stay afloat and they're managing to actually succeed.
So let's see what happens to them in the long run.
I'm not an expert on finance, never claimed to be.
So we'll see what happens eventually maybe on user article we'll come down.
Inter close to liquidation.
Another piece of news regarding Inter in the transfer market.
We just spoke about how they're in debt, but apparently they're interested in everyone.
They have joined Roma and Juve in the race for Genoa star Albert Gudmundsen.
However, I did hear today that you were closing in.
Well, they've agreed personal terms with Feli Panderson to join them on a free Juve.
These are all of course just rumors for now.
Feli Panderson.
Feli Panderson, weird.
Very interesting.
They don't even play with a right winger.
I know, it's a weird one.
But maybe they're looking at the post Allegri era.
But yes, Gudmundsen would be on really and that midfield three for Inter or even if you
pop them up front alongside Lautaro Martinez, it could be incredible.
Gudmundsen is a serious player.
Now, Gudmundsen, we need to be talking about.
We're talking about the starter of the good team.
Gudmundsen from a technical standpoint, he can be very similar to Miketarian in that
sense.
But I'd love him to be closer to gold, bro.
I would prefer if let's say at Roma, they play a three, four, one, two with let's say
Debala and Lautaro up front.
Gudmundsen just behind them.
What did I say?
Lautaro.
Oh, sorry.
Lukaku and Debala up front and Gudmundsen just behind them.
Like I do believe he's more of a number 10 than a box to box.
He is the type of player who you don't really give him strict instructions.
He has a free rules.
He's not good.
He's capable of deleting players, you know?
Absolutely, man.
Absolutely deleting them.
Yeah.
But that's enough for this match.
I believe we can move on.
Inter still first two points ahead of you.
Well, like Jake said, because of some suspended games due to the Supercoppa Italiana being
played in Riyadh, you might actually take top spot if they win their next fixture naturally,
whilst Monza find themselves in 11th place on 25 points.
A colleague of mine who's a you have a fan believes that if they leapfrog enter the
window league, I will become a psychological game and he believes that you have the advantage
today.
I was seriously thinking in the car today while I was in traffic and I'm like, am I
so sure that they're gonna win the league?
I'm like, no, no, no, I'm not.
I'm not so sure they're gonna win the league.
They really messed up when they prioritized their domestic fixture instead of sealing
that first spot in their group, man, because their running is so difficult.
Yeah, yeah, but it's more just a case of the fact that you weren't competing in many
other competitions.
Like, okay, they've got the Coppa Italia and the league.
I mean, that's it.
Inter have got the whole last Champions League to play if they advance against Atletico,
which is, I mean, they might have a few players drop dead against Atletico.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, it can totally happen.
Juve got revenge on Saswolo, brother, on the other side.
Well, on the other side, one step down the table.
Yeah, speaking of Juve.
Yes, and that's the segue.
Not very smooth for me.
Yes, Juve beat Saswolo 3-0.
The previous encounter was a 4-2 victory for Saswolo.
If you remember that game, Lauriante scored, Berardi scored, Chiesa, Pinamonte, and then
there were own goals by Vinjan Gatti.
Back when Lauriante was possessed.
Yeah, back when he was good.
On good form, yes.
Juve lined up with Chesney and goal.
It was a 3-5-2 formation, Danilo, Bremer and Rougani at the back, with Cambiauza out
on the right, Costich on the left, Miretti, Locatelli and Rabi on the middle, with Yildiz
and Vlaovic up front.
For Saswolo it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Consigli and goal, Viti and Pedersen as the
full backs, with Ferrari and Derlich at the back, Bologna and Henrique over the midfield,
double pivot with Lauriante out on the left, Berardi out on the right, Thordzvett playing
behind, Pinamonte up front.
It was a spectacular display, to be honest, by Juve.
They were very convincing.
They managed to beat a team that had beaten them 3 times in their last 5 games.
Fuck!
Yeah.
The man of the hour, of course, was Nanna Dadaan and Duzan Vlaovic, who showcased his
incredible prowess and his magnificent left foot.
That first goal actually kind of was reminiscent of Berardi, finally.
Yeah.
That beautiful curler.
And that actually came in the 15th minute, in the 37th minute he had a free kick, which
he placed in the other corner.
Delicious.
And then in the 89th minute, as the game progressed, Chiesa eventually got a goal that would seal
the deal for Juventus.
Saswolo attempted to stay in the game, they relied on Berardi and Berardi's left foot
and Lauriante's right foot, exactly.
But they encountered a very good version of Shesney, who made very good saves and kept
them out of the game.
Yeah.
I believe it was the early stages of the second half where Saswolo kind of picked it up a
little bit.
They tried.
But otherwise, Juve, firstly, it was not that one-nil-alegri style, but they actually,
you know, okay, they had a two-nil lead by halftime, and then sure they let Saswolo have
the ball a little bit, but then caught them on the counter and Chiesa got on the score
sheet.
Exactly.
It was a brilliant display by Juve, honestly.
Yeah.
And players like Volpato and Castillo aren't quite going to make the difference.
They're not quite the injection of quality that you'd want in the second half.
Of course, nothing against Volpato, still a very young player.
Castillo, on the other hand, may be not known for his goal-scoring, perhaps, throughout
his career.
Yildiz Bro is a talking point, and he will always be a talking point as long as he is
playing because he's so fucking exciting.
Yeah.
18 is ridiculous.
He's 18 years old, he's become pivotal for the national team, and he's walked into this
Juve starting 11 right now.
And in the first 17 minutes, the other, he did not make the three players.
Yeah.
You know, he's so talented, he plays with so much flair, and he's got this confidence
about him that nothing seems to put him down, you know.
He can be a serious player in the future, man, this guy.
Because how could you have, it's like, sure, you can't have quality at 18, but quality
with that confidence, it's almost arrogance.
He's almost arrogant the way he plays, because how dare you think you could pull that shit
off at 18 years old?
How dare you think?
But he's so confident in his abilities, every time he gets the ball, he's so sure of what
he's going to do, and that's what the youngsters lack in today's day and age.
He's not the actual technique or the hard work or determination, but it's the confidence
in their abilities, that he'll just walk in and says, I am better than everyone here.
I'm going to dribble that guy, I'm going to dribble that guy, and I'm going to score.
And he has absolutely no doubt about it.
He's 18 years old, Drake, and he is one of the stars of Juve, and he is the star of the
Turkish national team.
This guy is going to be absolutely, absolutely, fucking huge in the field.
By the time he's 21, this guy could already accomplish so much.
It's true, it's true, absolutely man.
And think about how much experience you would have gathered under his belt already at 21.
Of course it's not just Yildiz Vlaovic has fucking sprung to life, and apparently he's
got a new girlfriend.
Oh yes.
So that might be what's changed his mood completely, I saw a comment on the YouTube video of the
highlights.
Someone said that he's such a moody guy of love, which is what he needs a woman to make
him happy and stop him from being so moody.
Bro, you're talking like you know him, you know?
But yeah, nice to see him come back to life.
Locatelli and Mckeni are having a fantastic season.
Locatelli this game was super and he's been pretty good lately.
Yes, not remarkable.
