Rasmudori, good run, clever cut back as well, Oseeman. Still Oseeman, great desire, Kvarrasenja! Hello and welcome back to Seria a spotlight. This is episode 104 where your host Jake and Matt here to describe all the events of matchday 16 in Seria.
As you guys heard from our intro, our goal of the week was Kvarraskeleja's easy finish to be honest, which went in of the post, but we chose this because of the fantastic work of Victor Oseeman who juggled the ball in the box 7 times and before dragging the ball between the legs of the defender and squaring the ball to Kvarras who had an empty net to finish Oseeman made that goal. He became a Brazilian on the beach bro. Exactly, that's it.
Kvarras almost missed it, it has to be said, he was lucky that it hit the right side of the post and went in. You could see him staring at it with sheer anxiety. He froze up. A close second was Louis Muriel's goal which was a beautifully struck strike. It doesn't look that hard to score that goal but the technique on that shot was brilliant to keep it low, to keep it rising, just rising upwards into the top corner.
The technique which he hit with the outside of his foot from outside the box, it was the best way to describe this, when you hit a corner and someone clears it and it falls to a madman outside the box. That madman was Muriel, except he's a madman with a bunch of technique. Exactly, he didn't lean back, people often lean back. Another close contender in my opinion was Goodman's goal for Giannava while they were all playing key pops.
Kubaan's assist was perfect. Of course, there was Reinders with his trademark run down the middle. He channeled some sort of inner caca that he has in him when he makes those kinds of runs. Not much did Gregorio could have done from close range and how I wish Sanabria's goal wasn't offside because that would have been the goal of the week. Ravushata into the top corner like that. Wow. Absolutely sensational. That's a shame, he was in an offside position, right?
I believe there was an offside in the build up, I don't think it was him directly. Remember guys to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube to stay up to date with our latest things. We've got a few cool things in the mix guys, stay tuned. It does really help if you rate us 5 stars, we're re-listening it to subscribe to our YouTube because we're a bit late on the YouTube bandwagon. It would help if you guys could just go there and pop a follow, that would be pretty cool.
Help us out a bit. We've also got Patreon, as you all know, shout out to our Patreons, we've got a new one, his name is Sluge Mcnoodle. Thank you very much Sluge Mcnoodle for your support. Happy to have you to the family. Sluge has joined Jose, Lena, Andy, Alan, Ed, Luke, Mike, Matteo, Matthias, Luca, Anthony, Michael, David, Kyle and you are all legends. We love you all.
Yes, one day hopefully the list will be long enough whereby the intro segment needs 5 minutes by itself just to shout everyone out because we won't stop doing that. Yeah, which reminds me, we have opened up a shop on Patreon, the link is in our bio and we are actually selling our posters, we're selling posters basically on the art that we use on the covers of the episodes. I draw those up and we're selling them as digital art so you can basically download them and print them.
And fun fact, for our Patreons they're all free. Exactly. We have access to all of them. That's the latest money for us. Just 3 raw each, I believe it's the minimum price I put them up for and the Patreon subscription is 3.99 a month. So you can technically subscribe for a month, download them all and unsubscribe. That's a bit of a loophole over there. Help yourselves guys. No problem, no problem. There were the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League draws.
Not looking so good for a certain Italian teams, I think particularly in the Champions League, couple tough draws. So firstly Fiorentina just to get the Conference League out of the way, Fiorentina are through to the round of 16, they're not taking part in the round of 32 because they topped their group. So no need to cover anything over there. For the Champions League it is Inter-facing Atlético. It's Lazio facing Bayern and Napoli facing Barcelona.
Very cool and interesting stylistic battles, particularly the Inter versus Atlético. An offensive interside taking on a very pragmatic Atlético who are a really tough team to break down with Diego Simeone's system. You've got Lazio Bayern, I don't think Lazio have got much of a chance over there considering Bayern's form, what Harry Kane's been doing there.
And Napoli-Barsa, I mean, maybe if this were Napoli last season it would be more interesting because I would say it's free-flowing football all around. But I think Barça have got a bit of an advantage over there this year. Harry Kane's on 20 goals and 5 assists so far this season and he's going to be playing G-Law and Patrick very soon. The Champions League will see how many can put Paesum over there.
But I like the fact that Lazio are playing as the underdogs and I will definitely help them because they do have a few fighters in that team. And you never know man, sorry on a European night you can't cook and the Champions League absolutely anything can happen. So of course, terrible matchup for Lazio, they would have been hoping for quite literally anyone else. We'll see how they do over there. Also Napoli and Barcelona and nice touch with the Maradona back story of course. Yeah, of course.
When it comes to the Europa League, Atalanta have automatically gone through the round of 16 as they topped their group. Roma are taking on Feyenoord which are not an easy side, not at all. And Milan are taking on Reigns who are also not an easy draw. But I do think that both Italian teams in these scenarios are favorites.
However, when it comes to the Europa League, I'm always so wary of these teams because it's not every day that you face high quality teams that deem themselves underdogs coming into the European stage. And how important this European stage is to them. Absolutely and you look at Reigns for example or Reign as some people would prefer for them to be called. In France they're having a bit of a dreadful season. They're not doing very well at all domestically.
In fact in 16 games they've conceded 21 and only scored 20 and I'm not quite sure where they sit. I don't have that prepared. But in the Europa League group they did finish second just one point behind Villarreal with four wins and two losses. So they do have a bit of firepower about them and they are definitely motivated to do well in Europe.
When it comes to Feyenoord we know of course that they're a factory of talent and right now they've got a striker called Santiago Jimenez who's doing very well. He's on 18 goals and we know a few of their players of course particularly. No one ever mind Teot with the other guys. You remember Teot? Yes I remember that. Teot was playing with Reines. He was with Balonia. Imagine him on this Balonia team by the way bro. I really liked Arthur with Teot.
Oh my god you remember we used to call him Theete. Theete? Oh Theete. It's going to be super interesting. We need to see what we're going to do because of recording bro because I would like to watch these games of course. So we need to get recording out of the way as early as possible so we can sit down nine o'clock in front of the TV watching Napoli Barcelona. Definitely man maybe we'll use some hours of leave here and there. I have a good idea.
It's important to note that when it comes to the Europa League like I said Atalanta automatically went through. It was literally every single British team involved in the Europa League also went through the round of 16. So there's Rangers who topped their group as well. Brighton, West Ham and Liverpool and also Villarreal and Atalanta that go through to the next round. But we're not here to fucking talk about European football.
Even though it's very important this year because there's going to be a fifth Champions League spot added and it's between Italy and Germany. Between Serie A and the Bundesliga and depending on which team does better in Europe the coefficient will essentially dictate who gets that fifth spot right now. And because of last season's European run for Italian teams you have three Italian teams reaching a final.
They're actually ahead of the Premier League for example and it's not looking good for them because United actually crashed out. Yeah they came fourth. And they're not doing particularly well in Europe in general. So yeah we'll see it's very important for Italian teams to do well in Europe this season. But we're not here as you mentioned to talk about that bro we're here to talk about our favorite league. You killed my juicy segue into the run down. This is what we're here to discuss.
Guys, first game we're going to be covering is Lazio Nyl Inter 2. A tough match for Inter in recent history where they lost the last two of these encounters. Three goes to one. But now Inter basically they have creamed absolutely everyone within that top seven including Fiora and Tina. They've only drawn one out of those matches which was against Juventus.
Genoa 1, Juve 1, Juve have now fallen four points behind Inter after a disappointing result where Akieza Penley was cancelled out by the great Albert Gudmetsen. Milan 3, Montzao, Nyl and New Look Milan with a 3 at the back formation and a debut goal for 18 year old centre back Simic who came on to replace the injured Boberga who started this game as a centre back. Bologna 2, Roma, Nyl, Bologna in the top four and very very well deserved.
What a team. Froyler and Zergze to top performers in this match. Napoli 2, Kalyari 1, a tough game for Napoli. You'll see when we get down to the run down there were a lot of shifts in tactics in this game. But at the end of the day the difference maker was Victor Ossiman. Fiora and Tina 1, Helas Verona, Nyl it was a late goal for Beltran to give Fiora and Tina W his first goal. They have an open play in Serie A and it did take a massive deflection.
Atalanta 4, Salernitana 1, this happened just last night. Salernitana took an early lead through a Pirola header but the second half was fucking all. Atalanta, Lecce 2, Frozzinone 1, Lecce have ended their streak of four draws to get a well deserved victory against Frozzinone.
Odinesa 2, Saswolo 2, the self-destruct button was pressed but this time by Odinesa who blew a tunnel lead after a Pagiero on goal and Torino 1 and Polinil Torino edge pass their opponents despite a disallowed Sanabria screamer which goes to show just how they are the missionary sex position in this league. And those of you who listen to our question episode will get that reference.
Exactly, if you don't you know, we'll stick around anyway because we'll have another one and you can ask us questions. Shall we start off with Lazio Inter? I guess that was the biggest game of this weekend. As we know Inter have struggled in the Olympic Games against Lazio, they hadn't won there since 2018 in Syria. Yeah, but they have a bogey team for that right? These last two encounters resulted in back-to-back 3-1 home wins for Lazio.
There was that infamous Luis Felipe, fucking Luis, man, classic Luis, when he mounted Correa in celebration in Correa's first game for Inter against Lazio. And Correa got really mad, Luis Felipe started crying so hard that he ended up representing Al Itihad in Saudi Arabia. Bro cried his way to you. I felt bad for him, I felt bad for him. It was sad to be honest because it always sucks when you think someone's going to react a certain way and think you have a certain relationship with someone.
And you're a homie, man. Yeah, they were good friends. If you haven't seen that clip, do write it down. Write down Correa, Luis Felipe cry. You will find it on Google. I wonder how you know that. Inter drew nil nil at home to Sociedad mid-week. They did feel some changes over there. They finished second in their group, while Lazio lost 2 nil away from home against Atletico, also finishing second in their group.
As we all know, Inter, with a decimated squad at the moment, they had Alexis Sanchez out, Denzel Dampfri, Benjamin Pavard, Juan Cuadrado and Stefan Davrai out injured. So their back three once again consisted of Bisseck, Acerbi and Bastoni with Darmian as the right wingback as well. To be fair, not too decimated, it is some fringe players, but some starters as well that are out injured. The biggest shock in Lazio starting 11 was the fact that Luis Alberto started the game on the bench.
Pardon me, after a sorry confirm, the Spaniard wasn't at 100% fitness and would be more effective of the bench in the second half when the game will be less intense. Why is the second half less intense? He means when everyone is a bit more leggy, when everyone is more tired. Look, Caliari's best player is Zito Lovumbo. He never gives him more than 30 minutes. He always brings him on for 30 minutes, he's lost 30 minutes of the game and he drives everyone insane running.
Everyone is tired from a whole game of running up and down and focusing on Zito comes on, this causes confusion. Sometimes these impact subs are necessary. That's true, he is also like miles ahead, he is Lazio's best player by a little bit. They also had Kamada, Rovell and Gwenduzi forming their midfield three instead of Luis Alberto.
Now Lazio started the game strongly, they brought intensity to the game and they even forced Summer into a couple of good saves, particularly on Kamada and Gwenduzi in the opening moments of the match. However Inter broke the deadlock in the 40th minute when Lautaro Martinez seized an awful back pass by Lazio's Adam Marusic. The weak back pass was intercepted by Martinez who dribbled around Ivan Providell and slotted the ball into the net from a tight angle.
