101: BOOM! (Full Matchday 13 Coverage)

Now Malinowski, oh yes! Ruslan Malinowski, his first goal in 25 league matches is a beauty. Hello hello and welcome back to another episode of Seria R Spotlight. This is episode 101 and we are hosts Matt and Jake. Our goal of the week this week was Malinowski's rocket. The close contender was Kondrieva's rocket. Two fantastic goals of course. Kondrieva, there was a bit of a goal keeping blunder over there as well.

I would say Granted had quite the spin on it and he has a great technique when it comes to shooting. But Malinowski's I think takes the cake because it was such a clean strike. Yeah, it was absolutely unstoppable. I think when someone describes an unstoppable strike, Malinowski's goal is what they would imagine. I wouldn't say it was a blunder by the keeper in Kondrieva's goal. I think that kind of knuckle shot, it's hard to tell where the ball is going.

And with that power the reaction time is limited. But you could say it was stoppable in that sense, you know what I mean? Even though it's very difficult. So Malinowski takes the cake. Yeah, we had a few other honorable mentions. Of course Malinowski's and Kondrieva's were the best. But then there were Udon's goals, Sule's goal, the Balli, Sherawi and Xerxes. They all scored great goals too. Yeah, but the two we mentioned before will probably be in the top 10 goals of the season.

Yeah, that's the difference between them. Don't forget to follow us guys on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter and YouTube as well. Don't forget to drop us a follow on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, we just saw the analytics of our Spotify wrap. And it was interesting to see that 116 of you had us as their number one podcast of 2023. And we were in the top five for 408 people and in the top 10 for 579. These numbers are great. We didn't expect this.

So thank you very much, guys. And if we feature in your top five, your top 10 or your top one, please do send it over. We'd love to see who the real ones are. Yeah, absolutely. That's what growth looks like. I'd rather. Exactly, bro. That's exactly what it is. I want to shout out our patrons as well. Something we're doing. The family has grown on US patron David Mastro Battista has joined. That's one hell of a name. That's not quite sure what it means.

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This match day, guys, had some great matches, some big matches, including Derby d'Italia, Mila Fiorentina, Atalanta Napoli. They were great goals, as like the ones we mentioned before. Goals against Xs. We saw Pinna Monti. We saw Caputo. We saw Andreva as well. That was a goal against Lazio. Men wearing lipstick, obviously, in the campaign against domestic violence, something that hopefully all our listeners can campaign about. Did you see the social media posts by the official Serial Page?

I don't think I did. Oh, come on, you must have, bro, with the red label on the picture. So there's a picture of the team or like Lautaro and Thuram celebrating, for example. It's like highest goal scored, most assists, right? And then at the bottom in red, it's like 160 women killed so far. My God. And over the picture, there's like Lautaro and Thuram celebrating. For the Frost and All in it, even it's like rapes have been committed. It's like, come on, dude, this is really the best approach.

Maybe not, maybe not. Things to learn from, I guess. We also had some young stars entering the fray. We had some young goal scorers, but particularly Camarra, that became the youngest player to ever feature in a Serial match, just 15 turning 16 and around four months. Great to see young Italian talent, particularly upfront. And we also had some great upsets as well. Yeah, it's been an actual packed weekend, to be honest. Catching up on everything was enjoyable.

Yeah, especially for me now that I'm back. This was my first jam packed weekend. So how do you feel? How do you feel? Great, man. And so Jake and I are living separately nowadays. So I was pretty much over for the majority of the weekend watching football. So that was cool. Very nice. It's nice having you over, bro. Not nice having to cook for you and to nap after you, but that's okay. Don't worry. The tide will turn. What did you watch Saturday, three o'clock?

I was watching Genoa and I was close to regretting it, to be honest, because the other game was an absolute cracker. But there was a Malinovsky's goal, so you can't really regret that. Yeah, that was a good game as well, man. I was watching Saasvolo, Empoli, in and out because I was doing some chores around, you know, but the second all those goals started taking place. And obviously I got intrigued, I got interested. You're there with the laundry basket and he's like, Sule!

Sule, not for Empoli or Saasvolo. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But for us, that's my bad. Yeah. So here's the rundown of the week for all you commuters needing to know exactly what happened in Serie A this weekend. And it's also the order in which we will be discussing these matches. So we'll start, obviously, with the Derby d'Italia. It was Juve, Inter, one, it was Vlaovic who opened the scoring, but Lautaro Martinez managed to get one back in the first half for Inter to get the draw over there.

Atalanta won Napoli two, it was Mazzari's first game for Napoli and it was a tough challenge away to Atalanta, but they did a spectacular job to get the victory over there. It was Milan one, Fiorentina nil in the third game we'll be covering, just a singular Teo penalty, quite a decimated squad for Milan, which you rule out suspended as well, but a solid win over there for them. The fourth game is Empoli three, Saasvolo four. This has to be the game of the weekend worldwide.

Just two teams that were at each other's throats the entire time, so much so that they both forgot how to defend. Salernetana two, Lazio one, that is our upset of the week and what are showing it was by Salernetana, Pippo and Zaghi's side to get back into the game. Roma three, Udinese one, there was a scare for Roma when Udinese equalised, but great football by Roma in order to get that over the line. Great goal by Dabala, great goal by El-Sharawi.

Bologna two, Torino nil, Torino were strong in the first half, particularly defensively, but Bologna are just on such hot form right now. I believe it's three wins in the last four games. Verona two, Lecce two, and what was a very competitive game between two very similar sides when you think about quality at the moment.

Frozinoa two, Genoa one, a couple injuries for Genoa, but take nothing away from Frozinoa's performance, and Calieri one, Monza one is the last game that we're going to be covering. Yeah, yeah, that's the rundown, that's the menu for today and I think we should jump straight into it, bro, with Derby d'Italia. Yes, Juve one, Inter one, the Derby d'Italia, obviously some might say it's the biggest game in Italy.

I think there are more exciting Derbies, more heated Derbies, but these two sides really do put on a show against each other. Only two points separated these sides coming into the Derby d'Italia with Inter in first place and Juventus in second place.

Couple injuries, Inter had Bastoni and Pavard out injured, so their back three consisted of Acerbi, De Vrij and Darmian, but they were otherwise at full strength, whilst Ruggani had to start at centre back for Juve due to Danilo's injury, and Caviglia also started the game in the centre of midfield because of Locatelli's cracked rib, but he still did feature of the bench.

Juve also had Weyha out injured, so Cambia also started on the right and Costiccio on the left, and in case you guys are wondering who the fuck is Caviglia, he's also known as Niccoluci. Yeah, he was on loan at Salernitana last season where he played six games and scored one goal. There you go, Mr Statzman. Hell yeah, and this was his first start, fun fact, in the Derby d'Italia. Yeah, Laegri's really changed that department. He never used to trust young players this much.

Aha, and this was more of a choice because Locatelli with his cracked rib, okay, you ideally wouldn't give him a full match, but he could have taken him off, but it took balls to start Niccoluci. Especially when there's Miretti as well on the bench, who he's been playing more, so now he just randomly showed faith in a player that he had never showed faith in before. And how do you think he performed, in your opinion, Niccoluci? Because I've heard mixed things.

Yeah, so I've heard mixed things, particularly what I've heard from Juve fans associated with disappointment. I was on one of Juve's fan blogs and he got rated F4. They did make it clear that it's through no fault of his own, but it's due to the fact that he was tossed into the deep end. Look, I think his performance was a step behind, perhaps, but I think it was almost unrealizable that he was the new face within that team. I think he had quite a clean performance in that sense.

It was barely noticeable in the game, which goes to show that he definitely didn't have a terrible showing. Absolutely, that's it. When you're playing centre-mid like that, granted, Inter were overrunning Juve most of the time, but that's because they were up against the three-man midfield of Barella, Cialano, Gloomiketarian. And not to mention that you have Darmion charging up or a JBL charging up, they joined the midfield and the attack. They tend to do that in this Inter system.

The fact that he didn't stand out, Caviglia, is a very good sign. The fact that you don't realise he's there, the fact that that means that he was doing the simple things right without fucking up too much. He did lose the ball a few times. He made a few clumsy mistakes, but of course, when you get your first start on a stage like this, it's almost expected. I wouldn't be too disappointed with his performance at all. Yep, just going to go through the rundown of what went on in this game.

Kiesa could have done better in the 15th minute, as his shot from inside the area went just over Summer's post, but he had time and space. Cialano took a rather hopeful strike moments later that somehow managed to make its way into the highlight reel. But in the 26th minute, Juve drew first blood through Vláovic, he finished cleanly after a Kiesa square ball.

It was the Serbian who started the attack, as he disposed of Dumfries in quite a dangerous area before outmisling him and finding Kiesa, receiving the return pass and finishing cleanly. He needs to relax, Vláovic. I don't know what he was doing with the celebration. Yes, it's a goal in the Derby d'Italia, but brother, four celebrations in one, seriously. And they're all a specific type of celebration. Very cocky. I can't hear you. I'm right here. I'm staying here. Shush, I can't hear you.

Yep, that's me. It's like, brother, this is what you should have been doing the entire time. I'm the first one to campaign in favour of Vláovic and criticise Adler's system for not playing to one of the greatest strikers in the league's strengths. But when you're not scoring goals and then you finally get one, be humble about it and focus on proving critics wrong through having a good season and not scoring one goal in the Derby d'Italia. But sure, whatever. Yeah, that's hilarious.

It was like spamming fortnight dawns. Just six minutes later, Lautaro equalised after a low cross by Thuram, he finished very well into the far corner. It was great build-up play by Inter as well, quite similar goals. If you ask me, both came through a square pass, to be fair. Thuram should have done better after the restart when scuffing the ball straight at Cesney after a smart Nicola Barela back heel flick. And then Henrik McItharion pulled it back from the byline.

But Thuram couldn't do any better than that. The second half was characterised by a lack of clear goal scoring opportunities. You start seeing Juve getting a bit more cautious. Inter may be not being that free-flowing. In fact, if you look at the ex-G recorded in this game, it's quite low for both teams. Juan Cuadrado came on against his former club later on, and there were multiple Gears. And then insulting chance, obviously, being a former Juventus player, going to their rivals.

But it was overall basically a much scrappier second half with long periods of inter-possession and very little to show for it. The thing is that Juve, it was clear what they were trying to do. They were happy with the draw and they were playing for it. What surprised me is that Inter seemed happy as well with it.

I don't know if it's because it's early on in the season, but I feel like if this game were to take place at a later stage in the season, let's say matchday 32, for example, the second half would have been very different. You'd have seen Inter all over the Juve side. But in reality, neither team really wanted to lose, and that's what contributed to the draw. I think it's smart by both sides to take that approach. If you look at this, it's matchday 13.

Both of them understand that, yes, there's two points between them, but there's also 20-4 games, or 25 games left to be played as well. So you can't get carried away and pile all men forward because you need a victory to cut the deficit, go first, or you need a victory to extend your advantage. So in my opinion, well played by both managers. I think it was a mature move by both of them.

What that has done, however, this stalemate, it has allowed Milan and Napoli to take advantage, who both won the game and they both edge closer to the top two. Yeah, that's totally the case. I had a question for you about player performance, brother. So one of the best right wingbacks, slash right backs, whatever, in the league so far this season has been Denzel Danfrit, right? Yeah, absolutely. He's been one of the best. For sure.

However, in these games against big teams, I feel like he's not technically to standard. Like he made the mistake in this game that led to the goal. Yeah, he made the mistake exactly. And that is just the fact his touch, man. Oh my God, not great. No, I think that he's been there a while now. You know what I mean? He should really settle into the pressure of these big games. But he's always been this type of player, bro, like even with the Netherlands.

