Colombo gathers and Colombo shoots and scores a screamer.
Just five minutes after missing a penalty,
Lorenzo Colombo opens his account in Serie A.
Hello and welcome back to Serie A Spotlight Season 2 Episode 6.
We're your host, Jake and Matt, back to take a look at Italy's finest 20 clubs
and how they have looked in the first five opening games of the season.
We covered matchday 2 in our last episode, but that was three games ago.
30 matches took place between the 26th of August and the 5th of September.
It's been jam-packed.
With regards to our goal of the week, we chose Colombo's snapshot against Napoli from a distance.
There was absolutely no run-up for that one.
That was the uncontested goal of the round for us.
Goal of the last three rounds, actually.
Probably.
Yeah.
Other honorable mentions to Coupe Miners, Giroud, Matsoki, Barela, Liao.
There were quite a few amazing goals, bro.
100%.
But I think Colombo is the goal of the season so far.
Yeah, definitely.
It must be.
So don't forget, guys, to follow us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
We'll have some cool content coming out over there.
And rate us five stars wherever you're listening and reach out to us.
You'll be seeing us doing this new segment, not new segment, but new thing this week,
whereby we got people who specialize in certain football clubs like Empoli and Sassuolo.
They sent us voice notes about their takes on their season so far.
And we'll be sharing them on the podcast, reacting to what they had to say and discussing together.
Yeah, some amazing takes over there.
We encourage you to do the same, guys.
Reach out, send your voice notes.
Say us, spotlight slips.
More like, say us, sewage slops, bro.
We've lost four in a row.
We're down to 8 euro and 24 cents from our original 20 euros.
And hopefully we'll be bouncing back.
That is my dog, Bully, drinking in the background.
It's currently half past one in the morning and he's drinking.
He's 15 years old, which basically means he's an old man and he's definitely going to piss himself.
He's not 15.
He's like 15.
No, he's around 12, I guess.
No, I think he's older than 12.
We got him in 2009 when we got back from Manchester.
He's like 13.
He's going to be 13 this December.
He's an old man, that's what he is.
He's a very old man.
Now that he's done, we can move on, shall we?
It's difficult when it comes to predictions this time round.
I mean, it's always, betting is always difficult, but normally we have much better success.
So Serie A really is unpredictable this time round.
It really is.
It's quite demoralising seeing something crazy happen every week.
I'm like, okay, I don't trust Roma to beat Udinese, but I trust them enough to not lose
4-0.
What's going on?
It's like a bet that you can't talk about.
You know, it's public.
It's there on Instagram.
It's stapled.
It's so annoying.
We put our, what do you call it, on the line quite often.
Pride?
Our dignity?
Our dignity.
We give people a lot of reason to talk shit.
There's a lot of fuel.
They could make one of those compilations very easily with that.
But speaking of the moments, we promised you guys that we'd put our 20 goalkeepers in
the league from best to worst and rank them this episode.
We've done just that.
We haven't taken a look at each other's lists yet.
Should we do it?
You read yours and I read mine, or should we say number one and we say it together?
Number two, we say it together?
No, I think you should read yours and I read mine, man.
Yeah, let's just do that.
Go for it.
Shall I start?
Yes.
Okay, so first of all, it has to be said that this was a very, very, very difficult task.
Very difficult.
The best keeper in the league, in my opinion, is Manon and that was the easiest one.
The top and the bottom were the easiest ones for me because I know who I trust most and
goal, that's Manon.
I know who I trust least.
Okay.
That's obvious, I think.
Wait, just read your list.
So it's Manon at the top.
Second, controversial, Shesny.
Okay.
I went Shesny.
I like the way he commands the area.
I like the way that he deals with penalties and the way he intimidates his opponent.
Second for me, Musso next, followed by Rui Patricio, Silvestri and then Skorupski,
followed by Meret, followed by Providel, Handanovic, Monte-Paul.
At this point, this was, I didn't know what to do with Handanovic, man.
Every time I'm like, really, I'm just going to keep lowering.
There's no way Monte-Paul starts ahead of me.
I like Monte-Paul, but to be honest with you, you take the veteran, right, in that situation.
Golini after Monte-Paul, just because I don't rate him that much.
Consigli because he's dipped a bit.
Audero who's been quite impressive, Vania, Vicario, Dragovski, Sepe, Di Gregorio, Falcone and Radu.
That's my top 20.
Yes.
I, bro, we're disagreeing on one big time over there.
Radu.
No, no, no, no, no.
Falcone.
Yes, bro.
I like Falcone.
We're going to disagree big time on that one.
Sure.
No problem.
Big time.
Let's do it.
So I have number one, Manon.
He's been the best keeper in the league for the past two seasons and I think he's one
of the best goalkeepers in the world.
Second, Skorupski.
Last season he showed that he did that top five.
This season he's maintained just that.
He's had the best saves of the season so far and he's remained consistent after his slow
start last season.
He's really picked up after that and he hasn't slowed.
Form-wise Skorupski's top and he's been fucking good for a while.
He made it quite high up on my list, but not second.
Number three, Rui Patricio.
I think he has the perfect combination of experience and then just agility, form and
everything it takes to be a good shot stopper and a good goalkeeper at once.
I think he's one of the most complete goalkeepers in the league.
He just needs to stop snorting Ritalin before the net.
Agreed.
In fourth, I have Mussa.
Shortly followed by Falcone.
Okay, wow, you put them really high up.
Yep, followed by Szczesny, Handanovic, Koncilji, Silvestri, Monte Po, Meret, Vekario,
Provedel, Audero, Dragovski, Golini, Vanya, Radu, Sepe, Di Gregorio.
Wow, okay.
Reactions, thoughts?
So I think Skorupski is too high up on yours.
You really think so?
I genuinely think he's the second best goalkeeper in the league.
Like if you had to build an 11, a proper football team, you're going to take Skorupski over
Szczesny as your keeper?
Yes.
Or over Mussa?
What is it about him that you really like?
I think when it comes to being a shot stopper, he beats most shot stopping as a man between
the sticks.
But he's got the odd there in him.
Don't look at him like the first opening five games, like last season as well.
He had a few blunders in him as well.
Szczesny.
It's true, you're right.
You're absolutely right.
I would take Skorupski over there, man.
I would take Skorupski in second.
I get what you mean because Patricio has a wild history of being a great goalkeeper in
the Premier League for Portugal and then Mussa's been doing it for Udinese, he's been doing
it for Atalanta.
But I think Skorupski is something special.
I think he's a fantastic man.
Yeah, he's a great goalkeeper, don't get me wrong.
But I'm a bit hesitant to pick lower tier goalkeepers over the top teams because they
can easily look good because they face many shots, you know what I mean?
So it's easier for them to pull off saves.
Granted that it's also easier for them to get humiliated.
Yeah.
But you know, that's my point.
I thought Vicario was quite low on your list as well.
Honestly, bro, I just think that the goalkeeping quality in Italy is so high.
Like you look at, for example, Di Gregorio, in my opinion.
He's great.
He's benching Kranjola.
He's fucking good.
He's not the worst keeper in the league at all.
Radu is worse.
Radu is a good shot stopper, for example, but how can you trust that guy anywhere near your net?
No, no.
And to be honest, I was either putting him last or exactly where I put him, which is
third before the last reason being he has some spectacular performances.
Man.
Yes.
He has some really good matches.
I think the first five matches of the season, he's been great in them.
That one blunder, but that one blunder is all it takes, man.
It's true.
Did you know he's Google's Corpuskes age, by the way, to get back to him?
Did you know that he's 31 years old?
Okay.
I thought he was a little bit younger.
I was like 28 or something.
Yeah.
A little bit younger than that.
Interesting.
But yeah, that's our top 20.
Let us know how you think we performed.
It's a tough task, so go easy on us.
Basically what we're going to do in this matchday, guys, since obviously we couldn't
possibly record three episodes over the course of what?
Five days, six days.
Honestly, between the 26th of August and the 5th September, there were 30 matches.
So we thought that we would rather give you one piece of content that is totally up to date and
isn't completely irrelevant after two days.
And rushed.
Yeah, and completely rushed.
And we'd have to miss other games in order to record it.
Exactly.
So we're considering this as like a landmark in the Serie A season, in Serie A 2022-2023.
Five matchdays in, we're going to be going through the league table.
We're going to be going through each team from top to bottom and how they've performed
in their last five matches, where we think they are right now.
And yeah, where we kind of see them going and our thoughts on the team.
So the way it's going to work, I think maybe you could start with Atalanta, dude.
Sure.
Who first?
Let's do that.
Atalanta currently sit in first with 13 points.
They have won four out of their five games and draw on one.
They won the first match against Sampdoria quite convincingly with a 2-0 victory away
from home.
The next game came against Milan at home, which they drew 1-1.
The next game after that was against Verona away at Taffa Fé and that was Coupe Miners,
who won them the game 1-0, his first goal of the season.
Then he went on to score another three goals against Torino on a 3-1 victory, first hat
trick for him in Serie A. And their most recent game was a 2-0 away victory to Monta.
Goals by Hoiland and an own goal by Santos.
Atalanta, bro.
So for me, they have looked pretty good overall.
They do dominate their opponents.
Like, for example, they did dominate Torino, they dominated Monza, they dominated Sampdoria,
they dominate the sides that are worse than them, as they always have.
But I do notice one difference about Atalanta compared to last season and the previous editions
of Atalanta that we have had over the years.
They can actually change their approach to games nowadays, like just as we saw, for example,
against Milan.
Yeah, exactly, where they sat a bit more defensive with a lower line.
Exactly.
They know how to win 1-0, they know how to win 2-0, they know how to force a draw.
They don't always attack, attack, attack anymore.
They look different, they look more defensively stable, they look quite efficient nowadays.
Do you think that them being first is just a first five kind of matches thing, or do you
think that they can hang around the top four, potentially even go all the way?
Who knows?
No, I don't think that they have what it takes.
Now, what I can judge of is obviously the first five matches of the season and how they
did last season, where they finished eighth and it was incredibly disappointing, especially
in the second half of the season.
It's all something new that Atalanta performed very well at the start of the campaign.
Have we ever seen them dismantle Torino that way so convincingly, three goals to one?
Probably not.
Maybe them 7-1.
When?
Two seasons ago when Illichute scored from half-page.
Two seasons ago when Torino were fucking fighting relegation.
Come on, this is a brand new Torino.
Have we ever seen Atalanta get a convincing victory like that in the past two seasons
against a side like Torino?
No, not in the past two seasons.
They clearly took a step up and like you said, they can take a different approach to games.
It's not always the same system in different matches.
They look really good.
They look like a team that wants top four, they look like a team that's going to fight
for top four and they look like a team that could very much get top four.
Could they go all the way?
No, not yet.
I still think that there are some pieces in the team that are either due replacements
or could simply be working more efficiently.
Like the whole having Zapata and Muriel as your top two strikers is a little bit outdated now.
That would get me excited two seasons ago, perhaps not this season, not for a top four
challenging team.
So they still have some key pieces to work on and they definitely don't look as dangerous
as other sides going forward.
But they're a bogey team and Atalanta make it tricky and with their brand new approaches
they're going to be a force to be reckoned with.
I think Gasparini is finally accepting that maybe they've let go of too much.
They've let go of too much from that 3-5-2 attack, attack, attack, 3-4-3 attack, attack,
attack, attack, attack team. Like they no longer have Freuler, who was the heart and soul of
that team. They've lost so many centre backs over the years.
Every single centre back was a breakout season with Atalanta leaves basically.
They've lost so many important players and they're now merging into this team that knows
how to close off games and can force its opposition into problems.
But I still think they'll struggle to get top four.
Okay, yeah, very tight. I mean, like we said, just the first five matches of the season,
but it does show that they've improved from last year so far.
Yes, yes, yes. I do agree.
Do you have a prediction for where you see them finishing?
Do you have any hot takes, predictions?
Or just outside the top four?
I see them outside the top four. I haven't prepared my table, but
no, I don't see them. I think they're better than Fiorentina nowadays.
They look more street smart than Fiorentina. Maybe a Conference League spot for Atalanta.
Conference League, not even Europa League.
Conference League, I think.
Okay, I think their goal of the bat is that top four spot initially and they'll find themselves
in first place. Okay, it's only five matches in, but four wins and one draw and they haven't had
the easiest of fixtures either. Okay, they haven't had the hardest fixtures either, to be fair,
but it's a convincing place to be and it will be interesting to see how they perform.
They've got Cremonaizer coming up, which should be pretty straightforward in inverted commas
because all the three teams that came up with the exception of Monza have looked quite threatening
and then they've got Roma away from home and then they've got Atalanta at home.
So sorry, Fiorentina at home. So those are going to be quite creamy fixtures.
Creamy.
I don't think there's a better word to use.
They're definitely going to be creamy. Keep an eye on Hoyland, their new striker.
He just came out of nowhere, 19 years old. He came in and scored as they always do for this Atalanta
side. Other than that, you know, Coupe Miners has looked fantastic, even better than last season.
He had a very good season last season for his first year in Italy and now he looks better than ever.
You see him slotting in in that three at the back. You'll see him slotting in as a holding
with Fielder, attacking with Fielder as a winger, as a secondary striker. So excited.
And also, Lukman has looked very interesting.
He comes on and he just scares the shit out of me, Lukman, man. He's fucking quick. He's quick and
he's strong.
They have so many of those XXX tentacion looking, you know, more like a
XXX tentacion looking, you know, motherfuckers. You know what I'm saying?
Name another one, Bogami.
Sopi, Brandon Sopi, Duvan Zapata, you know, there's this guy, what's his name, Lukman.
You know, at a point there was a corner and they were next to each other. I'm like,
look at that. They all have the same flow.
Brilliant. That's Atalanta for you, the up and coming boy band featuring XXX tentacion and Duvan
Zapata. Should we move on maybe to the team that sit in second now? Sure. Let's do it. Brilliant.
So in second, it's Napoli, level on points with Milan, but they actually have a better goal
difference. Classic, classic Napoli. They're on 11 points, so just two points behind Atalanta.
So they won their first match of the season, which was a 5-2 victory over Verona. They then followed
up after that and beat Monza four goals to nil. So those were two opening matches that were quite,
you know, on the easier side for them. Verona aren't quite the side that they were last year
and Monza have looked dreadful, probably the worst team in the league so far. And then after those
two opening easy matches, they drew to Fiorentina, nil-nil in Florence. And then after that, they drew
to Lecce, 1-1 thanks to goals by Elmas and a screamer by Colombo that we covered in the intro.
And you could even say that Napoli might have been a bit lucky over there with the retake of
the penalty in place with Colombo missing the retake but scoring the screamer shortly after.
Bro, but will Napoli bounce back? Will Napoli bounce back? Yes is the answer,
because Lazio did open the scoring against Napoli in the next match through Zaccani,
but goals by Minje and Gvaracelja. That was nice pronunciation.
I'm not even sure how it's meant to be pronounced anymore nowadays.
They managed to get... Sorry. No, no, no, honestly, I've heard so many different versions of it,
I've forgotten the origin. It's either Gvaracelja or Gvaracelja, but I feel like Gvaracelja is the
lazy version because you just get all those consonants next to each other and you say okay.