Martinez dedicated this goal to Bahia Blanca, a town in Argentina affected by a recent tragedy. I do believe that that is where he is from. But yeah, a nice touch, class act. Yeah, absolutely. I must say that Adam Marusic is an idiot. Not even. These games are all about details. And for Lazio, we've seen it all season, when they want to switch play they often go back to their keeper, pass back and the goalkeeper will play it to the other fullback.
Lautaro was in an offside position in no man's land between the defense and the goalkeeper, just waiting, lurking. That was all pre-planned. And the other players, if you look at the right hand side, they were putting pressure on Marusic, pressing super high up the field to the point where Marusic has nowhere else to go and Lautaro is in position waiting for that man. Absolutely man. And he literally forced that mistake and he did so well with it.
When he rounded the goalkeeper, I thought he held onto it for a bit too long. I was like, oh they're going to block it, they're going to take it off him. But take it off him, my ass dude, he just pinked it in. Nah, if it were two seasons ago and sometimes we know Streeki, he could have been, but not this season man, not this season, he can't put up with it wrong. And even if you look at his heat map, thank you so for score, he's so involved in the midfield.
You look at Turam, he's the guy up top because obviously you could give him those long balls, Lautaro is doing so much dirty work bro, so much dirty work. And then he's still there in the final third, often running in late, getting in at the back post, stuff like that. Is Mr. Inter at the moment man? Absolutely, Captain Fantastic.
Lautaro entered the second half eager to equalize, Rovella had, well he did exceptionally well to dispossess Cialanooglu and Giubala Cerebi and Bastoni, he did so well in the scenario Rovella. But once cleaned through on goal, the Italian was denied by Jan Sommer.
It's always like the case when, let's call them inexperienced players or young players, they do well and then they get cleaned through on goal and they're either off balance or they're tired or they lack technique in the final third, like Rovella's not a goal scorer. Or they doubt themselves. Exactly, but he did, Lautaro were doing a good job pressing the source which is Cialanooglu and this was case in point exactly what they did well in this game because Lautaro, they weren't bad in this game.
And that was just to showcase how they were stopping Inter for, let's say, a fair share of the game, but then obviously that final product isn't there for them. And then in fact Inter doubled their lead in the 58 minute, although Marius Ciccio intercepted a Barrella initial through ball for Martina as the ball came back to Barrella who redirected it to Marius Turan and the French forward finished with a precise left footed shot with Gila scrambling on the goal line.
Lazio got his stuff, frustration boiled over when Manuel Lazaro received the straight red card for insulting the referee, further complicating their chances and then Miketarian had two opportunities to make it three but they were both denied by great stops by Ivan Profidel. He still drives so well Miketarian, he's like a young man charging forward, his burst of, his change in pace and his ability to unlock that extra gear always catches me off guard.
Aha, he's silky smooth in that midfield, he is the right player for that role I feel, he's very very refined, I don't think like Bros brought in Frattese, now I know Frattese is more of a direct let's say Barrella replacement more than anything, but he could do either, especially with, he can score goals for Frattese, we've seen that for Italy as well, but Miketarian is the right guy for that role, his technique in this team in the middle of the park is very very important.
Absolutely man, another player I was very impressed by, and this was really one of the first tests for him, Jan Bisseckman. Yes, absolutely. Jan Bisseck, 23 years old, German international, 194 cm tall, centre-back right footed, he's the number 31 for those of you who remember the numbers and not the names.
He can play football man, he's very technically gifted, like he was out wide on the wing towards the end of the game when they were trying to just kill the game, and he's a retention machine essentially. This is only his second start of the season, he had the third most touches for Inter, and a 93% pass accuracy as well, he had six duels, one, three clearances, and like you said he was getting wide, very very effectively, it's like he knows the system already.
And they were pressing him to oblivion almost like forcing, it's like he was identified as a weak point, they were pressing him and he's so press resistant, man just passing his way out casually or like pulling the ball back and just passing back calmly, you know, very very talented player over there, I was impressed. Absolutely man, absolutely.
And speaking of press resistant, by the way another point I wanted to make was on Ciala Noglu, so when we talk about the top three registers in the league, we talk about Stanislav Lobotka, we talk about Ismail Benasser and Chaka on Ciala Noglu, right? Yes. Ciala Noglu is different to those two, Ciala Noglu isn't as press resistant, Ciala Noglu can be dispossessed and he can be forced to play a wayward pass.
What he does though, however, is make up for it in his defensive contribution, so Ciala Noglu then likes to get down and dirty when it comes to accounting. Yeah, he even, he can tackle like a defender. Yeah, he even had that for Milan when he used to play as an attacking midfielder and even as a left winger and there got two, so a lot of people used to for some reason complain about his lack of industry, but he was always so hard working, which is one thing I actually liked about the guy.
Inter now have 11 clean sheets in 16 matches, despite significant injury struggles in their defensive region, 11 clean sheets in 16 matches, man. 11 clean sheets in 16 matches, man. That's honestly crazy to be honest. I don't know, man. When I saw this game, there was another win for them, you know? Like, what's it gonna take for these guys to drop points?
They're essentially mirroring Lazio's start to the season. So like I said earlier, they've played all the top seven teams. I say all the top seven teams, they are part of the top seven teams, but they also played Fiorentina, right? So they played the other top seven, the top seven excluding Inter. Brother, they beat all of them, except for Juve, who they drew to. They beat all of them. Now, four in the league against Fiorentina, five one against Milan. They killed Napoli three in the league.
Bro, they're probably gonna reach 50 points by the 6th of January, I believe, which is the same points Napoli had last year. So we're talking about dominance. Inter are on course. So, so yes, yes, totally agreed. However, however, it very much depends on what they're going to do in January, because it is clear that Inter have been prioritizing the league.
Totally like they've totally prioritized the league, resting players in the Champions League, like, like fielding, Sanchez are an out of which frattese, you know, all the guys who've barely been playing as slan, you're just throwing them in in the Champions League games. And because of that, they actually didn't thub their group when they probably should have and they finished second. And now they're stuck with this terrible draw, right?
Not totally terrible, but they have Atleti Comedget, who they do not afford to rest players against. So they need reinforcements in January, or now we can start to see perhaps a slight dip in their league form. Because they need to play the lower tier sides. And as we know, the lower tier sides in Syria can be very frustrating, you know, the likes of Frostinon, Alekte, Genoa, Saswolo are the only team in 15th place.
Lowly Saswolo are the only team who have beaten Inter so far this season. Kalyari, exactly, you never know, like it's a 19th minute, what's going to happen. So Inter can still obviously lose points. However, they have Maratha as their sporting director, and the January transfer market is approaching. And I totally see them bringing in a striker and a defender.
Remember the question segment, by the way, we discussed Inter potentially, like we recommended Boulayedia and Ngong. Apparently they've been linked to Boulayedia for a January move. Oh, wow, okay. I wonder what Boulayedia is thinking about, that he is out, like he's out of that Salernita and Atim. Apparently, Luzari has been linked with a move to Inter.
Luzari has been fantastic this season. He has been, obviously, buying the shred card. I mean, apparently he told, the commentator said that Luzari told the referee where to go. So I was sure he told them to go and fuck himself. I didn't go fuck himself or to fuck off or go do something. Let's leave it up to the imagination. Of course, the Italian language is a lot more colorful than the English language when it comes to cooking up insults.
I just have a few more points I want to make because Inter, very good, is getting exhausting as a conversation point. Inter have a new deadly duo up front, right? Lautaro is on 15 goals and 16 matches. Turam, 7 goals and 6 assists in his debut season. Now, do you know when Turam has scored? He scored against Fiorentina. He scored against Milan. He scored against Roma. He scored against Napoli and he scored against Lazio.
Let me repeat that. Fiorentina, Milan, Roma, Napoli, Lazio. Those are 5 of the teams he scored against. He has 7 goals and 6 assists. That's crazy. Debut season in this area. Probably the signing of the season. Definitely the signing of the season. Definitely. In Italy, at least. Yeah. Again, you don't do that near first season. No. You don't show up on those stages and just knock them in like that. Like you've been playing there for so long.
Honestly, I don't even know what to think about this guy. He just came and he's so inspired. I mean, partnering up with Lautaro, Martina's up front and totally working and adapting to the system and being so open to it has helped him thrive completely. He's playing selflessly as well. He's willing to pass. He seems to have no ego on him. He doesn't mind. He's smiling. He's always smiling. If he scores, if he assists, he doesn't mind. He must be an actual gem and a joy to play with, honestly.
So close. He was so close. So close to driving Milan. So close. And remember what you said if you would join? I said I'd cancel the podcast. Not only have I not cancelled the podcast, now he scored 7 goals including in a 5-1 thrashing, counting. There I even say of Milan and I still haven't quit the podcast. So that shows. And here you are praising. My industry. That's horrible. Just a quick note about Lazio.
Yes, they have struggled significantly in the attacking region and the defensive region. So they've pretty much struggled everywhere. They've only scored 16 goals this season in 16 matches and have conceded 18. They're struggling. They're down in 11th fucking place now. I don't think they had a bad performance in this game. Straight up. I really don't think they were bad. I think they brought it to winter. I think they were courageous. I think they were organized.
Would I go so far as to say they'll leave the stadium with their head held high, considering their recent successful history in the stadium against Inter at say no. But they put on a good performance. They weren't bad. They were alright. But they never really... I mean they had a good start. But once Inter scored that goal, it seemed pretty much over for them in my opinion. Granted, okay, there was that the ravella chance. It's true. But I just feel like they lack a bit of bite, man.
And I don't know if it's because maybe starting with Immobler, maybe he's a little bit... This is Italy's Immobler. Yes, yes, I know. I know, I know. Not Lazio's Immobler. Yes, exactly. That's the best way to put it. Yes, yes. I thought you meant domestically. Yes, yes, totally, bro. This was Italy's Immobler and this season it has been Italy's Immobler. The soft and invisible. By that game in the Champions League where he came on and totally changed things. Round scoring, two goals.
I think at this point in his career, Ciro Mopla is better coming off the bench. I think so. And he's so inspired coming off the bench. You have the whole stadium honoring their top scorer, Ciro. Ciro. You know, it comes on. You know, start Castellanos, you can do a lot more running, who's a lot more hungry. Yeah. And then bring on Ciro if you need that experience. And when everyone's kind of tired and where he can play at the same level as his opponent. Starting from the get-go, I don't know.
It seems one step behind constantly. Yeah, that's true. It's very true. And with all due respect, because he's an absolute legend for Lazio, of course. Obviously, I mean, but we're here to discuss what's going on right now, no? I think Lazio's strong point, dare I say, I think their midfield had a good game. I think Ravela was good. I think Guendouzi did a lot of work.
I think Guendouzi is very, very important when it comes to getting down and dirty and getting your hands all over these motherfuckers. I think that's where he's good. Kamada had a better performance than usual, but I don't want to praise him too much because he still has a lot to prove in that sense. One of the things I enjoyed the most about this, Zakanie looked like he took a knock right when he was coming off.
Because he being sorry switched to a 4-4-2 after taking out Zakanie and played Guendouzi out wide. So like, I was a bit confused by it. You know, Zakanie, you take him out and then you put Guendouzi out wide, but yes, I assume he had taken a knock. Inter, as you all know, first place, 4 points ahead of Juve. And is that 9 points ahead of Milan? Yes, that is 9 points ahead of Milan. Apologies for that. Lazio in 11th on 21 points tied with Monza. Yeah, so we can probably discuss Gianna Juve now.
