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Cristante Dibala from distance!

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That's all he needs!

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Torino stepped off him and how he has punished them!

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Hello and welcome back to Seria our spotlight.

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This is episode 115 and I'm your host Jake, not joined today by Matt.

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But I have the pleasure of having one of our patrons, one of our first patrons actually,

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Alan along with us. Hello, Alan.

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Hello, Jake. Hello, nice to see you.

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How are you? How are you doing?

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I'm good. I'm good. I'm a bit tired but I'm excited to take part in the podcast. That's going to be fun.

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I'm great, thank you very much bro. Also a little bit tired but I'm very excited to get this on the

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road after dealing with all the technical not issues per se but technical steps that took to

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to get this on the road. Yeah, Matthew is not here today because it's his birthday and I don't

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know if he's mentioned it on the podcast but this is a very special birthday for him. It's his lucky

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birthday. Yeah, 27th February he's turning 27 so it's a very big deal for him so he's pretty much

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on a bender for the entire week and we're going to have to carry his ass, right?

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Wonderful. I was hoping it was something like that. That was a really important question.

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Yeah, so it's better than the whole Australia.

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Exactly. I wanted to ask you Alan, you're one of our patrons.

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What's it like being a patron? Is it worth it?

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Oh definitely. What kind of things do you get from being a patron? For me the first thing is

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the group chat. The group chat is lit. The group chat is higher and that's for me to become my go-to

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Seria discussion, the group chat and over the weekend I'm sitting watching the games with the

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phone in my hand. I didn't used to do that before so whenever something happens during the game the

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group chat is that's my go-to discussion. Yeah, we've absolutely ruined you so because before

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you'd watch the football without the phone but now you've got your... Exactly. Sorry about that.

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No, with you it's a nice and experienced. I'm having a lot of fun. There's always people

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who are making funny comments, good takes and it's amazing. Yeah, quite the spectrum of characters

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over there. You've got the... I don't call them the intellectuals but the debaters, you know, the

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Matthias type of person. You, to be honest, you often hit us with like a paragraph with

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an equation and then we... An essay. It's an essay. Yes, and I'm all for it to be honest. I'm

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sure that's one of my favorite kinds of essays to read. That's for sure. But yeah, an action packed

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episode we had. I'm not episode sorry, matchday. We had it was matchday 26 of course.

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Let's not forget that all the games of matchday 21 have been played. The last two being

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Inter for Atalanta Nyl. This was quite a show on Inter's End. The CDK opened the scoring in the

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11th minute but it was disallowed and then Darmion, Lautaro, DiMarco and Fratesi all went on to score.

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Fun fact, Fratesi has scored more goals than Arnautovic and Sanchez combined despite not

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really settling into this team. Yeah, and Inter had a top run of games, bro, and they've won them all.

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Yeah, definitely. They're cruising. It's funny you mentioned that about Fratesi because I actually

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wrote it down in my notes as well. Yes, I wrote it down. I guess they, how many minutes was precisely

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530 minutes or something in the S? Four or five goals. It's unbelievable to be honest.

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He's very good at inserting himself in these offensive pockets, kind of like Miketarian

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does, the space behind the strikers. He's very good at taking advantage of that. We saw it a lot

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at Svall, we saw it at Monza in Serie B. It was I think the highest scoring midfielder that one

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season he spent over there with Monza. And yeah, nice to see he's still got it despite not hitting

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the ground running at Inter. But to be honest, not his fault. Their team is pretty much set.

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Yeah, look, I saw an interview with him quite recently and it appears, or given that he's telling

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the truth, which probably is rarely the case with his interviews, it seems that in the plan all along,

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like he was not expecting to play much the first year. He said it himself and it's completely,

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for him, it's completely fine to sit on the bench. And yeah, I guess he's content with this

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first year introduction as it is. Age is on his side and he's not a team adding nice accolades

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to his Wikipedia page. So I doubt he's complaining, right? Because if you go on the Honoris deception

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of Frattese's Wikipedia, it's going to start now. Scudetto, Coppa Italia, Champions League runner up,

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you know. We'll see how that goes. Because that's actually a question I wanted to ask you, man,

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Inter right now seem absolutely unstoppable domestically. Outside of Italy, they're hailed

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to be in the top five teams internationally at the moment. What do you think about that?

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Well, definitely they are the top five. That's without a doubt, I think. The question is more

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tricky once you get like who is the best who's going to win the Champions League. And the margins

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are quite small as well. Right. And again, you can have the first goal by a random chance

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and it can completely change the entire two leg time. Right. Yeah. So but I don't know what

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Inter is. You have Inter, you have Real Madrid and you have Manchester City, I think that's the top three.

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Yeah.

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Yeah. And it's in no particular order. I think any of those teams can take on the other one

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on any given day, to be honest. It's pretty much a coin toss. When it comes to domestic dominance,

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though, no one's quite done what Inter have done. And it's actually quite a historic run

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of the run. Because I think by this time, I heard somewhere that by this time in the past 90

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something years, no team has accumulated as many points as Inter have basically in the last 90

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something years after this many match days, something like that, something absolutely insane.

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Yeah. So we'll see. The question is, can they also beat

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Juve's point record on their content? I believe it was 102 points domestically.

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I actually checked it. It was a listener question. Yeah, 102. Yes.

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Yes. Simple answer, no, they can't. Why not? Why not? Look, I did the math.

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They would have to win every game but one for the rest of the season. And to be frank with you,

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like even if they tried to do that, like fully committed, it's not a given that's going to happen.

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But I also think that they're not going to try it. We saw it with the people rotation when he was

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prioritizing the domestic league in January. I'm pretty sure he's going to do the opposite now in

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April, March, April. I mean, they have secured us to that. They're never going to say publicly,

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of course, but I am fairly confident that they are going to start rotating. And we can see now

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Kallano blue is out. Barrela is going to be out. And yeah, they're not going to care that much

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about the league, I think. I tend to agree with you totally. My answer was going to be no, simply

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because they have so much leverage in the league that it would be foolish for them to push for this

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record when they can risk players for the Champions League. As you correctly mentioned,

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their injuries are mounting. It's time to rotate the squad a little bit. The substitutes have proven

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to be dependable. You can count on these guys, Carlos Augusto, Fratese, Aslani to a certain

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extent. They've all done a pretty good job. Even Sanchez has proven to be quite a dependable player

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man nowadays, still at his age. So yeah, I think it would be foolish for them to continue

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fielding their strongest 11 in the league. Yes. We also had another game that happened.

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This was Sa Swolo, one Napoli six, of course, Ratchic opened the scoring for Sa Swolo. It was a

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very well taken goal and then Rahman equalised. Ozzy Men went on to score three goals despite

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only having 15 touches and four successful passes and one assist as well. Veratschelia went on

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to score two goals. Napoli dominance under Carl Zona. Do you think that this was the plan all

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along for Spalletti? Let's try for De Laurenti. Sorry, let's try to recreate the Spalletti team

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and what better way to do it than to bring in Spalletti's assistant manager at the time.

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Thanks. You're laughing while you're asking the question, Jake.

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I will say with a lot of confidence that there has been no plan from the De Laurenti

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season. Everything has been done sporadically. Opportunities have arisen and he has taken

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them, he has taken risks, he has taken gambles. It hasn't worked out and now he went with Carl Zona.

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Looked deeply. One game against Barcelona, another game against Verona and now they hit

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the ground running against Sa Swolo. But keep us in mind that Sa Swolo has a junior coach who just

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put the helm over there. It's a bit too early to tell, I think, if it's Carl Zona's credit or

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if it's a coincidence. Junior coaches have had limited time to influence their squad.

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Yeah, I'm sorry to cut you off over there. It's definitely interesting. We haven't even

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mentioned on this podcast yet that Dionisi has been sacked. Matt and I have been wondering

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when that was going to happen for a while and it's been a talking point in the group chat for a

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while as well. Sa Swolo, for the talent they have in their team are sitting in the relegation pool.

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It's inexcusable, to be honest. I think Dionisi had to shoulder the responsibility and he deservedly

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got sacked over there. The question is, was it the right call to bring in the Primavera manager?

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Why not just bring in someone like Balardini, for example, who can tighten things at the back?

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Berardi comes back from injury. You've got Berardi, La Oriente, to feed Pinamonte, for example.

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And suddenly, you've got a more tighter, more organized unit and with a bit of creative expression,

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creative freedom, I think that they have enough in their locker to get it done, I think, personally.

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What do you think about that bringing in a Primavera manager? Not the best thing to do in a relegation standoff, right?

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No, of course, in hindsight now it's easy to tell that that turned out to be catastrophic in the first game, at least.

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Yeah, it seems quite desperate. And as you say, why not try to bring in somebody more experienced at this level?

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But I will be careful to be convinced whether it's right or wrong, because it's way too early to tell.

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It seems like it's very wrong, but maybe there's something there that we are not aware of.

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Yeah, who knows? Maybe he's the next big thing.

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Napoli were on, though, they were on it. I haven't seen them play like that all the season.

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And it came at the perfect time, just in time for their second leg match against Barcelona

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and their next match against Juventus in the league.

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So they needed this confidence boost, despite being against Loli, SaoSolo.

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Look, Italy needs this confidence boost, because of the coefficient, right?

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Italy needs Napoli to be Barcelona.

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Yeah, while we're on the topic of European fixtures, Roma have drawn Brighton.

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So we're talking about the Rossi against De Zerbi, which does not bode well to me personally.

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I think Roma will not progress. That's my prediction. Are you comfortable making a prediction?

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Yeah, I'm actually leaning towards Roma progressing.

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Really? Yeah, I don't know why. I mean, they are in such a good flow.

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Currently, everything is clicking for them correctly. Brighton has been like they've come

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a lot through magic. I have to be honest and say, I don't really follow the Premier League that closely.

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But I pick up on general stuff and the general thing is that Brighton is starting to rumble.

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So that Roma is on a hot streak. So I think there's hope.

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De Rossi has had the Trebi as a coach as well. So they are a bit familiar with each other.

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Frankly, they've been exchanging texts and tactics over time.

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So yeah. That's going to be interesting. I had no idea that they were tight like that.

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Where exactly were they together?

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I don't know. Where was it?

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Trying to think. I know De Rossi went to Argentina randomly. Couldn't be there. I don't know. I highly doubt that.

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I saw an interview with De Rossi where he said that during his time in Spal,

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he was in close contact with the Trebi quite often. Maybe I'm wrong about him being his pupil at some point.

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But I'm sure that De Rossi has said that they are very close and they often speak together.

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Yeah. Okay. Cool. That would be very interesting. A very fiery friendship over there.

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I can imagine them playing FIFA together, smacking each other on the back of the head.

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Yeah. They're actually young enough to do that.

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Yeah, exactly. Atalanta have drawn Sporting Lisbon who have been pretty bloody good this year.

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And that's going to be quite a showdown. Atalanta might not be clear favourites over there at all.

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And they've just been demoralised by Inter. We'll see how they bounce back.

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I'm a little bit worried about this one as well.

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Yeah. This will be probably a tight one. Again, I have to generalise, but we have seen that the

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Portuguese teams have been doing quite well in Europe. And I see no reason why Sporting should

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be an exception from that. And their form is really good. But again, I think Atalanta is also

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in good form. I don't think that this intergame is too telling. I think they

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played Milan not many days ago. I think Atalanta are going to bounce back quite quickly.

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Yeah. And the way they have been playing up until the intergame was very promising. And I would

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have easily called them the fourth best team in Italy. The fourth team I'd like to face the least

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in Italy, I'm probably for sure. When it comes to the full package, because Bologna are good.

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But Atalanta's squad is deeper than Bologna. If you catch Atalanta on a good day, they're going

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to humiliate. No, it's not just deeper. It has more quality, it has more talent. Absolutely.

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Yeah. Absolutely. And as Matt and I often mention on the podcast as well, very intelligent players.

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Technically gifted with a good brain on them. I like what Atalanta have done,

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putting such a clever team together. Milan have drawn Slavia Prague, which is technically a good

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draw. But the other good teams in the Europa League, the other favorites, have also got

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favourable draws. So it's a matter of not slipping up and then kind of seeing who you face after

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this round. I mean, Slavia Prague are one of those Eastern teams where you go and the atmosphere

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shocks you. That's so cool. I love it. I hope to see players. I want to see the stadium lit up.

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I really need more of that. Yeah, absolutely. Man, I was so surprised by Ren in the second leg.

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Yes. The stadium was bouncing. They were three-nil down at kickoff. I'm looking around. The stadium

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is fucking bouncing. Like it's getting the shots behind the goalposts and all the way around

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everyone jumping. Players in the air and the players are coming out and I look at Matthew and

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I'm like, really, this is who you want to bring. Chouquets and Okofore and Chou in for the midweek.

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I'm playing them here like no chance. And then they scored earlier. I was like, this is going to be a

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bad one for Milan. Yeah, the atmosphere was amazing. But did you also see the pre-game

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friendly thing between the fans? How the Ren fans were handing out sausages?

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This kind of Milan. That was awesome. That was awesome. Yeah, Milan has to pass, right?

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Anything else to be a disgrace? Regardless of the support from the Eastern European home crowd,

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that Milan has to continue on. Regarding the other teams getting easy or easier or whatever.

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Yeah, favourable. Milan has to focus on them and everything else is irrelevant until you draw Liverpool.

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Is it relevant until you face them yourself? Absolutely man. And you know, it's good. I mean,

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Milan had the group of death in the Champions League and they didn't qualify by one point

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because of a potentially non-existent penalty that was awarded in one game to put it lightly.

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But yeah, this is the standard that Milan should be playing regularly with such a young team.

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It will only do them good to play these teams. So hopefully they can get past Slavia Prague

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and play against a big team on a big stage with everything to lose. Yes, that's what we want to see.

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Yeah, then there's Inter-Atletico, which is... I'm trying to think of a good comparison for this game.

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It's like, I don't know, two submissive lovers trying to get on top of each other.

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Okay, I don't know. I think Inter has been quite a dominating side. I think they are the

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dominator right now and Atletico is the submissive one.

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Yeah, it's a bit of a change of rep for Inter lately. They've become quite an offensive unit, haven't they?

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They have. They're scoring goals for fun. They are on plus 55 now in the...

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Yeah, which is mental considering we are 26 games in. I think that Inter need to be careful.

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Of course, they are leading after the first leg, but I'll bet you 100% sure that Diego

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Simeone will say one goal deficit is good for them. If they are expecting to win at least one game,

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so they are playing at home, they expect to win a game with a goal and everything can happen.

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I think Inter need to be wary. Absolutely, man. Atletico are masters of luring you into a

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false sense of security and then just smacking you when you least expect it to get back into the game.

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The atmosphere, the manager, the personnel they have, if they manage to get a goal,

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they're going to go all the way. They're hype. Those guys are just so, so motivated. They're such

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alphas. It's always fun watching Atletico. A very atypical Spanish team, I think.

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When you look at the likes of other Spanish teams, they're very different. They usually

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prioritise this beautiful style of play like Real Betis with this passing football. Atletico go against

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that completely, but they do it perfectly. Lots of buy-in, of course. Yeah, please, sorry, sorry.

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Yeah, no, I was going to say, I think it's cool that they have embraced this role of being the

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destroyers, the demoralising side, to decide that everybody hates or not hates, but not the

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anti-football, but the defensive green team that's just going to destroy your spirit. I think it's

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cool that they have fully embraced that, even though it's not a beautiful football, but it's fun

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instead of it being in a sense. They're the villains. Every story needs a villain. Absolutely,

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I agree completely. A little bit of Spanish catenaccio. Lots of buy-in, facing each other,

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of course, and Napoli Barca. Any hot takes, opinions about those games?

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No, I still think lots are going to get fucked, unfortunately.

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They're going to want to fuck them up after that first leg. Apparently now they're playing for

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Tushal, the players. Tushal said that he's going to step down at the end of the season,

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and the players apparently have taken it upon themselves to play for their manager.

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If you're going to fire a coach, why are you announcing it in February?

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Why can't you just keep fighting for three more months and then just leave in silence when

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the club has planned a replacement? What's the point of announcing it already?

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It really is, especially from a well-run organisation such as Bayern Munich.

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Then we have Napoli. You think lots are out, and I tend to agree with you. The second leg is going

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to be very difficult. Then we have Napoli Barca. Do you think that Napoli could edge this,

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or would you say that Barca are strong favourites?

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Nobody is a strong favourite. That's for sure. I don't know, Jake. I think it's difficult to

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predict this now, because we have seen them play Jor against Verona, and we have seen them

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destroy Sosolo. I think it's one of those games where everything can happen. I'm certainly not

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going to play a bet on that one. I'm not touching that one with a stick. Definitely not. One thing

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I have forgotten to do that I will be doing before the round-down is thanking our Patrons,

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the people who support. I mentioned our Patron, but I forgot to shout out the boys who make this

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show happen. Thank you, Ed, Tonna Michael, Mint, Mathias, Luca, Kyle, David, Lena, Sluge, McDougal,

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Campbell Tim, Anthony, Andrew, Andy, and finally, Alan. Thank you, Alan, for making this show happen.

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No, thank you. You're the ones who are making it happen.

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No, no, no. You're the backing behind it. We got absolutely no feedback. I'm not sure if we'd

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still be doing this. Thank you very much, honestly.

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I want to add one thing. We asked you earlier about being a Patron at the show, and I mentioned

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this thing about the group chat, which is lit. I signed up for the Patreon before the group chat

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existed. I signed up for the Patreon when it was, there was no benefits to it. That's really because

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I think you guys deserve it. You're doing a great job. You're giving me a lot of pleasure.

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You're making me enjoy it, setting up more than I used to. Without any benefits of the group chat

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or whatever, I would still be a Patron because the product you're delivering is really, really good.

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So thank you. Not the Patrons. Thank you. Thanks, Al. Thank you. Very nice words. Thanks.

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So I think we can get into it. We'll do a rundown. Matt normally does this. I'm going to give it

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my best. Bologna took on Verona and beat them 2-0 quite comfortably over there.

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Monza took on Salernitana away from home where they won 2-0, sinking Salernitana even further down

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the table. Juventus struggled to beat Procenon and it took a last second Rugani winner to finally

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confirm a 3-2 victory. For Inter, they played away from home to Lecce and of course they smashed

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them 4-0 as Inter do nowadays. Roma played Torino and this was quite a challenge for the Rossi.

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It feels like every single game that Roma have nowadays is a new challenge for the Rossi. Now

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his challenger was the mighty Yuric, the tactician Yuric who has this Torino playing quite well

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and they're quite a solid unit and difficult to penetrate and they managed. They beat them 3-2

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at home. The vibes at the Olympic were impeccable as always. Sassuolo hosted Empoli and lost 3-2

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another Mbayan young penalty over there. Incredible. I thought about taking him on fantasy football

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but I was like Jake don't make this mistake. Turns out I should have totally gone for him.

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I had him on my shortlist as well. Yeah, that's too risky right.

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Genoa played Udineza at home and won comfortably to be honest. Tugol Senil, Napoli played against

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Caliari in Sardinia and drew sorry 1-1 thanks to Lovbombo last-minute equalizer. Milan hosted

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Atalanta and drew 1-1 as well and Purantina hosted Lazio and 1-2-1 and they did very well to not

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get demoralized because boy did they miss their chances. But yeah, we can jump straight into it.

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I think we should open up with the Inter game, get it out of the way bro. So we can cheer up

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afterwards, get the worst part over. But yes bro, Inter played Lecce away from home. They won

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four goals to Nile. This included eight alterations to the lineup for Nzagi's men and it showcased

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pretty much Inter's depth. I'm just going to read you the lineups right now. So Audero was in goal

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with Carlos Augusto Debi and the tech playing at the back. Di Marquon Dampri was on the flanks

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with Miketari and Aslani and Fratese in the middle with Lautaro Martinez and Alexis Sanchez

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starting up front. For Lecce it was pretty much business as usual with Tuba stepping in for Pongracic

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and Rapia playing in the hole behind Piccoli flanked by Angvist and Sanzone.

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Yeah, in this game bro Lautaro scored his 100th Serie A goal and what a way to get it too, right?

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Yes, he fought for it. It didn't come easy. And that first touch man was the more you look at it

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and the more closely you look at it the more you realize what he did right over there. I thought

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he mis-hit the ball but turns out he like put the perfect amount of weight to just knock it

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forward into space between him and the goalkeeper rushed for it and finished clinically. Nowadays

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you can't give Lautaro an inch man. No, I never expected that goal. I thought it was he's going

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to play back or something. I thought he was going to reset the attack but no he turns around and

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he does that well. Yeah, same here, same here. It's absolutely incredible. Inter have extended

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their unbeaten away record to 12 matches while Lecce faced their third consecutive scoreless

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defeat. Yes, I think that Lecce, I don't know if they've made much of a difference but they did

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miss Pongre, which is this game definitely. I think they missed a leader at the back, Tuba to be

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honest. Again, Tuba and Bascarotta were all over the place and I don't know if that's just what

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happens when you play Inter nowadays or if it's too harsh to criticize them. I think probably a

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combination of both but yeah, I think that's something that happens when you play Inter.

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It's unavoidable. We see it in every game now. They're crushing everybody so I don't want to

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judge them too harshly but of course getting their starting CDs of course will help them.

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Yeah, especially the more seasoned one, the more experienced one, right? The one who came into

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the field in the big boots of Umtiti. They were definitely missed this game.

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There were goals from Fratese as well. Martínez of course scoring a double and then Deverey

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getting the cherry on the icing on the cake in the 67th minuetary of their DiMarco assist.

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Honestly, I've run out of things to say about the Inter team. Their system is absolutely

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incredible the way they play football is to be honest. I wouldn't hold back from saying it's

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revolutionary nowadays, man, the way that they defend and the way they attack their transitional

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play, man. The fact that their midfield is this perfect combination of creativity and industry.

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And you look at the personnel this game, it was just made perfect sense, man. Miketarian is

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the perfect player for this Inter midfield against all odds. He's so good at advancing.

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He's so clever. He knows exactly where to position himself. He's a proper counter-attacking player,

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man. And he's not the fastest. He's not the, you know, he's not going to dribble everyone,

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but he's got this slight burst of acceleration that he can just drive the perfect length and

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just lay it off to a teammate or have a shot at goal. And it's pretty much incredible every time.

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And him flanked with the likes of Shala Noglu and Barela, that's a midfield partnership of

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whoever's seen one. Look, Miketian, he has all those things, but his first and foremost,

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very intelligent football player. He knows, he does these runs when he does them, they look

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effortless because he knows about the time they went to start, which direction to move,

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when to hold. And yeah, it's, intelligence is on his former side and he makes it look easy and

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effortless. Yeah. And he's by far the smartest player in the midfield, I think, when it comes

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to vision and footballing IQ. And then second to him, this was the point I mentioned earlier on.

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This isn't that strong, man. Yeah, you've got the likes of Denzel Dumfries, you know.

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Alexis Sanchez, man. Alexis Sanchez is another player with very high footballing IQ, man.

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And I'm surprised that we haven't seen him much. And he's actually a player I picked up

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on one of my fantasy leagues earlier on them before the season had even started.

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Because I thought he would feature, you know. The last time we saw him at Inter, he was used,

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kind of like Louis Muriel was used, you know, being brought on towards the end of the games

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and just racking up assists and goals. And I thought, okay, this guy will have a similar role

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to play over here. And maybe now is the time for him to play this role. Maybe. Look, I think he has,

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he has good industry, as you like to say, like he does the work, he is there for his team.

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But I think as soon as he can be replaced, he's not going to play unless they have.

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As long as they have other options, I don't see him playing that much, to be honest.

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Like I respect the man, I respect his work, but that's it. Those Udunes days are long gone.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Arsenal ones even longer gone. Yes, absolutely. But now, of course,

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with Champions League games coming up, maybe he can enjoy a few league games, you know.

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That's probably the most he's going to get.

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Yeah, Audero also was called into action and produced a few good saves this game. Amil Audero.

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He needed that because he hasn't really played in a while, going from playing game in game

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out with Sampdoria to never featuring, must be quite difficult.

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I didn't know that he was an intern until I saw that line up. He totally missed it.

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Did you think it was still the ex Crotoane man, Cordas, Cordas with the very dark,

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it's almost like he's wearing eyeliner there guys, like a punk rocker, you know.

