Here's Tova, runners in the middle.
Oh my word!
Hassan Kamara, take a bow.
I mean if you're gonna score your first set of alcohol, then it might as well be like that.
Sure it is like a melody and welcome back to another episode of Seria Spotlight.
This is episode 116 and we are hosts Matt and Jake here to talk to you guys about matchday 27.
Welcome back bro.
Thank you very much.
Did you have a lovely birthday? Did you enjoy it?
I had a very lucky birthday. Yes, I mean on the day I was pretty much working and then I just went out for a few beers after I think a one hour and a half session playing table tennis.
So it was okay in that sense, it was good and then the weekend is where the magic happened, right?
You go out with day drinking, you go to the spa, get a nice massage, like get all oiled up and use the indoor pool, the Jacuzzi, the sauna.
So quite a lucky birthday. How are you feeling? You're sick as fuck, no?
I'm sick, yes man. I've been inside for two days. I've had feverish nights.
But yeah, I'm here. I'm here and I'm ready to go and I've done my prep and I'm ready bro.
My guy, I mean how could you not do your prep if you're at home all day instead of at work?
I know right? You better do your prep.
Of course, the problem is trying to stay awake while doing it.
Did you hear the episode with Alan?
Not all of it. So it's three hours long, right? Which is fantastic because I'm sure it's great content.
I've managed to listen to half of it. I have to extend my thanks to Alan obviously for stepping in even on short notice.
And I thought he was brilliant.
He was great.
I thought he was excellent.
Very level headed speaker.
Well done Alan. We'll do it again for sure. Even a segment with Jake, myself and yourself would be super happy to have you on again.
And to be honest, we extend the invite to the rest of our Patreon list because they're all so well versed about the game.
It'll be great to have their insight on the pod.
So all of our Patrons from Alan down to Ed, of course, it's Alan, Andrew and the Anthony Tim, Campbell, Sluge, Mcnudel, Lena, David, Kyle, Luca, Mathias, Mint, Michael, Tonna and Ed.
Thank you very much for your support.
And yeah, hopefully we can have you all on eventually.
Yeah, thank you.
Homies and home et because we do have one home et who we love.
When it comes to the goal of the week, we've decided.
So firstly, not that many goals this week.
I don't think there was a single game where a team scored three goals.
It's all if you look at the scores to one, one, one.
Roma popped off as they have been.
Yeah, of course, of course.
And that's my game. I should know that.
And Roma's almost guaranteed three plus goals a game at the moment, especially with how the ball is playing.
The ball has scored a great goal.
A free kick. That's his fourth goal this week, bro.
Juana had a lovely Tira Jira with his left into the top corner. Amazing goal. Amazing.
Carboni had Andrea.
assisted by Valentin.
Yes, it was a carbon squared.
Carbon are Ferguson had a great volley from outside the area against Atlanta.
But when there's an overhead kick, especially scored in the manner in which Kamara scored it.
Brilliant goal.
Even the ball is coming behind him like that.
It was a pitch of a ball from Thuvan, by the way, what a fantastic game.
But the technique on the bicycle kick to get his first goal in Serie A was stupendous.
Yes, amazing. Amazing still.
Not my favorite overhead kick we've seen in Serie A.
I recently thought about that Lea over head kick, the one where he seemed to be falling to the ground.
And he extended like I believe it was against Lazio.
I can't quite remember if it was Lazio though.
But yeah, that was a funny one.
He was falling on his ass and he was bicycle kicks it into the back of the net.
He sacrificed a year of goals for that one.
But there's also European competitions as you know guys.
Now obviously we're recording this episode on a Wednesday.
So we know what happened yesterday, but we don't know what's going to happen tonight.
And we don't know what's going to happen on Thursday, naturally.
So yesterday Lazio unfortunately fumbled it and lost 3-0 against Bayern Munich.
So that victory was very short lived and it's been somewhat of a devastating week for Lazio.
Today currently there is Sporting Lisbon against Atalanta, which is currently tied at 1-1 at half time.
I believe Skamakka just equalized after some shambolic defending, but he did super well.
Tomorrow there's Roma Brighton and I think Brighton Roma rather, I think Brighton are home.
Yes, Brighton are home in the first leg.
There's Milan Slavia Prague tomorrow and then next week the second leg of the Champions League as well with interfacing off against Atletico Madrid.
And the other one is...
Yeah, there's also tomorrow there's...
Yes, Napoli Barca next week and tomorrow there's also Maccabi Haifa against Fiorentina.
Yes, Maccabi Haifa, we watch them live against the mighty Hamrun Spartans.
Because they had to go through the playoffs for the conference league and that involved the game against the multi-steam Hamrun Spartans.
And Maccabi Haifa looked pretty good to be honest compared to Hamrun.
Well, they absolutely...
So first Hamrun were doing decently and then Maccabi Haifa fans decided to throw flares onto the pitch.
And then Hamrun fans decided to get a little bit nasty with their chance and the game was suspended for one hour and 15 minutes.
That we were spending just waiting there, working the next day, your colleague kept bringing us beers.
So I got absolutely demolished like my head was spinning during the game.
So that was an experience.
It was. Fiorentina should have done one in the bag of course.
Yeah, yeah, I reckon so.
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And on that note, we can jump straight to the rundown, bro.
Yes, sir. We'll start things off with Inter's 2-1 victory over Genoa,
which saw Inter extend their lead to 15 points over Juventus at the top of the table.
Controversial call for Inter's penalty there, which ended up subsequently winning them the game.
Napoli 2-1 was perhaps quite a shock when you consider that Napoli have recently been through a terrible spell of form
and just recently changed coaches, but they did enough over there to beat Juventus-1.
They were simply just more effective.
Lazio-Nil Milan 1 in a very chaotic game, a very rough game,
which saw three red cards for Lazio, two of them, which were caused by Christian Pulisic,
who did a fantastic job to get those players riling everyone up.
And this was the first time our cover photo featured a referee.
So congratulations, DeBello, for our fellow League of Legends players.
That's a take on Twisted Fate, the champion over there.
So yeah, keep going, please.
Very cool, bro. Twisted Fate of League of Legends.
Wow. Atalanta-1, Bologna-2 in what was one of the many very crucial fixtures
we had over here. Atalanta and Bologna are directly competing for that fourth spot
and subsequently Champions League, that is Atalanta's second loss this week
after losing 4-0 to Inter earlier.
They're down six points and as a result of that, significantly down in the table.
Monsa-1, Roma-4, not even kidding.
Roma are insane at the moment.
And to think this is the Monsa side that beat Milan 4 goals to 2
and DeBello with another goal and another assist.
That's his fourth goal this week after he scored a hat-trick earlier this week on Monday.
Pardon me. Verona-1, Sasvolo-0.
This is a terrible period for Sasvolo.
They now find themselves in 19th place.
They're between their third manager in the past three games, I believe.
A bit of an identity crisis, hopefully some continuity will see them improve.
And they've lost Barardi, which is the worst part of the tour.
Pantelto-2025, bro, which is absolutely...
He's a terrible man.
Yeah, this was, as you guys know, a relegation six-pointer
and the following are all relegation six-pointers.
There's Empolli-nil-calieri-1, a shock defeat for Empolli.
They were on three wins and three draws under their new management.
However, Calieri have managed to stop the David.
Nicola-train, Udinese-1, Salernetana-1, Salernetana-1
open the scoring through a fire strike.
And then Udinese equalized through an even more fire strike.
Frozinone-1, Lecce-1.
These are all mental relegation six-pointers, bro.
Frozinone-1, Lecce-1, Frozinone-1,
potentially with the chances they had.
They could have won this game, but Lecce did enough.
And then the final game.
We always leave a good nil-nil to the end, right?
This is an entire relegation six-pointer.
Anything of the sort, but it's Torino-nil, Fiorentina-nil.
Which featured a lovely exchange between Yuric and Italiano,
which we were here to.
So wholesome, right?
So wholesome.
Yuric just seems like such a nice guy, doesn't he?
Yeah, yeah, gentle.
He's never been caught cussing out the owners of the club by their...
He's just an overall chill dude.
A nice guy, you know?
He's never been caught spying in a tree.
No, no.
He's a sister-touch.
That's fucking hilarious, bro.
Spying, yeah.
But let's start off, bro.
Inter-2, Genoa-1.
Inter were coming off three-four nil victories in a row.
One against Salernitana, one against Lecce,
and the last midweek one against Atalanta.
Genoa were coming off two nil-win over Odinesia,
and the previous encounter was the last time that Inter dropped points.
Which was last December, Genoa-1, Inter-1.
That's the last time that Inter dropped points in Serie A.
Inter have now won all 12 of their Serie A matches played in 2024.
They were extra pumped naturally as Juve had lost to Napoli the night before,
so they looked to increase their lead at the top to 15.
Genoa, impressively, had lost only one of their last 11 Serie A matches, bro.
Yeah, they've been on a good run, man.
Yeah, and they have a great team, great manager,
but impressive stuff nonetheless for a newly promoted team.
Bastoni was suspended, with Cialanooglu and Quadrado injured.
Turam and Acerbi were only fit for the bench.
Genoa at full flow, however, Madenovsky was on the bench.
3-5-2 for Inter, Summer and Gold,
backline of Augusto, Devry and Pavard.
They mark out on the left, Dumfries out on the right,
on the midfield three of you-guested Barella,
actually you didn't guess it, Barella, Aslani and Miquetarian.
As I mentioned earlier, Cialanooglu is injured,
with Sanchez and Martinez up front, the Esbros.
Speaking of Eses, it was Martinez in goal for Genoa
in also a 3-5-2 formation, the Winter, Bani and Vasquez at the back,
Sabelli on the right, Martin on the left,
and a midfield three of Messias, Badel and Frenjup,
Goodminton and Retegui starting up front together.
Now Genoa started the game off by getting the better chances,
actually they started very aggressively,
and they almost opened the scoring.
After Summer brilliantly denied Retegui's header,
and Goodminton did not react in time to back the rebound,
that was a scare for Inter that could have changed
the entire outcome of the game had they gotten a goal so early.
However in the 30th minute, it was Aslani that opened the scoring for Inter,
it was a brilliant and direct passage of play by Inter,
almost trademark at this point,
which ended with Aslani smashing his finish into the roof of the net
after a good through pass by Sanchez,
that is Aslani's first goal for Inter.
And what a way to take it man, very good goal.
Brilliant finish, and it seemed like he was a little bit nervous before,
there was one time in particular where he fumbled,
controlling the ball and he gave away another corner,
he didn't seem on top of his game, by the way he took that goal,
maybe I'm fucking up because it seemed like a very confident finish.
Absolutely, absolutely, and two replacements managed to score the important goals this game,
Aslani and Sanchez with the penalty of course,
when Lautaro can't, Sanchez can't.
Exactly, and that's exactly what we're getting into now,
six minutes later in the 36th minute,
a penalty was awarded to Inter and converted by Sanchez.
Referee Iroldi shockingly pointed to the spot after
Frendrup slid in and tripped Barella after the Italian had taken his shot.
VAR instructed Iroldi to view the monitor,
and after doing so he stuck to his on-field decision.
Now after further investigation,
certain angles even show that Frendrup made contact with the ball
after colliding with Barella.
The score was absolutely bizarre, even the commentator couldn't believe it.
Sanchez stepped up and sent Martinez the wrong way,
scoring his first Serie A goal in two years.
I'll just finish the play-by-play and we'll jump straight into that as a talking point.
54th minute Vasquez got one back, quite impressively,
actually a goal of the weekend, I would say.
For Genoa it was Devrae's header that was cleared only as far as Vasquez,
who struck a first-time volley from the edge of the area into the bottom corner.
Brilliant goal by the man who has started every single game for Genoa this season.
Let's jump straight into the penalty.
What did you think, first and foremost?
I thought it was a really controversial man, to be honest with you.
I think this week saw two controversial calls as well with the whole Milan Lazio one as well.
But this one just didn't strike me to be a penalty man.
What was the official... Have we got a verdict?
Has the referee already spoken about it since?
I don't know if the referee has spoken about it since,
but what I saw is that VAR have showed data from the end,
they explored all angles and it does showcase that, not that it matters,
but it got a touch to the ball. To me it doesn't even fucking matter if it got a touch to the ball.
That is, bro. You know when I say FIFA bullshit, when we're playing FIFA,
you shoot, I slide, and then fucking three seconds later,
four seconds later after the keeper saved the target, it went out, whatever,
your player trips over, mine and the referee blows and gives a penalty,
and I say that's FIFA bullshit, and they've since patched it,
because it doesn't even happen in the game anymore.
It's such bullshit that they've patched it.
That is exactly how Inter got their penalty.
Now to make matters worse, they got the ball.
Now what is bizarre to me is that the referee instantly awarded a penalty, the genius.
And then VAR got more, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, have a look at this, have a look, G.
He goes, he looks, he looks for one minute and a half, and he sticks to his decision.
I found it absolutely bizarre, and I'm not one of those to jump on the bandwagon of Marotta League or whatever,
but this one was bullshit, man. This one to me, in my opinion, some nerds can come out,
I know the rules better than me and tell me that I'm wrong, but to me, this should never, absolutely, never be a penalty.
Yes, I agree, and it did kind of tarnish the game a little bit, because Genoma were playing really well,
and they actually managed to score to get back into it, so that would have been an equalizer, of course, without the penalty.
