He's looking for the throw for Candreva, good hook in the air, touch-and-go Candreva!
Candreva!
A wonderful goal from the Olympian, 1-1!
Hello and welcome to Seiya Spotlight Season 2 Episode 12, we are hosting Jake and Matt
here to take you through all the events of Matchday 12 in Seiya.
Happy Halloween guys, a very happy Halloween to all of you.
I'm sorry that we delayed the last episode, actually we didn't record the last episode, but
the person to my right was absolutely dead.
Yes, I was incredibly sick. I think one of the worst illnesses I've had in my life,
I had an infection in my intestine guys and it wasn't pretty.
I was on the couch trying to play some FIFA, you know, since we didn't record obviously,
Jake was dying, he was asleep on the sofa. I said fuck it, I can catch up with my
Venezia career mode. Start playing, all of a sudden Jake starts puking into a bucket like,
I'm off, like I can't do this.
With a whole lot of this in between.
You were giving me so much anxiety man. So that was the reason guys, we contemplated me doing a
solo episode, but fuck that for your sake.
I've attempted that before, it's no fun bro.
Exactly, even though in between puking you were still trying to get me to do it.
Yes, I was trying my best anything for the listeners, and we prepped, we prepped,
that's the annoying thing. We had all the prep work done, I just wasn't fit to record.
And it was such a good week man, it was such a good week of football, so many big games.
No problem, this is an even better week of football.
This is an even better one.
Our goal of the week goes to Condeva.
Agreed.
Fantastic goal against Lazio for Salernitana, their 3-1 victory.
Matsoki played a long ball to him over the top, he took it down perfectly, and with the second
touch he saw the goalkeeper off his line and just chipped it perfectly right over him.
What a goal. Go check it out if you hadn't, he was fucking literally grinning from ear to ear man.
Exactly, and it was against his former team, so he couldn't celebrate, but he was smiling.
Exactly.
He just stood there smiling. Now, great honourable mentions go to Correa for a solo wonder strike,
he basically took on two players, carried the ball from his own half,
bashed it into the top corner from distance, that would normally be a goal of the week,
but when you see a stroke of genius, such a strategic finish, like I think you have to
give him the cake. And there was also Barella, who also took a long ball down beautifully,
a bastoni long ball, he took the ball down with one leg and then just counted it into
the roof of the net with the other one. On another level these guys.
Yeah man, yeah. But onto our bet.
Serie A spotlight slips, we lost. We bet that Atalanta would win or draw versus Empoli,
given Empoli's tendency of drawing 1-1 against virtually any opponent.
And their history against Atalanta, we saw it wasn't like their last match.
This fixture last season was an Empoli victory, and I know it's a different Empoli,
it was Empoli against Andrea Azzoli, it was Atalanta against Gasparini's first version
and not his second version, but yeah, history does tend to repeat itself no matter what.
For sure, and that's why we were a bit hesitant over here, and we've seen how
Udinese have been doing and we bet for them to beat Cremona as outright, probably one of the
worst teams in the league at the moment, especially defensively. But yeah, unfortunately Udinese,
Cremona came nil-nil. Yeah, in the Eze derby, we knew something was brewing for the Eze derby.
We didn't think it was going to be a nil-nil, we didn't think so, we were like ah, when it was
like the 65th minute we're still kind of chill, we're like ah, because Udinese got their work
done in the 70th, no? Exactly.
Just didn't get their work done, they just looked frustrated the entire game.
I think they were left out at the end.
Mad don now with the last kick off the fucking game.
Ah, it's okay. 25 euro, going strong.
Exactly, wink wink.
So guys, if you want to stay up to date with our bets, our social media, our content, things like
that, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok or Twitter, at say our spotlight, and please be sure
to rate us 5 stars on the podcasting platform you listen to us on.
Exactly, before we get into it guys, as per usual, just gonna take you through the 10 matches that
we're gonna be covering. The first one we're gonna be covering is Napoli's walkover of Sasuolo,
4-0 there at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. The second game was the bet that we actually
got right, it was empoli nil at Atalanta 2. The third game is one that hopefully we won't be
addressing for too long, it was Torino 2-1 Milan, that was a pure Halloween nightmare.
Verona 1, Roma 3, Roma left it late but they managed to get the W. Lazio 1, Salernitana 3,
probably the most shocking result this time round. Inter 3, Sampdoria nil, another Halloween
nightmare. Lecce nil, Juve 1, Juve do it in Juve fashion. Cremona nil, Udinese nil in the
Eze derby. Spezia 1, Fiorentina 2, Fiorentina back to winning ways. And to end things off,
it's Monza 1, Bologna 2.
And before jumping into the action just to make sure we get everything right this time,
our boy Pablo, a very loyal listener, day one listener literally, has sent us a voice note
explaining to us how to pronounce certain Dutch player names.
Exactly, so we're going to take it as a bit of a lesson and we're going to educate you guys while
we're being educated. So let's learn together and let's try this out.
And please remember, repeat after Pablo.
Exactly. Hello guys, I'm listening to your podcast right now. I love it. It's great as always.
Super interesting. And I thought, you know, in case you're interested, I could
pronounce some Dutch player names for you. Because I noticed understandably, of course,
they can be a bit hard to pronounce for people who don't speak Dutch. So let's start with
Atalanta. You have De Roon, Koopminers and Koopminers. Is it Koop? Koopminers?
Koopminers. I think it's Koop.
Okay, Koopminers.
It's Haterboer.
Okay.
Haterboer.
Hans Haterboer.
Then you have De Vrij.
De Vrij.
I'm not sure.
Let's try it again. De Vrij.
No, it's perfect.
Thank you.
And Dumfries.
Dumfries.
At Inter. And then there is, I think now there is Zergzee.
Zergzee.
Zergzee. Okay. Zergzee.
Same.
Bologna. Yeah, those are the players that I can think of right now.
And I just noticed Schuurs from Torino.
Schuurs.
And I thought of, he's Belgian but it's a Dutch name, De Keetelaren from Mena.
Okay.
De Keetelaren.
How do you feel?
To be honest, I'm still kind of mesmerized by Pablo's beautiful voice.
He has a very calming voice.
I need him as a therapist just to calm me down, speak some sense into me.
If you take that service, Pablo, hit us up.
Yes, please.
And even if you do some audiobooks or things, please let me know.
I would love to just, you know, change.
You know, start like implementing these.
I think the only one realistically I can.
I'm going to say Dumfries every time I speak.
Dumfries, this isn't natural to me at all.
You know what I mean?
Like I'll try to say it for example.
It's more the accents, like the Devrey.
It's those that simply don't roll off the tongue for me.
And I feel like I'd be making too much effort every single time I say someone's name.
Like how many times have we been told that it's the De Keetelaren, De Keetelaren.
I just De Keeteler.
You know what I mean?
Because it rolls off the tongue.
Yeah, we can try.
I like Zerg Zay.
Zerg Zay is wicked.
I like Zerg Zay.
It makes it sound way more fun.
It's true.
But yeah, that's a nice little lesson.
Thank you very much, Pablo.
Thank you, Pablo.
Really appreciate you, bro.
Exactly.
Napoli 4, Sasuolo nil.
Right into it.
Straight into it.
Fucking annihilation at the Maradona.
Fucking they need to calm down these guys, man.
Yeah, man.
I guess how much they came in their previous encounter, these guys.
6-1 to Napoli.
Fuck, man.
Sasuolo scored when they were 6-0 down that game.
I don't know how the hell they found it in themselves.
Legends.
But anyway, Napoli, bro, are unbeaten in their last 16 Serie A matches.
This is the longest ongoing streak in Europe's top five leagues.
You know when this fucking streak began?
The streak must have began last season towards the end, no?
When they beat Sasuolo 6-1.
Oh my God.
We've come full circle, baby.
Amazing.
Yeah, great content, bro.
Thank you very much.
So Napoli lined up with Marettingo, their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Di Lorenzo on the right and the best player in the world on the left with Mario Rui.
Ming-Jae Kim and Juan Jesus formed the center-back duo.
The midfield three were Zelinski, Lobotka and Anguissa with Gvaratzkelia on the left,
Lozano on the right and Victor Ozyman in the middle.
Madonna.
Yeah.
Sasuolo also with a 4-3-3 formation, but much worse.
Conceivi, N'Gol, Tolyan and Rogério out wide with Ferrari and Erlich at the back.
Frattesi, Lopez and Torzvet were in the middle.
Pinamonte up front with Seide and Laurent.
Laurent?
We need more lessons.
Yeah, we need more lessons.
Lauriente, I guess.
Lauriente, yes, out wide.
Great game, to be honest.
It started off with, you know how typically we always say the game started off with Rahman
charging down the middle and smashing the crossbar.
It started exactly the same way, but this time D'Lorenzo scored.
It was just four minutes down.
D'Lorenzo charged down the right, crossed it into the area to find Gvaratzkelia who
flicked it in the air to Ozyman at the far post to control that acrobatically brilliant
control and tapped it in home.
Obviously, Moskov instantly for Ozyman, you know, celebrations, straight to the fans.
Shambolic defending over here by Saswal, of course, they allowed more space, Ozyman completely
free at the far post.
This will prove to be a theme as the game progresses.
1-0 Napoli.
Shortly after this, Mario Rui got the ball from a distance.
He chopped and had it, blasting the ball, which is fingertip saved by Concelli onto
the crossbar and out.
That would have been some go through.
In the 19th minute, Gvaratzkelia terrorized the right, dressed like Stalin.
He squared it to Ozyman who tapped it in.
2-0 Napoli.
In the 36th minute, Mario Rui gave an amazing ball over the top to Gvaratzkelia who took
a great touch and slammed it home.
This time it was his turn to score.
He was on.
He got one goal and two assists this game.
Quite an amazing performance by him.
By the 38th minute, they were just crossing the ball to Gvaratzkelia on the edge of the
area and he was trying acrobatic finishes.
They did this like three or four times.
It's quite crazy the amount of freedom Saswala gave Napoli.
But anyway, towards Vett, he had an empty post rebound and he missed it.
Shortly after, he could have gotten them back into the game or given them a chance to score
but in reality, it was long gone.
Fratezi had a 1-1-ish situation.
He had to snap shot but the shot was central.
Eventually Traore played the ball back into the path of Ozyman who was through on goal.
He tripped the goalkeeper to get his first ever Serie A hat-trick.
Amazing.
4-0 Napoli.
Victor Ozyman.
He was against Johan Fanta as well.
He was against me on one of them and on my team on the other.
Nice.
And I told you before the game, Ozyman hat-trick.
Do you remember?
It was before he even scored the single goal.
Four minutes in, we're like, okay, it's happening.
Ozyman's first hat-trick.
See, our spotlight slipped.
In the 84th minute, I forgot to mention, Lorente had a very late tackle on Denmen and he got
a red card for it.
But yeah, bro, what do you think of the game?
I mean, like you said, it doesn't seem like it's either Sassuolo did not adapt correctly
to Napoli's system, the way Napoli play.
But then, you know, it could very much be that either they weren't prepared or else
when the game started, they were simply overwhelmed by the amount of quality and the amount of
speed and creativity that Napoli have in their team.
The way Napoli shift play from one side to another and the amount of pace they have on
each flank and the amount of creativity they have with players like Lobotkang, Wisza and
Zielinski in the middle, they're just absolutely unstoppable at the moment.
And if they keep on going on at this rate, they could genuinely go down as one of the
greatest sides we've seen in Serie A, at least in recent history.
