103: Flicks & Flairs (Full Matchday 15 Coverage)

Minhan Chouk and here's Louis Muriel! What a way to win a game! It's his first in Serie A this season. It's a goal only Louis Muriel could score. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Serie A Spotlight. This is episode 103 and we host Matt and Jake here to discuss a rather mental matchday 15 brother. Absolutely crazy brother, there were fantastic goals, red cards, teeth flying out of people's faces, people's eyes swelling up to the point that they look like Popeye with one eye. Jesus!

Yeah man, lapadoula, he broke his nose, had his eyes swollen and scored the equalizer. I almost thought you were talking about what happened in Turkey the other day, that was fucking crazy. You see the president of a football team just ran onto the pitch and cunted the referee in the face, man. And then the fans started coming in and they started kicking the referee when he was down. Look, it's despicable and the league's been, I think, halted for now. Yeah, all the games have been postponed.

Yeah, you know, not good to see if it's on the pitch between the players. That's fine but when the club owner, president or whatever, runs onto the pitch and punches the referee, that's just crazy. To be honest, the club should be punished for that because it's his club quite frankly. Our goal of the week this week was Mourielz against Milan, who channeled his inner Ronaldo, you know, his inner Brazilian Ronaldo.

He has this in him and we've been saying, there was one season where he barely needed five minutes to score a goal. He would come on, he's got this magical technique but his fitness often lets him down as a player, quite moody. But that was absolutely incredible. That was the winner naturally. And typically you see a back heel being scored, like the same way that Zakanje scored, you know, it's a square ball to him and he backheels it in.

Scamacca was crazy earlier this season as well through the keeper's legs but this one threw a goal at an angle and he backheels it in. Very, very sneaky man, there's no way any goalkeeper would have caught onto that. And we haven't even mentioned Miron Chouk on that goal, the assist. The ball was glued to him, it's like scripting on FIFA, no, that happened, that was crazy. Shout out to Pavoletti as well. Absolutely, it was a tight debate between those two man.

Essela Meti. Seña Pavoletti brother. Always, always, always. Last kick of the game, it was crazy man. So many good games this weekend man. And it always feels like by the time it's Tuesday, you know, the Friday games are complete blur bro. Hey, like to me, the Juve and Napoli game, not that it's irrelevant but so much happened since then. It's true. And the highlights of this weekend have taken place after that game, you know. Absolutely, absolutely.

Don't forget to follow us guys on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube just to see our short snippets that we posed, they're quite funny. And J.Tas5 stars wherever you're listening, be it Spotify, Google or Apple. One thing we haven't done in a while, brother, is mention our Fanta culture. Yes, there's a reason I've not been reminding you. I've just lost to the girls. That's fucking crazy. I've just lost to the girls and I think I'm the lowest scoring team in the league.

I don't know what's going on. You're typically great at that part. Yes, I don't know what's going on man. Injuries have really clotted me and like I'm doing terribly. Like I'm on 13 points in eighth place above the renegades and the girls. Mentos first, 26 points. You are currently fourth with 20 points. Draw seconds. Well, yes. Wow, there are three teams. Oh wow! Four teams on 20 points. Yes, one of them. Very tight, for our pate team. I hate my team so much, bro. Yeah, why who?

I prefer the other one so much because I took a lot of rigorously to bank on kind of those spot kicks, but I didn't really take many players that are guaranteed to score a goal from open play. We're not guaranteed. You can never guarantee. But I took Ozyman so obviously I spend a lot of resources on him. My other team on the other one is so much better though. Scamakka, Xerxay, Jalanoglu. You've got a great team. In fact, you're running away with it on the other one. Yeah, five points ahead.

But anyway guys, we do have a pate team. We want to support our content. It's $3.99 a month. We've got a single tier and it's to help us out and the money will be reinvested into the podcast, the studio trying to introduce film, eventually things like that. Once we learn how to withdraw the money. No, I figured it out. I filled in the form and we can withdraw the money. Nice. But we might as well save it and keep it there. Yeah, but for now. I paid for the new mic there brother.

I'll pay you half. Don't worry, the mic will come out of our pockets. The Patreon list so far. Shout out to these legends. We've got Mintov, Mike, Luca, Alenandi, Mattias, Edward, Teolena, Tonna, Anthony and David. Master of this stuff. Legendary. If you want to join the family, guys, get on Patreon. We'll add you to the WhatsApp group chat. It's a vibe. Okay. Yes, as for the rundown, we're going to start things off with you.

Well, one, Napoli Nill and what was, you know, the, the staple of this, of this matchday being you then second and they actually went first place temporarily before in tears game. Atalanta three Milan two in that. Is it a Lombardi? Derby over there. It would be a Lombardi Derby. Let's call it the Lombardi Derby. Atalanta got the lead Milan fought back. Atalanta got the lead Milan fought back and then Atalanta got the lead after a Calabria red card.

Inter for Odinese Nill, Chalano glue once again on the score sheet over there for Inter. Roma one Fiorentina one, two red cards for Roma over there in a feisty feisty match where actually the ball went off injured once again for Roma. Salernitana one Bologna two that's Bologna's first win away from home this season thanks to a doppietta by Zergze. Caliari two Sassuolo one Sassuolo and the self-destruct button are a match made in heaven.

Caliari and the comeback are an even more accurate match made in heaven. Monza one, Geno one Nill Monza left it late but it was Danny Mota that got them the victory after his first goal in 16 matches. Rona one Lazio one Zaka Nilsquad against his old team but Thomas Henri got the second goal in two matches in a row.

Empoli one Lecce one Empoli did manage to get out of the relegation zone for a second but now they are back in it and Frozino and Nill, Torino Nill is obviously the last game that we are going to be covering. Some bangers over there bro lots of goalkeeping errors as well. Yes lots of red cards and quite a few fantastic goals so I think we should just jump right in bro.

I think so and we'll start naturally with you Van Apoly get this one over and done with now. It was a good game. It was entertaining. It was a rather tight affair. You were still missing Wea who was replaced by Kambia so typically plays as a left back but he started as a right back in this game and wow he's a very versatile player. I've heard comparisons to Zambrotta recently. I like it. Danilo had his first start in six weeks slotting into that back three alongside Gatti and Bremer finally.

We could see that iconic back three for you. When I say iconic I mean you know this season. Formidable. Formidable. Yes. There's three tough opponents. Yeah definitely. And Locatelli this time started in midfield ahead of Nicolus. You're good to see that his rib has gotten a little bit better. Oliveira and Rui were still out for Napoli so Natan was once again used as a left back and this time Ziellinsky started ahead of Elmas because last week for some reason Elmas started ahead of Ziellinsky.

The game ignited after 20 minutes when Kierza's dynamic runs down the left wing created chances but Juan Jesus made a crucial block to deny Juventus an early lead. Napoli had clear chances to break the deadlock notably Kvica-Gvaratskelia. He had that dreadful one on one miss where he failed to hit the target with plenty of time and space.

Thru on goal and he lifted the ball over the cross. That was so unlike him. He looked really amateur. He's typically like he's not typically a player that thinks. He's a very instinctual player and over there I think he almost had too much time to think. That's exactly what I was going to say. He dribbles his man and he has a split second to shoot. He got that ball towards goal. This time he got the ball and he was clean through. He had like one second, two seconds, three seconds.

Exactly. What the hell am I going to do? I got to bend the top bends. He fucked it up. Napoli then had another chance but it was a remarkable save by Ciesni that denied Dilarenza from close range for what probably was the save of the season thus far. He did great to get back in position and denied the Italians close range header. It was kind of like almost a Gordon Bank save for England. I believe the 1966 World Cup was it? It wasn't around, bro. Personally.

No one was around when England won the World Cup but I don't know if it was the season England won the World Cup. Pelle was on the pitch though. The save was on him. Vlaovic had merit beaten but hit the post from just outside the area after the restart but I believe the Lionsman had deflected offside over there so that doesn't matter. But Juve broke the deadlock just two minutes later in the 50th minute. It was Cambiasso's precise in swinging corner from the right which found Gutty,

whose powerful header found the back of the net giving Juve a crucial lead. This guy is the man on fire. He's the man of the moment. He's the superhero. The rags the richest story of Gutty. The funniest thing about this is that it seems that his mistake against Sassuolo kicked all of the stuff. Yes man. We also forgot to open our beer. We're just out here. Headphone users beware. You sounded like the video game guy from the Simpsons. The guy with the top post. The ponytail.

You were saying, aha I think he scored one of the worst stone goals I've ever seen and it seemed to inspire him and motivate him and he hasn't looked back since. An embarrassing experience can either very much make or break you especially on the grand stage but Gutty, wow. And the thing that people aren't talking about is that he's actually been very solid defensively as well.

He's becoming a bit of a Sergio Ramos. There was also Roman Neody for like two games in a row for me. That was the last bit of goals. One of them was like a rough shot but he didn't fall. It was crazy. And the other one was when I believe it was Sousseau and maybe Kutrona. They were just passing and shooting. Napoli thought they equalized with Ossiman's goal after Politan intercepted Shesny's wayward pass but the goal was to sell out for offside.

It was great work by Ossiman to score that but it was a definite offside. I was putting together the notes I was reading on the article and it said marginally offside and that stirred debate. No. Did you see what the VAR showed? Absolutely. It was a mile. The guy was in another country like Napoli attempt to delete. Comeback with Di Lorenzo hitting the side netting and Shesny making crucial saves to secure the narrow lead.

So Juve actually momentarily went up to first. Napoli struggling but one thing I want to address is Madzari's baptism of fire. His first game for Napoli after the international break was on a way victory against Atalanta. Two goes to one. I see that and I get so pissed off as Amil of Alfa. And then a trip to Madrid shortly after where they lost 4-2 and then they hosted Inter and lost 3-0 and then they went to Juve and they lost 1-0.

So one thing I'm noticing over here a bit of a trend is maybe their goal scoring abilities are nowhere near what they used to be last year. So obviously it's clear to see that defensively Napoli are better since Rudi Garcia sacking or rather Madzari's employment. What is also clear is that there aren't any clear offensive patterns. So it seems that he's giving Poletano, Ozzyman and Gvarratskjelja a lot of freedom of expression, a lot of room to improvise.

And that obviously does not always work. It depends on how they perform on the day. If they're having a bad day there's no system to almost fall back on. Now this would work but it doesn't help as well as we discussed last episode that these guys are exhausted. They've been run to the ground, they were made to play against Real Madrid as well mid-week and they had Inter right after. It's exhausting for them playing that many minutes.