So you need to kind of hit the tsk in the middle. Gvaracelja. Okay, that sounds good. Gvarra. Yeah.
Gvarra has looked insane and Napoli have looked the most high pressure team in Serie A, the quickest
team with the most fluid transitions and subsequently that has led them to last night,
well at least when this podcast is aired, last night they beat Liverpool 4 goals to 1 in Naples.
They tore them apart. So they're not fucking around man Napoli this year. They're not fucking
around. For one flatters Liverpool. Literally. Like it should have been more. There was a missed
penalty by Ozymen. Ball cleared off the line by Virgil van Dijk after a pass by Ozymen took Gvarac.
Gvaracelja had an open goal and Van Dijk cleared it off the line. What has stood out for you? I
think I know where this is going. What has stood out the most for you for Napoli? So their ability
to lose star players and remain a solid unit is the thing that stood out to me the most. Like for
example the fact that Kim has stepped up and proven to be quite a massive, massive character
for Napoli already. Like the loss of Koulibaly is already difficult enough. Massive. This guy comes
in, boom instantly makes you kind of forget, you know, same thing with Gvaracelja or whatever.
He came in for Insinia. Who the fuck is Insinia? You know, who's Insinia? This guy's doing 360s
and smacking it from out of the box and hitting the post. Isn't it like, I mean I've seen him play
what six matches now. I had never seen him play before that and I can pretty much conclude. I
mean the guy is among the best players in the world. He's fucking incredible. He was signed,
let me tell you, he was signed for 10 million. He has a fake passport. He's 29 years old and has been
playing for his entire life. Napoli have struggled. Yes, he's, there is no way, like they're going to
make such a massive profit off him eventually. I can't even imagine him staying for more than
three seasons. The amount of media attention he's getting already since the Liverpool game especially.
You know, people are making memes of him walking Trent Alexander on.
A year ago was touted to be the best fullback in world football. Over Kaffu. So I bet right now
De Laurentiis is licking his lips, frothing at the bit, you know. No, he has so many different ways to
beat his man. So many different ways. Like he knocks the ball around one end and goes around the other
end. Step overs, 360s, quick turn of pace. He can cut in and shoot. He can stay wide and tram the
ball into the middle. He's so versatile in that left wing role and so refreshing because their
time under Insigne, it was almost predictable every single thing Insigne was going to do because he
wants to cut in onto his favourite right foot and play in an early cross or play in an audacious
attempt. With Gvarad it's different. With Gvarad it's like, oh what the fuck is he going to do now, bro?
I would stand up whenever he got the ball. The only predictable thing about it is danger. Exactly.
It's like sharing a cell with a murderer, you know, or a psychopath. Like you know something's going
to happen, you're just not sure what. But you know what's going to be bad. You know what's going to be bad.
Yeah, he's insane. He might as well be a mass murderer to be fair. I am petrified of the man.
There's also the midfield maestro that is Stanislav Lobotka who's been fucking amazing.
You've been undressing Iñesta, bro. Iñesta, bro, honestly. He's looked so good. His ability to take
people on in those tight spaces to just move the ball around and keep the momentum of the game
flowing. He's the metronome. He's really good. Him and the two people around him, bro. Zambuanguisa.
Zambuanguisa has been incredible this season, particularly in the past three matches. He's been
really, really good. And against Liverpool, the commentators couldn't stop talking about him. Now
this was a man who was at Fulham and would barely get playing time at Fulham. Goes to Napoli and
the man can do it all. What are these of you on? I just think it's like the second you find
yourself in an environment that's so unbelievably passionate. Spalletti is the man. It brings the best out of you.
Spalletti is the guy in charge. A guy who obviously... The stadium is right next to fucking Pompeii.
Napoli fans losing their shit over you. And you know that if you have a good season, you're going to have
framed pictures of yourself with candles underneath it for a while. You're blessed.
Unless you have a terrible drug habit, you live to your 90 if you play for Napoli.
I strongly believe that. Zieliński as well has just been... I mean this guy, I feel like I always
wait for him to dip, but that dip never really comes, man. He's so consistently good and then he
just has brilliance to him. Like every five games, he just comes up with a master class.
He is underrated when it comes to the conversation of the best midfielders in the league.
Zieliński. He has to do it for a whole season, just as you said. You said you're waiting for the dip.
There's a reason you're waiting for the dip. It's because man always dips. He's always been kind of
like... Czarlanoglu was with Milan. He'll have like a good two months, a good month, a very good month.
And then he'll stay quiet and everyone kind of excuses him because they know what he's capable of.
Zieliński needs continuity. He needs longevity to him. I think if he has a good season, it'll
really help his confidence as well. Yeah, agreed, agreed. So we both said that, you know,
before the first match of the season, we both had Napoli outside the top four. Has your opinion changed?
Damn. Well, to be fair, this is the one I'm covering, so I should probably answer first
because I'll put you on the spot twice in a row. No, no, no. Well, on the site, Amon, it says
Napoli's nickname is Elucciuccarelli, which means the little donkey. I did not know that was their
nickname. But anyway, do I think that Napoli will finish outside of the top four as my original
prediction suggested? Look, I... Oh my God. You thought long and hard about this. I thought it
was a straight answer. No, no, no, it's not a straight answer because at the end of the day,
it's... Look, I don't think Inter are going to dip as hard as people are saying they're going to
dip. Like Inter are in the top four guaranteed, right? Agreed. Milan are in the top four guaranteed.
Okay. Well, relax. Like, yes, but touch wood for the love of God. Look at the kit you're wearing.
That leaves Juve, who I find it difficult to believe that they won't finish outside the top
four with the squad they have. They always pick it up. Come on, let's pick it up. Exactly. They'll
pick it up. So that leaves literally Roma or Napoli. And between the two, I find it really
difficult to pick, man. I think eventually I'm going to have to back Mourinho over Spalletti.
I'm going to have to say that Roma are going to be street smart. They're going to nail it. They're
going to just win 1-0, 2-1. Just 1-0s and 2-1s all the way to the finish line, like fourth place.
There is no parallel universe this season where Napoli don't get top four. So you think over Roma?
Either over Roma or over Juve. It could be the season where Juve don't get top four.
It could be it. It could be it. It totally could be it, but that would be a disaster for them,
especially financially. I mean, yes, and I can't remember the last time it fucking happened to
Juve, even when they were not up to top four standard and they still managed to find their way.
But I don't see a reason as to why Juve finish above Roma and Napoli so far. At some point during
the season, they're going to have Pogba, Chiesa, Di Maria all back and healthy and playing together.
And now there's Paredes and they would have never played together before. It's true, bro, but I think
players of that quality, man. Yeah, I don't know. And Allegri has a knack of just getting these guys,
plugging them in and getting them going, man. Hasn't that always been his thing? He found what
Conte had and he just kept winning with it. Yeah, but I mean, we're arguing this is how good Juve are,
this is how good Napoli are. I think you plug in stars to Juve and they get, they do get better,
obviously. But with what Napoli have going on, with the level of continuity that they have and the
fine little key pieces that they've brought into the team with Spalletti at the helm,
Gvaram, Minjez, Jelinski, Ossimen, Politano, Lozano, all these guys, Anguissa, Lobotka.
I don't see them not getting top four. I don't think there's a world this season where they
don't get top four. The thing that sells it to me most for Napoli isn't, it's not even the roster,
it's not even the lineup, it's Spalletti. Spalletti always gets top four, always. Like,
check it out, check out his last manager gigs. I can't remember the last time he finished in the
top four. True. But then again, the competition is Allegri and Mourinho, which by the way,
beautiful. Very beautiful. I'm very curious to see how this plays out, brother. Same here, same here.
I think we could move on to the next team. The next team is Milan, who currently sit in third
with 11 points. They have won three games and drawn two. Finally, man. The first game was against
Odinezza, 4-2 victory for Milan. Goals by Theo Hernandez, Rebic, scoring twice, and Brahim Diaz.
They then drew to Atalanta, the goal by Benassir. They beat Bologna 2-0 as always. Leao Anjouroos
scored, by the way, Sinisa Mihailovic has just been sacked from his position at Bologna. We'll
talk more about that when it's time to discuss Bologna. They drew to Sassuolo 0-0 away from home
and then beat Inter Milan at home 3-2, most recently, which I cannot believe it took us
this long to mention, brother. We did get a comment from one of our listeners who said that
we are kind of anti-Inter or the Inter hate is real. He said, I don't feel like the Inter
hate is that real. Is it? Inter hate is real. Really, we got a comment saying that. Yeah, it was.
Wow, I always thought we spoke highly of Inter's quality. To anti-Nerazzurri, Max Kamenleri.
Oh, this is when we said, when we were discussing the top two strikers,
Lauke Shandosman, because Lautaro wasn't mentioned. I mean, Chiro wasn't mentioned.
Yeah, and that's way more criminal. And Lukaku perhaps is arguably more criminal to not mention.
100% not anti-Inter, not when it comes to talking football, brother. If I had to speak to you on a
personal level, I might talk a little bit of shit in a humorous way about the club, but respect
to all 20 teams within the league. And I can have a very honest conversation about each and every
team. Inter have been fantastic. They were outdone by Milan against the Derby Della Madonnina. What a
performance that was by Milan. It was an amazing performance. It started off well for Inter, to be
honest, Brozovic, catching Milan on the break. But then Milan reacted very well and managed to score
three goals on the trot between the 28th minute and the 60th minute layout, particularly, was just
on fire. He was unstoppable. Liao is unplayable on his day. He is, man. Like people right now are
going on about Guevara, Guevara, Guevara, but Liao is actually unplayable. Like if you put a defender
against Liao, like he can't out muscle him and he can't keep up with him. There's no way. He makes
everyone look rubbish. Liao makes everyone look like shit. And he does. He makes you look like shit
while he smiles. Yeah. People are saying that Scrinia has been terrible. No, he hasn't. Liao
just didn't. Exactly. De Vries hasn't been great. De Vries, Bustoni and Scrinia, which is arguably
the best defense in Italy, look terrible. Individually for sure. And not even individually,
because as a unit as well, you know, it's Milan and Inter when it comes to the defense. It's that
back four of Milan, that back three of Inter. By the way, shout out Max Kamaleri. Thanks all for
listening, brother. We love you. Of course. I have to bring up the comment to see. I know,
I know Max personally, he's a, he's a lovely guy. We've worked together. Tell him,
Davon Avita, Lo Cantiamo. Milan recently have drawn to Salzburg, 1-1 away from home, their first
game in the Champions League. Of course, from that group, Chelsea lost actually to Dynamo,
Zagreb goal by Orsic. Milan so far this season, bro, I think they look better than last season,
to be honest with you. I think one of the major changes that I've seen is in the level of not
fluidity. I wouldn't use the word fluidity, but when it comes to controlling possession and moving
the ball around and taking full command of where the game goes. Now Milan did that against the
teams that are worse than them, but I feel like the season, they still did against Atalanta and
they still did it against Inter. They don't get against tougher opponents. And I think a big part
of that is having two ball playing midfielders playing in a double pivot in Tonali and Ben Nasser.
I love that combination. So, so mobile, so fluid. It's true. And they don't shy away from Atalanta,
either of them are fucking, they will break your fucking leg. And this is like, Adli hasn't even
been incorporated into this team yet. You know what I mean? Once Adli gets going, I feel like Milan
are going to have some serious depth in that double pivot, even with Pobjega available. And
Andrade Kroenich, of course, who can put in a shift. Not to mention the Czechos are all now,
there's a CDK who looks so good. He looks incredible. Yeah. He looks like he can be a
very good player with some time in this league. Brahim Diaz as well, who can still put in a shift,
especially coming over the bench. On the right, there's still that problem with Salah Makariz
or Messias, but apparently Salah Makariz is an extremely meta player and in Europe he works.
So he's playing safe for Europe. He literally just plays Messias. It's a very clear, I see why
Piolli would want the likes of both of those players to have both Messias and Salah Makariz.
They're different. Exactly. It's not a direct swap. It is you either bring a more defensive
approach and a safer approach in Salah Makariz, where you have essentially a wing back, probably.
Output a little bit weak, but very strong going back and tracking back. Or else you literally have
almost a right forward in Messias. Very offensive player. He's constantly in the corner of the box.
I feel he's constantly placed over there. He's a natural finisher as well, that Messias. He is,
man. He is. I mean, I'm not going to give him too much praise when it comes to his output,
because still when it comes to his decision making and his output at times, it still needs
a lot of work. And that has a lot to do with the fact that he is an incredibly raw talent that has
made it to the top by working hard. But yeah, that is where I see Milan still having a slight
weak point is down that right flank. I mean, against a swan, they were invisible, both options.
It's true. That's definitely the weak point of the team. Will De Ketamine start playing
on the right winger? No, no, I don't think De Ketamine will start playing on the right.
I think he'll keep playing centrally and he'll keep deploying. Maybe Dest, huh? Maybe Dest. Dest
was mentioned. I'm not too sure what Dest can provide on the right. I'm not sure. We've seen
minutes of him. Minutes only. He looks very flashy. Very young, still very young. He's
very explosive, like has a little flair to him. There was a lot of exploding forward and passing
the ball back. So it shows that he wants to, but he's not quite obviously not used to it yet. But
the fact that he was called up for the Champions League spot ahead of Adli already is quite a
large task. Can you please pass me one? Here you go, brother. I'm not going to mention the
company because we don't have any sponsors, but today... Moretti?
No, as in like the brand that got us the Moretti. But basically today, Jake and I felt like having
the taste of Italy. Whenever we go to Italy, we've been to Bologna together, we've been to Milan
together, we've been to a bunch of places together, we always get fucked up off Moretti. It's like
drinking water and getting fucked up. Not even water, love juice is what I would call it. And
we felt like it. So we looked up places in Malta that have it and that deliver it and they got
delivered to our door within 20 minutes. Ice cold. We drank it and suddenly we're in the sun, zero,
watching Milan at Atlanta last year. They were scoring after taking on six men.
Yeah, it's nice to be honest. Very good. We can plug them in, why not? Boo's Wagon.
Boo's Wagon. Shout out to Tom and Mark.
Shout out to legends. Origi, man, when Origi adapts, I feel like Milan can give Giroud the rest he
needs. When Rebic comes back, Milan are going to be better. Of course, Rebic is always a good option
off the bench, no matter what you think of him, he always brings something different. The work
rate is fantastic. Milan play a pressing game and Rebic is a type of player who presses
relentlessly. So that's a weapon that's kind of being missed right now at Milan.
Rebic is a great fucking option to have off the bench. What do you think, bro? An interesting
point, the center back depth. What do you think of that? Do you think that, for example, if
Kalulu or Tomori get injured, Kier and Gabia are adequate replacements?
Kier's been out for it. So Gabia, no, I definitely don't think Gabia is an
adequate replacement, especially when Milan wants to reclaim gold in Serie A and advance
more in the Champions League. Gabia is not an option over there. As a fourth choice, not even?
No, man, not really. I think he needs to know how to play, man. I think he needs a full season.
He's not even that young anymore, Gabia. I remember as a midfielder. Really? I remember
with the Primavera, he was a midfielder and he's 22 years old. Again, he still has plenty of time.