Locatelli, I still think that's a position that Juve should at least have someone competing
for that starting role.
And apparently they were going for Henderson, but he's closer to Ajax now.
That's what that would have been, a weird signing map in Henderson.
Can you buy Henderson if you want to win the league?
That's it for this season.
He's not bad Henderson.
He's not the answer.
For playing once a week, you know, it might be good.
He's not the answer though.
No, no.
You know, it's quite a Juve signing though, but I think the Englishman would rather live
in Amsterdam than he would Turin.
The weather is more similar to back home.
Weihard a crazy miss in the 75th minute, I don't know if you call that.
Ah yes, yes, yes.
Wild man, he had so much time and he rushed it and he failed to hit the target.
Big mistake over there.
By where?
Listen to the stat.
So in 2024, Bayern Munich have scored four goals, Liverpool eight goals, Barcelona eight
goals, City eight goals, PSG 13 goals, Real Madrid 13 goals and Juventus 15 goals.
Wow.
Coppa Italia right there.
Look at them.
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean.
Good company there.
I mean, they put six past Salernetana, they put four past Frosenone and they put three
past Svalo.
And yes, now they're no longer doing that whole one nil thing, which is nice to see
because that was quite, that was something I would criticize Allegri.
The one nil, the Cordo Muzo is a very good approach, especially when taking on superior
opponents.
But if you're playing against these teams that you're just better than them on paper,
you're better than them in the one on ones, you're a better drill team with more financial
power, you can blow them out of the water.
Absolutely.
And there were certain situations, sorry, when the smaller team equalize against Juventus,
they get a goal back just like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
This push and get the goal to pop.
They have got very offensive players as well, Juventus.
I mean, Vladovic, Kierza, Yildiz, Inmitfield, they've got Rabio, who's a very, very offensive
player nowadays.
Helling Jr. on the bench.
Kostich is a very attacking winger.
Helling Jr. on the bench, way as a very attacking winger, some might even call him a striker.
So yeah, they literally have the players to be a super attacking team.
And I see the Juve team as a very, very pressing offensive side in the future.
In 2024, sorry, next season rather, let's say the Kossule back.
Kossule, Yildiz, Kierza, Vladovic, Miretti, Fajoli back by then.
And that is just that team that you make them press and you make them not get the fuck off
you.
You bring in a modern manager and they can be unstoppable, man.
And not to mention Champions League qualification.
They will have the full power because Juventus is an attractive brand for many players.
Absolutely.
They're the biggest draw in Italy and they have been, far as long as football has been
around in Italy, I guess.
Yeah, they are currently in second with 49 points, while their opponents in Sao Suolo
are in 14th with 19 points.
Fiorentina 2, Odineza 2, we won our bet with this one, bro.
We actually made some good money this week from betting.
I think we put 10 euro on Fiorentina and Odineza to draw and then Milan to beat Roma and we
returned 87.
Yeah, that was a pretty good bet to be honest, quite confident going in.
The Viola are still in fourth place despite coming off a 1-0 loss to Sao Suolo, probably
thanks to Bologna.
Bologna's bad run of form.
Shitting the bed is a good term.
Yeah, because of Bologna shitting the bed.
They also reached the Coppa Italia semifinal, the Conference League last 16 and they are
preparing for this week's Super Coppa Italiana final for Awei Tonapoli.
Odineza, on the other hand, just simply coming off a 2-1 home loss to Lazio.
The previous encounter was Odineza nil Fiorentina 2 away from home.
Now, despite the defeat to Sao Suolo, Fiorentina have recorded their second best first half
of the season in Serie A in the last 10 seasons with 33 points.
Indeed, only in 2015-16 under Paolo Sousa did they earn more, where at this stage they
had 38 points.
Nico Gonzalez, Castrovilli and Dodo were injured with Christian Cuame at the African
Cup of Nations, the visitors on the other hand, Mistiaka, Bijol, Enzo Eboss, Gerard,
D'Elofio Brenner and Semerdo and also Simone Papundi still out, quite a lengthy one for
the young Italian over there.
Poor guy, he's only 17.
For Fiorentina, it was their 4-2-3-1 formation with Terra Cianongold and the backline of
Biragi, Ranieri, Martina Squarta and Cagliore.
They had Duncan and Mandragora as the double pivot with Brecol out on the left, Icon out
on the right and Bonaventura playing behind Beltran.
Whilst the visitors in Odineza had a 3-5-1-1 formation with Okuea once again getting the
nod over Silvestri and the backline of Ferreira, Perez and Christensen, Ebosseli on the right,
Camara on the left, Lovreic, Wallace and Samardzić in the middle with Ferreira, playing behind
Lucca.
Now in the 10th minute Odineza opened the scoring, it was Lovreic for the away side,
being unleashed by Lucca in a swift counter-attack, he did well to avoid Ranieri and slot into
the bottom corner.
From an angle, great finish, it's great how he held onto the ball, waited for Ranieri
to come in before taking the strike and great hold up play by Lucca as well.
In the 28th minute, Terra Cianongold did very well to deny Ferreira, who should have definitely
passed the ball into the central area but did not.
The goalkeeper pulled off another great couple of saves in the 36th from as Samardzić freekick
and from the resulting corner where Samardzić went for a goal.
Odineza were really attacking with promise over here and they were all over for your
NT now.
Now, when Ferrentina did manage to get into scoring positions, they were underdone by a
shocking Jonathan Iconemis from 10 yards out.
At halftime Ferrentina made two changes, they brought on new boy Faroni for Coyote and Arter
for Duncan, clearly trying to get more offensive.
In the 55th minute, they found their first equalizer of the match, Faroni the debutante
played a brilliant cross to the unmarked Beltran who headed in to the bottom corner,
handballed by Faroni and a great header by Beltran.
In the 63rd minute, Tovans freekick almost crept in as Terra Cianongold fumbled the ball
onto the post before regathering it and in the 72nd minute, Odineza regained the lead
as Lovreć did well to dribble past Brekolo and Biraghi before delivering a low cross
to Tovans who slotted into the bottom corner, well the score returned provider.
In the 86th minute, Inzola equalized from the spot after VAR called for a check following
a blatant handball by Ferreira in the box, I have no idea why the referee had to go
check VAR because if he just spoke to Somi's he's like yo what do you guys see from up
there like we saw the fucking centre backhand up in the air and the ball hit it.
So you're gonna write, let's check this one out.
The Atalanta game none of that huh?
No, the Atalanta game had very questionable calls, Milan Atalanta in the Coppa.
Sorry to bring that up, sorry to be that guy.
You fucking, you ruined my vibe.
In the 91st Bonaventura almost sealed Fjörintina's comeback with a winning goal only to hit the
post with a half volley from just outside the area.
My first talking point which I want to talk about is about Odineza, they have increased
their flair significantly and I feel that is due to the fact that they are attacking
in numbers and they also, I think they found their ideal starting 11.
It is Lukas a soul striker with Ferreira just behind them, Ferreira getting way closer
to goal and what this allows them to do is firstly they were having significant problems
with linking the defense and midfield to the attack because obviously there was the isolation
nation.
So Ferreira fitting in there does a really good job, I know he's a worker so he's constantly
carrying the ball forward to Lukka.