I remember a pundit had said once, like whoever the fool is who falls for this Danfrit's Euro campaign and like splashes money on him to sign them, I'm going to feel terribly sorry for him. And it was inter. I don't like to splash the cash on Denzel Danfrit. He's good. He's serviceable. He's deployable. You can't play him. And athletically, he's better than most players. He's a freak when it comes to his athleticism. He's a big guy. He's strong. He's quick. He's a savage to play against.

He's a very tough opponent. But then technically, I don't think he's... Like you compare his technique to DeMarco's technique on the other end, him and DeMarco are complete opposites. You see DeMarco, who physically isn't going to outpace his man. Yeah. He's not going to outpace his man. In fact, you see him in a back four for Italy and his struggles of DeMarco. They're polar opposites. Yeah. But what are inter good at?

If you look at historically in the past decade, they are good at making good slash average players great at wingbacks. At playing wingback, Inter managed to get the best out of players. Now maybe Dumfries, his qualities show more in the role that he is playing, particularly because a large portion of his role is bombing up and down that right flank. If you see him defensively, and then if you were to single out his defensive duties, it's nothing to write home about.

If you were to single out his offensive duties and his capabilities, nothing to write home about either. You know what I mean? Yeah. So really, it's his industry. It's his tackling. It's his mind games. If you see him, his athleticism, absolutely. But I don't think he's a particularly stellar player. I think just Inter are very good at getting the best out of these wingbacks. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. They have quite a few players in this team who are just purely solid. No nonsense.

Solid, strong, physically able, and they can do a lot of damage. And sometimes they're so tough. Most of the time, they're so tough to score against. Yeah. Did you know that Juve have maintained a positive record against Inter in their recent 12 Serie A encounters? Juve haven't lost to Inter in the past 12 Serie A games. Wow, they've got their number, huh? In the league, at least. In the league, yeah. You see them in the Coppa Italia.

Inter tend to get the best of them, but that's Inter's trophy, apparently, nowadays. That's interesting. That means that Allegri's got these guys figured out. Not many people do. But to be fair, Inter definitely aren't unbeatable. They have had games where you think, at the end of the game, how the other team could have turned it around. But they were unlucky not to get anything over the easy. Especially come to January, February.

Yeah. And especially now that they're actually experiencing injuries for the first time in their history. Yeah, pretty much. They've got Pavard out. They've got Bastogna out. So it's a very good thing that they got ahead in the Champions League because they're fully rotating their squad for tonight. I don't know if you saw, they're starting. Bissec, Arnav, Avicen, Sanchez up front together. Aslani in the middle. There's Carlos Augusta out wide. He's resting everyone. Jesus Christ.

And that's what you get, even if you build a healthy advantage. And Milan, on the other hand, failed to secure two games. They are totally dominant in the Champions League against Dortmund and Newcastle. And then had all the pressure in the world to upset Dortmund at home granted, but with a very depleted squad. Decimated, man. Yeah. Khrunic sent it back. But anyway, that's not what we're talking about here.

In that 65% ball possession and eight shots, you've had four shots and seem to prioritise the draw, as we mentioned, and Inter were just happy to play the ball around. And not the most exciting derby d'Italia, as that I've seen. No. The first half an hour was great. We saw two goals and all that. But after that, a little bit disappointing, I would say. No real ambition from either team. It was a chess match, no, almost. It was a chess match when the game was actually being played.

And in between, it was both teams almost wasting time and killing the game. Yeah, exactly. At one point, you see Nzagi, the Inter coach, getting the ball. And he just holds onto it and he lags. And he zones out and he's holding the ball. And the player had to actually walk up and take it out of his hands. And that's never what he's like. He's always throwing the ball back to them. Come on, let's get going. Half naked. Come on, come on, come on. Exactly. But that wasn't the case.

Clearly, again, a draw was the priority over here. Not losing was the priority, I would say. Yeah. I have some player performances to highlight, particularly from Inter, because we did see them with much more of the ball. I can't tell you much about Juve. Player performances, genuinely. But from an Inter perspective, I thought Acerbi was excellent. He was the centre of Inter's possession for some reason, not only defensively, but with the ball at his feet. He had a touch total of 138.

And he also gave 122 passes with 94% accuracy, including five accurate long balls. These are all team highs. Yeah. So he broke records in this performance for all those stats. Think about it. He's filling in the shoes of Bastoni, playing on that left side. So he is technically the playmaker from the back. And he's against the team, like Juventus, so like to sit deep.

So he's got all the time in the world to take those touches in his half and ping the ball around and pass in advance and receive the ball deep again, try to pass, turn the play. So yeah, and it makes sense. And if you look at Darmeon and Devrai as well, their stats were high, their possession stats too. Yeah. So all about the defenders. Enzaghi was like right-click on Acerbi, roll, ball playing defender. There we go. That's what he did. Devrai, he was rock solid at the back in this game.

And Devrai had seemed to kind of like fallen off a little bit over the past two, three years. But he was rock solid in this game. He tallied the second most touches for Inter with 110. And he went 101 out of 103 on passes, including three accurate long balls. He made three clearances and two interceptions defensively, which was key because in a game of fine margins and a game of a small amount of goals, all these moments count. Of course, yeah. I thought it was a clever game all around, man.

For example, even double teaming, DeMarco really stopped Inter from advancing. In fact. Like the fact that every time DeMarco got the ball, he was with his back towards goal. He had to always pass back because you know what you can do. If you give DeMarco time and space, he will punish you. And they barely gave him time to think about the crosses. Crosses were often over hit for that reason. Yeah. In fact, DeMarco, he didn't have the best outing. He lost possession 12 times.

And he also lost six out of 10 duels. He made up for it with two key passes and three accurate long balls, but other than that, again, quite a quiet showing for him. Because Allegri just understands like, look, this is the guy. This is the playmaker. This is the Metronome. It's not Barrella. Didn't have a great game in this match either. It's not Meketarian. It's not Shalanoğlu. All these guys were quiet.

It was the defensive players that were really getting forward and trying to create something. They were at the center of Inter's team. I thought Shalanoğlu was very good to be fair, though, this game. I thought he was defensively or... Defensively or... In general, just his role in this region, his stop position. Man, he's really, really, really getting used to it. Like, and I wouldn't even say he's getting it. I would say he's got used to it and he's nailing it.

In fact, like, I wouldn't put so much praise towards him for this performance, but in the number six role, he has really grown and he's looked solid. Yeah, totally. Particularly over the past two seasons. Yeah, fair enough. Do you think that it is fair to say that this was a clash between Serie A's two best teams? I would say so, at the moment. Trying to think of who else there is, but you see some of the top teams struggling right now.

Lots, obviously, were the most recent loss to Salah in Etana. Napoli had a little bit of a dip before this victory against Atalanta. Milan having their own struggles. Roma are up and coming now after a slow start, but I would say Inter and Juve are definitely the most consistent teams in the league. Fair enough, yes, the most consistent and the title favourites at this stage. Granted, if you put the likes of Napoli or a fully fit Milan, you'll get better football.

You'll get more entertaining football, more than Juve, at least. But these two teams have been the consistent teams this season and they're up there for a reason. Yes, Inter are first with 32 points. Juve are just behind them, two points behind them in second on 30 points. Milan and Napoli are looming. Milan are six points behind the league leaders, while Napoli are eight points behind the league leaders. Yes, we can move on to Atalanta. One Napoli, two.

This was Walter Mazzari's first game back at Napoli. This isn't his first roadie, of course, at Napoli. He was there back in the day when they had Kavani, Hamsek, Lavezzi. The team. Yes, those guys. So, so, come back Mazzari, he's loved over there and you can tell that there was a positive atmosphere to happen back and there was even a clip with Gavaratskali kissing him on the cheek.

And you'd think to yourself, wow, these guys have been training together for a week and the players are already kissing him on the cheek. What's going to happen by a matchday 30? Exactly. What are we going to see? When it comes to lineups, it was a 3-4-1-2 formation for Giampiero Gasperini. This time he went for Karnasekki and Golan so who ended up making a costlier at the end of the game to lose them the game. The back three was the same as usual.

What was interesting was backers started on the left and Skamaka was only fit enough to make the bench while Passali featured in the middle, playing behind Kup miners on the alongside Ederson. For Napoli, it was a goalie-nien goal. This is the first time Walter Mazzari chose a starting 11, so I'm going to read it out. Yeah. Okay, we had goalie-nien goal. It was a 4-3-3, something that Mazzari isn't too familiar with.

He's used to the 3-3 at the back system, which is what he had done with Napoli in his previous showing for them. Yeah, Oliveira played instead of the injured Mario Rui and Oliveira fell injured himself and had to be replaced by Hohensuz. Natan, Rachmani and Di Lorenzo were also at the back with Zillian Schiller, Bottkan, D'Anguissa, standard business as usual in the middle with Politan on the right, Kovaratskeli on the left and Raspadori up front. It's the same thing to be honest as usual.

Ozimen was only fit enough for the bench and an interesting observation was that when he came on, he wasn't wearing his mask. Strange, man. I'm sure the doctor would have told him there's a certain amount of time until he can't take it off and I'm sure he respected that and that's what he did. But I thought we'd see him with it forever, the same way we saw at a check with this helmet forever. Honestly, it's almost disappointing to see him without it.

He looked like a superhero with that mask and the yellow hair. I did forget that he's a rather handsome man Victor Ozimen. I forgot that since he had the mask on. I mean with the mask, he just looks formidable. You know, he looks intimidating and that's usually better when it comes to football. So it started off and the 33rd minute, Rachmani scored a nice header after a pitch of a ball by Raspadori. However, Vare intervened and it was cancelled and ruled off for offside.

The most marginal offside in a wild match, man. Since Keenzev, Keenzev obviously takes the case because that was unreal. It was interesting to see Guaratschelia, triple man on many occasions. I was a bit overkill, I thought, but pure Gasperini fashion that is. Guaratschelia scored a header to open the scoring in the 44th minute. Di Lorenzo was left totally unpressed and Guaratschelia was left unmarked. And I didn't think he could hit the ball that well, but there we go.

I believe he scored a header on his debut, if I'm not mistaken, or was it his second goal? I think it was his second goal. I think it was his second goal. Good point, good point. And then that screamer against Montza. Yeah, I mean, then Lukman scored a header afterwards. Another player who I didn't think had that in his locker, Hans Hattaba, played him the ball and Lukman just headed it in.

And then in the 79th minute, there was a massive mistake by Karnasekki, who played the ball straight to Annapoli midfielder and they slowly worked their way to Victor Ozzyman, who squared it to Elmas, who tapped it in, and that was enough to be the winning goal. Yeah, personally, bro, so we start off, I haven't quite liked Bakker as well. He's been kind of slow to settle. And Gasperini did say that all the new signings are settling.

Well, this was still in preseason, except for Bakker, who's still very behind. And it's clear, and at half time, he did take him out and he brought on Rugggeri. I just wonder what the logic was in actually starting Bakker instead of Rugggeri, who's having a pretty good season. I would personally, like you're saying, I would personally, firstly, start Rugggeri, because what a young, local talent to have in a left-wing back role, and he's had good showings over there.

But you know Gasperini, he likes to change things around. And you also know Gasperini, he likes to throw his players under the bus every now and then. Does that have anything to do with how Bakker is settling? Maybe. Not every player has the same kind of means of motivation. So if Gasperini, if he was in his head about taking a while to settle, and then Gasperini makes that public, it's like, okay, it's common knowledge now. So just something in the training camp.