Gianna Juve actually held Juve at home. Juve took the lead with a penalty converted by Chiesa on the first half. However, in the second half they brought on Ecuban. Gianna Juve brought on Ecuban and he immediately had an impact, scoring the equaliser earlier on the second half. While they were just knocking the ball around, juggling the ball past the event, his defenders eventually slotted in home. Did you say Ecuban scored? No, Goodman's scored.
Ecuban was brought on and forced the goal for Gianna Juve. The game seemed initially in Juve's control. Juve, of course, were missing Rabio. And that's a massive miss for them. Apart from obviously Pogba and Fajole who have vanished into the net. While Gianna on the other hand were missing Gritegui who can't catch a break this season with his injuries and Strittman. They missed Strittman's experience because he's a very useful player. Of course, for them, he has a lot of serious experience.
But yeah, it started off with Juventus being in control. They had their typical defensive approach and opportunistic attacks. Gianna Juve showed a lot of courage and resilience, forcing the equaliser and even playing on the front foot after that. Both teams lined up in a 3-5-2 with Juve controlling the tempo. Genoa focused on utilizing their flanks and maintaining a high tempo with a forward partnership of Goodminton and Messias. Of course, trying to press them.
There's two mobile forwards trying to press, trying to create something. And that substitution in the second half was actually genius by Gelerdino in my opinion. The problem for Juve is that they couldn't react man. In the second half they had the next DG of 0.44. 0.44 with Bremmer's chance at the end of the game, nearly scoring a goal with his groin right before stoppage time.
And like, I don't know man, I look at Juve and I see so many misplaced passes, so many bad touches and there I say, there I say bro, that Juve are a Robbio dependent this season. Oh, you think so? Man, honestly, I couldn't see any bite, any muscle in that midfield. Meretti came into replacement, Meretti, Lokatelli and Mckeni, and they got absolutely outdone by Malinovsky, Badiell and Frendrup.
I mean, I'm not gonna be that guy to say that they're dependent on one player because they drew a game after they were on the streak that they were on, which they're still on, that like undefeated drown. So I'm hesitant to say that that was the only reason. I think that the way Genoa were set up and the way that they were pressing Juve and how organized they were, I think credit to them. I think Juve, it's more of a question.
Do you remember last week we were talking about how Juve get their goals and we're comparing them to Inter and we're saying Inter can obviously like more seamlessly score goals while Juve wait for moments. Genoa did not give Juve those moments. Exactly, that's it. They did not allow them those moments. Is Rabi or more of a creative that could create more of these? Yes, but with that being said, so is Kiesa. In fact, he did it in the first half, so is Vlavich, but he's been fucking invisible.
Kambia, so by the way, wow. But like, I was watching him break into the center of the pitch with his dribbling and his runs of the ball in this game and like definitely easily their best wing back. Yes, and in fact, I highlighted a little bit over here. You know that he's actually a product of Genoa's youth team. So this was an X game for him, perhaps explains a little bit of an extra drive if you had to shove them, you know.
When he was at Genoa, he was actually loaned out season after season after season. He has 26 appearances for Genoa with one goal. He was loaned out to Albesola, Savona, Alessandria and even Empoli. And then eventually he joined Juventus and was loaned out to Bologna. Now he's at Juventus again. Yeah, he's 23 years old. He's developing very nicely and he looks to be a good player. He even got Zambrotta comparisons as you mentioned a few episodes ago. That's pretty cool.
Yes, bro, a few things that I mentioned about this game. Goodman's in at one, OK, Goodman's in the fourth, sixth goal of the season. Fantastic player, breakout player, apparently Romar talks for him. I think he's got property right now despite the whole controversy going on back in Iceland. I think some teams would be hesitant to actually contact him until that is settled. But right now he can be a total bargain, man, this player. This player can be the next big thing. I swear to God.
He's not that young. He's about 26 years old if I'm not mistaken. But he's so talented. He's a one man army. He's like, honestly, when it comes to attacking midfielders in the league, that we know that attacking midfielders, that like number 10 role isn't as popular as it used to be. And you don't really find as many talents in that messy role as you used to see back in the day. Albert Goodman is one of the best number 10s in the league.
Honestly, because not only is he silky smooth, can dribble past a player, can hit a ball from distance, he is incredibly technical and incredibly intelligent. When it comes to him dragging players away with him, making those runs off the ball, creating space for, especially when he's playing up top alongside Retegui, he really creates space for Retegui to come in from behind.
The way that he can take the ball down and the way that he can control the ball, and how he has that close ball control, to attract players towards him and then unleash the perfect pass at the right time for his teammates, he's watching him, is a fucking joy. It's like the ball is glued to his feet. Absolutely man. And he can eliminate players like this. Yeah, and his fucking finishing as well. Yeah, super. And he has Albert at the back of his kit, which is wicked. Yeah, yeah.
Albert at the back of your kit. The controversy obviously, is a fucking massive factor. But we'll see what happens with that. If it's the case, then he might be out for a very, very fucking long time. If it's the case, he deserves it. Absolutely. But yeah, I can't believe this guy was in Serie B last year. Crazy man. He almost got a rocket off at the end of the first half, Vazquez squared it to him, and he flew out of nowhere, and he kicked so hard, and he missed the ball.
I would have torn everything bro doing that. Everything would have fucked up. He flew out of nowhere, he kicked, and he missed the ball ever so slightly. He would have smashed it into the back of the net, I can assure you. Yeah. It's interesting to note that Keza is on penalty duty nowadays, I'm after Vlav, which of course missed a few. Is he or did he just win it so he took it? I don't know. I think Vlav has missed quite a few that's safe to assume that Keza took this one for that reason.
Maybe Vlav is low on confidence. Vlav, at the moment, he's missing chances that he's known for usually executing. That's the thing, his confidence is so shot at the moment. It's not as simple as saying he's not fitting a legary system, and they don't play to his strengths. He's getting the chances nowadays. But it is true, however, that he's often isolated and maybe in a system like Inter paired with, imagine this guy paired with the top scorer.
But like this game, for example, he was taller than the entire Draenua team, except for Dragoosin. They're both 190 centimeters, yet he failed to dominate and to a certain self. You have Gatti and Vlav, which are two giants that are bigger than everyone else, and they're aerial monsters, we know that. Get them the ball. Use your body, take advantage of your opponents. Just possess someone in a fucking air, press high up the feet, show us something, get yourself involved.
It can't be your invisible every single match that you play. And by the way, shout out to all the Juva fans who showed us hate on our TikTok snippet, where we said that, or I said basically that his four celebrations in a row for his goal against Inter was way too cocky, especially when he's been rubbish. Until we got the goal, he's like, thought he proved the haters wrong or something.
They would click on their profiles to see who they hate the scottish bro, but they all laugh in their bio and their descriptions. Another funny one is I posted a snippet recently of Kamaridov Milan, and the snippet starts with me saying I have a theory, and it's basically me saying that he was brought on basically to get him addicted to Milan, so he renews the contract, right? This guy, this fucking guy thinks he's so intelligent. Albert Einstein is starting to hear me.
Albert Einstein with his theory away. I'm like, I'm like, they actually have cropped up by it. Love it bro, love it, they're drawing. Never saying I have a theory again. But shout out as well to Josep Martinez, goalkeeper of Geno, who's brilliant game. He gifted cares of the ball at one point, but he made immense bravely jumping at his feet and saving the ball over there.
And then in the 89th minute, he had a miracle save on Bremer, of course, on that corner when you were finally going to do Juve things and score from a set piece, but he had something to say about that. Two things, Juve should have probably had a penalty for a Bonnie handball. It's a bit of a gray area when it comes to handballs when the ball strikes the body first and then hits the arm. Like there was another situation like that in Serie A this weekend, and referees often talk about it.
They don't like giving those penalties, especially when they're penalties. I think he should have at least gone to VAR to have another look at it. I don't think every situation where the body strikes the arm but strikes the body first, sorry, the ball strikes the body first and then hits the arm, should instantly be depleted and not considered an offense. I think that the referee should be able to apply his own interpretation of the rule by being called to the monitor.
Because his arm was super extended. Exactly, when it's something as clear as that to be, it struck his hand clearly. Send the referee over to him, take a look quickly. I don't know man, I think that it should have at least gone to VAR. Another one that should have definitely gone to VAR was Malinowski's leg breaker on Yield. That shouldn't have gone to VAR, that should have been a red card. Three red cards, studs up and there.
The force with which he went in as well with his studs so high up man. No, I think it's safe to say that Juve weren't exactly favored in this game. I think Genoa were slightly favored in this game. Juve were done a bit dirty on certain occasions. Favors, calls went their way through. They were a bit lucky with their calls. We also got to see a Ling Jr. That's not something that happens very often.
He was brought on to play in midfield because of, of course, Juventus basically have Pogba and Fajoli in prison. They have Robbio suspended of course so they need midfielders and they brought on Ling Jr. as a makeshift midfielder. Not sure how I feel about it. It would be nice to see him in his natural position because he's a super talent.
Yeah. One more thing I want to say about Genoa is that I love their free kick routines of playing the ball to Dragousin at the far post because Dragousin is tall and he's very good at football as well. It was working every single time. Every time man. Every time. It's like someone mark him for the love of God. You know what I mean? They couldn't contain him at that far post man. No. So every time he would manage. Let's see stats. Ariel Duel is one.
He won four out of, he won three out of four Ariel Duel. Dragousin. Yeah, he's a beast in the air. An absolute monster. Yeah. Also, Messias had a bit of a knock in the 93rd minute. Poor guy was replaced by Hobslitz. Hope it's nothing serious. And it's funny to see that when Juventus are in need of a goal, they bring in Yildes who plays such an important role in the Turkish national team. He's brought on in the 88th minute when it's too late, you know? So they bring him on earlier man.
You need a bit of a, you need someone to connect that midfield to the attack and Yildes would be perfect man. I think so. A player who plays so well for his country. Give him a chance. Yeah, why the fuck not? Why not? Genoa are in 14th place with 16 points while Juventus are in second place with 37 points. Milan three. Monsa Nill. You guys know it as Milan Monsa. We know it as the derby de Berlusconi.
Milan coming off a midweek win at St. James' Park, which was only good enough to get the Rossoneri Thursday night football. Oh, the hill, the hill. The, oh, the hill. Alan Shear talking about who was playing downhill in the second half, baby. The fucking hill, my ass. The match unfolded with some significant developments, but Milan's change in formation to a 3-4-3 with a backline of Tomori, Kier, Pobega is what stole the headlines.
Kier returned after two months out and Pobega, well, is not a centre back. Dude, this is, this is what I fucking, what impresses me about Piolli, man. Give me that shit, give me that shit. He doesn't care what anyone has to say, man. And sometimes it kind of work against him because he's criticized for being stubborn and he doesn't do what seems to be obvious, but in cases like this, man, he's stuck with his gut and it worked because what other coach in the world?
During an injury crisis when you're missing all your centre backs and you've got Kier, who is basically on stilts at this point. And you've got no one, it's just Kier and Tomori, half a Kier and Tomori as your centre back. He plays three at the back, you know, and it fucking worked. So kudos to him. I, when I saw it, I couldn't believe my eyes. I was like, how is this guy playing three at the back? Three centre backs, man, we don't even have three centre backs at the moment. Literally.