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No, I was looking at the line up and Audero and what's going on,

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somebody has some stomach to go, whatever. Audero, I know that guy. I had to go over him.

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I completely forgot about him. I had to go, oh, shit, he was in Sampdoria. That's right.

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But he was a decent goalkeeper. I find it weird that he's a backup. He could probably

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he could probably try, I don't know where he could, maybe he could replace a throw inside

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Salah Netan now for sure. I don't know. Conceivie is always a target.

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He's 27 nowadays, Audero. He's quite young. He has at least five years I have a minimum.

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Yeah, absolutely. Of course, playing at Inter maybe might be what he wants,

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you know, just to go to a winning side, a big team finally and try to fight for his spot.

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Shame that Summer was brought in for him because he stands absolutely no chance of featuring

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more often nowadays. But yeah, the second goalkeeper was an area that Inter really needed to strengthen

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after the whole Radu incident. Yes, which to this day, I would say this, since I'm speaking on a

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podcast, I would say this, I think it's incredibly unfair to him. Radu, because that third goal

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didn't change anything. They needed to win. They want to draw the fact that he messed up.

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I think he's gotten too much heat on actually not being that impactful. But yeah, all news

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just wanted to say. No, that's a very good point. He was definitely scapegoated as many people are.

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You look at every team you can mention as scapegoating. Nowadays, like Milan, purely,

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purely is a scapegoat. When things go well, wow, Leão is so good, when things go badly,

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oh, purely set them up for failure. This is football, right? A week is like a year, it's crazy.

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Yeah, yeah, please, sorry. Last season or wasn't the season before, maybe I'm mixing up.

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Inter fans were scapegoating the Michael. Look at them now.

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Yeah, yeah. I have two friends of mine are Inter fans. Shout out to Grima and Pity.

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Yeah, they're childhood friends of mine. I made friends with them before I knew.

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No, no, they're lovely. I do love their tics and their banter is witty. It's not like the

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cheap banter, the 20-store. Yeah, exactly. And they had described the DeMarco last season as a

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decent squad player, but nothing more. And I was like, guys, you're absolutely insane. You need to

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listen to Serial's spotlight because we've been highlighting the Marco, we've been raving about

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the Marco since his Hellas Verona days. And look at them now. He's bloody incredible. And I think

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he might be the player that they missed the most from that midfield when he's unavailable. Because

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transitions don't happen without him. He offers so much. He offers a new dimension that's not possible

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without him. So Inter are currently in the first place, of course, with 69 points. They've got a

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nice green slate over there. It says win, win, win, win, win. While all the way down in 14th,

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we've got lecture with 24 points with just one win and they're lost five games. I think we're

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going to move on to the next game. This is quite a straightforward one. You know, when it's a four

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and a little victory, there's not really much to say, especially when it's between Inter and

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Lecture. Can I just say one thing about Inter? Please, yes. Have you seen this film from the game

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against Bayern Munich, where they... Where two midfielders who dropped out to the CB spot

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and you had to dry and... Oh, yes. Yeah. And also in the game yesterday against... Oh, my God.

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Katerinia. You have Barela dropping down on the right back position, playing Di Marco on the right

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wing position, not left wing position. My God, they are cooking there. What is Lamone cooking, bro?

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Yeah, there are some budget things in that lemon sauce, I think.

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Yeah, absolutely, man. That's why. And I often find myself watching Inter thinking,

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you know, what the hell is he doing there? You know, like, I look at Paavard advancing and then

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you see Barela sitting in the middle, at the back in the fence. Yeah, the way they move is very fluid,

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man. And everyone knows exactly what needs to be done from the starters to the substitutes. And

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that's all credit to Simone and Zaghi, who's really given this Inter team a new identity,

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post-contest, which is very difficult to do because they already had their own, you know, system

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under Conte, which granted was similar, but this just seems like... Yeah. It's got a little touch

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of pet in it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think we can move on to Juve. Juve played

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for Sonona. They won 3-2 in the end, but boy, did they have to sweat. And when it comes to their

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lineup, they played a 3-5-2 formation and were probably surprised by for Sonona who mirrored

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their formation. For Sonona, it started with a 3-5-2 formation and they don't often do this

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this season. Cresni was in goal for Juve with Gatti, Bremer, and Rugania at the back. Cambia

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was on the cost-stitch, were out wide with Mckeni, Locatelli, and Rabio playing in midfield.

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Vlaovic and Chiesa were the striking partnership. For Rossinone, it was Cerafolini in goal with

376
00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:07,200
Nadir Zortea, who I'm a big fan of at right back, Valeri on the left, Occholi, Romaniolli, and

377
00:41:07,200 --> 00:41:12,160
Lirola as the centre-back. Crio with Harui, Mazziteli, and Brescianini in the middle, and Suley,

378
00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:19,200
and Kedira up front. Now, it all started with Vlaovic's goal in the third minute, and then

379
00:41:19,200 --> 00:41:25,040
Rossinone would shock the world when they would get goals in the 14th and the 27th minute through

380
00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:30,240
Kedira and Brescianini. Very nice work by Zortea to whip in a perfect ball to Kedira on the first

381
00:41:30,240 --> 00:41:36,560
goal. And Brescianini with a lovely strike in the 27th as well, the former Milan man to give

382
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:43,360
Rossinone a lead, but then in the 32nd minute was Vlaovic with a cyborg-esque finish, very Robo-Copesci,

383
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:47,280
you know, just like laser autolog shoot, like from the beginning.

384
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:54,080
Yeah, he's on fire these days. He really is, man. I saw Amim, you know, people arguing about

385
00:41:54,080 --> 00:42:00,800
Ozzy Men or Lautaro, and just you the fans, you know, just enjoying Vlaovic. He's really back to his

386
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:07,680
best. And in the second half, of course, Allegri tried to spice things up. He brought on Yildiz and

387
00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:15,600
Weyer in the 62nd minute instead of Kheyazar and Kostich. This proved to not be, it wasn't quite enough

388
00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:21,760
as they couldn't get the ball over the line in the 95th minute. The unlikeliest of outlets managed

389
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:28,640
to get you across the line. And it was Daniela Ruggani, thanks to Vlaovic assist. Yeah, man.

390
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:32,880
I thought that for us in honor, we're going to get something here. Was it third goal of

391
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:42,080
Laovic assist? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Juve, you know what it is. Yeah, 100%.

392
00:42:43,680 --> 00:42:51,440
Tell me, tell me. No, I was going to go on. I had the online, the pleasures of online.

393
00:42:51,440 --> 00:43:00,560
Yeah, it's really is. And I'm quite a talkative Mediterranean man myself. So I'm constantly

394
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:05,760
interrupting everyone already. So this doesn't help at all. No, please,

395
00:43:05,760 --> 00:43:13,200
interrupt me as much as you want. Yeah, this victory maintains you as unbeaten head to head

396
00:43:13,200 --> 00:43:22,800
record against Frosunona. They've got eight wins and one draw. This was Vlaovic 75th

397
00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:30,080
Serie A goal that inspired Juve's comeback. I was quite impressed, to be honest, by quite a

398
00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:35,200
few players this game. First of all, McKenney man in that first goal had that touch, man.

399
00:43:35,200 --> 00:43:41,920
First touch was amazing. I didn't think that Weston was capable of a first touch of that calibre.

400
00:43:41,920 --> 00:43:45,920
And the run as well. The run, yeah, absolutely.

401
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:51,200
Everything about it. Yeah. The run from the ball to the touch, yeah.

402
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:56,960
Speaking of state, he's another state vote as well for Juve fans. And I mean, look,

403
00:43:56,960 --> 00:44:03,440
Juve assist, and who was it that Juventus, they were rather good, the previous team as well for

404
00:44:03,440 --> 00:44:11,760
Juventus. What was that game, McKenney? It was a draw. That's who. Hellas Verona, was it?

405
00:44:12,400 --> 00:44:17,520
Was it Apple? I think so. Let's take it. Let's quickly check.

406
00:44:26,160 --> 00:44:30,480
Yeah, the previous game was the Verona one, yes, away from home 2-2.

407
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:38,160
Ah, yeah. So yeah, he was pretty good that game. He's been good all season,

408
00:44:38,160 --> 00:44:42,320
McKenney, man. He's been a super revelation for them after going up to Leeds and

409
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,960
disappearing off the face of the earth. Everyone probably thought that I'd never

410
00:44:46,960 --> 00:44:51,520
see McKenney in a Juve kit again, but here he is, man, playing such an important road.

411
00:44:51,520 --> 00:45:01,040
Yeah, now he did great, but Loewish, man, he's not just inside the box anymore.

412
00:45:01,040 --> 00:45:07,040
He's coming down, he's picking up the ball, he's playing other, he's making the players around him

413
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:13,760
good as well as he's performing and stuff. So, that's after him, I hate to see it though.

414
00:45:15,040 --> 00:45:21,200
Absolutely. One thing I admire about Loewish is even when he was at his worst and when nothing

415
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:26,880
was working for him, he was always a team player, man. He was always the perfect professional.

416
00:45:26,880 --> 00:45:33,760
He was always working hard. He always put the team first even when he was flopping. He had

417
00:45:33,760 --> 00:45:37,200
certain moments that were embarrassing when he was off form. You know what happens to a striker?

418
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:42,880
You get in your head, you end up being shot on confidence like, but he was always there, man.

419
00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:48,400
He always celebrated hard with his teammates when they scored. He was always a proper example, man,

420
00:45:48,400 --> 00:45:52,240
and it's nice to see that it's working out for him and it was always going to work out for him

421
00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:57,200
because he's that type of person. Am I allowed to shit a little bit on him though?

422
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:01,360
Is it about his hairstyle? Because he looks a little bit...

423
00:46:02,160 --> 00:46:05,040
Oh yeah, his hair is definitely weird. Who cut that?

424
00:46:06,800 --> 00:46:14,240
No, he has, I think he has a bit poor attitude since you were mentioning his team.

425
00:46:14,240 --> 00:46:20,240
When he doesn't get the passes he wants, he's a bit of a private, I have to say.

426
00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:28,000
I think he is complaining maybe a bit too much. And he does this one thing that I hate from a

427
00:46:28,000 --> 00:46:32,560
lot of football players. Lukaku also does this as well. I was going to say Lukaku, man. I was going

428
00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:38,000
to compare, I was going to make the comparison, but go. Okay, so he does this one thing where

429
00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:45,200
let's say our player teammate has a ball, he's dribbling inside the box and he tries to shoot

430
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:51,600
or he tries to cross and it ends up in nothing. Lovic comes three seconds later and is pointing

431
00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:58,480
with both hands down to the table. Oh man. I was here, I was here. No, you were not there.

432
00:46:58,480 --> 00:47:03,760
You were not there when the pass came. You were not there when the run started. You were there

433
00:47:03,760 --> 00:47:11,440
three seconds after, which is completely different. So he does this and I actually bothers me.

434
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:18,480
Lukaku does the same thing. It's like the run is over. He's already shot at goal. It didn't happen.

435
00:47:18,480 --> 00:47:22,160
Lukaku continues his run for some reason for two more meters and it's like,

436
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:26,960
I'm wide open. What are you doing? Shut up.

437
00:47:26,960 --> 00:47:34,240
Yeah, but that's not the strikers, right? I mean, they're technically well within their rights to

438
00:47:34,960 --> 00:47:41,440
complain and to demand the ball because low scoring figures for strikers reflect very badly on them

439
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:47,520
and under CV. No one wants a striker who doesn't score. So yeah, it's a little bit understandable.

440
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:52,400
The funniest one of the week though, it is annoying by the way. The person who I couldn't stand is

441
00:47:52,400 --> 00:47:59,600
when Higuain joined Milan, I couldn't wait for him to leave from the get go. Do you remember

442
00:47:59,600 --> 00:48:05,440
the way he spoke to his teammates, the way he he just acted like he was bigger than the clubman?

443
00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:13,120
Arrogant, absolutely. And I couldn't stand watching him and then the meltdown against

444
00:48:13,120 --> 00:48:22,800
Sjouve, that was the time when I actually realized this guy is not okay. And it was a record key at the time, wasn't it?

445
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:28,240
Yeah, I believe so. Or for Milan, at least, of course, the record key was from Napoli's event.

446
00:48:31,680 --> 00:48:36,960
But for Milan, it was also like top ten or six pensive players ever.

447
00:48:36,960 --> 00:48:44,240
Yeah, absolutely. He did have a few moments where he showed us what Pipeeta can do,

448
00:48:44,240 --> 00:48:46,880
scoring out of nothing, that turn and shoot, I love that.

449
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:52,240
Absolutely. As long as it's not an important game.

450
00:48:53,840 --> 00:49:01,920
One thing I wanted to mention was Simeone, this matchday. Simeone had the exact same thing.

451
00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:06,640
Honestly, Napoli lost. I'm jumping to Napoli a little bit because you mentioned this thing about

452
00:49:06,640 --> 00:49:11,920
strikers, you know, pointing right in front of them for their teammates to play them.

453
00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:18,560
You should have passed, I was hoping. Simeone screamed. He screamed at one point when they were

454
00:49:18,560 --> 00:49:24,880
one and up towards the end of the game. I think it was Poletano who had a clear shot at the goal.

455
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:31,120
But Simeone was wide open on the left and Poletano went for an outstep shot instead.

456
00:49:31,120 --> 00:49:37,680
And you literally hear from the TV, Simeone going, literally screaming.

457
00:49:38,640 --> 00:49:46,320
And Poletano apologising, only three minutes later, Simeone was in the exact same position

458
00:49:46,320 --> 00:49:51,280
and he shot and he missed with a teammate wide open. I was like, you, sir, are a hypocrite.

459
00:49:52,560 --> 00:49:54,880
That's the difference between a striker and a winger.

460
00:49:54,880 --> 00:50:02,560
Yeah, exactly. The winger will forgive his teammate.

461
00:50:02,560 --> 00:50:07,120
We'll sidetrack a little bit, haven't we?

462
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:14,240
Yes, totally. I want to go back and talk about Kedira. Kedira scored his first goal since September.

463
00:50:14,240 --> 00:50:19,760
Can you believe that? He's the leading, he's a starting striker for Frosinone.

464
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:24,560
Of course, Kai-O George has been stepping in a little bit. But as a player, I don't know if you've

465
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:29,760
watched a lot of Kedira, but I've never really been much of a fan. I used to watch him at Barri

466
00:50:29,760 --> 00:50:36,320
and I always thought that as a striker, he leaves quite a bit to be desired personally.

467
00:50:37,280 --> 00:50:40,960
I'm curious about his age, because I don't even think he's that young anymore.

468
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:48,800
Kedira is 26 years old. I think that this at the moment might be his level. And I think another

469
00:50:48,800 --> 00:50:54,160
year in Serie B or another two years in Serie B or just staying in Serie B would probably be better for him.

470
00:50:54,160 --> 00:51:00,000
Yeah, there's nothing remarkable about him. You don't really notice him when he plays.

471
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:09,760
But in his first goal, I will credit him in the build-up. If you follow just him in the build-up,

472
00:51:09,760 --> 00:51:16,640
not the beautiful pass from Sunne and the cross and everything, you can see that Kambiasso is

473
00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:23,440
there wrestling. He's holding him with both hands on his shoulders. He's pushing it. Kedira is pushing

474
00:51:23,440 --> 00:51:29,360
back. This is not football at all. This is a wrestling match. Kedira somehow slips him.

475
00:51:30,000 --> 00:51:37,040
He goes behind Kambiasso's back. He tricks him and then runs back out towards the penalty spot.

476
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:44,560
Kambiasso has no idea where he is. So he did a clever Fox in the Box movement there to get rid

477
00:51:44,560 --> 00:51:51,280
of the marking man. But I agree with you, as you say, there's nothing extraordinary about him.

478
00:51:51,280 --> 00:51:59,760
There's nothing that brings attention to him. That's a very good point because he totally

479
00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:04,880
outsmarted a younger player, which is always nice to see. So hopefully this could prove to be a

480
00:52:04,880 --> 00:52:08,640
little bit of a confidence boost for him. I'm scoring against you, but it will always be a

481
00:52:08,640 --> 00:52:15,840
confidence boost. A player who's never impressed me, but at the end of the day, maybe it's not the

482
00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:22,400
perfect time to mention this because he has just scored against me. But I do want to highlight

483
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:27,040
Zortea in my opinion. First of all, I'm surprised that Atalanta have loaned him out because I think

484
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:32,960
he's deployably even at that level. He has been a beast at Frost and On in the two or three games

485
00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:39,200
he's played, bombing up and down that flank. He's offensively a threat defensively, not as good as

486
00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:45,120
he's offensively, but he's still quite dependable. I'm a big fan of Zortea. I think he's got a bright

487
00:52:45,120 --> 00:52:51,120
future ahead of him. But in Atalanta's defense, Emil Holm has been rather good as well.

488
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:57,440
Emil Holm has been a revelation for them. I can't believe this is the same Emil Holm that was at

489
00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:05,200
Spatia. He's good. I think it's okay that Zortea is not in Atalanta right now because we've been

490
00:53:05,200 --> 00:53:12,080
denied of watching him play. Absolutely. There's a Pacosta there as well, so he's definitely got

491
00:53:12,080 --> 00:53:19,040
competition if you were to say so. But I was surprised because in the first few games Zortea

492
00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:23,520
actually played and I think he scored for Atalanta in the opening, one of the opening three games

493
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:27,920
of the season. So I did think that he was going to feature. But yeah, a loan move at Frost and On

494
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:32,560
right now, a very exciting Frost and On who play an attacking brand of football will definitely

495
00:53:32,560 --> 00:53:39,680
be good for Nadir Zortea. And trust me, when it comes to Atalanta, they know what they're doing

496
00:53:39,680 --> 00:53:44,320
when it comes to their development. Yes, they know how to fight the race.

497
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:52,560
They know how to... yeah, bend the rules a little bit. This is Breff Shani,

498
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:56,160
he's the third goal of the season. He's also been looking quite good. When it comes to this

499
00:53:56,160 --> 00:54:01,920
Frost and On aside, the individuals look good because of the brand of football they play.

500
00:54:01,920 --> 00:54:06,560
It's offensive, it's exciting. There are many highlights, many moments for these players.

501
00:54:06,560 --> 00:54:11,280
But personally, if you had to ask me, Alan, I would say very confidently that,

502
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:16,160
okay, the three things that are going to get relegated is a very difficult question.

503
00:54:17,360 --> 00:54:24,800
One's the most confident about are Salernitana, of course. And second to that, I would say Frost and On.

504
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,200
I would say Frost and On. And I'm sure you know this because you're a listener.

505
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:34,880
But what do you think? I would say it's Salernitana, Frost and On and Hellas Verona.

506
00:54:34,880 --> 00:54:38,240
That's my take on Hellas Verona. I'm not confident at all about it because they've actually been

507
00:54:38,240 --> 00:54:43,600
pretty bloody good. Yes, that's really weird considering I have fought so many players.

508
00:54:44,240 --> 00:54:48,560
Yeah, they almost seem better. But yeah, we're not talking about Verona right now.

509
00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:56,560
Look, I remember you put up that poll in the wonderful group chat. Subscribe everybody.

510
00:54:56,560 --> 00:55:10,160
The thing about Barcelona is that they have had a tough couple of runs. They have made good things.

511
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:19,280
They will have easier games to come. And it's an offensive team. I didn't vote them to get

512
00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:26,160
relegated. I voted on Salernitana Verona, for the same reason as you. And I went for Sassola,

513
00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:36,160
actually. But the thing about an offensive team is that they can lose, let's say they lose four

514
00:55:36,160 --> 00:55:43,360
games in a row. But I think that's why Nona has it in them to win that 15. And when the margins are

515
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:50,560
as close as they are in the bottom group, winning, let's say if they get nine more points

516
00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:58,080
for the rest of the season, that might be actually enough for them. Maybe not nine, maybe 12.

517
00:55:59,280 --> 00:56:07,040
But I think they have it in them to get a surprise victory. And they did rattle Juventus

518
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:17,040
away from home. So it's not, I think they have a chance even though they're getting steamrolled

519
00:56:17,040 --> 00:56:24,320
in a lot of games against the top sides. That's always going to happen when you're

520
00:56:25,520 --> 00:56:30,000
not stubborn in a negative way. But when you're stubborn with your approach, that's always going

521
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:34,240
to happen when you attack every single person, every single team that you come up against. That's

522
00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:44,080
always going to happen. You might experience quite a few losses. The thing, a question for you,

523
00:56:44,080 --> 00:56:50,160
and maybe I'm putting you a bit on the spot over here. But you mentioned that

524
00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:56,640
for Cenoine have the potential to win one odd game in every five. But wouldn't you say the

525
00:56:56,640 --> 00:57:07,360
same about Sa Swallow and Baradis back? That's not yet. Yeah, that's the thing. And when Baradis

526
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:14,160
back, it's not going to be just an odd game. It's going to be, I guess, yeah, exactly. Well,

527
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:18,640
that's not a possibility anymore. They have played each other twice or have never mind.

528
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:29,200
But yeah, you're right. You are. But let me just say this. Sorry to go back a little bit because

529
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:38,240
I switched my tabs over while you were talking. Cenoine recently played Fiorentina, Roma, Juventus.

530
00:57:38,960 --> 00:57:45,040
Their next games are going to be against Lecce, Sa Swallow, Lazio, Genoa, Bologna.

531
00:57:48,480 --> 00:57:53,760
That's good. That's going to be very telling and very entertaining for us to watch.

532
00:57:53,760 --> 00:58:02,800
Yes. But your counter-argument definitely stands. If Cenoine can win an odd game here and there,

533
00:58:02,800 --> 00:58:10,800
definitely Sa Swallow can do the same once they get Baradis back. But there's something about

534
00:58:10,800 --> 00:58:17,120
the Sa Swallow team that crossfades me a lot. I think they're really, really poor. The way I

535
00:58:17,120 --> 00:58:24,160
justified it in the group chat is that I wrote that I have a feeling, this is my feeling, most likely as well.

536
00:58:25,040 --> 00:58:32,720
I have a feeling that a lot of these other teams, they have this final do or die spirit in them.

537
00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:39,920
They want to die. They want to kill. You know? It's a solo doing that. For me, a solo is like,

538
00:58:39,920 --> 00:58:48,640
let's see what Baradis does. I don't see that team spirit, the will to sacrifice themselves.

539
00:58:48,640 --> 00:58:53,600
I don't see that will to die for the team, that I can imagine the other ones to get.

540
00:58:54,560 --> 00:59:01,120
That's a very good point. That's something that I've also observed with Sa Swallow because

541
00:59:02,000 --> 00:59:08,160
it's almost pedestrian. It's almost like everyone just blaming each other when I go to

542
00:59:08,160 --> 00:59:13,520
a squad and they have no team spirit. However, I feel like that team spirit and then is all

543
00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:21,360
embodied and encapsulated by one man. That is Baradis because Baradis can't stand losing.

544
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:29,920
He's the type, man, that he will do everything within his power, within his skill sets to try

545
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:36,080
to avoid a loss and to try to fire up his teammates and to try to lead the way. He's become a proper

546
00:59:36,080 --> 00:59:44,160
leader over there, man. Look, the next team to basically buy Baradis is going to be a very lucky

547
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:50,480
team. I know he doesn't have the flashiest name. I know that he's got quite a bad rep as a player

548
00:59:50,480 --> 00:59:54,480
who's settled and a player who's always been afraid of the big stage. But that, in my opinion,

549
00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:59,280
is not true at all because he has always thrived whenever Sa Swallow had a big stage game against

550
00:59:59,280 --> 01:00:04,640
a big opponent. Who was the man to win them the game? It was all Baradis, man, always.

551
01:00:04,640 --> 01:00:12,560
I talk a lot with him, 100%. I think the criticism towards him and the stats and the national team

552
01:00:13,360 --> 01:00:22,080
are very unfair. I think he has shown that he has a quality. Look at the team with him and look

553
01:00:22,080 --> 01:00:28,720
at the team without him. That speaks for himself. I don't need to say anything else. That's my

554
01:00:28,720 --> 01:00:35,040
opinion. Absolutely, man. When I was growing up, I had Dina Tale as the provincial king.

555
01:00:35,840 --> 01:00:43,440
I was Baradis, man. Baradis, absolutely amazing. We're lucky to watch him. Even when he's trying

556
01:00:43,440 --> 01:00:46,800
to force his way out, when he comes back into that team, he's leading the way.