And yeah it's clear to see that offensively they're not ticking, they're tired and there's a lot of pressure on the individuals to cook something up. And if they don't manage then it's over for them. They don't really have any other alternatives. Plus Juve are the kings at disrupting their opponent. They will stop you from playing your game. They're so without that. Look at, sorry to rant here but I have to say this as well, Gatti Bremer and Danilo were like proper 90s Italian defenders.

The way they handled Ozzyman. It was abuse. They were hitting him like pulling at his t-shirt, really taunting him. And yeah they kept him quiet. Very good. So Napoli clearly agree exactly with what you're saying. I wouldn't even say they got tired here defensively but they got way more cautious as a team. It's like even when they're attacking they're not that free-flowing because they've always got kind of almost insecurity about what's going on at the back when they are attacking.

Obviously it doesn't help that they're playing Natan as a left back because typically Mario Rui and Olivier are pushing a bit higher up the field and it gives them that additional outlet. Especially Mario Rui who could really whip a ball in for when the rest aren't showing up. But these are the kind of things you expect when you're a point. A classic Italian manager that's used to managing teams that are battling relegation or mid table and you put him with the league champions.

I think he trusts that that front three look you guys debatably two out of three of you are world class. Just go give it your all. Defensively leave it up to us. And I think that's where they're struggling. To contrast you there who okay it's a leagry system. It's a very pragmatic system. To say the least. To say the least. But man have they got the mentality of winners this you bet.

Oh it's next level and you look at the individual performances and the way the team kind of rejoices when a goal is scored. First of all Cesney's performances like these saves are when you are league. They can win you the league. Those defenders are tough. They can get you clean sheets all season long. And when you have a striker like Vlaovic who's off form and everything is going against him and he should be sulking and he should be so annoyed with himself and upset and pissed off and moody.

You see him celebrating so passionately when his team made score. It goes to show that this team definitely has this team spirit about them and that our leg has really created a unit that is pretty much tough. They're keeping up with an interside was much better than them on paper and they're right there with them. Have we addressed that our leg isn't going to be there next season and that most likely is going to be content.

I don't even think we address it. What do you think is next for our leg? Do you see him going into international management or do you think it's not over for him? I believe he's getting paid for next year. I believe he's getting paid because he's still on contract for them. That being said I think he'll take the year off. He'll probably take the year off. Then it's interesting to see what he'll do after that. Milan returns home.

I'm not sure how I feel about that but he's definitely a good manager. He's definitely effective. Let's put it that way. I want to highlight Cambiasso. It's easy to highlight Gatti. I could go on about Gatti but I feel like they could go back to last episode if our opinion hasn't changed. It actually proves our opinion even more but Cambiasso on the right, fantastic. Cambiasso on the left, fantastic as well but I think this really shows his versatility.

The young man was a smart acquisition by you. Of course. I believe he was out on loan at Bologna and I think he learned a lot working with Thiago Motta. He's only 23 years old and these performances he's putting in can really make a mistake in this Juve squad. Perhaps not in the starting 11 if they were to reinforce but his future is definitely bright and he's definitely an effective player going forward and even defensively. I think that once Wea is back into the team, he'll start right back.

I think Cambiasso takes Kostich's place on the left. Kostich has been really... One-dimensional. One-dimensional and he's just not tidy at all man. He's not tidy at all. He's often caught out of position. He often loses possession himself. Be it he's trying to take on his man or he's trying a bit of an ambitious pass or he gets the routine pass wrong. And he's on their fire at the moment, Philip Kostich. And I think Cambiasso is raising the standard for what that position needs to be.

To be honest, it's between them two. Then there's Alexandro and Elin Jr. Elin Jr. isn't given the light of day by Allegri probably because of his defensive contribution. And Alexandro's position is gone. If he plays left back, he can swing. If he's not caught most left centre back, to be honest, it leaves a lot to be desired. So Cambiasso really has the opportunity to rack up some minutes this season. I agree. Yvonnext up, they have...

They have Genoa and Frozinone, which are a few softer fixtures obviously after the recent run that they had. They played Inter, they played Napoli. They've had a couple of tough fixtures. They could have it a bit easier over there. One thing that impresses me about you is that they've played the majority of the big dogs. I believe they played five of them. They won three and they drew two. They beat Milan. They beat Napoli. They drew two Inter.

Against the top seven, they've had a fantastic run, which is something they didn't have last season. That's it. And you see, for example, you watch the Juvent Milan game. You think they won. It was a weird game. Milan got a red card, whatever. You watch the game against Atalanta or whoever they play. They can't remember right now. But every game they seem to win is by fine margins and it doesn't really stick with you because it's unmemorable and it's unremarkable.

However, when you look at the grand scheme of things and you look at the fact that these guys have already played most of the big teams and not even lost once to them, that's massive. That's pure alegrismo. They're unbeaten in 10 games. How do they go on a streak like this every fucking season? Keep in mind, because this team isn't playing Champions League, which is obviously a massive kind of plus for their squad, their fitness, so on and so forth.

Even their focus. But they got second last season. Yeah, on the pitch they had second last season. On the pitch they had second. Absolutely. So it's not like this was unexpected. This is a team that came out of nowhere. In our pre-season prediction episode I had Juve to win the league. And to be honest, I'm not backing away from that. I know you were an interser, you're a super team at the moment. But it's difficult to see this Juve losing.

And the next games can be quite telling. As you said, Juve has a bit of an easier run. While Inter need to take on Lazio away from home, who are a bit of a bogey team for them, Lazio seem to give them quite a few problems. And then after that they have Lecce at home. And Lecce are quite a bitch of a team. So these two match days coming up can really shift the tides in the table. You know what Inter have that Juve don't, bro?

Depth. Well, not even. But their inters ability to get a goal is like no other team. They're like Naapoli last season. But it's not like Juve struggle dude. The problem is they don't push for it as much for Juve. But whenever Juve need a goal, man, they get it. Look at the Monza game. They need the goal, they had like 30 seconds left. Don't you think it takes them a bit more effort to get a goal than Inter? It takes them specific situations. They need dead ball situations to get a goal.

Inter from open play will pass the ball around 25 times, play a through ball, Miquittarian with the out step. The ball is freaking spinning like a disco ball. And it comes to the run, just has to literally like knee it into the back of the net. You know, they're super at creating goals out of nothing. They're a fantastic offensive side. And that's a 3-5-2. It's crazy.

And this Juve have a different approach. This Juve rely on corners, set pieces, routines, crosses out wide, costig spamming 7 crosses into the box till eventually one of them goes in, sent their backs going up and scoring. You know how it is with them. Just a couple more things before we move on, because I know I've been on this for a while. Ossiman's gesture to the Juve fans, they were cheering him a bit and he showed them the 5-1 last season, which is obviously the score.

What do you think of that? So at first I'm like, because Juve had just gone first with that victory and now they had gone down to fifth. So I'm like, it's this guy. We're fifth and you're first? What do you say? But now they're second and sixth. So I don't think so. Salty, clearly letting respect ossiman, obviously, but I think when you show a reaction like that and you're gloating about the past,

it's so irrelevant. It's such an irrelevant argument that you beat them 5-1 last season because you were just there and you lost. Yes, but perhaps he is reminding them that maybe we had a bad day, look what we did to you. The fans were giving him a lot of stick and he gave them some back. It's natural. I just think it shows a bit of saltiness. Yes, it does. No, totally. He's definitely bitter. He's won the African Player of the Year, what is it?

I mean, it's all surprising he had one hell of a season last season. But I think we can move on from that, not without a quick round of applause for Wojciech Szczesny, even though naturally he did make a mistake that could have caused Nalpolity to equalize, but that was offside. They spared him some blushes over there. Juve are in second, just two points behind Inter, really putting the pressure on over there. Wow.

I just noticed Inter's goal difference is a positive 30. That's fucking ridiculous, man. Nalpolity in sixth on 24 points, Jesus Christ, there are 14 points behind League leaders Inter. And last season Milan had the worst title defence ever, so we'll see if Nalpolity can take that a year later. So far they're out doing that.

But to be honest, their tough run, Nalpolity has come to an end and maybe now is the time for them to really settle and start to put some things together, start to find themselves a bit more. But yeah, we can move on to Atalanta, three Milan, two bro. We can skip it if you want. I wouldn't be opposed to that. For Atalanta it was the usual 3-4-1-2. For Milan it was kind of the 4-3-3 thing they've been doing.

When you look at the heat map, it's all over the place, like what's happening is Theo Hernandez really playing two positions and Weissflur and Cip playing right under his ass. For Atalanta it was basically business as usual, this time with Martin Der Ruhn stepping in at centre back as he has been doing. Due to their injury crisis over there, he was with Jim City and Scalvini at the back. Boopminers was in the Czech artista position and Decay Talare and Lukman started up front together for Milan.

It was Samuel Chouqués starting out on the right, Moussa starting in the middle with Reindersen, Loftis Cric and of course Florentine left back and Theo in centre back, as has been the case recently. Of course, once again, Leão still injured, not really needed back. He was meant to be in the squad and he wasn't even called up. He's apparently back for the Champions League fixture tomorrow, or today if you're listening to this in the future.

My prediction is that Milan beat Newcastle, but the other game ends in a draw, so Milan don't go through. Milan need Dortmund to win, because they're already through. Milan need Dortmund to win, so hopefully Dortmund prioritise first place. Look, bro, what are Thursday nights? Thursday nights are Europa nights. Fucking, we move. Bring it on, bring it on. Yes, bro, this game was an intense back and forth struggle, to be honest.

It was an emotional rollercoaster and it really showed Atalanta's resilience. And that back-heel strike by Mouriel in the 95th minute really sealed the deal for Atalanta. The celebration had me chewing the remote. It was running in circles, flailing his wrists around. I can't believe I've just done that. I can't believe I've just done that. You couldn't believe it. The match kicked off with Lukman netting for Atalanta and then Giroud had the response with a header on a corner.

Lukman's goal was a weird deflection that saw Maniand diving out of the way, deflected off Tomori and found its way into the back of the net. Milan responded twice to Atalanta's lead, however there was a pivotal moment when Keita Lari, bro, was played a ball right in front of goal. He had an empty net right in front of him and he managed to sky it somehow and pretty much summed up his entire time at Milan against Milan.

I was obviously glad that he didn't score that but you can't just help feel bad for him. He's got such a sad face, you know what I mean? His eyebrows are always like... And even seeing him head in hands. And it's clear that he's suffering with his confidence because every time he does anything, everyone celebrates.