But it's just statistically, man, Inter just head on shoulders above the rest,
and usually when you have a team that attacks so much, you're bound to get many calls for penalties.
You remember Milan and the Scudetto winning season, how many penalties they were awarded, everyone saying,
Milan keep getting these penalties, that's because they were bombarding the box, bombarding constantly.
I get that, I get that.
So they're bound to get a few decisions in their favor, you know, when it comes to this stuff.
I just, you know, as we always scream for continuity, consistency, transparency, it would be nice to hear why they thought this was a penalty.
I'm going to hit you with a kind of counterproductive, what about, ism, because if that's a penalty,
Tati Castellanios should have been given a penalty against Milan, when Mike, when there was a defensive clusterfuck,
Mike cleared the ball, and after he cleared the ball, he clattered Castellanios.
Now the argument is that he got the ball over there, but so did he, but whatever.
Yeah, honestly, I don't even know what to say.
Yeah, for me, they're both soft, they both shouldn't be.
Yeah, I agree.
Jumping on to another point away from the controversy, and this was Simone Enzaghi's 300th Serie A match with yet another victory,
marking his 179th win in the league.
Where would you rank him with the best managers in the world at the moment?
One of the best, absolutely, at the moment for me.
When you look at managers who don't get the players and the personnel that they want, he is one of the most successful.
Because it was really smart by Inter to bring him in, to be honest, because I was thinking about this last time,
and how well Marotta can run a football club.
And the league, I'm joking.
You're joking.
Yeah, so he was at Lazio, Simone Enzaghi, a team which every season would get progressively worse,
maybe not worse, but it definitely wouldn't get stronger.
So he didn't really have the backing of the chairman or the owner and lotito, right?
Yeah.
Marotta knew the situation at Inter.
He knows the financial situation, of course, that they're not able to splash and to upgrade every single position,
and the fact that they're going to be losing stars.
Marotta is the type of player who can bring in good replacements on a budget, if even on a budget,
because he brings most of these players in for free.
And Enzaghi has always been the type to manage to get the best out of the players that he has.
He showed that at Lazio.
He managed to win Coppa Italia trophies with players who you would never think could win this trophy.
Jordan Lukaku.
There we go, Jordan Lukaku playing as the left wing back.
So yeah, I think it was very smart to bring him in, and I think he's impressed.
He's created his own brand, the 352 formation.
This is what I was telling Alan in the last episode.
It's very different to Contest 3 at the back system.
Contest is more of a 3-4-3.
This has a kind of its own spin on it.
It's offensive, it's solid at the back.
The defenders kind of act as playmakers.
The midfielders can drop deep and play as 6s, or when they get the ball they will become 10s.
It's crazy, and the versatility of this team.
Inter are a super offensive team that never seem to be caught out on a counter.
How the fuck is that even possible?
The way they position themselves as a team, they're always in the right place at the right time.
You see that the right players are hanging back when they're attacking,
the right players are hanging forward while they're defending,
and the thing is, it's so well rehearsed, it's like clockwork.
Even that classic kind of...
They have a great passage of play that they could do round the wings with those 1-2s with the Marco,
and then the Marco overlaps and whips in a dirty ball.
And these that they do through the middle focused around Barella,
it's genius, and the way Lautaro comes back to help out,
clockwork is the best way I can describe the way that Inter play.
One more note on this game is that despite how good Inter are,
Genoa were not scared of them in this game.
Genoa went out fearless, they were bombarding Inter with pressure,
and they almost had success.
Had that penalty not been given, had in some parallel universe,
Retegui scored that header, or Goodminton got the rebound in,
it could have been a very different game.
And in the second half after Genoa scored, they were looking for that equalizer, bro.
They were hungry for it.
Yeah, because they've got a nice cushion from the relegation side for now.
So they do afford to kind of go forward and give Inter all they can.
I'm a bit disappointed I didn't get anything out of this game,
but it seems like Julladino seems to know something about Nzageta,
maybe the other coaches might not,
because even as you said the last time Inter dropped points was against Julladino,
and they got very close over here to doing it again.
So Kudos to Genoa, Kudos to Julladino for having such an organized side as well.
Well, the teams that they struggled against are Genoa, Julladino's Genoa, and Bologna.
So Motano's Inter, because he's played almost the majority of his career at Inter,
and Julladino obviously may be from spying in trees and listening to their tactics.
Inter obviously first 72 points in 27 matches, he's a ridiculous man.
They are on course to beat you as record, and I believe the 2014-2015 season,
correct me if I'm wrong, Gevortek, I believe they can't lose another game.
If they lose another game, then they will have to beat you.
Alan said he did the match. I trust him, I'm sure he did.
I'm definitely not doing the match, the match is not my forte.
But yes, apparently they can only lose one game.
Now, will they manage to do that? Probably not, they're in the Champions League,
they've got a comfortable cushion and say...
Bro, but they only lost one.
Yes, but now's the time to rest players to save some of their stars for the Champions League.
I think they can do it, bro, to be honest.
Is it likely? No, but is having 69 goals scored?
No, but they weren't in the knockout round yet, they weren't in the knockout stages of the biggest tournament.
But they had their injuries, they had a massive defensive crisis, and now they have Sanchez scoring,
they've got Arnautovic scoring, they've got Aslani scoring, they've got Fraterzi scoring.
Sure, sure. However, remember that now even the easy games are going to become tougher and tougher
because these sides are all facing relegation threats.
It is obviously less... it's more of a possibility that they don't, than they do.
But they can, is my point. They are fucking capable.
Do you think they will?
I don't think they will, because like you're saying, and also I just never back a team to go undefeated ever,
especially in the latter stages of the season, you play Caliari and it's harder than playing Fiorentina
at the latter stages of the season.
Absolutely.
So, I don't think so, but I'm not ruling it out.
Yeah, I just, you know, I envision injuries happening, of course, the season is long, this is crunch time,
I imagine that a few players will falter for them.
They're going to get a European heavyweight if they get past Atletico, which I assume they will.
And they'll have to start, you know, resting a few of these guys.
And if you go into a game against, for example, I don't know, Hellas Varona at the moment,
and you start the game, resting Barella, Lautaro, and Bastauni, for example, you know, you risk dropping points over there.
And I highly doubt they give a fuck about this record, to be honest right now.
They have a chance to win the league and to win a cup as well in the Champions League.
That would be a massive season for them.
So, I'm sure that's what the prioritise right now.
Absolutely.
So, Inter first 15 points ahead, not truly.
On the other hand, I'm blanking out Genoa, right, and 12th on 33 points.
Now, this is a nice little mid-table battle.
There's Genoa and 12th, Monza on 11th.
Do remember that Monza are the most successful debut team in Serie A, their first season since promotion,
actually their first season ever, but this stat is a Serie B team that goes up to Serie A.
They had the most success.
Who knows, maybe Genoa will want to take that crown off them.
They are just three points behind them, and just four points behind Torino and Tent, so it's possible.
Yeah, two very exciting teams over there.
As long as they're not playing against Inter, Monza.
So, yeah, Napoli played against Juventus at the Maradona, the previous encounter,
so Juve beating them 1-0.
This happened in December, and Gatti had scored the second half winner to refresh your memory a little bit.
This went a little bit differently as Napoli got all three points over here.
They had Meretti and Gould.
It was a 4-3-3 back to the Spalletti days for Calzona, right?
That's definitely the vibe around Napoli right now.
And you also got a yellow card in this game, so definitely mimicking Spalletti over here.
So, De Lorenzo was out on the right, and Mattias Oliveira was out on the left with Rahmani,
and Juan Jesus is a centre-back partnership with the midfield three of Anguissa Lobotka and Hamad Trauery.
That's right, Trauery was playing in midfield.
Interesting tinkering by Colantuano.
Yeah, anything not to play.
Sorry, not Colantuano, Calzona.
My god, yeah.
Anything not to play Ziellinsky at the moment, every single manager that I've had avoided Ziellinsky like the plague.
Yeah, I guess he's probably acting like he's got one foot out the door.
That must be the case because he's a very talented player, you know, you'd want to play him.
He's ridiculous.
Paulitano started out wide.
Gavaratskeli on the other side with Victor Ozimen up front for Juve.
It was a 3-5-2 formation with Cesnien Gould, Sandro Bremer and Rugani at the back
with Cambiazo on the right and Dilling Jr. on the left.
Miretti, Locatelli and Alcaraz were in the middle with Vlaovic and Keza up front.
Of course, Juve are suffering quite a few injuries.
They've got Deschilio out, they've got Keen out, McKenney, Perin and Rabio all injured, of course.
This is excluding Fajoli and Pogba who have both been banned.
And players like Keza and Danilo aren't even at 100%.
Yeah, and for Napolika, you stand in Gonj.
Yeah, had muscle injuries.
Paul started in the 10th minute when Vlaovic missed an unmarked header wide of the post
following a lovely cross by Keza.
Juve would go on to get three yellow cards before the 30th minute.
Crazy.
And then Vlaovic, Bremer and Cambiazo definitely a heated affair over there with Napoli bringing it to Juventus.
De Lorenzo, Volidheim after being found in space and Samuel Lilling Jr's effort was saved by Miretti.
Lilling Jr went over to fire from a promising position but he failed to hit the target.
Vlaovic chipped Meret brilliantly and hit the post after being played by Keza.
Yet again, Keza must have been really raging at his teammate.
He's constantly squandering the chances he was putting him in.
Gvardskelia managed to score a fantastic goal with Avoli at the near post
and this came in the 42nd minute just before half time
and his celebration was absolutely brilliant as he went for a knee slide and then got up saying
I'm staying right here, I'm the guy, I'm staying here really embracing the role of a leader
while Viktor Ozim and on the other hand really seems to not, it's not like he's not performing well, you know.
He's had a great start since coming back from Afgorn.
This was the first game where he seemed to struggle.
Absolutely, but Gvardskelia really shows that he's here for...
For not the long run but definitely for longer than Ozim and who kind of has one foot out the door already.
Maybe Gvara's agent was on to something when he said what he said.
I won't repeat it because Ozim and will have a stroke I think.
Yeah, Vlaovic could have had the first half, Hatry came as very good opportunities in the first half
and in the second half the team would be the same as Meret and Vlaovic
to open the second half by missing chances.
Eventually in the 81st minute Federico Chiesa scored a lovely sniper-storing parity for Juventus in the final 10 minutes.
He was found well by Alcaraz but to be honest he really had to kind of get his Robocop on
and pull off a Vlaovic-esque finish from an awkward angle.
A Vlaovic-esque finish of the previous games, not of this one of course.
Now, Allegri brought on 18 year old Joseph Nonghe.
A bit of a strange decision to bring on an 18 year old in the Maradona and such a heated affair
and this player went on to foul Ozim and in the area conceding a penalty.
Victor Ozim stepped up to take the penalty. He's not very good at them, let's be honest.
He won Laotaro two of the best strikers in the league but they can't hit penalties to save their lives.
He missed it, it was saved brilliantly by Chesny who's a specialist.
The Juventus defenders should know that Chesny is a specialist and they shouldn't be flat footed.
They were flat footed however. And Raspadoe reacted the quickest to score the rebound
securing Nopolis 2-1 victory.
At the end of the game, Rogani skied a golden opportunity in the 91st.
They have become a late Euro again but that would prove to be enough and that was the game.
Bro, I thought Juve played some decent football and I thought that they created way more than Nopolis did.
The difference is that they didn't take their chances, right?
I think when it comes to, if we could see Juve's game plan coming into this game
and whether or not it was executed, more than likely was executed.
It's just they didn't take their chances.
Had they taken their chances, had Vladovic even taken one of the chances he had in the first half.
It would have been a completely, completely different game.
I have to say though that Nopolis, as much as you know,
Juve are always going to give you time on the ball and they're always going to invite you to attack.
I just think that a little bit of that spunk for Nopolis is back.
Too early to tell whether or not this calzone a guy is going to improve this team
because one victory, be it over Juve or not, is not enough of a case study to tell.
But I do think that Nopolis had a good game over here as well.
The mood, I think he's improved more than anything else.
I think the fact that they have a manager who was around when they won the league
just brings them good vibes, that's a good feeling for them.
Maybe they think that this guy knows what their beautiful style is all about
and he can let them play with a little bit more freedom offensively.
It was with them up until 8-9 months ago, last season.
You say the good old days like it was fucking 1992.
But it seems like it was 1992, because that was three managers ago.
They come to think of it, you know, Rudi Garcia and Mazzari were there.
And this was a time when the mood was much, much, much better, practically alien.
We've seen, Gvara this game looked happier than I've seen him in a while.
He's a player who wears his heart on his sleeve, so you can really tell
how he's kind of feeling through his football as well.
He had a good game this game and he led Nopolis to a well-deserved victory.
I still think that the game isn't really flawless.
They've got a few holes in the back, you've managed to split them open time and time again.
It was only because if Lavish was having an off day, that Nopolis didn't struggle this game.
Because they could have gone the other way completely.
I would say the improvements that I have seen in Nopolis
is simply on the offensive end of the spectrum.
Obviously, again, this case study isn't enough, but going forward
it would seem more threatening than they did over the past two managers.
Let's put it that way.
What do you think about Allegri subbing Nongue?
I don't know how to pronounce his name, but what do you think about it?
He's 18 years old, he brought him on at a very difficult time.