But it worked. Bro, even Kaldar has injured like, it's fucked up, but it worked and I think volume is what's going to stop teams from scoring. So just put three pinheads at the back and just hope to God that nothing's gonna happen. You know, remember when Milan were going through that situation last season, that was the solution. It's like, with every shot teams are taking against Milan, they're scoring. So put three, put three men behind the ball and see if they'll get a shot away.
And that's what got Milan out of that situation. That's what got Milan past Spurs in the round of 16 of the Champions League. Contest Spurs. Yeah, it's what only got Milan to lose 1-0 against Inter when they had previously lost 3-0 and this and that. They lost fucking 5-2 to Saas Volo, they lost to Wodeners, they lost to all these guys. That's what saved them. And maybe, who knows, this is a solution.
Calabria was suspended after his red card, Milan's lost to Atalanta, which meant that Florenzi started as a right wing back. That also freaked me out because he hasn't got the legs that he has had in the past, but whatever. The scoring action began early in the third minute when Reinders scored an impressive goal maneuvering post defenders in his trademark direct run before finishing through the legs of the Gregorio. Like I said, Janet is in her caca, obviously, exaggeration, funny, haha.
Caca doesn't finish that poorly, huh? No, but let's not focus on that. It was a toe poke through the legs of the keeper. I think the Gregorio was expecting a proper finish. And the fact that the finish was like directly at him actually worked Reinders' advantage because the Gregorio was expecting to dive there. Yeah, I guess so. I guess so, but bro, what a goal. What a goal by Tiani. He did very well. Great goal by Tiani.
Pobega was forced to leave the field in the 23rd minute due to a muscular problem. What? A Milan player playing as a center back with a muscular problem? No way! That added to Milan's season's injury tally. With Calulu, Ciaucaldara and Pellegrino out injured, he was replaced by 18-year-old Serbian Giancarlo Simic who made his first ever appearance at senior levels in signing for AC Milan.
It wasn't long before Simic's milestone became twice as memorable as he smashed the ball into the back of the net after a square pass by Rafa Leão making it too nil to Milan. He had the entire bench out of their dugout jumping with him in celebration. What a moment. This is what football is about, no? Absolutely, man. These youngsters seeing Camarda coming on and reacting to the fans shouting his name and Simic's face after scoring the goal.
You can tell the corporations can try to take over football all they want. These teams can make all these big money signings all they want. But when you see a youth player coming up the ranks and actually making his dream come true, there's no way of stopping that first of all. Second of all, that's what football is all about, man. And it's beautiful. What's the one other year, another Simic? Yes. How many Simic's have Milan had? Two. Way more than two.
There was the one that basically had one good game against Inter, I believe it was, and he had an interview and he was a little bit cocky and then he was never heard of again. There was a Simic from when we were young. Well, the Simic we all know and love. You know, there are quite a few Simics, bro. Quite a few. Another year, another Simic.
Yep. Okofar sealed the victory at 76 minutes, capitalizing on a well-coordinated team move initiated by Reinders and just the hold-up play by Giroux over here, the technique in that pass. Beautiful moments later though, Okofar suffered a thigh injury which seemed to be prompted after his unorthodox celebration, marking Milan's 29th injury this season. Do you think it was because of the celebration, man? I mean, this isn't, I haven't seen any articles pointing at it.
It's just me and you are watching some highlights saying, OOP! What happened there? OOP! There's speculation that going down on his left knee, he went down on his left knee, right? And he got up and kind of stumbled. Maybe he just lost balance, but he was fine up until that point and then after that he was fucked. So maybe he did injure himself in the celebration, but you know, for next time, man. Yeah, perhaps, perhaps. He's out for a month, it's just devastating, man.
This guy is barely playing and he's already on four goals. He's good, man. He runs into the box late, he's a late arrival in the box and he offers options that we don't usually have in the box. He creates this kind of fluidity around him. And he also presses so fucking well. He presses so well high up the field and think about it, Milan really don't have players that press high up the field. Laos doesn't press for the life of him. Giroud tries, poor guy. Jovic does presses to me for you.
No way near as effectively as Okafor. And Chuku presses quite hard as well. Chuku presses quite a lot. I think of Chuku, it was a sound clip. Chuku, when he's on the ball. It's like, you know, when the Flintstones are driving their car, they've got their feet. I have to find this, bro. Someone on Twitter basically said, this is how Chuku Eze plays football. It's so good. That's stupid. Shout out to Chuku Eze for getting the winner against Newcastle Midweek. What a goal.
Lovely, by the way, again, positive praise for Piori, making the substitutions that eventually guarantee the team. Yes, something we're not used to as Milan fans. We often criticise in game management. We often criticise in game management. We really haven't seen that, but this one he made as well with Simic. What did you make of Simic, not only for his goal, but the way he fit into, particularly, that triad back formation?
I was very pleased with him and I was ready to praise him before he had even scored. He fit in like a glove, man. The guy was brought in, I believe, for one million euros as a youngster. From Stuttgart. Like, that's a very, very expensive signing for a youngster. He's only 18 now, like, I don't know when he was bought. But he's been developing very nicely, clearly, under the radar, and I like the way that Milan have taken care of this play. Because he's clearly ready, man. He's ready.
And this kind of thing, when you have an injury crisis... Cry-Sci. Cry-Sci. When you have many an injury crisis... Lovely, lovely. You often find gems. You often find diamonds that come out of nowhere. For example, Malik Chow. Exactly. Malik Chow was brought about when Milan had no more defenders to rely on, and suddenly the new boy had to... It was forced to play basically. And it's the same thing with this guy. Now I wonder, can Milan return to a 4-2-3-1 and start with Tomori alongside Simic?
For example, is he ready for that? Back 3 does protect you. Back 3 does kind of give you a bit more room for error. And they have less pressure on you. But it is interesting. This guy made himself available and he was ready, and he had a fantastic game in my opinion. Looked like a mature player. What did you think of... Firstly, I agreed regarding Simic. I think even his confidence in carrying the ball forward and playing it out wide to Florence, you're playing it to Ruben.
And beating the press man. They press him and he escapes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, very good. Bartas Algi. Also good. Pellegrino. Also good, just baptism of fire against fucking Inter. No? Against Napoli. Against Napoli, you're right. To be honest, Pellegrino haven't really seen... I haven't really seen much of Pellegrino. I feel like obviously Simic is being painted in a higher light at the moment naturally as he should be for his performance.
But lest we forget that there are other young talents in Milan's youth system as well in that area that we could be seeing much more of in the future. Particularly the versatile Bartas Algi. Who can play as a left back and who could play as a left centre back as well. I am excited to see him in the future as well. But right now it's all about Simic and Milan's three at the back formation. What did you think of Milan in a 3-4-3?
Because typically when you start three at the back, you're prioritising defence. But we have seen teams like Inter, particularly under Simone and Zaghi and under Conte as well. Where you have a three at the back but you have a very fluid team who's always constantly thinking about attacking. And I do think that Milan had a tighter defence and even more fluid attacks. What was interesting for me is that this was a 3-4-3 but it was really narrow. And much of the play went down the middle.
I liked it a lot man and I really liked Leo's positioning. He was often the reference point up front. If you look at the heat map, his average position, he was the player that was furthest up compared to everyone else. Even Juru was deeper than him. I thought it was great. I don't think that this should be the way forward in every single game. But it's nice to know that Milan have this option to fall back on in certain games.
Where for example, either you've got the defensive crisis or you're struggling to create. Or maybe the opponent plays a certain system that you wish the mirror. For example, this is a good weapon to have in your sleeve. Definitely and it's the same as last season. Except I don't get carried away after just one performance. But Milan really did look good bro. Because Milan have a good team man. And I think that's the reason that no one's ever available.
But when you see the options that Pio has been bringing of the bench. Bringing on the likes of Okafor and Trucuesa. Okafor and Trucuesa are an injection of pace and power. You look at... I've criticised Jovic aggressively on this podcast. But he's a player who speaks for itself. And he's really picked it up. Of course and he has. He's a very intelligent player. He looks at the street and he's like, you bring one of them out. You bring in Ismael Benassay. The Afghan player of the year.
He's a brilliant player. He said he wants to win the ball on the door by the way. He also said that he wouldn't mind to move back to Washington. Because he loves the club. He also said he's going to Afghan. But yes, Milan have options. They're very unlucky with their injuries. But yes, these versatile players that Milan have. These players can play in two or three positions. So of course there is room for experimentation. Do you know what pisses me off? Pisses me off.
Tell me what pisses you off. The fact that Milan are always like, no, we're not a three at the back team. No, we're a four, three, three. We're a four, two, three, one. No, we shouldn't get Conte, for example. How could Milan play with a three at the back? Pisses me off a bit. I don't know. Maybe, maybe if Milan had a certain manager that could play a three at the back. And maybe was a very, very good manager and a very experienced manager. Oh God, you're talking about Tony, aren't you?
Tony. Antonio. I confused me. Not just Tony, if that's what we're fucking calling Conte nowadays. I don't like Conte. Okay, I'm a Milan fan. Conte was at you, where Conte was at Inter. He understood that both of them, he is the devil. That's what he is to me. We can appreciate that he's a great manager, but it's weird seeing him on your team because he's always been the enemy.
Exactly. But all I'm going to say is that maybe Milan shouldn't be so quick to shut down different managers because we don't believe that we could play certain formations because whenever Milan played a three at the back, even last season, we're like, oh look how much better Milan are. I don't think it's about Milan not being able to play a certain formation. I think it's more about long-term planning.
So you bring in Conte, okay, he might win your league in two seasons, but what's he going to do to win you that league? He's going to complain a lot in the media. He's going to create unrest between the management and the upper division of the team. He's going to push for certain profiles that he wants that maybe aren't sustainable profiles in the future, maybe go against the plan that Milan have of investing young, for example. He's going to focus on winning immediately, that's it.
And Milan don't necessarily need to win immediately because Milan won a Scudetto recently, they're getting top four consistently, they're on the right track. Now what they need is a manager to match the philosophy that they want to deploy, which is clearly a positive brand of football, a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 or whatever. But I like the profiles of Thiago Motta or Dezerbi, for example. Those would be fantastic if Piori were to actually leave. Yeah, I agree.
I love those two managers and I also don't want to be that guy that says Milan should instantly only consider a three-at-the-back formation after a positive performance against Monsaota, three-at-the-back. I'm just saying don't be so quick to turn down options because players adapt and that's clear. And not to mention Conte's salary would be more than any of Milan's players. Exactly, no. He would be making more than layout.
So would Dezerbi, Brovint, with that being said, he's tasting that fucking cash, that Premier League cash. Is he on a crazy salary at Brighton? I'm not sure if it's a crazy salary. I don't know Premier League manager's salaries, but I know that basically him to City After Pep is essentially a Dundee. He won't come to Milan and Motta, I think he's got very different plans to Milan. Perhaps, perhaps. But I think Motta's open-minded enough to look at the project and to move on from there.
You see, managers, man, they often don't seem to care about their past alliances. Hey, Piori. Piori is one of them. He played for Juva and managed Inter and managed Milan. And Fiorentina, who are massive rivals to Juva. I think that's more the Fiorentina side than on the Juva side. Milan, third, on 32 points. Monza in tenth on 21 points. Yes, bro. We can talk about Bologna Roma, which ended 2-0. It was a victory for Bologna at the Dallara Stadium. Massive, bro.