As a fourth option to have a 22 year old homegrown players and the worst thing in the world, but I
feel like whenever he comes on, he never shows me enough. It's never a smooth tackle or commanding
the defense or commanding defense, maybe not for a 22 year old Primavera player. But he never does
anything spectacular to me that stands out or bounces off his partner. I think sometimes he looks
solid in certain moments, especially when called upon last season, for example, he didn't really
make any mistakes, which is a good thing for a 22 year old center back who never plays. But I feel
like he would have really benefited from a loan move. Yeah, agreed. But I'm happy Milan kept there.
I'm happy that Milan kept starting Kalulu. Agreed. Like imagine, Buttman arrived and Kalulu was
benched and Gabia was sold. You kind of, you know. Fuck that, man. Yeah, literally. Reward the people
who gave you glory and Kalulu gave Milan glory. 100 percent. I mean, and all that to get absolutely
fucking shafted by Salzburg. They were running the man inside out. The poor thing was having a bit
of a mare against Salzburg. When it comes to Kier, Kier is solid as fuck, but he's a recovering ACL,
these are recovering torn ACL 35 year old Viking. He's got the heart, he's got the soul, bless him.
He's got the experience, he's got the knowledge, he's got the skill, he's got the leadership.
Does he have the legs though, man? Is the question. He does look a touch slower than he did. I think
he got injured when he came on last year. Yeah, shit. But we'll see how that develops. Yeah,
and my final question about Milan before moving on, bro, is that with the Calabria, people are
saying that because he stormed off against Salzburg when replaced, that he isn't fit to be captain
because he made the whole fuss about it. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. He was obviously
upset about his own performance, you know, and he said so after the game as well. Give me a captain
that shows emotion when shit is going wrong. And he's, people love to shit on Calabria, but in
reality, like you're getting the guy who's been through it all with us. Yeah. Calabria has been
through the struggle with every single Milan fan in the past seven years. He's been there the entire
time and he's always found minutes. He's always had time to play since the days of Abbate. He was
a fucking, he was there like, I think he's worthy of the captain's arm, but I think he's worthy of
the starting position at Milan. Do I think that Milan can win the Champions League one day with
Calabria's ride back? Probably not, but that's why you bring in hot talents like Dest to compete
with him, but until they actually overtake him, then it's Calabria. You know, let the others prove
themselves, let them develop, let them overtake him. But right now he's the guy. Because Calabria's
been drafting since we've been shit. Since Milan have been shit. He's been there. He's been the constant.
We were crying for him to get the captain's armband over Romagnoli. Now the second he has it and
Romagnoli is gone. And we're seeing the likes of Tonali playing well and committing his future to
Milan. We're like, ah, pass it on, pass it on. And we always want to find that weakest link. And we
want to single a guy out. Calabria shouldn't be the man that is singled out. If anything, let's focus
on the right wing department. I don't believe we'll have a problem in the right back department. And
if we do, we have a fantastic young man in Dest, two year loan, option to buy, will be completely
fine. And Calabria out of the starting 11 is the only man worthy of the armband. I mean,
no, but like, for example, Teo's worthy of it. Tonali is worthy of it for sure. But like you're
saying seniority wise for someone who's been there from fucking day one. And you look at the people
who had been there with him for a while, you know, you see, for example, they've not even been there
for as long as he has, but Donnarumma left on a free, for example. You look at, I don't know,
Shalanoglu was there for a while as well. Kessy was there for a while as well. Granted, all after
Calabria. They all left. Romagnoli had been there with Calabria for a while. Again, left on a free.
Calabria has never given any problems to the club. The three young players were Calabria,
Locatelli and Cutrone back in the day. And he was the strongest one. And he was I think slightly
older than them as well. Could be, could be a little bit. But yeah, Davide, to say the Capitano,
the De Noi. De Noi, no? Si. So, ah-ha, Tiamo, brother. Keep being you. Keep being you. One more thing I
want to say about Milan and particularly Milan against Inter game. I want to speak about Daddy.
I want to speak about Giroud a little bit as well because we didn't get into Oli G. I think it's safe
to say that we can start referring to Oli G, referring to Olivier Giroud as Mr. Madonnino.
He never misses in the derby, bro. Brother, it's something different against Inter, this fucking
sight. Not only against Inter because we saw, for example, against Oswolo last year to seal the deal
for Milan. It seems like when shit matters, Giroud steps the fuck up as the veteran that he is.
Link up play against Inter, 10 out of 10. Finishing against Inter, 10 out of 10. Attitude
against Inter, 10 out of 10. Celebrations against Inter, 10 out of 10. Sticks his tongue out every
time he scores a game. Straight to the camera. Straight to the fans. Last season Giroud played
22 games for Milan, starts. He scored 11 goals and got three assists. That's solid. Now, in the
season, he's played three games in the league, three starts, two goals, one assist. The guy's
output is very good. He just needs someone to help him out in that role. Therefore, there's Rebic and
there's Origi. I just have to pray to God that they remain fit. You made me laugh last time when I
came downstairs and I noticed you were a bit quiet on the sofa, like you were thinking about something.
All of a sudden you go, a jurukit, I'm getting mad. I think I'm in love with him.
He's made me so happy, man. Honestly, like the emotions he's made me feel during the derby,
man. Honestly, the second he was confirmed to Milan, we're both like, yes, yes, yes, yes.
For me, the options for him, it's the toughest it's ever been for me to buy a Milan kid.
Like, who's kid do you buy? It's tight for me. It's between at the moment, Theo,
Theo Hernandez, 100%. Calabria, Tonali. I'm going to say juruk, because you're getting a juruk once,
I have to be unique. And then there's Ben Nasser as well. And then there's Caludo.
Every single player in the starting 11 didn't even mention Leo. Leo is the obvious one. Leo
is the investment. If you're smart, if you're wise, you get a layout kit. Why am I going to
get a layout kit when he's leaving on a free two-week jersey? That's at the back of my mind as well.
And then there's obvious, motherfucking anti-Rebic. Anti-Rebic, bro, as well. The number 12.
Oh my God, oh, he's sweet, but a psycho. A little bit psycho. Kurt, Sultan, a shout out to him,
got me a Croatia kit of Rebic. Oh, what a legend. One of those fake Tenuro ones. Ah, legend, Kurt.
All the kids you can see in our snippets are original, in fact. Yes,
ah, yes, of course they are. Shall we move away, bro? Yes, so off to the little zebras,
the zebrette in Odinese. By far the biggest surprise of this season. Not a surprise because
they were shit last season, because they weren't shit last season, but the change of management
and everything, them getting Sotel on board and the fact that instantly they've improved so much
is redonk-a-donk. Opening match of the season, they lose against Milan. They manage to get two
past them, the classic Bekao goal in the second minute. Every season, every single time against
Milan, but Milan still managed to win that. Next game was a 0-0 draw against Salernitana. It was
made hard for them due to the new Imperiget card in the 49th. In the next game, they edged past
Monza 2-1 away from home, thanks to goals by Udo G and Beto. They beat Fiorentina 1-0, and this is
where it started. They beat Fiorentina 1-0 in a very tough encounter at home through a goal from
Beto, and then dismantled Mourinho's Roma, four goals to nil. Another goal by Udo G, spectacular
goal from wonderkid Samaricic. Pereira scored as well, one of, not one of the best midfielders in
the league, but a fantastic fucking midfielder, very attacking minded, and a goal by Lovric as
well in the 82nd minute. What surprises me most about Pereira, bro, is his work rate.
The type of player he is, you wouldn't expect him to have that work. Because I instantly,
when I think of Pereira, I think of the the tarraptes, for example, that are very skillful,
but are kind of laze balls, you know what I mean? Who focus their energy mostly on attacking movement,
but that's so not the case with him, man. He's so industrious. Absolutely, man, absolutely. And
Udinese are a team that, we've always said this, so firstly they're incredibly physical, and what
they did against Roma, so let's not take away from their fucking Barcelona tiki-taka football that
they were playing, and that every single one of their players was an absolute 10 out of 10.
But they are very capable of, okay, you have a better team than us, let's make this physical,
let's make this a scrap. They turn it into a scrap, and not only are their players big, bro,
but their players can't fucking perform and keep a cool head in a scrap. And that's what they do,
man, Udinese, that's how they grind, that's how they get points, and there's flow to them,
and they keep that shape nicely in that 3-5-2. Honestly, bro, apart from all this as well,
they have some decent depth as well. Like in the 63rd minute against Roma, they brought on,
listen to this, okay, so they took out Isaac Success, Tolga Arslan, and Lazar Samardze, okay?
They brought on Jean-Victor Mackengo, who's a very good midfielder. That's his name, Mackengo.
Jean-Victor. They brought on Sandy Lovridge, who's a very exciting player, came on and scored
instantly, in fact, and Beto, who is so used to scoring in Serie A, like, so that's a triple
substitution at the one-hour mark that probably improved their team. Probably, man. You know?
So, yeah, and they have a good manager, Andreas Sotil, who did wonders at Ascoli and is totally
living up to his reputation with Udinese right now, to be honest with you.
100%. I mean, I see absolutely no reason, should Udinese keep this up, top-10 team. You know what
I mean? They would normally rank them, we'd normally say Bologna, Udinese, and Verona are
all of similar quality. I'd say Verona and Udinese are better than Bologna and have been better than
Bologna recently. Exactly, but Verona, so Bologna even more so now, kind of, they're going through
a change of manager that's going to affect everything, especially with the relationship
they had with Sinisa. Verona are still a very dangerous side, particularly with that front, too,
but they have stepped down, especially after losing to Dor, and Udinese have taken a significant
leap forward. You can't beat Fiorentina and Roma, back-to-back matches, man, with five days in
between, four days in between, and you beat Fiorentina and then Roma. Crazy, crazy stuff, man.
This is the interesting thing about teams like Udinese and Atalanta this season, they're playing
once a week, and they have the potential to beat any opponent in front of them, so give them a hard time at least.
Udinese right now are very exciting. As you're saying, I totally see them as a
10th place side, you know what I mean, like bang mid-table, probably a bit better.
The thing is, can they keep this up? I really hope they can, because shades of when Milan won the
league in 2011, I think Udinese got Champions League that year. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was nice to see, so hopefully that can repeat itself. And when Udinese are playing right now...
It won't repeat itself, but maybe... No, I mean, we were wondering between Roma, Napoli, and Uwe,
who's going to get Champions League, it's Tosin Udinese as well. So do you think Udinese can stay in fourth, man?
They have Sasuolo coming up next, which is quite a dirty one.
I'm away against Sasuolo, I mean, it's like being at home against Sasuolo as well.
I don't know where I was going with that. Then Udinese at home against Inter, so it's nice that Udinese
basically played Fiorentina, and Udinese were home. They played Roma, and Udinese
were home. Now they're playing Inter, and Udinese are home. That is nice for the first half of the season,
but for the second half of the season, that might bite them in the ass a little bit.
They suddenly have all those away games against the top fucking seven teams in the league.
Thankfully Milan will be at home for them because they've already played Milan away.
And then after that game, they have Verona away, which is also a very, very tasty encounter over there.
I have a question for you.
Sure.
Rank these teams from best to worst.
Udinese, Verona, Torino, right now.
Okay, so Verona are last. It's then between Torino and Udinese.
I might...
So I would have to go with Udinese for the timing, and Torino have looked excellent, man.
And Torino might have more longevity in them because this is their second full season under Juric.
And they lost Bellotti, and they lost Bremer, and they stayed in a very good place.
They've brought in Mirancuk, who I'm guessing will do bits for them. They lost fucking Pobega as well.
But due to their management and due to their play style, they might have more longevity in them
than Udinese. But at the moment, Udinese are better. At the moment of those two were to play each other,
I would...
The four nil makes it difficult to go against Udinese.
What do you think?
I rate Juric more than I do Sotil, but that's simply because I know him better.
I've seen more of Juric, and I am aware of what he can do over the stretch of a season.
I'm not too sure about Sotil and what he can do when the going gets tough.
It's his first season in Serie A at the end of the day.
So is it really magical? I'm not sure. I would say that Torino are the best of these teams so far.
Torino, Udinese, Hellas. And it's very tight between Torino and Udinese.
The reason as well I might say Udinese, not I might say I said Udinese,
is because they have literally... Bro, you look at their team,
and there's essentially a part from Molina's departure last year.
Yeah.
Nothing really new, bro.
Yeah.
They've been the same motherfuckers like Udinese.
Udinese have been the same motherfuckers.
That's true.
They know how to play together. They know the system.
Bring in a new man. Can you motivate us?
Yes, this is how we play. This is how we play under you. We move.
Yeah, true.
And they look fucking good, man. They look delicious.
Agreed. Shall we move on to Roma?
Go for it, King.
So Roma. Roma have played five games. They've all played five games.
They have 10 points. They've won three, drawn one, and lost one.
Their only loss being their very recent 4-0 loss to Udinese.
They beat Monza 3-0 the match before. Came 1-1 to Juventus away.
Beat Cremona as a 1-0 and beat Salernitana 1-0 as well.
So it's usual Molina stuff here. So you have 1-0.
1-0s against the bottom tier sides, Cremona as in Salernitana.
Their goals from the large bodied Chris Smalling and Brian Cristante.
You know what I mean? The set pieces.
Don't think twice about it. Their set pieces.
Then they went away to Juventus, which proved to be a tough task for them.
They'd have been happy with a draw.
They conceded early. They managed to equalise in the 69th minute through Tommy Abraham.
Their 3-0 victory over Monza. I feel like anyone can beat Monza right now.
Deballa started stat-padding a bit that game.
And then the 4-0 loss to Udinese was the one that kind of tilted everything onto its head.
Everything was going swimmingly for Roma.
But as Mourinho said, it's better to lose 4-0 once than to lose 1-0 four times.
And he's right. As ridiculous as a statement as that is,
knowing the context of what's just happened and how bitter the fans must be.
Yes, he's right. At the end of the day, they lost three points and that's it.
So they can easily recover.
You know, the thing is, how much of a mental strain did this have?
Mourinho took an unusual approach for him.
You know, he praised Deballa after the loss.
Now, typically, he throws his players under the bus.
This time he said that his man of the match was Paolo Deballa.
100% of course, he didn't actually mean it. He's just saying...
I think man of the match was Pereira.
Of course. Man of the match was anyone but Udinese.
Definitely not one of Roma's players.
But anyway, yeah, bro. Roma look like they can do something this season.
This against Udinese was kind of a one-off.
I do feel like it was a one-off.
It was a slap in the face to Mourinho. I don't think it'll happen again.
You could see him shaking Sothil's hand at the end of the game.
Like, well done. I think he's the only coach to ever beat him 4-0.
Could it be?
Could very much be.
I don't know that 5-1 loss for Roma.
That 5-1 loss for Real Madrid against Barca was under Mourinho.
Probably wouldn't be a man knowing how little Mourinho tends to concede
because of his more conservative style of play.
That's it. This was shocking, 4-0.
4-0 against the Mourinho side is mental.
It says a lot about the day as well, rather than the teams.
It only happened because we bet on Romo Oidro.
For sure.
There's no other reason it's going to happen.