557
01:00:49,760 --> 01:00:55,520
Fabrizio, I had the pleasure, actually, I'm sure, you know, of watching him play for our local

558
01:00:55,520 --> 01:01:04,720
Berkley car side. I'm lucky, man. Dude, incredible. He was slightly over with. Let's keep that between

559
01:01:04,720 --> 01:01:11,120
us and everyone listening. He was a player to me. He was never picked. Yeah, he was always. I think

560
01:01:11,120 --> 01:01:16,000
that's what stopped him, to be honest, ultimately from really becoming a great player because he

561
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:21,600
was fucking incredible, man. The things you could do on the pitch, shooting from anywhere, anywhere,

562
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:29,840
like a superhero. You look at him as just a tiny Sicilian, stocky guy. Then when he came from

563
01:01:29,840 --> 01:01:37,680
Malta, he had the McDonald's logo on his stomach. Yeah, he utilized the sponsorship, right?

564
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:46,000
Yeah, I think so. I think that's fair enough. But yeah, man, you were honestly, I think that this

565
01:01:46,000 --> 01:01:53,280
was a very important victory for them, finally winning a game in February. They were destined

566
01:01:53,280 --> 01:02:00,080
for another draw towards the end. To be honest, they were resilient and up. I'm going to say it,

567
01:02:00,080 --> 01:02:03,520
you know, maybe they were lucky, okay, that Rugani found himself in that place. But first of all,

568
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:08,080
that finish by Rugani was very good. That was a tight angle, you know, squeezing it into the back

569
01:02:08,080 --> 01:02:13,280
of the net from that angle was very good by Rugani. But it's the fact that they never gave up. It's

570
01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:18,480
the fact that this Uve team, this is what I thought Matt in the last episode, they are demoralized.

571
01:02:18,480 --> 01:02:23,280
The Scudetto slipped out of their hands. They're playing once a week. Top four is pretty much

572
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:27,360
secure. They don't really have any major worries, you know, I mean, they're probably going to get

573
01:02:27,360 --> 01:02:31,360
over the line, they're probably going to qualify for Champions League. So they're at the stage

574
01:02:31,360 --> 01:02:36,000
right now where they're at the crisis. Why are we playing? Why the hell are we even playing? What is

575
01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:42,000
there to fight for? You know, apart from trying to impress and trying to improve my own records

576
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:46,880
and my own statistics, why am I playing week in week out? What is there to win? Nothing.

577
01:02:47,840 --> 01:02:56,080
There is pride to it. You saw it in the game. I have to confess, I didn't watch the first half.

578
01:02:56,080 --> 01:03:00,720
I tuned in during the second half because I was like, oh, you might actually drop points here.

579
01:03:03,200 --> 01:03:09,120
And they fought. It didn't look like a team that was careless. They fought and,

580
01:03:09,120 --> 01:03:14,480
you know, okay, you can say that they were lucky with the goal in the end and

581
01:03:15,520 --> 01:03:22,160
like he takes the shot from that weird angle and it's a hey, Mary. He probably doesn't believe

582
01:03:22,160 --> 01:03:27,440
it himself, but what else is he going to do? He's going to take the shot, right? But on the

583
01:03:27,440 --> 01:03:32,080
other hand, you can also say you were quite unlucky to not score earlier because they completely

584
01:03:32,080 --> 01:03:38,000
dominated the second half. What I was watching, you were dominating every aspect of the game.

585
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:46,400
So, to leave. But the big chances were missing, which is probably the biggest criticism against

586
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:54,720
you. Maybe this entire season or Allegri's UVA or if you're in Allegri out, whatever. The chances

587
01:03:54,720 --> 01:04:01,920
were lacking, but in terms of the play, there were two leagues above. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but

588
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:09,440
so, yeah, they were lucky with the goal, but they were so much better than I think they deserve.

589
01:04:11,200 --> 01:04:17,440
No, absolutely. Yes. The statistics speak for themselves. I'm going to mention XUG,

590
01:04:19,120 --> 01:04:26,320
trigger warning. You had a 2.19 XUG, while Frasenone had 0.48. I mean,

591
01:04:27,040 --> 01:04:31,440
Frasenone had two shots on target and they scored both of them. That's always quite telling.

592
01:04:31,440 --> 01:04:36,800
You look at UVA, for example, at 22 attempts, five of them being on target and they managed to get

593
01:04:36,800 --> 01:04:40,560
three goals. That's still an impressive conversion rate when it comes to the shots on target.

594
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:48,320
Yeah, at this point, I think it would be a good time for you to really figure out

595
01:04:49,680 --> 01:04:54,720
what are we going to do next season? What's the plan from here? What are we going to do with

596
01:04:54,720 --> 01:05:03,280
QIESA? What are we going to do with the midfield? Who's going to stay? We're bringing Solea back.

597
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:08,240
These are the questions, I think, that need to be addressed now. I would go as far as using the

598
01:05:08,240 --> 01:05:14,720
next few games, just simply as an experiment for QIESA. I would deploy QIESA in different

599
01:05:14,720 --> 01:05:19,680
situations, play him on the wing, play him as a freaking nine. It doesn't matter. Play him alongside

600
01:05:19,680 --> 01:05:24,800
Vlaovic again. Just see what you're going to do with this guy because as it stands right now, I think

601
01:05:24,800 --> 01:05:29,040
they're probably leaning towards taking the next offer that comes in for him.

602
01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:34,240
Yeah, you're leading on to the question you got from Moses Frank now about what?

603
01:05:34,240 --> 01:05:41,040
Yes, exactly. I tend to do this. I asked them before for the question segment. Yes,

604
01:05:41,040 --> 01:05:45,520
but Frank did also this question and we'll get to it again in the end. We'll just shout them out.

605
01:05:45,520 --> 01:05:48,800
What do you think? Do you think that they should set him?

606
01:05:52,240 --> 01:05:58,400
Look, I think I thought about the question a little bit. I'll just say the question now.

607
01:05:58,960 --> 01:06:06,720
Yeah, go for it if you have it. I don't, but I have it for memory. What should you do with QIESA?

608
01:06:06,720 --> 01:06:13,200
Should they prolong him or should they let him go given? I think the salary was a question as well

609
01:06:13,200 --> 01:06:21,440
there. Yeah. Or if they should use the fund somewhere else, right? I think you went to,

610
01:06:21,440 --> 01:06:26,400
first of all, needs to find out who's going to be their head coach next season. That's that one.

611
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:32,640
After you've decided that, you can make a stand on what to do with QIESA.

612
01:06:33,760 --> 01:06:38,560
But playing him alongside with Vlaovic as they were doing in this game,

613
01:06:38,560 --> 01:06:48,240
it didn't really work that well. I'm a bit sad to say because I like him.

614
01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:51,280
He's complete. He's a whiney little bitch as well.

615
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:58,160
But I like his football. I like what he does with the ball and spit.

616
01:06:58,160 --> 01:07:09,200
Right? In this game, was it towards midway in the second half? Was it around the 17th minute?

617
01:07:09,200 --> 01:07:15,200
I can remember. There was an open, because Inona was left open. Vlaovic had the ball in the center.

618
01:07:15,200 --> 01:07:21,840
He played QIESA through. QIESA, he could not, like, QIESA and the Euros would have out front

619
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:29,120
the entire Fusenon team. Instead, he had to slow down. He just didn't look like himself at all.

620
01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:40,480
So, yeah, he's not the same. I agree. But I also agree with what you said. They need to try him out

621
01:07:40,480 --> 01:07:45,840
a little bit. And they need to figure out who the court for next year is. If they're going to play

622
01:07:45,840 --> 01:07:52,880
like this next season as well, get rid of him. There's no point to have a player of that quality

623
01:07:52,880 --> 01:08:04,160
on that salary doing what any other player could do. A bit harshly. But the way he plays now,

624
01:08:04,160 --> 01:08:08,640
he doesn't stand out at all. But the salary he receives does stand out.

625
01:08:08,640 --> 01:08:16,000
Absolutely. That's exactly it. Perfectly put, man. That's it. Well, there are expectations

626
01:08:16,000 --> 01:08:20,160
that come with a high salary. And he's not quite living up to them at the moment. You see him,

627
01:08:20,960 --> 01:08:28,160
his work ethic is never under investigation. He's never... You can't question him as a professional,

628
01:08:28,160 --> 01:08:34,320
man. What you can question is how these injuries have affected him if he's ever really 100% fit.

629
01:08:34,320 --> 01:08:40,160
Because that's the question with Kierza. Is he ever fit nowadays? Is he playing at 70% constantly?

630
01:08:41,200 --> 01:08:46,560
Because as you said, in the Euros, he would blitz-poss defenders and absolutely destroy them.

631
01:08:46,560 --> 01:08:53,520
Here, we're seeing him slowing down and playing back something. Maybe it's preventative. I don't

632
01:08:53,520 --> 01:09:00,000
know. Maybe he was instructed to take it easier. Dr. Tworefensic. This is a leg ball.

633
01:09:00,000 --> 01:09:10,160
Exactly. But yeah, it's definitely a weird one with Kierza. Because the type of player he is,

634
01:09:10,160 --> 01:09:15,600
poor guy, I mean, you need to kind of be lucky enough with injuries to get longevity, man.

635
01:09:15,600 --> 01:09:22,240
Because you fit it out very quickly. Imagine Theo Hernandez. Imagine Theo Hernandez had the streak

636
01:09:22,240 --> 01:09:28,560
of injuries Kierza had. He would totally change as a player. He would go back to being a CBN,

637
01:09:28,560 --> 01:09:33,840
he would totally dominate. Regardless, Theo dominates. That's it. And guess who I have at the back

638
01:09:33,840 --> 01:09:39,920
of this, by the way, bro? Yeah, you haven't commented on it. It's a beautiful fit. It's lovely,

639
01:09:39,920 --> 01:09:50,640
isn't it? Yeah, I feel like an Arab prince. Obviously, somebody listening and only Spotify

640
01:09:50,640 --> 01:09:55,440
won't know, but you're wearing the, is it the special edition kit that's called from

641
01:09:55,440 --> 01:10:01,440
here? Yeah, this is, I believe this is the new Awake kit, no? Or am I mistaken? Is it the fourth

642
01:10:01,440 --> 01:10:06,320
kit? I'm not sure it's one of them. It might be the fourth one. Yeah, I mean, it's probably the fourth

643
01:10:06,320 --> 01:10:11,840
one. I'm just mixing it up because it's white. But yeah, it's one of the new special kits. If you

644
01:10:11,840 --> 01:10:16,640
tune into YouTube, you might be able to see it. I say might because I can't promise you that I'm

645
01:10:16,640 --> 01:10:21,280
going to manage to put this stuff together. I'll try my best. We are recording this. I'm sure.

646
01:10:21,280 --> 01:10:27,680
I'm sure you can head over to YouTube to see our beautiful faces. Is that a scarf or is that your

647
01:10:27,680 --> 01:10:37,120
chair, by the way, with the Milan logo? It's a scarf. Yeah, I don't actually have this out, usually.

648
01:10:38,000 --> 01:10:45,200
I tried to decorate it for the podcast. I love it. My Sapanara shirt on display is the...

649
01:10:45,200 --> 01:10:53,360
There we go. Your favorite shirt. Of course, of course. That's a sweet kit.

650
01:10:53,360 --> 01:11:00,240
And what's not visible right now in the video is that it has the Dumo lines.

651
01:11:02,720 --> 01:11:07,040
So if anybody has been in Milan on the city, you will recognize the Dumo in there.

652
01:11:07,040 --> 01:11:15,040
And you're wearing your Mexico kit, aren't you? Yes, my Mexico kit. Do you have a name at the back?

653
01:11:15,920 --> 01:11:23,840
Nope. It's currently nameless. I was hoping that something humanist maybe would sign for Milan

654
01:11:23,840 --> 01:11:30,880
one day and then I could get his name. But for now, it's nameless. Fair enough. Fair enough, bro.

655
01:11:30,880 --> 01:11:38,000
So, name this. To be honest, it's kind of cool to, you know, aesthetically. So let's get back to it.

656
01:11:38,000 --> 01:11:45,600
Juve are currently in second with 57 points, while Frost and Ona are down in 16th with 23 points.

657
01:11:45,600 --> 01:11:50,800
And we can move on to the Milan game, bro. It's Milan 1, Atalanta 1.

658
01:11:53,360 --> 01:11:59,680
I mean, it would be nice to skip it. And I'm sure you're going to have a lot to say about this one,

659
01:11:59,680 --> 01:12:04,240
because you couldn't believe your eyes with the penalty, right? No, I couldn't.

660
01:12:06,080 --> 01:12:18,080
Oh, I'm still angry. The thing that's the most annoying thing about that penalty,

661
01:12:18,080 --> 01:12:20,880
I'm not even going to go to lineups. I'm going to jump straight into it. Okay.

662
01:12:20,880 --> 01:12:29,920
Dude, Atalanta were awarded the penalty for what was it? A high boot by Jirou on Emil Holm.

663
01:12:30,560 --> 01:12:37,440
Holm went down holding his face. He was nowhere near his face, right? So if anything, the contact

664
01:12:37,440 --> 01:12:43,520
was made with his chest and he played the ball and it was the slightest contact imaginable, right?

665
01:12:43,520 --> 01:12:51,280
Now, Orozato, the infamous Orozato, the same Orozato who Modric called the disaster of a referee,

666
01:12:51,280 --> 01:12:55,600
ran up to the monitor. As he was running up to the monitor, purely approached him,

667
01:12:55,600 --> 01:12:59,920
said something to him. I'm not quite sure what purely said to him, of course, but he was booked

668
01:12:59,920 --> 01:13:06,560
immediately. Orozato is a disciplinarian. He's a teacher. He was a fucking yellow card immediately.

669
01:13:06,560 --> 01:13:12,240
He goes to the monitor and it's almost like he did it out of spite because purely spoke to him.

670
01:13:12,240 --> 01:13:18,800
So it was almost like a punishment. That's what it says. He saw one angle that wasn't clear at all.

671
01:13:18,800 --> 01:13:25,920
We saw what Orozato was seeing. One angle, one time. One angle, one time, turns around, whistles,

672
01:13:25,920 --> 01:13:31,920
penalty awarded. What are you doing? And then this is a proud referee, Orozato. Orozato is the type

673
01:13:31,920 --> 01:13:38,080
of referee who doesn't like to be proven wrong. He's the type of referee who would challenge bar

674
01:13:38,080 --> 01:13:43,520
usually. So I don't know what the hell this was all about, man. That penalty was fucking bogus to me.

675
01:13:44,160 --> 01:13:50,880
Bogus. Totally bullshit. Everybody who's seen it has said this bullshit. Every pundit I've listened

676
01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:56,800
to has said it's bullshit. The commentary on the Norwegian TV that I was watching said it's

677
01:13:56,800 --> 01:14:05,040
bullshit. I was rewatching the highlight for this recording. They said it's bullshit. The English

678
01:14:05,040 --> 01:14:12,240
commentary, it's not a penalty. It's never a penalty. I want to say one thing about Orozato.

679
01:14:12,800 --> 01:14:18,640
Honestly, I don't want to talk about the penalty too much because it angers me.

680
01:14:21,440 --> 01:14:30,240
It's never a penalty. The whole mist coming from behind on Jiru. Jiru lifts his coat. He pulls it

681
01:14:30,240 --> 01:14:38,480
back as soon as he sees that a collision is happening. The touch is so minimal. I almost doubted

682
01:14:38,480 --> 01:14:47,440
Emil Holm even stuffed it. He holds his face. The entire thing is a charade. Orozato goes and gives

683
01:14:47,440 --> 01:14:56,000
a yellow because he's a big man. Let's assume he only said something. The penalty is bullshit.

684
01:14:56,000 --> 01:15:03,600
What I almost frustrated me equally much was the yellow on Rafael Alayá at the end of first half.

685
01:15:05,120 --> 01:15:14,640
He gets butchered out there. He stands up and says, what the fuck, Ref? Something you see

686
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:21,280
players do 10 times per half of the game. It's how Barella plays football. Barella does that

687
01:15:21,280 --> 01:15:28,000
all game. Precisely. Within a split second Orozato is lifting the yellow card.

688
01:15:29,680 --> 01:15:39,680
Second half, Lukman enters for Atalanta. He does something similar. Lukman is a bit more,

689
01:15:40,480 --> 01:15:46,560
his body language is a bit more aggressive. He does this thing with his arm. His pistol.

690
01:15:46,560 --> 01:15:54,400
He gets off. He's instantly yellow to Lukman. I disagree with that one too as well. What bothers

691
01:15:54,400 --> 01:16:00,080
me and this is the big thing after Lukman gets his first yellow. He gets fouled three or four

692
01:16:00,080 --> 01:16:05,040
times more that game. He does the same thing. He gets pissed off every time. He does the same

693
01:16:05,040 --> 01:16:11,680
movement. What the fuck, Ref? What is this? No, no, no, no. He got the yellow first time he did that.

694
01:16:11,680 --> 01:16:16,240
He didn't get the yellow the next three times. He did that same thing.

695
01:16:18,400 --> 01:16:24,160
Where's the consistency? I don't want Lukman to get double yellow for that. I think it would be

696
01:16:24,160 --> 01:16:33,920
wrong. But if you're going to set a standard, follow it. Thank you. Absolutely. I totally agree with

697
01:16:33,920 --> 01:16:37,920
you. There was also one moment. I think it was Lukman and Theo Hernandez. Was it Lukman? They

698
01:16:37,920 --> 01:16:45,280
were just shushing each other. It was a funny little moment. I couldn't believe how long they

699
01:16:45,280 --> 01:16:51,440
were doing it for. They were still going at it like. But yeah, that's the thing when it comes to

700
01:16:51,440 --> 01:16:56,640
these yellow cards. If someone protests, you can easily hand out the yellow card. But what happens

701
01:16:56,640 --> 01:17:00,320
when they're on a yellow and they do it, then it feels harsh. So it doesn't really warrant the yellow

702
01:17:00,320 --> 01:17:06,960
card from the get go. Absolutely. I agree with you totally. I think in a heated affair, this is

703
01:17:06,960 --> 01:17:12,160
competitive sports at the highest level. I think a little bit of dissent can be excused, a little

704
01:17:12,160 --> 01:17:17,920
bit of protest to the referee. Or is that so the type to be like, only the captain can talk to me.

705
01:17:17,920 --> 01:17:23,120
If you talk to me and you're not the captain, you're getting a yellow card. Which is kind of an old

706
01:17:23,120 --> 01:17:28,720
school approach. It's ridiculous. I want to say one more thing though. I think

707
01:17:28,720 --> 01:17:38,800
I think this is something that we brought again. He played a great game. He fouled Laos.

708
01:17:38,800 --> 01:17:42,960
Him fouling Laos. Nobody else. Just now, at least five times.

709
01:17:45,840 --> 01:17:52,640
Like that was the part of the plan. The plan is much game for Svalvini. If Laos is about to pass

710
01:17:52,640 --> 01:17:59,920
you, you foul him. He did it five times minimum. I didn't count but minimum five times. How does

711
01:17:59,920 --> 01:18:07,120
that not accumulate to a yellow? But Leal and Lukman getting upset because they got butchered

712
01:18:07,120 --> 01:18:13,200
out there is an instant yellow. It's like you're more concerned about your ego than protecting

713
01:18:13,200 --> 01:18:18,800
the player you're supposed to protect. You're more concerned about your ego than doing the job

714
01:18:18,800 --> 01:18:24,640
you're supposed to do. That's what people don't seem to realise when they...

715
01:18:28,160 --> 01:18:33,600
People don't seem to realise the importance of a referee actually handing out yellow cards in

716
01:18:33,600 --> 01:18:39,600
situations like that. Because as you said, these players need to be protected. The likes of Leal,

717
01:18:39,600 --> 01:18:43,840
you know, Leal was getting killed out there. At one point I was pretty sure that Milan were

718
01:18:43,840 --> 01:18:48,720
forcing play down the right hand side, down the police side. Probably because of that reason.

719
01:18:48,720 --> 01:18:54,160
Leal was getting butchered and nothing was happening. It was one foul, two fouls, three fouls,

720
01:18:54,160 --> 01:19:03,040
no cards. No cards at all. It's the referee's responsibility to sub this because it's on

721
01:19:03,040 --> 01:19:07,760
sportsman-like behaviour. More than speaking back to the referee or protesting the decision of a

722
01:19:07,760 --> 01:19:14,880
referee. Yeah, I mean, priorities yourself. You're an experienced manager nowadays.

723
01:19:22,960 --> 01:19:28,640
You know what I mean. I'm trying to not go into this dark deep home and ruin your podcast.

724
01:19:28,640 --> 01:19:38,960
But let's go to the positives. Jaceen Alve, this game was amazing. He was fantastic.

725
01:19:38,960 --> 01:19:46,480
He was fantastic. He had this cool thing about calm with the ball. He doesn't get stressed.

726
01:19:46,480 --> 01:19:52,320
If the player is stressed, he doesn't get stressed. If the passing option isn't there,

727
01:19:52,320 --> 01:19:56,400
he's going to keep the ball another two or three seconds to find the correct pass,

728
01:19:56,400 --> 01:20:02,640
to find the correct option and he's going to play it. In this game, it worked against Monsa.

729
01:20:02,640 --> 01:20:08,240
It didn't work and when it doesn't work, it looks horrible. But again, Atalanta, it really worked

730
01:20:08,240 --> 01:20:15,040
and it was so pleasing to watch. I really enjoyed it. I was worried that it was going to be a

731
01:20:15,040 --> 01:20:18,960
downward spiral after the Monsa game to be honest because that was an abysmal performance. But

732
01:20:19,600 --> 01:20:24,640
the way he picked himself up and is commendable and he did play a very good game and he's so

733
01:20:24,640 --> 01:20:29,920
fun to watch. He's got the whole vintage vibe about him, the way he whips those balls over the top.

734
01:20:31,360 --> 01:20:34,880
You can't help but say it. No man, that's Andrea Pillo.

735
01:20:38,080 --> 01:20:42,560
It's the same exact same thing that Pillo didn't get stressed because the player was

736
01:20:42,560 --> 01:20:48,880
pressing him. He kept calm. He was waiting for the correct opening to the correct time to play

737
01:20:48,880 --> 01:20:59,680
the pass. Atalanta has that same thing. There's one thing that Pillo definitely had that Atalanta

738
01:20:59,680 --> 01:21:06,240
doesn't and is that Pillo was aware of every other teammate before he received the ball.

739
01:21:06,960 --> 01:21:11,760
I feel that Atalanta has a little bit of he received the ball and then he looks around.

740
01:21:11,760 --> 01:21:22,560
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Pillo was one of a kind, generational. He was the best in that role.

741
01:21:22,560 --> 01:21:28,640
You know, when you think deep-lying playmaker, it's Pillo. Pillo is the prototype. He's the

742
01:21:29,280 --> 01:21:36,880
example. So of course, yes, Adley is a long way to go before he reaches Pillo's level, of course.

743
01:21:36,880 --> 01:21:41,120
But yeah, yeah, yeah. Very promising signs for Adley. This is the first season where he's actually

744
01:21:41,120 --> 01:21:46,480
playing first team football for Milan regularly. So I'm very impressed. I thought he was going to

745
01:21:46,480 --> 01:21:52,720
be forced out. I'm so proud of him and I'm so happy that he managed to essentially force his way

746
01:21:52,720 --> 01:21:59,440
into Pillo's system. Because that's what he did. Yeah. He started out as a 10, right?

747
01:22:00,160 --> 01:22:09,360
Exactly. As a 10. Absolutely. We haven't even talked about Lea O's goal, by the way,

748
01:22:09,360 --> 01:22:14,800
which was absolutely incredible. Just three minutes into the game. He's played the ball by Theo Hernandez.

749
01:22:14,800 --> 01:22:20,960
He does Lea O things. He absolutely destroys it. That's 14-12. And the attack that started with Adley

750
01:22:20,960 --> 01:22:26,240
is what you play from right to left. Exactly. Very important detail there. It's on top of

751
01:22:27,440 --> 01:22:32,800
and Lea O just absolutely does his man. Takes a slight touch of his knee. Slightly lucky that it

752
01:22:32,800 --> 01:22:36,960
fell right in front of him. But of course, it feels like when you see Lea O enter his stride,

753
01:22:36,960 --> 01:22:41,280
Lea O's like everything is in control. And then the finish man.