He gave away a penalty and he subbed him off.
He had done the same to Fajrole, if you remember.
I mean, Napoli often get gifted these weird moves by the opposing manager.
When Milan brought on Pellegrino against Napoli,
and Napoli went on to humiliate him twice, I believe.
No, I thought it was a strange move.
I'm just looking at their bench to see if they had better options.
They definitely did, yeah.
And they did. Caviglia being one of them, for example.
He's young, but he's played at least.
Yeah, exactly.
To me, it's a devastating decision.
A similar one to me, but the Terraciano one for Milan.
It's obviously not the stage in which you bring on an 18-year-old.
Think of how they've introduced Yildiz to the fray.
That's how you start a young guy off.
I just hope to God he doesn't get alienated from the team because of that.
Because we've seen Terraciano, for example, no one even having a look at him anymore.
If they gave away that penalty to Pellegrino,
maybe he should be sent out on loan to Salernetana, but he was.
I just hope that they'll start to introduce him in a friendly way,
in a way that he can flourish, and not tossing him in when the stakes are high
and he gets humiliated trying to defend against Victor Ossim.
He's fucking 18. He hasn't even dreamt of playing against Victor Ossim yet.
It was a weird move by Al Legri, and then to take him out was this typical old school Italian management right there.
But yeah, bro.
Also, I don't know if you have a take on why Ossimen and Lautaro are such deadly strikers,
and they seem to be able to score from anywhere apart from the spot.
I do have a take on that.
And to be honest, I think my take is correct in that sense.
Strikers are typically beasts reactionally.
You cross them the ball, or they find half an inch,
and in the moment they react correctly.
Typically, they wouldn't even be thinking.
They're just acting out of pure. The word is actually stillness.
The flow state, instinctive.
Now, strikers, typically they also have a cool head.
They pick a spot, they make a decision.
But then you give them time to think on the penalty spot with the mind games that come into play as well.
It's not an instinctive scenario, which is where they typically tend to thrive.
The goal is that Ossimen scores. He's typically tossing himself somewhere in the area,
being an agile beast. Lautaro, on the other hand, taking shots from outside the area,
linking up well with his teammates being put on a plate, so on and so forth.
So penalties, and then you see some of the Higuain, for example.
He got better at penalties to the latter stages of his career,
and he was jet for that penalties before. He's such an instinctive striker.
That's a very good point, man. Maybe too much time to think, as simple as that.
Literally. I was remembering, because I obviously have Ossimen on Fanta, right?
And the second he stepped up, we saw that he was taking the penalty,
I did not celebrate for a second, because I'm like, he's obviously going to miss it.
Because he's missed them multiple times, and he's up against Shizn.
I'm like, fuck this, he's going to get me a 2.5, and obviously, without hesitation, he missed it.
Yeah, bring back the coconut video, right?
Be careful with that.
I think Napoli Adnud better be careful.
You are second with 57 points. As Milan have caught up to them, there are only a point behind,
and Bologna, and Roma, and Atalanta, everyone just keeps flying at the moment.
Atalanta have hit a bit of a slump, but the others are coming closer.
You even need to be careful. They need to put this February past them.
They've lost 3 out of their last 6. They've only won 1 out of their last 6.
They've drawn 2, they've lost 3, and they've won 1.
The only teams that have won their last 6 are Inter and Bologna.
That's Napoli in 7th as well with 43 points, slowly climbing back to a Champions League contention spot.
Of course, the 5th place is up for grabs with the coefficient.
Yeah, maybe.
It should be the case. Italy had a nice advantage.
We'll just see how Fiorentina do against Maccabi Haifa.
There's meant to be free coefficient points.
I'll see how Napoli do against Barça. But I think the main threat was Germany.
Unfortunately, the Bayern Munich beat Lazio.
Which is what it is. It was always going to be the case.
If you're a listener who knows where we can actually see the coefficient,
if there's a website or something live coefficient, I would love to know about it.
So please do send it over if you know something.
Shit, we should have really mentioned the new Champions League structure.
That is going to take place as of next year.
We'll do that next time on some other episode.
Maybe do a bit of an explainer of how this is going to go down.
Talk me of God when I was playing a Tham recently.
I suddenly qualified for the Champions League.
I opened the bloody fixtures and I see this massive league table with like 40 teams.
Let's not discuss it, but 3-1 yes or no.
Yes being we like it, no being we don't like it.
We don't discuss.
Okay, overall right?
3-1 yes.
Okay, cool. For another time don't worry about it.
Lazio Nyl, I really want to talk about it.
Lazio Nyl Milan 1.
I've been waiting to discuss this one.
Because honestly, this is a game of football I enjoy to watch.
For those of you that just tuned in like we're live or something.
There were 3 red cards for Lazio in this game.
2 of them okay, they came very late on in the game, but there were 3 red cards which is devastating for Lazio considering
they just started fighting for top 4 again and now they've got 3 players missing for the Routiners again, but whatever.
Lazio were coming off 2-1 loss to Fiorentina.
Whilst Milan were coming off a 1-1 draw to Atalanta, the previous encounter was a 2-0 victory for Milan and maybe were a lay-out squad that over head-kick.
This game took place on Friday night as Lazio had to prepare for a Tuesday's Champions League trip to Bayern Munich.
They had Patrick Androvella injured but Zakanje returned to the starting 11.
Jovic was still suspended for Milan after being an absolute do-do head against Monza with Pobega injured
and Reinders rested after becoming a father last night.
Congratulations Tiani!
Congrats!
You don't seem too chuffed for him bro, what's the matter?
You should pass more man!
Brilliant, congratulations Tiani, Reinders and Mrs Reinders or maybe she's a feminist and kept her surname, respect her no matter what she's done.
Congratulations to both of you.
Calulou and Tomori were available on the bench after several months out which is beautiful for any Milan to see after so many Kier Gabbia games.
Gabbia has to keep his spot, Gabbia has to keep his spot.
Yeah, he's been very good, granted.
Of course he has been exposed on certain situations but I think overall he's been fantastic.
There's more Kier that I need to see on the bench again because he's kind of like that veteran player that looks solid overall until he doesn't.
Until he's one on one with a tricky player, until there's a counter.
He's good with the ball at his feet I think here.
His positional awareness is very good, his leadership qualities are very good.
Unfortunately football is a physical game and you must run in football and when these athletes are charging towards you
unfortunately I don't think Kier has got the legs anymore.
Obviously let's not forget he recovered from an ACL fucking injury at the age of 34 or however old he is.
And he peaked quite late as well as a player.
Yeah.
Like he was at Atalanta, he wasn't even playing.
It was only when he came to Milan that he managed to kind of reassert himself into club football.
I believe he was at Sevilla before.
Sevilla, correct.
He was a starter.
With the day in his team he's always been around.
However he hit a very high level at quite an old age.
But however for some reason whenever Kier is out of the team, Milan are a better team.
I want to say that with full respect about Kier.
But when he went out injured and Kalulu went in as a makeshift centre back, Milan went nine games in a row with a clean sheet.
Another clean sheet, 1-0.
There was that whole thing and Milan went on to win the league and then he re-entered and it was a mess again.
But whatever, obviously it's all just down to Kier.
4-3-3 formation for Lazio, Provedell in goal, a back line of Marusic, Gila, Romagnoli and Pellegrini, two of those players got sent off.
Midfield 3 of Luis Alberto, Vesino and Guendouzi, one of those players got sent off.
And a front three of Zacani, Castellagnos and Anderson.
For Milan it was a 4-2-3-1 formation, Magic Mike in goal and a back line of Florenzi, Kier, Gabia and Teo Hernandez.
A double pivot of Ben Nasser and Yassine the Dream with Pulisic out on the right, Laid out on the left and Loftus Csik playing behind Giroud.
Now in the seventh minute a totally unmarked Vesino narrowly missed the target after a Luis Alberto corner.
There was a flick on somewhere which is why Vesino was in so much space.
It was a reaction strike, he could have done better but very, very close.
Just four minutes later Lazio wanted a penalty in the 11th minute after Manjans lit to clear the ball and follow through on Taticas Tellanios.
Sorry Lazio, you've got a long way to go until you earn your Inter card.
The first half was all Lazio, they controlled the tempo of the game and they looked super, super explosive.
I thought Milan did a great job to interrupt their play and to win as much time as possible to calm the game down.
In the 55th minute the first red card was shown to Lazio and it was shown to Pellegrini.
He had only just been booked for a foul on Pulisic and he received another yellow card for dragging the American back by the shirt.
However, the reason is that Pellegrini thought play should have been halted earlier for a collision between Ben Nasser and Castellanios
so he was trying to shepherd the ball out of play when Pulisic went in and nicked it on the touchline and he dragged Pulisic down to the ground
and Pulisic would have been a great opportunity over there because he was as well the last kind of defense.
That was Pellegrini on Sakai's?
Exactly, exactly. It was a second yellow which caused him to get sent off.
I get Pellegrini's frustration absolutely because he was trying to do the right thing but do it better.
Don't wait for your team to get a throw in if it's open play and you want the ball to go out, kick it out because there are professionals that want to win the game
and I'm not going to bow down to Pulisic as a lover of football and I say that's what the game is all about but at the same time
you have to have that in you, you have to have that winning mentality in you. If you're going to sleep then I'm going to expose you
and Pulisic did a fantastic job over there to get Pellegrini sent off.
And that's just how they do it in Hershey, Pennsylvania baby!
Yep baby, Captain America.
He was brilliant there man and I think Pellegrini showed his inexperience.
If you think your player is down and you're worried about him and you want to play to stop, you kick the ball out yourself.
You think Pulisic is going to let you run the ball out so that it's yours.
If you're worried about your player, you don't care if the opposing team gets a throw in.
If you tried to shepherd the ball out in a Champions League final and I was playing against you, I would take it off the touchline and go for the score.
I would fuck you up.
I would spit in your fucking stupid face after this.
There's been a goal. It's offside.
Oh El Bilal with the scoring in Sporting.
El Bila.
Milal had the ball in the back of the net in the 74th minute when Laos Cross took a deflection of Mario Gila to Rongfoot Providell.
However it was disallowed by VAR as Laos knee and half his head were offside.
And then shortly after Tomori came on which was nice to see, he also for the few minutes that he played, he looked good.
So yeah, welcome back Fikaio, big dickfick.
In the 87th minute, Milan opened the scoring through Noa Okafor, Jovic's clutch but so is Okafor.
Milan broke forward well through Theo Hernandez. He played the ball to Laos.
He pulled the ball back from the bi-line to Okafor. His first shot was saved by Providell.
Gila then made a great block to the Nigeru.
And Providell managed to get a firm hand on the third attempt from Okafor as well but it was too powerful to be kept out.
Lazio wanted the goal to be cancelled out due to Pulisic interfering with play.
But you are allowed to interfere with play when you are onside.
Exactly.
Fun fact.
That's it.
Fucking El Providella.
What a monster.
He just kept saving them and saving it.
And the last one as well, he kind of jumped out of the way and it was going centrally.
He extended his arm, that was a strong hand.
He was very unlucky not to get it.
Like that was a rocket by Okafor.
Literally, if that was one of us, we would have broken our elbow like entirely.
Absolutely snapped the arm enough.
He is a very very soft-core keeper.
I had a student, you know, he told me about my arms.
He told me they look like a dog's tail.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
He is a good boy.
He is a German instructor.
So yeah, I kind of made a self-deprecating joke.
I kind of called myself spaghetti arms, you know, kind of like a back and forth.
And he went, you know what we say in Colombia?
So it's like the tail of a dog.
I'm like, ah, thank you.
Very funny in Colombia.
Really funny people in Colombia.
Moments later.
Now this is where all the juices after Okafor's goal.
Because obviously, lots of you thought they were being,
well, lots of you were victimizing themselves as fuck, right?
Because of, they thought they should have had a penalty in the first half,
which was never a penalty.
They thought the goal should have been cancelled out.
They thought that Pellegrini shouldn't have been sent off because it was unfair play by Pulisic.
So Mariusic shoved Leia out of the ground.
The referee awarded a foul and then he brandished a straight card for dissent.
A lot of people say the referee was losing his cool over here,
but we've seen straight red cards brandished for dissent, bro.
Yeah, depends on what he said.
It is. And I saw the rule.
If you say fucking hell ref or fuck you ref, it's a yellow card.
But if you threaten or speak in a violent nature to the referee,
then that's a straight red card, right?
Verbal abuse is what they would call it.
After that, this is where there was a bit of a harsh one.
Guendouzi got a straight red card for pushing Pulisic to the ground.
Now, okay, it was a push at most, perhaps a yellow card, right?
Pulisic was kind of tugging his arm first.
Guendouzi got frustrated and the push was a rough one.
You see one of his arms goes on his neck, the other one on his head like and he shoves him.
So, right? It's a harsh call,
but I've seen many an article say that the referee lost his cool, lost his head.
I don't think...
This is a loss for Guendouzi.
It's very harsh, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that the referee lost his head
because Lazio were poking and prodding in those last five minutes.
They were being annoying. They were being bitchy, unfortunately.
Sorry for any Lazio fans that are listening, but what are you going to do?
Let them get away with everything. The Guendouzi one is harsh,
but I wouldn't go so far as to say that the referee lost his head.
More than lost his head, I feel like he lost control of the game
simply because of the way Lazio reacted to the decisions that were made.
As you said, they played the victim card.