But then when they have the ball, Ferreira is really joining the attack with Lukka and
then you have Sandilovic and Samaricic who if they were able to join the attack along
with either Ebocele or Kamara depending on what side they are attacking from, just simply
those two players advancing and Odineza have got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 players in an attacking
area.
Yeah, they overwhelm their opponent.
Odineza have many technically gifted players and the likes of Samaricic, Ferreira of course,
even Lukka, we've hailed this whole up play, he's been great.
One of the best things that's happened to Odineza is Isaac's success is injury because
I know it sounds harsh and I'm sorry Isaac if you're listening.
They have moved away from this pressing striker approach and are finally playing with a target
man who is very capable of holding the ball up and flicking the ball on to his teammates
and also getting a few goals for himself as well.
He's got six goals and two assists so far this season, the numbers keep increasing and
I believe he's only had 13 starts, 20 appearances in total.
I like the way Odineza have been setting up lately, they're a nightmare of a team to
face, I'm sure the day after playing Odineza you'll be so sore because they're such a physical
team.
Success did come on for Lukka in the 58th when obviously he's fitter now, he's still
getting back into it though and I do feel like he did quite well coming on, particularly
in Thuvan's goal where Lovic played the ball through, he did well to out muscle a defender
of the ball creating more space for Thuvan to take his strike so not to take anything
away from him.
He's a total utility player as he will press, he will do a lot of work off the ball but
Lukka just has so much more to give in my opinion.
Yeah, absolutely and even because there are those technical players like Samard Zic, Lovic
and Pereira behind him, you need a striker that can play them the ball with his back
towards goal and that's exactly what Lukka does.
Yeah Odineza are gonna struggle so much without Samard Zic because even from dead ball scenarios
the way he whoops those bad boys and he was going for a goal from Corners, he forced a
brilliant save out of Terraciano from the corner and from the free kick like the guy
is absolutely no joke, I am excited to see him at Napoli though.
Yeah imagine they're gonna have him and then Gonj, that's interesting.
I do believe that where Odineza won this game was in the midfield battle, Lovic, Wallace
and Samard Zic made life hell for Duncan and Van Dragaura and the double pivot so much
so that Bonaventura was joining the defensive midfield more and more to try to combat them
but Odineza's midfield they do have fantastic balance over there, Lovic, Wallace and Samard
Zic and Pereira again because he's in that free roll, he slots into that midfield when
Odineza are off the ball and suddenly they've got a four man midfield like.
So the Odineza side is set up to be a fucking nightmare to play against and they get another
draw over here, they are experts of that but let's move on to Fiorentina a little bit.
Faroni made his debut and he got a brilliant assist for that.
How do you see Fiorentina's future with Faroni in the team especially when 19 year old Kaio
has had such a breakthrough this season?
I think it's healthy competition personally, Faroni nowadays is 32 years old so if you're
playing in three competitions you need capable full backs and I think that it's a good problem
to have for them.
I see potentially Faroni becoming a starter this season potentially, it will be very difficult
though because Kaio has an incredible talent and the last thing that he wants to do is
upset him and if he's playing well then you should play him.
And Kaio is very tidy defensively, he's a right back, he's by no way a right wing back
and I feel like Faroni is a right wing back so when Fiorentina need a result and they
maybe want to play the approach game a bit more pragmatically which is something Italiano
really has been doing this season then Kaio they could be the name and then if they want
to be a bit more offensive especially if Biraghi isn't on the pitch and Parisi is on the pitch
for example then they can afford to naturally play Faroni on the other side so they could
use the right hand side as an attacking outlet.
I do think having Biraghi and Faroni both on together could allow them to be caught a
little bit on the break every now and then.
And let's not forget to address as well Faroni's leadership, he was a real hero, Verona he
played a massive part in that playoff game despite not really featuring in the second
half of the season that year, he's one of the reasons that Verona are still up.
He saved the ball off the line with his hand and then in Zola misses the penalty.
And Zola scored the penalty this game and the referee have the commentator.
They're teammates now in Zola and Faroni, that's crazy.
Can you imagine how awkward that was?
Oh my, why?
I mean all roads lead to Florence though am I right?
Look at them both battling in a relegation play out and now they're starting at Fiorentina
together, well not starting, both of them came on.
But they're both coming home for Fiorentina now.
Yeah, they've made it big, two protagonists in that game and they've made their way out
of those teams.
Absolutely.
Zola's the best one, he sank Spezia and hopped off the ball.
I enjoyed Fiorentina like he had been destined for a big move for a while though.
Fiorentina still find themselves in fourth place with a bit of luck naturally.
Atalanta and Lazio just a point behind them.
Look at Lazio how they've crept up man.
Atalanta and Lazio in fifth and sixth, just one point behind Fiorentina and then Bologna
just two points behind them.
Whereas Odeneze are in 16th place on 18 points, level on points with 17th place Calieri.
Lazio really have crept up, in fact they got another win for them against Lecce 1-0.
If you go back to match day one you remember the previous encounter, it was a 2-1 victory
for Lecce, this was back when Lecce were in top four, remember that the start of the
season.
Armgvist, episode name title Lecce are fourth.
Armgvist, Defrancisco and the Mobilat scored that game.
This time it was a 1-0 victory courtesy of Félipe Anderson.
The line up was a 4-3-3 for Lazio business as usual with Provedale and Gould, Mara's
search on the right, Pellegrini on the left, Gila and Patrick at the back, Gwendozzi,
Rovella and Luis Alberto in the middle, the return of the king in Luis Alberto.
Isaac Sim started out on the right, Zacanio on the left and Félipe Anderson actually
started as a false 9 due to Castellanos being unavailable and immobile.
I don't think it's in the best condition at the moment.
It was a 4-3-3 for Lecce who literally mirrored their formation ground, they usually play
a 4-3-3 rather.
Falcone was in goal, Jean-Dré out on the right, Gallo on the left, Basquerotto and
Pongratric as a centre-back, Pardner, Gioan Gonzalez, Ramadani and Cabo in midfield with
Udon out on the right, Angvis on the left and Christovic up front.
This was the 4th consecutive victory in a row for Lazio, their eyeing that Champions
League spot and they obviously had to work hard and they expected to conquer Lecce because
Lecce will always give you a game.
The match kicked off and Lecce came out swinging, they tested Prouvedelle early on and Falcone
had to make some crucial saves on the other end as well so it was quite action packed
from the get-go.
There were a few heated moments in the first half, Patrick was subbed off due to a shoulder
injury and there was a bit of a scuffle between Zacanio and Jean-Dré earning both a yellow
card.
Pongratric, Cabo and Isaacson got close to scoring and Christovic had a mech attempt
on target.
The deadlock continued into the second half, Sarri threw on Pedro for Isaacson to inject
a new dynamic, I guess he wanted someone to cut inside more than to just charge forward.
Zacanio came close to breaking the silence with a shot that grazed the crossbar and then
in the 75th minute Philipp Andersen broke the deadlock.
He found the net with a right footage shot over Falcone and Lazio finally broke through.