So could that possibly be something that is on Bakker's mind? Keep in mind, these are human beings at the end of the day. And to be honest, bro, honestly, sometimes if it's not going well for a player, just play him. I guess. You know, he might find his footing. He might have a moment that gives him confidence in a game, and it might change his entire trajectory of a season round. But yeah, I wasn't impressed at all.

The Bakker that we saw clips of before looked a lot more exciting than this version of Bakker that we got. But of course, it's still early days. He's new to the league, and he needs some time to settle. Maybe season two for him in Serie A will be his breakout season. We'll see plenty of time left for Bakker. Of course, the talking point, the main talking point that I shouldn't have started with instead of Bakker, but I want to talk about Bakker, I need you to do bro.

Is Mazzari's Napoli, what's different? What's the same? So I have an observation before we start. The team is very similar. When it comes to the front three, in this case, Gvarracchia, Spadoria and Poletano, they had a lot of freedom. A lot of freedom. The only two differences I noticed, which are massive differences, right, was Napoli were tighter. The players were closer together. They're gonna be, bro. And they're gonna be. Right?

You look at Rudy Garcia's Napoli, I felt like sometimes there's a bit too much space between the players and they lost the fluidity. And for example, Lobotka couldn't thrive as he usually does in that pivot, because usually as players very close to him, they can play to, you know, in Spalletti's system. With Rudy, it was a little bit isolated there in the middle, but now they're tight again. And defensively, I don't know if it was a still one of, but they looked defensively sound, man.

They looked really good defensively. It wouldn't be the, like I think the two things that you just said basically go hand in hand. If you look at how Napoli were great defensively, it's not to say that the back four were so much better than they were under Rudy Garcia. Maybe they had a better show in this game, sure. But I don't think two weeks of training under Mazzari has made the defense all that stronger.

However, as a unit, because they are now defending as a team and they are defending more tightly, like the way you put it, they operate in such a tight space off the ball, then that made them stronger defensively. I think the midfielders were putting in more of a shift defensively rather than more of a shift. They were positioned in a more defensive manner. You look at this unit, this 4-3-3, and it was shifting as a whole throughout this entire game. You saw the shape.

It was never depleted, man. Never depleted. It's cool because like this, you kind of have a, a tactician in Mazzari who's quite defensively, he's defensive minded, right? He's going to set up exactly the old school. He's going to set, like, ideally play a 3 at the back, you know?

But the thing is, he's got talented players up front to the point that he's going to have this well-drilled unit that's tough to penetrate with three animals up front, completely on the loose with maximum freedom and liberty. I think they're going to be fun to watch. And I think they might, they might come back. What's exciting is getting to see a manager who we are more recently used to seeing fighting for survival and doing this and that, being one of the old school reliable Katanaccio guys.

Now, he's playing. He's having fun. He's with Napoli. He's got, he's got some world-class players in his side. So now we get to see how good one of these old, old school Italian managers can be when they have a top seven team at their arsenal. And maybe some other top seven teams, maybe who are struggling right now, maybe their manager might be on the way out, can take some ideas. Who knows? Yeah. Well, honestly. Maybe Pallardini at Milan. Can you imagine?

Pallardini coming with his beanie and his sunglasses in five at the back. I'm all for it. Fuck it. You know, layout, bulletin shop front. Everyone else at the back. Yeah. Honestly, Atalanta needed a goal badly. So what did Gasperini do? He waited till the 83rd minute and he brought on Scamacan Muriel together. It's Voto. Why wait so long? You conceded your goal in the 79th. Was he okay with a draw? Did he think that Lukman and Decay Tullara were fine up until that moment? I don't know.

I look, Lukman, I understand that he wanted to keep him on the pitch for as long as possible, because firstly, he got a goal, so he was in good spirits. Secondly, when it's a tight game, it's great having a striker like Lukman. Why? Because if you need him to run down the clock, he can run down the clock. If you need him to attack and be direct, he can attack and be direct. If you need him to take it to the corner flag, he can do that.

He's one of those guys that you could even bring on in the latter stages of a match for you to keep a result. Decay Tullara, but like fucking hell. Like he should have taken him out, in my opinion. When he needed a goal, which was from the, well, he conceded in 79th minute, to be fair. And he made the double sub right then. So I don't even think he was going to bring on those strikers originally.

I would have brought on Skamaka earlier, because even Skamaka as a player, it's not to say Decay Tullara is much more mobile than Skamaka. I would go as far to say that Skamaka is much more of a powerhouse than Decay Tullara. We've seen him roar like. Even the fact that, okay, it was a high intensity game, you're 1-1, let's say it's the 60th minute, 65th minute, okay, I get it, Lukman's a good player, right?

But you look at the things that Muriel is going to bring you and what Lukman is going to bring you. They're quite similar nowadays. Muriel has improved again. He dipped a lot last season, but this year he's looking a little bit better. He's looking more like the old Muriel that we kind of know. Not the super sub who comes on and scores every game, but kind of a new through the watered down version of that.

I think it would have been good for Gasprin to bring on some options up front to press the Napoli backline with some energy, because that's the Atalanta that we're used to know. High intensity pressing, forcing mistakes and scoring goals. And it seems like they've moved so far away from that now that like, you know, again, you look at the wings, they don't, you don't have anyone explosive on the wings anymore. You've got Bucke and Zappa Costa. It's slow. It's lethargic. It takes a while.

They've lost a lot of their bite, man. And I feel like, I don't know, but Scamaka, them signing Scamaka, was them trying to get some of that bite back. And just when, when he's not on the pitch, it's, they're no longer lions, they're cats, you know what I mean? They're no longer that formidable side. They'll give everyone a game, but they've got no qualities that you could say that Atalanta will beat us because they are better than us at this.

You know, Atalanta really struggle against the top teams. And that's a problem. Gasprini said the following. Okay, I quoted him over here. Unfortunately, some incidents prevent us from raising the bar. Despite the fact that we play overall at the same level as teams like Inter, Napoli and Juventus, when this team shakes off some of its fears, they really cause problems to the opposition. So what he's saying over here, Gasprini is again, like the players are scared when they play big teams.

And that is what holds them back from actually getting a result. He says that when they play without any fear against the smaller teams, they play incredibly. And we see this every week. They often blow teams out of the water. They look super organized and super good. But it's true. There is a mental block when it comes to Atalanta and these bigger teams. And I think there is some work to do to be done with the squad.

I think that when it comes to Gasprini's system, for example, as we said, more explosive wingers, man, like Dumfries would be good here. You know what I mean? Like put Dumfries on the right, man. He needs to fucking charge up and down for the Atalanta team. This was a team that took advantage on high intensity, man. Because so many problems, obviously, because of high intensity. And it seems that they've lost it.

Even if you look at their starting 11, as simple as that, I mean, Colassenac, New, Bucke, New, they're finding their feet. De Keitelar, New and Fragile, because he had his debut season last season for me. A lot of them, he has 35 million on him. He had a dreadful debut season and now he's at Atalanta. And he's still figuring himself out. Pasalic has struggled significantly over the past two seasons. I forgot to mention he scored this game. It was a 1-2, but he was offside.

Pasalic is finding his feet again. Jim City spent a lot of time injured last season. Karne Sekki is obviously their new starting keeper ahead of Mussso. Nowadays, he's still finding his feet. He was obviously at Carmanese last year. So these are a lot of players, not only a lot of new players, but a lot of maybe inconsistent players. It's not always their fault. Some had been out injured, some were at different teams, so on and so forth. So I'm not crazy about Atalanta's starting line.

Look, I look at Atalanta's starting lineup and I think it's actually quite solid, right? Maybe not for top four, but it's quite solid. I look at their midfield, for example, and I look at Coop Miners. Coop Miners is top three in his position. For sure. You look at Ederson this season, he's been fantastic. He's been good. In the middle, you have that. You've got Skamaka, he's been good. He had minutes to go, as he was one of the leading players when it comes to conversion and ex-G.

Lukman, fantastic as well. The back three, all right. It's Colas and actually, to be honest, he's fit in like a glove. It's like he's been there for ages. Jim City and Scalvini, very good as well. The goalkeeper is new, young and shaky. However, the thing that... The wings, man. Yeah. That's it. That's it. It's as simple as that. The wings are not too standard. You don't think maybe the balance in the midfield could be a little bit better? Maybe they need someone?

The midfield are three players who are so versatile, they can play in every position pretty much. I know that sometimes causes problems. Yeah. When there isn't that fucking system in place. But remember they were missing the rune as well, huh? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I'm talking about this side. Ah, this side. This side. The fact you mentioned Skamaka and I'm like, yeah, but he's not there. You know what makes me happy about the Satalanta team? What? Who's wearing the captain's armband, bro?

Scalvini, bro. Fucking Scalvini dog. Yeah. How... The Scalvini is like 19 years old. 19 years old wearing the captain's armband. That's great. Shout out Scalvini. And by the way, El Bilal Trauer, yeah? He's practicing his headers in the pool or so on Instagram story. He's on his way back. He's working. He's coming back. I wonder what he's going to be like because he's their record signing. I'm so curious. Like he's their record signing and they've brought in Skamaka.

I took him for one credit on Fanta. He might be. He might. But now he's going to get better and go to Afkan. Same as Osimhen, man. Like it's better and now we'll go to Afkan. That's why I have to be careful on Fanta with these Afkan players, bro. But anyway, yes. I don't know if there's anything else you want to point out from this game, bro. No, not particularly. I think we got it all, bro. Yeah. Muriel had a penalty appeal at the end of the game. I mean, he ended up kicking Elmas though.

That was what the replay showed. There was smart positioning by Elmas putting himself between the ball and the man in order to dispossess Muriel. Muriel kicked him, fell to the floor claiming penalty. And he's like, no, it's an open. He kicked me. But granted, the player put himself between Muriel and the ball. Very smart over there. Elmas, it was. And yeah. Yeah, that's it for this one.

So right now, Napoli find themselves in fourth with 24 points, while Atalanta are down in seventh with 20 points. I believe you have the next game as well for us, brother. Oh, yes. Milan won. Oh, Fiorentina. Oh, yes. Milan won. Fiorentina Nyl is the game. And Jake is the name. So we've got a four, two, three, one formation for Puglia as usual. Business as usual at the back this time. It was Reinders and Pobega in the middle.

Samuel Chouqués started on the right wing, Polisic on the left wing, Moussa in the attacking midfield position with Luka Jovic up front who, congratulations, has taken his first shot wearing a Milan shirt this game. Coming into the, honestly, after half time, I told Jake, have we seen Jovic touch the ball for Milan yet? Have we seen it? The answer is yes, but it's an exaggeration of how quiet he is. Every time Puglia talks about Jovic, he goes, ah, he can play football.

Like, is that really, is that what you saw? I saw a glimpse, huh? I saw a glimpse against the right. He can play. Ah, you actually saying yourself. I saw a glimpse against Dortmund. He was really like, he was not positioned to get a good header away and he got a very powerful header away, forced, I would say, from the keeper. You know that pissed me off, him playing well against Dortmund. Because it's champions league backstage.

It's because he was playing well because the pressure was almost off, because Milan had already lost. Right, he came on. Milan had lost, quite frankly, already was like 3-1, I think, when he came on. Come on, don't be a pessimist. And no, man, no, no. He came on and he fought. He came on, he fought, sure, but there was no pressure in reality, because the game was over. No. Like, he could score a grant. I guess. But Milan weren't going to score 3, you know.