If I was a manager, I was thinking about this last day,
one plea I would have to the fans is if you have any superstitions,
please stick to them and be careful.
If you hold your piss in and we score, keep holding your fucking piss in.
Get bladder disease. I don't give a shit.
I think this game was literally a downward spiral after an early Karsdorp mistake.
I feel like Karsdorp fucked the entire game.
Okay, that's one way to look at it.
Bro, honestly, in the fifth minute he tried to interest the ball down to Rui Patricio
with Doggy came flying in and scored immediately.
That forced Roma to panic a bit.
Suddenly they were attacking with Dineza, Sadback wasted.
Not wasted, they played conservatively.
Defended the 1-0 for a whole half, pretty much.
Then in the second half, they managed to get them again in the 56th
with some hards pitch, a moment of brilliance, and then it was wide open.
Romo was just committing really good, especially from a distance.
Committing men forward and then Pereira on the 75th
and Lovric with the killer in the 82nd. 4-0.
4-0. I have a couple of points to make about Roma.
You said they look like they could do something this year.
I think on paper, they definitely look like they could do something this year.
At the end of the day, they're a Mourinho team.
They're a good team. They have that solid tree at the back.
They have Pellegrini in midfield, one of the best midfielders in the league,
maybe not this season so far.
Obviously, bringing in Devala, bringing in Wijnaldum,
bringing in Matij, bringing in these key pieces that would make them a better
and more versatile team. However, I have not seen anything yet this season
to me from Roma that proves that they are a better side than they were last season.
I think what we mentioned about that gap between the defense and the midfield is still there.
We thought it would be sorted out by playing two holding midfielders.
They've played two holding midfielders. That hasn't done them any favors.
They just looked less fluid and Pellegrini was invisible in the more attacking role.
Will Roma pick it up? 100% they will pick it up and they will be fighting for that top four spot.
But for now, bro, I can't say it with confidence because Pellegrini has been shocking.
Tammy Abraham up front has been fucking shocking as well.
I think at the end of the day, Tammy Abraham is a man that,
because of his natural abilities, suits the team's style more than him being the best
choice talent wise. I feel like he's more of a fit to the team rather than a unique talent
that they brought in because he's been missing some sitters, man.
Tammy Abraham needs to work on his hold up play.
You can't be that tall and be that bad at hold up play.
Like you look at the other strikers of his stutter.
Like, for example, Giroud, Duvan Zapata, Vlaović, they all excel at hold up play.
Even Ciro? Even Ciro, of course.
And even the lower center of gravity ones like Ciocaputo was very good at holding the ball up.
Exactly. In the last episode.
Tammy Abraham needs to build some muscle and work on waiting for his teammates.
Because he has Debala, Spinazzuolo, those guys running in behind, Zaniolo.
He can totally get some things done over there.
But I feel like he needs to improve a little bit.
Many things need to improve on the Seramo side, to be fair, including Karsdorp.
I feel like needs to be dropped for Ciro completely.
Yeah, I think Ciro has looked very good to be fair.
Ciro has looked good.
I'm excited to see what Bellotti will be able to bring up front as well.
He's got another player who's very good at hold up play.
Very good at hold up play.
And when a team is struggling, because fuck me, have we seen Torino struggle in the past couple
of years, he was the man. He was the man still getting four shots away a match,
three shots away a match and really trying to carry a team forward.
So when the going gets tough, bringing on a motherfucker like Andrea Bellotti
isn't a bad shout for Mourinho at all, man.
Definitely. Definitely not.
I'm not too confident about Roman in top four that much because...
They haven't been tested. There was a statistic last year.
They haven't been tested, but you look at the results,
like 1-0 against Salernitano. OK, Salernitano have been impressive.
1-0 against Cremonaese. OK, 1-1 against Juve. OK, 3-0 against Monza.
And then you lose 4-0 to Udinese.
So the first four games, in my opinion, are the best case scenario.
When you look at these games, you say, OK, we have Monza, we have Cremonaese,
we have Salernitano, we have Juve. Can we get three wins in the draw?
Yeah, that would be good. Absolutely.
Three wins in the draw. Absolutely.
It's just this against Udinese. Was it a fluke or not? We'll see.
In the Fonseca days, Roma were criticised because they could not
do anything against the top seven side.
They lost every time, pretty much.
I think they were two draws and just were all losses in the whole season.
Let's see what happens when these guys take on the likes of Inter.
Let's see what happens when they play Fiorentina even.
Let's see what happens when these guys play Milan.
It's still very early days.
But I think that Mourinho can get his team to be quite street smart
and they can close the game out as well.
Maybe against Udinese, there was an element of complacency as well.
Things are going well.
They weren't like a honeymoon phase and this was a slap in the face.
Let's see how they react.
It was a slap in the face from Inter that woke Milan up last year
and led them to winning the league.
Very true.
Coppa Italia, three in a loss to Inter.
That is what pissed Milan off and they went on to not losing another game after that.
Very true.
We'll see.
Let us know, guys, if you think Roma are a top four side,
particularly after that four in a loss and how they'll bounce back.
And I will see them moving forward.
The next team we're going to be covering are Torino.
So Torino won their opening match of the season away from home against Monza.
Two goals to one.
They then drew 0-0 against Lazio at home.
They beat Cremona as a 2-1 away from home
thanks to an own goal by Bianchetti and a goal by Radonjic.
They then lost to Atalanta, three goals to one,
and Torino looked a shadow of what they were in the beginning of the season over there.
And then Torino went on to beat Lecce 1-0 thanks to a Vlasic goal.
What are your thoughts on Torino so far this year?
They look surprisingly solid.
Once again, we have a team over here that has lost every single important player that it had.
So one of their weaknesses was the goalkeeping department.
No, it's because they had Vania and they had Berisha
and they had to choose between one of those.
That's still the case.
Granted, I rate Vania.
For them, he's OK.
Even Berisha isn't bad.
They could have done with an upgrade, but it's not the worst thing in the world.
Losing Bremer, losing Pobjega, losing Balotti, however, is the worst thing.
That's the spine, man.
Yes, you lose your entire spine.
However, they have adapted well.
They've brought in these interesting midfield players like Vlasic, Radonjic,
who can do quite a lot from outside the area, especially who can create a Mirantxuk
who saw early on before his injury.
He looked very good, very fluid.
They're still lacking that striker.
Agreed.
They have Sanabria, but they're still lacking that striker.
Agreed.
I get that.
I get that Sanabria gets goals and Torino still score goals,
but sometimes the lack of a number nine to actually get the ball to as a
as a final goal for the midfielders.
OK, play it to this guy and just to show it, he's going to put the ball in the back of the net.
Obviously, they're going to miss that after losing Balotti and not directly replacing him.
We've seen it time and time again.
Juve last season for the opening six months had no one up front
and they were shambolic for the first six months.
And then Vlaović kind of fixed that issue a little bit.
We're seeing it with Chelsea this year, for example, the fact that they're playing
fucking Raheem Sterling in a false nine is weird as hell.
So I think also with City for Idris, Piri Zalad.
True, true.
And then City, let alone their City.
So they they managed to make it.
They managed to make it work.
But I think Torino are due a number nine.
That would be kind of the only area of criticism I have for them.
I mean, if you look at their squad, it's very easy to pinpoint.
Certain areas where they could have better players.
But it works, man.
And it works because of the class manager that they have in Ivan Juric.
Ivan Juric, you give him scraps and he'll make a car like, you know what I mean?
He's a fantastic manager, man.
Honestly, I really rate him.
I think he's one of the better ones in the league, especially in that lower.
In the lower pool, he's the best.
Yeah, for sure.
Agreed.
Outside the top seven.
We should do what we did with the goalkeepers, with managers.
I did one recently with Santi, if you want me to pull it up.
OK, do it.
I rated every single I did very quickly.
I was at work.
Let's just go through it quickly.
So my number one is Piolli.
Wait a sec.
OK, so I have Piolli.
Now, this is difficult again, because it's like, are we talking about all time?
Or right now, I was focusing more on like, right now, in the past three years.
So I put Piolli first.
I put Mourinho second.
I put Allegri third.
I put Sarri fourth.
I'm not even sure about this anymore.
I put Nzaghi fifth, followed by Spalletti, Gasperini, Italiano, Juric, Dionisi,
Nicola, Mihailović, Goti, Gianpaolo, Cioffi, Alvini, Sotil, Zanetti, Baroni and Strappa.
I disagree with a few there.
I'm not going to lie.
Which ones?
You think Nzaghi is too...
Like Allegri is too high up.
I think Mourinho might be a little too high up.
I think Nzaghi is second, for example.
Nzaghi is second?
I think Nzaghi is second.
For almost winning the league?
No, but I mean the way...
Yeah, that's right, Max!
No, he's a great manager and the fact that he made Inter tick so quickly
and the fact that they just narrowly missed out on winning the league with a brand new manager
and losing certain key pieces like Lukaku in the team.
And he took over, implemented this similar but very different system to the one they had under Andrea Conte
and he still managed to get them that far.
And then plus he's a very experienced manager.
In the league he knows how to win a fucking game, bro. He knows how to win those weird ones against Juve.
He's kicked Milan's ass before.
He's a great manager.
Italiano, and then I feel like is one that could be slightly higher up.
Over Gasparini, Spalletti and Nzaghi, sorry.
100% over Allegri. I don't know why Allegri was put that high.
Allegri was put that high simply because of his accuracy.
Simply because of what he's won.
But then if you look at like past two seasons, if you're looking at his return to Juve
rather than what he did at them before, he'd be way further down.
But then you have to take into consideration as well the Juve team he inherited.
It was dog shit. Rabiot on the highest salary, Ramsey on the highest salary.
It was an absolute mess.
And to be honest, him qualifying for Champions League for example
over Napoli that one season for example was a miracle.
Was that him? That was him, right?
I'm not sure.
It was him who got fourth in the last day of the season.
Or was that Pirlo?
That was Pirlo.
He was introduced last year and he got them to third.
Exactly. Which is impressive in itself to be honest with you.
Yeah, that's a joke.
Okay, I might counter you in the next episode.
To be honest, I'd like to refine this list a little bit.
I don't like certain...
Towards the bottom I feel like it would be a bit reckless.
I mean, you do the work.
Exactly, I do the work.
Just typing on my keyboard.
Someone comes by, I just minimise maximum.
But that's pretty much Torino for you guys.
A couple shout outs.
I mean, how can I not shout out the man, the myth, the legend in midfield?
That is the great Samuel Erici.
He's been phenomenal for them this year.
One of their best players if not their best player.
Classic, they have obviously very good wing backs that have been doing bits for them as well.
Whether it's bringing Voivoda in off the bench or starting with Singo.
Richie is injured by the way.
He has a month out I believe.
A month? Even Miranchuk is injured now?
Miranchuk got injured in the second match there.
It's going to be exciting to see what Torino can do.
Whether they'll end up pushing for that conference league spot.
Or whether they like very much like last season will end up pushing for top 10 again.
Very good.
In seventh place we have Juventus with nine points.
They won two games and drew three and they haven't lost a game yet.
Respect.
It all started with their game against Asuolo which they won convincingly 3-0.
The Di Maria debut and end of love which show right after.
3-0 a very convincing opening game and then they went away to San Pettoria and drew 0-0.
In a very unconvincing display they had an expected goals average of 0.48 in that game.
Disgusting.
Terrible.
So they didn't even look to attack like against San Pettoria.
Then they played against Roma.
They got an early goal that game then they conceded one in the 69th.
1-1 over there.
Fair result to be honest with you.
Roma attacked more once again they looked like the livelier side.
Then Juve played against Spezia and they beat them 2-0 goals by Vlavic and Millek who arrived
quite recently actually.
Fiorentina won, Juventus won over here once again.
So Juventus scoring early in the 9th minute, Quama scoring in the 29th and then at the
end of the game you see Alegris screaming for the referee to blow the final whistle
so they can get the one point at Fiorentina.
It's quite crazy how time and football is so different to time as we know it.
One year can change so many things.
Juve were the most dominant team in Italy for nine years in a row up until recently.
Now you look at them and you look at for example Alegris and his reputation right now it's
so different.
Then they went to PSG in the Champions League, fun fact, away from home and they lost 2-1
and they had a chance to equalise at the end of the game.
Actually PSG were very wasteful and they allowed Juve to get back into it.
They held their own to be honest with you there.
Thoughts on Juventus bro?
So if there's a couple positives I can point out about Juve and justifications obviously
they are struggling a little bit when it comes to injuries.
Yes that's very important to mention.
Chiesa being out for a while, Di Maria was in and out this year as well.
So it is tough for Juve to adapt to a situation like that especially with so many new players
in the team.
They're trying to figure each other out and Pogba obviously has been injured as well.
Vlaović has been incredible for them.
Milik has come in and shown that when Vlaović isn't on the pitch he can do it as well.
Be it starting against Fiorentina which was weird by the way.
Figo played against Barca you know what I mean?
So he's like the game against PSG we're not really ready for it but I'm going to rest my best players for a year.
Exactly.
A tactical genius.
I think that and I've said this time and time again about Juve.
Juve wanted something fresh which is why they loosened their ties with Allegri a couple of seasons ago
when they got Pirlo and then they got Sarri and then Pirlo.
And then they ended up getting Allegri back which halted that kind of progression into being a more modern football
with more positive football.
They're back to this kind of...
Scrappy.
Yeah that style of football it's like three points is all that matters.
It's the kind of football it should be a safe system but I have never seen someone utilize it more dangerously than Allegri.
Opening the scoring in the ninth minute and hanging on for a 1-0 victory is simply never ever ever sustainable.
Especially in such a high scoring league you can't be the exception over here.
And your defence and midfield definitely isn't good enough to be doing that man.
What Juve need to be is a high pressure football team.
Once they have Pogba on the pitch I think that could change to the better.
Having Pogba and Di Maria kind of.
Pogba pinging balls down the wing.
Di Maria with the forward.
Allarans, Chiesa as well carrying the ball forward as he did last year.
Vlaović making those runs of the ball that can actually be spotted.
Things can change for Juve because obviously it would be very unfair for us not to mention the injury troubles
that they're having.
A ray of light for them has been Miretti.
Miretti has been super, super player.
He's so good Miretti.
He's so good.
He's 19 years old.
Should be one of the first names on the team sheet to me man.
That's true he's one of the only ones with attacking prowess in that midfield.
Switching of play is really good as well.
He's very active, always available.
I like him a lot man Miretti.
If you play like that at 19, play him.
Just play him.
Let's see what happens.
That's what I was saying last time bro.
He is playing him to be fair to him.
Criticism towards Allegri in the past has been that he doesn't deploy youth.
Can't be said now.
He's starting a 19 year old midfielder more often than not.
The question for you is will he continue to do so when Paredes, Pobega and McKennie are all fit to play and Rabiot.
I don't know too much about Paredes and what he's going to do for Juve.
I mean Paredes is one of those midfielders.
Kind of like an all round player.
Very good at everything.
Great CV.
He was playing PSG.
He starts for sure though.
He's that type of player.
He plays for sure.
No he'll start 100%.
I'm wondering how much of a positive slash negative impact it have on Juve.