They've looked fantastic and Sassuolo have made some serious strides when it comes to
their defense, when it comes to building out the back.
They didn't have any time to showcase any of that in the game.
I mean, by the time it was the 36th minute, they were losing 3-0.
Gvarackelia was already on two assists and a goal and Ozyman was already on two goals.
Unstoppable, nothing Sassuolo could have done, nothing they could have done.
Yes, bro, and even though it sounds like you're being almost, it's almost like you're excusing
Sassuolo, you're not the only one to do so.
Giannini kind of had the same thing during the post-match interview.
He basically said that they deserved to lose, but they didn't deserve to go down to 10.
And that was basically his main point, like that the red card was undeserved.
To be honest, it was harsh, but certain angles looked worse.
And he also said that Thors Vett is adapting slowly.
And when they asked him like, what about Ozyman just running rampant against your defense?
He said, doesn't Ozyman run rampant against everyone?
To which he's right, but this was his first ever Serie A hat-trick.
Yeah, it was.
I think it's been coming a long time, Ozyman's first hat-trick.
But yeah, I mean, everything he says is pretty much bang on and bear in mind Sassuolo, quite
a deflated side as well.
You look at their front three.
That's not the front three we're used to seeing, Sadie on one side, Loriento on the other,
Pinamonte up front.
I mean, Berardi, Traore, you know what I mean?
So quite a deflated side as well.
Normally Sassuolo are capable of putting a lot of pressure on the opposition and kind
of utilize their front three to the best of their abilities.
They've done this from season to season.
And even this season, even though their front three is significantly worse than it has been
in the past.
Again, they just didn't have the opportunity to showcase that.
I mean, when they did half possession, which was only 33% ball possession, they had it
in their half.
They had it when they were trying to recover.
And Napoli didn't let them do anything.
Sure, they got 10 shots away, but fucking none of them even posed any threat on Meret's
goal.
Honestly, yeah.
Ozyman's hat-trick means that he's now the joint top scorer with Arnautovic.
7 just goes to show how well Arnautovic is doing if Ozyman just put three past Sassuolo
for the most informed side in the league and he's only just caught up to Arnautovic.
Gvaratskeli is on six goals this season already.
Madonna.
He's one behind Ozyman.
One behind Ozyman, one behind Arnautovic.
So yeah, that's quite crazy, man.
In my opinion, man, they're playing more for Ozyman than they were last season.
I mean, and that's the point we brought up about Juventus and Vlava last time.
When you have a player who has those capabilities, fucking right, you need to adapt.
You need to serve them because at the end of the day, you win games by scoring goals.
Sure, you can't concede, but if you can fucking score goals, it gives you a way better chance
than your opposition.
The fact that you can score against anyone is crazy.
Ozyman is one of those guys.
He's a very well rounded forward.
He's tall.
He's good in the air.
He's very quick.
His runs off the ball are incredible.
He's very, very strong and his finishing is excellent.
You put him in position, he's going to score.
It doesn't seem like he's ever been affected by form.
The only kind of spell that he had where he was on lower form was his first season when
he just came into Italy and he was this party animal fucking the COVID restrictions up the
ass.
But now he's settled in.
He's had season after season where he's shown us he's literally top two strikers in the
league and there's absolutely no debate about it, man.
No debate.
It's true, man.
A bit of continuity, a bit more momentum and he'll be a scary thing.
He's stopped very frequently and I think that's what delayed his Serie A hat-trick
I mean, imagine he never broke his face.
Imagine he never went through the whole COVID thing or his shoulder.
Remember his shoulder?
His shoulder as well.
He was just injured as well, bro.
He just came back and he's a joint top scorer.
But yeah, he's honestly such a special, special talent.
While we're on the topic of Napoli, I'd like to give a special shout out and thank you
to Michaela, our listener who was at the Napoli game.
She's a diehard Napoli fan.
She sent us some...
A real diehard, guys.
A real diehard.
She's the heart of that support of Napoli.
Honestly, honestly, knows all the songs, everything.
She sent us some great content that you can find on our Instagram.
Thank you very much, Michaela.
Thank you, Michaela.
Thank you.
Napoli are currently in first with 32 points, while Sassuolo currently sit in 11th with
15 points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Empoli nil Atalanta 2.
So Empoli were coming off a 4-nil loss against Juve away from home, while Atalanta were coming
off their first loss of the season, which was a 2-nil loss at home against Lazio.
Empoli won this fixture 1-nil last year, but have overall failed to score in 60% of their
matches at home to Atalanta, which is fucking bizarre.
Going into the lineup, so Empoli were still missing Alberto Grassi and Lorenzo Tonelli,
but they still lined up in their 4-3-3 formation with Vicario between the sticks.
Ebuehie on the right, Kakace on the left with Luperto and De Winter at the back too.
Bandinelli, Marin and Henderson formed the midfield tree with Piaka and Bayrami out wide
flanking Mattia Destro.
For Atalanta, Classic 3-5-2, Mussongol with Toloi, Demiral and Scalvini at the back, Hattabur
and Meili out wide with Pasalic, Ederson and Cope miners.
Very good!
Thank you in the middle, Hoiland and Luckmann up front.
Atalanta had Muriel suspended, they had Deron and Zappa Costa injured, Tlazza Fata not fully
fit, however Mussongol and Toloi had returned after long layoffs essentially.
So the scoring was opened in the 32nd minute thanks to Hans Hattabur, after I'm overdoing
it now.
Dude, you're killing it!
I'm killing it!
You're killing it!
Thank you Pablo, young Pablo.
So in the 32nd minute there was a blocked shot that landed to the path of Hattabur who
slotted in with an oncoming, misbalanced Vicario.
Nothing he could have done about that.
The ball was literally flinging all over the place.
But then it was just before halftime where a penalty was awarded to Atalanta.
Destro blocked Luckmann's free kick with his elbow.
Now his arms were tucked in, but his elbow was somewhat out.
Some say it's controversial.
Ref says yellow card in my opinion.
Well at least it was a penalty.
Maybe the yellow card was a bit harsh in my opinion.
It was a penalty though.
Koke Miners steps up, but brilliant save by Vicario.
He goes the wrong way.
Koke Miners goes down the middle, but he saves it with his leg and you could see him extending
his leg perfectly to stop the shot.
Love this guy.
He's just too good man.
59th minute, Ademola Luckmann scored.
He was inside the box.
He cut in on his favorite right foot, fainted past two players and slotted it into the near
bottom corner.
That's his fifth goal of the season.
In the 83rd minute, Ebuhe tapped the ball into an empty net after a scramble inside
the box essentially, but it was deemed offside.
Game ended empoly nil, Atalanta 2.
What did you make of this game bro?
A very mature display by Atalanta to continue proving what we've essentially been raving
on about and what every journalist to be honest has been talking about.
They just look so composed, like no room for error with these guys.
Empoly, they looked quite structured to me, quite a solid tough side, but Atalanta eventually
managed to open them up with that goal in the 32nd minute.
And I mean what's impressive about Atalanta and this match in particular is it's not easy
coming off a devastating defeat and your first defeat of the season, which they just had
against Lazio, but they came back and it's like nothing happened.
They kept their system, they remained calm and subsequently they managed to walk away
with a very convincing three points.
Duvan Zapata, obviously he's been out injured, he's been being reintroduced to the side
slowly slowly.
I mean you look at the guy two seasons ago and he was literally up there with one of
the best, as one of the best strikers in the league.
Now it seems like he might have some more work to do than he would have liked coming
back into the team.
Do you think his place upfront is at risk?
I mean there's Muriel, there's Hoylund, there's Luckmann as well.
Do you think he'll slot right back in or is there a lot of hope?
He certainly doesn't slot right back in and the Zapata we've seen in the last two seasons
isn't the Zapata of the past.
Same can be said about Muriel to be honest with you, but Luckmann right now is indispensable
and then there's the other slot upfront which is up for grabs, right?
So I think it's who performs best that week or who's better suited for the game.
We know Gasparini, we know that he wouldn't even be against playing one of them for a
half and a different one for another half.
He does that very often in different positions.
That's true.
Still on the topic of Atalanta, Cope Miners obviously missed the penalty.
It was a great save by Vicario.
Obviously he's had a fantastic season thus far.
However we have seen players that have had, I don't know, missed a penalty or missed a
great chance and then their season has taken a turn for the worse.
So I think this is the first penalty that he's missed in Serie A.
I thought he missed another one.
I'm not sure if it was in Serie A though.
I remember him missing another one, Cope Miners.
I might be mistaken.
It could be, my memory is failing me.
But he has been a set piece specialist for Atalanta so this is definitely going to hurt
him a bit.
We'll see what happens.
We'll see.
I think he'll be okay though.
Will he take the next one?
I certainly don't think he takes penalties when Muriel is on the pitch.
I think he has on a couple of occasions.
Again we know Gasparini and we know that there's a lot of mind games when it comes to every
single little decision that the team makes so I wouldn't be surprised if he has something
up his sleeve.
Also shout out to the denim shirt Gasparini was wearing.
It was very nice.
It was very Jamie, I thought.
That look.
He looked younger with it to be honest.
I guess.
It looks no Botox and fillers you know what I mean.
Not quite as effective.
Exactly but it did something.
Yeah, Atalanta are good, conservative, y'all know the rest.
Let's move a bit to Empoli.
So the main difference between Empoli this season and last season is obvious.
It's the change in manager, it's the change in system.
There was Andrea Zolli's play style last year where Empoli were shocking, they were devastating
but they didn't kind of prepare for the team that's in front of them versus Zanetti where
it's kind of like they almost prepare too much in inverted commas for the team in front
of them almost to the point that they lack a certain identity.
What do you make of the change?
Is it suiting Empoli better?
Worse?
Do you think they'll be better off at the end of the season?
So I think that Empoli certainly have an identity this year.
I think they've brought this attractive play style to each and every one of their opponent.
Like they're hardly ever forced out of the game.
There was the 4-0 against Juve which was bizarre to be honest but other than that this season
I thought that they've brought it to every one of their opponents, each and every one
of them, especially the whole offensive flow.
Sometimes I think they've tried to settle for a 1-0 victory and it bit them in the ass
on way too many occasions eventually.
Which is why they struggled for victories as well.
I'm not saying they haven't had good performances, they've obviously had good performances and
like you said they play the ball around nicely, they certainly have struggled when it comes
to killing games like you mentioned as well.
But there isn't something remarkable about this Empoli.
There isn't something to write home about.
It's almost like it's very average across the board.
You wouldn't say for example I'm petrified of Empoli for this reason.
You know what I mean?
They're stable but that's as far as it goes.
Yeah, I guess the only thing you would be terrified of Empoli for is the fact that they
can, they have what it takes to hold you to a draw.
Exactly.
That's it.
There are units.
But again they're in a good position in the league right now.
These were candidates for relegation at the end of the day and they're quite safe compared
to the amount of points that Verona and Cremona do for example or Sampdoria.
So yeah I think the trajectory is right.
New manager, kind of new players all around.
I think they're doing quite well.
Yeah, agreed.
I'd like to highlight Razvan Marin as well for another great performance.
I think this man goes under the radar quite a bit.
He really is a metronome for the team.
He had a 93% pass success rate in this game and he also had four successful tackles as
well so great performance for him over there.
Atalanta sit in second place on 27 points.
Just five points behind Napoli.
Just because there's such a long way to go.
Empoli in 14th on 11 points like Drake said quite safe at the moment.