They were screaming scandal, you know?
And Romagnoli at the end was screaming scandalous, or scandalous, or scandalous.
However, if we're being completely honest, maybe the one on Guendouzi was harsh.
I'll go so far as to say that probably shouldn't have been a red card.
We don't know what Mara Sitch said, but let's assume that he said something that warranted a red card, right?
If he got sent off.
He didn't complain, no Mara Sitch?
No, he didn't even walk off.
So God knows what he said.
I'm not sure if it was towards the end of the game or after the final whistle,
but there should have been more red cards.
Man, at one point Luis Alberto went head to head with Adelie.
I wouldn't say headbutt at him, I'd say he pushed his head away with his head.
So it's kind of a mini headbutt. Definitely deserves something.
You see, he sighed throwing an elbow out, hitting Jiru.
I think it was in the face of the elbow.
So there were many things that the referee actually didn't see.
Yeah, but lots of lost their head.
I'm sorry, but that's the way it is.
What can the referee do?
You know, if they're going to keep on, what happens when you're a teacher and your kids keep on misbehaving, keep on misbehaving.
You're not going to ask them to leave the classroom.
You're not going to give them a break in or whatever.
And unfortunately, that's what the referee had to end up doing.
Again, I'll reiterate, the Guendouzi one was very harsh.
But it was the fucking 94th minute or whatever.
Yeah, I think that it was very naive by a lot of people.
They really threw away potential points over here because they were better than Milan.
Absolutely. They were much better than Milan.
Absolutely, especially in the first half.
In the second half, they played the majority of it with 10 men, subsequently down to eighth after the 90th.
But I have it. Unfortunately, Lazio, to me, they showed great inexperience.
Yes. And Milan, on the other hand, stayed calm the entire game, kept their cool.
You see, yellow cards are a brandish to many Milan players.
Pulisic got one layout, Adley, Florence, Gabiate, they all got yellows, but they all stayed calm, man.
They all stayed calm and none of them, they put the team first.
And this is quite unlike Milan this season because Milan love a red card this season.
So the discipline hasn't been great. But this game, it was.
And Pulisic, I think, deserves all the credit this game.
Some of that, what is it, conca-calf, shithausery, for the USA playing in these fucking weird games.
We have to shithouse your way to a victory.
Came in clutch here for Milan.
And yes, Pulisic put the team on his shoulders and guided them to victory in my opinion.
As he often does, and we said this, he has been the catalyst for that US national team for so many years.
He's still only 25 years old, you know what I mean?
And now he is carrying Milan, essentially.
One thing I also want to say is that keep in mind when it comes to Milan that this is virtually still a very, very new team for Milan
with lofty streak, with Adli, with Pulisic, typically as well, there's Reinder is over there.
Considering that there are so many new starters to the starting 11, Milan being in third place
and winning Games Agnes and showing great experience when doing so.
I'm quite impressed. And after two, three seasons of this team gelling, I think they can do some serious damage
because they have a team of serial winners.
I'm not sure I fully agree with the team of serial winners.
This will spark quite a bit of a debate.
I think the mentality can be a little bit fragile at times, man, with Milan.
Obviously not always, but at the end of the day, this is a young team and it very much depends, I think, on the mood, on the opponent
on who's actually out there playing.
Because we saw, for example, in the Europa League, the second leg, I think Milan demonstrated a little bit of a fragile mentality
almost letting that slip, conceding early, losing the game when in reality they could have just held the two-two.
However, I get what you're saying, but I'm talking more about the mentality than the results on the pitch.
I think this team, when I say serial winners, I mean the attitude of the players.
Now I know that there have been certain instances where Laos, where Kethic has been critiqued, when Giroux spoke to the media
and said we didn't know whether to attack or defend against Napoli.
We have seen a bit of that and that's going to come when the team is going through a tough spell, particularly with Puyol being on their fire.
The team is still jelling together, but you see the attitude of the players when the tough gets going.
When the tough gets tough, the tough gets going, is what I'm trying to say.
Yeah, yeah, fair enough.
Definitely, I would say so far this season has not been two disasters for Milan.
It's not as disastrous as many fans are saying it is, you know, they're firmly in top four, they're in a European competition,
they're unlucky to be out of the Champions League after getting the most difficult group that was possible to get,
literally the group of death as it was named.
Dortmund, Newcastle, PSG.
I'm ashamed about the Coppa Italia, but that's pretty much a shame that Milan still haven't really figured out what to do against Inter.
And I think it is the end of a cycle with Puyol.
I think I wouldn't be opposed to a new manager, definitely.
Just simply because he's been there for so long and I think he's achieved a fair amount.
I just hope that the new manager is a progressive attacking manager because this team has the making of being a fucking attacking unit,
with Polisic, Lea, Loftus, Stryk, Benasser, with the prospect of Xerxes coming in as well, Teohan Anders on the left,
obviously some of these players could leave next season, who the hell knows.
But this team is definitely made to be an attacking side and not a pragmatic one.
Look man, the names that are being linked to Milan are Deserbi, who apparently is obsessed with Milan.
He's a massive Milan fan, this guy.
You kidding me.
And the headlines are all saying that Deserbi might just be crazy enough to go coach in Italy, of course, crazy enough because the salary won't quite cut what he can potentially make.
Absolutely. Don't tell me this shit because I'll hang up at Deserbi post tonight.
Mota, who is doing God's work with Bologna, like how?
You've ever want him. You've ever want him.
I think everyone wants Mota at the moment.
And Kondé, whose lot is pushing for?
The least. To me, my least favorite idea, but also a serial winner.
So at least the replacements that are being mentioned are all very exciting.
We've seen, man, we've been through so much.
We've been through so much.
Jump, Paolo, come on.
Are you talking about us or Milan?
Milan fans in general, bro.
And when it comes to appointing a new manager, there were there were a few years.
So bro fucking a Clarence, Cedor, Pipon, Zaghi, Brocchi, two so brocky, just coaches who are not qualified, man, who are not at that level, even Montella to a certain extent was nowhere near good enough.
So it's just nice to see that Milan have really changed, man.
They've come a long way ever since the five nil against Atalanta when Piolli took charge and Zlatan came back.
It's been a different story.
Yeah, firmly, firmly top three, firmly top three in Italy.
And the reason I'm saying that with my chest is because Milan haven't been firmly top six in a while.
You know, Milan last season finished in fifth, to be completely honest.
Thanks to Juve is why they got a lifeline the season before. Okay, they won the league the season before that they were second.
That's when shit started to change.
Before that they had gotten Champions League for the first time with that two nil victory double KSI penalty over at Atlanta.
Before that it was a nightmare.
It was an absolute nightmare.
And last season, by the way, could have been a nightmare as well as as you correctly said.
So last season was was to be honest, quite a failure.
For me, especially what the Pep Guardiola says this is like after you win the league, change, shake it up after you lose the league, change, shake it up.
You have to stay fresh.
Yeah, you have to bring in new players.
You have to change the system.
And unfortunately, Milan stayed with the same recipe that won them the league and they suffered as a result of that.
We saw something similar with Napoli in that regard.
Okay, they changed manager, but the manager tried to almost replicate the exact same thing that Napoli were doing.
And as a result, they struggled.
You have to keep it sexy and you have to keep it fresh.
Look at Inter with the rum, for example, you know, but anyway, Milan third place 56 points, just one point behind you.
Lazio still struggling man ninth place on 40 points to behind Fiorentina.
And they are six points behind the Europa League spot, which is weird because they're a good team and they play well.
They just can't do it consistently.
Sari and Lothito's relationship is as sour as it can possibly get.
He's always complaining about transfers.
Lothito tells him shut up and do your job in public.
It is definitely not sexy, not fresh.
Absolutely.
Also a team that's still gelling together.
And also, where is Luis Alberto?
He can't do it all on his own.
I have to apologize to Lazio fans because I feel like I've been really rude about Lazio in this one.
So apologies to David for Matthew absolutely roasting your favorite team.
Of course, David being one of our patrons, who is one of the funniest people in the chat.
Absolutely.
He kills me.
What did he call Pedro last time?
He called Pedro.
He said, nowadays Pedro is a chubby little guy.
Because I was watching the Bayern game.
I'm like, he's excellent, definitely has to come on.
But what other options are you going to bring on off the bench?
Like you're going to bring on Tati Castellano.
I always thought that Pedro looks like a waiter.
I always thought that in my head, he looks like he should have an apron on, a black waistcoat and a black tie.
That's what he looks like he should be wearing.
And he'll have his arm out and he'll have the cloth over his arm.
I mean, it makes perfect sense.
He uses probably like Cune green to do his hair.
I think that is Cune green.
He goes to the bar and he tells him probably trim.
Yeah.
You know, like nothing else trim.
Short on top, shorter on the sides.
He cleans shaves apart from when he leaves a bit of a must-sugging.
Nowadays living in Italy, you might leave a bit of stubble.
So yeah, waiter vibes, absolutely.
Whereas they've said, chubby little con vibes.
Well, a lot of waiters are chubby little con so far.
By the way, Bayern fucking destroyed lots of it.
It's a real shame that second leg, G-Rome mobile, he missed such a good chance, man.
Yep.
Oh my God, he missed such a good chance.
It would have been too nil up at that point.
Yeah.
It could have changed everything.
But yeah, the next game.
Atalanta game finished, 1-1.
Yes, yes, 1-1.
And Atalanta were actually pretty good towards the end as well.
Look minute, the post I was seeing, El Bilal scored offside,
but or there was a foul or something.
I'm not quite sure what happened while we were recording.
It's difficult to watch.
Yeah.
But yeah, definitely good.
Atalanta played against Bologna and lost to one at home.
And that is the second time they've lost to Bologna this season as back in December,
they lost to a Ferguson 86 minute goal.
So it's the Scotsman who has sunk in La Dea again.
For Bologna, it was a 4-1-4-1 kind of formation thing that they have going on with Skorupski
and Goal, Christensen on the left, Posh on the right with Kala Fiori and Beokama as a
centre-back duo, Riem of Froyler playing in front of the defence with Dan and Doi on
the left, Riccardo or Solini on the right, Luis Ferguson and Fabian playing behind Joshua Zergzi.
Hold on, look at that 4-1-4-1 formation and think of it as a 2-7-2 with the 2 being the
left winger and left back.
Look at that 7 in the middle, how you have Froyler, Bangon in the middle, Skorupski on
the right, Zergzi on the far left and then Orsolini and Posh on the far right.
He's not kidding around, there are so many variations of this 2-7-2 MOTTA system.
What a hypset, though, we did it the right way.
But bro, it is a perfect amalgamation of, that's a good word, I use it so much at work.
Really?
We amalgamate the app and social media, it's crazy bro when I say it.
It's fucking sale, sale complete.
It's basically an amalgamation of the app and social media.
Damn.
What the fuck was I gonna say bro, it's an amalgamation of Gasperini's Genoa and Morinio's Inter,
which is the 2 main teams in Italy that he was involved in and he said that publicly,
so he ain't kidding around.
Damn.
So for Atalanta, it was another strange formation, 3-4-1-2, not that strange.
Are you sure?
It's not that 2-6.
Sorry, it's a 3-4-3, but the other way.
So, Karnasekki was in goal, yes, Calvini, Dream City and Colassenac were at the back
with Zappacost on the right and Ruggeri on the left, with Coupe minors Derun and Pasalic
playing in the middle.
Decay, Telaura and Lukman started up front.
The first half, Ruggeri's cross was met by Cdk, but the shot flew over the bar.
Zappacosta's shot was saved by Lukas Skorupski later on and Lukman scored on the rebound,
and that would be in the 28th minute for Atalanta to get a well deserved lead, to be honest,
as they started off better than Bologna.
And Bologna were pressing high and Atalanta were really taking advantage of the space left behind.
The second half, the story would be different, however.
Karnasekki pulled off a wonderful save to the Naikala Fiori's point-black header.
Salamakars won a penalty after being brought down by Tion Coupe minors.
He had just been introduced Salamakars.
There was a double whammy by Motta in the 46th minute he brought on Salamakars and Lukumi
for Orsillini and Posh, and they had an instant impact, especially Salamakars, who was really threatening.
He won the penalty, Koupe minors pulled him down naively, and he knew it was stupid,
as well as he could see from his reaction.
Xerxes stepped up and took the penalty as cool as ice and scored it.
His penalty run-up is cool, man.
Chill, but it's not over the top.
He still hits them well.
It's not like he stops and stutters too much.
He's such a cool guy.
And the celebration.
He walks his dog every morning with a guy.
There's a day in the life video on YouTube, watching it.
What dog does he have?
Does it match his hair?
No, it's like one of those Labradors or something like that.
A very normal, generic dog.
Exactly, that kind of dog.
You go on.
So yes, Ferguson completed the turnaround with a volley from outside the box
into the bottom corner in the 61st minute.
He's Atalanta's worst nightmare right now.
Lewis Ferguson was doing so well, captaining this Bologna side.
He's one to watch for.
And these Scottish people out there who want to keep an eye on the players playing overseas,
he's probably one of the most impressive right now, Ferguson.
Really don't praise him enough.
He's a fantastic player, Ferguson.
I honestly think that he must be the most underrated player in that Bologna team.
The reason I say underrated is because Bologna always have very marketable key pieces to talk about.
But the thing is that once these marketable new pieces are coming in,
like Orsolini had a breakthrough season last season, Zergzei this season.