Because normally you look at a team that struggles in the midfield and maybe other players come to mind rather than Paredes.
We've seen them make odd decisions when it comes to signing midfielders.
We saw the removal of Pjanic and the signing of Artur.
We saw them bring in Zakaria who now I believe either has an obligation or an option at Chelsea.
I believe it's a fucking obligation.
Paredes will see how he does.
It's a loan as well.
It's a season long loan with an option to buy.
They just took advantage of the opportunity there that they saw when PSG needed to make room under books.
That's it.
That's very true.
Fair enough.
How do you see Juve progressing?
Slow start.
Their next match is they have Salernetana which is no easy fixture.
Then they have a midweek against Benfica.
Then they return away against Monza.
So their next three fixtures are relatively on the easier side.
They do face Milan later on after their midweek fixture to Maccabi Haifa.
Then they have the derby against Torino.
Then things get a little bit easier again until they face Inter and Lazio.
How do you see them bouncing back after this start?
You have five matches in, two wins, three draws.
Not exactly ideal for you.
How do you see Juve bouncing back?
Not ideal.
It could be worse of course.
They could have lost but not the worst.
How do I see Juve bouncing back?
All these years of sitting on my ass and watching Serie A have taught me something.
Juve always come back.
Always.
Even when they're down in Serie A.
Even when they're down in Serie A but you can't get rid of them.
They're always back.
Juve are the herpes of the league.
They always come back with a vengeance.
Especially under Allegri.
There was one nil.
They started stacking them up.
It's insane to see.
I don't know if it was last year or the year before.
They had a terrible start to the season.
Terrible.
Last year probably.
Last year.
They bounced back bro and didn't lose a game for so long.
Last year they were on a 17 or 16 match on beat and run.
Until the match against Inter that we went to watch at Monelli's.
That's what had ended it with the weird penalty of Hakan.
The retake.
Yeah there we go man.
I see them bouncing back.
I see them in the top four.
Interesting.
Everything tells me historically look at Juve in the top four.
I think this season is going to be one of their toughest tests to date.
Which is interesting because in the beginning of the season with the additions of Bremer, Di Maria, Kostic and Pogba.
I had them in third but in my mind there was a high possibility that they would be in first as well.
I thought at a point during pre-season when I looked at their team they hadn't even signed Bremer yet.
And I looked at their lineup with Di Maria, Chiesa, Vlaović, Pogba.
I was like Jesus Christ these guys.
And with Alec you know how to win smart.
I was like these guys can totally win the league.
Their team is like selecting Adidas 11 on FIFA.
But the thing is they're still struggling with injuries so you can't really get to see that team in theory in real life.
So realistically right now I don't think they have what it takes to win the league.
Yeah fair enough.
I think we're safe to move on to Inter.
So Inter sit in eighth at the moment, five matches played and they are on nine points.
So they had three wins and two losses.
They started off the season with late drama and managed to beat Lecce away from home 2-1.
Thanks to a 95th minute goal by Dumfries, last kick of the game.
They then dismantled Spezia three goals to nil, absolutely demolished them.
And then after that one that we surprisingly again haven't mentioned is losing to Lecce away from home.
And three goals to one.
It goes by Philipp Anderson, a screamer, fucking screamer by Luis Alberto.
That, Jesus, that is a shout for one of the goals of the season as well.
I instantly downloaded that goal, the video.
I put it on InShot.
I trimmed it, you know I did it up.
Got on TikTok, search Metallica.
Instantly.
Simple as that.
Inter Sandman, boom, done.
It was a screamer, did take a slight deflection.
But straight into the top corner, it was beautiful man, and him coming on.
Wow.
Pedro scored in the 86th and Lautaro Martinez had an equalizer in the 51st, but that was far more than enough.
Sorry, it wasn't enough at all for Inter.
And they then beat Cremonaise, three goals to one and Correa scored.
So that was weird. And then they lost in the derby de la Madonina against Milan, three goals to two, where they were technically away from home.
And now last night they just lost against Bayern Munich with the score of 2-0 at home in Milan.
So before I talk about Inter, I kind of want to cover the Lacio game a little bit with you.
Thank you.
Because simply, Inter had a stretch of time in that game where they were doing Inter stuff.
They were controlling possession, they were moving the ball around, they were having some nice moments.
But then Lacio in the second half completely dominated the game and convincingly won 3-1.
And I don't think, I think that is a very fair result considering how the match went.
What do you have to make of this game?
I was surprised, to be honest with you, about this game.
I did not expect Lacio to destroy Inter in this manner.
Especially looking at Lacio's starting 11 and the midfield.
You have Milinkovic, Savage there. And then you have certain players who do not belong there.
Vecino, you have Cataldi.
They're okay, but they shouldn't be starting for a team in the top seven in Italy, in my opinion.
This happened literally last year though. Inter lost to Lacio 3-1 last year as well.
What's his name? The number three of Lacio jumped on...
Oh, Patrick. No, no, no.
He has Ramos on the back of his shirt. What the hell is his name again?
Felipe... No, stop it.
Luis Felipe. Luis Felipe jumped on Korea and there was a whole drama.
Korea can't take a joke, man. 26 million.
But yes, it's crazy to think about this.
Providel, Marisil, Schirman, Ioli, Patrick, Lazari, Vecino, Cataldi, Milinkovic, Savage, Zaccani, Imobile and Felipe Anderson beat Inter 3-0.
Sorry ball, baby. Sorry ball.
And the thing is they allowed Inter to have possession and they allowed Inter to make mistakes.
They dispossessed Inter 11 times this game. They capitalized on their errors and they punished them for them.
I don't know what there is to say about it.
They had Gagliardini in the middle, Inter didn't look the part.
Barela completely absent this game as well.
And Brozovic was not as good as he should be.
And Lukaku, man, didn't look good at all. It looked so static.
Yeah, Lukaku is for now, at least from what I've seen, he's half the player that he was last than the last season.
We saw him in Serie A at Inter two seasons ago.
And I think that leads me to my points of criticism on Inter so far.
So obviously they still are one of the best teams in the league by a landslide.
Inter are so dangerous.
But they do have a few inconsistencies at the moment with the team.
We're looking at that back three that was among the best defenses in the league.
The best, probably.
For years on years on years.
And this season, it seems like whether they're trying to break down an attack or whether they start one of their own,
something can go wrong somewhere along that line, somewhere along that defensive line.
Either they pass it out and it literally doesn't, the ball doesn't make it to Brozovic.
Or when they have people running at them, Liao being a prime example that they're not able to stop them in the one on one.
So their defense has definitely been a little bit shaky this year.
They have a little bit of a situation on the left hand side where Gorssens isn't seeming like a preferred option at all,
which kind of leads to...
They almost saw them. They almost saw them. The management had to block it.
To fucking Leverkusen.
The weirdest shit ever. They would have lost Perisic and Gorssens in the space of a month, like two months.
So they have a weird situation down the left hand side as well.
And then Lukaku was a shadow of his former self.
So it seems like they have, they suddenly, in there, have a few areas to work on, man.
It seems that first of all, this 4-3-3 really works well against a 3-5-2 of Anzagi.
I feel like Sarri can tear the system apart by getting in the spaces left between the players.
I agree with your point about the defense being shakier, particularly Devri.
Devri has, in the past two years, to be honest, declined.
And I would say that three years ago, Devri was the best out of these three centerbacks, even better than Skriniou.
When there were interviews with him, it was said that he was a perfectionist and that he would watch clips of himself relentlessly, try to work on himself.
I hope he's not doing that anymore, quite frankly, because watching those layout clips over and over again, that would be really bad for him.
Lead him to a nearly grave.
But yes, man, I think that inter, to be honest, just needs some time to get back into shape.
Like Lukaku needs to kind of readapt to his environment.
You have Gossens, who needs to kind of get back into it as well.
He hasn't done anything at Inter yet.
And you look at DiMarco. DiMarco is really trying.
And he's had good games, to be honest. He's had games where he was the main offensive output for them.
But it's safe to say that things aren't ticking as efficiently as they were.
Could it be it's because the Conte days are even further back than they used to be?
Maybe they're losing their weight?
Conte was one hell of a motivator, man, so I wouldn't be surprised if that plays a part.
It just seems like something is not quite ticking for Inter.
They could still win the Kreml and Hezer matches, the Spezia matches, the Lecce matches.
But it almost seems like every time they faced a bit of a test, they've lost.
So far, yes, that's been the case.
I mean, Lecce gave them a test and they won, to be fair.
But when you look at two matches against the top seven teams, potential six points and they get zero.
That is concerning for Inter, both away from home and both against bogey teams in recent history.
Lazio and Milan, you can consider those bogey teams for Inter.
Coming up, they have a home match against Torino and away match against Victoria Plizan or whatever the fuck that team name is.
And then they're away to Udinese.
So that will be quite a tough test for them.
But I do see them bouncing back very, very quickly.
They have Roma after that as well.
We have Roma and then Barcelona and then Sassuolo, then Barca again.
So that's pretty fucking mad for Inter.
But I do see them bouncing back very quickly.
They still have some positive notes for them.
Of course, our Lautaro Martinez, he's been excellent, really stepping up and carrying that momentum for the past three seasons, past four seasons.
He's been such a consistent leader for them, Lautaro Martinez.
And like we said, there's few strikers in the world that can play in a double pivot up front the same way that Lautaro Martinez does.
And he has a good green top out him as well.
I'm a big fan of the guy.
Other positives would be the midfield still seems quite fluid going forward.
It still seems quite dangerous.
That combination of Brozovic, Barela and Chalanoglu is still quite dangerous.
But imagine one of them is tired.
Who do you bring on?
Gagliardini.
Gagliardini. That's the thing.
They needed a midfielder.
What about?
They have, of course, they have Aslani.
Aslani.
They haven't really played him, have they?
They haven't utilized him as much as maybe they should have.
Well, to be honest, they shouldn't rush him into the fray.
But I think they might have to.
He's a good player, to be fair.
Like he's a very good player.
I think he'd do a better job than Gagliardini would.
Yeah, for sure.
And then obviously they have Miketarian who came on and gave us a heart attack in the derby, the Lama Donnina as well.
That guy can push it out.
He's one not to be ignored.
He's not to be underestimated as well because he's kind of a joke among some fan bases.
But he's very good.
He has a lot of flair.
He can drive well, cover a lot of ground and play a clever ball.
Yeah.
And lastly, for Inter, what do you make of the whole Handanovic versus Onana situation?
I think Onana hasn't played in a while, so it only makes sense that Handanovic is playing.
But I think eventually Onana is bound to replace Handanovic.
And I wouldn't be surprised if it happens this season.
OK.
You?
Cool.
Same, I'm still waiting for Handanovic to have his couple of blunders.
And Onana will start being introduced.
I think what we'll start seeing is maybe Onana playing in the Coppa Italia or Onana playing in the Champions League.
He has decent Champions League experience for Ajax as well.
So it's a matter of comparing the two, comparing their performances and moving forward.
But obviously, when it comes to goalkeepers, it's a little bit tricky because you want to play the young guy to build his confidence
and to understand the team better and to maximise his performances moving forward.
But at the same time, you want as much experience as possible.
But sometimes experience with Handanovic means being a bit lazy when it comes to stopping attempts.
And yeah, we've spoken about Handanovic's issues.
Being rooted to the spot.
Exactly.
Moving on to Lazio.
Yes, sir.
They sit in ninth currently with eight points, they have won two games, drawn two games and lost one game.
They started off against Bologna, the match where their new goalkeeper Luis Maximiliano.
I keep saying Maximiniano.
I said Maximiliano.
That's a mistake.
Stupid.
Luis Maximiliano.
Stupid.
So, yes, Luis Max.
Fortunately, we never saw him again after the sixth minute of the first game of the season
because he got sent off and we've just seen Providel since I think Sarri might have locked him up
and he's just putting out cigarettes on him constantly.
That game ended 2-1 to Lazio thanks to a Sao Mauro red card that allowed Lazio to get back into the game over there.
Then they came 0-0 away to Torino followed by a 3-1 victory over Inter, which we have just discussed.
They drew away to Sampdoria 1-0 thanks to a Chirom, Mbila goal and Gabbiadini lost second equalizer.
And then they took the lead early on against Napoli at home but lost thanks to a Mingjay goal and a Guevara Xeria goal.
The two new boys.
Yes, the two new boys scoring for Napoli.
But bro, I'm going to keep it short and sweet with Lazio, man.
I think they're still missing pieces to be a competitive side.
I think they're a team that can cause problems to some teams, especially on their day.
And they're not playing more than once a week.
I think their midfield isn't too standard.
I think their fullbacks aren't too standard.
And I think they're very Chirom, Mbila and Reliant, quite frankly.
Agreed.
Agreed 100%.
Their fullback is definitely need work.
Their fullbacks pisses me off how they haven't been addressed by Lazio.
How they still have Lazari and Maricic.
How they haven't sorted that fucking shit out yet.
And then things aren't going well and the fullbacks are clearly struggling and they bring on Hisai.
Literally, man. It's fucked.
And they have Radu in their squad still.
Yeah. That Radu.
Radu. Their Radu. The Lazio.
He's still there, believe it or not.
That being said as well, it does seem like there's a lot going on internally for Lazio.
A little bit of, not favouritism, but it seems like there's a bit of politics going on.
The fact that Cataldi is starting, for example, is a massive one.
Oh, for who?
Why would you say that?
Sorry, not Cataldi. Vecino.
Cataldi I get because he's the replacement for Lucas Leyva.
He's the guy that moves the ball around.
You're talking about the whole Luis Alberto thing. Yes, yes.
The Luis Alberto thing is fucked.
And I think Sarri is a bit of a petty man.
I think he's a very old school man that if you fuck with me, you get a punishment.
I think he's that kind of boss and that's not very motivating.
I think everywhere is shit apart from the front three, quite frankly.
With the obvious exception of Milinkovic Savic in midfield, best midfielder in the league.
Luis Alberto hasn't been great as well, but he hasn't been getting minutes as we just said.
The defence hasn't been great.
Providel has been decent after stepping in.
They have all round, everything is OK from their management to their players.
But that is as far as Lazio goes.
They're far too inconsistent.
Great, beating Inter 3-1.
Massive man, genuinely massive.
But drawing to Sampdoria straight after, drawing to Torino just before that.
You know, still a lot of work to be done for Lazio to be...
I had them in eighth in the beginning and I still have them there.
I don't see them remotely getting anywhere close to Europe if they keep on having the performances that they do.
There's nothing exciting and there's nothing stable about it.
I see a lack of investment as well over here.
Yes, man, I agree with you.
I think they leave a lot to be desired.
I don't think there's much else to say, to be honest about Lazio, dude.
It's just underwhelming.
But to be fair with the tools that Sarri has, he has still made the work against Inter.
So we will be seeing impressive Lazio results and impressive Lazio performances.
The thing is they just don't have what it takes to finish in the top four simply because they can't do it across a whole season.
Yeah, that's fair enough.
Next team we're going to be covering is Salernitana in tenth.
Probably the highest they've ever been in Serie A history, man, up in tenth over there.
They currently have six points out of five matches.
Those included...
One, two, three, four. Apologies for that.
So the opening match of the season, they lost 1-0 at home against Roma.