It wasn't like it was 1-1 or Milan were losing 1-0 and he needed to equalize or he needed to score the winner. Zakatra or Eandela. Yeah, exactly. And then when you see him in the league, in situations where the score is nil-nil or 1-1 or Milan are losing 1-0, he doesn't do anything. Show us something, Luca. That might be harsh, but nonetheless, moving on to Fiorentina. It's a 4-2-3-1 as well, mirroring it. And they were pretty much full flow, to be honest. It was Duncan and Arthur in the middle.

Sotilo was out on the left with Bonaventura as a track artist. Gonzalez on the right and Beltran getting the nod, the head of Inzola up front. Even though Italian was not sure about either of them nowadays. The highlight of this game and the talking point on the news headlines were all about 15-year-old Camarda who came off the bench. Why was he the headline? Because he's 15 years old. He's the youngest ever player in history. A child. A literal child.

I believe he broke Amy's record who was given his... Amy? Amy was a singer. Why did you bring her into this? Jesus. What the hell? That's his ex-girlfriend. Yeah, Amy was a player at Bologna and Mahilovic gave him his debut, basically. But yes, there's a hilarious video of Camarda getting on the team bus. And of course, when you're 15, you're 15, like, let's be real. How much experience do you have in the world? Not much at all. Like, you've barely been speaking. You've barely conscious at 15.

Exactly. And so he was the first one to get on the team bus and there were the fans around. They were going, hey, come on, hey. And he just didn't go on the team bus and he went straight to the fans. They're shaking it out. I was like, what's this guy doing? You're meant to just get on the bus, you know? But he was so excited. Another funny one. That was cute, man. It was cute. Another funny one is that he was too shy to ask, to ask the club for tickets for his parents.

So he went to the Milan store with his dad and he bought the tickets from there with his dad, Camarda. That's another funny one. His parents were at the stadium. There's a viral video of them crying and the father looks so proud. The mother's in tears. It's lovely to see. And there was one more thing about Camarda Mania that I must be forgetting. Ah, yes. And he was at Sun Zero in the Champions League. Yeah, filming the live streaming, the curva. Man, when he came on and they shouted his name.

Yeah, exactly. You could see his face. I think I have a theory as to why he was brought on, bro. Tell me. Because there's no logic in bringing on a 15-year-old boy for 15 minutes and I must win a game against Valentina, right? Hmm. There's a little bit. Maybe I'm lubing him up a bit. Think about it. You're talking about one of the biggest clubs in the world, in Milan. With two strikers. You're talking exactly. Yes. But then you look at their entire system.

There are players registered at Milan who are older than Camarda who can play soccer. And worst case scenario in that, you can play a player who maybe isn't a natural striker, but you can pop him in there to fill in the role, right? Because he's experienced, he's fully developed, like a 15-year-old boy.

But I think that since Camarda's so special, and because there were all these links to Man City, to all these German teams with great youth structure and all this, Milan wanted to give him a reason to stay. I think Milan wanted to make him obsessed with Milan. I think they wanted to give him a taste of San Siro, dude. And how are you going to do that? You bring him on. You have all the fans screaming his name.

You get them going on the team bus, joining the players, training with Rafael Leão and all these guys. And granted, he had been training with them. But I do think that that's the reason why Camarda was brought on this game. Simply for him to pen that contract. Yeah, that's a good point. They could also be putting up his value as well. They want a new record, no? Yeah. I was quite sure that Fiora and Tina had some injuries to their team, but looking at it, they seem to be at full flow.

Pretty much, bro. Pretty much full flow. There were quite a few Xs this game. There were Jovic and Jack Bonaventura. I spent six seasons at Milan. For Milan, of course, there were Giroux, Leão, Ocafor, Ben-Assar out. Everyone is out. There was an interesting quote by a Fiora and Tina player on Vincenzo Italiano. I didn't catch who the player was. However, what he said stuck with me. He said, the coach is crazy, but he knows what he's doing. I mean, yes. That's the perfect way to put it.

You can tell Italiano. Yeah. It seems a little bit crazy. Oh, so sorry. I keep talking about everything except the game, bro. But this is very important. All right. Did you see the video on Milan's social media of the admin of TikTok was asking Milan players to show their wallpapers? Ah, yes, bro. Bro, what the hell is Chouquette's wallpaper? They were like, can we see your wallpapers? No, no, no. Like what the hell is your wallpaper if you don't want to show it?

It's probably a picture of himself or a very provocative photo from his woman. Maybe. Maybe. I found that really funny, though. I would say, what the hell is his wallpaper? Yeah. The first chance of the game, let's talk about football, a bit came in the 22nd minute. It was quite a KGF airp until that point. It was Pulisic who had a snapshot. Tomori was brilliant this game. Manjane was really dramatic. He was making good saves.

Granta, but every time he would stay down, he would, you know, how he is. And apparently after the game, at the end of the game, there was a shot close range. Should have been the winner. Like Manjane, this eagle mic, you know, arms wide open the ball, smacks him in the face and goes out like, what a save. Granta was with your face, but he's so brave. Like what a save. So he does that, right? He had been rolling around the floor all game, right? And like that's not enough for him, the headlines.

Not to say that Mike Manjane suffered so much this game, but he came out as a hero at the end. Now he came out, he's like, you know, I had fever. Man, can I tell you? He had fever as well, Mike. Mike, man. Great goalkeeper. Okay. Maybe we look at his performance against Dortmund. Questionable. Fantastic goalkeeper. Massive upgrade from, from Dona Rumma. But since the negotiations, I've been seeing his attitude, man. You know what I mean?

And it's like firstly he's asking for 10 million a season, which is like, something like that. Relax. Pretty much. Yeah, I'm just rounding it up around 10 million a season he's asking for. What's with the heart attacks? Every time he does something, he's down on the ground for a fucking five, six minutes, man. I don't know, I don't know what to do. I think even with his whole Portiera Taka and the things, like he just wants to be the main character. Like sometimes he tries to ping balls for it.

It's just like sometimes let's play the ball out from the back. Don't always try to get it to Lea or don't always try to get it to Jiru. Let's, let's get the defenders involved, play it to Theo, play it to Calabria, something. Yeah, sometimes his decisions and the way he is pisses me off, man. Look, I think drama queen is the best way to put it. Perfect. Yeah, little drama queen. Theo Hernandez had a few moments where his controller disconnected and he just lost the ball at the back.

Parisi gave away a penalty on Theo Hernandez and that's what eventually led to the goal. This was at the end of the first half in the 46th minute. Parisi essentially just pushed Theo to the ground who looked to be cleaned through. Theo stepped up, took the penalty and scored it. Let's play a game. Guess how many touches Jovic had in the first half? Again, five. Oh, I hate when you do that.

In the 48th minute, there was a little bit of confusion as Chouquette almost scored the header and while it was showing the replay, the ball, the angle, the camera angle just cut and Beltran's one-on-one. I took a really heavy touch. Manjane dove out and saved the takeout. Okay, Manjane, fantastic again. Beltran, terrible touch. That's what he's meant to have. That insola doesn't have that kind of sharp, refined edge. Exactly.

While insola is more like pace and power and these are Italianos words, not mine. Yeah, in the 68th minute and then eventually, Polisic was subbed out for Ruben Lofti-Sic, who played behind the striker interestingly enough. And then of course the game continued, Fiorantina kept trying to create chances, Camarda came on, I in Mike, Magic Mike, the eagle, massive save at the end and then Jovic got his first shot for Milan. Congratulations to him. Congratulations. And that was pretty much the game.

After the game, Italiano was freaking furious. He said, I don't know if it's talent, ferocity or determination, but we cannot go home without scoring a goal and this was of course after all the chances that Fiorantina had against Milan. They had an exegy of over two goals. Okay. And you can look at Beltran's body language when he was substituted. He had just missed his best chance in Serie A so far. I think that ball. Probably. His first touch ruined it and Mike saved the day.

What do you think it is, this problem with Fiorantina not being able to score in some games and not being able to serve as the strikers and the strikers always seem to be misfiring? Is it a coincidence when you look at Cabral, Jovic, Inzola, Beltran, all these guys are misfiring? I mean, it's the discontinuity up front. You see up until two seasons ago, Pjontek was there. Cabral was there. Just before that, keep in mind just before that, Blaovic left in January.

Ever since then, it's like they haven't really given a striker a lot of time to get used to the system and a lot of time to find their confidence and to make matters worse. In fact, this is why I was pleased with their signing of Inzola, but they sign from overseas a lot. So they're bringing in players like Beltran. They're bringing in players like Cabral, these guys. And they need to, they brought in Pjontek who was overseas at that time.

We had to be honest, he had a short stint in Italy, Pjontek. He had one year, almost two years. And they never give them time to settle in. Now, obviously, if their performances aren't up to par, then you're not going to give them time. But now, in fact, they've got Beltran, they've got Inzola, and they could be patient with them. Because they know they've got two players of high quality. I don't know about that. I don't know about two players of high quality.

I'm sure Beltran is a high quality player. His numbers at River Plate were very good. And you can see flashes of technical excellence when it comes to him. I think Inzola was the wrong profile for Fiorentina to go for. For Fiorentina, potentially, yes. But they have two different strikers, you know? Yes, true. They have two different strikers, granted. But one of them is coming from South America. He's going to need time to settle in, to European football, to Italian football.

Until then, until he settles in, if this guy doesn't hit the ground, Johnny, you're going to have to rely on Inzola. And what is Inzola? Inzola is a striker that thrives on a counter-attacking side that requires him to hold up play while the midfielders advance. Because that's what he is. That's what he was at Spetia.

And that's what he, everything he did good, everything that made people praise him, the few games he had, where he scored and where he played well, that's exactly what he was doing. He was holding up play in the middle. No one could dispossess him. He was waiting for the runners and servicing his teammates. With Fiorentina, he's got a lot of waiting in the box.

It's going to take some settling, because what you said first of him holding up play, feeding the players behind him, for example, Nico Gonzalez, Bonaventura, Sotil. But Fiorentina aren't often counter-attacking. Not to the point. Their style with Italiano is very heavily possession-based. Yes, but if you have, for example, Girou at Milan, who's great with his back towards goal, no, I'm not comparing their technicality, naturally. But it's what in Zola can bring to Fiorentina.

It's quite similar to what Girou can do at Milan, in that sense, that he's got talented players behind him. Now, whether they're playing counter-attacking, or whether they're playing controlling football, if they find the striker and the striker with his back towards goal, finds one of the runs coming in from one of his teammates, Gonzalez, Bonaventura, Sotil, again, quality players, it can work. It's just in Zola, it's quite inconsistent. That's it again. And he was inconsistent at Spetia.

And I mean, I'll never forget his breakout season at Spetia, where he was scoring in the first half of the season, like a maniac. January market comes along. I splash all my credits on fantasy football to bring in in Zola, and he didn't score a single goal in the second half of the season. I'd react, but guys, you have no idea how many times I've heard that he's been sold. I think I've said it on the spot cast before, actually. Alan and Andy would know.

Bro, there was a Luca on Twitter, is in our 0.5% list. Yes, what a guy. He must have listened to every episode. Literally, literally. And even Alan's listened to everything, even Andy. I was seeing you've listened to like almost 5,000 minutes of me and you speaking throughout 2023. That's mental. Absolutely crazy. One tactical observation I made about Milan, this game, normally when it's Leo and Theo playing, Leo attacks the byline and Theo cuts inside, right?

However, this time it was Pulisic cutting inside and Theo attacking the byline. Yes, and there was finally also some cover for Theo when he was booming forward. Pulisic's industry is something that will not be on their mind, because he puts in a shift defensively as well, man. Yeah, totally. Purely admitted to having to defend deep in the second half. He said that it was for three reasons, right?