The next game we're going to be discussing is Torino 2, Milan 1.
The last encounter between Torino and Milan saw the two drawing 0-0.
Torino prior to this game had failed to score a single Serie A goal against Milan in their
last 464 minutes of play.
They lost score against Milan prior to this game back in September 2019 thanks to a goal
by of course Andrea Bellotti.
That was also their last league victory against Milan prior to this.
Oh my god.
Milan's run of 17 away victories has finally come to an end.
Wow 17 consecutive victories.
Away victories.
My god.
Undefeated, not victories.
Undefeated, okay.
Undefeated, sorry.
That's my bad.
Now Torino lined up with their 3-4-2-1 formation with Vania Mlinkovic-Savage in goal.
Bon giorno, Suarez and Gigi at the back, but Lazaro on the left and Singo on the right,
Ricci and Lukacic in the middle with Pelegrino up front flanked by Vlasic and Mirancuk.
For Milan it was Tatarasano in goal with Calulo on the right, Hernandez on the left, Tomori
and Gabia in the middle, the double pivot was Pobega and Tonali with Messias on the
right, Leao on the left, Diaz in the middle and Origi up front.
The game started off and Milan were tearing through the Torino defense like it was a six-pack
of Moretti on a hot summer's day.
Two big misses by Leao early on, each one of them set up by Ibrahim Diaz who was exception
until he came off, he was forced off early.
But anyway, Leao didn't seem to have his head on his shoulders from the very start
of this game and this would prove to be a theme for the rest of the game until eventually
in the 35th minute it was Torino's turn to actually knock at Milan's door.
And how else would Milan concede?
It was through a free kick by Lazaro, he whipped the ball in from quite a distance, a non-threatening
area to be honest, and Gigi headed the ball in off the post for his first ever Serie A
goal.
Now this man didn't even jump to head the ball, he kind of crouched down to head it,
so it goes to show how free he was.
The classic zonal marking by Milan on set pieces, just not effective at all.
I previously asked the question, how else would Milan concede?
Two minutes later they conceded through a saucy Russian, that is how.
He got the ball on the left hand side after some chaos basically, the ball ended up going
through both Gabia and Tomori and Mirantju just placed it into the bottom corner.
I believe it was a long ball over the top that was headed poorly by Gabia that started
off this whole move.
At half time Piolli reacted by making a triple substitution, he took out Kalulu, Diaz and
Leo.
Now he took out Kalulu because he injured his eyes quite frankly and he was basically
blind, he couldn't see anything, he could tell, you know how when someone's eyes are
bothering him he's always rubbing them, he was basically doing that for the whole entirety
of the half, must have been very frustrating for him.
But it's fine, Piolli is so inclusive that he replaced him with another blind footballer
and brought on Dest.
Exactly, so Sergio Nio Dest came on in his stead, Decatelar and Rebic.
So Milan started off, Rebic assumed the position of deep lying playmaker, carrying the ball
from deep, a bunch of urgency, Milan are 2-0 down, there's a whole lot of running, a whole
lot of looking up and looking sideways quickly, there's a whole lot of panic but virtually
no action, Milan barely created any goal scoring opportunities, bar one freak moment in the
67th minute where a long ball over the top saw Vanya Milinkovic-Savvich coming off his
line to claim it, it was like the incestuous woman in Barbarian leaving the house, this
massive guy off his line looks so weird.
Bonjorno got a touch to the ball and it completely threw Vanya Milinkovic-Savvich off as he basically
got dribbled by his own defender, Messias basically pulled Bonjorno to the ground and
scored from a distance, in my opinion that was a foul.
I think so as well, we're laughing about it.
And I shared this opinion with Ivan Juric who got sent off for protesting the validity
of the goal which fair enough, I mean it was harsh, we've seen VAR calls for less than
that, we've seen goals disallowed for way less than that for sure.
Agreed.
But yeah, I mean the game pretty much off that, again a whole lot of hurrying by Milan,
nothing really created, Giroud came on in the 78th minute but they failed to give him
any service, yeah that's basically it.
What did you make of this game bro?
I mean, Milan could have killed the game off within the first 20 minutes, within the first
20 minutes those two chances for a layout, any other day the man puts the ball in the
back of the net.
So that is probably why Piolli would be so frustrated after a game like that, because
it's not that Torino were the better side throughout, it's that Torino took their chances
and Milan didn't, Milan outshot Torino, Milan had more possession than Torino, Milan essentially
won on all fronts except for the scoreline.
I found the triple substitution to be a bit rash which isn't usual of Piolli to react
in such a bombastic way at half time.
Now I understand that taking out layout over a longer period of time would put the man
in his place, like get your head in the game, this is what happens if you don't and I get
that, I respect that.
Milan's two best players offensively at the moment, creatively are Liao and Brahim, take
out one or the other, don't take them both out and he essentially changed the way that
Milan gets the ball forward, because they get the ball forward through overlaps on the
left hand side and playing the ball to Liao and letting him do his thing, or else recently
Brahim Diaz going down Marauding runs down the middle.
Milan suddenly lost those two freaks of nature, suddenly, and that just, Milan were such a
weaker side in the second half, a two goal deficit and suddenly Milan are a severely
weakened side and just didn't sit right with me, when I saw those changes I wasn't confident
that anything was going to happen from Milan's side and nothing happened, a freak moment
and Messias had an empty net after he threw a motherfucker to the ground, I don't agree
with the changes that were made.
I don't think that purely substitution of Liao was purely punishment, I think that he
might have had the Champions League encounter in mind too, the game against Salzburg at
San Siro on Wednesday.
That's a fair point.
And I think it rings true for Brahim Diaz as well, it was an uphill battle, maybe purely
thought that a draw could be achieved with the men at his disposal.
Of course it wasn't the case at all and I'm really surprised because in the first 20 minutes
Milan had the opportunity to blow Toreen out of the water completely.
Origi would get the ball, hold it up and if you notice through Milan's attacks Origi was
nowhere to be seen, he was holding the ball, he was playing quite deep during the transition,
I kind of like the way he was playing.
Diaz was amazing in the first few minutes, it's just again Liao and it's not even like,
I don't even know, how do you miss a chance like that when you just need to finish, you
afford to take a touch and Liao loves to take a touch before finishing.
Definitely.
I don't know, he seemed distracted, I don't know what was wrong with him, I guess it was
one of those days.
Yeah, I think the chances came too early which was very rich considering he scored the goal
in 10 seconds against Suswal a couple of seasons ago but I genuinely think the chances came
too early to Liao, he hadn't grown into the game yet.
And then when he did grow into the game he was just shooting from everywhere.
Exactly, that's what fucking, and then two things threw me off about Liao's performance,
barring of the obvious misses, but it almost seems like at times he thinks he's, not at
times, the man thinks he's bigger than the club, the man feels like he's the sensation
of the club, which he is.
Like getting the ball on his left from miles out, the ball's wobbling all in front of him
and he takes a shot, he essentially sends it into the stands, sends it into the curve
alike and then another time Milan just conceded, he grabs the ball and attempts to dribble
past the entire team, gets the ball taken off him instantly.
It's just, at times his attitude is very very frustrating and we don't talk about it because
it comes with a bunch of pros, a bunch of pros it comes with.
It's the ego right, I mean you have to think you're the best to become the best.
Exactly, it's as simple as that, mind over matter, as a man thinketh, read it.
What did you think of the Keita Laira's performance?
Raw, raw, raw, I mean the guy isn't gonna, this isn't the season for him, especially
the first half of the season, maybe in the second half of the season he'll get going,
but there's obviously going to be a transition phase, a period of adaptation, it's obvious,
he's a young guy playing in a massive league with a fuck ton of pressure.
He had a massive price tag for Milan's standard that you would assume if you're going to spend
that amount of money that you're going to bring in someone who's going to make the difference.
It's not true, this is an investment, a long term investment.
Granted he, the idea might have been that he can't contribute this season, but he can
still contribute this season.
He has a lot of pressure and I feel like it's finally getting to him.
The way he's been playing, even the selfishness he's been demonstrating, I tell you he's
desperate for a goal, he's desperate to get going, he's desperate to shut out the noise.
And especially since Brahim is performing the way he is, I mean in the beginning of
the season when the Keita Laira was coming on, he straight up looked better than he looks
now and everyone was kind of raving about him saying how raw he looks, how good he looks,
he was getting more minutes than Brahim and then suddenly Brahim flicked the switch, everyone
loves Brahim, everyone hates the Keita Laira.
Now that just goes to show how stupid everyone was because these are the people who hated
Brahim up until like three weeks ago.
Exactly, so that's it, it's moments in football that get the masses talking, that at least
get the casuals talking.
The fact of the matter is, Brahim needed serious competition.
Yes, that's it, that's the most important point here.
He got serious competition and he stepped the fuck up.
Now the Keita Laira needs to step the fuck up and he's getting used to the league and
he's going to get there.
I was hearing people telling me the Keita Laira looks like he's a hockey player that
attempted football.
Sure, maybe he looked like that in this game but bear in mind he wasn't the only guy that
had a terrible performance, fucking Liao had a shit performance.
The best player in Serie A last season.
We'll see what happens with the Keita Laira, I just hope that he manages the pressure well.
Yeah, agreed.
Milan currently sit in third with 26 points while Torino have climbed to ninth with 17
points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Verona 1-Roma 3.
So Verona still struggling, they were coming off a 2-1 loss to Sassuolo here, Weistraum
were coming off a 1-0 loss to Liders, Napoli at home and midweek 2-1 win in Helsinki.
Verona won their last two games at the Bente Gaudi against Roma coming into this match.
So pressure is on for Roma and for Verona to make it third.
Last time I believe they had made it third, I had read the stat but I didn't put it in
because it was too particular, it was in like 1985, last time they beat Roma three times
in a row.
So these are the best stats, very particular ones.
You love them, you adore them, you're an encyclopedia.
So for Verona it was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Monte Paul in goal, Cecharini, Gunther and
Davidovic at the back, De Pauli and Faroni as the wing backs with Veloce on Hong-Lan
the double pivot, Tameze and Callon flanking on reef, you've never heard of Callon, he's
a Sierra Leonean forward on loan from Genoa and he's only 21 years old.
So he's said and said he joined Genoa I believe late last season.
Okay and then they loaned him out to a Sierra team, gets a experience, we'll be back next
year.
For Mourinho's Roma, 3-5-2, Patricio on goal, Montrini smalling Ibanez at the back as classic
as it gets, Karsdorp on the right, Zalefsky on the left with Kamara, Pellegrini and Cristante
in the middle, Abraham and Zaniolo up front.
So to start things off very early on, Tame rounded the keeper and hit the post, missed
off the season so far by the way.
Definitely.
The fact that he had time and space after he dribbled the goalkeeper and he still didn't
manage to get the ball to the back of the net is ridiculous you said and you have a
popular snippet that says if he shot John Lennon, John Lennon would be 83 today and
he really hit the nail on the head over there.
Shortly after he then missed a header dreadfully, he just needed to hit the target at this point,
it was a dirty whooping ball coming in, had the man gotten his head behind the ball and
just aimed it goal-wards he would have scored and unfortunately he made that total mess
of it.
Abraham's expected goals is three times higher than the goals he has actually scored this
season.
Madonna.
If he had scored those chances he would be in the Capocano nearer race but he is nowhere
near there, he has scored two goals so far.
Exactly.
XG of 6 point something, that's crazy.