It reminds me of that game last season where Milan fans were so desperate and tired of waiting for Keita Lari to do something that they started chanting his name randomly just to give him some hope. And I believe he lost the ball. The second they started chanting, he lost the ball. I think there were laughs, if I recall, like you hear laughter in the stands. That's actually it's traumatic. Not to forget that Milan are still his parent club.

And it was actually him who set up the second goal for Atalanta. He crossed the ball into Lukman who smashed it in and everyone literally pointed to him. They went running up to the Keita Lari, they hugged him, they congratulated him, whatever. Shortly after that Benassir was brought on. Jovic as well brought on to try to salvage the result. Eventually the ball was squared to Jovic by Pulisic who slotted it home. The man's on form right now for Milan. Keep it up, keep it up, keep it up.

I'd like to see that. But then eventually at the end of the game Calabria decided to drop a man in midfield stupidly. I don't know what the hell he was thinking about. Oh but man, there were like, there were fucking five minutes left. Yes, but why? Why? Why? There are five minutes left, you're pushing for a winner. But I don't think it was perfect. It was a, he clearly went for the ball, missed it, got the man.

Oh but it was so clumsy and reckless man. Like he should have, he's no longer a young player. But let us not allow him to be scapegoated for this. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, definitely not, definitely not. But that was definitely a stupid thing to do. If you're the captain of Milan and you're meant to be leading by example and you're meant to be leading the charge to the finish line, what else do you expect your captain to do?

Is to go in recklessly in midfield on a counter attack that, you know, that okay, it's dangerous, but it wasn't, it didn't look like it had the potential to lead to a goal. It wasn't a clear goal scoring opportunity. And I love Calabria, you know, Calabria is a staple of what it means to be a Milan player coming up from the youth system, going through the shit show that was the banter era and earning the captain's arm band and playing pretty solidly recently.

You should have lifted this area trophy for Milan. And speaking on scapegoating Calabria, by the way, there are people on Twitter right now saying, oh, because he threw the arm band at the end and there's a frozen image of his face, and I'm tossing the arm and he literally passed the arm band too purely. Like he has passed it, he tossed it to him gently. You see the video, like he's just tossing it gently. At the time, I can't see if he was even thinking about the arm band.

What kind of captain is this? Like what else does this guy have to prove to you that he's Milan through and through? Like that's something I won't ever question with Calabria. It's just that decision, man. His decision making sometimes is woeful and that was horrible. And that's what eventually cost Milan because suddenly you've got a depleted defense and you're a man down. And you've got these guys running at you, Atalanta, who are breaking Milan down so systematically with their passes.

It was almost like they knew exactly where the gaps were going to be, man. It's Calvin, he's charging, he takes a player out of place and he passed the ball into the space. They were picking the defenders out one by one, passing their way to the ball. How does everyone else beat this team? Because when Milan come up against them, it's like... Maybe they have their defenders available. That's probably it.

But yes, that fantastic bit of improvisation by Mirantio and Muriel at the end of the game was just incredible. And it was a deserved victory, to be honest, by Atalanta. I thought so, they were always in the driver's seat, man. Like Milan clearly had to up a gear in order to match the performance of Atalanta over here. Shout out to their fans who were fucking insane during this match, man. And I don't know if you noticed, they're expanding the jealous sort of game.

Of course, it's behind Mike's goal in the first half that was rather quiet. It's under construction. Rather quiet, it was dead like obviously. They're going to increase their stadium capacity and that's a pretty good thing because Atalanta actually do have quite the following. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I don't know if there's anything else you want to add from this nightmare of a game. I mean, I think you know what I'm going to say. I think you know what I'm going to say. Naturally.

So firstly, Atalanta really rose to the occasion. Gasperini loves playing Milan. Gasperini goes into a game with Milan. It's like, if you lose this game, I'm going to beat the shit out of all of you. I'm going to do what I did to Popo. Exactly. That's the way he goes into this. Scalvini again, again. Scalvini. That just one particular moment where he is always rushing up the pitch button in such a calculated manner. He's like an arrow running up the pitch. He runs in this straight line.

He drags a defender with him. If not, he's in space and he just adds turmoil and he's so quick at tracking back to get back in position. And typically most of the time, doesn't matter when the runs in midfield, you see him tracking back. If not Edison, if not Ruggieri, if not Pasalic. He has been in recent performances, slightly suspect defensively granted. He's only 20 years old. However, everything I've seen from this guy is just crazy. It's a ceiling and the way he inserts it.

I know which moment you're talking about. It was before Manian's fantastic double save. He needs to be addressed because Lukman could have had a hat trick, but Manian literally saved one of Scalvini's shots after Scalvini double tackled before he wound the shot. And then Lukman had pretty much an open net and Manian sprung to life to save that. And that's what a goalkeeper like Manian can give you. He's absolutely fantastic. It's undeniable.

I also want to highlight the fact that people criticize Piolli for not introducing new signings and young players into the squad sooner. It's a criticism of Piolli. Yeah, like bringing off Chouquets and the last five. Of course, exactly. Taking so long. Where's Adli been? Where's Adli been? If you look at the trackers and the runners back on each and every one of these Atalanta goals, Chouquets and Adli were responsible for marking their man in the last two goals.

And they just didn't follow through. And that comes with tactical awareness, tactical discipline and willing to defend and put your foot out for the team. And it's clear that sometimes they're not as well-drilled and it does take time to settle into a football team and to know what your role is to really understand the goal. I think so. Moussa being the only midfielder that got a full 90 minutes in this game. What have you made of Moussa so far?

Look, I'm... Because Adli and Ben Nasser came on for tricks and dry indigestion. By the way, two unused substitutes in midfield probably thanks to every single Milan fans and addressing their concerns. Kronich and Pobega warmed the bench for the entire 90 minutes. Yeah, and purely did actually say himself that Kronich isn't having a good moment at the moment. And Pobega, let's be real, he's... He's limited.

He's limited, yes. He's suffering a little bit as well when it comes to confidence. He hasn't really found himself at all. He loses the ball a bit too much, quite frankly. I like the player, I like what he can do. I appreciate his style. Perhaps I think this is a little bit too high for him as a level at the moment. I think he could benefit from another loan personally. Yeah, I think so. But Moussa, what do you say? Moussa, yes, for me, is an interesting hybrid, right?

I kind of like when I see him out wide. I don't mind it. I don't hate it when I see him out wide. I think he's built almost to be a winger and a 4-4-2. I feel like that's almost his best position. I like that he's quite technically gifted. To be honest, he's only 21 years old, so his ceiling isn't that worrisome. He's doing fine. This is his first season in Italy and he hasn't blown me away, but he hasn't disappointed me at all. He brings something. It's mainly industry and speed and midfield.

And a splash of technique. I think Ryan, to me, has been quite disappointing over the last five matches. Yes and no, because his skill set and his ability is clear to see that he's a good player. It's his attitude that's disappointed me. His unwillingness to pass the ball in the final third and to really pick out a teammate when he should. If he has a sight on goal, the guy's going to shoot. He's really, really, really thinking about himself. And that's not good.

Shall we move on to Inter-Odenezer? Inter put on a spectacular display against Odenezer. Odenezer's only victory is in the San Siro against Milan this season. And then you have this game where everyone on their mother scores. Exactly. This is the second time they visited the San Siro and both went very different ways naturally. A foreign victory to go back in first after Juve's momentary overtake. I'm aiming so much. I'm going to stop.

Inter had Bastoni back, but they missed Dumfries, Devrai and Pavard. Meaning the back three consisted of Bisseq, Acerbi and Bastoni. Whilst the army played as a right wing back after often recently being used as a right centre back because of their injuries. Whereas Odenezer, they still had Bijol, Davis, Delafoe, Semedo, Brenner and Ebosse on the treatment table.

Now the floodgates opened in the 30th minute when Cialenoglu converted a penalty after New Imperius fouled Lautaro Martinez in the box. That's six penalties out of six this season for Cialenoglu. The Marco double the lead five minutes later with an angled drive across the goalkeeper, Marco Silvestri, into the far bottom corner. That's his typical outside of the boot shot that drives across goal.

The onslaught continued as Turram added a third goal just before halftime, finishing off a 21 pass build up. This always scoring after over 20 passes to run with a tap in following a brilliant McItharion ball. To be honest, really should have been picked up by a defender, but great ball nonetheless. Now by halftime Inter had 76% possession, 15 attempts on goal to Odenezer's two and they had a commanding three in a lead. In the second half they continued to control the game.

They had a goal disallowed for offside at a point and Summer made a couple of routine saves to keep the clean sheet. Lautaro Martinez put the final stamp on the victory with a powerful strike from outside the box in the 84th minute after winning the ball back from midfield and bringing the ball up himself. I mean, what the hell are you gonna say? What? What? What? What? They absolutely destroyed them. Everyone was brilliant.

Bissec stepped in and looked amazing. Darmion, shift transition so naturally and gracefully from centre back to right wing back, whatever. He was amazing. Shalano Glu pulling the strings, McItharion showing that he can still get assist. DeMarco highlighting his prowess, Lautaro still on course to break 30 plus goals a season and how. Ktoram showing that he's probably the coupe of the season, free signing coming in and just fitting in so effortlessly. Apart from this.

And the centre team is just incredible. The Odenezer team is not an easy team to beat and they've drawn so many games against big teams and they've even beaten Milan. They're not a pushover team. Inter, Inter kill a team in five minutes. That's what they do. It's what they did to Milan and the Champions League. It's what they often do. They get the majority of their goal. They smell, they're like sharks. They smell like a stun grenade.

Exactly and they attack, attack, attack, attack, attack like here. You see the first goal by Shalano Glu, 37th minute. The third goal, 44th minute. 37, 42, 44. Like how does it, like look at that. Yeah, you score in the 37th minute, the first goal of the game and you go into half time winning three in a... That's fucking crazy, man. That's crazy. They're a really good man and I think they are a sleeper pick for possibly even Champions League winners. Yes man, yes they're there.

Because there aren't as many commanding teams at the moment in world football now. I don't think that if they were to go up against Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Manchester City, whatever, that'd be favourites at all. They're definitely going to be the underdogs but that's what they want. Yeah, yeah. That's what they want, man. They try to do something. I enjoy watching Inter play so much. I enjoy watching Inter play so much, man. I can't say the same.

I mean it sucks obviously, man, but I like to watch football as a bit of a new feature. Especially if Inter play Sunday, Milan play Saturday and Milan have won their game and then it's Inter and they're just killing it. It's just crazy how we're so used to, in recent times, whenever Milan had a team that's ahead of them in the table, drop points, Milan would seem to fumble or they'd hardly get across the line, right? You look at Inter, man. Juventus pulled off a statement victory.