754
01:22:42,720 --> 01:22:51,600
Yeah. Look, I saw it when I saw it on TV watching the game. I thought that the ball was bouncing.

755
01:22:51,600 --> 01:22:56,080
So I was a little bit like, oh, lucky now that the ball was bouncing so you can hit it from

756
01:22:58,080 --> 01:23:03,840
under on a good angle. But then I saw the replay and the ball was actually rolling around the

757
01:23:03,840 --> 01:23:10,720
grass. It wasn't bouncing anymore. The bounce was already passing. So it's such a perfect strike.

758
01:23:10,720 --> 01:23:18,320
It's insane. And yeah, you can say he was lucky in a sense that he was able to move the ball

759
01:23:18,320 --> 01:23:25,920
forward with Lea. But then again, the ball bounced up and he improvised in that second.

760
01:23:25,920 --> 01:23:34,240
I'm going to drag it further with me with my knee and bow. What a goal man.

761
01:23:34,240 --> 01:23:39,120
Incredible goal, honestly. And how important was that for him? You could see how much it meant

762
01:23:39,120 --> 01:23:45,920
to him. And the signs of it. Keep fucking talking. Serious but like.

763
01:23:48,640 --> 01:23:50,320
You were not bashing in, were you?

764
01:23:50,320 --> 01:23:58,480
Oh, no, no, no. Well, we do criticize him sometimes as in we criticize when he doesn't

765
01:23:58,480 --> 01:24:03,520
play to his strengths, for example, we criticize when he's attempting long range shots because

766
01:24:03,520 --> 01:24:10,480
Ledzberiel, he hasn't scored a long range shot. He has a set of skills layout that

767
01:24:11,360 --> 01:24:17,040
he stopped here at when it comes to beating his man in one of the one situations out wide,

768
01:24:17,040 --> 01:24:21,840
when it comes to driving to the byline, when it comes to cutting back, when it comes to cutting

769
01:24:21,840 --> 01:24:26,800
inside and shooting his top, but you're not going to get the ball drive, try to cut inside down

770
01:24:26,800 --> 01:24:32,160
the middle and have a crack from outside the box. That's not what you do. That's not what you're

771
01:24:32,160 --> 01:24:37,680
known for. That's not your strength. That's literally wasting everyone's time. And that's

772
01:24:37,680 --> 01:24:42,400
my only criticism for Lea. I don't even mind that he walks because he lures the people around him

773
01:24:42,400 --> 01:24:47,840
into a false sense of security. Second time I've mentioned that. And then he bursts, you know,

774
01:24:47,840 --> 01:24:51,920
he bursts all that walking. I think it's part of a tactic. It's part of a game plan to get the

775
01:24:51,920 --> 01:24:56,160
defenders to walk. And then he has that burst of pace that no one around him seems to have.

776
01:24:56,800 --> 01:25:02,560
I like it. Look, what's the best football player he tends to walk a lot as well? It doesn't mean anything.

777
01:25:03,200 --> 01:25:04,800
Exactly. Walk and scan, baby.

778
01:25:04,800 --> 01:25:11,680
Coop Miner is his penalty. He went down the middle. Manjan dove out of the way.

779
01:25:12,800 --> 01:25:18,080
One thing I do want to say about Coop Miner is that he's, as we mentioned, he's one of the

780
01:25:18,720 --> 01:25:25,280
genius Atalanta players. And he, this is what I said on the group chat after his penalty.

781
01:25:25,280 --> 01:25:31,200
How clever is Coop Miner's man? He knew that Manjan, he must have known that Manjan is a goalkeeper

782
01:25:31,200 --> 01:25:35,920
on the fire at the moment. He's been criticized for not saving penalties, been criticized for not

783
01:25:35,920 --> 01:25:42,480
even tracking his penalties. So Manjan with all this criticism over him, he has the whole world

784
01:25:42,480 --> 01:25:47,280
watching. We know what type of goalkeeper Manjan is. We know what type of person to a certain

785
01:25:47,280 --> 01:25:53,440
extent Manjan is. He would want to save that and he would want to save it extraordinary,

786
01:25:53,440 --> 01:26:00,320
extraordinarily. The last thing Manjan would want to do is be, is not dive while a penalty is taken

787
01:26:00,320 --> 01:26:04,160
top corner. You know, while he's caught flat within the middle. That's only going to call for more

788
01:26:04,160 --> 01:26:09,760
criticism. Coop Miner steps up and he blasts it right down the middle. Obviously Manjan's going

789
01:26:09,760 --> 01:26:13,200
to dive out of the way. How clever is that man? How clever was that penalty?

790
01:26:13,200 --> 01:26:21,200
Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you say, he's, he's one of those genius Atalanta players. Currently he's

791
01:26:21,200 --> 01:26:29,040
playing this offensive position. He's intelligent. I'm sure you could plug him in a lot of positions

792
01:26:29,040 --> 01:26:35,120
in the field and he would still be amazing. But yeah, as you say that, that penalty kick he

793
01:26:35,120 --> 01:26:40,560
had it so get out. He knew what he was going to do before he put the ball down on the penalty

794
01:26:40,560 --> 01:26:46,800
mark. It was all calm and cool and controlled and he didn't look stressed for a one second.

795
01:26:47,840 --> 01:26:55,200
Yeah, yeah, absolutely man. Imagine a universe bro where Jim City scored that back heel attempt,

796
01:26:55,200 --> 01:27:01,680
by the way. You know the one on that corner, he bloody, that was crazy if that went in. Thankfully,

797
01:27:01,680 --> 01:27:05,920
thankfully we're not talking about that. By the way, total disaster, forgot the goal of the week.

798
01:27:05,920 --> 01:27:10,640
Didn't even talk about it, didn't even address it. Totally forgot the goal of the week.

799
01:27:14,320 --> 01:27:17,360
Goals two. Who was our goal of the week anyway, right?

800
01:27:17,360 --> 01:27:26,880
Paulo de Bala. Paulo de Bala, yes, yes, for a fantastic goal. A fantastic curler from miles out.

801
01:27:30,080 --> 01:27:35,360
He might a little bit, but probably not. I mean, he's probably grateful that the episode happened

802
01:27:35,920 --> 01:27:42,240
anyway without him. Yeah, this would have been a disaster if it weren't for you, Alan. You've

803
01:27:42,240 --> 01:27:46,880
heard the episodes that I had to do alone and they were never fun. It's always like I make a

804
01:27:46,880 --> 01:27:51,040
point or I blab on and then I stop and it's almost like I'm waiting for someone to react.

805
01:27:52,560 --> 01:27:57,520
Then I just have to pick up from where I left off. It's very difficult. One on podcasts are totally

806
01:27:57,520 --> 01:28:08,080
difficult. Yeah, one thing I do want to say is that I have been so impressed by Pulisic.

807
01:28:08,800 --> 01:28:15,520
So, so, so impressed by Pulisic. He's a leader. He's tidy. He's so tidy in his play,

808
01:28:15,520 --> 01:28:21,280
so tidy when it comes to his first touch, the way he controls the ball, the way he can either

809
01:28:21,280 --> 01:28:26,640
cut inside or go towards the byline. I think he's a very, very good football player and he's finally

810
01:28:26,640 --> 01:28:31,120
found some continuity. He's not struggling too much within the injuries and I'm going to touch wood

811
01:28:31,120 --> 01:28:39,280
over there. Pulisic so far has been so impressive to me, so impressive, even when he's not scoring.

812
01:28:39,280 --> 01:28:44,640
A very impressive player. Anyway, I don't know if there are any other takeaways you have from

813
01:28:44,640 --> 01:28:56,720
the game, Alan? Besides Pulisic, I'm sure the H is the official pronunciation, right? And he

814
01:28:56,720 --> 01:29:04,400
bastardized it? Well, yeah, he said that he himself pronounces it American way, some kind of a thing,

815
01:29:04,400 --> 01:29:15,600
even if it goes all against all my natural instinct. Pulisic, yeah, he's great. He's really stepped up,

816
01:29:15,600 --> 01:29:23,840
stepped up and as you say, he's taking this leader role. Other notes I've written down about this game.

817
01:29:24,960 --> 01:29:31,680
It's a bit about Atalanta's game plan because it was very evident that they didn't want to allow

818
01:29:31,680 --> 01:29:40,400
any space to run into, so they were defending very, very low, but they also wanted to do the high

819
01:29:40,400 --> 01:29:47,920
press at the same time, which resulted in this weird dynamic where there was this wide open area

820
01:29:47,920 --> 01:29:52,000
in the center of the pitch that both teams kind of left open because Milan also does the same

821
01:29:52,000 --> 01:29:57,440
thing, right? They press high with their strikers as high as possible. They want to press the defending

822
01:29:57,440 --> 01:30:04,320
line and they try to build up from the back with the defender, so there was left this huge gap in

823
01:30:04,320 --> 01:30:11,520
the center of the pitch, which I think worked to Milan's advantage, especially in the first half,

824
01:30:11,520 --> 01:30:23,440
until Atalanta got that penalty. You could see Milan playing the ball to Adli, I think Adli looked

825
01:30:23,440 --> 01:30:29,920
better because of that tactic. Adli had the space and time to look around and pick out the pass,

826
01:30:31,760 --> 01:30:40,000
but it was a very unique and weird, unopening way to play football, where both teams had a lot of

827
01:30:40,000 --> 01:30:46,160
players in each end of the pitch and the middle was kind of left wide open. Absolutely, and that

828
01:30:46,160 --> 01:30:55,120
resulted in Milan having pretty much 70% ball possession, 68% to be totally accurate. Statistically,

829
01:30:55,120 --> 01:31:00,000
Milan totally outperformed Atalanta, but Atalanta, as we said, have transitioned into this more

830
01:31:00,000 --> 01:31:08,160
pragmatic, street smart side, and they can really take, they can get a team like Milan who wants to

831
01:31:08,160 --> 01:31:12,240
play possession-based football and be like, listen, you can have the ball all you want, we're going

832
01:31:12,240 --> 01:31:18,080
to get what we came for, and we just don't want to lose over here. I'm surprised to be honest

833
01:31:18,080 --> 01:31:22,160
that Atalanta didn't push for more, because I think they might have been able to manage,

834
01:31:22,160 --> 01:31:25,920
they exercised their typical play style, I think they could have been able to get more out of the

835
01:31:25,920 --> 01:31:30,960
game, but perhaps they would have come at a risk. Maybe Gasperini was happy with the point against

836
01:31:30,960 --> 01:31:37,360
the Rossoneri. Yeah, I had that feeling that they were maybe happy with the point, and it may be tough,

837
01:31:37,360 --> 01:31:42,720
like, okay, we're playing Milan away, we're going to play Inter away like three days in between,

838
01:31:42,720 --> 01:31:50,080
or whatever it was. Let's just get past this, and we're going to get the points against the other

839
01:31:50,080 --> 01:31:59,680
teams, which I'm sure they will. So yeah, and the game against Inter, just since I mentioned it,

840
01:31:59,680 --> 01:32:06,960
you could tell like they started off quite good in the Fournier loss, but once things went sideways,

841
01:32:06,960 --> 01:32:13,280
they kind of took that put us to bed and said like, well, we'll take the next game. So I think in this

842
01:32:13,280 --> 01:32:18,800
Milan game as well, they were a bit of the same attitude, we don't want to lose, but we're not

843
01:32:18,800 --> 01:32:24,720
going to risk too much on winning. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I tend to agree with you totally over there.

844
01:32:26,320 --> 01:32:31,280
Prez must be given to Karnasekki, who had a solid game, unlike his game against Inter, to be honest.

845
01:32:31,280 --> 01:32:37,680
I like the way that he commands his box, he's very protective of the area, he comes out very well,

846
01:32:37,680 --> 01:32:43,120
he collects the ball, he commands the area brilliantly, and I think that that really plays

847
01:32:44,960 --> 01:32:51,520
out of the hands of a player like Giroud, who thrives in space and that gap between the goalkeeper

848
01:32:51,520 --> 01:32:55,360
and himself, that's a space where he attacks, and the goalkeeper is rushing out, he just makes it

849
01:32:55,360 --> 01:33:02,320
even harder and harder for Olivier to do what he does best. So yeah, shout out Karnasekki,

850
01:33:02,320 --> 01:33:05,360
very good goalkeeper, been following you for a while, well done.

851
01:33:08,480 --> 01:33:16,240
But yeah, Milan are currently in third on that island where they're quite safe in that top four spot,

852
01:33:16,240 --> 01:33:20,560
but they can't really push for the league. Purely said that the league's pretty much done,

853
01:33:20,560 --> 01:33:27,360
he pretty much congratulated Inter who are on another level this season, and you know, why not, yes,

854
01:33:28,560 --> 01:33:30,960
they're all thinking it, so he might as well say it himself.

855
01:33:32,080 --> 01:33:38,080
Right now I wonder what Milan's objective is right now this season, surely it's to go all the way

856
01:33:38,080 --> 01:33:41,200
in the Europa League, I think the Europa League must be a priority right now for Milan.

857
01:33:41,760 --> 01:33:47,920
Yeah, there's nothing else, so it's no better. They have to push all the way,

858
01:33:47,920 --> 01:33:56,400
there are not many other teams up to their level, anything but Europa League final for Milan

859
01:33:56,400 --> 01:34:02,880
now would be a disadvantage. I agree with you man. The next game we can talk about is Bologna,

860
01:34:02,880 --> 01:34:07,680
Bologna Verona. It's weird that we're talking about so early on, you know, despite being one hour

861
01:34:07,680 --> 01:34:14,160
and 34 minutes in by the way, but Bologna are in fourth place man nowadays with 48 points,

862
01:34:14,160 --> 01:34:19,840
and they're really cementing that despite their little dip a few match days ago,

863
01:34:19,840 --> 01:34:23,120
they had a slight dip where they weren't quite as...

864
01:34:23,120 --> 01:34:24,320
Microscopic.

865
01:34:25,520 --> 01:34:25,840
Pardon?

866
01:34:26,480 --> 01:34:28,320
Microscopic dip, sorry to interrupt.

867
01:34:28,320 --> 01:34:34,160
Exactly, no absolutely, it was a microscopic dip, and I thought to be honest it would spiral

868
01:34:34,160 --> 01:34:40,960
out of hand, but they bounced back very quickly and they've won their post-5 games in a row,

869
01:34:40,960 --> 01:34:47,120
to be honest with you. Yeah, and this game saw Giovanni Fabian's fourth goal of the campaign,

870
01:34:47,120 --> 01:34:57,120
he converted Avoli from Orsolini's set up. The match was actually disrupted when Rosario Abisso,

871
01:34:57,120 --> 01:35:02,560
the referee, was replaced by Giacomo Campione after three minutes he pulled up injured,

872
01:35:02,560 --> 01:35:08,480
the referee was injured three minutes into the game. That's quite uncommon and you know,

873
01:35:08,480 --> 01:35:14,240
I can't help but find that a little bit amusing.

874
01:35:14,240 --> 01:35:17,760
Yeah, it's so fun, I don't know why, like it's...

875
01:35:17,760 --> 01:35:20,720
He can get injured, he's just like the others running out there,

876
01:35:20,720 --> 01:35:23,920
it's always so funny when a referee gets injured.

877
01:35:23,920 --> 01:35:29,440
Remov Pruyler scored the second goal by volleying high into the net from Fabian's cross,

878
01:35:29,440 --> 01:35:35,760
so Fabian went from goal scorer to goal provider, and this was actually Pruyler's first goal in

879
01:35:35,760 --> 01:35:41,040
Serie A since returning after departing from Atalanta, and his first goal for Bologna.

880
01:35:41,040 --> 01:35:48,160
Yeah, so good to see him back on the score sheet despite that not really being his game at all.

881
01:35:48,160 --> 01:35:54,480
But yeah, Bologna continue to prove that they are a side not to be taken lightly,

882
01:35:54,480 --> 01:35:58,080
because this Verona team have given the likes of Juventus problems recently.

883
01:35:58,080 --> 01:36:05,760
Yeah, I actually just now realized that when I was talking about Napoli earlier,

884
01:36:05,760 --> 01:36:10,160
I said that they drew Verona, obviously I meant that Napoli drew Paglia.

885
01:36:15,200 --> 01:36:22,480
No, Bologna totally dominated this game. We saw the Bologna that we've seen all this season,

886
01:36:22,480 --> 01:36:28,240
and I don't know what to say about them anymore, they just played really good football,

887
01:36:28,240 --> 01:36:35,440
and you can see now, as you said, more avenues for scoring goals, more pairs of scoring goals,

888
01:36:35,440 --> 01:36:43,520
it's not just a zero-to-one show. Has the Diago Molta coach of the season probably?

889
01:36:44,800 --> 01:36:49,040
Absolutely. Yeah, for sure, for sure coach of the season of course,

890
01:36:49,040 --> 01:36:57,040
of you. I think that the word might have to go to Zaghi, just by the way, how dominant

891
01:36:57,040 --> 01:37:02,800
in there have been. But yeah man, Motta has definitely done God's work with this Bologna side,

892
01:37:02,800 --> 01:37:08,160
and when you look at the quality of the team in comparison to where they stand in the table,

893
01:37:08,160 --> 01:37:15,760
it's definitely about Motta, who's over-achieving over here. The most exciting manager in the league.

894
01:37:15,760 --> 01:37:24,640
Yes, definitely. And yeah, they are ticking on all fronts. Zergsi has been a revelation,

895
01:37:24,640 --> 01:37:31,440
but so have the players around him, and Fabian, his goal-scoring prowess and his instinct always

896
01:37:31,440 --> 01:37:37,040
impressed me. I'm always surprised by how this guy manages to insert himself and to put himself

897
01:37:37,040 --> 01:37:44,400
at the end of these chances. He looks so young as well, you know, he's just so crazy seeing him

898
01:37:44,400 --> 01:37:54,160
being so productive with that baby face, you know. Yeah, tell me, tell me. I looked through this match,

899
01:37:54,160 --> 01:38:01,120
I looked through this pass, I looked through the preparation for this. I saw the match on my phone

900
01:38:01,120 --> 01:38:07,440
on Friday because I saw like 10 minutes there, I was interrupted 10 minutes there.

901
01:38:07,440 --> 01:38:13,600
But looking through the highlights and looking through the stats,

902
01:38:14,160 --> 01:38:20,880
Verona had absolutely nothing to show for him. There was one mistake by Skorupski that they almost,

903
01:38:20,880 --> 01:38:26,400
and there was this one random counter-attack. Otherwise, it just belonged all the way.

904
01:38:27,280 --> 01:38:34,960
That Skorupski mistake was actually pretty well handled by Soslov, who went for a first-time

905
01:38:34,960 --> 01:38:40,320
chip and managed to get it on target, sorry, and it was cleared off the line. I'm pretty

906
01:38:40,320 --> 01:38:44,160
impressed by Soslov, had that gone, and I think that might have been the goal of the week.

907
01:38:45,040 --> 01:38:52,640
Another player who has risen this long aside. Yeah, for Verona, surely. You mean?

908
01:38:53,280 --> 01:38:59,120
Oh, sorry, yeah. And I think Soslov has been the main guy for Helas Verona, actually. He's been the

909
01:38:59,120 --> 01:39:04,160
constant all season. If you look at, okay, Zürich started the season very well, but he

910
01:39:04,160 --> 01:39:13,280
fucked off halfway through. He got out of that trainwreck of a team. It's pretty catastrophic

911
01:39:13,280 --> 01:39:18,000
what's going on at Helas Verona. And when it comes to the teams that I want relegated, man,

912
01:39:18,000 --> 01:39:22,240
I look at the likes of Saller and Netan. I don't want Saller and Netan at one, man. I think that

913
01:39:22,240 --> 01:39:26,960
Saller and Netan have actually a pretty interesting project with a nice sporting director. Granted,

914
01:39:26,960 --> 01:39:32,000
the sporting director wasn't there from the get-go. I like the fans. I like the club. I like what

915
01:39:32,000 --> 01:39:36,320
they are. I don't want to see them going. Then you have the likes of Helas Verona and Udineza,

916
01:39:36,320 --> 01:39:43,200
who have just been fucking free-falling. Season after season, they just get worse and worse and

917
01:39:43,200 --> 01:39:47,680
worse. Kind of like what Genoa were doing up until their relegation and their revitalization.

918
01:39:48,320 --> 01:39:56,880
But yeah, it's a shame that Udineza will probably survive. And let's hope that Verona

919
01:39:56,880 --> 01:40:02,160
get the punishment they deserve so that they can start from scratch and create a new blank slate.

920
01:40:02,160 --> 01:40:10,560
Yeah, I totally agree with you. For Saller and Netan, just the fans want me to have them up there.

921
01:40:11,280 --> 01:40:16,240
That's all. Everything else, I don't care that much about. We haven't come to this Saller and

922
01:40:16,240 --> 01:40:20,640
Netan game, so I'm going to try to keep it short. But the other fans are amazing.

923
01:40:20,640 --> 01:40:28,560
Fair enough. Yes. Bologna with their impressive victory have cemented their position in fourth

924
01:40:28,560 --> 01:40:36,240
spot with 48 points, while Helas Verona are in 17th temporarily out of the relegation pool,

925
01:40:36,240 --> 01:40:44,080
tied on points with Saswolo with 20 points. Yes, bro. Skorupski, when it comes to Skorupski,

926
01:40:44,080 --> 01:40:53,360
by the way, this is a point I wanted to make that I totally forgot. He is a great goalkeeper,

927
01:40:54,640 --> 01:40:59,600
quite error-prone at times. He does have mistakes in him, and I think that's what's really stopping

928
01:40:59,600 --> 01:41:05,040
him from taking the next step. But I would love to see him play in Europe. I think that

929
01:41:05,040 --> 01:41:10,000
Skorupski is a player who very much deserves it. I mean, it was only last season that Matthew

930
01:41:10,000 --> 01:41:14,160
hailed him as the best goalkeeper in the league. We mocked him, we laughed at him,

931
01:41:15,440 --> 01:41:19,440
but he might have been on to something, you know, because when it comes to shot stopping,

932
01:41:19,440 --> 01:41:26,640
when it comes to full stretch saves and this clutch impressive acrobatic saves,

933
01:41:26,640 --> 01:41:33,280
he's probably one of the best. Yeah, definitely. He's doing the job, no doubt.

934
01:41:33,280 --> 01:41:41,200
Can I touch upon the Yurich comment about Zerze? Yes, please, please. Yes,

935
01:41:41,200 --> 01:41:46,160
he compared him to Zlatan, didn't he? Yes. What do you make of that trick?

936
01:41:47,280 --> 01:41:52,400
So, when someone's compared to Zlatan, I often think to myself, okay, why would someone be

937
01:41:52,400 --> 01:41:56,880
compared to Zlatan? If a player is compared to Zlatan, what do I expect from the player? So,

938
01:41:56,880 --> 01:42:05,120
first of all, I expect size, I expect physical superiority, I expect this player to be able to

939
01:42:05,120 --> 01:42:13,440
out muscle his defender pretty much quite easily, right, a titan of a striker. I also expect, I would

940
01:42:13,440 --> 01:42:20,640
expect this player to have fantastic technique like next level close ball control, able to turn,

941
01:42:20,640 --> 01:42:25,120
able to shoot, able to make something out of nothing. That was Zlatan and let's not forget

942
01:42:25,120 --> 01:42:30,160
Zlatan, some of the younger fans might not know how mobile Zlatan was when he was younger.

943
01:42:30,160 --> 01:42:35,760
He was incredible when it comes to his movement, man. He was like imagine Zerze but times 100,

944
01:42:35,760 --> 01:42:44,080
you know, and not to mention the lethality man. Zlatan was and until the end was a killer, you

945
01:42:44,080 --> 01:42:50,240
can't give him a second because he would punish you for it. Zerze, I understand the comparisons

946
01:42:50,240 --> 01:42:59,040
that have been drawn to Zlatan because he's thought he's quite strong. He's got good technique,

947
01:42:59,040 --> 01:43:02,720
very good technique and to be honest, it's the technique that's closest to Zlatan than anything

948
01:43:02,720 --> 01:43:07,600
else because when it comes to physical superiority, he's got a long way to go, I think, and when it

949
01:43:07,600 --> 01:43:12,720
comes to being clinical as a striker, he still has a lot to prove personally. That's my opinion.