I don't like talking about XG but when you put it like that man.
I like XG as a stat, I think it's quite fair because it looks at every chance kind of individually.
In the 27th minute Farone's long-range strike deflected off Davidovich and into the back
of the net it counted as a Farone assist and a Davidovich goal.
Brilliant stuff, Davidovich was all happy, yay yay yay.
Nine minutes later he studded Zaniolo on the thigh and got sent off.
So shortly lived over there for Verona and for Davidovich.
Suddenly now after leading Roma 1-0 at the Bente Gordi, third time in a row they're
looking to beat them, now suddenly they have to play another hour with 10 men.
And in fact shortly after, just before halftime in the 46th minute, Nicolo Zaniolo scored
ending his goal drought.
So it was Kamara that dispossessed Tamez in a dangerous area, played it to Abraham who
you guessed it, hit the post, it fell to Zaniolo who slotted it in, goal drought over Roma
right back in it.
That was the second time this game that Tami hit the post.
Last season he had a stat where no one in the world hit the post more than him, it was
him and Messi I remember.
I remember that, they even tweeted about it.
And in the second half Matich's header after a Pellegrini corner hit the woodwork so Roma
were really knocking.
However and then in the 88th minute Matich's pass from the byline found Volpato just outside
the area who placed it into the bottom corner, ball was like wobbling all around but it did
go into the bottom corner and it was another goal for Volpato against Roma against Verona
last season.
Christian Volpato, what a legend.
And then in the 91st minute just to rub salt in the wounds as if they didn't just get a
late winner, Stefan El-Sharawi scored a fantastic goal and it was a Christian Volpato assist,
he released El-Sharawi who rounded the keeper by chipping the ball over him and finished
into the empty net.
3-1 Roma, what did you make of this game bro?
I thought that without the red card Verona could have actually taken something from this
game and they almost did take something from this game with the red card too.
I thought Roma didn't look convincing at all especially with their finishing man like what
more do they have to do to Abraham, like they can't keep putting him in these situations
and he keeps missing man.
It must be so frustrating for Mourinho because he understands that he has players like Zaniolo,
players like Debala that are capable of doing a whole load of work but one thing they need
to brush up on is their finishing, this is more applicable for Zaniolo than it is for
Debala.
But you would think that having a player like Tammy who has a year of experience at Roma
in the Serie A broke records as a debutant in the league, Englishman in the league and
he drops it as well, he drops the ball as well and he's not setting a good example for
his teammates.
You bring in Bellotti who is a Serie A hero, a Serie A god, guaranteed goals in the Serie
A who is also struggling for goals right now.
It just seems there's a bit of a theme with Roma where they're struggling for goals.
What does that come down to because it's not simply down to Tammy Abraham man.
It's down to Tammy Abraham's confidence, it's down to Bellotti's confidence at the moment.
Tammy Abraham's issue is purely confidence I believe right now.
How do you, it's psychological, how the fuck do you miss those chances man as a paid professional,
you know he's putting those in in training probably every single day, every day in training
they're probably saying your time will come Tammy look at you, look at you, you're scoring
all these chances like then he gets on the stage and he fucks it when it matters the
most.
Yeah and more in your benchism because he's relentless, he doesn't give up.
Calls him shit on TV.
Tough love baby.
Yeah these idiots make a TikTok about him, he goes kind of weird.
But still about Roma, we mentioned recently that no matter what the fixture is, whether
they get three points or they always struggle no matter who it's against, no matter by what
margin they win and now just putting this game into context this proves us right because
they were against 19th place Verona who have been struggling against 10 men.
Against 10 man 19th place Verona and they still struggle to get the three points, it
took until the 88th minute man.
Exactly then the 91st minute goal was because Verona had committed men forward.
Exactly.
Of course.
But yeah Roma got lucky in this one I believe with that with that red card.
I have to say Salvatore Bocchetti's Verona do look better.
It's a shame Davidovic scored and immediately said my work here is done.
Exactly.
Red card immediately after.
And it was such a rash one as well his foot was so high man, studs showing like crazy and
it took VAR because it all happened so quickly.
Zaniolo like you do that to Zaniolo you must want to fuck him up like you know what I mean.
Valt Pato got a goal and assist in this game.
You know he's Australian boy and he can still represent Australia if he wants.
Really?
So what happened was he had been called up for Australia but he didn't end up making
it because he was busy or some shit.
He was busy.
Same thing happened with Italy.
He got called up and he didn't make it and then Australia's like under 19 team or something
lost a game terribly had a terrible performance and he posted a video on social media kind
of poking fun at the Australian national team and then he got called up for Italy under
19 and he showed up for them and he has two appearances for them.
But the fact that he kind of poked fun at Australia like he called up never showed up.
Look at these guys they're shit like.
It's a good opportunity for him man.
How is this guy just not showing up to international call ups and like a freak.
No I think the club wouldn't send him.
I think the club would need him like the club can't technically choose to do that because
they're full time employees.
Even on a minor level like when you're under 18.
I'm not sure.
But probably I mean the guy just.
The property of the club technically they always need to go ahead of the club.
Now Roma have.
Technically again by the way it's three points for Roma.
This is what we've been saying the entire time they struggle but that's another three
points for Roma bouncing back after a home loss against league leaders Napoli.
But now they face Lazio and Lazio don't have Sergei Milyankovic Savic or Tri Romovle.
What the fuck happens in this game man.
I think Roma win them again.
I don't think it's going to be as straightforward because you know Lazio still have some useful
tools there.
They have Philipp Anderson, there's Pedro.
They still have a few players who are capable of doing some damage but I think they're missing
two very key pieces over there.
And I think Roma will just beat them because of that.
They're missing their pure identity.
When you think of Lazio you think of Sergei you think of Ciro.
Ok they still have like you're saying Zaccani, Pedro, Luis Alberto.
They still have their weapons but when you face a compact team like Roma there's only
so much you can do with those guys.
It would be such an asset to have people like Ciro and Sergei on the pitch.
I agree with you.
I think Roma will get away with all three points.
But now that we said that maybe we shouldn't bet on it.
We know what will happen.
We will see, that's one to avoid.
Derbies are just meant to be avoided when it comes to betting.
That's true.
Verona on the other hand they coped super well throughout the game.
You couldn't even tell that they were down to 10 men.
They struggled the entire season.
This was one of their finer performances but again, incapable or incapable of walking away
with anything.
That is Roma in fourth place on 25 points.
Verona 19th on 5 points.
Leveled with Cremonaezza in 20th.
Off we go to the north-east side of Rome.
Lazio won Salernitana 3.
Where do we even start?
Lazio won their three home games against Salernitana and say prior to this, they had only played
three games against Salernitana and they had won all of them.
And they always scored at least three goals.
Lazio.
Right?
Lazio had some nice revenge for Salernitana.
A little fuck you.
The last meeting between the two teams prior to this game was at the Olympico last season.
It ended 3-0 with goals by Immobile, Pedro and Luis Alberto.
Lazio had managed to keep a clean sheet in each of their previous six Serie A games.
Not against Salernitana.
They were on a six game streak without conceding a single goal.
This was the best open streak in the big five European leagues.
So they were on the best streak and Salernitana just straight up ended it.
Salernitana's team is only one game away, they were only one game away, from equaling
their historic record streak of seven clean sheets in a row collected in 1998 under Zven
Gorin Ericsson.
How annoying man.
They even kept a clean sheet against Atalanta most recently.
That's fucking crazy.
Lazio lined up with a 4-3-3 formation with Providel in goal, Marisic as the left back,
Lazari as the right back, with Romagnoli and Casale as the centre backs.
Their midfield three was Cataldi, Luis Alberto and Vecino, with Zaccani and Philipp Anderson
flanking Pedro who played as a false nine this game.
Salernitana played with a 3-5-2 formation, Sepe in goal with Gjombird on Ilulic and Fazio
at the back, Matsoki on the right, Braderich on the left, Kulibaly, Ruddovanovic and Kondreva
in the middle, with Bonazzoli and Pjontek up front.
Kondreva back as a centre midfielder, Gianpaolo was right, Gianpaolo's a goal.
So the game started off and Pedro clipped the post with some swanky moves right off the
bat.
Shortly after that, Luis Alberto gave a through ball to Mattia Zaccani who finished cleanly
under the goalkeeper's legs, the archer.
This was in the 41st minute and that's when the ice was broken essentially.
Halftime came and the second half started with a knockdown by Philipp Anderson leading
to a big miss by Vecino.
What a miss bro, right in front of the goalkeeper and shoots it straight into him.
Shortly after this, in the 51st minute, there was a ball over the top by Matsoki to Kondreva
who took a lustful first touch and a gluttonous finish.
What a goal, he chipped, Providel of course this was our goal of the week, there was no
celebration for the X but a grin from ear to ear.
Yeah, very good goal bro, I love that goal.
Insane goal, insane goal.
In the 68th minute Salahantan actually took the lead, it was Kondreva's cross that wasn't
dealt with well and it was laid off to Fazio by Danilovic who spanked it home.
Shortly after this, Vecino missed another one on one, crazy this guy bro.
He's almost as bad as Tammy.
No, I'm taking the piss.
But he really did cost them this game because they could have been 2-0 up for Vecino and
they could have equalized over here and come right back into the game.
But it was in the 76th minute that Dia scored thanks to a brother-rich assist, I love this
brother-rich guy.
Brother-rich sounds like something you'd call a bro, you know what I mean, Shana, brother-rich.
It was a quick counter, now if you watch Dia on this goal from the very beginning, he
started his run from the edge of his own area, ran the full length of the pitch and you get
to see brother-rich when he squared the ball in the far post, it was a bit too long for
Dia and you can really see Dia exert himself to get to it, full speed, full throttle, clatters
into the fucking post after, he's hurt for like literally 3 seconds and he gets up and
runs off celebrating.
And yeah, that was pretty much the game bro, a bunch of substitutions by Davide Nicola
shortly after, even more than Sarri did, than Sarri made, which is crazy.
My god, now, Bron, Dia, Botin, Bohinen and Villena all coming up.
He brought on so many fresh faces that I think it was difficult for Lazio to actually play
against such a high energy team.
I thought Salah and Netanah were amazing this game bro.
I agree and every single time I've complimented Salah and Netanah I've always complimented
their energy and it's true they are a very energetic side, high pressure, this is what
Davide Nicola expects and it's what he demands.
However in the second half of this match I was very very impressed by Salah and Netanah's
maturity, the way they were able to create play from the back, the way they were capable
of moving the ball around and making the right decisions.
It seems like Salah and Netanah are not just a high savage energetic team with a crazy
shirtless corva, they are a team that can play a ball.
It's true man, they really are and I really like the structure they keep, I really like
the simple way they play football with keeping the ball on the ground as much as possible.
They focus a lot of their play through Kandre Van Matsoki which is a fucking great thing
to do to be honest, a great idea for them.
I like the way they are utilising Kandre Van by playing him close to a very energetic basically
younger version of himself in Matsoki.
It's true.
Honestly wow and they've got good striking options, Bonozole, Piontek, Dia, these guys
are special man, they are doing great things.
I agree man and it's their work off the ball as well that's really impressive, I mean looking
over here and Lacha had 61% possession but the way that they keep their shape and the
way they transition when Lacha are shifting play is very impressive.
It doesn't seem like there were no gaps anywhere, a very tight compact team, very defensive,
sure it's what you have to do when you play a team like Lacha but they coped brilliantly
and they even managed to injure Sergej, was Sergej injured in this match?