In the meantime, throughout all of that, Ferguson has just been consistent from the day that he signed.
Go scoring with Fielder, his defensive duties are there as well.
Hard worker, very hard worker.
And that's many an opportunity him and Fabian because of the way they play with Zergzei
hanging back, allowing the midfielders to go through Orsolini and Dan into a coming century.
It's very, very interesting.
It really is.
Gaspirini made four changes within a five minute span.
They increased the pressure.
They being at the long top course, trying to find an equalizer,
but poor finishing and the resolute Bologna defense prevented them from snatching a share of the spoils.
Bologna, man, I'm just blown away.
Week after week, they keep blowing me away.
I keep thinking this dip is going to come.
It never does.
They had a small one.
Six games to go.
And I thought it was going to go from bad to worse for them, but it really hasn't.
And yes, I'm so sorry for season one.
You know what it is, bro.
What do you mean, so sorry for season one?
You remember season one?
When Mota was at Spets, yeah.
Shitting on him.
You hated him.
What was I going to say?
Bologna, the thing is, bro, you can't defend against them.
The reason you can't defend against Bologna is because you think you're going to mark Zerxay.
And all of a sudden you're marking Ramoff Reuler.
And Zerxay is running in at the near post.
You think you're marking Orsolini.
And all of a sudden you're fucking marking Fabian.
The way that they shift around, they're so unpredictable in their attacks.
Their shape is constantly, constantly changing.
When they defend, it's like a four, five, one formation.
And the thing is their counter attacks are so smooth because what do they do?
Zerxay always, when defending, he stays up, right?
If they're defending on the left-hand side, Orsolini is up.
If they're defending from the right-hand side, Dan and Doi is up.
So when it comes to the counter attack, they constantly have a player in space.
And then you see the midfield too charging up and Zerxay dropping back.
So they think they're marking Zerxay and all of a sudden, instead of tracking back to mark the striker,
there's no striker and you see those two central midfielders and the two wingers charging directly at you.
And they overwhelm, but they don't overwhelm in a way where they lose their shape, so on and so forth,
kind of similar to winter in that sense.
But they're so unpredictable with who is where at what given time.
Like you have to zone a mark against them. There's no other option.
Absolutely. And this was a ballsy approach against Atalanta.
They could have gone quite bad in the first half with the space they were leaving behind pressing.
But yeah, absolutely, bro. When Zerxay drops deep, man, he's the type of player, man.
If you give him the ball, he can pick a player out.
He can waste a player on charge.
He's so good at hold-up plays, so complete.
The thing that this player was worried coming into the season, he spoke to Mota, he said,
listen, I'm not a solo number nine. I'm not a lone striker. I'm a second striker.
He technically is, bro.
Yeah, he technically is in the system.
But yeah, Mota managed to utilize him to perfection.
He's the perfect player for him to think that Bayern Munich spent all the money on Harry Kainman.
Right, when they could have had fucking Yoss was their Xay, baby.
Another thing I really like is when they're exercising this 272, sorry,
I've totally geeked out on Bologna recently.
Calla Fiori, who obviously it was a risk playing him at center back.
But when they're on the ball, he is absolutely not a center back.
He's playing exactly next to Ramoff Royler and he's in that creative role.
There are other center back and I shit you not to Skorupsky. I swear to God.
Because what happens is they go into a double pivot with Calla Fiori and Froyler.
Belkem always stays back. He's that last man.
Skorupsky, you'll see him, bro, always next to Belkem.
They play the ball to exactly literally, literally.
He becomes a center back in that scenario.
And there are so many videos on YouTube and on TikTok that you could watch guys that delves so much
into this very unique team and the way that they play.
And honestly, you won't be able to get your mind off it. It's so interesting.
Yeah, honestly, I did not expect them to win this.
Their away form has been the only thing this season hasn't really matched anything else.
But fucking hell, they really stepped up to the plate.
They love a big game. These Bologna players, they love a big game.
Atalanta, on the other hand, have gone a little bit limp lately.
They were on the up. They were on a six game winning streak before the draw against Milan
and they went on to lose four nil to winter last week.
Their confidence has definitely been shot.
They rested players in the Europa League today, meaning that obviously they're prioritizing the league.
What do you think about that? Does that make sense?
Yeah, I think so.
Especially with that fifth Champions League spot potentially, right?
For sure. I think morally as well, not morally.
For their confidence, it's important that Atalanta get top four.
They've been dancing between eighth, seventh, sixth for too long
and they're a team that deserve to be in the Champions League.
They're fantastic. They're so clever. They're super talented and they deserve more.
Unfortunately, there's always one period where they become inconsistent.
They just don't have that edge at the moment. Atalanta, I'm not quite sure what's going on.
But Bologna having a free season and I can't remember the last time a team finished top four.
I think it was Atalanta. Atalanta were the last surprise champions to qualify.
I remember once, I barely remember, but I remember once Odinez had done something.
They became second, I think, with Odinez.
That's when Milan won the league, I think.
I think so.
When Milan won the league, they barely scored any goals, I believe,
but they conceded even fewer.
There was that.
Bologna are in fourth with 51 points.
Just to give you an idea, fifth are on Israma on 47, so they've cut.
They've given themselves some breathing room over there.
On the other hand, Atalanta are in sixth with 46 points.
This was a Champions League six-pointer I've ever seen one, and Bologna totally, totally, totally deserved.
What a performance by them and managed to not only come back into the game,
but find the winner through Ferguson at the end.
Great balls.
Monza won Roma fours.
Next time we're going to be covering, we'll try to do this one a little bit quicker,
because I really want to discuss this relegation battle.
There were three or four relegation six-pointers, so let's skim through this one a little bit.
Monza were coming off a two-nil away victory over Salernetana.
Roma were coming off a three-to-home win over Torino, where the ball has scored a satiric.
The previous encounter was Roma, one Monza-nil, more in your Roma.
Carslorp and Abraham were still out, and the only absentees for Roma, while for Monza,
pardon me, it was my food.
It was suspended, plus Caprari and Vignato being the long-term absentees.
It was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Monza with the Gregorio Angol,
a backline of Carbone, Mari, Calderola and Berindelli,
Bonda and Galliardini in the pivot with Motta and Colpani flanking Pessina and Juric up front.
4-3-3 for Roma's Villar, once again in goal, and a backline of Christensen, Mancini and Dica and Angelinho,
Cristante Paredes and Pellegrini in the midfield with Debal and Elshara with flanking Romelu.
Juric hit the near post with a header in the 15th minute following a Colpani cross-hazard was a decent start for Monza,
however in the 38th minute Pellegrini opened the scoring.
Lukaku laid the ball off to Pellegrini who skipped past Berindelli sensationally before slotting into the bottom corner
from just inside the area, great technique by the captain and just honestly, at the moment Pellegrini and Debal are two of the best players and most creative players in the league.
41st minute Lukaku got his first goal under Daniela de Rossi, he finished off a low cross by Debala following some great work by the Argentine to create the chance.
In the 63rd minute Debala scored a free kick and his fourth goal of the week, including the one assist, he struck an inch perfect free kick into the bottom corner from around 25 yards out.
In the 82nd minute Paredes bagged a penalty, the Argentine sent De Gregoria the wrong way with an unstoppable penalty, hitting the crossbar and going into the top corner.
The penalty was awarded after VAR spotted Bondo wrestling who is into the ground, in the 86th minute Andrea Carbone got a sensational
consolation goal from some distance smashing the ball into the top corner.
Not much to discuss in the sense that Roma obviously overwend Monza to a point where Monza, they had no right, they had no opportunities to fight back.
In the 38th minute and the 41st minute Monza entering the second half, they're entering half time rather super demoralized.
And then by the 63rd minute Debala with a moment of magic, then they lose their heads, 82nd minute Paredes nails a penalty, they give a penalty away, a very silly one by Bondo, so it's obvious that Roma went there and overwend them.
However one thing that might be going under the radar over here is Roma's chances for Champions League.
Roma are in fifth place on 47 points and they're four points behind Bologna, they're actually above Atalanta by one point.
Now I'm going to read you the remaining fixtures and you tell me the likelihood.
Fiorentina Roma, Roma Sassuolo, Lecce Roma, Roma Lazio, Odinese Roma, Roma Bologna, Napoli Roma, Roma Juve, Atalanta Roma, Roma Genoa and Poliroma.
Ok so not an easy stretch. No, there's fucking three, four games in a row over there, Roma Bologna, Napoli Roma, Roma Juve, Atalanta Roma that are devastating to say the least.
I feel like I don't know Roma, so I don't know if I can comment.
Obviously from what I've seen so far I would guess that they would confirm the fifth spot. But however Atalanta are right there, Atalanta are no joke and Napoli are right there who are no joke either.
Especially with the performance they've just had over Juventus, the return of the manager that they're finally happy with, third time's the charm.
But when it comes to Roma system, I saw something quite interesting bro that De Rossi is inspired by Guardiola in a way that he is tactically rigid for three quarters of the pitch.
But once they skip that three quarter mark, the players have maximum freedom of expression where they can do whatever they want.
And the quarter being the defensive quarter for Roma. The offensive quarter, they can do what they want offensively.
So they kind of went from a manager who tried to control everything, who tried to control their every move, kind of spoke to the media about his team not being good enough to play at the back system, not being good enough to play an offensive brand of football.
To this manager, De Rossi, who is tactically capable from what we've seen, he's got a system that works, but then he gives you full freedom at the end.
Yeah, he's not a paranoid narcissist.
So it's kind of like a girl who has really strict parents and goes away and suddenly her parents are out of the way and she's got all these dudes and she's going one, two, three, four. That's what Roma are doing right now.
These players are rebelling against their strict parent and more in here.
Let's put it in a more family friendly way and just say De Rossi gave Roma their wings.
They gave them their wings.
They gave them their wings and boy, are they flying.
They're fucking, that's Roma right now.
Roma are the lots of your eagle right now.
No, but that's a great point that you make, bro. That's very controlling, more in a very controlling style.
And he would berate them.
It's say, okay, like it's say I love my boys. You know how many debuts I've given in Roma. It's true. He gave many players their debuts. It's true. But man, he would criticize their ability.
Shit.
Yes.
You think Sanchez would be here if he wasn't always injured and the baller. No, they wouldn't be here or Lukaku.
Like what are you saying, bro? They think they wouldn't be here. That's a good thing. Imagine you go to work and your boss, like you wouldn't be here if you were better.
Tris boss, really, that's an alright guy.
But obviously, honestly, I didn't think it would be this way for Roman. I don't think anyone would have done it with Chesco and we all thought he was insane.
So I still think Chesco is insane to be honest. But he got that one right.
Roma are in fifth on 47 points. Vice Monza are in eleventh on 36 points.
Yes, precisely. Now we can start with the juicy stuff, bro.
Yes.
Hellas Verona one. Saswolo nil.
Here we fucking go, bro.
It's getting bad. It's getting bad for Saswolo and it's not only this result.
Trouble, bro.
They've lost Variety, bro.
They're in trouble, man.
So the previous encounter was a 3-1 victory for Hellas Verona. This came in September. Variety scored two.
And Amonti scored one and Ngong scored one for Hellas Verona.
That is so poetic.
So poetic.
Now, they get rid of their best player who scored in the reverse, fixed for Nengonj and they actually win.
While Saswolo of course lose their hero in the first leg.
But here, Hellas Verona lined up in a 4-4-2 formation. Love it.
Montepo was in goal with Ciccio on the right, bless me.
Kabbal on the left with Davidovic and Coppola as a center back partnership.
Suslov was on the right and Lazovic on the left with Serdar and Duda in the middle.
Noslin and Henri started up front.
For Balardini's Saswolo, it was a 4-3-3 with Concili in goal.
Pedersen as the right back, Dujg as the left back with Ferrari and D'Aurelis as the center back.
Thordzvet, Boloca and Henrique as the midfielders with Penamonti up front.
Lauriente on his left and Berardi on his right.
Now, around the quarter hour mark, Dominico Berardi released Thordzvet in the box.
But Thordzvet shot was straight at Montepo who parried his attempt away.
Concili denied Thomas Suslov and Juan Kabbal from a rebound just after 30 minutes into the game.
And that would be the end of the first half, which was quite a cagey affair.
Berardi's free kick in the second half curled narrowly past the post.
The technique on that was absolutely beautiful and could have been a mental goal.
Lauriente and Penamonti had weak attempts to score, one of them failed to hit the target, the other one was straight at the keeper.
And then later on at the hour mark Montepo played the ball straight to Berardi.
It was a massive mistake.
Berardi took a touch and went down completely unchallenged holding his heel.
He was forced off the pitch, he was being carried off by two men.
He looked to be in a world of pain and he was replaced by Samu Castilejo.
And of course it's come out now that he's done his achilles and will be out for the rest of the year.
Massive loss for Sasuolo, massive hit for Berardi and his career.
But I do think that thankfully for Berardi, this is probably his last season at Sasuolo.
So his next team will be a completely new chapter.
He can see it as a way to kind of move on from his injuries, to move on from his past at Sasuolo and to finally enter a new phase in his career.
Yeah.
Yeah, so Henrique lost the ball.
This was in the 79th minute of course, he had the ball right.
Not even in front of the defense, he was the last man.
And he lost the ball to Zvidersky, who had just come on.