They're up against the Neese and they smashed them four nil. Things don't get to them. These guys are soldiers. I want to highlight the return of Bastoni. Kind of forget what a great centre back this guy is because he's been out for a while. And much like Scalvin, he's a ball playing centre back in back three. He's back with 96% passing accuracy. He had a key pass and five successful long balls.

We were talking about how Inter's defenders and said themselves in the midfield and I think this guy, he's the one that can do it best for Inter. Of course. Of course, I think we did it while he was gone. Yes, he was charging up and down. But Bastoni's got them legs and he could instantly dart into the attacking third. Bro, it's a great thing that Scalvini is at Atalanta because Inter could easily sell Bastoni for like fucking 40, 50 million.

And then if Scalvini was at anyone else but Atalanta, poach him for 20,000. No, Scalvini needs to come to Milan. Scalvini needs to come to Milan. Scalvini, bro, isn't going anywhere for under 40 million euros because he's owned by Atalanta and Atalanta know how to run business. That's what they understand. That's Scalvini is Italian. Scalvini is young and he's got many minutes under his belt. That's a 30, 40 million euro player. And he's so cute, bro.

I hope he doesn't get an injury because the way he tosses himself into these situations and he's just 19, wait, but this is Inter. Bro's got a crush. Lautaro, like, I thought he hadn't scored in a couple of games, you know what I mean? But that's his 14th goal in 15 matches. Bro, who just fucking won the ball back in midfield, charged it up, he's like, fuck it, I'm shooting from distance and he obviously got the fourth goal over there. Every Lautaro celebration is immaculate.

Yes. He like rises on the stands, opens his arms, the fans are like right in his face, banging his teammates around and it seems to take longer than other players' celebrations. It's almost like Lautaro is the embodiment of the Sinter team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's almost immaculate. He's a godly figure almost at the moment. He's the face of the team. He is, man. Wow. His form has been stupendous and apparently he's going to renew.

Madonna, man. He's going to be one of the fucking legends of this entity. If he gets a second scudetto for them, especially man, and obviously they have a Champions League final with him. I can't believe I agree. He could. No, bro, fucking Graham Potter as well apparently. Graham Potter. Who played a lovely brand of football at Brighton before the Zerbi. Brighton were doing great with Graham Potter before the Zerbi. They ended shit with Chelsea and everyone does shit with Chelsea.

But anyway, Inter, first, a goal difference of 30, which is mad obviously. Odineza 17th, level on points with Empoli in 18th. They're in trouble. They're in trouble. Yeah, and it's weird because they have a good team. The problem is they didn't get many wins, right? They started off really badly and they were drawing every game. So Choffee needs to try to piece the things together again. Samardzic over here, by the way, he played against Inter. He pretty much signed for last summer.

By the way, bro, Lorenzo Luka goal next week. Yes. I'm telling you from now. He's going to score for sure. Let me tell you who they're playing against because I can feel Sasuolo, bro. It's going to happen. Lorenzo Luka goal? Lorenzo Luka goal against Sasuolo. Then this time actually play him on Fanta. I'm going to get two goals and he's on your bench. Now, we can, I think, discuss the Roma won Fiorentina one game. Yes, a boxing match. This was.

It was an absolute boxing match, one of the many this week. Roma looked to be perhaps not full strength, but pretty much there. They had Lukaku and Dabala up front. They had Christensen, who has been awarded another start off with that brilliant performance. As we predicted. Yep. Zalewski out on the left. Men and usual three at the back of Mancini, Lorenzo and Indica. One of the three Christensen's in Serie A and they all play on the right.

And that's so confusing, right? Which is your favorite one? I did this one. I like this one. Lachos is good as well, but he hasn't quite cemented himself. The Bologna one's lost for now, because he really hasn't shown anything. He's coming up. But this one's my favorite. Yeah, this one's a workhorse. It's fun to work. This one, this Chris over here. But yes, Fiorentina was in Bala and Zola up front. Lord knows why.

Bonaventura in the pocket, of course, with Duncan and Arthur in the religious position, the double pivot. And Cahio they started on the right as the right back, who's a very promising player. Yeah, Luc Caranieri was at centre-back, because they... I think Melenković must have not been fully fit, because Melenković was on the bench and he actually got sent off from the bench and he was against me on fantasy football. That's crazy. Yeah, it didn't go through. But anyway.

Can I ask you a question for the Bologna team? Where's Nico Gonzalez? Is it happening again? Is he once again emotionally unavailable? No, he came on. He came on this game. I'm sure it was a tactical decision or maybe I don't know, he hadn't... Tactical against Roma. They keep here. They're struggling for goals. Honestly, honestly, honestly, if Carlyari can keep Lovumbo on the bench for 65 minutes in a one, in a must-win match, and they keep the likes of...

Okay, maybe you tell me Pavoletti always scores at the end and he doesn't have a full 90 minutes in him. Okay, so they have Pavoletti, Petania, Lovumbo, Eldor, Shomorodov, all starting on the bench. Then clearly there's something about an impact sub, right? Because you bring on Nico Gonzalez into a game where everyone's been running for 70 minutes and suddenly you're introducing this rabid dog of a South American...

Yeah, he's aggressive, bro. And he presses and he fights for every ball and he's good in the air. So maybe it's not the worst idea to bring him on late into the game. In place of Jorco. In the place of Jorco, who's absolutely blind. But yes, let's get into what happened this game. Roma were aiming to close in on Milan in third spot. In the game, Ignite, early on as Lukaku's header off of the ball as a sister. There are lovely Cristante backheel. Was it a backheel? It was kind of a forward pass.

I'm not sure if it was a sideways pass, not a backheel pass. A sideways pass to Dabala, who crossed it in brilliantly to Lukaku, who headed it home. And that was the early advantage for Roma. Lovely goal. Lovely team goal. They just turned the pace like that when they have Dabala on the pitch. But of course that wouldn't last very long as Dabala missed a clear opportunity. Shortly after, as the left-skip played in three, he was on the penalty spot. He didn't manage to convert, whatever.

Shortly after that, in the 25th minute, Dabala was substituted with an injury. He didn't look too serious from his face, judging by the look on his face. But it's a shame to see what's happening this play. Yeah, but I feel like it's the same thing Milan kind of do with Poulissic. Where if there's a slight concern, take him out. After this, of course, in Zola missed a golden opportunity after he was played through. Bonaventura came agonisingly close as he hit the crossbar.

He cornered and opened his eyes and then passed the teammates who were in ample space. And then later on in the second half, that's when tempers flared and everything just really picked up. So first of all, Zalewski got sent off. He got sent off. It was a double yellow card, quite naive by the player. Just before that, Dabala's replacement, Azmoun, went off injured. Went off injured, of course! So it's a curse, it's the position. That must be a problem.

Zalewski tends to be a little bit naive at times. Yes, of course, he's still young. He received the red card, then Fiorentina increased the pressure. And the goal-scoring centre-back, who's an absolute joy to watch. Lucas Martinez-Quarta headed the goal with one of those backwards flicks into the back of the net. Martinez-Quarta is just running all over the place. If Fiorentina are defending, he's there. If they're attacking, he's there. He's just everywhere, going up and down.

And he's got great technique up for a centre-back as well. He really does, man. He really does. If he's going to die for a goal, he has. Just pop him up front, although you're doing playing. Honestly, man, this guy's goal prowess is so much better. He might be one who interquits poach. Perhaps. If they want another centre-back who advances. They need to buy a defender in January, but unfortunately they're funds, I'm not sure if it's allowed them.

So, Quarta came close to a personal brace later on, but he didn't manage to get the ball over the line. And the temperatures rose even further as Lukaku, who would have been cleaned through one goal after a long ball. His first touch failed him. He was dispossessed. The ball was played to Kwame on the wing. Lukaku tracked back the entire way, head down running at full speed, just charging at Kwame. He slid in, not even slid in, he flung himself in, studs up, completely missed the ball.

He collided with Kwame, tore his sock, like in the slow-motion replay, you see his sock tearing. And drops him to the ground. That could have been a leg-breaker. It was an affordable challenge by Lukaku. Straight red. Straight red, right off the PC. Italiano was fuming. He was furious. There is Morinio looking around like he was a victim. Can you believe this? He sent him off for that. Of course he sent him off for that. That was an attempted murder.

Lukaku had often been criticised for his first touch, particularly in the Premier League. Exactly. Zlatan called him a donkey as well. And the implication of a donkey in football terms is someone with a terrible touch, right? Or someone with low IQ rather, as a football player. But that's definitely not Lukaku. He's a very intelligent player. He lacks technique and lacks elegance, so to say a donkey.

Yeah, that's pretty much the spot on. There was a nail-biting seven minutes of stoppage time added. They saw hope for Fiorentina, but ultimately the referee showed another red card to Melenkovic on the bench this time. And the game ended with Roma in fourth place alongside Bologna. And that's it, pretty much. I think Fiorentina, so Roma as well, similar to what we said about Sosvalo, even though we haven't even addressed that game yet, there was a self-destruct button over here.

And that was caused by, let's say, I wouldn't even say inexperienced by Zalewski, because he has seen the stage now. He got a lot of playing time last season, so disappointing for him to get the two yellow cards in the manner in which he got them. I think that's really through his team under the bus, and in fact, the first goal for Fiorentina. Their only goal came just two minutes after.

But I think Fiorentina, once they went down and they knew that Roma were going to be very pragmatic moving forward, Fiorentina brought a fight. They turned the heat up themselves in the game, and they made it a fight. Roma fought, and Fiorentina managed to get back into the game, and they did manage to get their players sent off. So I think if you can't beat them by being the better team, then beat them by making it a scrap man.

And they managed to make it a scrap, and that's how they got a point out of this game. Absolutely, man, but I'm not sure if it's Italiano's system, we've discussed this heavily, and in great depth. I just can't understand how Fiorentina have so much of the ball, and they seem to push forward so much, and to create so much, but nothing's converted. The strikers are always isolated. Because if they want that to be better, why don't they play Nico Gonzalez for a full 90 minutes?

I'm sorry, I'm going to say this again, but like Iconi, he's nowhere near the level Nico Gonzalez can even score headers, for example. He scored multiple headers this season. But maybe that was the thing, maybe he wanted someone to play further away from those centre-backs, considering the absolute sheer size of Montreal, New-Laurent and Dica. But he did when I had their LB and Nico Gonzalez, so Bonaventura had a good goal-scoring opportunity.