No, he is not injured, Sergej Minkovic-Savitsky got a yellow card, now this was a controversial
thing that occurred.
It was an unjust yellow, he tried to play the ball with the outstep of his foot, his
opponent challenged him and the referee actually whistled and gave him the yellow card.
It was so harsh that in the post-match interview Sarri said that if he had to express what
he thinks really is going on he would get a six-year ban so of course he's hinting
at the Kalciopoli, he's hinting at corruption because essentially in that Kalciopoli season
that's what Juve had been doing, they had been getting key players sent off through
excessive accumulated yellows in different fixtures going around them, it's kind of
indirect corruption.
Back when Sarri was working at a bank.
But yes, I don't know, I think it was just a refereeing mistake, perhaps I'm naive,
Sergej took it so badly.
Of course man, he's missing the derby, they're already missing three raw.
Sarri didn't play him in order to rest him for the derby most likely, and they had to
bring him on because they were losing and he got a yellow card.
So frustrating.
Salernitana bro at the end of the day they came to the capital and they beat Lazio with
goals through an ex Lazio player and an ex Roma player.
Finished off by a Senegalese beast.
I think Vecino's clumsy misses helped them stay in the game, that was massive.
Do Lazio stand a chance in the derby, we already discussed this briefly?
They do stand a chance, they definitely stand a chance, they're a deflated side but still
you look at, they're beyond being individuals, Lazio.
They're playing Sarri ball at the end of the day, now you remove the two key pieces that
Sarri ball is and it's the support provided by Immobile and the finishing provided by
Immobile and it's Sergei who manages to turn the fence into attack in the blink of an eye.
But we've seen that Roma can struggle against virtually anyone and if Lazio play their cards
right then they can get a point out of the game, I don't think they'll get three but
they're capable of getting a point.
Amen brother.
Lazio are currently in fifth with 24 points while Salernitana have climbed to tenth with
16 points bang the table for Lazio and Salernitana bro with a difference.
Yes sir, look at that tenth place.
Last year we were already making jokes, they definitely relegated.
The next team we're going to be covering is Inter 3 Sampdoria nil, this was on Halloween.
So Inter were coming off a thrilling 4-3 victory away to Fiorentina, crazy, crazy scene, I
think you had the pleasure of preparing for that match so at least you know it inside
out.
Yes sir.
There was also a midweek 4-0 win against Victoria Pilsen confirming round of 16 qualification.
They're playing tomorrow slash tonight by the time you're hearing this against Bayern
Munich as well but they're basically confirmed in second place.
Sampdoria are coming off their first win of the season and it was against Cremonaese who
have yet to achieve their first win of the season so Sampdoria were very opportunistic
over there to get all three points.
Now Inter have gone unbeaten in nine out of their last ten Serie A meetings against Sampdoria
and I mean you look at where they are in the league right now, each team and where they
are in this point in history and you think this isn't going to be any different.
Now Inter missing Marcelo Brozovic as Lukaku made his comeback after two months out injured
to score against Victoria Pilsen midweek but has now picked up another injury.
It's a strain in the, now please bear with me, it's a strain in the myocardial scar of
the femoral biceps of his left thigh.
Now I didn't know thighs had biceps but that's what happened over there so Lukaku was injured.
He should be back for the Juve game apparently.
But he did feature in this game coming on as a sub for Inter it was 3-5-2 on an angle
with Bastoni, Devry and Skriniar at the back, DiMarco and Doomfries out wide, I don't know
if that was the right one.
It was, it was Doomfries.
Mkhitaryan, Chalanooglu and Barela in midfield and Martinez and Zeko up front for Sampdoria.
It was a special night for their coach, treble winner Dejan Stankovic facing his former team
and he had to do it without Fabio Qualiarella and Harry Winks.
It was a 4-2-3-1 for Sampdoria, Audero between the sticks, Berezinski, Ferrari, Colli and
Amione at the back, Iepes and Villar in the double pivot with Kapiadini out wide and Leris
out wide, Juric Rich in an attacking midfield position with Caputo up front.
Before I go into the happenings of the game, what are your takes on that lineup by Dejan
Stankovic?
I think we have a new terrorist to the league, my friend.
How can you play Gabbiadini on the right, man?
I'm sorry, like, what are you trying to do?
Is he trying to recreate that like, Manzuka charge at Juve where you overpower the full
back in the air?
Because like, I don't know about you, but Gabbiadini is your average kind of like, target
man.
No, he's the type of guy, he's not going to outpace anyone, he's not going to fucking
charge up and down the wing tirelessly.
No, he has zero qualities of a winger.
Yes, exactly.
No qualities whatsoever.
It's bizarre.
And you look at a team who struggled so much in transition to get the ball forward with
these aging players like Gabbiadini, Caputo, Quadiarella, exactly, and Juric Rich as well.
And what's he doing now?
He's getting these washed up strikers and putting them in midfield.
Exactly.
Okay.
Legend.
So, to get into the happenings of the game, it was very, very straightforward for Inter
over here.
They opened the scoring in the 21st minute thanks to a header by Devry after a Hakka
and Chalano-Glu corner.
In the 44th minute, Nicolo Barella scored a wonder goal.
It was a long ball by Bastoni lobbed into the air.
It put Barella clean through on goal, but he had to control the ball excellently with
one leg and then he finished into the corner with his other leg.
Fantastic.
Amazing goal.
Fantastic goal.
Very, very wow.
Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very.
Very, very well.
It was then the 73rd minute that Wakin Korea decided to turn into a prime to Hernandez
collected the ball from deep into his own ecology, charged, the ball forward,outing
set just outside the area and counted the ball into the top corner.
Three nil for Inter, I mean, we know they've struggled the season, but this should have
never been a match where they struggled.
What did you make of their performance?
Super convincing. Inter have their injuries as well and they continue to build on their performances after their losses to Lazio and who else was it?
There's Lazio, Milan as well. Roma?
Yes and Udineza.
Udineza.
Exactly. They've since really turned up the tempo. I'm sure their exploits in the Champions League have helped their confidence but without Brozovich before they were barely recognisable.
Now they put in Shalanoglu where they are Aslanian and they're doing quite well in that role. Mkhitaryan seems to be settling in nicely as well.
Zéhako is more than a capable enough replacement for Lukaku at the moment. What do you think?
Yes, I agree and looking at Inter's performance over here with a pinch of salt because their opposition is one of the worst teams in the league this year, I struggle to imagine them struggling this season.
And it's hilarious because like you said they've lost all three points on four different occasions. All three of those teams were teams that finished underneath them last year. Udineza and Roma were nowhere near Inter's level last year.
So then you see a game like this by Inter and it's just they look so dangerous. They still alongside Napoli I would say have the most diverse way to score goals in the league. The most diverse way to attack.
Because they can come from anywhere, right?
Exactly. They're long crosses from out wide playing the ball through down the middle, set pieces, overlaps, center back long balls, center backs with the header.
They have so many tools at their arsenal. They're so well equipped and they're still very much a threat man.
For sure.
They still are a threat.
For sure.
The games they lost they were against top seven teams and Udineza still terrible. You don't want to lose all those games.
If you want to win the league you want to lose a total of four matches if even.
You know what I mean? But they've already lost those and we'll see how they are moving forward. To be honest I don't think there's too much else to address in this game. We'll mention Lukaku's injury.
We need to mention what happened in the stands.
Oh and what happened in the stands as well. So let's start with Lukaku's injury. Is it that devastating for Inter at the moment that Lukaku is out for another couple of games?
Yes.
Okay.
Because he's coming back against Juve, right?
Against Juve, yeah.
I mean no no it's not it's not devastating. Had he been out for longer it would have been devastating but no no he's they're gonna be fine right now. Dzeko and Martinez are doing just fine and I think they have a few Primavera boys there who can help them fill in if they go and get stuff.
But I think they'd want him around more for his own sake sooner rather than later because I think that he needs to start scoring and he needs to fucking find himself and rebuild his confidence Matt.
Yeah.
And he's not gonna do that out injured.
I think exactly I think that's where it gets devastating that the man isn't gonna get minutes and minutes for him to get used to the game again and for him to get fully fit again. I mean he got injured from playing the game.
There wasn't a tackle or anything that he got he got injured from being back being on the pitch and moving.
So he definitely needs needs more of that.
Now to address something a bit different that that happened in this game and something that really didn't didn't sit right with me it just pissed me off.
So Inter have this head of the Curva kind of this elite Curva member.
He is also a criminal that was convicted for 25 years and when Inter play at the San Siro he's not even allowed within a two kilometer radius of the stage.
He's a dangerous man essentially.
During the game he passed away.
I don't know how he was murdered.
He was murdered.
He was ambushed and killed.
He was ambushed and killed during the game.
The Curva got to find out about this.
The Curva marched out and they demanded that every interticket pair does the same out of respect.
Yes apparently like even to parents with their children they were telling them like get the fuck out of the stadium I'm going to slit your throat do you know who I am and these are like mostly apparently 25 year olds and even younger like teenagers saying this stuff and doing these things and they created a really hostile environment and they managed to really empty out the stadium man early on before the game was even halfway done.
Petrifying man, you take your kid to watch Inter a little boy a little girl that just wants to see their heroes play on the pitch and you get these mad men telling you to fucking get up and leave.
When you have left man you fly to Italy to watch your team you know you're there.
I mean bro it's easy for me to sit here on my fucking big juicy ass and say I wouldn't have fucking left you know what I mean but when you have people with face that was screaming in your face telling you to fuck off or they're going to fucking kill you.
I probably would have left a man.
Oh man it's so hard. I would have probably left as well fuck it man or I would have just maybe gone away from them or tried to go to another part of the stadium where they were but I doubt that was an option I'm sure they were just fucking forcing people.
These are at the end of the day a large group of men that they're the curva we know Milan curva, gangsters.
They're gangsters yes essentially I mean their leader at the time these guys are criminals you know you look at the Milan curva the same you know.
But then you look at the Milan curva for example now tell me if I'm being naive. They're fair. Exactly.
They've never kicked their own fans out they appreciate the fans they understand that the fans are very important to the team.
If any interest curva don't get that or maybe they saw Gabbiadini on the wing and they were just like everyone out it doesn't matter we've got this.
I always thought that Milan's curva and I thought this about the curva in general but after reading this I was like maybe not.
The curva are a representation of the supporters. Yes. Of their morals of their values. Exactly what happened when Milan fans stormed the pitch at Sassuola at the Mappé when they won the league.
And they delayed the trophy celebration. Exactly the curva were pissed off with them they gave them a little slap on the head.
Every fan coming back into the stands you have a massive smack in the head from the fans. Exactly.
Okay there's a way and there's a way but it shows their intent it shows that they want to discipline and that they want to do good by their club.
What are these gangsters doing man? I don't know man I just think there needs to be more security of course this can't happen. Absolutely not.
And apparently the minister of sport or some shit is looking into it. Okay rightly so because I was.
And that was fucked up. It pissed me off when I read it. It did man it did like we know a couple of really sweet Inter fans.
Can you imagine Grima at the game like. You kicked me out man.
Allah.
Shout out Grima. Shout out Grima. Rest in peace to the dead criminal.
Rest in peace. He lived a great life. I'm sure he made more people happy than sad.
I mean I don't know man. I don't know where I stand. Well I know where I stand firmly against.
But just a very weird situation. Inter are in sixth on 24 points.