Yes, Lazio just held out for the remainder of the game, Christovic missed another good
opportunity, Cabo couldn't find the target on another one, Immobil made a grand entrance
in the 79th minute earning cheers from the Olympic, Vesino had a near miss, Falcone made
some crucial saves and tensions flared as Immobil clashed with Falcone earning himself a yellow
card.
Bro, another victory for Lazio, they are climbing that table.
They're climbing without looking incredibly convincing because if you look at their last
four victories talking about Serie A, naturally, yes they've beaten the likes of Empoli,
Frosinone, Odinesa and Lecce in their last four games.
It always looks like they need to turn up a gear midway through their performance in
order to be able to win these games.
They're not easy or seamless victories, it's always a bit of a battle, no?
It's always a chess match, that's what it seems to be more than anything else.
I think the thing about Serie A is that you know what you're going to come up against,
so teams do set up to actually disrupt them.
In this situation you have a man for man 4-3-3 and these lecture players once again aren't
the weakest and in theory they are actually stronger than these Lazio players.
Like you look at the likes of Zaccani and the Zaxxin and Luis Alberto, Rovela, Pellegrini,
Marisix, they're not the strongest guys in the world, they can get shoved over.
So it was quite difficult for them to actually get this victory.
However, there was a brilliant moment in that goal, Luis Alberto's flick on to Felipe Anderson
was mentally very good.
They're playing very well and also Guendouzi is so complete for the Zaccani team, he can
do everything.
I'm just looking at Lazio's upcoming fixtures and they also have a very tough run-in.
They've had it quite easy to be honest so far as in they've had a good spell.
I mean not easy because on a way of victory against Odineza for example is great, you
know what I mean.
But still they face Tempoli, they face Frosinone, they face Letre.
I think the hardest run-ins were Atlético and Inter and the Lost 10 and those were the
ones they didn't win.
They have, yeah exactly, exactly.
But they have now Inter away, Napoli home, Atalanta away and then Caliari away and then
Bayern Munich.
And then home to Bologna, then away to Torino and then away to Fiorentina, then home to
Milan and then away to Bayern Munich.
It's a good thing Morales is high at the moment for them because that's a tough run-in.
Very tough run-in.
And we're talking six difficult games over there, even Caliari away isn't easy and that's
supposed to be their breather.
Caliari who are striving for survival.
And block 4-4-2.
Yeah.
Lovumbo coming on in the 65th minute.
Well he'll still be at Avcom probably.
No actually it's quite far down the line.
It's true and so they go out and make it very far.
10th of February he might be back by then.
He might be back.
One player we haven't really highlighted by the way on the spot is Mohamed Kaba of lecture.
I like what I see from him.
He's not the tidiest, he's not always the tidiest rather, but he's quite industrious
and quite a lot of their play goes through him and he has impressed me to be honest with
you.
Let me just pull up some information on him right now.
He is 22 years old, he's French and he's right footed standing at 185 cm tall.
He's a pretty good player, keep an eye out on him guys.
He's pretty good.
Yeah, the Frenchman is a bit more of an industrious player perhaps in that midfield.
He gets a lot of dirty work done for his side.
Actually before this he's only ever played in League D.
League D?
League D.
Wow.
League D produces great talent.
It does, he's only played for Valencians before this, Valencians B and Valencian and
let's try bottom for 3 million in August of 2023, so last summer.
Good business.
Yeah, decent business.
He's quite a good player.
And this is Antonio Gal Los season, I don't know if you heard, because he's been super
this year.
Yeah, Gal Los.
Last year he was the one that we weren't too sure about and not back for.
This year he's taken it up a level.
And he's got competition this year in that position because there is the Swedish player.
Yes.
Mattias would kill me if he was here in this.
Dorgu.
Dorgu, yes Patrick Dorgu.
Yes, just 19 years old and when we've seen him he's looked clean.
Explosive.
Yeah.
He's not Swedish, he's Danish, my apologies.
Mattias is going to kill you.
Yeah, Mattias is going to murder me.
Hey Mattias.
Hey bro.
Hey.
So yes, lecture after this bro, our 13th place with 21 points, while lots of you are
up in 6 with 33 points.
Let's see how they handle that tough run in coming up.
Yeah, I got both of the games where there were 5 goals plus, now it's Atalanta 5, frozen
on a couple goal descriptions.
Atalanta coming off a 1-1 away draw to Roma and a 2-1 away win against Milan in the Coppa
to progress to the semifinals, frozen on a coming off a 3-2 home loss to Monza and a
midweek foreign loss to Juve to crash out of the Coppa.
The previous encounter however was a frozen on a victory 2-1 against Atalanta.
Now frozen on there are one of the three Serie A teams yet to win a game away from home this
season.
They are alongside Calieri and Lecce in that regard.
It was a 3-4-2-1 for Atalanta with Carnessecchi in goal and the back line of Colassenac,
Jim City and Scalvini, Ruggeri as the left wing back and home as the right wing back
with a double pivot of De Gauin and Ederson, Decatelare and Cope Miners played just behind
Scamacca.
A 4-1-4-1 for Frosinone, Turati in goal, Lirola, Occholi, Bonifazzi and Luzuardi as the defenders,
Berencea as the defensive midfielder with a midfield of Suley, Mazzatelli, Brescianini
and Harui with Kedira up front.
I was rather surprised not to see Kedira called up for Moroco in the African Cup of Nations
even though he didn't have stellar performances for them in the past, I do think that competing
in Serie A would be enough to get him a call up.
Apparently not and to be honest he hasn't been great, I think he's quite a wasteful
striker, he definitely can improve and has a lot to improve.
He's 25 years old and he's no longer a young talent.
But he also faces some of the toughest defenders in the league.
That's a good point.
He's got that and I mean it's not like they're calling up stars instead of him, who the hell
is Harit, Tissaudali, El-Kabi, Amine Adli.
To be fair I don't know much about these guys.
They could be good who the hell knows.
It is just weird because Kedira has been quite a regular in that squad and he was even there
at the World Cup.
Yeah, yeah so I found it up at all but anyway.
Like we said Atalanta won this game 5-0, Cope Miners scored the opening goal from the
penalty spot by sending Turati the wrong way after Luzuwari the Clumsily brought down home
in the area.
In the 12th minute Edison got the second goal for Atalanta after a good hold up play by
Cdk Ruggieri's cross exposed a big gap and frozen on his box which Edison took advantage
of and scored.
It was Bonifazi who ran away from the ball when it was being crossed in who created that
initial gap and Edison with the form he's on took advantage of that.
Just one minute later Cdk literally got his sperm, Daron played the Belgian through who
smashed the ball in off the crossbar and roared to the crowd.
Did you say that Cdk got his sperm?
He literally, watch that goal, watch that goal and tell me if Cdk got his sperm or not.
Yeah, he definitely became a man.
I'll just say that.
He roared.
I haven't seen him roar since the video when he said that.
No, no, no, he got his sperm in this game.
Frozen on it came out attacking in the second half and forced Cdk to pull off some uncomfortable
saves but Atalanta were happy to hold off with a three in a lead over then the 83rd minute
when they brought on their substitutes obviously they all wanted to get on the score sheet.
Masalic found Zappacosta in the corner of the area and Zappacosta curled his strike into
the far bottom corner very, very well.
