110: The Perfect Hattrick (Full Matchday 21 Coverage)

Follow Runchop and he's still going follow runchop. As I go from distance as well, a beauty from Michael follow runchop. Hey yo and welcome to episode 110 of Say A Spotlight, we are Josep Jake and Matt and this week we'll be covering all the events of matchday 22 as well as the Supercoppa Italiano. As you guys heard from our intro, now this is a bit of a debatable one, our goal of the week was follow runchop's goal against Roma for Verona, it ended up being a consolation goal but at the

time Verona really looked like they were gonna get back into the game. Now don't get me wrong, dribbled past two players in midfield in great fashion like mental, debatable there was a block on bove or whatever but got past those two players. He let fly from non-talking yards like 35 yards out, dipping curling strike but definitely think Rui Patricio could have done much better. Absolutely yes he could have definitely done better however I don't think that takes anything away from

the great goal that Michael Follorouncio scored. I liked Solez's goal as well, the free kick was perfect. Now that was because obviously we disagreed a little bit, I liked Solez, I thought that just outside the area like that, that technique to get it up and down over the wall and into the top corner, leave the keeper rooted to the spot. Yeah, a pitch but I thought Follorouncio had so much to do man, he did it all so perfectly and the strike wasn't bad, granted it was a great

strike, it was a blunt, but it was a great strike anyway. Quite central but it was dipping and weaving. Zierkowski's goal, the first one. The first on the volley, amazing, amazing, love of volley, just outside the area, low, hard, brilliant. Yeah, the episode's called the perfect hat trick because Zierkowski of course scored the perfect hat trick, one with the right, one with his head,

the one with his left. Two of them absolutely gifted to him, it was almost like you know, Mercury was in retrograde and it wanted Zierkowski to get a random hat trick, but yeah, brilliant, what a couple of games Zierkowski has had off the territory. Yeah, the thing he was rotting at Spazio in Serie B, trying to survive, he's just moved to Ampoli, played two games over there, he's become the top scorer this season. There you go, two games,

that says a lot about Ampoli as well. Our giveaway has ended, I repeat, our giveaway has ended. If you didn't enter, I'm sorry, but we told you, we told you, you have now missed out on your opportunity to win an exclusive Serie A spotlight black embroidered sweater. You're finished, our winner is actually Nicholas Bianchini. Congratulations brother, we still have not delivered it to him, just to remain transparent. He's currently in London studying, however in

the most Maltese fashion possible, we can drop it off at his pay. Exactly, and guess what, his parents live right next to my girlfriend. I love Malta. I love Malta, man. I love Malta. Also, our highly anticipated interview with Joseph Minala has been published on all platforms, I do recommend that you go watch it on YouTube because we've got video in that, so you could

watch us conversing with him in our studio. It's a very bite-sized, enjoyable watch, we get to speak about things other than the scandal, how he's played for Salernetana, how he's played for Bari and all of these teams, how he's playing in Malta, what his mental state was like when going through that experience and ultimately, naturally, even the experience itself. So it's a brilliant, brilliant watch. Absolutely, yes. It turned out to be quite a wholesome interview. Yes.

From the feedback we got, which is great. He enjoyed it, we enjoyed it, and it was a great experience, speaking to a profession. Absolutely, we should invite him for a kick-about. So that would be fun. We get destroyed. Yeah, we'll have a picnic with... With what penalty shootout, bro? You and Goul against Minala. Me and Goul for sure. I just dive right all the time. I don't know if you know that about me, but I was always really good at

diving to my right, but I could barely dive to my left. With reflexes I could, but I was always scared because it's my weaker arm, I was scared I'd break it or some stuff. Yeah, I definitely have preferred sides to dive, even though I'm the worst goalkeeper you've ever seen. I'm not even exaggerating when I say you're the worst goalkeeper I've ever seen in my life.

I'll never forget once, bro, we're at a five a side, and I remember just before I was in Goul, and it was with your friends at the time when you used to play with Alpha Q. By the way, brilliant. These were guys that took it really seriously, and I remember first they put me in Goul, and one of your friends fell in love with me because I had a really good game. And after that, the other Fennec went in Goul, Jake Fennec. I go in Goul when I'm tired.

I'll never forget. Bless you, it was a great shot that flew past you, but like, fucking, well, I tell you, like two seconds passed, and you dove to the left. And I remember when you were diving, I could see your legs shuffle in me. I'm not blessed, bro. I'm not crazy enough to be a goalkeeper, right? That's what they say. Yeah, goalkeepers are mad. Yeah, so Inter won the Supercopa after defeating Napoli 1-0 in the final. A few interesting takes from this

Coppa from the Supercopa. Taliyan, of course, it was the first time that it was with a semi-final single knockout format. Enjoy those 11 million. I'll never get all those hours back again in my life. It was in Riyadh. The turnout was absolutely dreadful, especially for the semi-finals. The final itself had a turnout of 24,900 people. So not great at all. It feels like the Supercopa was taken away from the fans of the clubs. I like the format. Sure, why not? But keep it local.