It was a beautiful Dallara Stadium. Shout out to Jessica, a friend of the podcast who was there. Supporting the wrong team. Supporting the wrong team, he was miserable. They secured the win through goals from Moro and their own goal by Christensen. They were missing key players like Lukaku and Debala. And they struggled against a faster, well-organized Bologna side. I mean, who are Roma without Lukaku and Debala this season? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. They were a very good team.
That's what they look like. Ravallia was given a start in goal for Bologna. Skoropski has been fantastic, but apparently Ravallia has shown a lot in training. Has been training very well to a very high level. To the point that Mota said, you know what man, you deserve a start. And he started him in a game against Roma. 24 years old. That's a cool move. For a keeper, that's fucking young. That's so young for a goalkeeper. It's true.
One of the players of the match was Dan Endoyo, played on the right. Salah Makers played on the left. Ferguson was in the track white. His top position with Xerxes up front, while Roma started with El-Sharawi and Bellotti up front. The match started with intense physicality, many robust challenges and disputes. And Guida had a really tough time managing the emotions this game. Many yellow cards early on as well. It was in the 37th minute where Dan Endoyo found Nicola Morrow with a pullback pass.
What would you call it? A pullback pass kind of. You run to the byline and pass the ball. Yeah, you literally pull back the ball. Nicola Morrow was entrapped back by Pellegrini. He ran and he slotted it home to score the first goal of the game. Shortly into the second half from the 49th minute, it was Dan Endoyo again charging. He played the ball to Ferguson. Ferguson whipped the ball in and Dan Endoyo was in a 50-50 with Rasmus Christensen.
I tried to get the ball into the back of the net, eventually the ball deflected off Rasmus Christensen and went into the back of the net for an own goal. And that pretty much was the game over there. Ravalia had to make some amazing saves. Brilliant saves. I had two great saves on Bellotti and one great save on Lorente who tried to chip him from the halfway line in the first half. The second miss by Bellotti should have definitely done much better though. That was a terrible miss on the one.
You think back of the Bellotti that we used to at Torino, he would have fucking executed that chance brilliantly. One of the main talking points of the game was Morinio bringing in Renato Sanchez in the second half in the 46th minute and then removing him again in the 64th minute. He brought him on for 19 minutes. Did he not injure it? That's what I perceived. He wasn't injured. In his post-match presser he explained, with Renato we live in a situation of hope.
We always think that space, certain responsibilities, adrenaline are the ideal way to make him make the leap. He has emotional scars. He has many fears due to past injuries. He works at a low intensity on everything we do. He improves in volume and workload but never in intensity. In the last match against Sheriff he had given us 60 minutes of hope. And today I thought about inserting him because the team could have benefited from his quality.
But then I realized I had made a mistake because he wasn't ready to make the leap in such an intense setting. I'm sorry. The last time I did this to a player before Renato was mottage and I'm terribly sorry about this but today I couldn't leave the team with a player who had become frustrated. I had to make the decision. Morinio. Are you that kind of guy that over shares everything that's going on in your head in these scenarios? Because he's probably right.
But he's definitely right in that sense. He knows his players best. He's a genius. He's got bags of experience. Sometimes you make a mistake. So just say look I made a mistake it was the wrong tactical approach that I was going for with that change. I mean he did apologize. My bad but he put it on the player. He put it on the player by elaborating on why his mistake. It was my mistake because it's all his fault and I shouldn't have given him that responsibility.
That's why he's Morinio. Classic Morinio throwing his players under the bus and trying to be a big man about it while he's doing that. I'm sorry and with this pre-context that Morinio has about a player who is scared of going into 50-50s and because of his history with injuries you bring him on in a feisty fucking encounter a way to Bologna where you're down and pretty much out. You bring him on. You want to bring on a fighter. He's on a good salary. He should be ready for these games bro.
I know that the profile they bought they should know what to expect when you bring in a player with such a terrible injury record. Clearly he's not ready man. He's not ready yet. One of my favorite things he said was... Where is it? I want to publicly apologize Serenato what I felt I was doing is hard for a footballer but it was hard for me too. He also said bro listen to this listen to Morinio's words man. Without Duba'ala there is no class and without Romelu we lack physicality.
I knew it would be tough without them. We had great physical difficulties. Bologna have players with skill and intensity. We don't. For this reason the game became more complicated. Like again putting it on his players. You know what this was? You know what this game was to me as a consumer by not a genius not a tactical fucking maniac of football. But to me as an observer I sounded at what you say a week and week out.
This was a classic traditional manager with a classically traditionally set up team versus a modern manager with a modern team. That's what it was. It was free flowing offensive confident attacking technical football against cowardice and cheap tactics in order to try to scrape a point out of this game. That was the difference to me. In theory Roma weren't far off from getting something out of this game. When you look at the statistics they're almost perfectly even.
Bologna of course had more possession that seems to be the case with Roma. The XG was very similar 0.51 for Bologna 0.59 for Roma and the quality of chances was the same. The main difference I think for me was Ravaglia. Because it could have totally been a more even match of it weren't for him. But yes you are right. Of course stylistically Tiago Motta's system is a lot more positive than Mourinho's for sure. Mourinho mentioned an interesting point post game as well.
He said that Roma should really think about the financial fair play situation. And that maybe it would be better to move forward with young players. He said everyone knows the overall quality of the team. I assume he's implying that it's not too standard. He's saying that I'm willing to stay on as the Roma manager and I do hope that they give me a contract. But these players are not of the right quality and maybe we should focus on developing a few players for a long term project.
Basically saying let's take on the Milan project essentially because that's what Milan are doing. Yes because if they've got the option of like every summer it's oh my god Roma didn't spend a single cent. And do you know who they brought in? It's like yes you're bringing in good players but you're not bringing in long term solutions. You're not bringing in anyone to be the center of your project. You're bringing in 28 year olds, 29 year olds who struggle significantly with injuries.
And what happens in a case like this? You've got a game where Lukaku is out suspended and the ball is injured. And look at Roma's team and tell me they deserve to be anywhere close to the top four with a team like that. Pellegrini Paredes, Cristante, Christensen, Spinazzola, Elsharaoui Bellotti. They need to be at full strength I think to contest for that top four spot. Look at their injury list. They've got Smolling, Awar, Debala, Abraham who I forgot existed by the way.
And Spinazzola was actually doubtful for this game. So they're playing with Spinazzola who's not at 100%. They bring in Renato Sanchez who's not at 100%. Gianluca Mancini at the back apparently is playing with an acute hernia. So it's not looking good for Roma. That must be tough, playing with a fucking hernia. That must be tough. Jesus. And not getting a yellow card. If you stay calm and you've got a hernia. You think he had like a stick up his ass or something.
I find it really funny by the way how it seems that Mancini's calmed down nowadays. It's hilarious because he was always the first one to get booked and always the first one to go up to players and confront. Like in confrontations it'd be in the front. Like he's a maniac. Yeah nowadays it seems that he's calmed down though. And like everyone around him seems to have taken on his spirit. It's quite funny. Yeah I guess. But I think Bologna deserve the victory over here.
They're in the top four and I think they deserve to be there man. Absolutely. Froyler as a defensive pivot. Madonna. Wow man. The best player on the pitch. By far. Him of course and Doya had a great game. He was obviously very good. Of course Xerxes. By the way look at Xerxes' heat map. Let's see. Nowhere near the penalty box. I think he entered the penalty box. You could see that spot on the right hand side once. Wow. He's so he's always in on like around. Then look at Doya and Salamacar's.
Salamacar's very far to the left hustling up and down that left hand side. In Doya on the other hand. Always in the box. Always exactly. That's cool. So Joshua Xerxes was almost a decoy this game. Yeah. Getting the ball releasing it quickly and the whole idea was to plan to play Dan in Doya. Yeah. It's funny because he hasn't even scored this season yet. Dan in Doya. Crazy. I'm finding it's really funny that I just figured out today that his name is Dan. It doesn't match right. No not at all.
Danny boy. But he had a fantastic game. His best game so far that I've seen. He started off the season well. He seemed to dip a bit but now he's back at it. Yeah. Froyler man of the match in my opinion. Yeah. Same. I agree. And then Moro for his work rate around like he really, um, Froyler was really allowed to stay in that number six pocket and really be the metronome.
Whilst Moro was doing a lot of dirty work around the pitch winning the ball back and doing so on so forth and even grabbed himself a goal. So that was very cool. Yeah. And of course Bologna are doing this without Sam Mauro or Solini and Carlson. Super performance by them. They totally deserved top four and I wonder if they can keep this up once again. They're playing once a week. They've actually got quite a bit of depth. You know, I mean, Froyler and Moro don't even start every game.
They've got the arbosher as well on the bench. Like this is a super team, you know, for the, considering what we're used to seeing with Bologna. So and Fabian and Fabian as well. Yeah. Fabian who seems to have this goal scoring aura about them. Yeah. But yeah, Bologna are in fourth with 28 points while Roma are down in eighth with 25 points. Michael Vara was one matchday. Dusty Doa from fourth to eighth. It's absolutely tight. Yeah. Kalyari was a very interesting one.
Napoli two Kalyari one at the Maradona. Zielinski was out again for Napoli. It's this weird in out shake it all about at the moment with Zielinski and Mazzari fielded Kajuste instead. Rui was back, but only fit for the bench. So Natan once again started as the left back. And then he had up to the resilient 442 formation, which we all know run the area is a big fan of the 442 formation. I guess this was aimed to challenge Napoli's attack and allow them to kind of compress and sit back.
Also Pavoletti and Petania started up front. So a lot of physicality over there. And the woman but started the game on the bench, little trick up their sleeve over there. Rahmani's header hit the post in the first half, however Kalyari's resistance tested Napoli's defense with Nandes threatening and Meret making a crucial save.
The second half witnessed some tactical adjustments as Kalyari shifted to a 3-5-2 formation, attempting to capitalize on Napoli's vulnerabilities and double down on the midfield battle. Mazzari responded with impactful substitutions and reverting to a 4-2-3-1 formation to combat that. The narrative changed and then when Rui entered the pitch for Natan providing this width and precise deliveries for Napoli, which they were really lacking.
Ozzerman's towering header broke the deadlock in the 69th minute. However Kalyari responded swiftly as substitute Izita, a low-vombo made a decisive run down the left flank, delivering a ball into the 6th yard box to Pavoletti, who shrugged off the challenge from Juan Jesus and finished from close range. The tactical adjustments and substitutions is what this game was all about.
Napoli restored their advantage with extraordinary work from Ozzerman who drew six players around him as he juggled with his chest and he, and his back towards goal, managed to turn and get the pass back to Quaratzkelia to fire in relatively undisturbed at the far post. Poletano had a goal disallowed later on in the game and Napoli had to defend against Kalyari's late attempts with Dossin, missing a crucial chance towards the end, but Napoli did manage to get away with three points.
Very interesting how this game between Napoli and Kalyari ended up to be so f*****g such a chess match. I definitely wasn't expecting that, but the only thing I could think about was how last week we said that kind of Mazzari has given Napoli defensive unity, but the attack is left up for improvisation. That's second goal, that's total improvisation.
Absolutely, to a tee. I'm sure Mazzari was like alright then we're going to give the ball to Ozzerman, he's going to knock it up, he's going to juggle it past Dossin, he's going to lose control of it for a second, he's going to drag it back underneath Dossin's leg, square to Quaratzkelia, you know, no, no, that's total individual brilliance over there. Yeah, no, absolutely, and there's no debate about that. I think the difference in this game was Victor Ozzerman.