The desire for three points, the current state of the squad, and the fact that Milan hadn't won in four games. He prioritized a pragmatic approach to get the victory, basically. And one little clean sheet, very good for Milan over there. Yeah, good win. Good win. Yeah, I would also like to address, because it happened and you've probably seen it.

Milan lost to Dortmund in the Champions League 3-1, and they currently need to beat Newcastle away from home, and Dortmund need to beat PSG at home for Milan to qualify for the Champions League. And this is Matthew's favorite thing, right? When I start saying, you know, this and this and this. When it's out of our hands, I don't care anymore. Because I'm not going to hope for America, and say, because this is going to happen, this is going to happen. Fuck this false hope.

Milan are out of the Champions League. Would you rather have them in third or fourth? Jake, answer me now. Would you rather have Milan in the Europa League or no European competition? Give me the Europa League, bro. Thursday nights, are you up at nights? It would be exciting, because when Ben-Assar is back, and when Milan have got some of their flow back, and they've got the injured players back, they can actually compete in the Europa League.

But after the start, I would not mind focusing on the league. I would not mind that at all. It's going terribly right now. The injuries are absolutely fucking devastating. They're relentless. Chao is injured now. Everyone's in crutches. Like, it's fucked. Everyone's going... Prudish was playing center back against goal. Chaka Traore was brought on as our solution on the wing. And you're 15-year-old in this game, Jake. The 15-year-old playing. It's... Ridic. You don't... It's really bad.

And I don't know, but something needs to be done about it, man. Someone needs to be questioned, because this amount of injuries is not normal. And it's not like Milan play a super high, high-gagging press kind of system, like Liverpool used to do, or like Atalanta used to do, when they would rotate their entire team. It's fucked. This is a possession-based system, and that's meant to be not too strenuous on the body, but whatever. They have to figure it out, because it's bad.

It's bad, and it's dangerous, man. Players should be scared to come to play for Milan. But good win against Fiorentina. Good win against Fiorentina. Full flow Fiorentina. Yes. Milan decimated, but they managed to get three points. A very mature victory. Milan are in third with 26 points, while Fiorentina are in eighth with 20 points. Fak Roma, Fak Lazio. We're going to do Empoli Sassuolo now. How can we not? Empoli 3, Sassuolo 4. I'm surprised we didn't put this game first.

The Tuskens were fresh off of a shock victory away to Napoli, but still missing Baldanzi and Petzella. Sassuolo started with Tordsvet, a track-war artist ahead of Bayrami who was on the bench, and the Narovari were without a win in six rounds coming into this game. To open the scoring, it was Ciccio Caputo through a penalty kick, which was one following Viti Clumsily bringing down Cambiagi. Caputo scores against his former team.

Just eight minutes later, Pina Monti headed in a Lauriente cross to bring things level for Sassuolo. Goal against the X, once again. Sassuolo went one up in the 21st minute after a Henrique header after a good cross by Toljian. It's good to see Henrique scoring after he had been injured for so long. Fazzini equalised on the half-hour mark, think it's 2-2 after 30 minutes.

Fazzini equalised on the half-hour mark, slotting in well to the bottom corner from just outside the area, leaving Concili rooted to the spot. A lot of defensive clusterfucks leading up to that moment as well, if I'm going to be completely blunt and honest. And then Sassuolo regained the lead through a berairi penalty, where he sent Berisha the wrong way. The penalty was given away by Cantrilari on Toljian. Moments later in the 80th minute, because now we're in the second half, by the way, guys.

Berairi almost gave Sassuolo a cushion, a two-goal advantage in the 80th minute, as he did this wicked shot cross from distance, which hit the far post. It would have been a spectacular goal. In the 85th, Empoli got the equaliser, making it 3-3 after some confusion and mayhem, where Giasi hit the crossbar. And Kovalenko took a strike, he rebounded it into the back of the net, but it was helped over the line by Sassuolo defender, of course, Vynja.

Even when they just always need to score an own goal, Sassuolo. Like, this was going in, it just... Can't sit in. It must be their initiation or something. Hey, hey, you have to score an own goal. Some people think it was Kovalenko's goal, I think it was an own goal, and that's how it went down. Keep in mind, Kovalenko was the guy that scored the winner against Napoli a couple of weeks ago.

And then in the 91st minute, Berairi got the second of the night, and he got the winner for Sassuolo, making it 4-3 as his volley at the far post on his weaker right foot, deflected in off Libby Kakacce. The cross was provided by Vynja, who redeemed himself for the own goal.

This was a game, I mean, in football, there are chess games, where you look at, for example, I don't even want to use Juventa as an example, because they were a bit almost laxidaisical with their performance, almost just fear. But there are chess matches, low scoring chess matches. If you look at Mila Njuva 2003 Champions League final, one of the most entertaining nil-nils you'll ever see.

Okay, there were some great saves, some good dribbles and this and that, a lot of iconic moments, but a true midfield battle. And that, to me, is entertaining as fuck, even if there are no goals. That is the Floyd Mayweather, for every Floyd Mayweather, and then there's Mike Tyson. And Mike Tyson, that comes out swinging, bro, if you're gonna hit me, fuck it, I'm gonna hit you back. My style's impregnable. My view is impetribute. Breathe be to Allah. Bro, there's no one like Mike Tyson.

No, bro, what are you talking about? There's no one like you. No one, and now. Fuck you in your ass, boy. Why? Fuck you till you love me. Bleep. Now he's got to shit. Still chill. Now he's on podcasts, eating mushrooms. Like, I want to hug him. Like, you know what, I mean, this guy's bitten someone's fucking ear off. Like, but whatever. But he said he was deeply insecure back then. Yeah. This was a boxing match. This was two Tysons, the two Tysons of Syria in Ebu El-Sassuolo.

Go eating each other. Just beating the shit out of each other. Just not looking at their defensive duties at all. Everyone going forward was an entire cluster. And fucking. This is the kind of game that noobs enjoy. That noobs say wow, football is actually a beautiful sport. Yeah, I mean, lapses in defensive concentration combined with high intensity pressing, because that's what these two teams do. Now when you look at Kambiagi, Kanchile, Kaputa, they're going to press you.

You know, particularly the two Cs on the wing. Sassuolo a high intensity side as well. Maybe not as much the season, but they do have the ability to press their opponent. And many errors were forced and it led to this incredible shootout at three o'clock on a Saturday. Yeah, and pretty much what you said. So it's not a surprise to see Sassuolo score a lot of goals, particularly against a side like Empoli. But I do think it was despite their defensive woes.

I think it's good to see Empoli being so free flowing and taking a game like this on the chin and getting three goals in this game. Because if you look earlier on in the season, they hadn't scored a single goal, bro. And like they're opening five, six matches, I believe. So really, really good to see. I mean, and you know, there was, okay, one of them was a non-goal, but Fazzini getting a good goal. Kaputa scoring from the spot. They were opportunistic in this game.

Yes, and they massively outscored their ex-G as well, which was 1.41. Both teams actually massively outscored their ex-G. Sassuolo with an ex-G of 2.36, if you care about that statistic person. I like that statistic. Yeah, I think. I like ex-G. Uh-huh. It's always interesting. Wow, I was going to say Gen Z. Gen Z said. But it does suck when you score three goals and you get absolutely no points. But of course, who other than Dominico Barardi to win it for Sassuolo in the 91st minute?

What a player, what a hero. He's honestly at this point, we're talking Toto Dinatal. Yeah, see, I do. Here's my question. Yeah. Is he going to try for us this way out in January? Or is he going to wait till the end of the season? I don't know. He's already tried to force his way out. You know, I mean. Do you have a last summer for those of you that don't know? No. I don't think he'll try to do it again mid-season. I think he's too professional for that.

It's one thing if you try to force yourself your way out in the summer and it doesn't quite go to plan and you miss the first game or two of the season. Like, it's not ideal for your captain. But he has definitely been a soldier for them. And I think maybe it is time for them to let them spread his wings elsewhere. But I don't think he's the type to do it halfway through the season. I might be mistaken, but we'll see. Yeah, some people surprise me.

I want to highlight Fazzini and Tom because of his goal, but also because of his industry throughout this match, who was attacking, who was defending here, the good performance over here. You like Baloka? I like Baloka. I like Baloka. He's a good little player. Country Larry. I haven't. He used to excite me, Country Larry, when he used to feature for Verona and when he used to feature for Lazio. He has picked up a little bit with Andrea Zoli. And you can see what he's all about.

He doesn't do it consistently. He definitely doesn't do it every game. But he's quite a powerhouse when he gets driving. Like, he's very hard to dispossess once he gains momentum. That's what he is. Yeah, that's true. And he's quite nifty as well. His quick feet, too. I think you highlighted Baloka as well. You highlighted him. You asked me if I like him. I do like him. And also, like Henrique, I think losing Maxim Lopez is devastating. Devastating, because he was everything for this team.

He was the metronome. So it's not easy to cope without him. Am I saying these guys are perfect and they're bringing the balance back so on and so forth? No, but they're showing hints of promise. Let's put it that way. They're two good players. Henrique and Baloka is what I'm trying to say. That's enough from my end about this game.

I think this is a game you watch the highlights and you've watched the majority of the game, considering you could probably find 90-minute-long highlights of all the goals and chances that they're wearing this game. Sassuolo find themselves in 14th on 15 points, while Empoli still in the relegation zone in 18th place on 10 points, however level with Kaliari who are in 17th. Fantastic, bro. Which means we should probably move on to Salernitana lots here, right? Yes, sir.

Se qualele squadra del mi cuore. Si che lo so e la Salernitana. That's a nice little try. That they have. There, I need to go see them. They can't put a foot wrong Salernitana. When it comes to these chants, like the Bulleye idea won, the T4s and this and that. Fuck me, they're lost. I hate how they're lost. That's my least favorite thing in the world. This year we go up and we see them, bro. We have to go up and watch them in Salerno. We make a trip out.

Let's wait to see how the season progresses because if we could watch them in a fucking relegation this side there, bro, at home. That would be great. Yeah, but we have to make that happen. So for this game against Lazio, Philippe Ponzaghi's men were missing Ochoa and Bulleye idea, two of their best players. They're probably two best players, right? Yeah. Costil and Iquemese stepped in instead of them. Costil, of course, is a 36-year-old goalkeeper who looks like Giroux.

Iquemese is the 22-year-old Nigerian who's scored against Sampdoria and the four in El Coppa Italia. I was a bit pissed that we didn't see Simi in Salerno. We saw Simi, bro. We saw Simi while you were in Australia, I believe it was the matchday before this one. He came on. Rub it in, bro. Bro, he came on and he was absolutely dreadful. Really? Bro, nothing went his way. He was terrible and it was so sad to watch because he couldn't control a single ball. He looked out of place.

He's one of those players, bro, that when he has a bad game he looks terrible. He looks like he never played football before. You know what I mean? Fact, because of his statuette. That was a big fan of him from Serie B. Yes. Right? And you see him, he's kind of a poacher and in that league he thrived. When he came to Serie A with Crotone, I was telling everyone like, Simi and Wanko, Simi and Wanko. I took him on fantasy football and in the first half of the season he was terrible.

He scored a few penalties because his penalties are very good. He does a slow run-up and everything. But he was terrible. I let go of him in January. Here we go again. You and the EU's fucking out of those. I let go of him in January, brought him in Zola, Simi scored 20 goals. That's his different Crotone. One of the highest scoring Africans in Serie A. Yeah, top three. Yeah, whatever. Roman Ueli and Sjassale were out for Lazio with Gila and Patrick stepping in.