The shot was on, and instead of shooting, he seemed to chip the ball, and the commentator went, why did he chip, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Nico fucking flies and his head's it. But Patricio saved it, yeah. Patricio had a good game. He did have a good game. But my thing is, maybe he wasn't fully fit, there must be a reason he's benching one of his best players. It could be, unfortunately, for some reason, I don't have this information, because I look it up and fucking nothing.

We're not going to know. But, in Zola. Yes, not a fan. So, same, right? He has qualities that I'm a massive fan of, right? I'm not, personally. I think that for a lonely team. Come on, we know what I'm talking about. That game for Spitz, the strength to hold up. He has qualities that when he's on, I am a fan of. Look, man. But that's not my major point. That's not my main major point. Religated, Spitz, yeah, then moved to Fiorendia. I wouldn't say single hand.

He missed the penalty in the play-off. Well, but he was the top scorer for fucking four seasons in a row in Serie A, three seasons in a row. He helped them survive for three seasons. But like in Zola, like you're saying, he's not very refined up front. He doesn't have certain technique. I think Zlatan could have very much aimed the offensive through at Lukaku at in Zola, and to have a better place over there. So, he needs players around him.

If he's going to play with his back towards goal, and if he struggles to get goals, he needs players around him. That can't finish. So, okay, he's got Bonaventura behind him. But he's got Ekone on one side, who double the point I made about in Zola, and he's applied to Ekone because, like you said, he doesn't open his eyes. Oh, man, he had Bonaventura wide open at one point. Wide open, man. And the pass was so on, and he had so much time to play it, and he just didn't look up, man.

He was looking at the ball the entire time. You're 25 years old. You've been playing football professionally for how long, and you don't look up there. So, I think I would be pissed off as a Fiorentina, Falsignico start, and also Beltran not coming on earlier, for example. You look at when was, 70 second minute he was brought on, Nico Gonzalez for Ekone. So, I think it must have been a fitness issue, and I think Beltran, yes, is injured, by the way, so he was unavailable for this one.

Especially he's on the bench. But I think he's just recovered, so he didn't bring him on for that reason, because he was sidelined for a bit. But, yeah, again, man, maybe the whole Insola playing 90 minutes thing was to match the physical power of their centre backs, but I don't think that, I think the centre backs were too intelligent and too experienced for Insola. They didn't show him a second, and the one opportunity he had, he didn't make the most of it at all.

And, yeah, when it comes to the wingers, they left a lot to be desired, and even with nine men, they seemed to really struggle to crack this Roma side. A fun moment from the game was when Mourinho gave a sheet of paper to one of the ball boys who ran up to Rui Patricio to show him a new formation. It seemed to say El Charawi on the left and Bové up front, and like Eserno, so exit.

I think it was something like that, so probably an offensive counter-attacking system for when you're down to nine men. Yeah, probably. I almost forgot we had that FIFA game where I got three red cards. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Back to our podcast. Bro is Roma. Yes, Roma are currently in fourth place, as I said, Tidon points with Bologna, of course, 25 points, while Fiorentina are in seventh place with 24 points. Salernetana, one Bologna, two. Brother, I believe you won this bet.

You said Bologna are going to get their first away win of the season, and I thought the curse would persist, and I thought it would be a 1-1 or something. What I didn't expect, bro, was a semi-wank goal. The wank, bro. The fucking wank. Like I said, Bologna's first away win this season. This temporarily propelled them into fourth position, and now fifth level on points with fourth place Roma. The hosts got their first win. That was a dreadful M. My voice cracked while emig, that was crazy.

You're not usually an M, right? I'm more of an M than you are. I am, I try to... Your M's are confident, they're like, you throw them out like fucking... I don't like it, man. For like three seconds, that's me avoiding the end. Is that better though, everyone says it's... If you take a public speaking course, they say don't M, just stay quiet and think. But you know, emig shows that you are thinking. But the power's in the silence. Power's in the silence.

The hosts got their first win of the season against Lazio, but it was quickly followed by a 3-0 thrashing at Fiorentina, so they remained rock bottom. Peponzaghi faced his former club without Guillermo Ochoa, who was replaced by Costil. Shit. Oh, did a great job, eh? He was woeful, bro. Bro. You know when I used to say that when Brahim used to shoot, he used to go... Yeah. When he made that save, he went like... I can't believe that, that's great. He kind of just rolled it back to Xerxes, man.

It was so unnecessary. But anyway. Bologna had a lengthy list of absentees, including Riccardo Orsalini, who I can't wait to see him back. Bonifazi, Dessilvestri, Sao Mauro, Jesper Carlsen, and El Azuzi. Now, in the opening minutes, Bologna took the lead through Ho Adadan, Joshua Xerxes, Jose, capitalizing on a weak save attempt by Salernetana's goalkeeper, Costil. It was a Stefan Posh strike, low, soft. Now, a save you could have easily hung on to, I feel.

But he really made a meal of it, really made a meal of it, he was way off his line, so he had less reaction time for a really slow shot. And on impact, it's like he just rolled the ball to Xerxes, just a really, really amateur kind of move. It's like he's never gotten down low to save a shot in his life. So Xerxes' easy goal for him over there. And it's not like the player, it's not like this keeper isn't match fit, because he was playing in France last season, he had 19 appearances in France.

And the season before that, he was even with Bordeaux, where he got 25 appearances. So this guy is used to playing. He hasn't impressed me too much, Costil. Not much, and he's also 36 years old, so he's no spring chicken. He could be Giroud, he could actually be Giroud, they look so alike. Xerxes continued his impressive form, anticipating a defensive error. This was a terrible back pass, and he just dribbled the keeper in classic Xerxes' fashion, and he finished into the empty net.

Was that Matsuki? That gave the pass, I believe so. Matsuki right, he had a terrible pass. A striker who needs to be in the right place at the right time, needs to read the slow pass. Brilliant. Xerxes also lost him. Now Salernetana's coach Peponzaghi made a few tactical changes in the 34th minute. He switched to a back four aiming to address the defensive vulnerabilities that were going on.

The alterations seemed to inject some life into Salernetana's style of play, with Boulay-Ediya coming close to scoring from a volley shortly after. And then after that, the match became very physical, much like the Roma-Fiorintina match, there were six yellow cards for Salernetana players, particularly Alexis Salemakers, who endured very rough treatment from Salernetana.

They were kicking him, they were pelting him, and Tempers flared even more towards the end, and there was even a lighter thrown at Salemakers from the stands. Then Fazio, Salernetana's Fazio, was sent off for a descent towards the closing moment, so Salernetana rock bottomed them and their Curva and all of this, they really, really lost their cool towards the end of the game. Much like Fiorintina, they tried to turn it into a scuffle.

And then Salernetana are lost, they need their fans more than anyone right now. Ideally, probably, if you look at it, the teams fighting for survival are the ones whose fans can really influence them the most. They can make the environment hostile. These games are usually not as big, not as watched, so you get away with a bit more. If it's a Uwe intergame, for example, you can't be as reckless as a fan, as a fan base in front, but on this kind of scale, you get away with it.

And Salernetana fans, their fans are experts at doing this, at creating a hostile environment, at taking the piss out of the players on the pitch, at lobbing stuff at them, putting up banners that will get their reaction out of them, chanting provocative chants, of course, and that's what they do, Salernetana. And they almost got back into it. They pulled a goal back with 15 minutes remaining when the Wank scored from a well-taken shot from the edge of the box.

However, they didn't manage to get away with anything from this game, but the Wank is back. The duality of Sime and Wank, did you see? Okay, so in the 75th minute, he took that shot with perfect technique. Lanky, 6'6", Nigerian striker, Sime and Wank, right? When he shoots the ball, this guy has to fold himself in half to be able to aim it accurately. He is a really interesting player to watch.

He executes that shot with perfect flawless technique, first time to the bottom right corner after Kondreva plays it to him, right? And then in the 90-something minute, he's played the ball. And even better chance than the first one, and he has even more time to think about it. He shoots it, that awful technique misses the target. It looks like it was his first shot ever.

So I don't understand how a player can be so moody, how he can display such technical excellence, and then hit the ball so badly. But it's not been his season. That goal was the only, I think, positive touch he's had of the football, because otherwise he misplaces it, he's really clumsy on the ball this year. Hopefully it's the start of something. I hope so, they really need him. How much of a level below our Salerno and Atahana this season?

Then the rest of the 19 teams in Serie A. Honestly, it's not that remarkable a difference. It's quite tight, they're still very much alive, I believe they're on 8 points. In 15 matches? Yes, they're on 8 points, but then you look at, like, you know, with Danea they are out of the relegation pool with 12 points, not so doable. I think when it comes to quality, if you look at the rivals, you look at, okay, Kalyari have a lot more spirit than Salerno and Atahana.

So Swolo have more technical ability, they're more gifted, they're more skilled, they're better players. But Danea also have better players and they can be quite tight and difficult to break down. And Puglia as well look like they're better drilled and they are more tactically apt than Salerno and Atahana. And then there's Hela Sverona, who I think are pretty on par with Salerno, but they're also a tough nut to crack at times.

For me, Salerno and Atahana are probably the worst team in the league. Yeah, probably so far this season. I want to make a correction, it wasn't Matsuki who made the error. Who was it? It was Lovato. Lovato played the ball back. Oh my God. Yes, Lovato. In fact, he got a grand rating of five. Because it was played from Matsuki's position. Yeah, from the right hand side. But to be honest, they are quite, quite closer to the box.

Yeah, man, I think Salerno and Atahana, one thing they lack is, you can't say that they lack spirit because they do have spirit as a team. It's like their players, none of them are consistent. And it's like many of their key guys seem to be new. So you have Kandreva, poor guy, he's no spring chicken as well. He's 36 years old. He's like a Matsuki who was kind of like a half a season merchant, where he had half a season where he was great, and then he kind of dipped back to being average.

Bulaea Dia doesn't even want to be there anymore, so they've lost him. They've brought in Ikumuezi and all the pressure in the world is on him. Legovsky wasn't there last season. Brotherage is bang average at the moment. The defense leaves a lot to be desired. Without Ochoa, they have a goalkeeper who's a bit of a vulnerability. Their manager, his level is probably Serie B. That's one thing I want to address. I don't want to shit on a manager too early.