Imagine this game, but with Diego Simeone up front, or with Raspidori up front. Giovanni Simeone. I always do that, of course, is Giovanni Simeone, of course. It wouldn't have been quite the same, and it would have probably been a draw, if not worse, to be honest with you.
Victor Ozzerman is one of the best strikers in European football, and I will die on this hill, man, when people start talking about the Hurricanes of this world, the Hollands of this world, like Ozzerman's right there with them, man. Ozzerman's a one man army. He's up there, now he's back, because he was out injured, and he took him to three games to kind of find his goal scoring rhythm back. Obviously, it was the Naples kind of tough fixture schedule.
Now, Ozzerman, well, he went off injured towards the end of the game, apparently, with an injured groin. Now, I don't know how serious that is. I don't think it's too serious, because I think you would have heard about it immediately. I think it's being cautious with Afqon coming up, it's that kind of thing. Of course, Barcelona being drawn and all that. Barça being drawn, exactly. But he's back now, and he could kind of show us what we were missing during his lengthy injury.
And I do think that given a full season, he's up there, top five in the world easily. Absolutely. And by far the best, not by far anymore actually, the best in the league. Because Lautaro is definitely the season like he takes the cake. So yeah, Lautaro and Ozzerman are some of Serie A's finest, of course, and they deserve global attention. You don't often have Lautaro out injured as well. That's it, he's a Mr. Reliable man, and Lautaro is just the fire of all odds, man.
He's not quite fast enough, but he'll outpace your man, not quite big enough, but he'll win the header. Yeah. You know, he's totally, super player. Do you know why the game was delayed for half an hour? Because I had seen something about the wind, if I'm not mistaken, it was very windy, and many of the fans hadn't made it into the stadium yet, for that reason, is that it? Because the wind damaged the roof of the Diego Maradona stadium.
So fans didn't make it in because for precautionary reasons, they weren't letting everyone in, because there was a situation with the roof, but it was all cleared up. I thought it was just the wind, and it's like, ah, the weather is shit, let's wait it out. Let's give it 30 minutes, maybe it comes, no? Yeah. Yeah, this was a very good game. To be honest, I am super impressed by Kalliari, I think with the spirit that they have, they should survive.
It hurts not to see them take anything out of a game like this, where they were so good. And I think that actually starting with Kajostan, Zilinski actually worked out in their favour, because they have quite a physical team, quite a few aggressive players over there. So maybe starting with Kajostan, Angussa and the midfield along with Lobotka actually helped Napoli assert a little bit of dominance.
Yeah, I think so, and against a team like Kalliari, maybe it serves you to be a bit more physical than usual, because they are a very physical team to play against. Napoli are in 5th on 27 points, whereas Kalliari are in 16th on 13 points. It was weird seeing Pavoletti scoring before the 98th minute. Very weird, not used to that. Fiorentina, Bro played Hellas Verona, they beat them 1-0, but they struggled. Yes, they struggled so much.
And Verona were the much better team in the first half, and even in most of the second half as well. How interesting, man. Beltran had a goal in the 78th minute that essentially won the game for Fiorentina. And this goal came in a massive lapse of concentration, where all of Beltran's teammates were appealing for a penalty after the ball seemed to come off Verona defender's hand.
And the Hellas Verona players, sorry, were obviously distracted by these calls, and were ball watching and looking around, and Beltran just came out of nowhere and rifled the ball. Off of, who was it? Amione into the back of the net, yes. There would have been anyone, there were so many of them.
And the game started off so intensely, there was a penalty early on, you know, Juric stepped up to take it, Terraciano saved it, and then Terraciano went on to make about, let me give you the exact number, 7 saves this game. Terraciano made 7 saves, and all of them in credit, if you go watch the highlights, Terraciano, Terraciano, 2.71 goals prevented according to the XG statistics. Jesus Christ.
He is not a fantastic ball-playing goalkeeper, however as a shot-stopper he's one of the finest in the league. One of the most underrated keepers in the league. And you know, Fiorentina keep buying goalkeepers, they replace him, and he always seems to play. Yeah, yeah. And that's, there's obviously a reason for that. One of what's interesting to see started as the 10, there was a bit of a systemic change for Fiorentina. Well, not systemic, personnel change.
Luc Caranieri was at the back with Martinez-Quarta, Mandrago and Lopez were in the middle, Beltran played as the 10, and Insola played up front, and he touched the ball 15 times. Classic and ball. Yeah, for Helas Veron, that seems that they've changed their system to 4-2-3-1, and they've decided to sacrifice Davidovic, and they're playing with Isaac Hien and Manjani. Now Isaac Hien did not have the best game, and he hasn't been quite himself after coming back from injury.
He had 59% pass completion, he had 38 touches. He only won one duel on the ground, however his aerial duels were a little bit better, and he lost the ball 14 times, so he needs to get back in his groove. Isaac Hien. Yeah. Obviously, Andrei Duda and Faroni were still suspended and injured respectively, while Nico Gonzalez was out, Castervoli was out, Dodo and Martinelli were out for Fiorentina.
It was interesting to see first of all that Italiano risked leaving it so late to see that they were going to win, because he didn't bring on Bonaventura this game. Bonaventura was an option of the bench, and he just didn't bring him on. And Fiorentina's goal came in the 78th minute, and he hadn't brought him on yet. He relied on the likes of Beltran and then Zola to get his goal. Now what do you make of that? Do you think it's simply because Bonaventura is 34 years old and needs to be rested?
Perhaps. If it was a choice not to bring on one of the best goalscoring with fielder in the league when you need a goal, he either had a bunch of faith in Lucas Beltran or Bonaventura needed a rest.
Sometimes when it comes to Italiano, I struggle to put my finger on where his mind is at, where his head is at, when it comes to certain players, because he makes certain calls, and I'm going to be honest, the reason I notice it the most is because I take very effective players of theirs on FantaCulture, and sometimes I randomly see them not starting, and I'm like, what has Beragidan not to start?
They don't even have a great, this was last season, they don't even have a great replacement for him, why is he not there? Why is he not starting this game? Why is Bonaventura benched in this game? I think Bonaventura must have been injured because he wasn't even in the squad in the conference league game, to be honest with you, so he must have come back and he left him on the bench so as not to risk him, I guess, that makes sense.
But your point stands, absolutely, and players do seem to disappear on their Italiano. Yeah, I find it interesting how Verona performed in this game, they performed well in this game. Verona played very well, they've changed their system, because Italiano actually spoke about it. I have his words here if you want to hear them. He said, we struggled in the first half, where Taraciano had good times and bad times, because Taraciano actually gave away the penalty, of course.
His touch was heavy on a back pause, they pressed him, I believe it was Folloruncho who pressed him, and when he went to clear the ball away, he clipped Folloruncho, gave away the penalty, saved it, saved the rebound, and then made another five saves as the game progressed.
He said, he saved the penalty, the rebound, three to four decisive interventions, and the second half, even if we weren't as usual, we found the goal, a match in which perhaps we deserved less, but it has also happened other times in which we deserved more and we gained nothing. Fair enough, philosophical. We are on a path made up of many close commitments, the boys showed a little tiredness, but it's good to win, not concede a goal and climb the ranking.
The approach? This can be explained because Verona is a fearsome team, they have changed their system. With the ball above you, you have to adapt to their way of interpreting matches. After the first half, we changed something, we no longer conceded in the match, and we must take advantage of this, or we had to take advantage of this rather. Losing today would have been terrible, given the standings, and our victory, this is actually spectacular, is what he said.
So yes, very interesting to see that people are taking note of Helas Verona's tactical changes, they've moved away from the three at the back and they are actually playing better, and this was without a dude who has been pretty good this season. Yes, he's been very good. Nice to see Saponara introducing himself slowly, slowly coming off the bench, come towards the end of the game. I'm telling you, next game, Kaliari. Maybe, maybe, maybe. He's gonna fucking chip it through.
It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen this season. Where do you man, and when it happens, I'm gonna enjoy every second of it. That's Saponara, Kaliari from out of the box. Literally. We can't not talk about this. Davidovic came on. Ah yes. Did you see his ritual? He did his face routine, no? He entered the pitch. Because Kial has got some aloe there on. He skipped on extending his left leg and his right leg interchangeably, like he was injured.
And then he just rubbed his hands on the floor, on the turf, and rubbed it all over his face and head. I don't know about you, but that would have given me instant acne. That would have given me acne for sure. Do you think it's voodoo shit? Or do you think, like, a lot of footballers and a lot of athletes write about this. One of them being, was it Nadal. Nadal, right? The great Nadal tennis player.
And before he serves, or before he, yeah, before he serves actually, he always does the exact, he touches his body in the exact, like, eight or nine ways. So it's like first he touches his nose, then he touches his left shoulder and then right shoulder, and then he adjusts his t-shirt. And then he touches his neck, and then he fixes his shorts, then he touches his nose again, and he serves. Human beings are so funny.
That is no way near the actual sequence of things that he does, just as an example. But it's almost like a superstitious thing, like, once I did this, and I was really good. So I just kept doing that forever. We've all done it, no? Wearing the same outfit after a crazy victory. Wearing the same outfit for my driving test, I remember, as when I had a good lesson, I was wearing those shoes. Lucky pen for your exam, no? People are so funny, like, the shit doesn't matter.
Lucky underwear for a night out. Come on! Like, you see so many professional athletes and they're superstitious, and you might think to yourself, maybe that's why I'm not a professional athlete, but I've never taken notice of the consequences in my life, and I need to be more superstitious. Exactly. Exactly. It has nothing to do with genetics and mindset. Everything to do with the clothes. I was absolutely dreadful. You weren't dreadful. I was such a passer, Jekyll. Such a passer.
Such a passer because I couldn't do anything on the board. Get rid of it, the second you touched me. I was like, wow, man, this guy is so selfless. Hold on to it, I'm going to lose it. Fiorentina are in sixth with 27 points. They're actually doing very well this year, and they're in contention for that Champions League spot. Maybe they can get something more than the Conference League, man. Hellas Verón, on the other hand, still struggling, of course, despite their positive performance.
They're down in 19th with 11 points. You're seeing me licking my lips, bro. What's next? Because we're about to cover a Monday night game, baby. Atalanta 4, Salernita 1. Now, the first half unfolded with Salernita are taking an unexpected lead in the 10th minute, as Pirola capitalised on a lapse in Atalanta's defence, heading in a free kick from Condreva. Now, you could call it a lapse in Atalanta's defence, but you could also call it a set-piece routine where you're being marked by the Rhone.
Fantastic player, but he is filling the role as a centre-back right now. And, yeah, maybe tactical, zonal, slash man-marking isn't his strong suit, and Pirola had absolutely no problem heading that in great header by him. The dynamics of the game shifted dramatically in the second half. Within two minutes, Luis Muriel levelled the score with a powerful first-time half-volley into the top corner from outside of the box following a corner.
He struck it with the outside of his boot to showcase great technique and his second goal in two games. If you watch that again, you can see Benoit Costil, the goalkeeper, looks like Jirou at Salernitano, looking at the ball at the back of the net, looking down at his feet, and then looking at the other side, kind of like saying, how am I so far away from that? It's my positioning that poor like, but Muriel smacked it so cleanly that he didn't even give him time to adjust himself.