950
01:43:12,720 --> 01:43:21,040
Yes, I do agree with you. I think it's fresh to say the least to compare to Zlatan.

951
01:43:22,320 --> 01:43:29,840
In Yurits defense, he said that he didn't say that, like he said that in certain movements,

952
01:43:29,840 --> 01:43:38,800
he was similar to Zlatan. But yeah, come on, bro, there are such different players. And once I,

953
01:43:38,800 --> 01:43:50,640
because I wrote this down as a Patreon question to you, and I googled just to ask myself,

954
01:43:50,640 --> 01:43:56,880
like how was Zlatan at age 22? And I googled like Zlatan in Iax. He was there for a few seasons.

955
01:43:57,600 --> 01:44:06,080
And Zlatan at that time, he already had that killer instinct. He was going to kill everybody

956
01:44:06,080 --> 01:44:12,000
that stood in his way. He was a mentality monster from day one. And that's not something you can

957
01:44:12,800 --> 01:44:20,800
teach or adapt during your career. Either you have it or you don't. Right? Zlatan has it. I

958
01:44:20,800 --> 01:44:29,200
would say that Zertse doesn't. Zertse is a great player by all means, but he doesn't. The mentality

959
01:44:29,200 --> 01:44:36,640
of Zlatan is such a big part of his game. The will to kill. That actually rhymes. It was not a

960
01:44:36,640 --> 01:44:44,720
question. Zlatan has the word to kill. Zertse is an elegant player. He does move the ball around in

961
01:44:44,720 --> 01:44:50,960
a similar sense. He drives it with his foot. He doesn't kick it. He drives it with him. His

962
01:44:50,960 --> 01:45:02,720
pulse, I get that part, but otherwise there's no really very different players. I totally agree

963
01:45:02,720 --> 01:45:11,600
with you, man. Zlatan had the upbringing of a mentality monster. Zlatan had a tough life,

964
01:45:11,600 --> 01:45:17,920
man, from the get go. He was a minority. He was racially profiled wherever he's been. He

965
01:45:17,920 --> 01:45:24,800
grew up in poverty, not poverty, not poverty per se, but his father was working class and had to try

966
01:45:24,800 --> 01:45:32,800
to provide for him. He openly admits that he used to steal bicycles and things like that.

967
01:45:34,480 --> 01:45:40,480
Modern day footballers that came up through a system would not really understand, I think,

968
01:45:40,480 --> 01:45:45,920
I think that these life lessons can play a big part on the pitch. And that's why, for example,

969
01:45:45,920 --> 01:45:51,440
South American football players would always have this edge when they have the talent. If you have

970
01:45:51,440 --> 01:45:58,800
an equally talented European player and an equally talented South American player who grew up in the

971
01:45:58,800 --> 01:46:02,800
streets, in the Favelas, in Brazil, they're going to have that edge. They're going to have,

972
01:46:02,800 --> 01:46:07,120
they just know more about life, man. That's it. Yeah, they have more of them there.

973
01:46:07,120 --> 01:46:15,520
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man. Bologna in fourth with 48 points, while Helas Verano are down in

974
01:46:15,520 --> 01:46:23,680
17th with 20 points. And that takes us to Roma against Torino. And this was a shootout, which

975
01:46:23,680 --> 01:46:30,080
ended with the score of 3-2. It was Debala who opened the scoring with a penalty before Duvan

976
01:46:30,080 --> 01:46:37,200
Zapata scored an expert header after being set up by the ever impressive Raul Bellanova. The

977
01:46:37,200 --> 01:46:42,400
second half started in the 57th minute. Debala got the second goal, which was absolutely outrageous

978
01:46:42,400 --> 01:46:46,880
of a strike. Outrageous goal, and that's our goal of the week. And Brian Cristante got the assist

979
01:46:46,880 --> 01:46:54,400
over there, but I'm sure he didn't expect that to happen. In the 69th minute, Debala, after some

980
01:46:54,400 --> 01:46:59,200
brilliant hold-up play from Lukaku, Lukaku had some amazing centre-forward play over there.

981
01:46:59,200 --> 01:47:03,520
I'm holding the ball up and playing him in behind. And then Debala had the tightest angle to finish

982
01:47:03,520 --> 01:47:07,360
from, and he still managed to squeeze it into the back of the net to complete the hat-trick.

983
01:47:08,560 --> 01:47:13,920
Huyssen would go on to score an own goal after coming on in the 89th minute, but that would be

984
01:47:13,920 --> 01:47:18,960
all for Torino, and Roma would get all three points. Bro, there are Cs Roma.

985
01:47:18,960 --> 01:47:29,520
Yeah, it's amazing. Look, the third goal from Debala is the one that, of course,

986
01:47:29,520 --> 01:47:35,920
the second goal is the most beautiful one, without the goal of the week. But from a manager point of

987
01:47:35,920 --> 01:47:42,480
view, that third goal was fantastic. You have two players who single-handedly passed through four

988
01:47:42,480 --> 01:47:49,120
defenders like it was nothing. It's a simple play and go, a play and run, or how do you say the name?

989
01:47:49,120 --> 01:47:55,920
Give and go. Give and go, right? Yeah. And the entire defence was open, the defence was open.

990
01:47:55,920 --> 01:48:01,760
Debala has the quality to put it from that angle. Vanya Milik, with Savitis, no joke,

991
01:48:01,760 --> 01:48:09,120
he's a really good goalkeeper. But Debala just has that snap, that's wild.

992
01:48:09,120 --> 01:48:15,520
He made them look a bit shit, and we know he's not shit, but he made them look a little bit

993
01:48:15,520 --> 01:48:21,600
shit the way he just kept putting it past them. Yeah, I think it's fair to say it wasn't his best

994
01:48:21,600 --> 01:48:31,200
thing. I think a player, a goalkeeper of Vanya's reach should have gotten quicker to the post on

995
01:48:31,200 --> 01:48:37,840
the second goal. I don't want to take anything away from Debala, but I think that he should have

996
01:48:37,840 --> 01:48:46,640
been able to reach it. Yeah, I do agree with you. However, man, the weight on the shot,

997
01:48:49,040 --> 01:48:56,240
it bounced at the back of the net. It kicked to it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah,

998
01:48:56,240 --> 01:49:01,760
safe to say Torino are missing Bon Jovano once again, yes. They had Maslina, Lovato and Gigi

999
01:49:01,760 --> 01:49:09,360
at the back who, they're deployable, not quite Bon Jovano though, let's be real,

1000
01:49:09,360 --> 01:49:15,360
Bon Jovano I think this season has been a revelation for Torino. I would expect that he's the next

1001
01:49:15,360 --> 01:49:20,240
defender to be snapped up in a similar way to the way Bremer was snapped up by Juventus.

1002
01:49:24,880 --> 01:49:30,800
Raul Bellanova, when it comes to this Torino side, for me, Duvan Zapata first of all has

1003
01:49:30,800 --> 01:49:36,960
this new lease of life that I thought the guy was kind of finished with the way he was playing.

1004
01:49:36,960 --> 01:49:41,520
I must admit, I thought that he didn't have much left in him and I thought that he wouldn't be as

1005
01:49:41,520 --> 01:49:47,680
prolific as he once was. However, this season at Torino is showing that he can still score

1006
01:49:48,560 --> 01:49:56,640
a good handful of goals. Raul Bellanova, bro, just playing well, man, just playing really,

1007
01:49:56,640 --> 01:50:00,800
really well and consistently and being a threat and making, being a menace, you know, and he just

1008
01:50:00,800 --> 01:50:09,120
seems to be fitter, man, than his opponent every time. He can track back and being fitter offers you

1009
01:50:10,160 --> 01:50:16,160
more freedom to attack and to stretch the opponent because you can track back in time and I think

1010
01:50:16,160 --> 01:50:21,520
that's what Bellanova is really taking advantage of right now is his fitness quite frankly, his

1011
01:50:21,520 --> 01:50:29,120
ability to really stretch the game and then recover and he's been super. But his, yes, fitness,

1012
01:50:29,120 --> 01:50:35,440
obviously, but secondary I would say that he has the confidence as well, especially you can see it

1013
01:50:35,440 --> 01:50:41,760
in the goal. He's starting to run, defender catches up to him, he has to track back, he's like,

1014
01:50:41,760 --> 01:50:46,000
fuck it, I'm gonna go around him anyway. He has the confidence to do the things that many other

1015
01:50:46,000 --> 01:50:55,520
defenders or fullbacks would not dare to do. He lifts it up. Can I ask you, I'm under the pressure,

1016
01:50:55,520 --> 01:51:01,840
the pressure, the impression that the beer is starting to get to me. Yeah, yeah, same here with the wine.

1017
01:51:03,440 --> 01:51:09,360
I'm under the impression that the Zapat has gotten fitter. When I'm fine jumping up there,

1018
01:51:10,160 --> 01:51:14,560
like that one looks like a beast. Didn't you look like that with the talent I felt?

1019
01:51:14,560 --> 01:51:19,120
Not towards the end, that's for sure. He was looking more kind of like Louis

1020
01:51:19,120 --> 01:51:26,640
Muriel towards the end of his stay. Perhaps it's, yeah, sometimes you need a new environment.

1021
01:51:27,600 --> 01:51:33,200
Sometimes you need to work for a new man. I mean, imagine, you know, this guy went to a new team,

1022
01:51:33,200 --> 01:51:38,800
the coach came up to me, he's a respected coach. You are the centerpiece of my team. The team is

1023
01:51:38,800 --> 01:51:43,840
gonna play to serve you. You just need to get in shape and you need to make yourself available

1024
01:51:43,840 --> 01:51:49,360
and be as ready as possible for all the service that you can possibly imagine because this team

1025
01:51:49,360 --> 01:51:53,760
will work for you. You'll have the likes of Ricci, you'll have the likes of Bellanova,

1026
01:51:53,760 --> 01:51:58,560
you'll have the likes of Vlasic and Sanabra, everyone trying to serve you up a plate.

1027
01:51:58,560 --> 01:52:05,120
And that must have motivated them much more than playing 30 minutes every week under Gasperini.

1028
01:52:05,120 --> 01:52:14,560
Yeah, definitely. Now he's looking very good, but Bellanova also is, I feel like Bellanova is

1029
01:52:14,560 --> 01:52:20,400
involved in every attack that Lino has. I'm not gonna say that everything goes through him, but

1030
01:52:21,120 --> 01:52:27,760
in one way or another he's practically always involved in their attacking play as a fullback.

1031
01:52:29,840 --> 01:52:31,520
I feel like every week we're praising him.

1032
01:52:31,520 --> 01:52:41,280
Precisely. Can I ask you, I have one question. Inter had the possibility to sign Bellanova.

1033
01:52:41,920 --> 01:52:43,120
Do you think it was a mistake?

1034
01:52:44,000 --> 01:52:50,160
Yes, for sure it was a mistake. I think now they're looking to offload the Dumfries.

1035
01:52:50,720 --> 01:52:56,160
They've brought in Buchanan, Buchanan, Buchanan.

1036
01:52:56,160 --> 01:53:07,120
Buchanan, Buchanan, Buchanan.

1037
01:53:09,760 --> 01:53:12,400
Yes, I think it was a mistake. Pardon?

1038
01:53:14,240 --> 01:53:20,160
I believe he's Canadian. Yes, I believe so. Yes, I think it was a mistake. I think when you look

1039
01:53:20,160 --> 01:53:24,640
at the options they have, they have Dumfries who they're willing to let go of. It's pretty well

1040
01:53:24,640 --> 01:53:30,240
known that if an offer comes in for Dumfries, I think Inter would let him go. Then they have

1041
01:53:30,240 --> 01:53:35,040
Dar Mian who in the event of an emergency would have to play as one of the centrebacks.

1042
01:53:35,920 --> 01:53:40,800
I think that Raul Bellanova could have been a good fit for the centre team. Can you imagine

1043
01:53:40,800 --> 01:53:43,680
the mark on the left Bellanova on the right with this Bellanova?

1044
01:53:46,080 --> 01:53:49,200
For sure he would be even better in Inter, obviously.

1045
01:53:49,200 --> 01:53:55,680
Absolutely. I remember him when he was still a Milan player. I don't know if you had the

1046
01:53:55,680 --> 01:54:01,760
last episode, I was talking about how when he was 16 or 17 years old, he would post the videos

1047
01:54:01,760 --> 01:54:04,880
of his assists on Instagram. They go such a long way.

1048
01:54:05,360 --> 01:54:07,360
How do I hurt every episode of the game?

1049
01:54:08,960 --> 01:54:14,240
The mad. You're the mad. Matt and I had prepared. For those of you who don't know

1050
01:54:14,240 --> 01:54:18,320
who are listening right now, Alan actually visited Malta and we watched a little bit of

1051
01:54:18,320 --> 01:54:22,400
football with him over at our place. Matt and I were living together at the time.

1052
01:54:24,080 --> 01:54:29,920
We had a question prepared for you, bro. Who do you prefer?

1053
01:54:34,320 --> 01:54:40,320
No, no, no, no. You don't ask a mother which child she loves the most.

1054
01:54:40,320 --> 01:54:44,160
I don't know.

1055
01:54:47,840 --> 01:54:52,480
Do you have any favourite moments, any funny moments, any highlights in your head?

1056
01:54:57,280 --> 01:55:05,360
Yeah, I have those. There are moments where because you're brothers, you have this MSG

1057
01:55:05,360 --> 01:55:13,600
and you have this inside jokes that in a sense transcend very well to the listeners.

1058
01:55:16,640 --> 01:55:22,560
I don't think I have a favourite moment, but there are like random moments. I remember when Matt

1059
01:55:22,560 --> 01:55:35,280
was talking about Ponyakic. He's a horse out of the blue. It's not the comment in itself, but

1060
01:55:35,280 --> 01:55:40,880
probably you're laughing. Both of you were just rolling on the floor laughing and I was just

1061
01:55:40,880 --> 01:55:48,880
imagining like what is going on over there. I did not catch the reference that Matt was. I had not seen the TikTok.

1062
01:55:48,880 --> 01:55:55,920
The funny thing is I hadn't seen the TikTok either. I hadn't seen it. He had to pause and show it to me.

1063
01:55:55,920 --> 01:55:59,200
He was like, he's a horse. I was like, what the hell is he saying?

1064
01:56:00,960 --> 01:56:02,560
What's the horse doing over there?

1065
01:56:06,880 --> 01:56:12,880
I don't think I have a favourite moment, but definitely when it's like those moments when

1066
01:56:12,880 --> 01:56:21,440
you get the feeling or when you see how well you know each other, that you are able to transmit

1067
01:56:21,440 --> 01:56:29,520
well throughout the podcast. It's genuine. It's real. It's not some people pretending to know

1068
01:56:29,520 --> 01:56:37,120
shit or pretending that the other one is funny. That's something I often hear in other podcasts.

1069
01:56:37,120 --> 01:56:44,160
I'm not an animal. This fake laughter or like you never have that. You're real. You're you.

1070
01:56:44,880 --> 01:56:50,560
Those are the moments that I enjoy the most. Thank you, bro. Thank you. That's lovely to hear.

1071
01:56:50,560 --> 01:56:57,520
Yes. Having a brother is a blessing and a curse at the same time. He knows everything,

1072
01:56:58,320 --> 01:57:06,720
which naturally is too much. Roma, bro, on the other hand, we can talk a little bit about them.

1073
01:57:06,720 --> 01:57:12,480
I personally was not aware of Asmune's game. I don't know about you, but this game, I was so

1074
01:57:12,480 --> 01:57:21,040
impressed by him. Yes, he was very good. I was not aware of his game either.

1075
01:57:23,520 --> 01:57:28,640
And I'm not going to say that Lukaku needs to look behind his back because he doesn't,

1076
01:57:28,640 --> 01:57:36,960
but he's also not replaceable. Lukaku gets injured. Roma are not going to be in big trouble.

1077
01:57:39,360 --> 01:57:46,080
Yeah, yeah, because he's a good link-up striker as well, similarly to Lukaku.

1078
01:57:46,080 --> 01:57:52,480
He services his teammates very well. Yeah, he has a good interest in the industry. He's strong.

1079
01:57:52,480 --> 01:58:01,920
He keeps the ball. I think, based on this game against Torino,

1080
01:58:02,560 --> 01:58:08,320
I think he's the type of guy who will make the others around him appear better than they are.

1081
01:58:08,320 --> 01:58:17,600
I agree. I had no idea he could drive like that with the ball personally. Every time I got the ball

1082
01:58:17,600 --> 01:58:26,240
and he started driving with it, I was like, he's actually pretty good. For Roma, everything's

1083
01:58:26,240 --> 01:58:30,000
ticking. I'm very happy to see Zavilar and Goul who had another good game over here.

1084
01:58:31,120 --> 01:58:35,840
A much better goalkeeper all around at the moment than Rui Patricio. I'm going to straight up say

1085
01:58:35,840 --> 01:58:43,280
that because Rui Patricio, man, I often find myself wondering, is he at this level? Is he at

1086
01:58:43,280 --> 01:58:50,720
the level? This isn't the same Rui Patricio that was at Wolves. Definitely not. Jessica praises

1087
01:58:51,360 --> 01:58:55,760
Rui Patricio. He says that I'm a little bit too harsh. Jessica being the Roma fan or our

1088
01:58:55,760 --> 01:59:01,120
patient. But yeah, I am enjoying what Zavilar has been doing.

1089
01:59:02,400 --> 01:59:06,800
Yeah, Chester knows Roma better than I do.

1090
01:59:06,800 --> 01:59:18,960
Yeah, but for me it's obvious that Zavilar appears a lot more stable consistent. I will say

1091
01:59:20,240 --> 01:59:26,240
that on the first Zapata goal, I think that Zavilar took his time to get over the possible.

1092
01:59:26,240 --> 01:59:34,240
Because it was a weird looping one, no? It appeared savable, but I don't think he expected it personally.

1093
01:59:34,240 --> 01:59:40,560
Yeah, I think he miscalculated it. I think he was expecting it. He didn't know if he was going

1094
01:59:40,560 --> 01:59:45,280
to jump far or he was going to run over and it turned out to be a thing in between.

1095
01:59:46,640 --> 01:59:50,800
But look, everybody can make a mistake on miscalculation as part of the game.

1096
01:59:51,600 --> 01:59:55,840
Yeah, and that header by Zapata was perfectly placed as well.

1097
01:59:55,840 --> 02:00:06,240
It was like kissing the post. So yeah, it's totally excusable. But yes, I do agree with you.

1098
02:00:06,240 --> 02:00:13,280
I think Zavilar is the future for Roma right now and the way to go. And of course, they will have

1099
02:00:13,280 --> 02:00:17,280
to evaluate in the summer if they're going to stick to Zavilar or a bit from the options.

1100
02:00:18,400 --> 02:00:21,840
When it comes to Zavilar versus Patricio, bye.

1101
02:00:21,840 --> 02:00:30,640
Absolutely. Yes, and with this victory, Roma have charged all the way up to sixth with 44 points.

1102
02:00:30,640 --> 02:00:34,400
They are in contention for that Champions League spot. Actually, there are just four points behind

1103
02:00:34,400 --> 02:00:39,840
nowadays and they're really flying up the table. It just goes to show, right? With a good run of form,

1104
02:00:40,480 --> 02:00:48,320
you can really, really, really rush up that table. On the other hand, Torino are perfectly

1105
02:00:48,320 --> 02:00:53,600
mid-table. Just anytime you would say, guess where Torino are on the table, if you guess 10,

1106
02:00:53,600 --> 02:00:58,960
you're probably correct because they sit in 10th right now with 36 points. Perfectly mid-table.

1107
02:00:58,960 --> 02:01:03,360
And I guess that's where they're happy to be. That's where Cairo would ideally like to be, right?

1108
02:01:04,160 --> 02:01:12,240
That's where they belong. Look, I want to make a point on Torino because I know you and Matt

1109
02:01:12,240 --> 02:01:18,960
have been joking a lot and it's super fun. But they're missionaries? Yes, they are the missionary

1110
02:01:18,960 --> 02:01:28,560
team. But look, they are as high as they can expect to be. I think you and it's all the knowledge

1111
02:01:28,560 --> 02:01:34,320
doing a good job with them. What more can you expect from Torino? Are they going to be better than,

1112
02:01:34,320 --> 02:01:41,440
okay, Bologna is overperforming. Sprite, Bologna, look at all the other teams in front of them.

1113
02:01:41,440 --> 02:01:45,920
Why are they going to be better than Torino? We don't know. Will they be better than Atalanta?

1114
02:01:45,920 --> 02:01:52,080
No, they don't have the talent to compete with that. I think, okay, Torino are boring, but they

1115
02:01:52,080 --> 02:01:58,880
are solid. They're doing the work. They're doing the job. Maybe they are waiting for the right time

1116
02:01:58,880 --> 02:02:09,120
to strike gold with a player or two. But I cannot see them doing any better. They are getting what

1117
02:02:09,120 --> 02:02:13,360
they are expected to get and they are not losing the points. They are not expected to lose.

1118
02:02:14,400 --> 02:02:21,200
Absolutely, man. Eurydice is doing God's work and granted, things maybe have gone stale at Torino.

1119
02:02:22,320 --> 02:02:29,280
It's not Eurydice's fault. It's the lack of quality, to be honest with you. I mean, the

1120
02:02:29,280 --> 02:02:35,040
starting level is okay. That's already being a little bit lenient saying the starting level.

1121
02:02:35,040 --> 02:02:41,040
Because there are a few question marks over there. But the squad could improve a lot more.

1122
02:02:41,040 --> 02:02:45,520
And I mean, Cairo, to be honest, should take that extra step and invest a little bit more if he's

1123
02:02:45,520 --> 02:02:50,720
capable of doing it. To really push for those European places, because Torino are there with

1124
02:02:50,720 --> 02:02:54,560
the manager they have and the way they've been playing. They can totally do it.

1125
02:02:56,160 --> 02:03:00,400
Interestingly enough, by the way, they're so mission-reality. Guess their goal difference?

1126
02:03:00,400 --> 02:03:09,120
Goal difference has to be quite equal. When you say it like that, it's probably like 22-22.

1127
02:03:10,160 --> 02:03:15,920
Dude, their goal difference is zero. They've scored 25 and they've conceded 25.

1128
02:03:16,480 --> 02:03:18,320
Yeah, so it's three goals away.

1129
02:03:20,720 --> 02:03:23,440
Totally, totally, totally mission-reality.

1130
02:03:23,440 --> 02:03:32,320
Yeah, I've said where they are in the table. We can move on now to Kalyari, Napoli.

1131
02:03:32,320 --> 02:03:41,840
This, in my opinion, was Napoli failing at their own hands. This draw was all Napoli's fault.

1132
02:03:41,840 --> 02:03:44,400
Because I feel like towards the end of the game, they could have killed it.

1133
02:03:45,040 --> 02:03:48,960
But the individuals went for glory instead of playing their teammates and who were in a better

1134
02:03:48,960 --> 02:03:54,000
position. And this happened twice. Simeone being on the receiving end of it, as I alluded to earlier on.

1135
02:03:54,560 --> 02:03:59,040
While he could have set up the second one, but he went for glory himself,

1136
02:04:00,000 --> 02:04:04,320
proving to be a little bit of a hypocrite. Ozyman started up front. Raspidori was on the

1137
02:04:04,320 --> 02:04:08,880
right with Baratskelia on the left. It was business as usual, pretty much with Matsuki as

1138
02:04:08,880 --> 02:04:13,520
right back. Rahmani, Kwanhezus and Olivera at the back. Everything else was pretty much orthodox.

1139
02:04:13,520 --> 02:04:21,440
For Kalyari, Zito Lovumbo started this game out on the left in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

1140
02:04:21,440 --> 02:04:29,520
One of Ranieri's most infamous formations. Just two blocks of four, two rows of four.

1141
02:04:29,520 --> 02:04:36,240
Very difficult to penetrate. It was Yerimin and Dosena as the formidable center back partnership

1142
02:04:36,240 --> 02:04:41,440
with Nandes and Argello on the flanks. Yankto was on the right, Lovumbo was on the left.

1143
02:04:41,440 --> 02:04:46,720
My least favorite player in the world, Deola was in midfield with Geitano playing behind La Padula.