Zvidersky played a lovely one too with Bonazzoli.
Bonazzoli's pass had the perfect amount of weight on it.
Simple, but you need to get it perfectly done and that's intuition.
Zvidersky carried the ball well and finished past Konselli, could have done a lot better to score and open his account for Helas Verona.
The Polish hitman gets his first goal and say yeah.
That pretty much secured a vital 1-0 victory for Verona.
Konselli joined the attack late on, but it was all in vain.
Bro Sasuolo have lost Berardi.
Are they fucked?
What do you think?
To a degree, yes.
And the reason I say to a degree yes is because I bet one of the reasons that they got Ballardini on board is to help them out defensively while they can have confidence in players like Berardi and Lauriante to keep things sexy and fresh up front.
What Napoli tried to do with Magonna, Mazzarri, what's his name?
That always happens to me bro, those three.
I'm mentioning pros and only pros.
It's like what they tried to do, right?
They get someone to sort out their defensive issues and they let Guvaro, Simon and Politano do whatever they want basically up front.
Unfortunately now they're not going to be able to do that.
Samo Castillejo is way less effective than Dominico Berardi.
He's not a goal scorer.
He's not even that good if I'm being completely honest.
Castillejo leaves so much, so much to be desired.
Some muscle to begin with especially man, because he gets in the edge of the ball so easily.
And at the moment, bro, draws aren't quite going to cut it.
Draws aren't going to cut it, draws aren't going to, it's unlikely that draws are going to take them out of the relegation.
But look at what Kalliari are doing.
You know, these teams are starting to win now.
It's sink or swim.
They can still get it done because on paper they still have a better team than a lot of these teams.
And the fixtures aren't too bad.
They play Frostin on the next and that's a direct clash.
That's another six-point.
I'm canceling any plan I have to watch that game.
They need to beat them.
Then they play Roma, then Grands, then they have Udinese and Salernetana.
So when these next four games are by Roma, they need to pick up points.
They're all relegations, six-point.
Yes, all of them, bro. All of them.
After that, they play Milan, they play Lecce, Fiorentina, Inter, Genoa, Kalliari in the penultimate game of the season.
And then Lazio in the last match of the season.
My god, the mape is going to be full of Kalliari fans.
That might play a massive part.
And the fact that you look around the relegation pool, most of these teams have a backing.
The weakest when it comes to the fanbase would be Saaswolo and probably Udinese.
Yeah, probably. You could always see their beautiful seats in the dacia.
They make them colorful.
They make their fans.
I'm like, wow, look at all those fans in different colors.
But this is getting mad juicy, man, especially with Bararadi's injury.
Like, what's Bararadi going to do? What's the plan now?
I don't know, bro. I don't know what other options they have over there.
It's really many.
It's customary.
Maybe Bayrami. Bayrami isn't bad.
Bayrami has experience and he's got close ball control. He's creative. He can do something.
Defrel, I guess, is deployable-ish.
But then the thing is, Pina Monty is also kind of us when he's not.
He's definitely a shadow of his former and police self.
And even Laurent has been kind of poor as well.
Yeah, I think it's going to take individuals to bail this Saaswolo team out.
They lost this game because of an individual mistake.
Because other than that, Bararadi did actually steady the ship.
Helas Verona didn't really threaten, apart from that, that one moment,
that one laps in concentration for Henrika, by the way,
who I'm sure hasn't made eye contact with any of his teammates since.
But man, that was an absolutely fun game to watch.
Bararadi looked like he was going to get it done for them before he went off.
Saaswolo are currently in 19th with 20 points.
While Helas Verona are in 17th with 23 points, that's a relegation 6-pointer.
If we've ever seen one.
Yes, and man, Verona, for the amount of players, we always say this, right?
But for the amount of players they've lost, not only across the last five years,
but this season, and the current financial state that the club is in,
for them to keep on managing to get these important results,
Barone has done God's work with this team.
Hats off to Barone, man.
Absolutely. I do take my hat off to Barone.
Susloff, Serdar, Duda, Lazovic, Henri, Nuslin, you know what I mean?
They've got relegation written all over them.
And if you look at them, by the way, Marco Barone's career, interestingly enough,
he's managed quite a few teams at the 60-year-old.
He, in 2013, was in charge of Juventus's under-19s, which was really weird,
because he took this job after he was the head coach of Cremonese and Sutterone.
So it was quite an odd job to take on.
Spent some time there, went to Pascara, Novarra, Benevento, Frosinone, Cremonese,
Reggio Calabria, Leccea now, Isatela Verona.
We're to be honest, yes, he's doing a very impressive job with what he has available.
Just to make you guys aware, before we obviously get into the rest of the relegation,
six pointers, Leccea in 13th, around 25 points, Caliari in 18th, around 23.
That's what we're dealing with. All the teams involved in the relegation battle are Leccea,
Empoli, Udenese, Frosinone, Verona, Caliari, Sasvolo, Salernetana.
So yes, it's...
So exciting, man.
Empoli, Nyl, Caliari won. That was a shock.
That was a shock result because Empoli have been on fire.
I was worried, because I'm all for Caliari surviving.
I really want Caliari to survive because Salernetana are going down,
so we need another kind of seaside vibe, kind of heart-to-heart passionate fans.
And I love Caliari and I do wish that they say about Empoli.
Empoli were in such good form, like you said, bro, with Davide,
and Nicola, I thought they were going to beat them for it.
Six games undefeated.
And think of the dreadful start they had, bro.
They were lost for a while, like they were terrible.
But yeah, Nicola, man, she did a fantastic job, but now, Caliari. Here we go.
This is Nicola's first loss with Empoli, but not her first loss with Dale.
Nice.
Molta, Levalen.
Molta, baby.
Empoli coming off, are coming off a 3-2 away win over Sasvolo.
Another relegation, 6-pointer over there.
And Caliari coming off a 1-1 draw to Napoli.
Remember that, Zito Lovumbo in the last minute.
Previous encounter was Caliari nil Empoli nil.
Now, Empoli were on a fantastic run, since Davide and Nicola took charge,
winning 3-1, drawing 3.
Giasi returned from suspension, and Zyrkovski was once again available,
but Caputo and Grassi were still not fully fit.
The Sardinians had a lengthy absentee list, including Pavoletti,
Mancozu, Sulemana, Hatzidiakos and Petania.
4-3-1 formation for Nicola's men, with Caprila Engol and a backline
of Ismaili, Valukovic, Luperto and Kakace,
Kovalenko, Marin and Male being the midfield tree,
with Kanchilleri and Kambiagi flanking Mattia Destro.
4-4-1-1 formation there for Caliari, Skufengol and a backline
of Nandes, Mina, Dosena and Augello.
Jankto, Makumbu, Deola and Lovumbo playing in midfield
with Gaetano playing behind La Padula.
Now, the 16th minute, Empoli charged forward on a counterattack,
after advantage was played after a foul on Kanchilleri,
Kambiagi broke forward well and squeezed through a shot
which hit the post and fell straight to Male, who took way too long
to shoot the rebound to put the ball on his favourite foot
and he was subsequently denied by Skufeng.
Caprila got down well to deny La Padula a header on the 43rd minute,
in the 52nd minute, Empoli were bizarrely not awarded a penalty
after a clear handball by Makumbu in the area.
The var room did not instruct the ref to take a look.
The ref was like, bro, penalty like.
He was like this, which is technically his hand against his body,
but is it? His hand is up and it hit like,
chop his arm off, it would have gone through.
Penalty not given, you know why?
Because we have absolutely fucked the handball rule.
We fucked the handball rule.
The penalties in general, man.
That was a penalty, in my opinion, again.
Come at me.
64th minute, Kakács powerful rebounded goal was ruled out for offside
due to the initial strike coming from an offside position.
He hit that violently.
He did, New Zealander.
Libby wanted it.
Libby wanted to spank that.
9th minute, Youngto scored to get the winner for Kalyari.
Totally against the run of play, by the way.
They took the lead through a Youngto, clean rebound into the bottom corner.
To be honest, not even a rebound, the keeper was well in position by then.
Zappa did incredibly well to create the chance, not making the defender.
And he played through Nandes, who took the initial strike
before the ball landed to Youngto.
Kalyari managed to hold on, despite Ampoli really looking to get the equalizer.
And Skuffe had a brilliant save in the 95th minute to secure the win for Kalyari.
This is, fun fact, Kalyari's first away win of the season.
And that's what caused, this is another relegation site who've lost a very important player, bro.
Zito Lvumbo.
Absolutely.
Went off injured in the 30th minute, and he'll be out for three weeks.
You're right, bro. You're right. I forgot to mention that.
It's okay, it's okay.
Bro, he went out, he was off in the 30th minute, and the hope for Ranieri is to have him back
against Verona on the 1st of April.
And honestly, I might stop watching the top teams, and just watch them watch them.
Fucking.
The relegation games right now, because they are so interesting, man.
So basically, Kalyari need to find a way without their best player, by far.
You know, I don't know, man, how they can do it.
The next two games for them are pivotal as well. They're vital.
You look at, they have Salernitana next, which they have to win.
They have to win.
And then Monza right after.
So there are two technically winnable games.
So yeah, they're going to miss Zito Lvumbo, definitely.
But Gaitano has been a revelation now.
Ah, Gaitano has given them some creativity.
They always kind of struggled to get the ball into the box and to score goals, to create chances.
But Gaitano, he's got some good footwork.
He's very attacking minded, and he's really linking up the midfield to those big strikers.
Quite well, or big striker rather, because it was just Lapadoula up front.
Now, to be honest, I kind of like this.
Before they always played with two big strikers to win those physical battles,
with not much going on behind them unless they bring on Zito Lvumbo.
But now in the case of Zito Lvumbo is out injured, I think this is the way to go,
because Gaitano can really do a lot for them in that position.
And then he operates centrally usually, of course, or has been lately.
But after Zito went off injured, he really filled in that pocket on the left side.
And I think that might be the way forward for them for now against Salernitana.
On Monsa, they might want to start off with Gaitano on the left.
Maybe kind of a 4-3-3 or something, 4-2-3-1, something like that.
We'll see, I'm sure Ranieri will think of something.
I think, Kallieri, what they did here is they made themselves as annoying to play against as possible.
They were very pragmatic, they broke down Empoli's play by piling all their men back,
and ensuring that Empoli weren't going to get a sniff Empoli, because they're very fast fluid and direct nowadays.
They got their opportunities, they were met with a bit of misfortune,
they were also met with some heroics by Skuffe.
But to me, the man of the match, the guy that had the best performance for Kallieri,
the reason they won this game in my opinion is Dossana, apart from the referee, naturally.
But Dossana had 10 aerial duels won, and he was just solid as a rock at the back.
Yerimina had a good performance as well, naturally Skuffe, like I mentioned before.
But these are the heroic performances that can change everything, and this is what I like, bro.
This is what I like about Relegation Battles.
This result not only plays a massive part for the teams involved,
but the other teams in the Relegation Battle that see Kallieri getting major three points over there.
It's like a psychological awakening.
They say, okay, we need to get our shit together because they're doing it, and we have to as well.
So massive implications for the entire Relegation Battle.
Absolutely, man. And it's crazy how different each team in this Relegation Battle is, by the way.
You look at, for example, who do you think has the fewest wins in, say, the season?
I think, bro, Udinese, I drain you in.
So it's Salernitana with two, and then right off them is Udinese, who have only won three games this season.
They have 15 draws and nine losses.
That's absolutely wild.
And then you look at, for example, Kallieri, who are very similar to, for example, Verona, Sassuolo, Frosinone.
They have five wins, eight draws, 14 losses. That's usually the case.
So Udinese being down there with 15 draws is really weird.
And then not having won many games might actually bite them in the ass when it comes to this Relegation Battle.
Yeah, we could potentially see, by the way, three teams getting relegated, none of them are newcomers.
Yeah, it could easily be Sassuolo, Udinese, Salernitana.
Fucking mental, bro.
Yeah, mental. Let's jump on to the next ones when it comes to the standings for these teams.
Kallieri now in 18th on 23 points, level on points with Verona, who are also on 23 in 17th place.
Empoli in 14th on 25 points. You'd think 14th would be somewhere near the realms of safety, but not at all.
Not at all.
The next game is Udinese, one Salernitana, one speaking of Udinese and not being able to win games and withdrawing every single game.
These are the two teams which combined have five victories this season.
Yeah.
Really good.
The previous encounter was another one-one draw.
This was back in August and Dia and Samarjic scored.
Just an update on Dia, if you're wondering where the hell's Dia been.
Dia has fallen out with the management yet again.
He refused to come on this game and he's training separately.
So that's a shame. That's a real shame for Boulay-E-Dia, not really giving himself a good advertisement over there for any teams who will be looking for him.
He's just telling you basically when they go and get stuff, I'm gonna leave.
Exactly.
Udinese lined up with their 3-5-1-1 formation with Maduka, Okoya in goal, Ferreira, Janetti and Perez as the defenders, with Kamara and the Bosello on the flanks.
Lovridge, Wallace and Payero were in the middle with Thuvan playing behind Lorenzo Luka.
For Salernitana it was a 4-3-1-2 formation with Okchova and goal.
Brother Rich on the left and Zanoli on the right with Pellegrino and Manolas as the centre-back partnership.
Bazech, Majora and Kulabali were in the middle with Kandreva playing behind Visman and Chouna.