Oh my God, can we snip it, that goal, from POV Muriel, almost like with the goal post in front of him. Slow motion. Where's he on my mama, me vanana, me zanenini. That's my friend. That's your friend, right? That one. Sure, bro. Do it. Okay. The resurgence, let's call it a resurgence, continued as Pasadich, position now higher up the pitch in the second half, added another goal. And against me on fantasy foot? And against you on fantasy football, tucked away a precise finish into the far corner.
It was good work by Muriel over here. Once again, Karnisekki denied Ikwumezi with a great 1v1 stop in the 72nd minute, and Dia hit the post just two minutes later in a great opportunity. Decay Telaare extended at Alanta's lead to 3-1 with a well-placed shot into the far post after Giorgio Scalvini won the ball off Norbert Giomber, and when he does that thing, you know, he just presses so high up the fucking pitch, and this possesses someone, and they just lays it off, and wow, amazing.
Scalvini, man, super player. Fucking Scalvini. What are we going to do about this guy? Scalvini, no idea. He's the future, man. And also, I have vintage CDK this game, if that's even a thing. I was wondering what did he miss a setter like, if you had to talk about vintage CDK. I was wondering about the CDK that caught everyone's eye, but the day that was making Champions League team of the weeks, man, this was a very good performance by him.
The finish was clean, and then that second goal, man, which I'm sure you're about to describe, if that ball was genius. For the fourth goal, excellent ball by CDK to Alexei Morantchuk, who sealed the victory with a fourth goal. The goalkeeper got a significant touch to it, but clearly not enough. Great, great pass. Perfectly waited. The ball stopped exactly where it needed to stop. He saw a gap, and he played it there.
There wasn't exactly a player in that position, but he saw the gap, he played it there, and trusting that his teammate is going to make that run. I mean, where to start? I think Salernetana, obviously, starting the game off well. They had good intensity in the first half, and they were really bringing the game to Atalanta.
But look, I mean, Atalanta, Atalanta, and Salernetana at the end of the day, I think their ideas are there, I think their philosophy is there, and you are starting to see their identity on their Pippo and Zaghi, but when it comes to execution, bro, they are behind. They're behind the play-like. I like the way that Zaghi set up this team, and I like the approach, but the in-game management left a lot to be desired for me. I can't understand, for example, why he would remove Chou now.
It sounds like a very good game. I can't understand why he would remove Danilo Lusci instead of Matsuki, for example. Matsuki has been... I don't think he's been terrible, but he loses his head often, and he often makes many mistakes Matsuki. And you look at every game, you look at the balls lost, the balls lost stats, it's always unbelievable. Possession lost this game, Matsuki 23 times. It's a lot, you know?
I don't know, and to be honest, I don't know if there was anything he could have done to be honest, to survive this Atalanta on-slaught, because Atalanta are a much deeper squad than... Yeah, and super unpredictable. And Gasprini set the head record against Zaghi's Flores as well, so it doesn't help at all. You know how I would characterize this game? Atalanta went into the second half, one goal down, so they hit offensive.
It's like when you change the mentality to offensive, you know, Masa did choose higher up the pitch. I enjoyed that, because we got to see him in positions where he had more liberty to shift wide, and his movement wasn't as tactical and black on white the way that Gasprini would want it. But he was in that free role, you know? He was entering the pocket, straying wide, and I just enjoyed seeing Pasalic play football in this match. I think we'll have to talk about standout players.
I think there are two that come to mind, and it's Decay, Telaure and Muriel in this game. Not to mention Scalvini, because I'm sure that I've fucking exhausted everyone speaking about Scalvini week in, week out. Yeah, absolutely, bro. I agree. I agree totally. I'm always impressed by Coop Miners as well, very intelligent player. But yeah, this is Muriel's time, and I'm happy he's had the resurgence, because I was worried that we're never going to see him have a good game again in Italy.
So nice to see that he's kind of rediscovered his mini R9 self. Yeah, Atalanta are not in a bad spot. They're seventh on 26 points. They're just two points behind Bologna in fourth, bro. So they really are closing in over there, especially with their most recent form showing through. Salernitan on the other hand in 20th, last for those that don't know. On eight points, they're three points behind Verona.
There was also Lecce Frosinone, which I was sure was going to end in a draw, but it actually ended in a Lecce victory, 2-1 for the, what do you call them? Giallo Rossi? What are they? Giallo... I'm sure they must go by Giallo Rossi, right? Giallo Rossi, right? Giallo Rossi, yes. Red and yellow. Yellow and red rather. Yes, the game was actually quite an even battle.
Lecce were missing Alcvist and Juan Gonzalez through an injury and a suspension respectively, and they started off with Strefetz out on the right, band on the left and Piccoli up front, and Ramadani was in the middle along with Udin and Blin. Defense was the same as usual. For Rossi, it was Cairo Giorgi up front who got his first Serie A goal, despite being there as a striker for two years. Mathias Zule was on the right and Arjon Ibrahimovic was on the left.
They were also missing the likes of Marquitza, Matsitelli, Kalaj and Reiner, who are very important players for them. May the Lord bless you and all your sins, bro. Thank you so much. It all started with a massive mistake by Turati playing the ball straight to La Megbanda in the 11th minute, who found Roberto Piccoli, who scored at the near post of Turati, who made essentially another mistake and should have probably stopped that. And that was 1-0 in the 11th minute.
Shortly after that, Ayano went off injured and was replaced by Montereyzi for Frasinone, and Cairo Giorgi eventually converted the penalty in the 33rd minute to equalize. In the second half, it was a Ramadani goal in the 89th minute from a distance, thanks to another Turati mistake that saw Letra getting the victory over here. Turati, man. Not his best of performances. I think the first was a clear mistake, especially considering that he gave the ball away and then got beaten at his near post.
Second one, he got beaten at his near post again. Sure, it was a good strike from distance, and maybe the ball took a bit of a bubble and his fucking vision was slightly impeded. But that should never be going in. Now he's a young goalkeeper of 22 years old. He has had some great performances. He even had a couple of good moments in this game. So I don't want to kind of just pin it all on him, although he is responsible for the goals conceded in this match.
I don't want to single him out as a bad goalkeeper or anything of the sort. This comes with deploying a young goalkeeper. This is bound to happen. Milan experienced this with Don Aruma, for example, an absolute freak of nature. He was a brilliant goalkeeper at the age of 16 years old. He would still make the occasional mistake. Turati is 22, as you said. 22 in the goalkeeping years is like he's essentially a 15-year-old, 16-year-old. So these mistakes are bound to happen.
It's just a shame because of course the margins are very fine and you never know from these teams which one's going to end up going down. I do think that in January they, for us to know, need a few experienced players to come in and to solidify the team a little bit. They are quite good at getting ahead. However, when things aren't going their way, they often look around at each other and no one really steps up to lead them. Exactly.
I was particularly impressed by two players of Rossinone in this game. First one is Breccianini, the former Milan man. Absolutely brilliant and midfield over there. A powerhouse, often gliding his way out of tight spaces, out of challenges. He was amazing there. And Arion Ibrahimovic, how is this guy 17 years old? Because he plays with such power and fearlessness. He looks wise beyond his years as well in his movement and the balls he plays.
A phenomenal player and it's nice to see that the future generations are also going to be watching. And Ibrahimovic, because this guy is going to go all the way to the top. Yeah, I think so man. It's crazy. I was so surprised. He's 18. It was just his birthday. Really? Last year? It was 17. Yeah, on the 11th of December it was his birthday. 8 days ago. He can drink now. He can have a drink now, Arion Ibrahimovic. Yeah man, he's so technically gifted.
He's so driven, you could tell that obviously he comes from somewhere and that is Squala, Bayern Munich. That he comes from. So yeah, a great fit for a team that is like you said highly reliant on these young players. And I think, come with January, they're going to need a leader in this pitch because Bering Tseya, Kajor George, Ibrahimovic, Zulle, Okoli, you know these are a bunch of young players. Who are all on loan. And they're making it work and they're playing fantastic football.
But I call the signing, they also have Rainier obviously from Röndberg's school, Areal Madrid. But they have to make the, I had the term for this, the ring consignings. They need to bring on some players with some serious area experience. They don't need to be the most decorated players in the world. Stabilizers. Absolutely, absolutely. So also I'm fair to mention that Banda hit the post twice. One of them was a curler from one of the books, an amazing goal. Absolutely his day today.
Well, not his day technically because he didn't score but he was on form and he was inspired. Absolutely inspired. Do you think Pikkoly is doing enough to keep Kristovic out of the team? That's another thing I wanted to talk about. No. He don't think he's been doing enough Pikkoly. He's scoring, ok, and that's probably enough in itself.
But there were so many opportunities where I would have liked to see Kristovic in there instead of him because I think Kristovic attacks the ball with so much more might and lethality than Pikkoly does. I feel like he squandered quite a few opportunities Pikkoly in this game despite his goal. I mean, I like Pikkoly and I like the way Lecce played with Pikkoly in the pitch. But lest we forget the performances that Kristovic was putting in and the goals that he was getting.
How good Kristovic is outside the area as well? I think once again there's some healthy competition going on over there. And I'm not mad about Kristovic being benched for Pikkoly to get some playing time over there. No, the rotation is healthy. I mean, now when we see Kristovic, he's going to have a point to prove and he had a point to prove at the start of the season and he scored about four goals. So, yeah, that's always the case.
Lecce, let you have a player on the bench that I had on your fantasy. No, on FM, football manager, Giacomo Faticanti, a ball-winning midfielder, baby, 19 years old. I obviously, before I signed him, I looked him up and he seems like a promising little talent. Faticanti, just 19 years old, like I said, he wins the ball back. You know, it'll be interesting to see him come and go. I'm excited, obviously, slightly biased. I've never even heard of this guy. Faticanti, I've never heard of Faticanti.
I mean, it rings a bell, but I don't think I've ever seen him play. In fact, in his senior career, he hasn't featured. No, no, no, he hasn't. But he has raw manletcha on his CV and for Sonona, he's the system. There you go. I'm excited to see him. This is more of a, this isn't something for the viewers. This is more something I'm telling you, like, I got this guy out of the FM. Faticanti, dude, he looks like a kid. He is pretty much, bro. Okay, we'll see.
And two years time, we will come back to this. What was that episode? We're talking about. That's a problem, by the way. We often say things and like we mentioned a player and he'll have a really good game. And I'd want to revisit when we spoke about it. You can never find it. How the hell are you meant to find it? There's hundreds of them. Yeah, exactly.
But yes, let's say are currently in 12th sitting comfortably mid table over there with 20 points while frozen on a ride below them in 13th with 19 points. This was a massive game winner with overtaken the other one. Yes. And kudos to let's say for getting the victory over there. Now there's Odinez as a swallow that ended two, two. And I was not expecting a high scoring game between these two teams because this game does typically tend to be quite a snooze fest. It always ends in a draw though.
That's an assistant thing. Yeah. Two teams, hopefully short on confidence to say the least. Odinez had just two points from the last four games. Sa Swallow lost two on the trot, including a two on the feet to Kalyari where they were one up in the 93rd minute. Odinez is still struggling with injuries naturally. Bishol, Brenner, Davis, Delaféu, Ebosse and Semedo out along with the suspended Ferreira.