1144
02:04:46,720 --> 02:04:52,960
Yes, bro. I thought Napoli should have won this. They should have totally won this.

1145
02:04:54,080 --> 02:05:03,360
Yes, but they didn't, right? I think they need to thank themselves for it. It was there to win

1146
02:05:03,360 --> 02:05:08,880
and they didn't take the chance. One thing that I did find a bit funny was looking at this lineup.

1147
02:05:08,880 --> 02:05:15,840
You had Raspadori on the right wing, not on the left, which is not his natural position.

1148
02:05:17,040 --> 02:05:24,880
Yet again, he was among the best players, not players, which makes me say, what the fuck is going on?

1149
02:05:26,720 --> 02:05:33,360
He could be, but definitely Napoli could have done better in this game.

1150
02:05:33,360 --> 02:05:43,120
Yes, Raspadori was magnificent in this game. I think it's one of his best games this season,

1151
02:05:43,120 --> 02:05:52,960
to be honest with you. Towards the end of the game, of course, the first goal came at a 32nd

1152
02:05:52,960 --> 02:05:58,720
minute, actually. It was a disallowed goal. Rahmani got into the back of the net, but it was

1153
02:05:58,720 --> 02:06:05,280
disallowed due to him being in an offside position in the 66th minute. Then it was Victor Oziman,

1154
02:06:05,280 --> 02:06:11,920
who was set up by the impressive Raspadori, who gave Napoli the lead. They went out to miss

1155
02:06:12,960 --> 02:06:18,960
all their chances, basically. Then in the 96th minute, Dossana just hail marries it over the top,

1156
02:06:19,600 --> 02:06:24,240
boots it over the top. He's like, I've got the Wombosuit all charging at them. Let me just try

1157
02:06:24,240 --> 02:06:30,480
to play him in behind. I wasn't even playing him in behind because it was a 50-50 in the end between

1158
02:06:30,480 --> 02:06:44,400
Lovumba and Juan Jesús. Pardon? He didn't really think much else. Lovumba found himself in a 50-50

1159
02:06:44,400 --> 02:06:50,880
with Juan Jesús, who did what every coach has instructed me not to do with my very amateur

1160
02:06:50,880 --> 02:06:59,120
brief spell at Milita FC in Malta. Don't let the ball bounce, man. When you have a physical advantage

1161
02:06:59,120 --> 02:07:06,000
over your opponent, don't let the ball bounce. Juan Jesús let the ball bounce. Lovumba acrobatically,

1162
02:07:06,000 --> 02:07:12,320
and you know how tenacious he is. He just spun with those massive ties in his high shorts. He just

1163
02:07:12,320 --> 02:07:18,800
turned his man and put it in the back of the net, punishing Napoli. On the scenes, of course,

1164
02:07:18,800 --> 02:07:23,280
you can imagine inside the knee. We're absolutely phenomenal. At first it looked like he got injured.

1165
02:07:23,840 --> 02:07:27,840
I don't know if he was faking it. I don't know if it was one of those trends. What do you think?

1166
02:07:27,840 --> 02:07:35,120
The TikTok thing? No, I was going to say fortunately, not fortunately, I don't want him to be injured,

1167
02:07:35,120 --> 02:07:40,560
but I'm glad it wasn't one of those TikTok trends. I think it was actually injured.

1168
02:07:43,040 --> 02:07:45,920
But did you see they were not giving a fuck about his injury?

1169
02:07:45,920 --> 02:07:52,880
Yeah, no one cared. Your teammate is in pain and you're just grabbing him from the behind.

1170
02:07:52,880 --> 02:08:01,840
It's like, be happy, bitch, be happy. No. In fact, one of his teammates became self-aware,

1171
02:08:02,640 --> 02:08:08,560
and they actually tried to get the teammates off him, but they just kept appearing out of nowhere

1172
02:08:08,560 --> 02:08:14,720
and jumping onto him. It's not nice having the likes of Dos Sena and Yerimin jumping on you.

1173
02:08:14,720 --> 02:08:18,240
You're the size of Lvoombazito, right? That's a lot of kills, right?

1174
02:08:18,960 --> 02:08:25,200
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then after everyone had jumped on him, when the fans were calling his name,

1175
02:08:25,200 --> 02:08:30,640
he did this funny little celebration where he just kind of taunted the Napoli fans.

1176
02:08:33,040 --> 02:08:39,440
I love it. I love it. I'm a big fan of Lvoombazito, bro. I think that he's destined for a step up.

1177
02:08:39,440 --> 02:08:49,280
Right, especially if Kaila gets relegated, he has to move on. The question is probably where?

1178
02:08:50,240 --> 02:08:56,720
I don't see him in the upper half of the table yet, but he has to be...

1179
02:08:59,200 --> 02:09:03,760
Where should we put him? Manzai is probably not his level.

1180
02:09:03,760 --> 02:09:09,600
Can it be... Maybe Manzai.

1181
02:09:10,240 --> 02:09:15,280
Yeah, I was going to say Manzai, but too far off, I think. I think we could do a good job over there.

1182
02:09:16,080 --> 02:09:22,800
When it comes to... Yes, so Alan and I spoke a little bit about Lvoombazito off here because I'm a big fan.

1183
02:09:24,720 --> 02:09:28,080
The main question that you had is why doesn't he play 90 minutes, right?

1184
02:09:28,080 --> 02:09:34,960
That's a phenomenal question. We have discussed on the podcast, perhaps it's

1185
02:09:35,680 --> 02:09:41,600
Ranieri's overthinking. Maybe he tries to save Lvoombazito for an extra gear while also protecting

1186
02:09:41,600 --> 02:09:47,520
him because we've seen how players play against the likes of Lvoombazito and Leao as well. They just

1187
02:09:47,520 --> 02:09:52,080
kick the shit out of him. Maybe he's protecting him. Maybe he's protecting the best player that

1188
02:09:52,080 --> 02:09:58,000
could save them from relegation. Or perhaps it's something deeper. Perhaps it's a fitness issue.

1189
02:09:58,000 --> 02:10:05,600
Perhaps it's a work ethic issue, which would be very concerning. We don't know the reality behind it,

1190
02:10:05,600 --> 02:10:14,560
but if serial engange can get a move to Napoli, then I don't think Lvoombazito can get a move to Manzai.

1191
02:10:14,560 --> 02:10:25,440
True. Look, if this Ranieri protecting him thing was for one or two or three or even four games,

1192
02:10:25,440 --> 02:10:31,600
I might buy it. But when you are on a full season and you're in relegation,

1193
02:10:32,320 --> 02:10:38,800
in a relegation spot, you're a second-person elite, and you're not playing who is presumably your best

1194
02:10:38,800 --> 02:10:44,000
player, I don't think it's a tactical choice anymore. There's something more to it. I think

1195
02:10:44,000 --> 02:10:51,040
there is a matter of discipline or fitness or maybe understanding of tactics. Who knows what.

1196
02:10:52,080 --> 02:10:59,840
I don't think it's about protecting him anymore. Because if protecting him isn't working anymore,

1197
02:10:59,840 --> 02:11:05,360
you need to do something. Like, okay, I have this card on my hand, but I choose not to pay it. My

1198
02:11:05,360 --> 02:11:11,680
team is going to get relegated, but I'm still not going to pay this card because I have this theory

1199
02:11:11,680 --> 02:11:17,440
about protecting him. You're about to get relegated, you play your best cards. And this is where I'm

1200
02:11:17,440 --> 02:11:24,000
starting to question what is going on with Lvoombazito. Because there is something there that we

1201
02:11:24,000 --> 02:11:33,280
respect. I'm not able to see why he is not playing. That's a very good point. When you're 19th,

1202
02:11:33,920 --> 02:11:40,720
you need your best man out there. And Lvoombazito is by far the best man. He's everything. And

1203
02:11:40,720 --> 02:11:47,120
quite often we find Lvoombazito being introduced to certain games when they're pretty much over.

1204
02:11:47,120 --> 02:11:52,400
They're done. The game, they're 2-0 down, they're 3-0 down. What's he going to do? And sometimes

1205
02:11:52,400 --> 02:11:58,080
he manages to ignite these miraculous comebacks. And let's not get the twist. These comebacks,

1206
02:11:58,080 --> 02:12:02,640
if you watch, for example, the game against Frostinon and where they came back from 3-0 down,

1207
02:12:02,640 --> 02:12:08,560
it was all Zito. It was all him. It was all Lvoomba coming on. Shopping on the right, on the left.

1208
02:12:08,560 --> 02:12:14,480
No matter where the ball is coming from, it's him on the end of it. I'm curious to see how his

1209
02:12:15,200 --> 02:12:21,440
career develops. I'm a big fan of his and I do hope that he... My ideal is that Kallieri survive

1210
02:12:21,440 --> 02:12:24,240
and he stays there and he develops there. That's the best case scenario.

1211
02:12:24,960 --> 02:12:32,080
Yeah, you and me both, yes, Kallieri survive. We'll see.

1212
02:12:32,080 --> 02:12:38,880
I've got this scarf right there. Matt and I are actually thinking of going up to Sardinia, man,

1213
02:12:38,880 --> 02:12:43,280
before the end of the season and watching a Kallieri game. I think that would be maybe the

1214
02:12:43,280 --> 02:12:48,560
lecture one. Kallieri lecture end of March, I think that would be an incredible game unless we

1215
02:12:48,560 --> 02:12:56,640
go on it's an... Apparently they have a really good atmosphere. That's not very visible on TV.

1216
02:12:56,640 --> 02:13:03,200
I don't know, but that's what I heard. They post some behind the scenes on social media. They've

1217
02:13:03,200 --> 02:13:08,640
got their Instagram admin on the pitch and he takes videos. They've got these incredible

1218
02:13:08,640 --> 02:13:12,720
angles of the goals when the players are basically running towards the camera, man, and he films

1219
02:13:12,720 --> 02:13:17,520
the fans and it's spectacular, man. The atmosphere looks amazing in Sardinia, really.

1220
02:13:17,520 --> 02:13:28,720
When it comes to the standings, Kallieri are in 19th with 20 points, while Napoli are in

1221
02:13:28,720 --> 02:13:35,520
9th with 40 points. They'll be hitting themselves. We're not closing this one out, especially after

1222
02:13:35,520 --> 02:13:42,560
demolishing Saasvolo, six goals to one. The next game we can cover is Fiorentina 2,

1223
02:13:42,560 --> 02:13:47,920
Lotzjoh 1. This was a massive game that happened on a Monday night. It was a little bit of a

1224
02:13:47,920 --> 02:13:53,280
treat, to be honest. I think to summarize this game, you can basically say that Fiorentina came out

1225
02:13:53,280 --> 02:13:56,880
and they attacked and they attacked and they attacked and they missed and they missed and they missed.

1226
02:13:56,880 --> 02:14:02,080
They hit the post four times, I think four or five times. Three times in first half.

1227
02:14:02,080 --> 02:14:08,480
Yeah, so unlucky to not score. They even missed the penalty. You had Nico Gonzalez in the second

1228
02:14:08,480 --> 02:14:14,480
half doing his little jump and he shot the left, as he always does, and he hit the post.

1229
02:14:16,320 --> 02:14:21,040
No, look, I wrote it down in my notes because I had to check it out after the game.

1230
02:14:22,880 --> 02:14:30,480
He has taken five penalties this year, three goals, two misses, and all five have been more or less

1231
02:14:30,480 --> 02:14:38,160
identical, except the only one that stood out was really the last one because it was

1232
02:14:38,160 --> 02:14:46,160
more wide to the left than the previous four. If hit the post, usually it's like one or two,

1233
02:14:46,160 --> 02:14:53,440
one and a half meter within the post. The goalkeeper was wrong-footed. He would not have

1234
02:14:53,440 --> 02:15:03,200
stated if it went inside the goal, but it's really surprising that a player can take five

1235
02:15:03,200 --> 02:15:11,920
identical penalties in the same season. If I as a spectator can see it on TV, then imagine what

1236
02:15:11,920 --> 02:15:19,840
the goalkeeper is actually studying and take notes. Then I wonder, Alan, could it be that the

1237
02:15:19,840 --> 02:15:23,760
technique is so misleading that you never actually think, but when you're in it and you're the goal

1238
02:15:23,760 --> 02:15:28,160
keeper, could it be that you actually have no idea where he's going to go or maybe he really hints

1239
02:15:28,160 --> 02:15:34,480
that you're going to go to one side because it is bizarre. He always shoots bottom left, always,

1240
02:15:34,480 --> 02:15:37,920
no matter what. The season he's always going to, and I think Summer is the only one who saved it.

1241
02:15:38,480 --> 02:15:42,320
Yes, Summer really like an open book, but Summer has done his homework.

1242
02:15:43,200 --> 02:15:44,320
For sure. Yeah.

1243
02:15:45,680 --> 02:15:56,480
Look, I think it's, yeah, the technique can explain a lot of it, but okay, you only once,

1244
02:15:56,480 --> 02:16:05,760
only twice, the third time, bro, I know what you're doing. If I was a goalkeeper and

1245
02:16:06,320 --> 02:16:11,520
Nikko is stepping up to take a penalty, I'm going to die left regardless. I'm going to die left

1246
02:16:11,520 --> 02:16:15,360
before he strikes the ball. I'm going to be on the left or my right.

1247
02:16:19,120 --> 02:16:26,400
Yeah. This run up, man. If I was the coach, not for me, you're not taking another penalty

1248
02:16:26,400 --> 02:16:32,400
I'm sorry. I can't do it. I can't do it. It gives me anxiety watching it. And especially when

1249
02:16:32,400 --> 02:16:36,320
he missed, you could see he was so embarrassed. Of course he's going to be embarrassed. That

1250
02:16:36,320 --> 02:16:42,160
run up is the cockiest, most obnoxious run up I've ever seen. And it's true when it works,

1251
02:16:42,160 --> 02:16:47,520
you know, he's such a confident guy. And when he gets the run up, you know, when he runs up,

1252
02:16:47,520 --> 02:16:51,680
there was one game he scored the penalty. I think he was laughing before the referee even blew

1253
02:16:51,680 --> 02:16:56,640
the whistle. He was laughing. The referee blew the whistle. He runs up, skips, scores, wheels

1254
02:16:56,640 --> 02:17:03,200
off in celebration. But it's just not for me, man. If you put power behind the penalty, you're

1255
02:17:03,200 --> 02:17:09,360
more likely to score. And I'm all for that, man. I watched Mario Ballatelli taking penalties for

1256
02:17:09,360 --> 02:17:15,120
Milan growing up. And I watched him never miss a single one, except for one game against Sudanese.

1257
02:17:15,120 --> 02:17:19,120
And what was the common factor about these penalties, man? They were all different.

1258
02:17:19,120 --> 02:17:24,320
Every single penalty was different. And he would smack some in, like, you know, three penalties,

1259
02:17:24,320 --> 02:17:28,320
you should hoof them into the roof of the net. And the next one, pass at bottom corner, you know,

1260
02:17:28,320 --> 02:17:32,800
keep the goalkeeper guessing. That's it. The goalkeepers are going to study. This is their

1261
02:17:32,800 --> 02:17:37,840
fucking job, for God's sake. I do my research for a podcast. These guys are making millions to do

1262
02:17:37,840 --> 02:17:43,120
this job, you know, don't know what research they're doing. They have people hired to do this

1263
02:17:43,120 --> 02:17:47,360
research for them. They don't even do it themselves. They can get the paper and say,

1264
02:17:47,360 --> 02:17:54,320
kid, here's how to say USB stick with all the penalties for him to stay in the past three

1265
02:17:54,320 --> 02:18:01,600
seasons. There you go. That's how you know. Nice. I think it's inexcusable. And

1266
02:18:03,680 --> 02:18:06,320
I will say this about since you mentioned Ballatelli,

1267
02:18:07,520 --> 02:18:13,040
all his penalties were different. But the common factor is that he always waited the goalkeeper

1268
02:18:13,040 --> 02:18:19,840
out. And he shot where it was open. The difference that they both do a kind of a skip or Ballatelli

1269
02:18:19,840 --> 02:18:26,080
kind of starts faster and then slows down. He slows down a bit towards the end. Yeah,

1270
02:18:26,720 --> 02:18:34,400
very similar to me. I'm sure we're going to get on to later. While Gonzalez, he does this

1271
02:18:34,400 --> 02:18:42,400
skipping thing like Georgina, but he shoots at the same angle every time. So if you do the skipping

1272
02:18:42,400 --> 02:18:50,160
thing and proceed to shoot an additional angle where the goalkeeper is not going or like where

1273
02:18:50,160 --> 02:18:56,000
it's open, okay, I can get it. But if you do the skipping thing and you shoot at the exact same

1274
02:18:56,000 --> 02:19:04,240
angle every time, you're just being repetitive and easy to read. I agree. Totally bro. Yeah,

1275
02:19:04,240 --> 02:19:08,080
but this penalty came in the second half, of course, and it was towards the end of the first

1276
02:19:08,080 --> 02:19:13,520
half in the 45th minute that against the run of play, Luis Alberto scored the goal after Guendouzi

1277
02:19:13,520 --> 02:19:18,960
passed him the ball, setting him up in a space kind of like between the midfield and the defense.

1278
02:19:19,600 --> 02:19:23,760
There was quite a hole, quite a pocket over there and Luis Alberto was intelligent enough to take

1279
02:19:23,760 --> 02:19:28,560
advantage of it and end his dry spell, to be honest. He's been under quite a bit of criticism lately.

1280
02:19:29,520 --> 02:19:35,040
In the 61st minute, of course, in the second half, Fiorintina did not give up. They kept pushing and

1281
02:19:35,040 --> 02:19:41,600
pushing and pushing and a ball came into Coyote who smacked it upwards and it looked like it was

1282
02:19:41,600 --> 02:19:47,120
going to hit the crossbar to be honest. It did the honest way to the roof of the net, right?

1283
02:19:48,160 --> 02:19:54,000
And that was a well taken goal and he really enjoyed the Coyote and you can see the passion

1284
02:19:54,000 --> 02:19:59,040
in his celebration. It's always nice to see a young player scoring a goal on a stage like this.

1285
02:19:59,040 --> 02:20:03,760
How cool is it when he runs to the pan and just like screams in his face? I don't know what they're

1286
02:20:03,760 --> 02:20:10,080
saying but I imagine it's like, did you see that? Did you feel it in the pan? It goes like, fuck yeah!

1287
02:20:12,800 --> 02:20:15,600
And there they are, hugged each other. Ah, it was a really cool moment.

1288
02:20:17,920 --> 02:20:21,600
You can feel it. You could feel the energy coming off of Coyote through your screen.

1289
02:20:23,600 --> 02:20:27,760
I get pumped myself watching that and it's like, I want to hug them as well.

1290
02:20:27,760 --> 02:20:37,120
Same here man, absolutely. I love this stuff man. I'm not all for the refined celebrations,

1291
02:20:37,120 --> 02:20:40,080
you know, the ball I can score a hat trick and then just hit you with a...

1292
02:20:40,720 --> 02:20:45,520
I want to see pure human emotion pouring out of you man. That's what I want to see.

1293
02:20:45,520 --> 02:20:50,960
I want to see you lose your cool. Do you remember Lokatelli's goal against Saswolo?

1294
02:20:50,960 --> 02:20:58,800
Amila's goal against Juventus. It was a matchday before. He scored against

1295
02:20:58,800 --> 02:21:05,360
Saswolo, his first ever goal in Serie A and he was a winner and an equalizer in a high scoring game.

1296
02:21:07,600 --> 02:21:13,440
He cried exactly. He seemed running and crying, couldn't believe it. Or Grosso's goal in the

1297
02:21:13,440 --> 02:21:19,520
World Cup man. Those celebrations, the pure emotion, that's what I live for man. That's why I watch

1298
02:21:19,520 --> 02:21:26,400
football to be honest with you. On Coyote's goal though, I just want to point out that he was the

1299
02:21:26,400 --> 02:21:31,680
one who started the attack. He broke down the ball, he played it and he kept running and kept

1300
02:21:31,680 --> 02:21:39,440
running and in the end he found himself at the back post on mark and he buried it. So,

1301
02:21:39,440 --> 02:21:44,720
Hassan's game that was a really cool moment. Every young defender has to dream about.

1302
02:21:44,720 --> 02:21:50,480
Yeah, for sure. Totally well deserved, especially when winning it back. Of course, shortly after

1303
02:21:50,480 --> 02:21:55,120
this, just six minutes later, Nico Gonzalez missed the penalty and then two minutes after that,

1304
02:21:55,840 --> 02:22:02,480
Bonaventura scored the rebound after I believe Beltran. His shot was saved by the goalkeeper

1305
02:22:02,480 --> 02:22:08,320
and then Bonaventura basically finished perfectly and he had hit the post in the first half. He

1306
02:22:08,320 --> 02:22:13,280
was quite unlucky to not score earlier on. It's nice to see Jack DeCouart doing well.

1307
02:22:13,280 --> 02:22:19,200
Yes, as a mid-lanf and every mid-lanf fan loves him or likes him and

1308
02:22:20,320 --> 02:22:24,800
if you dislike him then you're not a mid-lanf. I'm just a dead lanf.

1309
02:22:26,720 --> 02:22:34,080
But he, Bonaventura found himself in a scoring position at least three times this game,

1310
02:22:34,880 --> 02:22:41,920
I believe. He has this thing at least against Lotz and now where he comes in

1311
02:22:41,920 --> 02:22:46,080
after somebody shoots, he comes in and rebounds. He had one big one in first half.

1312
02:22:47,120 --> 02:22:50,320
Just now, he cleared it off the line. Not off the line, he blocked it.

1313
02:22:52,480 --> 02:23:00,560
Provedo was taken out of the game. He only needed to bury it but he chose to go with open wide foot.

1314
02:23:02,560 --> 02:23:09,120
It was him. But yeah, he has a tendency to find himself in these positions where

1315
02:23:09,120 --> 02:23:16,400
normally a striker would be. But so this is part of your intense game, I think, where the

1316
02:23:17,600 --> 02:23:26,480
Beltran drops, Melotti runs around, walks and then you leave these spaces that Bonaventura can run into

1317
02:23:27,280 --> 02:23:33,200
and catch the rebound on those situations. It was nice to see he got it. He's been on a

1318
02:23:33,200 --> 02:23:42,320
bit of a dry spell, hasn't he? Yeah, it's been a while for him. I don't know if you feel the

1319
02:23:42,320 --> 02:23:49,600
same way about Bonaventura but when I really think about his days at Milan, I can't quite place if

1320
02:23:52,560 --> 02:23:56,080
it's going to sound harsh but if he's an intelligent footballer or not, you know what I mean?

1321
02:23:56,080 --> 02:24:03,120
I mean, spatial awareness, why he's very good. He knows where he should be off the ball.

1322
02:24:03,760 --> 02:24:09,200
But then on the ball sometimes, I feel like he often makes the wrong decision, especially if it's

1323
02:24:09,200 --> 02:24:15,280
not his day. And I remember this with Milan, clearly when Milan were having an off day,

1324
02:24:15,280 --> 02:24:18,640
he was always like there was something he wouldn't see. I mean,

1325
02:24:18,640 --> 02:24:27,040
I don't know if you remember the same thing as I do. Yeah, I struggle to actually. I remember the

1326
02:24:27,040 --> 02:24:36,000
good parts mostly. I remember him as being the one who was doing the little extra when the other

1327
02:24:36,000 --> 02:24:43,360
ones were lacking and that's why I love him so much is that because there was a time with Milan

1328
02:24:43,360 --> 02:24:50,320
or not that good. We had players that we were pretending that they were better than they actually

1329
02:24:50,320 --> 02:24:59,200
were but Bonaventura was one of those that was lifting us. He was and it wasn't just because

1330
02:24:59,200 --> 02:25:08,240
he's very skill-during but he had that determination and that heart, yes, that heart that made me or

1331
02:25:08,240 --> 02:25:16,800
any other Milan fan, Bonaventura or Bonaventura. Yeah, man, I was so emotional when he left.

1332
02:25:16,800 --> 02:25:23,120
That picture of him in the empty Sun Zero, the touch line holding his head and hands,

1333
02:25:24,720 --> 02:25:28,400
the fucking air, man. And think of what he could have done. Think about what he could have done

1334
02:25:29,120 --> 02:25:36,640
with Milan, the level he's been playing at still at his age. It's a real shame, honestly.