Can I just make a quick observation slash question? Why the fuck doesn't Samaritze start?
Why the fuck doesn't Samaritze start? He must be a real asshole.
I don't know. I don't know why he didn't start this game. I guess he must have not been in the best condition because I can assure you the coach would want him on the pitch.
He didn't even come on. So yeah, there's definitely some injury problem over there, some attitude problem.
Or the fact that again, he is on his way out. He's going to be at where next season? Juve, Inter, who knows?
Inter fell through. Maybe Napoli instead of Zalinski.
But yeah, he has 3 wins all season. Fucking shut up and play him.
But 2-1 was fucking excellent. The missing players for both teams, of course, Jero and Bo, thanks, injured for Salernitan.
A really good bye over there. Faz, Jogh, Jombar, Pirot, C and Pirola, all injured for Salernitan.
It's a bit of a defensive crisis for them. Beol, Deol, Abosa and Christensen were out for Udineza.
Apparently Deol, a man might be done forever.
Of course, he's not old, man. Not old at all.
Cunha scored a stunning left-footed strike 10 minutes in, giving Salernitana a 1-0 lead. Bend it like Cunha, bro.
That would have been the episode title of it, wherein for Bello Bellissimo.
Shoot it like Cunha. There we go.
He tried the exact same curler with his right earlier on. I was going to praise him for scoring with his weak left,
but turns out he's left-footed. So the first attempt was with his weaker right.
Pirot, who's saying it correctly? Cunha or Cunha?
I think it's Cunha. Cunha.
I don't know. There's the A before everything else. Cunha.
Pirot played a brilliant ball to Luka after Abosa and had charged down the right-hand side and squared it to him.
Luka tried to guide it into the back of the net. He kind of missed hit it, to be honest.
And Ochoa got down fast enough to grab the ball. Still an impressive save by Ochoa,
but at the end of the day it was a missed hit shot by Luka.
In the 38th minute, Sandy Love-Rich missed a golden opportunity to equalize after a lovely flick on by Love-Rich.
I wrote over here, so it must be Thuvan. Thuvan, I assume, flicked it over to Love-Rich. That's my mistake.
In the 46th minute at the end of the first half, Hassan Kamara scored an incredible goal, our goal of the week.
Thuvan crossed the ball behind him and he bicycle kicked it acrobatically into the back of the net.
Great goal over there to get his first goal in Serie A and his first goal for Udineza.
Thuvan hit a free kick in the second half, low and hard, and it went narrowly wide.
He picked out Kamara shortly after in a fantastic position right in front of the goalkeeper.
The guy had just scored an acrobatic goal, you could swear he was going to score this one.
But the Ivorian 29-year-old shot it over the bar, disappointingly.
In the 68th minute, Festi Ebosele received a second yellow card and was sent off after a foul on Pellegrino,
who was one of those fouls where the offender was in position of the ball.
So Ebosele had the ball, but his touch was too heavy, and to try to recover it, he took Pellegrino out,
put himself between the man and the ball, and he got sent off.
So that's one way of being punished for your crappy first touch, right?
Suana hit the post, or Chaunas, let's call him Chaunas, or Loom.
His first name is Loom. I like Loom. Loom hit the post with a close change after being played in Baikon Dreva.
Another situation where the touch was too heavy, and another situation where a guy who scored
a very difficult chance missed quite an easy one.
And that was basically everything, and the match ended one-one, giving them one point each.
This was the chance for Salerno Netana to get a victory, where Daneza were a man down for 30 minutes.
They had many moments where they were outnumbering the Daneza defense, but they simply didn't have enough in their locker.
And I think that Salerno Netana are down for a man.
It's going to be a massive sequence of events.
Two seasons ago.
I know, yes.
That's what I said, two seasons ago.
And they didn't go down. And they were...
Believe me, I believe they were in a worse situation, and there are now at least three fucking wins.
Can't take them to 12th at this point.
They need nine points, man.
And the teams in front of them all have to lose.
I wouldn't even hint at the fact that they might survive.
They're probably down, which, my God, is it sad?
Because they have so much character as a team. Their fans are amazing.
And I fell in love with some of these players as well, man.
Like Kandreva just being an icon of that team along with Ochoa.
Even Sabatini coming back and fucking watching the game with an oxygen tank in the stands, you know?
Right.
It's more... Even to the city, it's more than just football.
It means a lot to them.
But unfortunately, man.
Unfortunately, if there's 30 minutes left of play and you're down against 10 men,
and you... I don't be too harsh and say if you can't get it done, then, you know?
Because it's easy to put fucking nine men back and you prevent a goal.
And I don't want to be too harsh by saying this is a bad result for Salernitana
because these games, the relegation six-pointers, are typically the ones, bro, where you get one point.
Yeah.
Because both teams are a little bit cagey.
Maybe, okay, Salernitana should not have been that cagey,
but they're playing against Odinesa that are serial drawers.
They know how to get one point out of the game.
They're a tough side, Odinesa, but when you're a man up, you have to get it done.
And they're very physical as well. They have always been a very physical team, man, Odinesa.
To Odinesa's credit, of course, to Vano was incredible this game.
He really showed us what he can do. He was everywhere, man.
He was taking shots, he was playing players, and he was by far the man of the match for this game.
It's interesting when you look at the way the game went down as well.
If you look at the stats, so 50-50% ball position, 18 shots to Odinesa, 17 to Salernitana.
Okay, five of Odinesas were on target, whereas one was on target for Salernitana.
That must have been the goal.
I want a shot on target, man. Come on.
In the first half, it was 10-4 when it comes to shots in favor of Odinesa.
The second half, which is probably as a result of the red card,
it shoots to 13 in favor of Salernitana.
So, you know, quite a predictable way in which the game went down.
Yeah, man. And Livarani was brought in to kind of impose his offensive style, right?
This is what happens when you change coach, man.
You're either going to end up like Derossi, what happened with Derossi.
To be fair, the caliber of players is much better for Derossi, so it's more likely to happen.
But at Salernitana, changing the coach so frequently, we keep banging on the same point, man.
It just didn't make any sense.
I think they would have a much better chance of surviving had they kept in Zaghe,
and they would have had more points as well.
Because granted, it wasn't a particularly offensive brand, but they really studied the ship,
and he almost got it done against big teams.
Yeah, it's a marathon, not a sprint at the end of the day.
And, okay, fucking two seasons ago, their third manager is the one that fucking saved them.
But football isn't just a replication of what has worked in the past.
Exactly.
And Pepon Zaghe, at the end of the day, Hisel had over 10 games left to sort this shit out,
and he was doing well.
Look at this team.
It's not great, man.
Can't drive up playing behind Chowna and Weaseman.
But he was managing to utilize his players, at least, effectively.
He was using Simi as his first defender up front, pressing, cutting the channels.
He was really closing teams off like that.
So you're getting rid of defensive solidarity for a manager who prioritizes offensive football,
and then you can't even beat Danez or a man down for 30 minutes.
It's not Salernitan as yet.
It doesn't seem like it.
If there's another miracle, I'm all for it.
Fuck it, let's go.
Se qua le ala squadra del mio cuore, si calo so ala Salernitan, and all that.
But, yeah, that's...
Maybe if Pippo was there, Dia would still be playing. If Pippo was like, listen, bro,
shut the fuck up, play for me.
Next year, I'll speak to Milan for you.
I'll speak to Juve for you.
We'll sort it out.
Shut up and play, man.
Yeah, shame.
Shame they brought in Leveroni.
But yes, I'm Salernitan, I'm dead lost with 14 points, while Udanez are in 15th with 24 points.
10 points ahead.
The final relegation, 6-pointer, we're gonna speak about, Michael, blessed were we.
Blessed were we, last weekend.
Fresnoa ne 1, Lecce 1.
Fresnoa ne were coming off a feisty 3-2 loss to Juve, while Lecce were coming off a not-so-feisty 4-0 home-lost winter.
The previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Lecce.
Now, this was a potentially crucial opportunity to break away from the danger zone, as you guys know,
as these teams were separated by one point going into this weekend.
Fresnoa ne were in horrific form after 4 consecutive defeats, and missing Marquitsa, Ollano, Bonifazi and Kalei.
Lecce had Pongracic and Dorgo back from suspension, but their Maaku is a long-term absentee.
They lost 8 of the last 10 games that they played, beating only Fiorentina 3-2.
That is a crazy, crazy stat.
4-4-2 for Fresnoa ne, with Cero Follini in goal who had a whirlwind of a performance in the game.
Backline of Valeri, Romagnoli, Occholi and Zortea, midfield of Gelli Brescianini, Mazzitelli and Solea, with Harui and Wallit Kedira starting up front.
4-2-3-1 for Lecce, with Falcoa ne in goal.
Backline of Jean Dre, Pongracic, Basquirotto and Gallo, Pivot of Cabba and Ramadani.
Alcvesta and Banda on the wings, with Rafia playing behind, Kristovic.
On the 25th minute, Kristovic had a chance to score, but was denied well by Cero Follini.
In the 47th minute, stoppage time of the first half, Kedira managed to get his second goal in as many games.
There was some chaos in the box, which is basically what we say when there are too many things to describe.
Including Falcoa ne, Mazzitelli and Kedira were there to hoof the ball into the back of the net.
2 goals in 2 games, the last one was against Juve, which is great.
In the 56th minute, Lecce were awarded a penalty after a horrible back pass by Zortea, left Cero Follini with no choice other than to bring down Kristovic.
Cero Follini saved Rafia's initial penalty well, but this had to be retaken due to encroachment.
This time, Kristovic stepped up, Cero Follini went the right way, Kristovic hit the post, the ball bounced off the post,
hit Cero Follini in the back and went into the back of the net.
So, Cero Follini gave away a penalty, not his fault, but he gave away a penalty.
Imagine having this guy on Fanta, he gave away a penalty, saved one, it got cancelled and then he scored an own goal.
By tracking a penalty a bit too well, he ended up scoring an own goal.
Brutal for anyone who had him on Fanta. Brutal, bro.
Personally, I had Kristovic. That was also brutal.
That was brutal. Having Kristovic in general is devastating.
The first four games, baby, riding off the high, riding off the high.
In the 64th minute, Gelli hit the crossbar with a reaction strike.
Moments later, Brescianini had his goal disallowed for an offside as he met Kediras through the ball.
Also have him on Fanta.
And in the 96th minute, Falco expertly denied Kediras, had a tipping the ball over the bar.
Now, to me in this game, Frazzinone were simply very, very unlucky.
So there was the whole penalty situation. That's how Lecce got their goal, right?
So Frazzinone took the lead just before half time. Crucial.
Lecce's equalizer came from a penalty which despite initially being saved, was retaken and it went in off the back of their goalkeeper.
They then hit the crossbar in the 64th minute and then they had a disallowed goal.
Brescianini's goal was disallowed and then the 96th minute Falco on it produced a fantastic save to secure the draw for Frazzinone.
Unfortunate for Frazzinone in this game. I would go so far as to say they were unlucky.
I would say so too, man. They were pretty good.
They dominated Lecce as they were always going to do, to be honest.
A draw, to be honest, is probably not too unfair a result though because Lecce did put in quite a decent performance,
especially when it came to creating as well.
Granted, Frazzinone were peppering the goal, seven shots on target to Lecce's four.
But the spoils were shared and I'm sure both would be happy with it before they had heard about Kallieri and Verona both winning.
Because now it's looking a bit dangerous for them as well.
When all of a sudden, they're on 25 points and 24 points and then Kallieri and their legion pool are on 23rd, for example, in that 18th spot.
So I'm sure they would have been happy that they didn't lose but worried that they didn't win.
It has been a while since Frazzinone have won again, unfortunately, for them as well as Sassuola, as well as Salernetana.
Those are the ones that don't seem able to get three points at the moment.
But there's something to me that I have conflicting opinions on Frazzinone, man.
Because there's one that to me says the most simple way to explain football to a child, to whatever, is if you don't concede, you can't lose.
But then I'm also a massive fan of attacking football, fucking going balls deep into teams.
Unfortunately, Frazzinone have the latter but their defense is among the worst I have seen in the league.
They have in fact conceded 56 goals the most, more than Sassuola on 55 and more than Salernetana on 54.
They just attack everyone in their sights, man.
Which is fun, it's a breath of fresh air, it's fun to watch.
For a team that has just come up and I do hope they survive so they can strengthen and maybe solidify a bit at the back when we're in the next season.
We'll see what they can do with better.
Do you know what hurts me?
If they survive, they don't have any of the same players they do now because everyone is on loan, bro.
Everyone is on loan.
It would be interesting to see what happens.
They'll probably just loan in more people, man.
Probably bringing in people on loan and trying to survive like that.
But I fucking like teams with their players.
You know what I mean?
I can't root for Frazzinone too much when Sole is going to be back at Juve.
Which they probably will, bro, considering Khezah and his injuries.
But basically everyone, Ocoli with Atalanta, Zortea as well.
Reynier with Real Madrid.
Carriage, Barangio, all of them.
So I can't get behind this team too much.
But I do think that out of the bottom tier teams, they are the ones that can bring it the most.
They can turn it up, they can go forward.
The most, just unfortunately, they are incredibly compromised.
They're very, very similar this season to Saswolo.
Exactly.
Very similar, bro.
It's almost uncanny.
Frazzinone have scored 35 goals, Saswolo have scored 32.