Interesting things to note is that in the semi-finals Napoli played Fjordentina and beat them 3-0. Simeone scored a goal. Nice to see him scoring after saying he wants to leave because he's not getting enough playing time. It was a gorgeous goal. An absolutely gorgeous goal, man. He had so much to do and his finishing, his finish was top notch. And his celebration was like so sad because you can see him looking for the fans and he can't really find the section and the stands

dedicated to Napoli. So he just turns to his teammates and celebrates facing his teammates with his back to the fans. Very weird. And then shortly after, Zerbin was introduced into the game and he scored. But as he scored, he clattered into the post and banged his head really badly on the post. And he didn't even celebrate. In fact, he just looked up, raised his hand and passed out. The medics came. The commentators were really serious. They were like,

we can't even celebrate this goal right now because the guy's knocked out cold. They just hope he's okay. He takes him off as we're wondering if he's okay and the game's going on. Next thing, you know, a ball's played to the middle. The commentators are like, oh, it's Zerbin. He's on. He gets the ball. And like he shoots from way out. Fantastic finish and he scores bottom corner. Like he's probably still concussed. He's still dizzy. He's seeing stars, but what a goal

he scored. Amazing, man. Two goals for Zerbin and a super cup semi-final. Brilliant. Yeah, Fjordentina were holding on for quite some time in that game, but literally Zerbin turned the, he didn't turn the game around because Napoli were already winning, but he sealed the deal alone. 84th and 86th. There you go. That's it. And Simeone scored in the 22nd minute, of course. So that was Fjordentina's trip over and then Inter played Laci where they dominated them. You know, it wasn't them. They

killed them. They absolutely killed them. Thuram scored. Insha'Allah, Nogla scored his, what, 78th, 9th, the penalty of the season. But Nosn and Fratese scored in the 87th minute to seal things off and then in the final. At least the final was what was supposed to be the Super Cup, Paltaglia and a final. And that's why the winners of the league faced the runners up of the cup and the winners of the cup faced the runners up of the league. So at least they are

favouring the champions. Absolutely. And one thing I didn't mention actually is the most interesting thing about the semifinal game between Napoli and Fjordentina was that Napoli went back to their three at the back formation. Mazzari was like, fuck this. It doesn't make sense for him to keep playing a system that's not doing well simply because it did well to managers. It doesn't make sense at all. So he swapped back to a three at the back formation just as he knows best and they

looked solid. And they played against Inter in the final with that formation. And once again, they looked quite solid. Inter couldn't penetrate them until the very end in the 91st minute. Of course, Simeone got a red card that game, but Napoli managed to hold off and was going to go

straight to Penalty's world to have been a 50-50. But of course, the inevitable Lautaro Martinez scored in the 91st minute and took off in celebration, took off his shirt to reveal his underwhelmingly shredded body and flung his shirt around and you know, the whole interthing. He ran, he actually had to run the full length of the pitch to find a couple of geysers in an Inter kit. Like again, man, I, I, I understand that Seria, they need the money and I get that.

But taking the game away from Italy to me, it doesn't feel right. Like Napoli and Inter fans, that would have been such a turnout in the Olympic, for example, that would have been sold out. Of course. Sold out. And you'd have the piazza full of, full of ultras and you'd have the, the T-Force and you'd have all this, the true Italian culture. But I guess, you know, at least it's not the Coppa Italia, at least it's not the Seria, at least it's, you know, the, a fringe

cup. Let's put it that way. You know, to make it way more exciting, actually. What if it were the last game of the season that that was played, man? Team wins the league, team wins the cup, Champions League ends, Europa League ends. And then a week later, a week later, it's the winners of the league versus the winners of the cup. Think of how much value and how much pride would be added to that trophy, man. That's not bad. It'll be a bit hot. Yeah. Get over it, you athletes. You run

all day. That's a good idea, actually. Because then you get the, the truest forms of those teams as well. Because let's admit this isn't Spallotty's Napoli without, you know, at all. So that's a good point, bro. Thank you, King. Guess what? What? We have a new patron. So welcome, Campbell. Congratulations. You are a Spothead and you've joined the list of great

Spotheads that make our family so great. Shout out to all of them. Shout out to Ed, Alan, Andy, Lena, Jose, Luke, Mike, Matteo, Matthias, Luca, Anthony, Michael, David, Kyle, Andrew, Sluge, McNoodle, Tim, and now, Campbell. Yes. Thank you as always, guys. Thank you to Campbell for allowing us to play that song on our podcast. We always get so excited to plug that in, just give whoever is driving or whoever has headphones on that have a real fucking treat.