But you're struggling for survival and you bring in Pippon Zaghi who's been in one relegation battle with Benevento and he lost. Yeah, I mean it's... In fact, bro. This is the time to have so much faith in a manager. In fact. And I think like Souza had shown us what he can do with Salernita. He improved Davide Nikola's side. And I'm not saying that it's excusable that he had such a shit start to the season because we need to sack your manager, and inject new life.

But Christ, man, in that case, get someone that's been there and that's helped team survive. Because Salernita, three seasons ago, two seasons ago, when they were battling relegation, they were dead lost for ages, they went to three managerial changes. Two managerial changes. They sacked their first coach, appointed another one. And then they had another coach and they got Davide Nikola on board. And Nikola had helped them survive. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely.

And the fans are fully aware that the direction that the team's heading towards is not ideal. And in fact, scattered around the city of Salerno right now are many banners made by the Salernitana faithful against Ervolino, the owner of the club. And one of them is like, I saw Ervolino Piccolo Womo, a small man. Ervolino out, things like that, scattered around the city. It's just not a well-run club.

And now what will happen in January, as we know, which is only, by the way, a month away, Salernitana will probably bring in nine players, because they won't have Diya. Yeah, their entire team is going to Afgan. It's crazy. Kulebali is going as well. It's not going to be good for them. That's going to be a very, very rough period. But we'll see what they can do, man. Usually their January signings are pretty good. Yeah. Bologna. Quick word of praise, naturally.

Obviously, we all know that they are in a higher position than one would have anticipated. While this team can really, in this game, okay, maybe they didn't show everything that we've seen so far, but they got a victory that is, it has them high up, man. It has them in fifth level on points with fourth place drama. Salernitana on the other hand, 20th on eight points in 15 matches.

Yes. And Bologna once again exercising their depth by playing Ramu Froyler, this game, who I'm surprised doesn't play more often. Yeah, that's true. But yeah, bro, that leaves us, that brings us to the highlight of the... Finally, man. Yeah, finally. Here we are, bro. Kaliari 2, Saswolo 1. So one thing I love about Klaudia Ranieri, as I mentioned earlier this episode, is he likes to keep his guns in the holster, until he really needs them, you know.

So he'll keep the likes of Petania, Lovumbo, Eldor Shomorodov on the bench. He started this game with a flat 4-4-1-1 classic. He had scuffet and goal, who by the way, I saw him, I was like, ah, Kranio. And I'm like, wait a minute, that's so... This Kaliari guy looks just like Kranio. So like goalkeepers in Serie A, I think they ran out of faces to generate, so they're just putting like, Jiru, Kranio, just generating common faces. Literally. But anyway, it was the usual back forward.

This time it was Oristanio starting out on the right, and Nathan Nandes starting out on the left. Nathan Nandes played a terrible game. He was full of industry, his work rate was remarkable. He fought and fought and fought and fought, but none of his crosses seemed to land, and he was eventually substituted. Sulemana and Prati were in the middle, with Viola playing behind Lapadula. Do you know what the right way to pronounce Nandes' first name is? Nahitan. No, it is.

Thank you saying Nathan, but you're Ed from Edde de Nadi. No, it's not. Nathan. No, it's not. Nathan. No, it's not. No, it's not. Okay, now, for Sassuolo, it was Daman Damar in defense, with Erilych and Rohan. Mattias Vini out on the right, Tullian on the... Sorry, Vini on the left, Tullian on the right. A double pivot of Ratchic and Henrique, with Thordz Vet as the Czech artist, and he started the game with a full set of teeth.

Castillo out on the right, of course Pinamonte up front, and Lauriente on the left. I feel like the steam changes a bit, so might as well read the line up. Jake, please. Where is Berardi? Berardi... In Fortunato? In Fortunato, yes. It's not... Fortunato? It's not Fortunato, because... In Fortunato. Because he's very sick. Because he's very sick. Berardi was unavailable for this game.

Kallir, you were denied by a goal line clearance, and the first half, and Thordz Vet clashed with Sulemana and lost two teeth. After receiving some treatment on the... on the sideline, he actually stayed on. Which is... Which is mental and... I couldn't believe it. He was the first warrior of this game, because in the second half, that's when the action really picked up. In the first half, sorry, of course, it's meant... I should mention that Dom scored... Yeah. Early, she scored the header.

Dom. And then in the second half, Dommer got sent off. Okay, for a second yellow card. Dommer, of course, is Ruan Tresoldi. Obviously, this isn't a jab at the personnel. It's more of a jab at the Sasvallos centre-backs, in general, who never seem to perform well. Ruan Tresoldi is so clumsy. Listen, back to season one, our victim was Vlad Kirikes. Kirikes, man. It's like everything he would touch would turn to shit. Literally.

Lovumbo was brought on in the second half, and that's what sparked the comeback for Kallieri. As he was brought on, the second he was brought on, Vinja's job seemed to be hit him as hard as you can. Affect him. Make this guy uncomfortable, don't let him play confidently. So the first time Lovumbo got the ball, Vinja charged him, dashed into him maliciously, fouled him and hit him in the face with his elbow, as he was landing. Lovumbo was clearly, clearly, clearly hurt by it.

He got up, he shook it off. Then he got the ball again. Vinja came to aggressively mark him again, and Lovumbo dribbled him three times. Kid, you know what? He went left, then right, then left again. He was just taking the piss out of him. This is when I was like, alright, this is serious. These guys are good. So you have one guy playing on Sasvallos, who's got two missing teeth. The other guy has just been clattered, and he's taking the piss right now.

And then Ruan dressed all these red cards for kicking Lapadoula in the face. It was horrible. He broke his nose, and his eye flared up. It was so swollen the second it happened, that his eye was closed, one of his eyes. Once again, he received some treatment, probably got some kind of anesthetic or something for his eye, and then it seemed to actually go down, the swelling. And he continued playing again with a warrior, Lapadoula, is. So it's the dying moments of the game. Right?

And, oh sorry, Vigny actually tried to go in hard on Lovumbo again. He went in so hard, he injured himself, and was substituted through injury. So he hurt himself, trying to hurt someone else. Very, very naughty player over here, Vigny. So yes, it's the dying moments of the game. We are talking the 93rd minute over here. Sasvallos are a man down, but they're one nil up. Kallieri have been pushing and pushing and pushing all game, but none of their crosses seem to be landing, right? 93rd minute.

Lovumbo crosses it in, Lapadoula takes a touch, volleys it, slight deflection, back of the net goal, celebrates, his nose is broken, you know, he does that thing where he puts his hands to his ears, and his nose literally sideways. Everyone's sprinting back, Kallieri. They've got fucking a couple minutes left. There was a pretty back-side, let's get the win over here. We're so much better than them right now. There were seven minutes of added time, right?

It was the 97th minute, the ref looks at his watch, he's like, you know what, man, that goal kick took a while, there was the goal, we'll give them an extra minute, no. 98th minute, across goes in, Shamorodov knocks it back, Leonardo Pavoletti, who was brought on late, bicycle kicks the ball into the back of the net, man. Scenes like everyone screaming, people crying, it was this unbelievable, man, unbelievable, what a game of football.

The Kallieri team, man, they embodied, they embody what it means to be a football fan. This game had everything in it, absolutely everything. Drama, it had great goals, it had competitive spirit, crazy competitive spirit, it had. You look at the yellow cards, it was a bloodbath, man. That was a bloody fun game to watch, man. Oh, man. And it came on a Monday night, I wasn't expecting such a thing. I got home just in time, because I was working late.

Until like, like I literally got home at 8.45, I flicked it on, at the beginning I was prepping for this episode, but obviously, you know how it is, you're mainly watching the game. And then thankfully, I literally shut my laptop in like the 75th minute. I forgot to mention, I missed a massive part. While Saswolo were one nil up towards the end of the game, we're talking the 80 something minute over here. Bloody, they're counterattacking Saswolo.

Mullateri has the ball and he's charging, and I'm wondering is he going to actually play the right pass away? It seems to hang on to it for too long, then he lets go perfectly unleashing a player 1v1. Instead of shooting, the player squared it across to Bayrami, and Bayrami finish into the back of the net. There was a long VAR check, very long check, very long check, and then we saw why afterwards, because it was offside. In fact, that's why there were the 7 minutes added. Exactly, that too.

And the offside was so margin. It was closer than Keen's, it was tighter than Keen's offside, and that was tighter than I'd ever seen. I do think there should be a limit where you allow the goal. I don't know. That was fucked. It was black or white, if he's slightly offside, he's offside. It's not enjoyable, but... That would have changed the outcome of the game entirely. They would have been too in the lap, man. It would have been a victory for Saswolo. That's how tight this game was.

Drama man, a roller coaster from beginning to end. Amazing, bro. Who is your favourite player on this Coleri team? I like... How do you pick one? It's one of the goal scorers. Lapadoula or Pavalletti, what are you looking at over there, man? In my opinion, now they're not like actual legends of the game, but to me they are iconic faces of Seria, these two guys. And the thing that I like about Coleri is that... So you look at the newly promoted sides.

You look at Frozenona that are basically a bunch of kids, very offensive with a lot of low knees brought in. You look at Genoa, there are a lot of big players who are misfits in different places and have been amalgamated together to create this dangerous dynamic team. Or up-and-coming players, like Goodman and Retegui? As well, but Retegui as well, he was quite well-renowned. Malinovsky as well, Messias as well. They've got more stars than Genoa. Coleri are the hard workers.

Coleri are the industrious players. They are the Lapadoulas, the Pavalletti, the Violas, the Nandesses. They are these guys, man. They are the fucking working class. I love Lapadoula. Yeah, I love Lapadoula too. He's a great man over anything, and he's professional. And that's what many of these guys are serious professionals, man. And they're fucking... Give me a team. Now is it ideal? It's debatable. But they're three strikers. I love it, man. Lapadoula, Pavalletti and Petania.

Talk about having foxes in the boxes. Talk about having tanks in the bank. Fucking talk about having wanks in the shower. Why? I couldn't think of one. Yeah. I don't know. I like... I like Nicolas Villal, as well, a lot. Super player. He's the glue. He's the glue. He's like Gels, midfield to the attack. And as well, Zito Lovumbo is just so much fun to watch. And I think he's actually the one over here who's destined for a big move. Out of all these guys, he's a level above.

And many of these guys were playing in Serie B. It's not like they bought a bunch of players. And it's nice to see that they stuck around together as a group. Because these guys got promoted through the playoffs. And they showed great spirit. The exact same type of spirit in the playoffs as well. They've been doing this since last year, guys. They Pavalletti scored winners at the end of games. Lovumbo dribbling goalkeepers against Barri and all that.