1335
02:25:36,640 --> 02:25:41,920
He deserved to stay. He really deserved to stay. He was far from finished and he gave Milan so much

1336
02:25:41,920 --> 02:25:48,880
in such a dark time. Definitely, yeah. It doesn't feel like he's regressed that much, really.

1337
02:25:48,880 --> 02:25:57,760
Yeah, not at all, to be honest. And even now he made his Italy debut a few months ago and he

1338
02:25:58,880 --> 02:26:03,760
scored. Was it his first goal for the Italian national team against my country,

1339
02:26:03,760 --> 02:26:11,920
Motha, the boss in the Alli Stadium, in front of my fans? But yeah, I'm happy. No, he deserves,

1340
02:26:11,920 --> 02:26:18,960
he deserves success in the word, man. Yeah, Fiorentina totally deserved this victory. Lots

1341
02:26:18,960 --> 02:26:24,640
you right now find themselves in a little bit of a sticky situation when it comes to the league.

1342
02:26:24,640 --> 02:26:31,680
They're in eighth with 40 points. Surely they'll be pushing for an Europa League spot, but the team,

1343
02:26:31,680 --> 02:26:40,160
when it comes to simply just quality depth, understanding of the system, a little bit

1344
02:26:40,160 --> 02:26:45,040
behind. No, they're a little bit behind. They sold key pieces without really replacing them.

1345
02:26:45,040 --> 02:26:49,920
They keep rotating Sarri's, like give Sarri some continuity with some players, man. Give him

1346
02:26:49,920 --> 02:26:53,760
continuity with some quality players and he'll get you over the line, I think.

1347
02:26:53,760 --> 02:27:04,240
Yes, yes, I agree. But I will also say that isn't that something you would expect from a coach?

1348
02:27:04,240 --> 02:27:09,760
Like it's pocket football. You will never have this full continuity unless you're a top team who

1349
02:27:09,760 --> 02:27:20,800
can afford to pick, cherry pick whatever you want to have. Right? Yeah, I think he, I'm starting to

1350
02:27:20,800 --> 02:27:31,440
feel a little bit, how do you say, unsure about Sarri. Regarding his level, the level that you

1351
02:27:31,440 --> 02:27:36,720
should be coaching at? Yeah, getting the most out of his team. He's been there for three seasons now.

1352
02:27:37,520 --> 02:27:46,400
I don't see anything particular with Lazio now that makes him stand out as a quality side, really.

1353
02:27:46,400 --> 02:27:53,600
And I think it's too easy to blame on the players. He's been there for a time. He has had his own

1354
02:27:53,600 --> 02:28:00,320
opportunity and as I said earlier, the reality football is that you won't be able to keep all

1355
02:28:00,320 --> 02:28:07,600
the players you want and you need to adapt to the players you have. And that's the brutal

1356
02:28:07,600 --> 02:28:17,280
reality. Yes, but surely when you look at the personnel, let's say this game, for example.

1357
02:28:17,280 --> 02:28:23,360
So three years ago, Sarri joined Lazio. He had the Chiro mobile at the peak of his game, right?

1358
02:28:23,360 --> 02:28:28,000
Starting up front. Granted, Chiro mobile is still there, but is it the same Chiro mobile and not

1359
02:28:28,000 --> 02:28:34,000
quite? He's saying Chiro mobile, but he's lagging a little bit. You can see the movement is still

1360
02:28:34,000 --> 02:28:38,640
very dangerous, but he's not quite as sharp as he used to be, especially on the ball.

1361
02:28:39,280 --> 02:28:43,920
Isaacson, first season. Philippe Anderson, don't even get me started on Philippe Anderson because

1362
02:28:43,920 --> 02:28:47,680
I don't know where I stand on him. He's so inconsistent, so wildly inconsistent.

1363
02:28:48,320 --> 02:28:52,320
Luis Alberto is still their quality player. Happy that he's still there, a little bit of a difficult

1364
02:28:52,320 --> 02:28:55,840
player to manage, but I think Sarri has done well to get the best out of him.

1365
02:28:55,840 --> 02:29:01,840
Cataldi is a deep-lying playmaker. Now in a Sarri system, the deep-lying playmaker is so important.

1366
02:29:01,840 --> 02:29:05,920
Why is Cataldi your deep-lying playmaker? I don't know. I think he could have used a little bit

1367
02:29:05,920 --> 02:29:11,200
of reinforcement from Lotito. You look at the full backs in a Sarri system, very important as well.

1368
02:29:11,200 --> 02:29:16,880
He's still deploying Maru Sech and Lazari, who are average. They're okay. They're not bad. They're

1369
02:29:16,880 --> 02:29:28,400
not great. They're average. So yes, I do agree that maybe they could be doing better, but I don't

1370
02:29:28,400 --> 02:29:34,080
think he's got the support of the owner personally. I think that he deserves more support.

1371
02:29:34,960 --> 02:29:43,040
Yeah, I think you make a good point. I do. I don't know. There is something there that I

1372
02:29:43,040 --> 02:29:50,240
don't, I just don't feel it. I say it like that. But yeah, I agree. You make a good point when you

1373
02:29:50,240 --> 02:29:54,720
say it like that. When you look at one player at a time, they don't have the quality of the

1374
02:29:54,720 --> 02:29:59,680
kids around them. I have to admit that. And even when you look at the good players, the players

1375
02:29:59,680 --> 02:30:05,200
that are actually playing pretty well like Guendouzi and Isakson lately, they're new, man. This is their

1376
02:30:05,200 --> 02:30:12,160
first season in a Sarri side. He's already getting quite a good amount of production out of them.

1377
02:30:12,160 --> 02:30:17,920
I'm pretty impressed by Guendouzi. I didn't think that he was. I know he was about this game.

1378
02:30:17,920 --> 02:30:27,840
You know, and Isakson as well has really grown into a decent player for Lazio. Castellanos

1379
02:30:27,840 --> 02:30:32,320
hasn't really hit the ground running and he's my biggest disappointment, to be honest, because with

1380
02:30:32,320 --> 02:30:36,480
New York, I believe he was and he went on loan with Geron. He scored four goals against Real

1381
02:30:36,480 --> 02:30:40,960
Madrid and he scored quite consistently. He had pretty much one goal in two games everywhere he went.

1382
02:30:41,920 --> 02:30:44,160
But it's not really working for him at Lazio.

1383
02:30:44,160 --> 02:30:57,200
Yeah. They currently set Lazio in eighth place with 40 points, while Fiorentina are in seventh with

1384
02:30:57,200 --> 02:31:02,640
41 points. So this was a crucial head-to-head over here between these two teams in a fight for that

1385
02:31:02,640 --> 02:31:09,760
Europa League spaces. So, bro, we've got three games left, by the way, and we are two and a half

1386
02:31:09,760 --> 02:31:15,600
hours in. We'll mess it up totally. Yeah, no problem. Bro, whose show is this?

1387
02:31:16,640 --> 02:31:20,800
It's your show. Our show. Today, this is our show. This is our episode.

1388
02:31:22,800 --> 02:31:29,280
Four hours. Fuck it. New record. Once Math and I, towards the beginning, had recorded an episode

1389
02:31:29,280 --> 02:31:35,120
that I think was just so. It was two or three hours. We had named it Bohemian Rhapsody. It was

1390
02:31:35,120 --> 02:31:40,880
revolutionary the length of the episode for Serious Pathide. Then we went on to record one episode

1391
02:31:40,880 --> 02:31:44,400
that was called The Extravaganza. I don't know if you remember. It was four hours long.

1392
02:31:46,640 --> 02:31:49,600
I'm sure I'll listen to it, but I can't remember right now.

1393
02:31:50,240 --> 02:31:54,240
It was wide. We recorded it over three days and we got drunk three days in a row.

1394
02:31:54,240 --> 02:31:57,040
Ah, yes. That's when we took the break. Yeah, that was fun.

1395
02:31:57,040 --> 02:32:06,080
Yeah, that was fun. So, Bro, we can quickly brush over this game. We had Monza taking on

1396
02:32:06,080 --> 02:32:12,960
Salernitana away from home. Monza won with a score of two goals to Niel. Now, personally,

1397
02:32:12,960 --> 02:32:18,160
I was very, very disappointed by Salernitana and their approach to this game. They never really

1398
02:32:18,160 --> 02:32:24,320
looked like they were in the game. They were outclassed, outpossessed, outscored, outshot,

1399
02:32:24,320 --> 02:32:29,760
out everything by Monza. And then this pretty much put the nail in their coffin, I think, personally.

1400
02:32:31,440 --> 02:32:40,240
Yeah, it's been there for a while. It's been in the making. This was one of the games that they

1401
02:32:40,240 --> 02:32:47,520
maybe could step up and overachieve a little bit. We saw nothing. Monza were in complete control

1402
02:32:47,520 --> 02:32:56,080
from the start to the end of the game. You said earlier that Day Ola was your least favorite player.

1403
02:32:57,200 --> 02:33:04,000
For me, it's Judith. I wanted to ask you this, Bro. Why is your favorite player?

1404
02:33:07,120 --> 02:33:14,720
How do I put it? If I find him so one-dimensional, I feel like if you take away his physique for me,

1405
02:33:14,720 --> 02:33:23,120
and this is hard, but I'm seeing what I want to say. If you take away his physique, I barely see

1406
02:33:23,120 --> 02:33:32,960
him as a popular player. I think the physique is too big part of his game. It's, show me that you

1407
02:33:32,960 --> 02:33:41,520
have something more than your height. In first half, he was wasting chances, or not wasting, but

1408
02:33:41,520 --> 02:33:51,440
there were chances that good strikers would have utilized better, more fair way. I don't like it.

1409
02:33:53,440 --> 02:33:59,840
Look, you're absolutely right. I think the reason you don't like him is the reason Matt and I are

1410
02:33:59,840 --> 02:34:09,120
in love with him. I love the fact that he's a shithouse. He's just size, man. He's just size and

1411
02:34:09,120 --> 02:34:23,760
power. He's the typical cross to the jury, and the type of player. If I'm not mistaken,

1412
02:34:23,760 --> 02:34:29,760
it was his header that got Mons of the first goal. He headed them behind to Pesina, was it?

1413
02:34:29,760 --> 02:34:38,240
I think it was. Maldini's goal was the first goal, and Pesina's was the second. One of them

1414
02:34:38,240 --> 02:34:43,920
was over the top from behind, right? He had an assist on the second goal. There was a long ball,

1415
02:34:43,920 --> 02:34:51,760
and he nicked it. Yeah. Look, he's fun for relegation teams. I'm just surprised to be honest,

1416
02:34:51,760 --> 02:34:59,200
that Mons of both. Yeah, that's it. I like him at the Salernetana. I like him at Leica Collier.

1417
02:34:59,200 --> 02:35:05,440
I like him at the Alas Verona, but I don't think he should be at Mons of. I'm of the same opinion as you.

1418
02:35:08,880 --> 02:35:15,760
I have been slightly impressed by Visman up front for Salernetana. I like his movement. I like what

1419
02:35:15,760 --> 02:35:20,560
he can do. It's a shame that his teammates are often not on the same page as he is, particularly

1420
02:35:20,560 --> 02:35:25,840
Castanos, who should have played the ball back on multiple occasions when Visman played it to

1421
02:35:25,840 --> 02:35:34,480
him, but he put it for a shot instead. The 25-year-old Cypriot. Yeah, I think that if Castanos was on the

1422
02:35:34,480 --> 02:35:38,720
same page as Visman, this could have been a totally different story this game, but Mons of

1423
02:35:38,720 --> 02:35:44,480
simply had too much for Salernetana, who have simply gone through too many changes this season,

1424
02:35:44,480 --> 02:35:48,000
when it comes to players, when it comes to managers, when it comes to everything.

1425
02:35:48,000 --> 02:35:55,360
Yes, but Castanos is just because you're good at shooting from far,

1426
02:35:55,360 --> 02:35:57,920
doesn't mean that you have to do it. Exactly.

1427
02:36:03,760 --> 02:36:10,560
Salernetana, man, it's a shame. Matt and I honestly originally wanted to go and watch them,

1428
02:36:10,560 --> 02:36:14,800
because their atmosphere is next level as well. Salerno, man, they're absolutely crazy.

1429
02:36:14,800 --> 02:36:22,000
Some of the roughest in the league, and they've got crazy songs, they've got crazy T-Falls.

1430
02:36:22,560 --> 02:36:26,960
We really wanted to go there, but we realized that probably would end up being the case.

1431
02:36:26,960 --> 02:36:30,480
I would book the flight and by the time we get there, they're already relegated.

1432
02:36:30,480 --> 02:36:33,120
So maybe we'll just go watch them in Serie B next season.

1433
02:36:34,080 --> 02:36:37,200
It's better to watch someone who's still in it, someone who has more to fight for,

1434
02:36:37,200 --> 02:36:40,000
of course, someone like Kaliari, who have a great atmosphere too.

1435
02:36:40,000 --> 02:36:44,320
Do you find yourself falling in love with these lowly teamsters, if just me and Matt?

1436
02:36:45,360 --> 02:36:51,840
Oh, no, I definitely do. Salernetana and Kaliari both, I really enjoy them,

1437
02:36:53,360 --> 02:36:57,920
but they have to have a little bit of, how do you say, a little bit of mmm, about them.

1438
02:36:57,920 --> 02:36:59,440
A little bit of a spunk.

1439
02:37:00,240 --> 02:37:06,560
Yes, I will also shout out to Vetscher, I think they're also quite entertaining at times,

1440
02:37:06,560 --> 02:37:12,240
at times they're shit, but yeah, I do. And they make the league more fun.

1441
02:37:13,200 --> 02:37:18,160
There's been this debate about, should I say, I'll reduce to 18 teams or whatever.

1442
02:37:18,880 --> 02:37:22,800
Please no, don't take away this glitter from me. I want Salernetana,

1443
02:37:22,800 --> 02:37:24,960
even though they are not playing well.

1444
02:37:26,240 --> 02:37:33,120
Don't take this atmosphere away from me, because I'm sure that

1445
02:37:33,120 --> 02:37:43,200
a fellow patron, Andrew from London will agree that some of the bottom teams have better atmosphere,

1446
02:37:43,200 --> 02:37:47,600
or they're more of a football club than the top team, Primadonna.

1447
02:37:48,640 --> 02:37:53,280
It's all about authenticity, man. And nowadays the game is moving,

1448
02:37:53,280 --> 02:37:59,120
it's becoming less and less authentic, and it's becoming more superficial, quite frankly.

1449
02:37:59,120 --> 02:38:03,440
But then you look at the lowly sides, and that's where authenticity really sparks.

1450
02:38:03,440 --> 02:38:11,440
And if you climb, for example, up the table, I like, for example, what Genoa have,

1451
02:38:11,440 --> 02:38:16,000
for example, in 12th spot, you look at the Genoa stadium, it's a shit hole.

1452
02:38:17,040 --> 02:38:20,000
It's an absolute shit hole. Like I went there.

1453
02:38:21,200 --> 02:38:22,880
Pardon? It's so charming.

1454
02:38:23,440 --> 02:38:28,080
It's charming, yes. It is charming though, because it's a shit hole,

1455
02:38:28,080 --> 02:38:33,600
but everyone goes and everyone has a great time, regardless of if the toilets are modern,

1456
02:38:33,600 --> 02:38:38,160
or if the toilets are a hole in the floor, regardless of the baguette that they give you,

1457
02:38:38,160 --> 02:38:42,640
and you order food. Are you really there for a dining experience, or to take a piss in a toilet,

1458
02:38:42,640 --> 02:38:49,200
bro? Are you there for some football? These teams are honestly so genuine and so pure,

1459
02:38:49,760 --> 02:38:53,040
and so authentic, and that's what I love about Serie A, and people ask me,

1460
02:38:53,040 --> 02:38:59,760
oh, why the hell are you upset? I teach many Italian teenagers. I can't quite understand

1461
02:38:59,760 --> 02:39:06,080
my obsession with Italian football, bro. And quite often they ask me, why do you follow

1462
02:39:06,080 --> 02:39:09,600
Italian football? Some even tell me, like, the Premier League's better. I'm like, no, the Premier

1463
02:39:09,600 --> 02:39:15,280
League's not better, bro. The Premier League is the Marvel series, Serie A's the godfather,

1464
02:39:15,280 --> 02:39:19,760
you know, Serie A's authentic, Serie A's a work of art. You look at Bologna Stadium, it's an

1465
02:39:19,760 --> 02:39:24,800
architectural masterpiece with the fucking tower in the middle. You look at the Genoa fans, they're

1466
02:39:24,800 --> 02:39:30,880
so passionate, man. The chance that they sing, the, I don't know, the closeness of the fans,

1467
02:39:30,880 --> 02:39:40,400
the team, I don't know, it just feels real to me. Yes, yes, I get, look, I'm not a Premier League

1468
02:39:40,400 --> 02:39:46,320
fan to begin with, but I get so much enjoy or satisfaction from these teams, and I think

1469
02:39:46,320 --> 02:39:53,040
Genoa, this is the best example, they have such passion, they have the flags, you know, the entire

1470
02:39:53,920 --> 02:40:00,960
fourth end of the Genoa pitch is insanely crowded and everybody, it's in colors and everybody's

1471
02:40:00,960 --> 02:40:11,920
in great spirits, and how can that not rub off on you, comparing it to, let's not say tourists,

1472
02:40:11,920 --> 02:40:18,640
but let's say people who can afford to pay 70 euros for a ticket all season round, like,

1473
02:40:20,400 --> 02:40:26,320
there is maybe 70 euros, let's say 120 euros, which is more, more tickets, right?

1474
02:40:27,680 --> 02:40:32,320
They don't have this passion, they don't have this love for the team, as Genoa has,

1475
02:40:33,200 --> 02:40:40,720
it's remarkable, and I don't know if you follow Genoa on Instagram, I do, yes, they are

1476
02:40:40,720 --> 02:40:48,240
the best. They're hilarious, they're so funny. And they, I'm falling in love, yeah, but I have

1477
02:40:48,240 --> 02:40:57,440
one thing, I do switch based on who's playing well, I'm not like, so Genoa is playing well,

1478
02:40:57,440 --> 02:41:02,560
I like them this year, I like Verona when they were playing well, I like let's change

1479
02:41:02,560 --> 02:41:08,160
certain periods of the season and how they choose sheets, I don't have the same enthusiasm to watch

1480
02:41:08,160 --> 02:41:16,000
them, so I'm not completely authentic myself after me. That's okay, that's okay, that's just

1481
02:41:17,920 --> 02:41:23,040
the underdog story, the classic underdog story, everyone loves an underdog who's over-achieving,

1482
02:41:23,040 --> 02:41:28,400
who's over-performing, Salernitana that one season won all our hearts, just like Crotoana

1483
02:41:28,400 --> 02:41:34,640
that one season under Nicola, just like Genoa this season, so many teams, so many teams have come,

1484
02:41:34,640 --> 02:41:42,800
sold in our hearts and left. Salernitana are in 20th with 13 points, seven points

1485
02:41:42,800 --> 02:41:47,040
from the other delegation candidates, it's really getting dire right now, they've brought in a manager

1486
02:41:47,040 --> 02:41:52,320
who's quite offensive and simple, I think they should have brought in someone to maybe tighten

1487
02:41:52,320 --> 02:41:56,560
the ship or just stick with Pippo, things weren't looking too bad with Pippo, the performances were

1488
02:41:56,560 --> 02:42:00,960
there, the points weren't, but the points are bound to come when the performances are there,

1489
02:42:00,960 --> 02:42:06,960
I think it was a very risky maneuver to bring Pippo in the first place and then to sack him

1490
02:42:07,520 --> 02:42:12,800
after a tough run of games, I thought it was just bogus from the Salernitana management and I think

1491
02:42:12,800 --> 02:42:17,280
they brought this on themselves, because this is obviously a learning period for Leverani,

1492
02:42:17,280 --> 02:42:20,800
he needs to, you don't expect him to just come and beat Monza, you know?

1493
02:42:21,920 --> 02:42:27,360
Yeah, I know you and Matavou are really cooperative, I'm not going to repeat what you said, but

1494
02:42:27,360 --> 02:42:31,120
if you're going to bring in a guy, give him the chance to do something.

1495
02:42:32,320 --> 02:42:39,440
Exactly, I agree. Monza on the other hand are in 11th, still there, still quite as impressive

1496
02:42:39,440 --> 02:42:44,720
as they were when they first got promoted to Serie A last season, another successful year I would say

1497
02:42:44,720 --> 02:42:49,840
for them, they're in 11th with 36 points, pretty much confirming I think safety, because I don't

1498
02:42:49,840 --> 02:42:55,120
think I've ever seen a team relegated with 36 points, I think the most I've seen is 34, that

1499
02:42:55,120 --> 02:43:00,960
Mpolis team that won the season, 34 points and they got relegated I think if I'm not mistaken,

1500
02:43:00,960 --> 02:43:04,240
the one that had Traore and Caputo and all those guys.

1501
02:43:04,960 --> 02:43:12,960
I went back not too long ago and checked and I think I wrote down that 33 is the safe spot, 33 is very

1502
02:43:12,960 --> 02:43:18,080
for your sake. So they're probably okay, so another successful season for them in Monza,

1503
02:43:18,080 --> 02:43:25,040
let's see what happens to Monza, man without Berlusconi, right? At least Gagliani's still there

1504
02:43:25,040 --> 02:43:33,760
it's still under the Berlusconi family name, at one point the owner of, he's a Greek owner of

1505
02:43:33,760 --> 02:43:39,040
Olympiakos was rumoured to be taking over, but thankfully that didn't come to fruition, because

1506
02:43:39,040 --> 02:43:44,960
apparently he's quite a messy owner and he's the owner of Nothing and Forest as well, who have been

1507
02:43:44,960 --> 02:43:50,960
docked points or who are going to be docked points. Your father's team. My father's team exactly, yes.

1508
02:43:50,960 --> 02:43:54,240
Up the forest, I don't know what they say about something like that.

1509
02:43:55,840 --> 02:44:01,120
The next game we're going to be covering was a thriller, Sa Swolo 2, Empoli 3.

1510
02:44:04,000 --> 02:44:10,240
Empoli, of course, pretty much doing God's work over here under Davide Nicola. The scoring was

1511
02:44:10,240 --> 02:44:15,920
opened in the 11th minute by Luperto, assisted by Marin and the 54th minute Penamante would be

1512
02:44:15,920 --> 02:44:21,840
relieved to have scored the penalty after the one he missed the previous week. Mbayan Young followed

1513
02:44:21,840 --> 02:44:28,000
up with another penalty, his third penalty in three games in the 64th minute. Ferrari equalised in the

1514
02:44:28,000 --> 02:44:35,040
77th and then Simone Basta won it with his first goal for the club in the 94th minute and another

1515
02:44:35,040 --> 02:44:42,880
dramatic authentic moment, right? Yes, I think this was my favourite game of the entire round.

1516
02:44:42,880 --> 02:44:52,000
Yeah, it was good. I loved it. It was Empoli driving Sa Swolo coming back and then in the second half

1517
02:44:52,000 --> 02:44:58,560
it could have gone either way. It was like a total mess and somehow Empoli got it. It could have gone

1518
02:44:58,560 --> 02:45:05,760
always. It was a great match. Yeah, it could have definitely gone either way. I would have bet on

1519
02:45:05,760 --> 02:45:10,560
a draw, thankfully. I didn't touch this game or if I did it was one of my overall one slips that

1520
02:45:10,560 --> 02:45:14,880
I've been doing lately. By the way, they are so much fun, bro. I'm just watching every gay going

1521
02:45:14,880 --> 02:45:20,240
go, go, go. It's no matter who is attacking. It's the best way to watch football. You enjoy every

1522
02:45:20,240 --> 02:45:28,160
chance. You think, shoot, shoot. Yeah, but when it comes to possession stats, Sa Swolo had the slight

1523
02:45:28,160 --> 02:45:35,760
edge. When it comes to the shooting stats, pretty even, to be honest. So it was a shootout end to

1524
02:45:35,760 --> 02:45:41,920
end. That's what I enjoyed about this game, to be honest as well. It feels like when it was end to

1525
02:45:41,920 --> 02:45:45,280
end, when Empoli weren't attacking, they had to defend because Sa Swolo were attacking and vice

1526
02:45:45,280 --> 02:45:51,120
versa, end to end to end. What do you make of Empoli? Were you the one who told me you're not too

1527
02:45:51,120 --> 02:45:57,280
sure if they'll survive or was that someone else's my mistake? No, it wasn't me. I'm pretty usual

1528
02:45:57,280 --> 02:46:08,400
shot there, Sa Swolo. Yeah. I, Empoli are doing great. They, they had a really good first half.