Fun fact about Gila and Patrick, Gila's Patrick's second best friend behind SpongeBob. Gila is a 23-year-old former Real Madrid player. Well, Patrick, we all know Patrick, is a former Barcelona player. So these are two ex-rivers coming together. Luis Alberto, of course, was suspended for this one. So they lined up with a metri- So they lost. Exactly. Guendouzi, Cataldi and Camada.

And before, Sarri had said that it's a shame that Camada and Luis Alberto are so similar because they can't actually play together. So this was a good opportunity against Salah and Netana for Camada to show what he's all about and to show, like, listen, I'm playing in my position now. I'm the offensive outlet right now. I'm the midfield playmaker. It's all about me, this game. Well, Sarri said all that. Sarri said that. Surprised he didn't have an asthma attack.

Sarri just said that they can't play together, basically. The rest was actually me. No. Con Drea van de Mobila were the first captains of this matchday to grab the mic and speak out against domestic violence. It was very windy. Guendouzi's hair was going mental. You can tell it's windy by looking at Guendouzi. So how's the weather outside? Everyone needs a Guendouzi out in their back. Take a look at a lot of windy. I said, yeah, east winds today.

Guendouzi is your index finger when you suck it and put it out of the window to see where the wind is coming from. Exactly. Yeah. I think he's also Sysho Bob. He is Sysho Bob from The Simpsons. Salernitana grew into the game 15 minutes and they were exposing the gap between the defense and the midfield, particularly at the edge of the box. Lots. You took about 28 minutes to come to life this game. Salernitana still looked more dangerous.

However, the standout performers for me this game were Con Drea van and Bohinen. For me, Bohinen was so good. I had never seen him play like this man before for Salernitana. Super game. Gombar had a very mixed half, the first half, especially at a great interception. But then he gave away a penalty really badly, which was, of course, converted by Chiro Immobile. And then he got a yellow card in the 42nd minute and shortly after deserved the second yellow.

Like it was a clear second yellow, but I think the rem didn't give it because he had just booked him for the yellow, which should never be the case. If it's a second yellow, it should totally be a second yellow. But he somehow got away with it. He rushed the player so stupidly for someone who had just been in the back of the game. It was so stupid. Yeah. That had pissed off a couple of lots of fans.

That's devastating because if you won the Lop and Salernitana, your opponents were dead last in the league, I've got a red card. Job done. Job done, bro. Job done. Yeah. Immobile, to his credit, timed his run to perfection. To win the penalty and ice cold, finished great work by him in general, was very impressed by him of the bench against Celtic as well, scoring two goals in the Champions League to shoot Lazio up their group table. They're looking good now to qualify.

Castanos scored the man from Cyprus in the 55th minute. Borrena was very good in the build-up play. And eventually he was there to tap at home. What was funny is seeing Nzagi watching this goal take place and he couldn't help himself but kick. You know, when the ball was loose, he's seeing Nzagi kicking. Like his instincts are still there. You know, he wanted to score that goal. In the 61st, Zakanie, who was in doubt for this game, went off injured, poor him.

And then in the 66th minute it happened. There was a free kick. It was played to Kondreva who took a shot. Two players were charging. He shot between them from out of the area. The ball was just swerving and curling centrally but spinning, you know, like where the hell is he gonna go when the rocket's way into the back of the net. So that was a role of the lex goal, so he didn't quite celebrate. He loves a goal against Latvia. He scored that banger at the Olympics last year as well.

He loves a goal against big clubs, especially the Milan clubs as well. He scored that goal against Inter where it was across. Like he scored against Milan for Inter in front of my very eyes, that game that Souza scored too good. Yeah. But yeah. He set up a group chat for all of his exes, Kondreva. Very big goal, man. All right, look at me now. Another stoner for his collection, Pravidel, bro. Was it his fault? What? You're saying, I think Pravidel had a shaky performance even against Celtic.

He didn't see too much of the ball and then he scuffed a few back passes. He was shit with the ball at his feet and he didn't come on to his area as he did when he was confident, when he scored that last minute goal in the Champions League, the sandat. I wouldn't say the goal was his fault if I'm being completely honest. I know, I think you think otherwise. I don't know if I would think it's his fault, bro.

Because the sheer power and the amount, few times do you see a ball move so frequently and so obviously at such power and speed, man. And wind. And the wind as well. It's fucked. Keep in mind, he'll have a couple of players blocking his vision as well. Pravidel, that's a tough, tough ball to save, man. It's, I do think there is, the great goalkeepers would save that, potentially. But it's tough to save, man. Yeah, it's perhaps a forgivable error.

Matzoki, Matzoki reminded me of our mother this game. In what sense? At one point, I think he thought that the throw-in was his, but it was given the other way. And he got his hand in a fist. And he bit his index finger, his big finger. And looking at the referee, his big finger. Did they go up to the lines, man? Show him the bite mark? So I had to go, look what you did to me. That definitely reminded me of mama. Shout out to mama. Look, the, And papa, we're doing. Let's just shout out to mama.

Mama, dad, love. The ex-UG for Salernetana's 1.75, while Lotz's was 1.98, so it was quite a tight affair. Lotz dominated the ball position 62% over there. Lotito did say at the end of this game, that I can't believe it, we just lost to Candreva. We lost 11 against Candreva. That's what Lotito said. Not quite fair. Not at all. When you look at the statistics, other than the possession stats, they were totally on par.

In fact, there were four saves made by Providell and one save only made by Costil. Wow, wow, big precedent is sad. Wow, wow. You look at Patrick, this game, he didn't win a single aerial or grounded duel. That just goes to show where one of the problems was this game. It's probably living under a rock on there. The sea doesn't help. Lots, Lotz has managed, where Sargi after this game said, In the next few days, I will analyze what's gone wrong. If it's my fault, I will leave. Like, guess what?

It's not his fault, man. He's still there. He's still there, so it's not his fault. So this is over the next few days. A few days have passed now, so he's fine. I don't know if he's lost the dressing room, to be honest. That might be a bit of a scary thing, because you look at every time the players, the Lotz players are going into, half time are going into the dressing room. Everyone's arguing already from the get-go.

You see, there are quite a few feisty characters, Granted and Luis Alberto over there. They have many players of Spanish descent as well. They like to yap a bit. Now, that can be good and bad, the arguing, not the pointing fingers, but the heated discussions going into the dressing room, that could showcase a winning mentality and the desire to win. Think of the Roy Keane's, think about the Patrick Vieiras, think about the Claude Macalelys and all of these.

They're maybe not Macalely, they wasn't very argumentative, but these are the kind of players that are at the forefront, shouting, commanding, trying to get the best out of their teammates. But, and then there's the Bruno Fernandez type, there's the Luis Alberto type, there's the Who's That Fucking Balonia player, Moro. There's the Moro type. These are the guys, they don't command, they bitch and they flail. They whine. They whine, you know what I mean?

And I just wonder what it's like when they actually do get into the dressing room, like is Luis Alberto constantly challenging Sarri, for example? I'm sorry, but Mattias on the group chat just messaged us, we're missing the football obviously, Champions League night, João Mario Hattrick in less than 40 minutes against Inter. João Mario Hattrick in less than 40 minutes against Inter. I might get that tattooed. How much are Inter? Inter are losing 3-0 to Benfica, there's the rotation.

Let's read their lineup, quickly. So they have Audair, Archery, Bidevry, Bissec, Carlos Augusto, Klasen, Aslani, Fratesi, Darmian, Sanchez, Arnav, 3-0 down to Benfica, but they afford. Bellingham has done it again against Napoli, Real are leading 2-1 at the moment, Simeone scored, Mr. Champions League. No, Mr. Champions League, there we go. Oh, Brian Diaz with an assist. Way! And Rodrigo's goal, but anyway, back to it. Back to the topic, I think I forgot it now. We're worried.

We're saying about Sarri losing the dressing room. Yes, I'm not sure if that's the case, it's always difficult to tell unless you're watching the team very closely and you're in and around them during training. But yeah, it's definitely not looking good for lots. You want something definitely isn't ticking, it's difficult to put your finger on what the problem is. I don't know if it's an individual thing.

I think collectively there's a lack of confidence, there's a lack of understanding, and quite frankly, there's a lack of quality in that midfield. When you look at Luis Alberto playing there, it's all going through him, everything runs, everything ticks through Luis Alberto. He wasn't there this game and they really struggled.

Zacani wasn't great, Felipe Anderson was isolated, and Mbolo was isolated, Kamada, Katal, Liguendo, he didn't quite get ticking, Mara Sifci and Lazzari a little bit behind as well. It wasn't a great showing for them at all. Remember, this is still season one of them, life without Sergei. That's still very prominent. Yeah, that's an all-round midfielder with the world class back then.

Yeah. But yes, when you look at the table, you will see that Lazzio are in 11th and with 17 points, while Salernitana are in 20th with 8 points. But don't get it twisted, there are only two points of safety. It's quite tight down there. Yeah, thank you, Siri. Next game we're going to be covering is Roma 3-Odineza 1. Dijal Lorossi finally had Lorenzo Pellegrini back in the start in 11th. Woohoo! Well, remember when Mourinho said that he should see 11 Pellegrini? Yeah, that would be good.

That would have an entire team injured for this season. But they had Jonato Sanchez out, they had Chris Smalling out, they had Tamiye Abraham out, and they had Mara Kumbola out. Who would have thought they're all injury prone, like literally all of our injury prone players? Actually, the ball has fit, which is crazy. The Fulani had an even longer ups in T-list, including Pereira, Delafoe, Ezeboe, Davis, Brenner, Enzo Ibossi, Semedo, and Christensen.

But in their last two games, they had beaten Milan and held Atalanta to kind of turn things around a little bit to Dineza. But in this game, Roma opened the scoring in the 20th minute after Mancini headed in and in swinging the Bala free kick, 1-0. The inevitable header that Mancini scores every season, he gets a couple of them.

Odineza equalised in the 57th as Tuvan headed in at the far post following a beautiful cross by Pajero, where Rui Patri, so I was kind of unsure whether to come with or not, Tuvan did one of my least favourite celebrations where he gets really close to the camera, blows a kiss, and then speaks to the camera like he's addressing someone. I really don't want to see that, like who are you talking to, it bugs me. Can't hear you, bro. Yeah, like stop.

A beautiful and quick passage of play led to the Bala finishing cleanly in the final third after being set up by a clever Lukaku touch following some beautiful one touch play, making it 2-1 for Roma, and then Elsharao, we sealed the deal in the 19th minute after a trademark finish into the far corner, making it 3-1. I just want to say, I just want to say that in my other Fanta, in our other Fanta, I had Mancini and Elsharao on the bench, as well as Milan Juric. Wow, bro, doesn't know ball.

I don't know ball, I just choose the best players. On the other hand, I want four bets this weekend, four out of five. You should give Fajoli some tips. Harsh, harsh. He still has his kneecaps. Maybe he could finally pay back Dragosin. And someone else. Who was the two, he borrowed 50k. Dragosin and... Oh god, he will go. He will go. I don't know, but we'll remember like in like 15 minutes left, I will randomly scream it, don't

worry. Tactical adjustments in this match for Roma, Morinio made strategic substitutions, bringing in Bov and adjusting the formation to a 3-4-3, which proved effective in turning the game in Roma's favour. And actually, Roma, one thing they do have at their arsenal is pace nowadays, since they've got the ball and they're starting 11 and they've also got players like Elsharao, that they can bring on as well.

They've got Spinazzola, they've got Karsdorp, they've got a fair bit of pace in their side and changing it to a 3-4-3, putting Lukaku upfront, flanked by the ball and Elsharao. A good little plan B for them to have in their arsenal. They've climbed up to fifth, man. They're doing very well. Now slowly, slowly, sneaky, sneaky. That tends to happen with Roma. Even last year they were being sneaky, but then they had to ditch that abort mission to focus on the Europa League.