Bless you.
Rolling back the years there Zappacosta that was his trademark before and in the 90th minute
home got his first goal for Atalanta tapping in after the ball fell to him off the crossbar
and I have to say well deserved goal by.
I like what I've seen this week by Juan.
Usually he was probably the best player on the pitch against Milan in the Coppa Italia.
He had a spectacular performance.
He's solid man.
He's very, very solid.
His size, his speed, his intelligence, his tackling, his tackling a second to none man.
Yeah, against Milan I would say he was the second best player for the Scoup Miners was
incredible.
Yeah.
But he has been so good bro and as you mentioned he's so involved.
He's a 91 centimetres tall, he's massive for a wing back and he's solid defensively and
he showed us as well that he can get forward quite dangerously too winning a penalty and
then scoring right?
There you go.
Yeah.
Emil Horn remember the name Swedish 23 years old, giant.
If you've heard his name before it's probably because he was with Spezia last season so yeah
that's where you know him from.
I want to highlight who the fuck do you think you're talking to?
I want to highlight Edison.
I forget that Edison is so young.
I mean just 24 years of age I know that's not spectacularly young but for the way that
he plays he's very mature.
Like he gets forward and gets goals but he never abandons his defensive duties and he's
quite a rock in that.
He wasn't always like this.
We saw him at Salernitan and he was more of an offensive kind of player.
Obviously Gasperini did Gasperini things and he molded him into the ideal player for his
system where now he's just so good defensively and he's also a menace going forward.
He has a good eye for goals as well.
And I mean we see that because this isn't the first time he scored or got an assist
this season.
I also want to highlight obviously CDK because this was the first match where he was really
feeling it where he looked confident.
Before he would think about a pass, he'd give the pass and it'd be a good pass.
This time he was really like in the moment and everything he was touching he was pulling
off which goes to show finally he has found his feet and he's found confidence in this
team.
And it's really really good to see because this setup of Cope Minerci and Decay Telaare
just behind Skamaka was really really good in this game.
It really was and the CDK does well he has mentioned that Gasperini plays him in his
favorite position kind of maybe that's a bit of a hint purely for not playing him in his
favorite position.
He's a mentally fragile.
I'm not even sure if it's fair to call him mentally fragile or if he's just 22.
He's new to the league.
He's in a foreign country.
He's 22 years old, young guy.
We arrived 21.
He's really developing nicely.
I just wonder how streak he can be throughout his whole career.
Is this just a matter of building up your confidence for your career?
You know what I mean?
Or is it that kind of thing that you're going to gain your confidence then it's not going
to go and you're going to lose it and you're going to have three terrible months and you're
going to get going again and is he going to become Filipp Anders in his big question?
I doubt it.
It could be the case of we don't know.
We've only got a year and a half as a case study of what he's truly capable of at least
in Italy.
But what we're seeing is like you said 21 year old kid being signed for the Serie A champions
for 40 million euros if I'm not mistaken.
Yeah, something like that.
High 30s for sure.
Went into the Milan team where he got a few opportunities but typically coming off the
bench and he didn't find his feet yet.
You see great players moving to a different country and not finding their feet in the
first season and then finding their feet two seasons in or a season and a half in.
Now Milan loaned him out immediately and it's not like he was, you could tell when he played
for Milan that he was a good player because he's clean.
He's clean.
He doesn't have many errors in him.
It's just he leaves a lot to be desired on the ball and in fact he's deserved a couple
goals for Milan.
He's deserved some assists for Milan.
And he had the goal wrongfully called off.
I wonder how that would have helped him with his confidence.
Yeah, when I watched him live when he came on I enjoyed watching him.
He's technically gifted.
Now in his second season Italy, look at his numbers.
Look at his numbers.
You just need some time to adapt.
You need some time to adapt as anyone who's getting used to the league, especially the
Italian league.
But for someone that before that was playing in the Belgian League for Club Bruges, he
needs some more time.
And this was a good move for him, man.
And he's, Atalanta likes to rotate but Charles is a starter for them.
The problem is that they've got an option.
Yeah.
So, you know, I'm not even sure about Atalanta with exercise, the option themselves for 20
something million.
I think they might be thinking we could reinvest our money somewhere else and strengthen for
sure because it's still a mystery with the KTLR.
I mean, we've seen him at his lowest and it wasn't pretty at all.
We've seen him at his best and he looks fucking solid, you know.
Is it worth the risk for Atalanta?
I don't think that's the way they operate.
I'm not sure.
I think they saw an option over here to bring him in on loan.
Low risk.
No risk.
No risk at all and potentially a reward, you know.
I think it will very much depend on how it keeps going till the end of the season.
If he remains consistent, I say they'll buy him.
If he remains to be a bit streaky, doesn't get the numbers up a little bit, I think Atalanta
wouldn't hesitate to just send them back to Milan.
Atalanta love to shaft Milan.
Yeah.
And I don't even think that's the way that Atalanta as a club would look at it.
Because the way Atalanta look at things is how can we flip players?
So it's not about what is he bringing to the team, but if we bring him in for 20 million,
how much can we sell him for?
Are we going to sell him for 40 million?
Are we going to make a 20-mil markup on him?
Are we going to be capable of making a 10-mil markup on him?
So that's the way the owners are going to be looking at it.
I think Gasprini would be happy to utilize him.
Yeah, clearly.
He'd be happy to keep him.
Obviously, I don't know what budget they have.
I know through the investors and new owners, Atalanta's budget is disastrous.
So they probably can afford to do it.
They're a healthy club.
Yeah, they're a healthy club.
It's because they're great at business, eh?
But that's just some praise for CDK and a big question mark on what's going to happen
to him at the end of the season.
It would be exciting to get him back at Milan since he's found his feet, though.
It would be cool to see.
Some we have addressed winning the penalty, dominating against Milan, getting his first
goal.
Gasprini had a little dance at the end of the game.
He hadn't danced since we were fucking killing him in San Siro, yelling at him after Milan
beat them to an ilgog.
Balla, mister!
I feel like he hadn't danced after that.
He looked, he was embarrassed by the fact that he was.
He looked directly at you.
He definitely heard that.
I was telling you, I'm going to tell him to dance.
If Milan beat him, I'm going to mock him.
And I did because he's Gasprini's a very annoying character.
And also, if you don't know, he danced after Atalanta beat Milan 5-0.
Yeah.
Wasn't dancing anymore.
Now he, it's like every time they beat someone 5-0, he dances.
Enjoy winning 5-0, I guess, for Zinone.
No, no, good win for them.
For Zinone, terrible losing streak.
They haven't won in Serie A since November, gathering 1 point in 7 matches.
Their away form is among the worst in the league.
They have zero experience in their team and they by far have the worst defense in the
league.
They are incredibly leaky.
They are incredibly clumsy.
All they know how to do is move the ball forward and to attack in numbers.
But they're constantly caught off.
To me, this is a side that, yeah, they excited us in the beginning, but they're getting relegated.
They're getting relegated.
They seem to have been figured out.
They've been free falling for a while now.
They're on 19 points, like Verona on 18th or on 17th points.
They're there, man.