See the alphabet now.
And after that, there was a 0-0 away draw against Odinese that in hindsight proved to be a fantastic result.
They killed Salvadoria.
Four goals to nil. Goes by DIA, Bonazzoli, Villana and Botham.
Fantastic performance by Salernitana over there.
They drew away against Bologna, Arnautovic opened the scoring from the spot again.
And then DIA got the equaliser.
And then they drew 2-2 to Empoli in a match that they perhaps should have won.
Satriano opened the scoring.
Mazzocchi got the equaliser.
DIA then scored again. DIA has been on fucking fire, man.
And then Lammers equalised for Empoli.
Lammers has also been quite good for Empoli.
Salernitana, what are your thoughts?
They're flying quite high after last season.
I'm off my ass on Salernitana right now, bro.
I love these guys.
The way they play football is so fucking fun to watch, man.
The way their shape, their structure, the way they move the ball around is so simple.
It's so efficient. It's not flashy.
It's fucking just fun to watch, man.
And they have the potential to tear opponents apart as we saw with Sampdoria, for example.
They tore them an absolute new one over there.
I really like the movies that they made in the market, particularly the signings of Mazzocchi.
And DIA has proven to be a great partner to Bonad Soli.
It's just what he needed up front over there.
And the signing of Congevo hasn't even really...
hit the ground running, maybe.
I mean, he's been fine looking at them, but output-wise, he has a lot left.
He hasn't even got started.
This season with Samp last year when he was one of the best right-wingers in the league.
It's a fair point.
So they look amazing, man.
Vilhena looks good.
Bothheim looks good.
Mazzocchi.
Lassana Colibali looks like a different player to last season, the way he moves in that midfield.
Frank Ribéry, I think, is somewhere there still, somewhere in that team.
And not to mention as well, Dylan Braun at the centre-back looks really good.
He's 27 years old, from Tunisia.
Very good player.
OK, so I'm quite high on Salernitana.
I originally was torn between them and Spezia to get relegated.
I must say that I think that they look much better than Spezia will ever look this season, to be honest.
They're a tough, energetic, very physical team to play against.
I don't want to take away how tactical they are because they are a team that is very capable of keeping their shape
and being very mature with when to explode, when to sit back, when to attack, when to defend, when to play the ball around.
They're quite a mature side.
They've kept their main goal, must have been keeping the momentum that was brought towards the end of last season.
Well, at the end of last season and taking it into this season, it was key that they managed to keep David and Nicolas at the helm.
There were a lot of rumours saying that this guy is just going to do the same thing with Cremonaise and XSR, or with Monza and XSR, for example.
But he's showing that he's not only a manager that's good at saving teams for relegation,
or he's good at that because he's genuinely a very good manager and he can work with a very average starting XI.
That's what they're doing. Like you said, they onboarded a couple of players very cleverly,
like Madzoki, Kandreva and DIA, to me, are three absolute superstars in that team.
I see them being a bogey team for many teams this year. They're very, very capable of getting points this year.
Perhaps they should have gotten a couple more victories like the one against Empoli. Maybe they should have gotten some more out of that.
Capitalising on new impairs is Red Card, which has been quite cool against Odinosa, but that's a tough ask at the moment.
But yeah, they're in a good place right now and I see them staying up this year.
It's still very early, but at this rate, I do see them staying up.
A team that's so organised with a dressing room that's probably as chill as they are right now, honestly, because there's no reason to stress.
I think that they can work in harmony and they can get the best out of their qualities and I think they'll survive.
Yeah, well, they haven't faced, well, the only top seven team they've faced are Roma. They do have Juve coming up this weekend away from home as well.
They have Lecce coming up and Sasual away from home as well.
To be honest, apart from the Juve match, it looks like they can get something out of the Lecce game and it seems like they can get something out of the Sasualo game.
After that, Verona as well, something they can get a couple of things out of.
So yeah, it's all about keeping the momentum now for Salernitana and hopefully their key pieces can stay fit, man.
Yes, I agree. Shall we move on to Fiorentina?
Yes, sir.
La Viola, they have six points and they currently sit in 11th. They have won one, drawn three and lost one.
Safe to say, quite a disappointing start to the season for these guys.
Now, the first game of the season was against Cremonaese in a 3-2 victory.
The goals came through Bonaventura, Jovic and Mandragora.
Mandragora with a very late winner over there. Okerec and Biancetti scoring for Cremonaese.
They also drew 0-0 to Empoli away from home. Luperto got sent off in the 66th minute.
That game at Fiorentina still couldn't close it out.
Another 0-0 followed that one against Napoli where Fiorentina did not look like creating anything to be honest that game.
Followed by the 1-0 loss away to Widenese, goal by Beto on the 17th and then a 1-1 draw at home to Juventus when they managed to equalise after an early Mille goal.
I see a Fiorentina team that plays well but can't quite finish off their movements.
It's a similar problem that they had last season when they let go of Lovic.
They brought in Cabral and they had Piontek as well.
They were still getting goals every now and then but there were certain games where they couldn't break the deadlock.
And I feel like that happens more often than not with them and we can see it in certain games here.
The Juventus game, the Mude Nese game, they couldn't score against many teams yet.
They couldn't even score against Napoli. They were down to 10 men.
That's shambolic. If you're a team that's fighting in Europe and your ambition is Europa League, you have to do better there.
Agreed. I see a couple of things with Fiorentina that are halting them getting some decent points.
Number one is they 100% missed Aurera in that midfield for sure.
The lack of creativity that they have could be linked to that.
The fact that they're playing a player like Malé, I still don't rate it as much.
Malé would be the direct replacement.
Mandragora would be the direct replacement but as well, it leaves a lot to be desired at the moment.
I feel like their midfield leaves a lot to be desired.
There's zero to no creativity there at the moment and especially with Malé.
I can't quite put my finger on what Malé is good at.
Malé reminds me a bit of Mathieu Fernandez. Remember Mathieu Fernandez back in the day?
Yes, he had five star skills on FIFA.
He went to Milan towards the end of his career and was number 22 I believe.
Exactly. I don't know if he was 22 but I remember that.
Malé kind of reminds me of that. He's kind of okay at everything but not particularly exceptional at anything.
I'm curious about his age. I believe he's about 24 years old.
He's 24 years old.
That was sexy.
Thanks man.
He's a Moroccan international.
Hashish?
Yes, he can grow into something I think. I'm extremely impressed though.
Amrabbat man. Amrabbat for me is a fantastic midfielder. One of the best in the league in his position.
Amrabbat is very good obviously but that does lead me to my second issue which is a little bit of Gasperini last season.
That probably has to do a lot with their tight schedule like most teams but they obviously also have Europe this time round.
It's constantly changing things around Italiano this time.
Yes man.
Some questionable decisions man. I heard that Nico Gonzales has a heel injury and that's why he hasn't been being utilised so that explains it.
Please stop playing Iconi.
Iconi bro, my god, can he get any worse?
That's a massive one to stop playing for.
It does seem like when it comes to their personnel, there are certain games where you shouldn't start Sampo Nara.
Yes obviously.
And it doesn't seem like he has that filter. It's like I have all these motherfuckers and I'm going to utilise them as hard as I can. It's fair enough.
I think he focuses a lot on condition. How they are physically maybe.
I go for personality more than anything man.
I go for the bunda.
The thing is bro, I feel like sometimes Fiorentino overcomplicate simple manoeuvres. I feel like sometimes with their transition they can be a bit quicker.
Like finding a new kit and they change their badge.
Exactly, there we go. No honestly I feel like they overcomplicate things.
Jovic hasn't really made himself as available as a striker. Cabral looks overweight after pre-season quite frankly.
It's quite a disappointing sight to be honest. Look at this guy who banged down on how many goals in the Europa League last season.
In half a season to be honest with his team before. Who was his team before? Cabral, who did he join from?
He joined from Brazil I think.
He spanked a bunch of them. No, no, no, in the Europa League.
Oh right, you're right.
And Fiorentino. Let's see.
He was with...
Basel dude.
Ah yeah Basel.
Basel. He smacked a bunch of goals in for Basel. He was at Palmeiras before them though. You're right.
Brazil?
He scored a bunch of goals for them in the Europa League and to be honest with you I thought that he could replicate that form.
Now it seems that Jovic is finding it difficult to adapt and Cabral isn't someone they can depend on right now.
So they're playing with two struggling strikers right now.
Their best winger is out and their best currently available winger Sotil seems to have not figured out his end product yet.
He seems to always make the wrong decision at the end. He does everything perfectly apart from the wrong decision.
By far one of their strongest points at the moment.
Yes, I would say he's the most positive thing on that team apart from Amr Abat right now.
Yeah.
Because Amr Abat for me is the way he dominates the midfield on his own is exceptional.
Yeah, true. Inconsistency seems to be quite a theme with Fiorentino this season thus far.
It's hard to blame the players when you see such a consistent change in personnel every single match.
It seems like there is a different combination of players in the starting eleven and then you can't blame the coach for making those decisions when they have such a tight schedule.
So the more the team grows into each other and the more the substitute players learn how to play with the starting eleven and vice versa, the stronger they will get.
But at the end of the day, they got Conference League last year.
So in an ideal world, they'd be looking for something a little bit higher that are at least retaining that this year.
And to me, at least right now, that doesn't look like I really see the goal for Fiorentino for where they are right now this season.
Unless they get knocked out of Europe and then they can put their full focus on Serie A.
Yeah. But I think now that they're in, they just need to try to go all the way because there's no guarantee that they'll be in again next year.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
The next team we're going to be covering are Sassuolo, so a team that have had quite an uninspiring start to this campaign.
So they started the season off by losing 3-0 at the hands of Juventus.
They then went on to beat Lecce one goal to nil thanks to a super goal by Domenico Berardi.
They went on to draw 2-2 against Spezia away from home.
It was Frattesi and Pinamonti who scored. And that first Spezia was Bastoni and Insola from the spot.
And they then went on to draw nil-nil against Milan, which is a fantastic result for them.
When they saw the injury of Berardi that game.
Yep, they saw a devastating injury for Berardi that game as well.
And then they went on to draw nil-nil to Cremonaia, probably because it's Sassuolo without Berardi.
Now, I know there's a lot that we both want to say, but I think we should leave a lot of it up to our very active listener and great friend of ours, Luke Mintov.
Because at the end of the day, he does support, sorry, he's Sassuolo and he knows much more about them than we do.
So take it away, Mint.
Morning, gents, and happy Serie A spotlight is banging on in season two. Good luck, boys. Hope you keep growing.
With regards to Sassuolo, to keep it short and simple, I think there are aspects where they have actually improved.
Funnily enough, apart from the Juve game, which was pretty much horrendous defensively,
the games afterwards were far better. At least less goals were conceded.
I think basically they were more compact and they were giving away less balls.
And it seems like Dionisi really wants to play from the back.
So the fact that Ehrlich's there instead of Kirikis or Aihon, I think helps a lot.
I still think that defensively they need to improve, at least maybe perhaps signing a few new players.
But on that side of things, they've conceded less and they're less leaky at the back.
You have to consider that last year, within the first 20 minutes, Sassuolo would usually concede a goal,
albeit they would then come back because they played such good attacking football.
But that's not happening anymore, which is a good sign, at least from my perspective.
On the other side, attacking-wise, it's looking quite bleak, especially now that Barardi is out,
which is a massive blow. Probably if you don't want one player to be injured, it's him.
Unfortunately it is. And yeah, it showed against Cremona that we were scratching our heads.
I don't know how bad it will be. There are a couple of new players like Antiste and Laurenti,
probably I butchered his name, who look promising.
Penamonti, on the other hand, he's not looking great.
And that's a bit worrying because he was the star signing of the summer,
especially considering we've lost Raspaldorio and Skangaka in one transfer window,
who scored more than half our goals last year.
So I'd like to see Dionisi change the squad a bit.
I'd like to see Alvarez play a bit more, especially because he wasn't bought for peanuts.
He was bought for $13 million. He's only come on the last five, ten minutes of a football game.
So I'd like to see him give in a game to show his skills,
because in the preseason he was actually scoring a couple of goals.
So I feel like that should be at least given some thought.
But yeah, overall, defensively Soswala have improved.
Unfortunately, attacking-wise they haven't,
which has always been something that Soswala like to boast,
that they play really good, attractive attacking football.
So it feels like they're really focused on cleaning up the defence,
and they've kind of abandoned the attack in a way.
And I think that one other key factor on this,
who will be massive when he returns,
Traore will be fundamental once he comes and if he comes back,
because he's still injured.
And I think he gives quite a big impact on the left-hand side of the game,
on the left-hand side of the pitch, sorry,
just as Barajas has that impact on the right.
So things aren't great,
but we have to also consider that there are quite a few key injuries as well.
However, I'd say, you know,
I'd rate out of 10, Soswala have a six on ten so far from my perspective.
Interesting, interesting, interesting about Soswala.
What do you make of Mintov's comments?
So I do agree with Mintov that they have focused a lot on the defensive aspect of their game.
Dionisi highlighted at the beginning of the season that he wants to concede less goals
and really tighten it up at the back.
And I feel like they've done so from the fixtures so far.
You know, you look at the results, they've conceded way less than they typically do.
It's just a shame that going forward,
they're not quite the same anymore due to the departures, of course,
of Skamaka and Rospadori who had really good going over there.
The new arrivals of Pinnamonti and Alvarez are, of course, going to need time.
It's a shame that Pinnamonti didn't hit the ground running,
as many people thought he would.
He's a local in Serie A.
You know, you think there's just a new change of environment, boom,
and it hit the ground running.
But on his debut, he wrote down important points at a difficult stadium,
and they were playing at home.
So I'm not quite sure.
Yeah, he needs some time to adapt.
And I mean, they've been very unlucky in the sense that obviously we all expected
that they would lose those two key pieces in Rospadori and Skamaka,
but they lost them.
And then above and beyond that, they came into the season with Char injured,
and now their captain and best player, Domenico Berardi,
has picked up a devastating injury as well.
So, sure, defending, they've improved significantly, like you said.
And like Mintov said, they've conceded in the opening five games, five goals,
and those came in two matches, one against Pézi and one against Juve,
to be fair to them.
I love watching them, particularly when Lopes is on the pitch,
the way he moves the ball around, and his movement is very unique,
and he's a genius man, he's a genius.
And coupled up with Mathews Henrique nowadays, bro, Henrique is really good,
very similar to Maxime Lopes, the way he plays.
Yeah, they bounce off each other well, those two men.
Sasuolo, again, started the season off quite slowly,
and it's probably through no fault of their own,
they're going through massive change.
It's good that they managed to keep their hands on Dionisi,
and they didn't make any rash decisions quickly.
I see them picking it up, particularly when those two wingers are back into the team,
and Pena Monti starts finding his feet a little bit more.
And then that exactly completes what they're looking to complete at the end of the day,
because they've tackled the defence.
Now once they get their best men back in, in the attacking region,
then that's when they can take it to phase two and start competing for that top-10 spot.
Yeah, let's hope that Beraide is back soon, and that Trauer is back soon too,
because towards the end of last season we saw Trauer doing some top stuff.
Magical stuff. Yeah.