But there seemed to be this optimism at the Olimpico. Like even when they conceded the equaliser, the fans, they were still behind the players, they were still chanting, the Olimpico was still totally alive. There seems to be this belief that the squad can actually do something this season. Do you think they can do something this season? I think they can. Roma have weapons at their arsenal. They're good from dead-ball situations. They've got Lukaku and the ball at that together and fully fit.

They can do a lot of damage. Their midfield isn't crazy and it's an ever-changing list of players rotating with each other. But Morinio tends to get the best out of these kind of players. He needs them to be savages, he needs them to be calm and he needs them to be killers. And he tends to create this kind of players. So overall, I think Roma can do something, especially without Ibanez in there. Yeah, very good. Very good point.

Did you hear what Morinio said about this team when they're away from home? No. He said that he's coached teams in the past that away from home were like a group of bandits who wanted to go into foreign lands and conquer essentially. Whereas now he's coaching a team who apparently when they play away from home, just miss their grandma's cooking. That's what he said. This guy's unhinged. But yeah, I think Roma are definitely getting their shit together.

They still have that super useful ability of scoring goals from set pieces. And they seem to do it every game. And other than that, they show that they can score great goals from open players, well, such as case in point, the Balas goal over here. Absolutely fantastic link up play and then El-Sharawi's goal, first time perfectly into the corner, vintage El-Sharawi. Just showing us they have many avenues that they can score from.

Yeah, I think with Dunez, I had a decent performance over here as well to give them their flowers because they are looking better than they were at the start of the season. They seemed to struggle more when coping with Lukaku and Debala than playing football against Roma. It's the attack that essentially won Roma the game because yes, Roma had 12 shots, five were on target and they had 64% ball possession. A lot of the time, Roma being Roma, they were playing the ball around.

And Dunez, they weren't impatient with it. They kept their shape and then they managed to get a goal to get the equalizer. But then that's when personnel and having star players makes a difference for you because Debala and Lukaku can flip the switch, they link up together so, so well. Man, Lukaku really understands the assignment with Roma and Debala, he doesn't need to understand the assignment. He's so fucking talented that you put him wherever you put him.

And I think he's going to perform to a certain extent. Having Lukaku by his side helps. Of course, yes, very true. Roma are in fifth now on 21 points, guys. There's just three points behind Napoli and just five points behind Milan. So they really are lurking. Udineso on the other hand, 16th place on 11 points out of the relegation zone. So I'll just do Bologna Torino now as well. It was Bologna 2, Torino, Nyl Salamakar started ahead of the doubtful or Solini for Bologna, as he was in doubt.

And young Fabian got his first start of the season ahead of Froyler. Shores and Richie were out for Torino, replaced by Lazaro and Linnetti. Vania was also benched by Yuric, replaced by Gemello. The coaching staff said that this was a simple technical choice, prompted by a perceived drop in the Serbian goalkeeper's performances during training. We're talking about practice. We're talking practice. We're talking about practice.

But anyway, in minute one Fabian went for a goal, really setting the tone for what was a memorable performance for him in his first Serie A start. Vlasic netted a bullet from distance in the 17th minute. This would have been up there with some of the great goals. It would have been alongside Malinovsky and Kandrevas. But Vark controversially ruled it out as Zapata was an offside position, impeding Gemello's vision. I thought this was harsh at first.

And I thought that there was no way that that goal shouldn't stand. And that the velocity that the ball was hit, that struck with, wouldn't have made a difference if the goalkeeper saw it or not. And I was talking to David about it. The poet. Yes, David. What we call another poet. He's the best. Shout out David. David. On Instagram about it. And we were agreeing that it was ridiculous. However, I have revisited the images and I was talking to a friend of mine. Zapata, the Italian coach.

Duck, bro. Zapata runs into the keeper's view. He's totally blocking him. And there's another player in an offside position impeding his view as well. It's the rule. You know, and if we're going to be consistent over here, then that needs to be cancelled. I'm not sure I like the rule that the goalkeeper's vision is being blocked by a player in an offside position. Then you cancel the goal. I'm not sure how I feel about it because there's a lot of room for fine margins.

Like maybe this one or I'm sure there have been. Yeah, but what happens when you start making exceptions, man? That's it. That's it. You get all the arguments in the VAR room. You get all the pundits. You get all the pundits talking shit about this decision. They create this atmosphere against the game and against the rules of the game. This is consistent, man. Yes, it was a great goal. Bullfucking who, man? He was in the way.

He was in the way and he should essentially know better at this point. I'm still pissed off about that Kessie, the Jiru offside. He was on the floor. Kessie's goal against Napoli two years ago. I haven't stopped thinking about it, man. He was offside. He really wasn't impeding his vision, but it's the rule and they need to be consistent. This is where they put their foot down. Would have been a great goal, though.

Zapata for Skorupski to a good save late in the first half as Bologna struggled to threaten due to some great man marking by Buon Giorno on Xerxes. That was a beautiful battle between those two, brother. You've got Xerxes being all slick on the one Buon Giorno, just aggressive on his ass, strong, not giving him neutralizing him well. Yes, bro. Yes, that's the very end. That's fucking Buon Giorno for you, man. However, in the Bologna, I managed to open the scoring through Fabian.

You remember how Vanya wasn't doing well in training and how they should start someone called Gemello? Gemello? I've honestly never seen such a bad decision made by a goalkeeper, honestly. Because there was a through ball played by Beukema to Fabian. A through ball almost at the feet of Fabian. Fabian had to make three, four steps to get the ball. With the defensive line around him. With the defensive line around him. Gemello was like, I can get this one. And he sprints out of his box, bro.

I'm not even saying a bit out of his box. He went halfway to the halfway line, like halfway to the half between the box and halfway to try and get it. Bless him, he got attached to it. But Fabian managed to keep hold of it and he tapped it into the empty net. Terrible, terrible decision making by Gemello. He was obviously new and 23. He's young, so much to learn, but not a good sign at all. Because decision making is essential. But that can be improved, to be honest.

And with experience, now he'll know not to rush when the ball is... But imagine, imagine, he did touch the ball first. Imagine he cleared it out of the way. He would be saying, wow, what a brave goalkeeper, the new Neuer sweeper keeper. No way, bro, no way. Like if you see the ball was at his feet, I don't rush out like that. Honestly, it was bizarre. I can't believe he ran out. His defenders were there. Like why are you rushing out? The fact is, everyone looking at the ball. It was crazy, man.

It was crazy. Then it was a whole lot of Torino doing nothing. And then it was Torino trying, but Bologna, such a unit, man. Such a unit, Thiago Mottasmen. And then as Torino were kind of looking to push, there was a long ball over the top by Lico Giannis after gaining possession. To Zergse, who was clean through on goal. Zergse being Zergse, he's like, let me let this guy catch up to me. Guy catches up to him, skips past him. Skips past him and slots it into the bottom near corner.

So calm, so smooth, so sexy, man. He's ruled out originally. Originally ruled out for offside. What did I tell you when they ruled it out? He's on. He's on. Guess what? He was obviously on. Like, no chance. No chance. No chance. He was like, you guys can't see this. But he was like this much onside. He bent his run to perfection, bro. So good. Zergse, you ever saw the clip where him is that empty goal for Bayern Munich? He dribbled past the keeper. He was going to let this one roll in.

I don't need to touch it again. Guy comes sliding out of nowhere, embarrassing stuff. I saw it on TikTok recently and the comments were saying, haha, what a joke this player is at Zergse, at Zergse. Look at them now. They have no idea that he's making grown men look like children. Yeah. I mean, the first talking point was the disallowed goal. But I guess we've already discussed that. Bologna's current form, three wins and four, and they're in sixth.

Yep, they are absolutely brilliant at the moment. And I do think they can keep it up as long as Zergse doesn't get injured. You think he's the source? I think he's pivotal for them. And I think they might struggle without him because there are certain moments where it's all Zergse. Like you feed him a ball and he just fucking faints and shimmies and twists. And without, you have many players who work for a few technically gifted players.

Like Salah Makers and Ndoya, their entire role over here was to serve as Zergse and Ferguson. Right? Yep. Even Fabian and Dabesher to a certain extent in the double pivot with Christian Senang and Pasha at the back, same thing, man. Just servicing the striker. The substitute striker is not prolific at all. Van Huydik Huydink, Huidji D'Ang. Yeah, so I think as long as Zergse stays fit, they can actually compete for European spots.

I also don't know much about their second keeper, but Skoropski is fantastic. And I don't know how that would be if something were to happen to him. Other than that, they have depth all around their wings, especially. Like Orser Lim, he's fallen injured and not that bad. They can do with Ndoya, who's okay. Froyler came on as a substitute in the double pivot, for example, another brilliant piece of depth. Yeah, and obviously, once again, praise to Fabian Bro because he already scored the season.

He had scored in his first, I think, substitute appearance and now he scored in his first start. So power to him. The boys got a real life for Gull. Yeah, absolutely. That was going to be my second and last question for you. So basically, guys, Bologna in sixth place on 21 points, while Storino are down in 12th on 16 points. Verona, two-let-cha-two, brother. Let's go. This was a super entertaining game. Super, super, super entertaining game. Verona started the 4-2-3-1.

They had Chachua as the right back. Chachua, Hien back as center back, partnered with Amione, of course. Sousloff was the track artist here with Jury starting up front and Ngoj starting on the right with Mboula starting on the left. They change a lot this Verona. Yeah. For Lecce, it's pretty much the same team that it is every week. The midfield three is a bit different, Odin, Blin and Gonzales. Banda was on the right this time with Sansoen on the left and Christovic up front.

The defense was business as usual, Falcon and Goulas always. Yeah, Sousloff looked interesting for Verona. That was one of the first things I pointed out when I was taking notes for this one. And I also pointed out, bro, and noted that Banda must be the luckiest person when it comes to yellow cards. This game, he actually got one eventually, this game, but he so often loses his cool, pushes someone or kicks someone or nudges someone.

But I think because he has such a disadvantage with his height that referees actually feel bad for him. I don't think it's what they feel bad for me, is that keep in mind, if he comes, if he runs up to you and barges into you, what? It's like Lukaku rested his ass against you. You know what I mean? The impact doesn't match the actual pain that is inflicted. Yeah, it's true. Fair enough, but he should totally behave himself. Yeah, he starts extending his leg, he starts wagging his arm out.

It was Udon who opened the scoring in the 30th minute, a great goal. There was an uncharacteristic error by Hien, who did it twice in a row, where he just plays a terrible ball down the middle to the opposition. But Udon curled it from outside the area perfectly with his weaker foot, and it had quite a lot of power on it as well, Udon. He's got quite a good shot on him. There was a massive giveaway by Dorgom, and then when Jürich found… How many followers did he get from it?

Jürich found in Gaunch, who slotted it neatly past Falcoané from a very, very tight angle, and this was of course towards the end of the first half. In the second half, it was Juan Gonzalez who scored for Lecce before Milán Jürich headed home at Filipe Patera, trying to make it 2-2. There were great saves by Falcoané, especially in the second half. There was an unfree kick on in Gaunch, a fantastic save, another amazing one on Duda.

There was… Ah, Gonzalez's goal, by the way, took a deflection off of Duda. I forgot to mention that. But the finale of this game was action-packed, and it featured Bonazzoli scoring offside as well. It would have been 3-2 for Jalaz Verana, who have improved recently.