And if you look at the history on teams that have been relegated, these newly promoted
sides, that focus on loaning and young talent without having the experienced players to
kind of guide them, these are teams that fall.
I always mention it.
People who listen regularly, they'll be sick of me.
Venetian, man.
Venetian when they came up, young talent, very exciting, looked good at times, but they
just didn't have that experience and that fucking knowledge on how to close out a game.
That street wisdom, they didn't have that.
And they fell back down and I feel like that might happen with Fresno.
If I had to bet money on who would definitely be relegated, I think it would be Fresno.
I think they should look at bringing in another coach if they want to solidify themselves
defensively because if they bring in one, two good fucking players with experience in
Serie A and they fix themselves defensively and they keep that because they've got talented
players to get them goals.
If they strike that balance, they'll have no problems.
But if they keep going the way that they're going now, then they're easy candidates for
relegation.
But yeah, that's enough from my end regarding this match.
Atalanta are in fifth on 33 points, while Fresno are in 15th on 19 points, just two
ahead of 18th place Verona.
Napoli two Salernitana one, a Southern Derby bro.
And a tight, tight affair.
I believe they called it Derby De Campania.
Derby De Campania, there we go because of the region.
The previous encounter was a two-in-lil victory for Napoli.
This was under Rudy Garcia, Elmas scored.
He's currently at Leipzig and Raspidori had scored that game as well.
This time it was Pierre Luigi, Gol Lini starting in goal in Napoli's 4-3-3 formation with De
Lorenzo Rahmani, Juan Jesus and Mario Rui at the back.
Caustelo Botcan Gaitano were in the midfield with Poletano out on the right, Guevara Tskalia
on the left and Giovanni Simione getting the nod up front.
For Salernitana it was Ochoa at the back in their 3-4-3 formation, with Fasiolo Vato
and Giomba at the back, Sambian brother reach out on the flanks with Legovsky and Muartag
Gianni in the middle, Kandrev out on the left wing, Chowna on the right wing and Simi in
Wankwo up front.
Now the early game was a bit predictable with Napoli trying to create opportunities through
slow and predictable possession and play.
Salernitana defended attentively and looked for counter-attacks the way they've been playing
to be honest since Zaghi took over.
The match was low key for about half an hour and Kandrev eventually ignited the derby with
an incredible curling right footed shot that found the back of the net, leaving Gol Lini
with some questions.
Do you think Gol Lini could have done better there?
No.
The pullback, the curl, incredible pullback.
No chance.
Yes, the Maradona fell into silence, it was beautiful.
Yes, Napoli struggled to find their rhythm, the only opportunity that they had was Simione
who had a good opportunity but was saved by Ochoa.
Of our replay, eventually showed that Fasiolo had clattered Simione and Poletano stepped
up to take the penalty and scored, this was at the end of the first half and they went
into the second half, draw 1-1.
Now in the second half, it was the same thing for Napoli predictable play, they dominated
possession but they couldn't really do anything, there was no creativity, they couldn't penetrate
that Salernitana block, Simi kept pressing the back line, leaving them no time to do
anything and the defense stayed tight.
It was only in the 95th minute that Rahmani managed to turn in a goal eventually from
a free kick, there seemed to have been a foul, it was Demme on Chawna, Demme swung his arm
and hit Chawna on the face, it looked to be quite a clear foul, definitely warranted
a VAR review.
Of course Salernitana players protest but it did not go to VAR as Rahmani was shirtless,
running towards the Maradona fateful ignoring all the calls.
Gvara Tskeliye was to be honest vintage Gvara, this game, it has to be said, he was lively,
he caused many problems, he dribbled his men, he found himself in one-on-one situations
at one point Ochoa saved the shot with his foot, he just extended his leg and saved him
brilliantly one-on-one.
I didn't like Napoli this game, I think that it was the best case scenario for them, a
lost minute winner to give them motivation and to fire them up a little bit to charge
them for the next game but once again they looked clueless.
The outcome is what they needed, this to me is the best case scenario for Napoli in this
game is struggling and then getting that goal in the 95th minute to really hype them up
and instill this kind of passion and togetherness in them because this now will create momentum
hopefully for Napoli but they look flat, Napoli they don't look creative.
You liked Gvara because he had many an opportunity because every time they got the ball they
just look for Gvara because he's the magician, he can make something happen, who else?
Gaita Anon, Kajus Stair?
He just seems to be the only one trying man to be honest with you, it's like everyone
is so short on confidence and it's like this guy doesn't let it affect him, he's just constantly
trying to beat his man.
Yeah, he's special man.
Did we even talk about what happened between Gvara and those men?
No between Gvara's agent and those men, I don't even think we spoke about this.
The angry tweet, no, by Ozeeman.
Yes, in an interview basically.
We did post about it though.
We posted, yes for sure.
At Seria Spotlight, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok.
Follow Raid5Star.
Basically Gvara Tskeli as agent said that Ozeeman is destined to move to Saudi and that
Gvara would never do that because his ambitions are higher to which Ozeeman basically called
them out on social media and called them a dumbfuck.
And that's the actual quote, he called him a dumbfuck.
I have the full one here.
Dear Mamuka Yugele, you are a piece of filth and a disgrace.
I'm embarrassed at your sense of reasoning, dumbfuck.
Keep my name out of your mouth.
I mean, I would perhaps take an element of offense to what he said because he's calling,
he's going after Gvara's teammate saying that that guy will end up in Saudi because he's
not as ambitious as my boy, he's just money hungry kind of thing.
So I understand however Ozeeman there's such a thing as being the bigger man.
You know what I mean?
I just like prove it wrong.
Tweeting and going on Instagram stories and calling him a dumbfuck is just we've seen
this emotion, the kind of outburst from him before.
The thing for sure and the thing is that most social media accounts are so vanilla.
They're like run by the club.
It's like another three points, couldn't get it over the line, but proud of this group.
You know, just all those tweets and posts constantly.
But with Ozeeman, it's just fucking memes that I don't understand to be honest with
you.
And this is this raw content, you know, which I love.
It's a great song.
Someone filtered.
He's my favorite influencer.
Same keeping up with Victor.
Yes, in Zaghi was very pissed off at the end of the game.
I'm saying that Salernitana need to be protected and that Gatti had had a foul as well.
That wasn't even televised against Salernitana and that now it was the case with them.
It's true actually.
Yes, man.
Of Gatti.
Yeah, they need to maybe protect these teams a little bit more because you know Salernitana
deserves to get something out of these past few games and they've lost them all so terribly.
I just hope that they don't.
I hope they're not demoralized by it because they've shown nothing but impressive games.
I hope they don't let it affect them too much.
Obviously, it affects them in the most severe way possible, which is where they stand in
the table, which is still dead last.
However, bro, their performance is they should be up.
They should be really proud of what they're doing.
And Pipo has done a good job at turning Salernitana season into a slightly better one because
they're getting close against these big teams, man.
They got a good result against Milan.
They got close against Juve.
Now they got close against Napoli.
I'm sure it could be demotivating that you're always falling short.
But now remember that have easier fixtures and in these easier fixtures, I do believe
that Salernitana are better than Empoli.
I believe they could beat Verona, especially Verona letting go of absolutely everyone.