They level on points with Lazio and one behind Roma. While some D'oi are in 18th. One point ahead of Verona and Cremonese.
Do you hear that bro? It's time for Lecce 0-1.
The previous encounter between these two teams was a 4-0 victory by Juve in 2020.
Okay back when Lecce were in Serie A of course and Juve were a little bit better to say the least.
Lecce have won four of their 33 matches against Juventus. The last one that they won came back in February 2011.
The goals were scored by Mesbach and Bertolapci. Oh my god. Two Milan legend.
Since then three wins for Juventus and two draws at the top flight.
Before we start I want to read out Juve's injury list going into this game.
So they had Pogba, Chiesa, Di Maria, Vlaović, Paredes, Bremer, Desilio, Danilo, Rugani, Locatelli, Ake and Kyle George all out injured going into this game.
That is a crisis right? At the end of this game they also lost Weston McKenney and Samuel Ealing Jr.
The 19 year old English superstar youngster. But yeah not good times for Juventus at all. They are so unlucky right now.
They have more than 11 starters over there. I didn't think that was possible but they do.
That's crazy. Falcone and Goal for Lecce. They played their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with Gallo and Gendre as the full backs with Basquirotto and Pongracic at the back.
Hulman and Blinn were the double pivot. Streffetza on the left, Uden on the right, Gonzalez behind Cissé.
Now for Juventus it was Chesney in goal or was it? I don't know. I didn't really witness a left-short attack.
It's true. Quadrado on the right, Sandro on the left with Gatti and Danilo as the center back duo.
Soule on the right, Kostij on the left, Rabiot and Weston McKenney. Mretti as the check-warthista this game and Mielek up front.
Now, yes so in the first half it took up until I believe it was the 32nd or 36th minute something like that.
For Juventus to have their first shot on target. Lecce didn't have a single shot on target all game.
And the most interesting thing about the first half actually was the yellow cards handed out to Juve at pretty much 6 minute intervals.
Mretti was the first to get the yellow card in the 12th minute. In the 17th minute Quadrado got the yellow card.
In the 23rd minute it was Mielek, in the 29th minute it was Gatti.
Mretti was actually lucky to stay on the pitch because it was two footed studs up.
The only thing he had in his favor was that he wasn't going at a ridiculously fast pace so it wasn't as dangerous. Fair enough.
The goal came in the 73rd minute through a Nicolo Falgioli curler. What a goal.
The assist was made by Samuel Elling Jr. who had just come into the game. This was a goal of the weak contender as well in my opinion.
Falgioli with the goal was a perfect curler over and around the keeper for his goal for Juventus.
You could see he fell into his teammates arms crying with joy.
It's his fucking dream.
The closest Lecce got to scoring was in the 88th minute and they would have equalized when Huelmann took a shot after a set piece and it eventually hit the crossbar.
The post sorry, not the crossbar.
But yeah bro, this was a fucking snoozefest and a half. This was a Juve team who were super depleted.
Has to be done though. They got the job done. Clean sheet, three points, they moved.
Exactly. That's what I was going to say. This is one of the occasions where I would applaud Allegri for taking that stance.
For taking that playstyle, for being more conservative, for not attacking much, for basically playing boring ass football.
Because you're playing a Lecce side that from the last game that they're capable of getting points and from doing something.
They went in, Juve with a very, very, very fucking depleted squad and all that too is that to ensure they have to get away with three points.
No excuses. We have to get away with three points.
And that's exactly what they did and they took a wonder goal by Falgioli and it didn't look like they were going to score any other way.
But it came. It came from a youth product. I would say Juve should walk away happy with this.
For sure man, especially the guy who scored and the guy who set up the goal were the two substitutes, the two young guys.
Now the future of Juventus. The present isn't looking great but the future sure is man.
Even Miretti is a very good player who played behind Millec this game.
Though I have to say that it was not a very good move by Allegri to pop Miretti in here.
He often looked isolated at times and he didn't quite look up to scratch for it.
I prefer Miretti in a deeper role personally. Even as a Metzala, that's fine. He just needs to have options in front of him to play the ball.
Exactly. Well, normally, should this be a long term thing, he should be fine because he has Vlachovic's runs of the ball alongside Arcadius Millec as well.
So he has two very hungry horses ahead of him. But in this case, just Millec by himself, everyone around him is a little bit lost because of the amount of changes in the team.
Wouldn't be too harsh on him. I really see Fagioli and Miretti kind of being like a gavi and pedri for Juve in the long run.
I think if you get a more progressive manager, they would really, for Juve, they would really try to implement that man.
For sure. I mean, they'd be playing more certainly. I mean, right now, Allegri's hand is forced and these youngsters are rewarding him, to be honest.
Sorry about that. Gatti, bro, is a player who impresses me greatly. He's the guy who went from Serie A to Serie B to Serie A in three seasons in a row.
He played a fantastic game, this game. Keane came on, another few good moments. Bonucci came on for six minutes, bro, and looked terrible.
Bonucci has been looking kind of awful, man. Bonucci has depleted astronomically.
He came on and he had a few moments where he should have cleared the ball out of the area with his head and instead he cleared it upwards.
Yeah, man. Like he's done, bro. And they say he's the last one from that team that made the Champions League final.
The last one out of that squad that played against Barca and that Champions League final against Real. I think Real was more recently.
Yeah, so it must be Barca. But he's the last one. No, Real. Must be Real. Must be Real, sure.
He shouldn't even be there. I don't think he's quite good enough. I think he should be maybe a substitute defender, a back-up figure, a locker room figure, right?
A bit of a Zlatan, so to say. I don't think there's much more that Bonucci can bring to the game for you.
But I'll hang on to him because of the depleted squad, but I think we'll see him out at the end of the season.
Paul Pogba has suffered another injury. I believe it's a muscle injury. Just as soon as he had recovered in time to make the World Cup,
he had opted for the short-term surgery solution, which would actually enable him to play the World Cup while risking relapse.
So sorry to hear that about Pogba. Poor him. Yeah, poor him. I hope he makes it back for the World Cup at least, because he's very...
He's missing the World Cup for sure. Oh, he's missing the World Cup for sure? Yes, yes. Oh, fuck.
Yeah, World Cup without Pogba. But yeah, I have a note over here, bro. Juan Cuadrado, the captain, whenever a pass is.
It's so true. The guy is so selfish, especially in front of goal. The place where he needs to pass the most because his finishing is so wayward.
And it's strange, because he wasn't always like that. Not at all. It's like the worse the team gets, the more selfish you become.
Yeah, maybe he wants to stand out. I don't know what it is.
At the end of the game, there was a bit of an incident. I don't know if you noticed it. With Pinsolio.
You know Pinsolio, the backup goalkeeper, the guy who was bald, got a hair transplant, had really thick hair, and now he's balding again.
Apparently he's a hoot, by the way. He is hilarious, apparently.
First of all, there are many Twitter accounts named after Pinsolio's hairline, or shit like that. They're hilarious.
Cristiano Ronaldo joined Juventus and became his best friend. He's everyone's best friend. He's a good guy, apparently.
There was footage of him holding Fadjuoli, restraining him and talking to him in his ear, while Fadjuoli is looking irritated.
Apparently at the end of the game, Fadjuoli went to salute the fans, the away sector, and he stopped him.
He stopped him and told him, don't go. And that's the story. That's what's going on, apparently.
Now, what's your take on this? Don't approach the Curva. Probably, I guess, he's trying to protect him,
because right now the Juventus team is under fire. There's tension with the fans, but at the end of the day,
if Fadjuoli approaches them, he's the hero of the day. He's the promising youngster. He's going to be applauded. No.
Yeah, you can't take that moment away from him.
Hey, but he totally did.
I mean, I think rather than protecting him, it's more of a out of respect to your teammates and to your team who's under fire.
You don't deserve to enjoy this moment because of everyone else that is suffering from the abuse that the Curva is giving them.
So it's like we as a club aren't approaching them, so you can't approach them either. I guess.
I don't know, bro. I don't know if that makes any sense.
I think maybe it would be just on the off chance that the fans boo them.
He doesn't get taken aback or say something and end up in an altercation with someone, you know.
It could be. It could be. But also the Curva of Juve have been singling out certain players,
and maybe out of respect for those, then he wouldn't want them. Then they don't go applaud them.
You know what? I mean, no representative of the club should applaud them in that case. Maybe something like that. Maybe.
But anyway, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add about this game, brother.
No, I think Juve did what they had to do. I think Letra tried their best,
but there's only so much you can do when a team is basically sucking the life out of you for 90 minutes.
And that's what Juve did well in this game.
Letra are currently in 17th with 8 points, while Juventus are 7th with 22 points.
Speaking of snoozefests, this was another kind of snoozefest, not because it was a 0-0, but because of the lack of action.
It's Cremonaese 0-Odinese 0 in the Eze derby.
So Cremonaese were coming off a disappointing loss to Sampdoria,
whilst Odinese coming off their second defeat of the season, and it was at home to Torino, 2-1.
Torino doing bits, huh? Taking down the big boys.
Cremonaese lined up with a 3-4-1-2 formation,
Carnesecki in goal with Laososkvili, Bianchetti and Aiuu at the back,
Valeri on the left, Sernicola on the right with Ascassibar and Maite in the middle,
Piquel just ahead of them, Ocareke and Dessers up front.
Ferdinese at 3-5-2, Silvestri in goal with Neuenpeires, Bijole and Ebosse at the back,
Pereira and Dodogi out wide with Sandilov, Rich, Wallace and Arslan in the midfield,
Deleveaux and Isaac Saksas up front.
Not much of a play-by-play, but there were some good saves by Silvestri and Carnesecki to keep it level,
especially Silvestri with his fingertip save on Buona Iuto.
You remember that one, bro? Super acrobatic.
I remember you said, like, what's he doing diving like that, the ball was going out.
And then the replay came and he just got this mad fingertip save to it,
the ball was clearly going in and superb save by Silvestri.
Do you think Carnesecki is better than Radu? It's up for debate.
I think Carnesecki has a higher ceiling than Radu.
I think he's a more valuable asset than Radu.
Do I think he's currently better than Radu right now? I think they're quite similar.
I think that Radu has had fantastic displays this season in Serie A.
He has also had way too many goal-costing blunders for the season already.
Detrimental blunders.
Yes, that's it. Like the Fiorentina one, for example, was...
Opening game of the season.
His teammates must have hated him.
I see Carnesecki starting as inevitable.
I think Radu pulls off saves that Carnesecki can't pull off right now.
I genuinely believe that. Sometimes Radu makes a save, like, how the fuck did he manage that?
But then I also think Carnesecki is more of a stable choice because
sure he won't save a fucking top corner bullet,
but he's also not going to let in your fucking back pass.
He definitely looks mature beyond his years, Carnesecki, the way he commands his area as well.
Loads, and he's got so much experience on the international stage so far.
He's been Italy's number one of the under-18s, under-19s, under-21s.
The list goes on and on, and I do believe that he'll be the next big thing for Italian goalkeepers,
which is difficult because Donnarumma is probably his age, if I'm being honest.
No, no, no. Carnesecki is certainly younger than Donnarumma.
Check, I really don't think so, man. I think they must be similar.
Carnesecki is 22, Donnarumma is 22.
Donnarumma is 23. What fucking difference does that make? You know what I mean?
Carnesecki moves sniff. Donnarumma does not leave his bot.
Some clips for PSGui just comes out, tosses it out for a corner, picks it up, runs around with the bot.
Carnesecki looks even more ridiculous than Vania leaving the bot.