But thank you very much, Minto, for the voice note.
We can move on thanks to your very capable hands.
Verona in 13th.
So they've got five points in 13th, they've won one game, they've drawn two, and they have lost two.
Their first match of the season was a 5-2 home loss to Napoli.
They gave them a few problems, and they started off fairly by taking the lead through Kevin Lasagna.
Then they conceded two goals.
Then in the second half they equalised through Thomas Onri, I almost made a mistake.
And then from the 55th to the 79th, Zilinski, Lobotka and Politano just stole the show.
They then went away from home to Bologna and drew 1-1, which by their standards is a disappointing result,
but the performance was there, they attacked a lot, they were unlucky to be honest to come up with a draw from this one.
They then lost to Atalanta away from home, 1-0 thanks to a coupe-miner's goal.
Napoli won, Verona won right after that, Baldanzi with the goal, and Cologne with the goal for Verona.
And then once again a 2-1 victory at home against Sampdoria, thanks to an Auderao goal and a Doig goal at the end of the first half.
I have to pronounce it, bro.
They absolutely destroyed Sampdoria though, they tore them apart.
Yeah, the 2-1 really doesn't do the game justice.
Verona, bro.
Verona, I mean...
Worse than last season, huh?
Worse than last season for sure, for sure, for sure.
And it's almost like if I had a graph and I had the last three seasons, it's constantly going downwards, it is constantly moving downwards.
They've lost massive key pieces to their team, bro.
Every season they lose more and more.
Every season they lose their stats up there.
We'll play a game, I name one and then you name another and we keep going until we run out.
Okay, you're gonna win, but sure.
Let's go, Rahmani.
Zakani.
Di Marco.
Barak.
Amrabat.
Cholito.
Good one.
Five.
Four.
Wait, don't do that.
It's a podcast, man.
They dare, they dare. It's our podcast, we decide.
No, I'm kidding.
Who is that there?
Yeah, they're there, oh yeah.
They're called keepers.
No, but basically as they've lost so many key pieces, bro.
So many key pieces.
And they are getting worse and worse and worse.
Trophy right now looks like he's capable of keeping them afloat.
It doesn't take much to keep them afloat.
There's still quite a bit of talent over there.
I like the signing of Thomas Henry.
I like the way he's being utilised as well.
And the fact that Juric is the alternative off the bench.
You can also put in a shift over there.
Very similar qualities to Ondri, to be honest.
But yeah.
I mean, you look at their starting 11 and you can tell off the bat that they've significantly fucking downgraded.
Ilici Veloso, Lazovic in the middle with Dujg out wide and Terracciano out wide as well.
Ondri and Lasagna up front.
Their back three is just constantly terrible.
Verona, I mean, then this in their most recent match where they beat Sampdoria, they had Davidovic, Hien and Coppola.
I mean, is that enough at the end of the day to be competing in Serie A?
And then they have the likes of Gunther, I guess.
Is Farahoni injured?
He must be injured.
Because he hasn't featured.
He must be injured.
And Tamez probably as well would be injured because he would make that starting 11 over the likes of Miguel Veloso.
Tamez has been playing.
Maybe he came on this.
Well, no, he didn't play this match.
No, he came on in the 73rd.
He came on the 73rd.
Should really be starting.
Wow. OK.
It depends.
There's always rotation, right?
Especially so early on in the season.
I think, like you said, they have enough to stay afloat.
But the thing is, I'm looking at future seasons and seeing are they going to continue dipping because if they are in the next two seasons, they're down.
No, you're right.
That's a very fair point.
Trajectory wise, it's not looking promising for them in the long run.
Something needs to happen.
There needs to be some kind of ambition shown in the transfer market.
I mentioned this every single episode.
Uriach left because of no ambition over there in the transfer market.
It seems to be the case again.
Now there's Choffy there.
We'll see how long Choffy lasts.
You know, they have some talent over there that can be snapped up as Montepo, Faroni, Henri, Illich.
You know, these are all guys that can do bits elsewhere.
So it would be a shame, really, to see them continue to decline.
Hashtag save Verona.
Maybe they can split themselves in half and team up with Kevo Verona.
Kevo Verona apparently are back and they're all the way down to like the amateur leagues for now working their way up.
I heard something.
The flying donkeys.
Yeah, flying again.
Spezia.
Spezia, Spezia, Spezia.
Is it yours, my dog?
It's yours.
It's yours? Apologies.
It's yours.
Why did you say it like that?
Because you said I told you it's yours and you told me it's yours.
Apologies.
You didn't say it's mine.
All right, dog.
Next up, Spezia.
One win, two draws, two losses for them.
So they started the season off with a victory over Empoli, very much against the run of play,
but they managed to get that one-nil victory through an Enzo Lagol.
They then went on to lose three-nil at the hands of Inter Milan.
They got a draw against Sassuolo at home.
It was quite a shootout over there, two goals to two.
They then lost two-nil to Juventus after Vlaović and Milik scored.
And Marley's licking my foot.
And then they drew two-two against Bologna, where Arnautovic got a doppietta and Basto on his goal,
alongside Jeremy Schouten's own goal, was enough to seal the draw.
That's what got Mihailović sacked.
Ah, this two-two.
Because they went winless in their first five.
Jesus. No, wait.
Winless in their...
They won their first match of the season against Empoli.
Oh, did they?
Yes.
How much was that, remind me?
One-nil against the run of play.
But then after that, they failed to get points.
Now, let's go.
No, I was going to go straight to Mihailović, but we'll do that when we're at Bologna.
Spezia, I mean...
downgraded from last year, I would say.
However, they haven't had the easiest of starts at all.
Downgraded? Why do you think they downgraded?
They're not as good as they were last year, in my opinion, from what I've seen.
They've been weaker than they were last year.
I think it's fair enough that Thiago Mota's Spezia were a trickier side to face than this Spezia.
But they're racking up some decent points, huh?
I mean...
They go five points, it's a team that barely ever gets points.
A draw against Bologna that are struggling.
A point against Suswala that are struggling.
And three points against Empoli against run of play.
That's a six-pointer.
Spezia were never the team that looked good there, but they were always very good at getting...
Getting these three points here and there to give them a float.
As you said, they survived for three seasons in a row.
It's difficult to relegate them this year, to actually say that they're going to get relegated.
I think joining the Spezia and the Salernitana conversation, there's Empoli as well.
They might be a candidate for relegation.
Spezia right now, they have something, they have experience, right?
They know how to suffer and they know how to get something out of the suffering.
We'll see what they can do.
Personally, personally, personally, I think they don't quite have what it takes for me to say they survived.
Spezia?
Yes, because...
It's difficult to say.
It's difficult to say because they can't get the points, man.
Yes, because in the stretch overall, a season is very long.
And you look at the guys that came up, for example, Lecce and Cremones.
So let's assume that Lecce and Cremones are going back down.
And there's Monza.
Monza look terrible right now, but the team with those players, I can't see them, to be honest with you, getting relegated.
Like, you know, like their team, we've talked about it a million times.
We've gone through the players a million times.
I can't see them getting relegated.
There's more team, there's more talent on Monza than there is on Spezia.
For sure.
So I guess if they manage to make it four seasons in a row without getting relegated, I'd be super impressed by Spezia.
100%.
I mean, you look at their squad and they're definitely on paper one of the weakest squads there is in the league.
For sure.
Kovalenko, Borabja, Bastoni, Recaholm, Nzola, Giasi, Christoph Kiwior, Nikolao, Czagovski.
I mean, it's nothing to write home about at all.
However, like we said, these guys are very used to each other and they're used to playing together.
They've been through it all.
They've been under the Italiano system.
They've been under the Mota system.
And again, they're capable of oddly getting a point.
Like they got three points against Empoli and they didn't exactly deserve it.
And they managed to get points out of Sassuolo.
They managed to get points out of Bologna.
And will we see Cremonaia do this?
Will we see Lecce do this?
Will we see Monza do this?
Will we see Empoli do this?
That's where I start thinking maybe Spezia do have what it takes to stay up.
But they are 100% nothing more than relegation candidates.
Exactly. Every season.
And it's like they don't do anything to help themselves either.
You look at the team, it's the same every year.
There's a random addition here and there.
But it's never a particularly impressive one.
I like that they have Gotti now.
I read Gotti as a coach.
It's funny that out of all the players he chose to bring along,
Egedal with him already got a red card this season.
So yeah, that was interesting.
And there's Daniel Maldini over there as well.
Fun fact.
Yeah.
He hasn't featured that much yet.
At all.
I don't think he's played a single game.
So the Coppa Italia he played and he scored, but that's it.
Aha.
So that's Spezia for you.
Next up, dude.
Let's move on to Empoli.
Empoli currently sit in 15th and they've got four points.
The first game of the season was against Spezia where they lost 1-0 away from home.
They then took on Fiorentina at home, this is when they got the red card in the 66th minute,
but they managed to hang on.
0-0.
They then took on Lecce away from home.
They came 1-1 over there.
They then took on Verona at home.
They came 1-1 over there.
They then went away to Salernitana where they came 2-2.
So it's four draws and one loss for Empoli.
Who have some very interesting pieces?
I was speaking to our friend and listener, Mattias, on Instagram.
He decided, well, I asked him to send us a voice note actually of his take on Empoli this season.
He follows them very closely.
He's a Roma fan actually, but he follows Empoli quite closely and he clearly knows what he's saying.
So just hear him out.
Hello, Matt and hello, Jake.
Some points about Empoli's start to the season.
It has been disappointing, but interesting.
It's been disappointing in the sense that Empoli has had problems winning games.
They have lost one and then drawn four games.
So they are undefeated for four games, but they only have four points after five games.
And that's a problem for Empoli because they will need more points to stay out of the relegation barrel.
Some problems which I found that Zanetti had last year, his old team, Venezia, have carried over to his spell at Empoli.
They play good. They have a fluid midfield.
They have a way of incorporating a lot of good, talented players, especially midfielders into the team.
They lack a bit of a killer instinct.
They have problems winning the games and sort of locking up the wins.
The defense is a bit better than what Zanetti had at Venezia.
I think that Luperetto and Ilicani are better central defenders, but they have made some mistakes.
The goals that they led in against the Salahamitana last games were a bit problematic.
They can be a bit passive at times.
And offensively, they rely on a very good sort of midfield game to win possession and create chances.
And the amount of chance they have created is not good enough.
They have had problems creating good quality chances, but they have good offensive players who can make the most of what they actually achieve offensively.
I think especially good have Sam Lambert who has been shown a little bit of that killer instinct, actually trying to score with every chance he gets.
I think he's going to be very important in their attempts to actually create offense over the coming season.
Satriano and Destou are good offensive players, but they are more those types of players who finish the already created chances rather than create them themselves.
But the very interesting part of Empolive and their squad is the amount of good quality young Italian players they produce.
We have already seen them sell Samuel Larici in the January transfer window, and this summer they also sold Cristiano Slani and Mattia Vitti.
They have Parisi, their left back, who's one of their best players, and they have a generation of good young players who were inaugural in winning the Primavera championship a couple of seasons ago.
Most importantly, I would say Tommaso Baldanzi, who played for Italy in the under-19 this summer and who's been getting a couple of starts and a goal before he was injured.
He has some of that attackive directness, which I think is going to be crucial for Sanetti's Empolive.
He looks a little bit like Aramu did in Venezia last year with his possibility of playing as a type of tequatista and actually creating and finishing chances.
And on the bench they have had a Kong and a Swedish attacker who were with them when they won the Primavera championship, as well as Giacobbo Fassini, another good central midfielder.
So they are very interesting to continuously watch, even if I think that they are going to have a little bit of problems this season.
They have five kind of tough fixtures coming up. Home against Roma, home against Milan, they have away games at Bologna and Torino.
Those types of away games, which requires a lot of physicality from the midfield.
And I'm doubtful that Empoli can find that. And then in matchday 10, they face Monza at home.
And we don't know which state Monza will be in at that point, but it's looking like that we at most will see Empoli with one, perhaps two wins after 10 games.
And that's obviously tough. They should have been able to win against Lecce or Spezia earlier in this season.
But it's always interesting to see their young players. And I think that watching Empoli is always a good litmus test.
Because they play quite differently from the traditional Serie A teams.
So it's a good way of looking for teams like... If you want to look at Hellas, for instance,
and it's kind of uninteresting to see Hellas play with an AC, because it's two teams who play three at the back.
But Empoli play four at the back and they try to be more fluid. So you get this clash of styles, which is always very interesting to watch.
So I always recommend watching Empoli for that and for their young players.
And hopefully Baldanzi can get back from his injury and he could perhaps have a breakout season this year.
Thank you for the good podcast, for the great podcast and talk to you soon. Bye.
Absolutely spot on there by Matthias. I particularly like the parallels he drew, or he has drawn rather to Venezia, to Zanetti's Venezia.
Comparing as well Baldanzi's role to Aramu back there. They look good, like Venezia looked good.
But they struggle to win games like Venezia struggled to win.
At the end of the day, I mean, you look at why Genoa were relegated last year as well.
And it's because for the first around 25 matches of the season, they had only won one game.
And if Empoli aren't careful, then they can very much fall in the same trap.
It's as simple as that. You could play good football, man. And Empoli do play good football.
You could do that all you like. If you don't get the three points, then you're going to be battling relegation.
So that's what I fear for Empoli. It sucks because like Matthias was saying, they are a very entertaining sight to watch.
They're a little bit different to the way other teams operate.
He compared them, for example, a lot of the bottom tier teams playing three at the back, they settle with a four at the back.
That makes them quite different. They have a very good midfield and then they have an explosive striker like Destra up front.
But they can't seem to get the ball to him. And when it does go to him, he'd still have a little bit too much work to do.
So there's some ironing out to do over there.
There is. But certainly an interesting sight, especially with the young strikers they have with Satriano and Lammers to fill in the boots of Destra when he isn't quite at the races.
And I love Parisi, by the way. He's right. He's the best player. Parisi is great. And you like him on your Fanta culture.
Oh, I love him on my Fanta culture, brother.
Shall we? Yes. Bologna. How long have we been rolling?
Been rolling for two hours 20. Holy fucking shit. Yeah. OK, let's go. Let's go. Good content, though.
So the next team we're going to be covering is Bologna. So they started the season off losing 2-1 against Lazio at the Olympico.
They then went to Verona and well in Bologna, but they played against Hellas Verona at home and they came 1-1 thanks to goals from Rana Otović and Thomas Henry.
They traveled to Milan to face the champions and they lost 2-0 thanks to goals from Liao and Giroud. Very straightforward victory there.
They were then held at home by Salernitana, Otović scored a penalty and Dia equalized.
And then that 2-2 draw with Spezia that we've mentioned already. Two goals by Rana Otović, a goal by Bastoni and an own goal by Schouten.
That is what led Bologna to sack Sinisa Mihailović five days in. What do you think of that decision?
So this is regular listeners to the podcast know that we've kind of expected this for a while.
We suggested it a while ago.
It should have come last season, but of course due to the complications with Mihailović's health, they kept him on board.
Saputo, I believe, gave Mihailović the opportunity to terminate his contract. He did not take that opportunity, so he was forced to sack him.