They could beat Frozino.
Hell, they could beat Lecce and Sausolo.
They're a tough team and now they're supporting Directa back.
I think they will do wonders in the market as well to solidify their team.
Yes, bro.
I was surprised at the way Caillou still approached the game.
He should have been booked way before he actually got booked.
He was booked in the 34th, but he was a very rough man and he's one game away from suspension
and got the yellow.
He's missing the next game.
Gavarra at Scalia, one yellow card away from suspension and the 99th minute with the game
one managed to get wound up and got the stupidest yellow card and he's once again, he's missing
the next game.
So next Napoli game, we bet against them, bro, because they're missing very important
players.
I'll wait a lot, yo.
There we go.
Bet on lots, yo.
So next one, bro, I want to highlight what Patrick Kendrick said, the commentator.
He lays, caught me off guard.
Like, I love this commentator because of how monotone he is and how matter of fact he
is about everything.
It was like, so D'Lorenzo missed the header.
And he was like, D'Lorenzo was hailed to be the Italian Caffu last year.
This year he's looking more like the Brazilian we saw at Inter a couple of years back.
Jonathan.
Brilliant.
Brilliant, brilliant man.
He's firstly really good commentator, the guy knows his shit and sometimes he just
hits you with this humorous touch.
He's got a good sense of humor, man.
He does, he really does.
I'd love to get him on.
He would be a great guest.
If you're listening, brother.
Brother.
Hit us up.
Brother Patty.
My man Pat.
This is regarding per the standings, so Napoli are currently in eighth while Salernitana
are in 20th.
Of course Salernitana with 12 points while Napoli have 31 points.
Kaliari, two Bologna, one Bologna slip up once again.
However, another good result for Kaliari over here, really staying out of that bottom
three relegations zone.
They were coming off a one-one away draw to Lecce, whereas Bologna were coming off a
one-one home draw to Genoa and the midweek lost some penalties to Fiorentina in the Coppa
Italia quarterfinals.
The previous encounter was a two-one victory the other way round where Bologna beat Kaliari
two goals to one.
Now this victory means that Kaliari have now won their last five home Serie A encounters
against Bologna, which is absolutely crazy.
This is the longest ongoing streak of home wins for the Sardinians against any side in
the division.
I really wouldn't have thought that Kaliari would have gotten the better of Bologna in
their past five home fixtures.
A four-three-two-one formation for Raniere's men with scuffe and goal and the back line
of Augello, Dossena, Vietesca and Zappa, a midfield trio of Macumbu, Prati and Soleimana
and Nandes and Viola playing behind Petania, Nandes really being pushed up in this game.
A four-two-three-one for Bologna, Skorupski and goal, a back line of Posh, Lukumi, Kalifiuri
and Christensen.
A double pivot of Froyler and Arbuscher with Ferguson just ahead of them, Orsolini out
on the right, Urbanski out on the left and Van Hoidonk up front naturally because Xerxes
was suspended for this game.
Now in the tenth minute Viola attempted a looping strike from 40 yards out which landed
on the roof of the net.
I love him so much.
In the 23rd minute Orsolini collected Posh's long ball on the byline inside the area and
lifted the ball into the near corner from a tight angle.
Augello protested as there was a coming together but the referee said nothing doing, great
goal by Orsolini, he's back on the score sheet for them.
Just moments later though in the 31st minute, Dossena unleashed Petania with a long through
ball from the back and the striker rounded the keeper and finished into an empty net.
He totally outmuscled Kalifiuri who stood no chance after Petania's turn of pace.
Were you in my life with how I expected to see Petania's goal of this nature?
Firstly he completely outmuscled Kalifiuri, you almost lost balance but then his turn
of pace to get there before the keeper.
And then he round him and fucking finished off, he looked like R9 there.
Come on, Brazilian Ronaldo.
Let's relax but sure, he looked fast.
If you thought Kalifiuri could have done better over there in the 68 minutes after a high
clearance from a corner, Vietesca did extremely well to control the ball when surrounded by
two players and he delivered a dangerous low cross which did end up in the back of the
net after bouncing off of Kalifiuri and obviously it did go down as an own goal.
To one victory for Kaliari, obviously I do feel that Bologna felt the absence of the
suspended Xerxes and key players like Salah Mokers and Dan Endoia who were out due to
injuries.
However, Kaliari did well, that was the hand that they were dealt and Kaliari did well
to capitalize on these vulnerabilities especially in their set plays whenever they got a set
piece scenario.
They were very dangerous from them Kaliari so they really did rise to the occasion and
make the best of it.
Absolutely and Kaliari have quite a deep team funnily enough, they've got options so Ranieri
known as the thinker man from his time in the UK when he won the Leicester, he loves to
play around with his systems.
So it's a good thing that he has so many different types of players in his squad that
he can actually tweak things up and if he wants to play the Christmas tree formation he can
play it, if he wants to go for a 4-4-2 he goes for it, 3 at the back he goes for it, he's
really got these guys playing well but with Bologna bro, it's what we said when Bologna
entered the top 4.
We have to see how they cope without Xerxes, we have to see how good their squad is and
how good their depth is.
In reality, their players, their starting 11 is great but then the players on the bench
are not as good in certain positions.
So for example, Sidney Van Huiding might be an exciting player but he's no Xerxes, he's
not going to give you that dynamic at all.
Urbanski is only 19 years old, he's not really going to do what Salamakers or Endoio or Solini
have done.
Exactly, no totally, I mean this was a decimated squad but they had a few players there which
weren't ideal at all like Van Hoidonk and Urbanski are the ones that stand out to me
but it was how they struggled to unlock Kaljari that always impresses me about Kaljari, they
are a very, very tough team to penetrate and especially when they switch up to that 5-3-2
formation, God help you, God help you.
But they also impressed me moving forward, I feel like Petania is a good man for the
job over there, we always praise a striker who's good with his back towards goal and
behind him he had Nandes and Viola who are very capable of working their way from outside
the area.
So you thought Matteo Prati who's 20 years old and Italian has been playing centre mid
for Kaljari, playing most games and he's been pretty solid as well.
Yeah, yeah totally.
Okay so Bologna are in 7th place now, they've fallen off quite a bit but there are still
just two points behind 4th spot Fiorentina, whilst Kaljari 17th place on 18 points, still
just one point ahead of Verona so although they have two wins, two draws and two losses
in their last six matches which is better than the teams below them and some of the
teams above them, frozen on they have five losses and one draw for example, they're still
in danger obviously as most of the teams are all the way up to teams like Genoa are on
22 points and they're in 12th.
So from Verona 17 points in 18th place all the way up to Genoa in 12th on 22 points,
the relegation battle starts from 12th, let's not get it twisted.
Absolutely, yes, yes, very good point bro.
Speaking of relegation, we have Verona 2, Empoli 1 the previous encounter so Helas Verona
beating Empoli 1, thanks to a Bonazzoli goal for this game, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation
for Helas Verona with Montipol and goal, Ceciua out on the right, Josh Dujgue on the left,
Mannyani and Coppola as a centre-back partnership with Serdar and Duda as a double pivot, Cyril
Linguage was on the right potentially for the last time for Verona, Folaruncio was on
the left while Sussloff was playing behind Milan, Durych, I don't know why his name
is Durych.