1529
02:46:09,040 --> 02:46:14,240
Things crumbled a bit in the second half. They lost their organizational, they lost their structure.

1530
02:46:15,440 --> 02:46:22,960
And maybe by coincidence, they came back and got the winner. But considering they were the away

1531
02:46:22,960 --> 02:46:29,680
side, and maybe they have a bit less quality than Sa Swolo does, that debatable, obviously.

1532
02:46:31,040 --> 02:46:37,600
I was really impressed. The thing I liked the most, I think about Empoli is in first half,

1533
02:46:37,600 --> 02:46:43,360
they had that stretch of, let's say it was a minute and a half, maybe it was two minutes,

1534
02:46:43,360 --> 02:46:49,440
where they were just passing the ball back and forth on the left side. And Sa Swolo couldn't

1535
02:46:49,440 --> 02:46:55,920
touch it. They, they were completely possession. Like there was, it looked so effortlessly. And it

1536
02:46:55,920 --> 02:47:01,920
taught, it gave me association with Bologna when they are playing well. Everything is just flowing

1537
02:47:02,560 --> 02:47:10,320
perfectly effortlessly. There's no, how they say, there's no uncertainty about it. They know what

1538
02:47:10,320 --> 02:47:18,240
they are doing. Obviously, they, that couldn't last for 90 minutes, but I am super impressed by

1539
02:47:18,240 --> 02:47:26,880
the Empoli side. And I cannot tell them how a coach like Nicola, after just a few weeks,

1540
02:47:26,880 --> 02:47:32,960
is already making them play that much better. How is that possible? I don't get it. I don't understand.

1541
02:47:34,000 --> 02:47:40,880
Everyone in Italy talks about his humanistic qualities, his human qualities, his ability

1542
02:47:40,880 --> 02:47:46,240
to transcend that into the game. I would love to be, I would love to be a fly on the dressing room.

1543
02:47:46,240 --> 02:47:52,720
Yes. I have no idea what he does, what he says. But honestly, I think it's just

1544
02:47:53,440 --> 02:47:57,600
powerful for a short period of time, because none of his 10 years have really

1545
02:47:57,600 --> 02:48:02,240
exceeded more than a season, right? Davide Nicola, he always seems to get the sack six months in.

1546
02:48:02,240 --> 02:48:05,680
I don't know if he's got it figured out. He's just like, how to give the team a boost

1547
02:48:06,240 --> 02:48:12,880
a few months. Maybe. I have no idea how to follow up about that. Maybe he's just a very difficult

1548
02:48:12,880 --> 02:48:17,680
personality to deal with. It could be too. I don't know. We can speculate.

1549
02:48:19,120 --> 02:48:23,760
We could go on all day speculating. But what's evident is that this guy is definitely

1550
02:48:24,960 --> 02:48:31,840
a fantastic, fantastic manager. And it's just crazy. You throw him into an atmosphere where

1551
02:48:31,840 --> 02:48:39,440
everything's on fire and he'll get them out, no matter who it is. He's a miraculous save with

1552
02:48:39,440 --> 02:48:44,800
Ratona, with Salernitana. And now with the same police side who had only scored one goal,

1553
02:48:44,800 --> 02:48:48,320
and I don't know how many games that came through Baldanze, who's left since.

1554
02:48:48,320 --> 02:48:52,240
And now he's got them scoring three goals away from home in a thriller, in a high scoring

1555
02:48:52,240 --> 02:48:58,400
thriller in a relegation six pointer. He is in the fire. He likes the fire. Definitely.

1556
02:48:59,280 --> 02:49:03,520
I think so. I just wonder if we'll ever see him on a big team, man.

1557
02:49:03,520 --> 02:49:09,760
I don't have that. In a sense, I feel like he's never had a chance.

1558
02:49:09,760 --> 02:49:17,360
I didn't mean a big team, but like to stay in a place for a long, for a long time.

1559
02:49:19,520 --> 02:49:26,480
Yeah, I don't. He's quite young still, isn't he? Or at least he is. He's only 50 years old

1560
02:49:26,480 --> 02:49:31,200
for a manager that's very young. If you look at his manager career, he's managed the likes of

1561
02:49:31,200 --> 02:49:38,640
Lumezzane, Livorno, Barry Crotone, Udineza, Genoa, Torino and Salernitana with his longest.

1562
02:49:38,640 --> 02:49:44,400
They're all a year. They're all a year, man. Livorno was his longest. Other than that, it's a

1563
02:49:44,400 --> 02:49:50,080
year, just a year. Maybe that's part of his strategy. Like, sign me for a three-year contract

1564
02:49:50,080 --> 02:49:53,760
fire me after this first year, and I will collect the salary for two more years.

1565
02:49:54,960 --> 02:49:59,040
Maybe he's got it all figured out, man. This guy, maybe he's just an elite manager, but he's just

1566
02:49:59,040 --> 02:50:08,720
enjoying life and playing the smart hand. Yes, surely Sasvalo are okay, right?

1567
02:50:10,800 --> 02:50:13,120
To survive? Yeah, sure.

1568
02:50:16,960 --> 02:50:24,160
I wouldn't say so, but that's where UMEA disagree. We talked about it briefly about an hour ago.

1569
02:50:24,160 --> 02:50:34,000
Oh, really? Woos! Yeah, did I mention that when Barahidi comes, it'll be okay?

1570
02:50:40,560 --> 02:50:47,680
Yes, you did. Okay, yeah. Now, surely I'm still of the opinion, and this hour my opinion hasn't

1571
02:50:47,680 --> 02:50:55,360
changed. Sasvalo are okay. They're okay. Okay, you said it, man. They're okay.

1572
02:50:59,200 --> 02:51:08,320
But what you said something earlier about Sasvalo, about the manager and during the recording,

1573
02:51:08,320 --> 02:51:17,440
our friend, Nukmitov, told us something. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. I haven't even spoken about that, man.

1574
02:51:19,040 --> 02:51:29,280
Yes, I'll break it, sure. The Sasvalo Primavera manager was appointed as Dionisi's replacement,

1575
02:51:29,280 --> 02:51:34,240
as the head coach. I haven't even learned his name, but he's been sacked.

1576
02:51:34,240 --> 02:51:45,440
I'm going to look it up. It's, okay, I don't know how to pronounce it, Bigitia or Bigitia.

1577
02:51:46,640 --> 02:51:53,360
It's called in Bigitia or the bitch for short. Yeah, he's been, he's been sacked after one game,

1578
02:51:53,360 --> 02:52:01,360
and guess who they've brought in? David Balardini, dude. The one guy said, why didn't they bring

1579
02:52:01,360 --> 02:52:05,840
you a guy like Balardini? And they literally brought them in while we're recording this episode.

1580
02:52:06,400 --> 02:52:11,680
It's honestly, I'm so surprised. Is it really that straightforward?

1581
02:52:14,560 --> 02:52:18,720
I guess they're tired of Yakinie, right? They must be tired of Yakinie at this point.

1582
02:52:19,520 --> 02:52:25,600
But it's funny because, okay, this is going to be a bit, maybe not so good to retell, but we

1583
02:52:25,600 --> 02:52:33,120
were not recording, we took a break. And that's when we realized that this news, and during this

1584
02:52:33,120 --> 02:52:39,920
break, we're talking about like how we found it a bit weird that sometimes you as a spectator feel

1585
02:52:39,920 --> 02:52:45,680
like you have some insight or knowledge that you're not supposed to have. Like how is this not

1586
02:52:45,680 --> 02:52:51,280
evident for the people running the club? And that's for use of like, how does not

1587
02:52:51,280 --> 02:52:57,200
Sasuolo just get Balardini or something? And then five minutes later, Sasuolo gets Balardini and

1588
02:52:57,200 --> 02:53:04,800
it's like, bro, I should be running the club. Exactly, really? Really sign me up.

1589
02:53:07,840 --> 02:53:11,920
To be honest, I wouldn't mind Sasuolo getting relegated, don't tell mint of this, of course,

1590
02:53:11,920 --> 02:53:20,160
our local Sasuolo fan. I'm just not a fan of the atmosphere, man. I don't, they have no atmosphere.

1591
02:53:20,160 --> 02:53:25,200
It feels plus, like the stadium's far away from the city centre. The people of

1592
02:53:25,760 --> 02:53:32,000
Emilia, Romania support other teams. It's just not a cool team.

1593
02:53:33,360 --> 02:53:39,840
And it's a warm man team. I, okay, granted, I think Pusztvett has been very impressed with this

1594
02:53:39,840 --> 02:53:49,280
season, but no Balardini or party and that kind of decision he's gotten on ACL and now he's continued

1595
02:53:49,280 --> 02:53:58,000
with some muscle injuries, which isn't that uncommon after an ACL. It's boring to be honest.

1596
02:53:58,000 --> 02:54:03,440
I find them a bit uninteresting right now. Yeah, it's almost like they're waiting for Baradí.

1597
02:54:05,040 --> 02:54:09,200
Like, Laurent hasn't stepped up at all. I'm starting to wonder what my stance is on

1598
02:54:09,200 --> 02:54:15,760
Laurenti as a player because I don't, I hate it when you've got, okay, Laurenti and Pernambuente

1599
02:54:15,760 --> 02:54:20,800
Baradí, when they're all available, they all play well. The second Baradí is gone, no one steps up.

1600
02:54:20,800 --> 02:54:26,640
You know, like that says a lot about their mentality in my opinion. In this game, I think

1601
02:54:26,640 --> 02:54:34,000
Laurenti had like at least three good opportunities, at least three minimum good opportunities to shoot,

1602
02:54:34,000 --> 02:54:40,400
but shoot is like 10 meters above the goal. He has this, I wrote it in a group chat, like he has the

1603
02:54:40,400 --> 02:54:49,200
biggest back-back on his back, just like straight up. Yes. Yeah, leaving back boy.

1604
02:54:51,200 --> 02:54:59,600
M. Pernambuente on the penalty kick, brother. He missed the two penalties before. He missed

1605
02:54:59,600 --> 02:55:05,280
two penalties like back-to-back and then he had to retake one. He took the penalty this game.

1606
02:55:05,280 --> 02:55:11,200
He places it and he does the celebration with the hands behind his ears and then he's just like

1607
02:55:11,200 --> 02:55:19,280
stone cold looking really cool at the crowd and I'm thinking like brother relax. You scored a penalty.

1608
02:55:19,280 --> 02:55:26,880
I understand that you've been criticized, but please come on. It's weird. And you've missed the previous

1609
02:55:26,880 --> 02:55:30,560
two. You haven't scored an open play in a while. Like what are you doing? What are you doing?

1610
02:55:30,560 --> 02:55:35,760
This was Matias, he criticized Vlava for a while back as well. It was hilarious. Like Vlava should

1611
02:55:35,760 --> 02:55:40,640
score that to win his dry spell and he pulled out like three celebrations. It's like how eager have

1612
02:55:40,640 --> 02:55:46,880
you been to the point that you haven't even chosen a celebration yet? Yes. Well, I think

1613
02:55:46,880 --> 02:55:53,680
Pernambuente had at least two. He had the hands behind his ears like I want to hear you now or

1614
02:55:53,680 --> 02:56:00,160
talk now or whatever. And then afterwards he was like pushing his hands downwards, going like

1615
02:56:00,160 --> 02:56:10,480
calma, calma. I got this one. Super calm. This case. I agree with you. It's insufferable.

1616
02:56:10,480 --> 02:56:18,080
Sassuolo are currently in 18th with 20 points while Empoli are in 13th with 25 points. It's

1617
02:56:18,080 --> 02:56:25,440
looking good for them. Of course, plenty of points to be won. We're only on matchday 26. There are 38.

1618
02:56:25,440 --> 02:56:31,040
So we'll see if Nikola can keep this up. We've got one more game to cover which featured a

1619
02:56:31,040 --> 02:56:39,760
spectacular goal, bro. This was Genoa 2. Odineza, Nyl. This game saw a brilliant Retegui overhead kick.

1620
02:56:40,480 --> 02:56:45,520
Bonnie, header, thanks for the lovely Goodminton assist. And then Goodminton in the second half

1621
02:56:45,520 --> 02:56:52,320
getting Kristin's incentive for a second yellow card. Pretty much a comfortable and dominant display

1622
02:56:52,320 --> 02:56:58,320
from Genoa. And I know that when I was planning to record this episode on my own,

1623
02:56:58,320 --> 02:57:04,800
you had sent me quite a few points, thankfully, because I would have flopped, bro.

1624
02:57:06,800 --> 02:57:16,800
And you mentioned Mr. Gilaradino flying under the radar. Gilaradino is a very, very highly

1625
02:57:16,800 --> 02:57:23,840
rated manager in Italy nowadays. He's considered to be one of the hottest up and coming prospects and

1626
02:57:23,840 --> 02:57:34,560
management in Italy. He is tactically flexible. He's adaptable. He adapts his system depending

1627
02:57:34,560 --> 02:57:39,360
on the game. He's not afraid to change things up and to change personnel up, to switch formation

1628
02:57:39,360 --> 02:57:44,240
every now and then. And to be honest, when it comes to uniting a group, he also seems to be pretty

1629
02:57:44,240 --> 02:57:49,200
bloody good at it. He took over Blessin. And Blessin was a pretty good manager already when it

1630
02:57:49,200 --> 02:57:57,200
comes to these things exactly. And Blessin was the king of Gaghan press, no, they called him. So

1631
02:57:57,200 --> 02:58:02,240
he had big shoes to fill and taking over. But he's done fantastically. He's got them promoted and

1632
02:58:02,240 --> 02:58:06,960
he's got them pretty much mid table in Syria. I think Gilaradino is doing a fantastic job.

1633
02:58:06,960 --> 02:58:16,080
I did not know he had that much space in Italy. And this is a little bit why I asked the question

1634
02:58:16,080 --> 02:58:22,400
to you because for me, it seems weird that he's so good at doing such a good job, but I don't hear

1635
02:58:22,400 --> 02:58:28,400
much about him. I don't hear that much about Genoa. And that's why I asked, like, is he being a little

1636
02:58:28,400 --> 02:58:34,880
bit overshadowed by Tiago Mata, who is also overachieving? Or is he being overshadowed by

1637
02:58:34,880 --> 02:58:45,760
Monza, who also was a newly promoted team who did very well in the first season.

1638
02:58:47,600 --> 02:58:55,760
But yeah, he's definitely found the right balance. And that's, I think, the main thing is,

1639
02:58:55,760 --> 02:59:02,000
it's not offensive. They are offensive, but they're also very solid in defense. They're not

1640
02:59:02,000 --> 02:59:10,480
that allowing many goals to get. Yeah, absolutely. And even with the departure of Dragosin, who many

1641
02:59:10,480 --> 02:59:15,120
could have easily said, oh, you lose Dragosin. Obviously, you're going to take a dip defensively.

1642
02:59:15,120 --> 02:59:19,840
You're not going to be as good, but they've been solid with or without Dragosin. And you get to

1643
02:59:19,840 --> 02:59:27,840
see, he's got the system, man, where you don't really know who's playing where, man. Like Vasquez

1644
02:59:27,840 --> 02:59:33,040
had two of the best opportunities in the first half. It was all Vasquez getting on the end of

1645
02:59:33,040 --> 02:59:38,480
it. Like, he's kind of mirroring this system that like Atalanta and Inter are doing with the

1646
02:59:39,280 --> 02:59:43,760
center back, or like what Fiora and Tina do with Martinez-Quarta. He kind of does it as well with

1647
02:59:43,760 --> 02:59:49,040
Vasquez. I think Vasquez is a pretty good offensive center back as well. He recently

1648
02:59:49,040 --> 02:59:56,320
prolonged his contract to 2029, I think. Yeah, yeah. Let me help you with that. Vasquez is Mexican,

1649
02:59:56,320 --> 03:00:05,200
right? Yes. So I keep writing back of my kid. That's a name. No, honestly, I remember Vasquez

1650
03:00:05,200 --> 03:00:12,400
from last time in Serie A. I wasn't too impressed with him, I'll be honest. But he seems that he's

1651
03:00:12,400 --> 03:00:19,280
growing throughout the season. I didn't really notice him very much in the beginning of this season,

1652
03:00:19,280 --> 03:00:28,480
but now in this game particularly, he's starting to come up to the goal. He's getting to those

1653
03:00:28,480 --> 03:00:34,800
chances, but then again, you can also say he missed it. Yeah, absolutely. That's totally fair.

1654
03:00:36,320 --> 03:00:41,840
As a defender, he reminds me a little bit of Romero when it comes to the rushing,

1655
03:00:41,840 --> 03:00:53,680
the way he presses centerbacks, sorry, he presses strikers a little bit aggressively.

1656
03:00:53,680 --> 03:01:00,560
You know what I mean? He fouls a lot and he often gets booked. That was my big criticism

1657
03:01:00,560 --> 03:01:04,960
with when he was with Cremonese. I believe he was with Cremonese, I think. He would often get

1658
03:01:04,960 --> 03:01:08,720
sent off, man, I think back in the day. Don't quote me on that. I'm not sure if it was with

1659
03:01:08,720 --> 03:01:18,320
Cremonese. Yeah, I can check that. But yeah, he's an aggressive dog as a player, but he's really

1660
03:01:18,320 --> 03:01:25,200
learning how to kind of balance that and to add more to his game, because you can't just be all

1661
03:01:25,200 --> 03:01:35,680
bloody fucking aggression all the time. Busquets, Genoa. Turns out I can't multitask, I truly am male.

1662
03:01:35,680 --> 03:01:41,840
Now let's see. No, he's been with Cremonese, by the way. He was with Cremonese on loan last season.

1663
03:01:53,360 --> 03:01:59,280
That's the last game, yes. We can pretty much say where they are. Genoa 12th with 33 points,

1664
03:01:59,280 --> 03:02:05,680
while Udineze are down in 15th with 23 points. Udineze also have a little bit too much quality,

1665
03:02:05,680 --> 03:02:12,960
right? To be worried about. Yeah, definitely. They are safe. I was, dude, Matt and I often talk

1666
03:02:12,960 --> 03:02:20,000
about Lorenzo Lucca, because I'm a big fan of Lorenzo Lucca. When it comes to more shit

1667
03:02:20,000 --> 03:02:24,160
Zlatan comparisons, that's another shit. One of you want to make another shit Zlatan comparisons

1668
03:02:24,160 --> 03:02:33,360
for another guy who's big and has decent technique. However, man, when it comes to being a nine,

1669
03:02:33,360 --> 03:02:41,360
it's a shame he's not better in the air. Yeah, I haven't really thought that much about it,

1670
03:02:41,360 --> 03:02:48,400
but maybe he's better with his feet than his head. When you look at the player who's standing at

1671
03:02:48,400 --> 03:02:54,000
six foot six, six foot seven, he's a giant. The guy is massive. He's taller than most goalkeepers,

1672
03:02:54,000 --> 03:02:57,840
he's taller than most centrebacks than all the centrebacks, to be honest. You'd expect him to

1673
03:02:57,840 --> 03:03:04,160
be a little bit more dominant in the air. Do you not think that's something that's kind of comes

1674
03:03:05,120 --> 03:03:12,000
by itself, in a way? As long as he keeps playing at a high level, he keeps progressing, he keeps

1675
03:03:12,000 --> 03:03:18,880
doing his work constantly. I think that's going to more or less sort itself out. I think so. He's

1676
03:03:18,880 --> 03:03:24,880
got age on his side. He's quite a young striker, 23, 24, something like that, years old. Yeah,

1677
03:03:24,880 --> 03:03:31,440
I think he'll only get better in that department. The impressive thing is how skillful he is and

1678
03:03:31,440 --> 03:03:36,240
how good his first touch is and how intelligent he is. Those are the traits that it would be

1679
03:03:36,240 --> 03:03:41,120
concerning if he didn't have at his age. I guess he's on the right track completely. I'm a massive

1680
03:03:41,120 --> 03:03:47,280
fan of Lorenzo Lucca, don't get me wrong. It's just a shame when you see how wasteful Daneze were

1681
03:03:47,280 --> 03:03:52,240
in the first half and he was the one missing them. The second half he scored, he actually scored,

1682
03:03:52,240 --> 03:03:57,280
but it was deemed to be a foul and it was called off. Apparently he got the ball first, slightly

1683
03:03:57,280 --> 03:04:04,160
controversial. I think it's understandable that it was called off. He did swipe. It was a foul,

1684
03:04:04,160 --> 03:04:09,760
but what I liked about it is he's shown this, if we're going to do this lot on comparison,

1685
03:04:09,760 --> 03:04:14,320
he's showing this hunger, he's showing this passion. I think that's something that Lucca has,

1686
03:04:14,320 --> 03:04:22,080
is that he has a determination he doesn't like to lose. He gets pissed off. He has this inner drive

1687
03:04:22,640 --> 03:04:29,280
to compete and to win. I liked it about him. Absolutely. Yes, I totally agree, bro.

1688
03:04:31,680 --> 03:04:37,600
Yeah, we're done, bro. That's a wrap. That's absolutely crazy. It's three hours and four

1689
03:04:37,600 --> 03:04:44,960
minutes. Now, from what I saw from the stream yard thing is that we get two hours of upload time.

1690
03:04:44,960 --> 03:04:49,600
So I might have to pay the subscription, but I'm going to be on some willing. I'll do it for a month.

1691
03:04:51,360 --> 03:04:55,520
Yeah, fuck it. This has been great, Alan. I think we should do this more often personally if you're

1692
03:04:55,520 --> 03:05:01,920
willing. If I'm willing, but if you're willing, I mean, three, an hour over time, I think Matt is

1693
03:05:01,920 --> 03:05:09,040
going to kill us. No, he'll be fine. He's going to enjoy listening to it. He's got a 15 minute

1694
03:05:09,040 --> 03:05:11,920
commute, which means that he'll be listening to this episode for a month.

1695
03:05:14,640 --> 03:05:20,560
Now, if you need me, I'm there, but I will be on the side, but for you, I'm not because that's

1696
03:05:20,560 --> 03:05:27,680
the chemistry that I like. You're great together. So I hope I never would be needed again.

1697
03:05:27,680 --> 03:05:32,960
Matt, yeah. Thank you very much for accepting, Al. You really saved me.

1698
03:05:34,400 --> 03:05:41,680
Honestly, I don't mind recording alone, but it never comes out quite as good as it does with

1699
03:05:41,680 --> 03:05:49,040
someone else to bounce off of. You've got a very good amount of ball knowledge, to be honest, bro.

1700
03:05:49,040 --> 03:05:55,280
You spoke well about every single team. It shows you either watch very carefully or you listen to

1701
03:05:55,280 --> 03:06:01,600
a very good podcast. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, you see the run of those. I don't know which.

1702
03:06:05,680 --> 03:06:09,920
So thank you very much for listening, guys. We have been Alan and Jake.

1703
03:06:11,120 --> 03:06:16,960
Thank you and we'll see you next week. Cheers. This is Serie A Spotlight.

1704
03:06:18,320 --> 03:06:22,640
If you like Serie A or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good opportunity for you

1705
03:06:22,640 --> 03:06:27,040
to listen once a week and you'll get filled in. In the football weekend, that's like the main dish.

1706
03:06:27,040 --> 03:06:31,520
But then a few days later, you drop your episode and that's like the dessert.

1707
03:06:32,080 --> 03:06:37,760
And the dessert is just perfect. It's good, okay? It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room

1708
03:06:37,760 --> 03:06:45,600
together, just BSing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise nobody will ask you to send

1709
03:06:45,600 --> 03:06:51,200
boob pics. Sometimes it may be good, sometimes it may be shit. I love how you go into so much

1710
03:06:51,200 --> 03:07:00,560
detail and show so much passion towards each and every team. Literally no team is left undiscussed.

1711
03:07:00,560 --> 03:07:03,440
When I listen to you, it's like I'm talking to you in a pub.

1712
03:07:03,440 --> 03:07:21,120
It's like I'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me.