It's true, it looks so weird.
Yeah, that is crazy actually that Donnarumma is still 23.
Yeah, and it's also crazy how he won like best goalkeeper in France last season,
and he had only played half of the matches, was benched by Keiler.
That's just the PSGui effect, right?
Of course, man. Big miss by De La Fere with the last kick of the game.
De La Fere is always the best player for Udinese, nine times out of ten.
Now he had the opportunity to seal it, clean through on goal.
Great fucking counter-attack, Samardzic carried it forward, played it kind of wide to De La Fere.
Favored right foot, just needs to slot it into the corner. Hits it high.
Yeah, and it summed up to be honest Udinese's display.
Frustrated. It was a frustrated attempt from a frustrated man playing for a frustrated team for some reason.
I don't know what was going on, but everyone looked fed up of everyone this game.
You see my next point? Literally that, brother.
Udinese looked annoyed with each other. Yes, literally, bro. Honestly, well put.
The amount of times I saw arms flailing, players looking at each other than looking back at the guy.
It seems to be going to their heads, man.
Exactly, and this is case in point.
What we talk about when we say how can this team adapt to this loss?
That's why it's so impressive that Atalanta came back and beat Empoli after they lost Lazio for the first time.
Because when you lose, it's so easy to just keep that momentum and carry that bad momentum and be angry with your teammates.
And, oh, because he didn't pass to me then and he should have done better over there.
And Udinese aren't used to getting three points after three points after three points after three points.
They've done that. Now they've tasted defeat. Now we see.
Now we see how they can cope. And Sotil needs to keep their heads together and he needs to keep their heads straight.
It's true. We'll see. This is what we show us if he deserves the manager of the month of wit.
Exactly. Exactly. Just to say something about Cremona, Aska Sibar formerly known as Aska Kibara.
He's a great player, man. He's really good. He's a good fucking baller.
I like Aska Sibar. He was everywhere during this game.
There wasn't anything particularly wow, but he won the ball back.
He passed it. There was Piquel ahead of him.
And Maite as his other midfield partner. Really good, man.
Really good midfield over here for Cremona.
Cremona has to be the best team to never win a game in Serie A.
They genuinely look solid against a lot of teams.
It's true. And I think they were very unlucky. I don't know about any updates like, but they lost Dezard this game.
He went off injured. I don't know who they have as a replacement for him.
So we'll see. Hopefully it's not too serious.
Yeah. But that's pretty much the game.
Odinese are in eighth now. Three weeks ago they were in second or third.
And they're on 22 points, level on points with Juve.
Yet Odinese are having a fantastic season and Juve are having a shit-won, hindsight.
And Cremona are in last place on five points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Spezia 1-Fiorantina 2.
Fiorentina scored exactly two goals in both of their previous Serie A away matches against Spezia.
2-2 and 2-1.
Only Verona with zero points had gained fewer Serie A points than Spezia and Fiorentina, who gained one each, in October of 2022 coming into this game.
I repeat, so in October, Verona got zero points coming into this game.
Fiorentina and Spezia got one point each.
So this was basically the battle of the shits.
Among the strikers in the big five European leagues yet to score or assist a single goal in 2022-2023,
Amon Welk-Jozzi has played the most minutes so far.
Are you surprised, man? Are you surprised?
He looks awful, bro. He looks awful.
And I thought I pulled off a genius 1 million IQ move taking him on Fanta-Culture because he's a midfielder.
So you get an extra striker in your team.
But no, bro, the guy looks and plays like a grandpa.
Literally. He's so, he's so look 74.
He looks like the type of old man that would like stand behind the fence behind his netted door, a netted door and stand behind it like he won't go outside.
And he's just yelling at cats, yelling at people walking.
Exactly.
Come on, you've been there.
So, yes, that's our take on Jozzi, our professional take.
Dragovski was in goal for Spezia.
They played a 3-5-2 formation.
Nicolao, Kiwior and Lampada were the three at the back.
Reca on the left and Holm on the right with Agudelo, Ekdal and Borabia in the middle.
A striking partnership of Inzola and Jozzi.
Dumm and dumm.
For Fiorentina, it was a usual 4-3-3 with Terracciano in goal.
Doudou on the right, Biragi on the left with Martina Skvartan, Milenkovic as the center back duo.
I know you played as a right back for Fiorentina. Doudou, P.
All right, all right.
Don't worry, I'll get you.
Mandra, Aguara, Amrabat and Bonaventura in the midfield with Ikone on the right, Kuame on the left and Jovic up front.
Now, in the first minute of the game, there was a massive save by Terracciano.
Massive save on Inzola.
Honestly, and this would set the tone for the rest of the game, it's just the Terracciano masterclass.
So much better than Goli.
So much better. I have to ask a question for you.
He's so much better than Goli.
I don't know how they looked to improve their keeper situation, just made it completely fucking worse.
Like, what are we going to buy? Let's buy this guy who is barely a goalkeeper and barely a rapper.
Goli, Goli.
In the 14th minute, Cristiano Biragi gave one of his very dangerous corners to the colossal titan, that is a six foot five Nicola Milenkovic, who headed the ball into the back of the net.
In the 17th minute, Jovic set up Icona quite nicely with a looping ball over the top. Icona missed and Jovic hit the post right after.
Jovic is kind of growing into his role at 14. I think he's improving.
Slow and steady wins the race.
In the 22nd minute, Inzola faced Terracciano again. Another massive save by Terracciano over here.
And it was in the 35th minute that Spezi actually got their goal.
It was a set piece that basically caused a bunch of confusion in the back line of Fiorentina and ended up with Egdal giving the ball to Inzola, who tapped it home.
He finally managed to beat Terracciano on the third clear-cut chance.
In the 82nd minute, there was some chaos as Nicolaou had a studs up tackle on Cabral, which actually went to vore. The referee hadn't realized and it was a pretty fucking bad challenge.
And he was sent off with a straight red card.
And because of this, probably this must have been a leading factor in this because I don't think Fiorentina looked like they were going to penetrate and if anything, Spezi were looking very dangerous as well.
But yeah, in the 90th minute, there was a bunch of chaos, man.
Cuames squared the ball, Saponara shot, the shot was blocked, deflected of Saponara and headed goal-wards. It looked to be heading in. There was an amazing save and then eventually Cabral got on the rebound and scored.
Yeah, so it was 2-1 for Fiorentina. A very good result for them.
Spezia put up a great fight and they would have probably got something out of this game. I think if they had 11 men, they looked absolutely devastated at the end of the game. They felt like they did not deserve to lose that. What do you think?
I mean, they probably... I'm not sure. I think Fiorentina definitely deserved it more than Spezia. It's just that did Fiorentina deserve the full three points?
It was made tough for them, but they definitely persisted more. I mean, looking here, they got 27 shots away. You know what I mean? So that's a team that really, really wanted a win and a team that has been struggling.
So I mean, at this point for Fiorentina, there's not much quality when it comes to the final third, no? So it's about volume. It's about exhausting your opponents.
Spezia allowed Fiorentina that space and Fiorentina took it. They took their chances, but they kept attacking, they kept attacking until finally it took one of those chaotic moments for them to get the victory and they took it and they ran.
And I think they deserve props for that because they've been shit this season. Spezia have also been shit this season, but they didn't make it easy for Fiorentina and Fiorentina managed all three points.
Yes, bro. That's a very good little analysis. Fiorentina, this game, in my opinion, had a different look about themselves. They looked less rigid. It seemed like there was more room for creativity.
There were less of those predictable passes, you know, that take forever to build up. You know, we talk about the one million passes to get in front of them.
Exactly.
They were more direct and they even had two strikers on at the end of the game. So that was interesting to see. Jovic is growing, as I mentioned, Fiorentina are growing, my cock is growing.
That's so good.
Thanks, man. That was completely improvised. No, but what I was going to say is that Jovic, bro, he had an interview recently and they asked him, why Fiorentina, man?
And he went, I took a pay cut to be here, man. He actually said that he said that he addressed the pay cut. It's massive. He was getting paid in Real Madrid.
Who else would pay him that money to not score?
Exactly. Two goals in 52 games. But anyway, that's an accurate stat, actually.
Bravo.
So, yes, they are somehow. And he said basically that Fiorentina are a good springboard to get back to the top. I'm sure fans aren't too happy with these words, man.
I would fucking spit on him if he said that about the team I support. Like, what's the steam to you? The best springboard?
I don't get why players say this stuff. Probably, you know why? Because in their universe, people say, oh my God, look at Jovic, look where he ended up. Jovic from Real Madrid to Fiorentina. What's next?
Fucking Spezia, like, you know what I mean? So probably he says these to address those people directly. But it seems like a fucking terrible idea, in my opinion.
Of course, man.
Like, keep the fans in mind. If the fans love you, you're going to have a fucking way better time.
Exactly. If you're going to spend two or three years at Fiorentina, you're going to want them to love you. And a good springboard. He hasn't really been bouncing.
Yeah. He's lying on it. He has anxiety to go up the ladder at this point. So hit the ground running, man. And then you can be a little bit a little bit cocky.
Yeah, that's it, bro.
Spezia, once again, they look OK on their gut, in my opinion, aesthetically, like in certain moments of certain games.
But they don't. They're not. They've lost their streets. Like they've lost their street smartness about them. Street wiseness.
And it's like Spezia two seasons ago were blessed with Italiano. Last season, they responded well to a wild manager like Motta, who has his systems.
Clearly, this team can adapt to a coach's style. One reason or another, it doesn't seem like they're adapting to this style. Now, is it the style? I think so.
I think the style adopted doesn't suit the 11 men he has in front of him. Spezia are very street smart always. They knew the one thing is that fucking out of that bottom five, they could get points against anyone.
It doesn't seem like they're capable of getting points against anyone at this point, Spezia. And this season, I think they've cemented themselves as relegation contenders.
Definitely that they always are. They're just being named Spezia. I believe they're going to be relegation contenders, but they have nine points this season.
And the last five games, they only got one point. So they actually got... There is a dip. They started off better than they're doing now.
The fixtures, granted, have become kind of tough for them. But I think they are relegation candidates and they're serious ones at that.
I think this is the most at risk that they have been in the past three years, is the point that I'm making. They look significantly weaker than they did over the past few years.
I mean, you start looking at... Then you start looking at their team. You see the front two of Inzola and Giasi and you say, that's fucking dreadful. And then you look at Ekdal in the midfield.
Who, you remember him at Sampdoria when Sampdoria started going to shit. Not an ideal player to have. And then the rest is okay, but nothing to write home about.
And they need to address this gutsy issue. They do need to address it because if they don't start getting points, I was going to say by January, but now it's probably by the World Cup, is the new saying.
If they don't get a win by the World Cup, then he might be in danger. And I wonder who they're facing in that period.
Let's check. In the meantime, I will mention that Napoli have scored against Juventus in Liverpool in the Champions League.
But the goal is currently being checked due to the fact that Ostegard was most definitely in an offside position.
I didn't realize he was offside.
He must have been there.
Let's see. These are live reactions, guys.
The three is taking his time. Ostegard is there looking like a normal person.
I like Ostegard, man.
Same. I remember he got sent off really rash last season for Genoa.
In the Lanterna derby.
He pulled a motherfucker to the ground like, close your mouth.
My God. He just went straight for veneers when he should have gotten Invisalign, that guy. His mouth is all over the place.
I think I'll fill you in. In the meantime, Spezia play Milan away next and then they play Udinese at home.