Yeah, Durych is the cover art and it was a very foggy game by the way so I also implemented
the fog in the cover art as well, Lord knows in reality what happened in this game because
no one could actually see it.
No but it was foggy, that's it because initially I thought it was flares, I'm like what the
hell is this fixture like, why is it so fucking lit, crazy like, but no it was simply foggy
between Verona and Empoli like.
Caprila was in goal for Empoli in the 4-3-3 formation with Kakaccia out on the left, Berezinski
out on the right, Luperato and Valukovic at the back with Grassy, Malek and Fazzini
in the middle, Jossi started out as the right winger, Kambi Aguia as the left winger and
Steven Spendi as the striker, fun fact about Steven Spendi, his father ran onto the pitch
and punched an official in a Serial C game.
Oh my god.
Yeah his brother plays in Serial C.
He is spending too much time with these criminals.
Yeah, brilliant.
So in the third minute, Helas Verona had a corner which can only mean one thing, be careful
of jury, everyone on jury.
Of course, dude I whipped in the ball, jury barely left the ground like I just headed it
off the crossbar and into the back of the net giving Helas Verona the lead in just the
third minute.
Spendi failed to capitalize on a Monte Paul error and fast forward to the 64th minute.
In gonj, fucking shaking off earlier, sluggishness decided to spice things up from the right,
he cut inside and he unleashed a left footed strike that took a little deflection and turned
it into an unstoppable force and it found its way into the back of the net.
It almost came out like the ball was shut out from the fall, it was shut out of a cloud.
Zorkowski scored a header up on his return from Spetia, 64th minute, but Ampoli were
so wasteful after that that they couldn't find the equalizer.
Duda was sent off in the 85th minute for a second yellow which he got while in possession
of the ball by the way.
How?
He knocked the ball forward and then while attempting to play it, he took out his man,
got a second yellow card, but the tone of this game is Ampoli were very wasteful.
And in fact this was Andrea Zoli's last game in charge for them as he's been sacked for
Davide Nicola making it their third manager of the season as they started out the season
with Zanetti.
I'm not Inter Zanetti but Zanetti that was coaching Venetia.
I mean that's how Salernetana survived two seasons ago.
You know what I mean?
Davide Nicola was their third manager.
Sometimes you do what you have to do man.
Yeah exactly, sometimes you just need to bring in a guy who's proven.
Right Roma.
Yeah, Verona are actually getting results despite the fire sale that they have and I wonder
how they'll go about replacing these guys because okay Verona has left in Gondj, is
on his way out and that leaves you know, those are two wingers who are very very useful
for them.
We'll see how they managed to cope but a good result for them over here.
Massive six-pointer clash and they managed to win it.
Yeah very important win for them although yeah now in Gondj out probably.
There are channels where all these wing players.
They will start seeing the effects of that because in Gondj is a player that has changed
matches for them by himself.
Verona are currently in 18th place with 17 points while Ampoli are below them in 19th
with 13 points.
Look at that gap all of a sudden.
That's what a relegation six-pointer does brother.
It moves one team to the right direction and you totally fuck over the other team.
The last game is Gen 1-0 Torino-0.
Gen over coming off a 1-1 away draw to Bologna whilst Torino were coming off a very impressive
3-0 victory over Anapoli.
The previous encounter was a 1-0 victory for Torino at home.
Gen 1 have won only one of their last 12 league matches against Torino, 1-0 at the Luigi Ferraris
on the 18th of March 2022 thanks to Manolo Portanova's decisive goal.
They've drawn 2 and lost 9 of the 11 other matches in this period including a defeat
in the most recent meeting last September.
Now the hosts were unbeaten in 4 including impressive draws with Inter, Juventus and
Bologna but lost Caleb Ecoban, Thorsby and Sol Draudel Dragosin to Tottenham this week.
Last week.
Toro had European ambitions after beating Napoli 3-0 though Radonjić, Sopi and Schuers
were still out of action.
This was a 3-5-2 formation for Gen 1 with Martina Zingol, Vasquez, Bani and the Winter at the
back with Martin Malinovski, Badel, Messias and Sabelli in the midfield with Tategui and
Goodman's in up front.
3-4-1-2 for Torino with Vanya and Gola, backline of Gigi Bonjiorno and Rodriguez, Bellanova,
Ricci, Illic, Lazaro and Vlasic in midfield with Zapata and Sanabria up front.
Now obviously this game ended goalless with both Gen 1 and Torino having their share of
good opportunities.
However, I do believe that it was Gen 1 that were the most threatening team and had it
not been for some heroics by Vanya who managed to pull off 6 saves, some of which were really,
really good saves.
It could have been a different story for this game.
But I also want to highlight what I'm tired of, if you want you can do it because I'm
tired of highlighting this guy.
Sure brother.
Alessandro Bonjiorno bro.
Now when it comes to the top stats for defenders, he's in the top 3 for Iriil's 1, he's 3rd
with 51, only Bremer and Dragosin have more than him.
In terceptions he's number 1 with 42, second is Bremer with 25, that's the gap, that's
the cutoff point.
Madonna.
Tackles he's 1st with 24, second is Bremer 21, clearances he's 3rd, there's Dragosin
1st 88, Bremer 80 and Bonjiorno 71.
By the way it goes to show what a crazy player's spurs got.
I don't know if you saw the video of Rich Arleson warming up with him and he's really
surprised by his strength.
It's quite interesting.
Ball's recovered, he's in the top 2, successful pass as he's top 4, goes and assists, he's
the best one, 3 alongside Tomori and Dragosin and when it comes to errors he's made 0 statistical
errors.
He is a freak Alessandro Bonjiorno.
He's a super player, 24 years old, 191 cm tall, left footed centre back and player,
now 3 at the back and player, now 2 at the back, super player.
And I think he looked tidy, now 2 at the back for Italy for example.
On his debut so obviously take that with a pinch of salt but he looked good, he looked
comfortable.
Now he's apparently in Milan and his agents are talking to Milan but this is a move for
the summer period so I don't think we should get into it too much but it would be.
And Milan have got themselves a starter and a future fucking hero for the club in Bonjiorno.
He really is that talented and I'd be interested to see where the scone was still in Milan,
how quickly he'd snap him up.
He'd probably give an arm and a leg for him, no tattoos Italian you know.
I don't think he has tattoos Italian.
If it's the profile I don't know.
So Torino have just spanked Napoli 3-0 and then they came against Genoa away from home
and they didn't even take a shot on target.
Yeah, yeah, yeah but it was a quiet day for Martinez, very quiet day for Martinez.
Playing with the grass you know.
Yeah, like you used to do at football training with Mosta.
But it was ground.
Yeah.
Genoa are in 12th place on 22 points while Torino are in 10th place on 28 points.
That is it for this episode guys, don't forget to enter our giveaway, it is the last chance
we will be revealing the winner tomorrow and keep your eyes peeled because we will be
launching the Joseph Minala interview on Monday.
Right bro?
Absolutely.
On Monday.
Yes, the 22nd.
Thanks so much for listening guys, we'll see you next week, love you all.