They're starting to get their shit together, while Lecce have regressed ever so slightly, but it is fair to say that they overachieved at the start of the season, and that actually gave them some comfort, because the main objective for a team like Lecce is obviously survival, right? Yeah, and I mean, what did they do last year to survive? They overachieved in the first half of the season, and then the second half of the season, they weren't so great. They were actually terrible.

In fact, I believe I had them coming in well, getting relegated this season. Lecce, right? We didn't know that the guys coming in were going to be so good. I think that many actions die with Banda. We actually have a listener question from Alan about Banda, and about Lecce playing with two strikers up front, because the colleague's been playing well when he comes in, and Christopher is good. So why not change it up? Play two strikers together, give Banda a bit of a break.

I think that might be a good idea. Interesting to see if Roberto Davesa is flexible enough with that. I mean, this isn't his original 4-3-3. He found that here when he arrived. So he could easily turn things around. Maybe deploy a 4-4-2, see how Lecce fair over that. I think characteristically they have the players who would thrive in a 4-4-2 with that solid defence and midfield. That's what I'm saying. Oudon having a bit more of a free roll, perhaps. Bus group behind the strikers.

Pogracic at the back as well, sent him back in a 4-4-2. Sanson could still be out on the left. Maybe with Banda you can even play him on the wing, get him away from Golo. But there's also Streffetza. You play Streffetza, let's say it's a 4-4-2 or a 4-2. I think that's more like a 4-3-1-2. You play Streffetza on the whole maybe? Perhaps. He played us on attacking with Fielder. That was the start of the season. Because I don't think the same thing goes for Banda.

I think we play as like Streffetza on Banda. You can't play them on the right side of a 4-4-2. I think you need more of a physical guy like Van Ute or something. Maybe. Maybe. I don't know, it depends on the mind. It could work, they ought to up front for them. It could definitely work. Even if they're in a situation where they need a goal, they have that option. They often get the ball into the box. You know, they're not bad at getting there. The problem is it's not always the Crystal Vigil.

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. But yeah, this was a very entertaining game characterised by individual errors. As to where they stand at the moment, we've got Hellas Verona in 19th with 9 points. We'll let you comfortably in 13th with 15 points for now. For Zinone 2, Genoa 1. Yeah, beautiful. Both teams were promoted from Serie B over the summer and they're both out of the drop zone, so that's nice to see.

I remember, I think in our first season, Mintoff had asked us what can Serie A do to fix this problem of all the Serie B teams coming up, just instantly getting demoted again. How can they fix it? But really, over the past few years, we've seen some newly promoted teams come up and just make a statement, man. Yeah. It's happening more and more. And it's happening more and more. We've got Frozen on a Genoa and Kalyari. God bless them.

Albert Goodmanson joined Retegui, Ekoban and Bani on the absentee list, so the Gryphoner looked to Ruslan Malinovsky and George Puskas up front, but as a Canary, he missed Luka, Madsitelli, Kalyi and Harrui. So, big misses for both teams, especially Genoa with all those injuries. Genoa, poor guys, man.

Yeah. Frozen on is an ambitious build-up play in the opening seconds, almost bid them in the ass, Assa Sabelli won the ball and squaded to Puskas, but Okoli did well to slide in and clear the ball off the line. Good to see Okoli getting minutes. He is a player owned by Atalanta, a young local centre back and hopefully we'll be seeing more of him in the future. Yeah, that was a mistake by Barberian Che on long-time adventures. Exactly.

Frozen on opened the scoring through Soullet in the 34th minute, that was his sixth goal of the season, Madonna. It was a powerful moving strike from outside the area, which went straight through Martina, so he will be extremely, extremely disappointed. Now, that's a goal-keeping error. Good strike by Soullet, but near post. He literally almost had, in that occasion, you put your body behind the ball, and there's no way you concede.

If you go to extend yourself or do something like that, he almost tried to push it out, he extended his arms and tried to push it out, and it went through his arms because it was powerful. Whatever, man. Just two minutes later, Ruslan Massivkowski finally reminded us what he's capable of. Scoring our goal of the week, the guys, it's tough to describe this goal. It was an unstoppable, powerful, curling strike from around 30 yards out, which went straight into the top corner.

But before it went into the top corner, it was nowhere near anywhere. It was nowhere near the goal post, it was nowhere near the keeper. Then all of a sudden, it dips and curls into the corner, honestly. I think for a second, it was between space and time. Like, the galactic soccer goalkeeper wouldn't have saved it. That weird cardboard cut out of a keeper that goes left and right, that only Messi managed to score against, wouldn't have saved it. Like, crazy.

Sturtman of Inger at half-time, to add to Genua's injury bows, as they were 1-1. In the 66th minute, and then Malinowski rattled the crossbar from a free kick, which was set up for a cross, it was from an insanely tight angle out to the right-hand side. He had Turati tangled up in the side netting, this guy, man. Malinowski, when he's on, and he's confident, he's so fun to watch. Messi just has a shot, bro. It's as simple as giving him space.

I think most teams have learned not to give him any space. And in fact, he's never had the season so far. He hasn't been allowed to take these shots. This time, he had a moment, he wasn't even on the ball. He didn't even have possession of the ball. He kicked it out of a teammate's possession. Crazy, man. I think maybe that's what he has to do now. Charge his teammates and kick the ball out of there. Literally. They were neck and neck for the majority of the game at 1-1, both teams trying.

At Froznan, they kept going, despite Malinowski hitting the post and this and that. In the 94th minute, they finally managed to find their winner. It was Ilario Monterese, the 21-year-old centre-back, who got the winner after a cutback from Brescianini, managed to get it past the goalkeeper, coming in sliding in. I like Monterese. We've highlighted him in the past. It was the second goal of the season. Yeah, yeah. We probably highlighted him when he got the first goal of the season.

He enjoyed it. Yes, yes, yes. He took it player Monterese. He is, man. He is. Froznan faced controversy with a potential handling offence by Dragosin, but VAR showed it was just outside the penalty area. That happened throughout the game. I wasn't sure in what minute it happened, so I put it at my talking point. This is Froznan's sixth result. Without a loss at home. That's crazy. That's crazy. For a newly promoted team, man.

To have that home record in your first season in Serie A. You look at, you have two newly promoted teams from the last two seasons in the top ten at the moment. Madonna, yeah. Monza, ninth, and Froznan, and tenth. Madonna, man. Yeah, the league's getting competitive. I like when teams with good projects get promoted, you know? Froznan are very exciting. And Monza, of course, coming up, they were destined for success. So hopefully it remains a trend.

And hopefully, you know, the likes of your Udinese and your Veranas, where there isn't much of a project going on, eventually phase out. And new exciting teams come up, like the likes of Venezia, the likes of Palermo. These teams have very good projects going on. And even Barri have a good project. Yeah, absolutely. Do not sleep on Genoa, even though they just lost to Froznan, they do have a bunch of injuries. They will be back. They've got such a strong squad.

And once these players are back and they get flowing, we can even see them push to get as close to that tenth spot as possible, I think, Genoa. But there's no reason. That's not far, actually. I mean, Messi hasn't been in full condition yet. He hasn't been at his best, and he suffered injuries when he arrived. I think he's been injured. Now Goodminton was injured this game. So we've been seeing Puskas, Echobon, you know, not quite good enough.

But their starting eleven is definitely good enough to give anyone around for that month. For sure. For sure. And we'll see that in the near future, I'm confident. When it comes to where they are in the table, Genoa are in 15th on 14th points, and Froznan are in 10th on 18th points. To Froznan, 18 points, there are only six points behind Napoli and 4th. So, you know. Kaljeri won one-to-one. Last game, right? Last game. This was an early Sunday treat.

Petania got a start alongside Lovumbo, and it's safe to say, and it's fair to say, that Petania deserved this start, because he's been pretty good recently. Speaking of Sunday treats. Wow, it's a Sunday roast. Sunday roasts are fucking delicious, man. Yeah, they are. 19-year-old Prati started for Kaljeri as their register, and it was business as usual for Monza. Dossana got his second goal in two games after a great corner by Viola.

There was a good initial header by goal Daniga, but the ball was saved and Dossana tapped in the rebound. The 25-year-old Atalanta youth player who has been impressing ever since those three mistakes he made against Froznan. But then he contributed to the winner. So, you know, what a comeback story. Between the 20th and the 25th minute, Kaljeri had two penalty calls for handball. They were applying a lot of pressure, and DJ Goriaharovics kept them in the game.

Even Colomba had to go back to contribute to the defense. That's how much Kaljeri were pressing these guys. Viola gave a free kick in the first half that had everyone celebrating. Everyone thought it went in, but it turns out that he decided netting. I was particularly impressed by Makumbu. Makumbu is very good. He played really well. He's a player. Remember, I described Kaljeri in midfielder, who is very shifty. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that's him.

Makumbu. He's pretty good. I thought that Birindelian Colpani were very good for Monza, particularly Birindelli. I saw him give a few balls. I was like, oh, that's him. That's a good pass over there by him. Maric got his first ever goal with a lovely header off of a Kyriakopolis corner. Maric is a 28-year-old player who was previously on loan at Crotone, where he got 11 goals in 36 appearances. I was going to say 36 assists, because I just wrote A because I'm lazy.

Bro is from Croatia, by the way. 6 foot 2. Yes. Smiles and cheers whenever Paveletti comes on, who came in at the end of the game, and Monza hit the crossbar twice this game. Shuriah had a particularly close one at the end of the game when Karaboni played him through. Monza plays such nice and tricky football, man. Such a good team. They have like Birindelli and Colpani and Kyriakopolis and Mota, so they have their wing backs and their wingers. They link up with these one-twos.

Sometimes they even bring in the two central midfielders, and they set up these little triangles that they like Galjardini, Kyriakopolis, Mota, or Pesina, Birindelli, Colpani. Everyone can play on this team. If you look at the Carboni, you look at Itso, who's out at the moment. These guys are very technically gifted. And they have a nice balance, and their team is fantastic. It's young, and they're very exciting to watch. And I look forward to watching them for a while and say, yeah.

Same here, man. Same here. As to where they stand in the table. I always have to buy myself. As for where they stand in the table, Kalyari currently stand in 17th with 10 points, while Monza are in 9th with 18 points. I think it's needless to say that when it comes to the question segment, we should release another episode into like a 20-minuteer for the question segment, because obviously a lot happened in this matchday, so it's hard to fit that in within the two-hour time frame.

This is what we're trying to stick to, just because logistically it makes everything vis-à-vis distribution much easier. And believe me, much easier. Yeah, much easier. Keeping it under two hours. So yeah, we'll upload another mini-episode, with four questions, I'm sure you'll be happy with that. That will be three uploads today, by the way, because we uploaded the trailer as well. Oh my god. Okay, so that's that for this episode, guys.

Don't forget to, well, firstly, thank you for dropping ratings, because we got that average back up to five stars, rather than four, rather than 4.9, because I was going to kill someone, like. So thank you very much. Don't forget to keep on rating, keep on following, keep on looking out for TikTok and Instagram for our snippets. We're working on some fun ones right now. Thank you, and we will see you all next week. Change, Jeff. This is Seria Spotlight.

If you like Seria out or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good opportunity for you to listen once a week, and you'll get filled in. In the football weekend, that's like the main dish. But then, a few days later, you drop your episode, and that's like the dessert. And the dessert is just perfect. It's good, okay? It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together, just BSing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics.

Sometimes it may be good, sometimes it may be shit. I love how you go into so much detail and show so much passion towards each and every team. Literally, no team is left undiscussed. When I listen to you, it's like I'm talking to you in a pub. It's like I'm chatting to a friend, and you're chatting to me.