Atalanta had just sold the facing a ban off the Zed card in his last game with Alvarez, Objang and Viti out injured. Berardi and Bologa returned from suspension. Now Odinez initially appeared in control taking a one-nil lead through a Luka header. Ferreira did brilliantly to torment Bologa down the left with some super silky sexy play before crossing it to Luka who headed home.
Now Luka was tightly marked by Ferrari but he really didn't have to jump or try to lose his man to score because Ferrari literally just had his arms around him and that's all. Yeah, he did nothing. That's all. You know the way a woman has her arms around a man's shoulders when she's kissing him? No idea. But that's essentially what he was doing and then when the ball went to Luka, Luka literally just like moved his head and got the goal.
You think that Ferrari would make more of an effort to get to the ball over there. Your opponent is the tallest striker in the league, jump. He's there, he's frisking the man, he's getting down and dirty with him. Ferrari's time in Serie A is up. You think? Yes, he's been below par for a while now in my opinion. Fair enough. Maybe with newly promoted teams he'd be fine. Kirikas had dipped off the Saasvolo but that's the trajectory he's on. He's not young, it's bound to happen to anyone.
I mean I just can't wait for Saasvolo to bring a defender on the ball, I'm just like, I fucking like this guy, he's good. They haven't had that ever. The provider turned score in the 55th minute as Pereira extended to Dineses' lead, finishing well after a scuffed Henrique clearance. I'm gonna ask the listeners because I asked you and you weren't sure either. Was Henrique always the number 7? Question mark? I really don't know.
Now the turning point occurred when Udineses Pajero earned himself a red card after seemingly stomping Erlich Husliden to tackle the Argentine. First looking at this I thought it was a bit harsh because his foot literally just stepped or quite high up, obviously Erlich's leg, but Erlich went sliding in. That's just something that's gonna happen in football but it was dangerous, his studs were high up and that's what happens. It wasn't as bad as Malinovsky's? No, Malinovsky could have killed him.
Saasvolo seized the opportunity with Berardi converting a penalty following Ebocelle Sfoulon, Pena Monti in the 75th minute where he attempted to clear the ball but made contact with just the man. Saasvolo's comeback gained momentum and they nearly equalized with Ammoulat, Thierry Heder hitting the crossbar in the 81st and Ferrari's Heder hitting the post in the 84th.
Saasvolo then awarded another penalty for Cabacel Sfoulon, Molattier in the 88th minute where he tripped the Italian, Berardi stepped up once again and once again since Sylvester the wrong way securing a 2-2 draw. What did you make of that? I mean boxing match, no, and the classic tale of genuinely just being in front and then getting a red card and suddenly being on the back foot and you allow the other team to get back into it.
I thought when it comes to chances created, I thought that Saasvolo could have, I thought Udinezor should have scored perhaps less and Saasvolo should have scored perhaps more. I mean you look at the expected goals, XG naturally Udinez is 0.81, Saasvolo 3.03, you're not making a crazy statement. But that's probably, penalties do bump up XG. But yeah, absolutely. Of course a very... How about this though, sorry.
21 total shots for Saasvolo, 9 for Udinezor, same amount of shots on target, 7 each. Yeah, that's crazy. But that obviously happens when your 2 goals down, you're gonna have it and you're gonna shoot. Yeah, my thought at draw was well deserved to be honest. It's a shame to see Udinezor slipping up in this situation, I thought they were gonna get their second victory of the season.
But it's also nice to see Udinezor swallowing, not fucking sinking into the abyss man, because they do need a bit of confidence boost. And it's always nice to see Dominic Oberari scoring as well. And to be honest, I'm happy with this because Roberto Pereira and Lukas scored as well, we're both fun players to watch. An entertaining game overall. I think Pereira had very good impact in this game, not really goal and assist. It's good to see him back in that form.
Obviously remember Udinezor let him go for nothing last season, so it's good to see him having that confidence, even seeing him celebrate with the fans in the way he did was very nice. I think it was Udinezor begging him to stay and him trying to leave and then realizing no one wanted him so he went back. Also, I googled the number 7 and I smacked my head when I saw it and you probably smacked yours as well.
The last number 7 for Sasvolo was Brian O'Day, that's not why you're gonna smack your head. The one before that was Jeremy Bogot of course. And while I'm here bro, the number 9 for Sasvolo, remember Flockari, Caputo was the number 9 for them, Falscinelli, Joric was the number 9. Skamaka where the 9? Skamaka didn't where the 9, Falscinelli scored against Osdia.
Memories, memories. Two very fucking clubs besides defensive Libro, the battle's full of defensive clusterfuck after defensive clusterfuck. I mean the red card, the two penalties being given away, one of them quite comical where he tried to clear the ball and he ended up taking out the man. The fucking Ferrari, Frisk and Glucca in the box instead of trying to get to the ball. It's comical right? Low quality, it was there at the next end.
Yes. The towards Vead have his teeth back, I didn't pay attention. I didn't pay attention either. I wonder if a footballer at that level can just get his teeth back with the no-eat. I'm sure it probably. I'm sure, he'd be looked after in red joy, Amelia I guess. I did have another point to make. Do you on EC, from a scale of very to not at all, how safe do you think he is in this job? Not at all. Not at all, hey. Like do you think he might be the next manager out? Oh, me too.
I really don't want to tap because I like him, but the results speak for themselves. Exactly, and Sassuola don't have a bad team. They have a pretty good team and we haven't seen Laurie and Tic, for example, in a way, now granted that can be on the player. But I feel like Barai, they could be deployed better as well. But I don't want to, okay, is finding himself a bit, but we've also seen him play better. And systemically, man, they've got so many holes at the back, Sassuola.
I don't know if it's a problem of individuals because it's always been the case. It's also the case that the club does everything to fuck the team up. Same as Verona in that sense. But the difference is Sassuola sell smart and they make money and they reinvest it in young talent and they buy appreciating assets and it's a sustainable business model. So it's not like Verona who sell all these players and no one knows where the money's going.
So I do think that's a Sassuola need to have maybe a new manager. I think they do need a new manager because as it stands right now, they're in contention for relegation. And it's not looking good for them at all. Ok, Choffee is Odenes' second manager of the season and he really hasn't managed to turn things around. Considering the team that he has. There's just a draw machine that team. Sassuola 15th on 16 points, Odenes 17th on 13 points.
There I say both teams deserve to be exactly where they are. So that leaves us with Torino and Polybro. The score was 1-0 to Torino. Largely credited to Zapata's goal, coupled with a lovely, solid defensive display by Torino. As they shoot up into a Europa League contention zone. Despite the employees efforts. You can call it that. Yeah, despite employees efforts and many a goal cancelled. The game ended 1-0. But there are a few things we have to cover of course, a few key things.
So first of all, let's start with the suspensions. Guarino, Petzella, Berezynski and Caputo were all out for Empoli. While Guesan and Shurez were out for Torino. I've never heard of Anj and Guesan in my life, but Pierre Shurez is a lovely player. And he's a big mess for them. Now Tony Sanabria and Zapata have been playing together up front. And this seems to be a very rich solution for the striker drought situation. It gives them some edge. It's great. I love this.
I think that this is a fantastic solution by your age to be honest to the plate. Imagine being a center back and you're up against Sanabria and Zapata. At least it's fucking semi frightening, you know. Of course. It is frightening. Zapata's goal came in the 25th minute bro. But there was fuck that goal. It was okay Raul Bellanova charging up and down the pitch working very hard for his team.
And has been doing so for a while and obviously his efforts have been appreciated because he's playing consistently. He went the ball into Zapata who did it then. But Sanabria's bicycle kick man. I was watching that while I was waiting for you guys to finish getting ready. Because we had Kee's birthday drinks. And when it happened I was home alone and I screamed by myself at home which is chill. It's fine. I'm good. But my throat started hurting after that. At the moment everyone's sick.
I'm like did that scream make me sick? And I lost my voice for two days. And I was like surely it's because we were drunk. And we had the night out with it. But I am confident that I lost my voice for two days because of the way I screamed. When that goal hit the back of the net unfortunately offside. It was sensational. I wish it counted. He scored but he was offside by literally a fingernail after you bit in it and drew it and spat it on the floor. That's the offside. Like so so marginal.
Another one. So marginal. So marginal. It's a shame. Poor Esa Procci. He deserved his goal there. Okay. Con Shillier came on in the 61st minute and he was one on one with Vanya Milinkovic-Savic. He learned the very tough lesson that is don't get too close to Vanya Milinkovic-Savic when you're one on one because he is massive. His legs are long, his arms are long and he will jump at your feet and he will fucking fuck you up. He did jump at his feet and was a fantastic save.
He essentially won them the game. Vanya is the kind of guy to like go walk in the woods and like just like howl to let off steam. You know what I mean? It go like on a 100 kilometer hike into the woods and just like howl like that. Bro, who would have thought that in 2023 Vanya would be in Sey Aztel playing consistently and Sergei would be in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, yeah. And who would have thought in 2023 that Sergei would have made the smarter move because he's making so much more money.
Who would have thought in 2023 Wanda Nara just got Mauro Ecardi a move to Real Madrid in January. Oh my god. It just came up on my Instagram. That would be mental. Would be, it's done. It's done. What do you mean? Dundee. Dundee. Bro, that's right. Who reported? It was Romano. Here we go. I don't believe it was, oh, where did it go? In the meantime, I can break a new piece of news as well as this came up while we're recording. This is apparently everything happens while we're recording.
And it also happens for a reason and don't you forget. Walter Sabatini is the new general director of Salernitan and that's massive. That's massive. Hopefully, I mean, January is coming. So let's see what Sabatini can cook. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he is the guy that can spot talent and that can make deals happen. Of course. Brilliant. Okay. Icarides is pretty much confirmed by any platform that isn't official. Bro, what? Sorry. What? What? I just opened my phone.
And now, Polly Nil Frostinone 4 Coppa Italia. Taking the fucking dick. Really? I swear, I just checked it. It's real. Like I'm not being pranked. So in the 37th minute, we're covering this as well. But Sumiano scored, but it was disallowed for a handball. Then Berincereos scored in the 65th. Caso in the 70th. Kediran the 91st and Harui in the 95th. Napoli out of the Coppa Italia. Who did Napoli field? Full team or? Bro, man. Gollini's on all the Ostegaid.
Natan Rui, Caustia, Demm, Megatano, Lindstrom, Sumione, Raspador. So no. Not full team. No, not at all. Not at all. But Ostegaid, Natan, Rui, Gollini's on all the... That's not the defensive backline. And we'll keep it at conceded four goals to Frostinone. To Caso Kediran. Because I went for the... That is the line-up of someone that doesn't give a fucking shit about Coppa Italia. That's a mistake, like. That's a mistake. That line-up is whack. That's fucked up. Four nil. What the hell?
I can't wait to see what the hell happened here. Shelly, you want to conclude this game? Yes, sir. Just because we'll go one minute less. Oh, yes. When it comes to the standings, Torino are in ninth with 23 points. Missionary. Well, Emily are in 18th with 12 points. One point away from Odinez, outside the relegation pool. The next time we record would be after Christmas. So happy Christmas. Are you crazy, coos? So let us take this opportunity to tell you crazy, crazy, coos.
Merry Christmas to all of you. Happy Hanukkah. Whatever it is that you love, we love it even more. That's all I'm going to say. Absolutely. Especially if you follow us, you rate us five stars, you like our content, and you DM us your questions, and show us your love. We love you all. Happy holidays. Stay safe. Don't drink and drive. We'll be back before you know it.