Lapadoula, last season in the Serie B. And in the playoffs, he was a fucking ridiculous man. He was Robin van Bresland. But you look at just what, firstly, just look at the results Caleri have had in recent times this season. So they got off to a bit of a disappointing start. They drew to Torino and then they played Inter, Bologna. Then they drew to Woudiners and they lost to Atalanta. They lost to Milan, they lost to Fiorentina, they lost to Roma. I remember suggesting the tough spell they had.

And then they even... And then there was the 2-2 draw to Salerno and then you see it begins. The 4-3 victory against Frozzinone. What a comeback! They go on to the Coppa and they eliminate Odinese. Caleri do that. They come back to Serie A and they beat Genoa at home. 2 goes to 1. And then they lose to Juve, 2 goes to 1. They hold Monza, who are no fucking joke. They lose to Lazio, 1-0, Marginal. And they had the red card during that game.

And then they come back in the manner in which they did against Saswolo. You're not looking at a bad record that this team have over here. I'm not even sure, sorry if I missed it. Did you even mention the 4-3 against Frozzinone? Of course, it's kind of what changed everything over there for them. There's a theme. It's the hustle that gets them these victories. It's the hustle and the hustle is called Leonardo. Pavoletti. Of course. But yes, bro, absolutely amazing team, incredible.

Saswolo on the self-destruct button. Click, boom! That is so typical of them. However, do not even consider the idea that these guys are going to get relegated because there's no chance. Saswolo. Saswolo are in 15th with 15 points. Kalir, you're in 16th with 13 points. Monza 1, Gen 1-0. Good game. Good game. You're very good game. Valentin Karboni had his first start in Serie A. Showing some good promise for Monza. He's been really good coming off the bench. Gen 1 welcomed back Goodminton.

But the absence of Suspended Malinovsky and the injured Kevin Strutman affected their midfield. But this was already a step forward because they've had so many injuries. It was just good seeing all these names together for the first time. For sure. Now, both teams entered the match with only three points, separating them. Monza were keen to bounce back after a last gasp defeat to Juve, Gen 1 aimed to capitalize on their opponents' recent difficulties. Pardon me, I almost vomited.

It does it every episode. Calderola's last minute withdrawal forced Monza to make a defensive adjustment, introducing Pereira to the starting lineup. Now, the match, because obviously there were certain personnel out and just the way the game was unfolded, it showcased quite a bit of defensive vulnerabilities for both sides, despite the low scoring affair with which it turned out to be.

Gen 1 had their fair share of opportunities, with Badel having a close-range header, being crucially blocked by Matteo Pesina, really getting back into a good position and showing that he is as effective lower down the pitch. Retegui squandered a golden opportunity moments later, ballooning the ball over the bar from just six yards out. He'd be very disappointed with that.

And then, Monza broke the deadlock in the final minutes, when Dani Mota, the substitute, started the move in his own half, finished expertly from Pedro Pereira's cross. He hadn't scored in 16 minutes in 16 matches, not 16 minutes. He hadn't scored in 16 matches before that. Gen 1 had an immediate chance to equalize, but Rade Dragousin hit the side. Netting... He moves like a striker, Dragousin. He does, man. He flows, doesn't he, Dragousin?

And he's another defender that gets into a good position. He really can't bomb, man. This is a trend. Not these 3-5-2s. Netting, you know how you made that TikTok of top five midfielders to keep their eyes out on Lemidou Centabax? Do it. I could literally say them right now, but I won't, because it will spoil it. Scalvini, Bonjourno, Dragousin. Two more. Do you know what they are, though? Yes. Pongratcic. And Pongratcic. Oh, a basquerotto. A basquerotto. Yeah, it's fun to watch.

But then he put basquerote, he can't put Pongratcic, I think. Ah, because too let's show it. I'll think about it. But that's interesting. I would totally, I love that shit. We should totally do it. I have some cool ones. So I brought up a point on the group chat, which Cesko disagreed with God. God bless him. Where I said that I prefer the role that Pesina has taken at Monza, as opposed to the role he had at Atalanta.

Now, obviously at Atalanta, he was in heavy rotation, because they had Miran Czuk, they had Malinovsky, and they had all these guys in the attacking midfield role. But he was playing as an attacking midfielder. Here at Monza, he's really matured into this, you would say box-to-box midfielder. But a very mature one at that, pardon me, that really prioritizes the defense, and the, let's say, the Madonna, the balance of the midfield. It does a great job over there.

You see him getting back in this game, and getting a crucial block over there. It's not the first time we see it. I think this position is better suited for him, especially when you consider he's not incredibly refined in front of goal and in or around the box. He has good moments in him, but it's not like he's consistent there. What do you think? I think he's a very smart player. I think he is very mature and works very hard.

And if you look at the possession stats of Monza, the defenders seem to have the most of the ball. And then from the outfield players, besides the centre-backs, it's Pesina. Everything goes through him. And Pesina is just the heart and soul of this Monza team at the moment, in the double pivot alongside Galliardini. They make a really good duo, and it's almost like they're running for three people sometimes. So I do like this new role for him.

I don't think as a trick artist he was... I don't think he had a shout, for example, for a starting spot in the national team. But in this role, he might one day. He might one day, because he's not even that old. He's 26 years old. 26. Pesina at the same age. That's great for my confidence. Fantastic. I would agree with you over there. He has a brighter future in the role he's playing.

And I think if Monza were to win a few more penalties, he could have the Chalonoglu effect, because he is decent from the spot. Yes, and he's so manly. It's a pleasure to have one of the teams, because he can fill in any position anywhere. They are just a team of locals, in the Eman Monza. Look at the amount of Italians over there. Was this an all-Italian eleven-bar career? No, not an all-Italian. Pereira. I think that's it.

Everyone is Italian. Churria, Carboni, Colpani, Colombo, Galliardini, Pesina, Carboni, D'Ambrosio, Di Gregorio. Give me a break. Damn, well, you need some... some cheese on it, man. You've got yourself many different plates of pasta. I think Pereira had a good game. He grabbed an assist. And this was obviously... weren't expecting him to start over there. Let's jump to Genoa. Genoa have a very good starting eleven, and they had a great campaign in Serie B last year.

Do you think they're underperforming, overperforming, or performing up to their standard in Serie A this season? So I don't think they're underperforming, and I don't think they're overperforming. I think they're doing just fine considering the situation. They seem to have missing pieces at different times. So when they started the season, and Tagui was fit, and Goodman's in was fit, they were flying pretty much. Don't say flying. They were flying, but they were up there.

They were getting their victories. If you look at the way they started the season, I think they even beat Roma, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, they beat Roma as well. They were doing very well. But then everything seemed to fall apart. Tagui's been struggling with injuries. Junior Messias wasn't available from the start and has only become available recently. Malinowski picked up form late as well. He picked up form when Messias, Goodman and Zinedine were all out.

So that was actually a pretty good thing for them. But I think when everyone's fit and together, I think that this team will definitely stay up. They beat Roma for one. I forgot about that. They were flying, bro. And they also had that mental game against Milan with Jeroos stepping in goal and all that. And they were really pushing at the end.

But now it seems that with all these injury problems, granted, their players are back now, but they're not as much fit and they're still struggling in the second half to see out games. Because now they're just starting their best players who can't play a full 90 minutes and having to replace them for lesser players. I think they'll survive. I think they'll survive. To be honest, I don't know why I don't even think of it as a question. I think they have a lot of quality in their team.

I think they have a good manager in Giordino. And I think their best is yet to come. We've seen flashes, but I still think that a lot of these players, like I mentioned, Messias, knew from Milan won this area. OK, Leo. Malinowski, star. He's a star of a player. Retegui as well, young talent. Young, inverted commas. By Italian standard. Malinowski, star by Italian standard. But there are all these new pieces coming in. And once they gel, they could really be like the Monsar of last season.

And just like Monsar, they have a fantastic tactician at the helm. Because Giordino has this great willingness to shift formation, to adapt the games. I really like him as a manager. Some of his offensive tools have been available recently in Ecopana and Puskas, as we say every episode. They're not quite the standard, but you know how it is. Monsar in ninth on 21 points. Pardon me. Gen 1, 14th on 15th. Drink every time you have to excuse my brother. Well, it's the beer. It's the beer.

So, bro, Verona held Lazio 1-1 at home, right? Yeah. They played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Serdar and Soslov and Dengonj playing behind Dürich. While for Lazio, they had Luis Alberto back. It was pretty much business as usual, other than that. With Shasaleh also stepping back into the centre-back position, replacing Patrick, who has since reunited with SpongeBob. The game began with Lazio dictating the tempo, but struggling to break through Verona's defence.

However, there was a swift combination between Lazari and Philip Anderson, which led to Zakanese's superb backheel finish. I was particularly impressed by Lazari this game. He was really lively and technical, and really squeezing through tight spaces between opponents and keeping the ball. Yeah, he was very involved. I'm still laughing. Imagine you mentioned a TikTok trend or something to Patrick. He doesn't know what you're talking about. He's like, have you been living under a rock?

I'm like, yes. Anyway, with all Seria podcast, let's get back to it then. Goddamn Patrick living under a rock. That's hilarious, bro. Yes, it was the 23rd minute when Zakanese decided to flick the switch, channeling his inner Luis Alberto. He didn't celebrate. He's a Hela's Verona player, and he's had many good moments at Hela's Verona. They really made him the player he is today, so of course he did not celebrate. Nice to see.

Following the goal, Lazari adopted a more cautious approach, and allowed Verona to gradually exert themselves. Despite the limited attacking threats from the host before half-time, Bonj's header posed a minor threat handled by Immobilia before it could trouble Providell. That's funny. The first half ended with Lazio in the league. The second half saw Baroni's tactical changes. He injected more offensive impetus with substitutions.

On reason, introduction proved to be the pivotal one, equalizing in the 70th minute after Sussloff's delivery. Now it's 1-1, and later on, Ciasale would score a goal. Another X for Verona. However, a VAR review clearly showed that he had shoved Duda to the ground before winning that header, so of course the goal was cancelled. Shortly after, Duda received a second yellow card, reducing Verona to 10 men.

Lazio had a numerical advantage, and tried to push forward in search for a winner, but they didn't manage. They had chances, but Castellanios and Vecino failed to convert them. The 1-1 was a pretty fair result, in my opinion, over you. Yes, I think so. I think Lazio's inability to kill the game was kind of what the theme of this game was. Even if you look at the most recent upsets, the last one which was against Salernetana, that was that as well.