Going winless in your first five with the teams that Bologna have facing teams like Spezia, Salernitana, Verona.
You have to get a point against those guys. You have to get a win. You have to beat one of them.
Arnautovic has been their saving grace. He scored three goals for them already this season. He looks on form. He looks inspired. He looks amazing to be honest.
More than three goals, I think. Four goals, five goals. Five goals this season. Two against Spezia, one against Salernitana, one against Verona and one against Lazio.
Yes, he's got five goals already this season. He's on fire. He's been on absolute fire. But that doesn't stop the problems. They have discipline problems as well.
They have two red cards this season. They make mistakes. The play sometimes looks good. They score some really nice team goals as well.
But it's just gone.
Gary Medel whooping out the assists nowadays, by the way.
It's become so stale with Mihailović and I look forward to seeing who they employ. Hopefully it's not Thiago Mota.
Agreed. I find it a bit odd that they made the decision five matches into the season because what they've done now, unless they bring in someone that hits the ground running instantly,
which is a rarity for managers, particularly for a side like Bologna, is they have fucked their season. They have fucked a large chunk of their season because they didn't get significant points in their opening five matches.
Now they need to go through the process of changing manager, changing system, getting players used to the system, adapting, so on and so forth.
And then suddenly your match day 12 and you need to get points. You're in that position where you're like, OK, guys, now we need to turn up the heat.
They should have given someone a preseason, right?
They should have given someone a preseason. It's as simple as that. And you know what worries me, man?
The fact that they've held on to Sinisa for so long and they gave him the sack after the five opening match days.
Could it be there's something we don't know about Sinisa's health taking a turn for the worse? And that's why they have parted ways.
Maybe there's something like that going on. I certainly hope that's not the case.
There could be. I think it's more a results based thing, though.
But after five matches and after they kept the ball for a last season on the half.
Maybe they said, let's see, let's see what you can do this season. We'll give you a go. Boom. Five games.
And to be fair, Bologna did pick up towards the end of last season. They were great towards the end of last season.
But that's because his condition worsened again. It's always the same thing with these guys.
They play for their manager depending on his health, as horrible as it is to say.
At least looking at it positively now, they will have a new manager. I don't know who the new manager is going to be.
It's rumored to be Mota. My God. At least they'll have a more concrete system in place and hopefully a more modern way of playing football as well,
because it was kind of torture watching Bologna play over the past couple of years.
But I turn for the better, hopefully for them. And we wish the best to Sinisa.
And I hope next season he'll be managing another club in Serie A, because he definitely has it in him.
So to be honest, I don't want to say too much about Bologna, because it's all about how they will adapt under new management.
They definitely have it in them to win games. They're by no means a relegation battling team.
So it's all about getting those points now and shifting the momentum a little bit.
Letria, up next, have played five games, have got two points, two draws and three losses.
The first game was against Inter at home. They almost equalised that game but lost at the end thanks to a Dumfries 95th minute winner.
They then went to the Mappé Stadium to take on Sassuolo, where they lost 1-0 thanks to the Berardy wonder goal.
They drew 1-1 to Empoli at home thanks to a Streffetza goal over there.
They drew to Napoli away from home thanks to a Colombo wonder goal, the one we covered in our intro after he missed the penalty.
So Colombo, that game, scored the penalty, was asked to retake it because the referee hadn't whistled, missed it and then scored a worldy.
And then they lost 2-3, no 1-0. So this is a side that's very difficult to beat, bro. They've only lost so far by one goal margin.
That was against Inter, Sassuolo and Torino.
Yeah, exactly. And they've held Napoli, they've held Empoli, I mean held Empoli.
Respect.
They look like a decent side that's come off very well organised, well structured. They have some, again, nice pieces over there like Streffetza.
I'm a big fan of Streffetza, they do a lot of work. Even Cissé and Colombo are interesting choices up front.
They have a very nice team and it's going to be fun watching them play as well this season. What do you think about them?
I agree, man. Initially I had them in last, which I mean could still very much be the case, but they're an exciting side to watch, let's say.
It feels like they kind of have that Empoli feel to them from last season whereby they come into a game and they play.
Yeah, they play against you no matter what.
They attack against Inter, you know what I mean? They really brought the game against Inter. They didn't give them that low defensive line, blah, blah, blah.
Well, they did when they ended up playing with a right back and a central midfielder as their two defenders. That's when they started stacking back a little bit.
Now they've got big Sam Umtiri.
Exactly. But they moved the ball forward, man. Like you said, they have nice pieces up front with Cissé and Colombo. They still have a lot to prove. De Francesco has a nice piece as well.
Manuel Mand in the middle like Gallow.
Even Pezella out wide is alright.
Pezella. Falcon obviously the goalkeeper. I had him in like fifth or something. He's a fantastic goalkeeper.
Lecce, if they pick it up, I do see them capable of survival. Lecce.
They certainly have what it takes. But they would need a disaster from one of the teams above them. That's it.
That's the type of season they would need to survive. They'd need like Spets, who never win.
They'd need Genoa from last season and they survive. Genoa and Caliari from last season and they survive.
Exactly, with a hint of Parma from the season before.
But let's see. If they improve, it's going to be very good. They've already got a solid foundation over there.
So we'll see how they develop as the season progresses. There's no reason for them to not be confident right now.
That's true. I'd be confident after that first encounter with Inter. Man, to be fair, he loses with the last kick of the game.
And you have someone in Sargi celebrating the way that he did.
My god, he was sweating profusely.
He always is. Next up we're going to be covering Sampdoria.
Samp started of the season losing at home against Atalanta. Two goals to Nelthal and Lukman.
They then held Juventus at home, which was crazy considering Sampdoria.
In the next match, they lost 4-0 at the hands of Salernetana thanks to goals by Diabona, Zoli, Villena and Botham.
Draw 1-1 to Lazio the following week at home. Goals by Ciro, Móbile and Gabbi Addini getting a nice little return over there.
And most recently they lost 2-1 against Verona away from home. Goes by Caputo for themselves but an Audero own goal and a Drogh goal was enough to sink the ship.
Is Sampdoria, right? Yes. Sampdoria. They have been shit.
Not this year but overall in the past year and a half to two years they have been shit. Sampdoria. They were shit last year as well.
I think Sampdoria were at their best recently. So let's exclude Jean-Paulos 4-3-1 to Sampdoria from back in the day that got them to move to Milan a few years ago.
That was the best Sampdoria team in a while.
After that I think the best Sampdoria was one with Keita Baldé. The Móbile Sampdoria.
Nowadays you look at this team. They have Caputo upfront isolated or they have fucking Qualiarella upfront isolated.
Or Gabbi Addini upfront isolated. Those are three players in their 30s who can't move quite frankly.
So there are many problems with this team when it comes to getting the ball to the striker.
They have Sabiri in the middle who I feel like a lot of the work he does is often wasted because of the fact that the striker can't reach the ball.
So that's the most frustrating thing about Sampdoria in my opinion. The lack of mobility upfront.
Sampdoria 100% were capable of relegation last year and they're capable of relegation this year as well.
I still think they're too alone.
Oh come on. I'm looking at their starting 11 right now and Jesus Christ man. They're not the team that they used to be.
I mean you look at their squad. Audero, Breszynski, Ferrari, Cali, Augello. That's decent.
That's alright.
That's alright. It goes to shit. Rincon, Viera, Verre, Sabiri, Qualiarella, Caputo. That's not good enough.
They need another offensive piece. One with a bit of play.
Even in the midfield man Rincon, Viera, Verre doesn't sit well with me.
I think Ronaldo, Viera had a few decent games. Or one decent game to be honest with you.
Perhaps. Nothing spectacular. Maybe I don't watch enough of them.
They've also brought Gonzalo Villar in from Roma who hasn't looked great and Juri Fisch was a bit of a trusty as well.
Juri Fisch is very moody.
To shake off the rust.
And Harry Winks.
Harry Winks?
Harry Winks bro.
How fucking funny. Winks.
Winks. Harry Winks.
Harry Winks. Excellent. So Samp, where do you see them kind of fitting in?
Just outside relegation pool.
Just outside relegation. We talk in 16th, 15th.
15th. Yes 15th.
Your upcoming games now.
17th, 16th. I think 16th is the highest that they can go to.
Samp's next match is against Milan. They then take on Spezia away and then Monza at home.
Out of that they need to get three points from somewhere.
So they lose to Milan.
They have to beat Monza right?
They have to either beat Monza, maybe draw to Spezia or beat Spezia.
These fixtures are what say the most about Sampdoria because at the end of the day you're better than the teams you beat.
And you're going to be above the teams you beat.
So they need to make quick work of these teams. They have to do what it takes to get three points.
And that will give them the momentum to keep building off that and it will break the momentum of the opposing team.
So it's solely about getting results now for Sampdoria.
Yes sir. Shall we move on to Cremonaizer?
Yes sir.
Cremonaizer have one point thanks to one draw. They also have four losses.
They seem to be a team that can give you a bit of a headache again but not to the extent that Lecce can.
Not to the extent that many other teams in Serie A can in my opinion.
Like for example, let's get to it. They lost 3-2 to Fiorentina on the opening day.
Granted the opening day they just wanted to get it out of the way.
They did very well though Cremonaizer, scoring two goals away to Fiorentina.
And they lost because of the Rado Blonde there.
Yes, that's true. I forgot about that. Mandrake or a goal.
Roma, 1-0 loss away from home again. Then they lost to Torino at home.
Again, three very difficult games to start off with. Fiorentina, Roma, Torino.
And then they had Inter right after that where they lost 3-1.
Then they had Sassuolo where they got their first point. They drew 0-0 Sassuolo better than them during the game.
But they managed to hang in there and get a goal.
Probably fortunate that many of their attacking threats were not present.
They're going to have a bit of an easier run where we can gauge and get to know them a bit better.
I don't want to say shit about Cremonaizer right now. It's so unfair.
I mean they've scored goals against good teams because they've also conceded.
Even Fiorentina, when they played Fiorentina in the opening match in the 43rd minute, Cremonaizer got a red card.
Escalante. Difficult to really tell what they can do.
And it would be like I'm leaning more towards praising them slightly for really bringing it against big teams.
For Ocareque scoring against Inter. For Ser Nicola scoring against Torino.
Ser Nicola of Assisi.
For Ocareque and Bianchetti scoring against Fiorentina.
They've been showing us that there simply isn't an easy game this year.
And Cremonaizer are no exception to that.
But then again, like we said, we need to see them have a bit of an easier run in.
Because that's... Oh my god, they have Atalanta next.
Bro, they have Atalanta next and then Lazio.
And then they have Letchia, Lazio, Napoli.
Holy fuck, what a baptism of fire.
But then they can get a few points on the stretch here.
Because then they have Spezia, they have Sampdoria.
Udinese might still be gods by then.
And Salernitana, they can get a few points there maybe.
That's really the telling point of the season.
Milan and Pogliub.
So when they're on a high they'll play against Milan.
But anyway, Monza, the final team, let's end this three day episode.
It's currently half past four in the morning.
For those of you who have made it this far.
Right, so Monza, they started off the season losing 2-1 at home to Torino.
They then lost 4-0 away against Napoli.
They then lost at home 2-1 to Udinese, goes by Bertaudo Gi and Colpani.
They lost 3-0 against Roma, 2-0 by Deval and 1-0 by Ebanez.
They then lost 2-0 at home against Atalanta and 1-0 by Santos and a goal by Hoiland.
I mean, their fixtures have been quite tough as well.
I mean, Torino, Napoli, Udinese, Roma, Atalanta is as tough as the run-in that Cremonese had in all fairness.
And above and beyond that, new management, a bunch of new players.
Monza have the same manager.
The same manager? Apologies, my mistake.
Stropa is the guy that got them promoted.
But Berlusconi has been shitting on him in public.
Yes.
Saying that he's not doing a great job basically.
Berlusconi talks so much, I would hate to work for him.
Berlusconi...
Unless I was a big-titted stripper, then I'd love it.
Berlusconi is a character.
There's a weird element of respect because of what he did at Milan,
but then there's like everything else ever in the world that makes me despise him a little bit.
But we won't get into politics really.
Now Monza have Lecce, that is a little bit easier.
They have Juve, that's a little bit easier.
Then they have Samp, Spezia, Empoli.
So hopefully we could see them start doing something.
At least like, you know, you have all those players.
I'm dying to see Caprari cut in and shoot and not get into the top picks.
Monza are going to, at one point, tear it up, bro.
It's going to gel for them eventually.
When are they? Because they're finishing 12th.
It has to stop.
I mean, Caprari, man, like...
Look at their team, honestly.
You can't tell me this team gets relegated again.
I mean, we say the same thing about...
Caliari, Genoa, Asreal.
It's true, but these guys come from actually like solid teams.
Like, you know what I mean?
They have Petani who came from Napoli, they have Sensi who came from Inter,
Pesina who came from Atalanta, Ranocchia who came from Inter, granted he's not great.
You know, good players, man.
So I do think that eventually they'll gel.
Maybe they'll change their coach and they'll have a bit of a spell,
but it doesn't take much to survive.
You just need to win a couple of games.
Were they clever signings though?
I think they were clever because they were mostly domestic.
The second, that's true.
The second I thought that it wasn't that clever is when they onboarded Petania.
Because I'm like, Petania, like Grima had brought up very well,
is the kind of player that needs a system to be built around him for him to work.
In a completely new system where you need to get used to your teammates
and you need to build something with them.
Is a static structure like Petania the ideal striker to bring in?
Or would it be someone a bit more mobile that can link up?
They brought in Caprari as well.
Bro, and Caprari is that mobile attacking threat that can set up goals as well.
They're technically the perfect partner for Petania on paper.
And they have Pesina behind them as well.
So it's not like they're extremely mobile because of Petania.
But what they're going to do is give the ball to Caprari who crosses it to Petania who finishes.
It makes them very predictable.
I mean, Qualierla beat Ronaldo to the Capo Canonieri race by doing that literally.
In a 4-3, 1-2.
A 4-3, 1-2 literally with fast players around him.
And that's it.
Just a system that was built around literally feeding him.
Qualierla now granted Qualierla's offensive prowess
and his instinct is much better than Petania's.
But Petania has the physicality to make up for it.
The ability to out-muscle most defenders in the league.
So in reality, you put him in the correct position and you play the ball on this guy's head.
He might do something and you have a few good players to do so.
If it's not one of the new ones, you can get Birindelli to cross the ball.
Birindelli looks really good, for example.
Milan with Patrick Cutrone.
Always Suso cross to Cutrone, Cutrone header.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
They have more to this.
Not more than Milan, obviously.
But for a team, that's...
I don't know.
I see that there are many options for them going forward.
No, I mean, they have them.
That's it. They have them.
Can they utilise them?
And is Petania the right guy to build an entire new system around?
I don't know. I guess time will tell.
It is still very early.
It's five matchdays in.
It's been fucking crazy so far.
Incredibly mental, some might even say.
And hopefully you guys thought this episode was mental.
Albeit it was very long.
We're pushing two hours, four, eight minutes now.
But everything you need to know about the first five matches of the season
and about the teams and the table, so on and so forth.
Remember to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, so on and so forth.
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Thank you very much, you guys.