So bye bye, Miss American.
Got the might be in trouble.
He's got to go.
That's our podcast episode title. Got to go.
Oh, nice. So I did.
Nice.
Spezia are currently in 16th with nine points, while Fiorentina are in 13th with 13 points.
I don't know if he was offside. I can't see him because of Aussie, man.
Man, this is the longest fucking VAR check in VAR history.
Like, this is Champions League, man. VAR is still new there.
Italy is actually ahead when it comes to VAR because it was introduced a year earlier.
Did you see Malta had its first VAR call recently?
You're kidding.
They're introducing VAR actually.
Yeah, it was the first VAR call.
How does it go?
Hilarious. Seeing a Maltese man like signaling for VAR.
From now on, they're going to use every excuse to check VAR, I feel.
Okay, I'm just going to jump into this. We'll see. Oh, he's touching his earpiece.
Let's go. I'll interrupt you.
Oh, he's checking it.
Offside, obviously.
Obviously, Allah, it was fucking... If you look at the red line and the green line, man,
it shouldn't take you five minutes to know if it's offside.
That's fucking not up for debate. It's a fact.
Man, I couldn't see him because of Aussie, man, though.
Yeah.
It's so funny they have one of those angles.
You got a good angle while you were presenting though.
Respect.
Monza won Bologna 2.
This is the last game we're going to be covering.
So Monza coming off a 4-1 home loss against Milan and Berlusconi.
There it was Bologna. Shut the fuck up, dog. Shut the fuck up.
I'm sorry, man, because you know after every illness comes a cold.
Exactly. Get the fuck away from me.
Bologna coming off a 2-0 victory against Lecce.
So Monza didn't want to play this match.
They wanted this match to be postponed after their defender, Pablo Mari,
was stabbed in a supermarket near Milan on Thursday.
By a madman while fucking walking with his kid in a pram
and he just felt excruciating pain behind him.
A guy just walked up to him and stabbed him along with six people.
It wasn't targeted towards any people of power or any people with money
or anything of the sort.
Pablo Mari happened to be in one of these freak attacks.
He was one of the six people.
Toe to the throat slash the pankey and the guy was killed.
In front of him. He witnessed hell, miskeen.
If it were up to him, he would have been back in the team on Monday.
Yeah, that's what he wanted.
That's what he wanted. The team were giving him two months to rest.
I think he should take the two months to rest,
but I think the team should also listen to him.
And if he feels he's ready and he feels like sometimes the shit just brings a different side out of you.
Like Chet Baker, the fucking sax player and the jazz artist.
He got fucked up.
They knocked every single one of his teeth out.
It took a two year hiatus.
Now when he came back, he's like, just an animal on the sax.
That's it, man.
Then you have people like Mika, see their sister falling onto a gate
and getting impaled and they never made it.
Exactly.
It depends how you react to things, I guess.
It's not the experience that makes the man.
It's how the man reacts to the experience that makes the man.
Brilliant.
I couldn't have put it better, bro.
I don't think Miss Angela of English could have put it better, to be quite frank.
It's interesting because he's on loan from Arsenal.
So Arsenal sent him on loan to get stabbed in a supermarket.
A shopping mall, I believe.
The Arsenal teammates actually held up his shirt with like, come on Pablo.
Yes, Pablo, go get him.
Fantastic pronunciation lesson.
Yeah.
Anyways, shall we jump into the game?
So it was Monza that opened the scoring since he was stripped by Arbisher and Petania slotted
in the penalty brilliantly.
It was kind of like a Giorgio Ino penalty, just better placed.
I can't wait to witness this Petania 2.0 more and more.
He looks really fit right now.
He really does, man.
He really does and he looks happy.
In the 60th minute, just on the hour, Mark Lewis Ferguson made it 1-1.
It was a beautiful lofted ball by Posh and it was finished off lovely by Ferguson, took
the ball down nicely, finished beautifully.
It was then in the 73rd minute that Orsolini just had to one up Ferguson.
It was another brilliantly lofted ball this time.
It was by Xerxay.
It was taken down and finished into the top corner by Orsolini and he screamed like an
animal.
It was a score that he went...
That's exactly what happened.
It's so true.
It meant so much to him.
You can see before he went on, Mota grabbed him from the back of the fucking head, pulled
him close and he's just like fucking screaming in his ear essentially.
Mota is just encouraging.
He's hyping him the hell up.
He was probably telling him, you're going to go out there.
You're going to score the winner.
And it happened that he couldn't believe it.
He was so gassed, so gassed.
You know what I noticed about Mota?
He sounds too much like Piolli.
I was on my phone on the sofa and I was saying a press conference.
I'm like, oh, Piolli, I love him.
I look up and I see Mota.
Oh no, I don't love him.
Orsolini has to be one of the most technically gifted shit players.
He's two footed, great close ball control.
He also has that like explosiveness to him where he can just bulldoze through players.
Exactly.
He could play on the wing.
He could play attacking midfield.
He could probably play a bit deeper in the midfield as well.
He has never found that continuity, man, Orsolini.
He's a bit form ridden.
Yes, very, very form ridden.
And how old is Orsolini now?
He must be 27.
He must be 27 at this stage.
Orsolini age.
25.
Okay, fuck me.
He's my age.
He's three days older than me.
25 years old.
I mean, he still has a future.
He does.
I didn't know he was that old.
Maybe.
I thought last season that he needed a change of environment to get him going again.
That's what I'm thinking right now.
Because he's been at Bologna since 2018 and it hasn't really worked for him.
No.
For a 25 year old to have been somewhere since 2018, you'd think that they kind of would
cement themselves as a central figure.
This is someone who came from Juventus and Atalanta.
Exactly.
You know what I mean?
At Bologna since 2018, four years, you'd expect this guy to become a bit of a leader.
For sure, man.
For sure.
A staple figure.
And he was that, but he's been demoted to the bench and he hasn't quite seen himself.
That's why this shit would mean so much.
It's beautiful to see.
Good win for Bologna.
Monza aren't an easy side to beat.
We saw they went on a streak of three victories that did change their season.
They're now also progressing in Coppa Italia, which is also good to see for them after they
beat Odinese, Midweek.
Our boy Luca, who sent us the voice notes about Bologna, was at the game.
Was he?
He posted a video jumping and singing with the fans.
How good he saw a win like that.
Was that with Odinese again or the Bologna game?
The Bologna game.
Wait, wait, obviously the Bologna.
Ah, Lala, shit, sorry.
The Bologna game away from home.
Of course, this game.
Yes, yes, yes.
How cool.
Everyone in the world deserves to see their team win live, ideally at their own stadium,
but it's cool to see them away from home and see them win as well.
I've never seen Milan away, except when they played Bricciacara.
I saw them against Sampdoria last season.
Exactly.
And you said they had shit food in the stadium.
Shit food, shit toilets, but the Milan fans were lit that day.
Of course, man.
Monza played well, but they didn't quite do enough.
I think it goes down to at the end of the day, Bologna have been struggling, but then
you look at the quality that they have in their team.
They're still a top team, Bologna, not a top team, you know what I mean?
But they should still be aiming for that tenth spot with the players that they have.
But now that the manager that they have.
I think so, too.
It's just good that they managed to rack up these two victories in Bologna.
So now the relegation whispers can kind of quieten.
Exactly.
Now, shifting a little bit to Monza, what a performance by Di Gregorio.
He had a great game, although he lost.
This is the second manager in a row that has benched Craniot for Di Gregorio.
It's not just a rule that every manager needs to start Di Gregorio over Craniot.
There were two managers and they both decided to start him over Craniot.
Di Gregorio is a serious goalkeeper.
I don't know if I said it on the podcast back in the day, but I remember being at Dan's
when I was dog sitting.
I don't know if you remember that.
I was a blur for him.
I took it as a bit of a holiday.
I remember.
I was constantly fucked up.
Me and Kike came over to get a bit crazy.
Sure it lifts my belly out massively.
Horrible.
But yeah, I had the TV on and I was watching Monza in the playoffs.
And I remember thinking this Di Gregorio guy looks fucking amazing.
He looks amazing.
And then when eventually Craniot was signed, I was like, what a shame.
Di Gregorio, there's no chance like he's going to play with Craniot over there.
But you know, fucking Craniot is there.
Di Gregorio is starting.
He's 25 years old man and I can't see him being benched.
Did Craniot make the correct move by going to Monza?
I mean, Craniot must have not been expecting this.
He probably thought I'm going to go into this newly promoted team with it's going to be
me.
It's going to be Matteo.
It's going to be Capri.
It's going to be, you know, him and the squad.
He's being benched by Di Gregorio.
Di Gregorio who's younger than him.
By three years.
Craniot is no longer a young goalkeeper.
Craniot is 28 years old.
For a goalkeeper, sure it's a bit younger.
But I would say Di Gregorio right now.
The performance he's been putting in at 25.
Now Craniot at 28, man, his thought must have been when he was changing team, how am I going
to stay in Serie A and get minutes?
It needs to be the perfect balance of staying in the league and getting an adequate amount
of time.
Now I don't think that Gagliani and Berlusconi bullshitted him and told him he's going to
start every match.
I think he was willing.
Said if there's a place where I'll fight for my place and I'm likely to win, it's going
to be Monza.
Otherwise we know how great the quality of goalkeepers is in Serie A.
He chose Monza.
There's this project.
It's attractive.
It's lucrative.
He can become a legend there.
He's on loan from Caliari, turns out.
I don't know if they have an option to buy or not, but if Caliari come right back up,
I wouldn't be surprised if he went back there though.
Probably man.
Yeah.
Probably.
Caliari are a Serie A team that are in Serie B, you know what I mean?
Monza are a Serie B team that are in Serie A.
I don't think they'll ever be in Serie B again, Monza, especially as long as Berlusconi and
Gagliani are there.
With the financial backing that they have, it's difficult.
And now the pull factor as well, so long as they've got people like Pessina, Sensi, Caprari,
Petania, Di Gregorio, Gragni on the bench.
So yeah, but I don't think there's too much to add.
I'll just tell you guys where they stand in the league and I think we can call it an early
night.
An early night, dude.
Half, not even half 10.
Look at us.
We have time to do things.
Play FIFA, watch the Simpsons.
Enjoy life.
Bologna are in 12th on 13 points.
Look at them fighting for the 10.
Monza, Jesus I'm choking.
Monza in 15th on 10 points.
What do you think of this episode, King?
So this has been it, man.
I think I'll listen back and let you know.
We hope you guys enjoyed it.
We're back.
We're back for good now.
We're going to be on a bit of a tight schedule in the coming weeks, but we'll make it work.
I'm going to be in Amsterdam from Thursday to Monday.
So for next week's episode, I might be a little bit of a dance.
A little bit of a brain dead.
Of course, he's going to a dubstep party.
I might not hear anything you say.
You're going to come back an idiot.
You're going to be talking to me and I'm just going to hear.
Rick comes back and I fuck off to Bordeaux on Wednesday and I get back on Sunday.
And then I have a week here.
You're going to Bordeaux on Wednesday.
That means we should probably record on Tuesday, right?
For sure.
Oh my God, it's going to be tight, but we'll do it.
We'll do it.
And then the week after I'm going to Firenze.
So nice.
Good shit.
I have a week away there.
So we need to see how we're going to make it work.
No problem.
We'll bring a guest or we'll pre-plan.
Thank you guys for listening.
And if you've made it this far, message us and tell us which one you think is bigger,
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