Immobilis scored a penalty before the stroke of half-time. They didn't manage to kill the game, and Salernetana grew back into it. I think Lazio are missing that. Like last season, they were so good at attacking. You look at what they did to Milan with the 4-1 game, and the way that the entire team was linking up Zacani on fire, Milinkovic-Savic, obviously last season, Luis Alberto on hot form. Immobilis still had it, even though he started to slow down a little bit last season.

But they're not those killers that they were, Lazio. You see this game against Verona, they really allowed Verona to play their game. Now Verona is against who can they play their game. You know what I mean? But they were allowed to bring it, quite frankly.

Look, they're a team whose best playmakers barring Luis Alberto, who's just on a different level when he wants to turn things on, are their wingers, and they have pretty good depth in their winger position, because they have Philippe Anderson, they've got Zacani, they've got Pedro, okay, okay. Those three can all create a goal. Then up front they've got Immobilis, the veteran, and they've got the new guy Castellanius.

But then you look at the midfield man, they have no solution if Luis Alberto isn't working. It's flat, it's so flat. They brought in Vecino, but Vecino isn't the type of player you're going to bring on to pick a pass out, to play that killer pass, that through ball to Immobilis, to one lesion. So they're clearly struggling. And Sarri has said himself that he struggles to find what the problem is with this side, and why he can't seem to get them flowing.

So they clearly have some problems right now. The problem is if they keep dropping points, it's going to get worse and worse and worse. And if they thought losing Mlnkovic-Sovic was bad, if they don't make Champions League, they're going to lose a lot more players. You know, I mean they're in tenth right now, with 21 points, that's not very good at all.

You look at Veron, on the other hand, they are in 19th with 11 points, flirting with safety as they're a point away, but yeah, they've got a lot of work to do. And they do seem to be getting more organised, especially defensively. They're very similar to Udinese in my opinion, but they have more technique. We've said this, I think this is like the third season in a row where we draw a vampire. They are so similar, man. They're both tight, too tight teams, hard to penetrate.

Veron, although, don't have as much technically gifted left-footed players as Udinese, as you say. Good to mention as well, brother, the return of Thomas Henri, he's now scored two very important goals for Helas Verona in his last two appearances, where he came on for a Jewish. So this is a guy that, by the way, who was he with before Verona? Venetia. Venetia, he was a record-breaking signing for them.

And so he always has, and he was one of the players that stayed in Serie A when the rest of the team went down to Serie B. So, like, eyes on him, because, okay, he's got a shitty attitude, but there's something about him that makes clubs spend millions of people on. Yeah, and apparently, Sierra Metti, senior Thomas Henri, you know? Sure. Twice in a row, no? So we jumped to Empoli Lecce, it was a one-one draw.

It was a tightly contested match, the result temporarily lifted Empoli out of the relegation zone, while Lecce stayed in 13th place throughout. The game saw Simone Bastoni's early free kick sailing over the crossbar as the first attempt, and Polis Nicola Cambiaghi created a threatening chance with a low cross, but Lecce's Falcon, the main character, denied the subsequent effort. Lecce's Piccoli had opportunities but couldn't convert, and Nicola Sansone's attempt was collected safely by Falcone.

Cambiaghi had a promising breakaway chance, but Falcone's strong positioning denied him the chance, that was a good opportunity for Empoli, and Caputo was shortly after substitute due to an injury just before halftime, and the second half saw both teams making some changes. Christovic and Rafia entered the game with Banda breaking the deadlock at the 64th minute, with a long-range shot that surprised Berisha.

We can call it a blunder by Berisha, because the shot was from miles out, and it went under his legs. I was a goalkeeper, and if you listen to, well, when I was fucking 12, like, you know. But he was lit, eh? He was good. I was fucking mental, bro. He was so good, you know, they used to use the big goalpost, the actual size, and he was 12 years old, he was flying, saving top corner efforts, you know. That's a lie, by the way. No, they used to use quite big goalposts, bro.

Really? No, I'm talking the full size. It wasn't 11, like I could barely reach the top over there, but they used to use bigger ones. I mean, at that age, they tell you to shoot from as far as possible, they're like the goalkeepers, small, have it. Yes, they have it, bro. Fucking magnet matting, all of the time. Yeah, they have a magnet matting.

But one of the first things they teach you is when you're picking up a ball that's rolling towards you, you don't open your legs, bend over, and go to pick it up, but you kneel down, you put your knee behind your other knee or leg, and you collect it, so that if the ball slips between your legs, it's gonna hit your knee. And to me, it looked like he was about to do that, and then he stopped himself. So I don't want to, you know, accuse someone of match fixing, but go look at it.

And tell me it wasn't either super amateur or daylight rubbery. And it was unlike him, because these are the brilliance he's in upon. Really? I see. And even this game with the ball at his feet, he was looking really confident, it was weird. Yeah, I don't know if it's... I doubt it, but then again, it's Italian football, so the hell knows. Shall we just move on to Jossy's bicycle kick, man? I feel a bit bad for Jossy now, because we really put this area spotlight on him.

And I really don't want to harry McGuire his career, man. Bro, did the thing. But Jossy's blessed, though. He'll score goals and big opportunities, so his career will be praised wherever he goes in Italy later on. Moments later, Empoli equalize as Kambi Aghi's intended cross to cut deflection of Raffia, whooping into the net, which went down as an own goal. Empoli pressed for a winner with Falco and making a couple of crucial saves while Lecce defended resolutely.

The match ended 1-1 with Empoli climbing to 17th place for a moment, one point above the relegation zone and Lecce maintaining their 13th position. I must say, bro, that I have a few points to make about this game. So, first of all, Banda, despite all his clear limitations and the fact that he's not always effective, if he attempts five maneuvers and fails four of them, that one he manages can be devastating.

And he often leaves his opponents in the dirt, and this match even saw him outmustling his opponents on many occasions. He had a pretty good game over here. And Spendi, Steven Spendi, has very good hold up play, very good, seems to be an interesting player. And I must say that at the end of the game, Fazzini was so unlucky not to get that ball across the face of goal. He squeezed past the defender so brilliantly, often knocking it back over.

I was sure he couldn't get into that position, but he managed and he squared it across the face of goal, but it was cleared by a defender. Also, smart management by Davirsa, who waited until half-time to make a substitution, because as you know, there are three substitute slots. You can make five substitutions, but they have to be in three slots, right? So, Kaputo had fallen injured in the 41st minute and he brought on Steven Spendi.

And then, shortly after, Berezinski got injured, so he waited until half-time to bring on Tyrone, and that way the slot wasn't used up. Very smart by Andriy Azoli. Yeah, cute. Do you think there was a team that deserved to take three points over here? That's a very good question, actually. It was a very standard one when there's a draw. Yes, but I hadn't thought about it. I think Ampoli were slightly better, but I don't think...

Look, at the end of the day, Ampoli played a more refined brand of football than Lecce, which isn't very common. And Lecce's goal did come through a terrible goalkeeping blunder, even though the other goal was also a blunder and it was no goal. So no, fuck it, draw deserved. No, there was no team that deserved the victory. Well, fair enough, brother. Ampoli are in 18th on 12 points, while Lecce, God bless them, 13th on 17 points. God bless them, eh?

Frostinone Torino is the finale of this episode. And it's not a very exciting one, to be honest with you. But look who's back. Richie. Richie is back somewhere, Richie. Playing alongside Billic and Vlasic in the middle over there for Torino. Torino are looking better, they're looking very sharp. They lined up the 3-5-2 formation with Dubvan and Sanabria up front together, while Frostinone lined up with an interesting 3-4-3 formation and they listened to this.

They had Soulet, who was born in 2003, Kyo George, who was born in 2002, and Ibrahimovic, who was born in 2005. This team is so young, man. Yeah, all starting in the front. All starting up front, forming the front 3-4 Frostinone. Now, this was a bit of a surprise tactical setup from the French Ressignation, one really saw it coming. The first half wasn't the Frostinone we're used to seeing. It wasn't as flowing as continuous kind of football.

And I think that's mostly with Torino's attempt to disrupt their gameplay. Yeah, they are a very disruptive team, Torino, and they're a very organized team at that, they're a U-rich team. They really are. So the first half did lack continuous flow. It was marked by fragmented play and heightened aggression. It seems to be the theme of the week. There were also a few controversial refereeing decisions by the referee over here.

Torino had two clear chances, one from Zapata's header of a corner, narrowly missing Tirati's goal, and another powerful long-range strike that hit the post by Ilic. Going back to the referee in consistency or controversy in this game, Oiono had 2,000 in a row and should have probably been sent off, while there was a penalty call for a challenge by Bon Joir on Georgia.

The second half saw Frostinone as best chance when Ibrahimovic found Kaio, Georgia free in the box, only to be denied by Milinkovic-Savage's reflex save. Both Di Francesco and U-Ritch made tactical substitutions to try to change the game. Karamoch's introduction led to a chance for Zapata, but Tirati pulled off a wonderful save. Over there, probably one of the saves of the week, there were quite a few. Brilliant save.

Despite Torino's late surge and the disallowed offside goal, the game ended go-less and both teams were unable to take home all three points. A fun nil-nil, nothing really eventful over here. Two teams who are entertaining, Frostinone particularly a very entertaining football team, while Torino on the other hand are kind of on the up and seem to be rediscovering themselves again.

To be honest, I was expecting a little bit more from Torino, just because they just came away from a massive 3-nil victory against Atalanta, but it doesn't seem like Torino are a team that very much ride in negative or positive spells. And this is a Frostinone aside who have taken points from the likes of Atalanta and Fiorentina at home, so they did have to proceed with caution because these guys have some bite about them. So yeah, I thought this was a fair draw to be honest.

Nothing crazy apart from the maybe refereeing drama, but you know that we don't really enjoy discussing that. We don't get into that too much. We're not referees ourselves, nor are we VAR operators, whatever the fuck they call them nowadays. Smooth operator. Torino are in 11th with 20 points, while Frostinone are in 12th with 19 points. That is not all from us this week, guys, as obviously tomorrow we're going to be recording our question segment.

We've got two weeks built up of questions, so definitely have a conversation or two together, addressing your questions, your hot takes, so on and so forth. Until then, if you enjoyed this, make sure that you follow us on all of our socials. And rate us five stars wherever you're listening, that helps our growth tremendously. And keep listening to us. Thank you very much, guys, we made it this far. Thank you, love you, goodnight. This is Serie A Spotlight.

If you like Serie A 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. Is Wu Picchi? It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together, just be assing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise nobody will ask you to send Boob pics.

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