Frazzinone have conceded 56, Saswolo have conceded 55.
Frazzinone have won six games, Saswolo have won five.
Frazzinone have drawn six, Saswolo have drawn five.
They're having a very, very similar season, man.
And guess what? Defrancisco, right?
The common factor.
That's an interesting point, that's true.
But I don't think there's too much to add on this game.
Looking at Lecce's chances on the other hand, Lecce are up there in 13th, you know?
But on 25 points, so two points from the drop, which is not safe in the slightest.
I would say that Lecce are the team that have regressed the most.
Since the start?
Yes.
They always do this, man.
You don't remember episode title, Lecce are fourth?
Yeah, they had a great start when Alun Gavist was backflipping into a fucking golf swing.
Golf swing, yeah.
Gone is that Lecce.
Yeah, gone is that Lecce.
They are suffering quite a bit and unfortunately it's been a while since they're lost.
Victory as well.
It was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 games ago.
Was there the last victory?
Yeah, that can happen.
They probably felt safe for the vast majority of the season because of their strong start.
But suddenly, with 27 matches played, they're in the thick of it, man.
They really need to find their winning ways and then realize what it was at the beginning of the season that was clicking.
And why Christovic was scoring and now he isn't.
And why is it that when you play pick-or-lade as nothing and Christovic does better when he comes on and buys verse?
I'm like, fuck, fuck, fuck, what the hell are you gonna do, man?
But fortunately now they've got Pongratric back as well.
Yeah.
That's more for them, the horse.
Yeah, so.
Absolutely.
Well, not too much to add from my end about this game.
Lecce and 13th on 25 points whereas Frosinone are in 16th on 24 points.
Yes, we have a nil-nil now to discuss with Torino against Fiorentina.
And finally, I can tell you what Eurich told Italiano.
Oh my God, I've been waiting this entire time.
It's been what, two hours?
Two hours and one minute.
Yes, they had a heated debate, a heated argument, quite frankly.
And Eurich told him, I'm going to slit your throat to Italiano.
He got sent off obviously.
He's probably going to say, you can't threaten.
Literally, he ripped out that page of the room, put it in his pocket, and he's like, how am I going to get myself sent off?
I am going to slit your throat.
Yeah, I'm gonna fucking slit your throat.
Take it down a notch.
I'm gonna headbutt you, I'm gonna punch you in the face, I'm gonna fuck you up.
People make me laugh, man, when they have absolutely no control over what comes out of their mouth.
They make me laugh so much, especially when you're angry.
They'll dare, we told you that's the thing that bro is going out wanting to slit people's throats.
Like what was said before that?
That's what I wanted to know.
Like why did he tell him that?
What do you think Italiano would have possibly said to him?
You know, but yeah, when it comes to the lineups, it was a 3-4-1-2 for Torino with Vania and Gold,
Gigi, Buongiorno, and Masina at the back with Bella Nova and Rodriguez on the flanks,
and literally the netien Vlasic in the middle with Sanabria and Zapata playing up front.
I was gonna say Zapacosta, can you imagine that?
Zapacosta playing up front.
Bellotti was up front for Fiorentina in their 4-2-3-1 formation, Terraciano was in goal,
Biraghi, Ranieri, Melenkovic and Cahio, they were at the back with Arthur and Bonaventura as a double pivot,
Sotel on the left, Gonzales on the right, and Beltran playing behind, of course, Illigallo.
Well, Aventura has become, they've put a more and more defensive as the season progressed.
They're liking Beltran in this creative role.
I think it makes sense, I think it makes a lot of sense, because Beltran has good qualities to be at end,
despite wearing the number 9 on his shirt which drives me insane.
Bonaventura in a double pivot, I'm not too sure about, nothing against his work ethic,
but he's on the older side and he needs a lot of energy to balance a double pivot.
But yes, the first half, Illig went off injured in 10 minutes, Richey came on as his replacement,
and I bet that they'd be regretting that. Nico Gonzales failed to hit the target on a free header,
very unlike him, in the 38th minute Zapata had a goal disallowed for a foul in the build up play,
which was absolutely hilarious. Have you seen this?
Bro, the ball came over the top, Duvan Zapata jumped up in the air, like the ball's nowhere near them yet,
and he has Melenkovic in front of him. He jumps in the air, and as he's landing,
he just pushes Melenkovic back, controls the ball, shoots and scores like that.
I think people forget that they're being filmed.
Zapata has a hilarious playstyle, because he's a bulldozer, even earlier on in the 16th minute,
he got the ball, and Arthur was on him. And he just went from this marauding run down the left side.
He cuts inside, Arthur is trying, he's just slapping him.
It comes to a point where the defender is just slapping the man.
He cuts inside, he shoots, but he failed to hit the target, he's guided.
Yeah, somewhere there, Richie, Elboud Niko Gonzalez in the face, and got a yellow card,
very unlucky that it wasn't more maybe, because some referees nowadays, Bella Bellissimo.
Shortly after, he was fouled, Richie, and he started shouting at the referee,
telling him like, what the fuck are you doing? Book him, you book me, don't book him, you fucking asshole.
And he got another yellow card, almost sent off.
He went this end, leaving Torino with 10 men at half time. In the second half, Raul Bellanova's shot was stopped well
by Terrell Chano for the wing of fast break, and Ginnatus was really smooth on the counter over there.
In the 16th minute, Bonaventura's header was well saved by Vanya, this was Fiorintina's first shot on target in the 16th minute.
In the 75th minute, Zapata headed wide from a corner, missing a chance to secure an unlikely victory at that point,
because they were a man down. Urich was sent off, Gonzalez tried to curl one in,
and in the end it was well saved by Vanya, and that was pretty much curtains for the game,
which ended in feisty argument between the managers.
I mean, definitely this game definitely showcases how, despite bringing Bellotti on board and having Nico Gonzalez back in the side,
Fiorintina still struggled to get goals, right? Now Torino are a tough team, defensively to play against.
Also we saw Ricardo Rodriguez returning to left wing back, which is interesting over here.
That's more defensive, right? And I think it balances out well with the form Bellanova has been on.
Yeah, Bellanova's obviously, and Gigi I think often covers for Bellanova,
and then Bonjorn and Wazina sent their backs, and Rodriguez on the left, that's typically how the setup would be.
But Torino are very tough to penetrate,
but Fiorintina, with the caliber that they want to be, you know, the way they started the season,
the way they keep improving from season to season, look a few seasons ago, 15th, 14th,
and they've managed to climb all the way up to where they are now, Conference League final last year,
they were in two domestic finals as well.
Unfortunately this year there's a significant problem when it comes to scoring goals,
when it comes to their flow and creativity, and that's highlighted here,
when you have an entire half to score one against Torino, like, come on.
Against 10 man Torino.
Against 10 man Torino, string something together, Pula Hail Mary.
That's the interesting thing, bro, about the Torino's main strength is their defense,
Fiorintina's main weakness at the moment, the scoring goals.
So I guess this was always going to be the case, in the reverse fixture,
I don't even think I mentioned that back in December it took a run near a late winner for Fiorintina,
the winning one, for example, so they were always going to struggle over here,
especially away to Torino.
Bellotti's just come in, like Bellotti's the new boy, but Beltran in reality is also a new boy,
it's his first bloody season, you know, they just haven't got to try it with strikers, man,
and it's really hammering them, it's really fucking them.
And I think they need to, I think, move one kind of level up when it comes to their signings.
They seem to be stuck on this 20, 30 million tool of players.
I think if they go for a 40 million player, man, you know, just splash a bit, you know,
Fiorintina have had success in Europe, they've consistently qualified for Europe two seasons in a row now,
and they made a final, surely, surely financially, you can afford to splash a little bit on a striker.
And sometimes they surprise me with the business that they're capable of doing,
and some of the talent they're capable of attracting.
With that being said, we need to see a bit of better business from them, like, okay,
they made good money off of Lovic when they sold him to Juventus.
But there are some guys here that they could potentially cash in on.
Unfortunately, when I talk about good business at Mirrors,
the terrible business that they did in the last transfer window,
bringing in the likes of Beltran and Inzola.
That's it. And they keep buying these players, man, from struggling sides,
and it's clearly not working for them.
And like they brought in Barak, and he hasn't been the same.
Barak was amazing, I tell you, on another level.
He was unbelievable.
They brought in Maxim Lopez from Saasvolo, has barely played, you know.
They brought in Inzola from Spezia. What are you doing?
You know, they've not been successful in the market.
They've been quite unlucky.
And I don't think that they're doing terribly.
Granted, I think Italiano's doing a pretty decent job,
but there are definitely limitations to this team.
I think, by the way, on the topic before of Bonaventura
and the pivot with Beltran in the attacking midfield role,
I don't like Beltran in the attacking midfield role, bro.
I don't think the solution to not scoring goals
is tossing another striker out of position.
At all, I don't think that's the solution.
I much prefer the balance the team has
when either Duncan or Mondraga is playing alongside Arte.
Absolutely. I do agree with that.
I like a midfield three on Fiorintino.
Definitely.
That's everything, man.
I think we just say where they are in the standings.
Balotelli threw a firecracker in Turkey in the dressing room randomly.
Like, you know, you have to.
Balotelli is in the right place to do crazy shit.
You see what happens in Turkey. It's crazy, bro.
Pirlo apparently would be smoking cigarettes when he was coaching there.
Well, fucking brilliant, man.
And have you heard this as well, that Spalletti has banned
playstations from the training camp, from the Italy camps,
Washington team duty?
He said he wants to bring that, like, OG mentality back.
But the OG mentality, if I recall,
Pirlo was playing PlayStation the night before.
Literally.
Before the final when they won it.
You see, not to know what the OG mentality is.
Bro is still young.
Like, playstations were around in his time.
You know what I mean?
No, there are weird extents that coaches will go through
for very superstitious fucking reasons, bro.
If I know my players are going to perform well,
it's not like it's going to give them an astigmatism
and they're going to go out hallucinating.
I think it just might keep them up, bro, to be honest with you.
Remember, these are hyper competitive athletes who are young men
who are playing FIFA one night.
You know how you and I are, imagine that.
I used to work night shifts.
Here we go.
At the quarantine.
Fucking name and everything.
Where the Maltese national team used to stay.
And Devis Manja, the coach at the time,
until he was sacked, let's put it that way,
he and his staff and his team of Italians,
they were so strict.
So strict.
They wouldn't let the team out at any cost.
They're in their rooms, but there's to play PlayStation.
You know, that's the only, the amount of times I got calls
from the second floor because they're just used to stay
in the second floor, they would bro come help me sort out
this HDMI shit and I'll be in there for 20 minutes fixing, fixing up.
It's so much better to be playing PlayStation in your room
than to be out drinking and trying to get girls.
They weren't allowed, you know the story.
And I got a player banned for fucking four months.
Never trust Matthew.
He went out to meet a Gieldemon.
Not on my watch, I'm a football fan.
I want to see Malta thrive, baby.
So I was like, Devis, there's spares.
I'm Devis Manja.
I'm the receptionist.
I'm tonight on my duty and I couldn't help but notice
I'm one of your players sneaking away with a lady.
I was a bit intimidated. So I locked him out, bro.
You locked him out.
I was and when he came back, I called.
It wasn't Devis I was speaking to, but it was the guy that
overlooks the accommodation stuff like that.
If his name was Keith.
Keith.
And I called him.
He's always ready.
This guy, he's always up, ready to go.
Before a week, before I went to come up to me, he's like,
hi, I have like 2000 pieces of paper for you to print.
Can you do it for me?
And it's all tactics of how Norway are going to play on this.
Just to lose for now.
Literally, literally.
But I, I locked him out so that when I see him coming, he's out.
I can call Keith and then I go up to him and I buy myself
some time like I'm struggling to open the door or something
like and Keith can come down in the meantime.
And then I pretended I had to take his temperature.
I was like, can you hold on bro?
Cause since you left and you're coming back in, I need to
take your temperature.
He's like, please man, please.
I shouldn't have done this like and I'm feeling bad because
I'm looking at him and he's like a guy similar to my age.
He made it like he's playing for mall.
That kind of kind of thing.
And behind me, I just hear Keith's voice.
I'm like, I got this guy.
Fuck the next morning.
Newspaper.
This guy was sent home for disciplinary reasons, bro.
There we go, bro.
Well done.
That's your claim to fame.
That's my claim to fame.
Basically, maybe, you know, you did the right thing, man.
I'm fed up of the fucking shit.
Like the morning was like two, three o'clock in the morning.
There's a game the next day.
We need professionalism, man.
You can't just do what you want.
Once you're gonna start the game, probably not.
But I ruined it.
Good.
Whatever.
We've been your hosts, Matt and Jake.
Thank you for listening.
We'll be back next week and we really, really love all of you.
Love you guys.
Thank you.
This is Seria Spotlight.
If you like Seria Out or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good opportunity for you
to listen once a week and you'll get filled in.
In the football weekend, that's like the main dish.
But then a few days later, you drop your episode and that's like the dessert.
And the dessert is just perfect.
It's good, okay?
It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together, just BSing with each other.
The atmosphere is fantastic.
I promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics.
Some time it's maybe good, some time it's maybe shit.
I love how you go into so much detail and show so much passion towards each and every team.
Literally, no team is left undiscussed.
When I listen to you, it's like I'm talking to you in a pub.
It's like I'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me.