If you want to hear that more often, become a patron. It's 3.99 a month. You can find it in our, what do you call it, link, link to. Link in bio. We've got a link to you on our Instagram, which has everything. Basically, you can see our website. You can find our YouTube. We're quite late on the YouTube train, as some of you may know. So it would really help us out if you could go drop a follow over there and just like the videos, listen to the videos over there. That would really help

us out. Yeah. We could also get monetized on YouTube. So I mean, we've been pushing Spotify and realized there's no monetization here. So if you guys want to have no, leave our videos on repeat on YouTube, do us a bit of a solid. We need 3000 hours. If you've got 3000 hours, you can listen to us. But without further ado, let's get into what happened this week. As you guys know, it was a bite sized matchday. Obviously, Inter versus Atlanta, Bologna versus Fiorentina, Torino versus

Lazio and Saswala versus Napoli were pushed. They're going to be being played between mid-February and mid-March naturally, because Inter, Fiorentina, Lazio and Napoli were competing in the Super Coppa Italiana. So now it's that classic thing, the most frustrating thing when we're reading out the league tables and we're like, you were first one point above Inter who have a game in hand. Do you remember season one was all like that because of fucking COVID, man. And that one game

in hand happened to be the Bologna. Exactly. Exactly. Thanks to Radu, baby. Now, take nothing away from Sansone. Absolutely. Absolutely. For the rundown, the first game we're going to start with is Udinese 2 Milan 3. What is it about Udinese Milan and just these fiery encounters? There was that famous Theo Hernandez last minute ago, a couple of years

back when Roman Yoli was still at Milan. This game unfortunately had a terrible moment in it, where Udinese fans, Udinese ultras were throwing racist remarks at Mike Manjano, who ended up Milan, ended up walking out of the pitch shortly after returning back and going on to win the game with a last minute winner by Noah Okofor. Darussi's debut was a good one and Roma won two goals to one against Verona. It wasn't easy, but Stefano Ciarra, we played a pivotal part in a very counter

attacking Roma side. Let's try Nyl Uve 3. It was another doppietta by Duzan Vlau, which was really, really found his form. Empoli 3, Monza Nyl in the debut of Davide Nikola, a perfect hat trick by Zyrkovski. I can't wait to get to that game, so we could discuss it a little bit. Salernitana 1, Genoa 2. Salernitana once again opening the scoring, but failing to take it over the line. This time it was against newly promoted Genoa and Frazzinone 3, Kalyari 1 between these two sides

that let's be real, every time they play each other it's a fucking spectacle. The last time they played it was the 4-3 comeback by Kalyari. Frazzinone were winning 3-0 up until the 71st minute, which is absolutely crazy. I can't believe you missed that one because you were in Australia. I know. That's why I decided that I can't live in Australia because the hours of the games were

just bzerk. And then obviously I'd wake up early to watch the Milan's, the Inter's, the Uve's, but perhaps if there was a 2am game I could miss, maybe it's between the two newly promoted sides, but obviously the match of the season so far had to take place. Yeah, shout out to our Australian listeners of course who are so dedicated. How the hell do you stay up to date? I know right.

Yeah bro, but Udine is a Milan, that's the talk of the town at the moment. Of course what happened was absolutely despicable and it's a shame that these things still happen in 2024 and we still have to discuss them and remind people the importance. The thing is, you know,

people are, I would say the majority of football fans are fine. They enjoy the moment, they go to the stadium, it's a very family oriented, they're there for the game, a little bit of banter, where they chant maybe against the opposition team, whatever, it's all in good spirit. But then you have these minorities who have to make the fucking

majority listen to the same old thing man. It's very obvious that racism is bad and that you shouldn't be racist and it doesn't belong in football and that everyone in a football stadium is there for the same reason and football is meant to unite and it does unite and that's why you have 80,000 people from all walks of life in a stadium watching a game supporting the same two teams essentially. You know, you look at the pitch, you have, you've got so many different

ethnicities and religious affiliations. That's the beauty of it, exactly. No one cares. What they care about is, you know, can you play the ball well? Can you score? Can you dribble? Can you defend? Can you make saves? You know, those are the things that matter. Yeah. So it's absolutely ridiculous that we still have to deal with these things and then the hypocrisy and then the ignorance. But when you look at Odenes' esteem and you look at, you know, you're offending

the goalkeeper of Milan when you've got many black players in your team. Yeah, exactly. They've got so many black players. Like, respect your own players. Literally. You're disrespecting your own team, you moron. Yeah. And now, as a result, I believe they're banned for one game. Like, they have to play the match behind closed doors. Yeah, because apparently it would be unfair if due to a couple minority fans, which is what do you, Odenes, some Odenes official said after the

game said it was only a few fans. Shut up. You fucking idiot. It's a problem in your fan base. Would it be unfair to ban everyone to ban there? Let's say 30,000 spectators because of, let's say, 10, 20? Yes, because there needs to be a solution to this. There needs to be complete bans. I'm not sure I agree with that. With banning, with closing the doors to the stadium. Like, why should, why

should the majority be affected for the actions of the ignorant minority? Because in order for us to get a better future and in order for us to teach people, so do you know what's the best way when you've got a kindergarten class because it is what these guys are, they're fucking kids, you know, the these races, they're idiots. What's the best way to discipline a group of kids? It's you all get a break in if no one owns up. And that's that's that's how you need to treat them. Of course,

that's how you need to do it. Totally disagree. Totally. I think that that's that's that's daft. And let's look at, for example, the let's say this happens in a Champions League semi final. You're gonna close the doors for it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't to me. I don't give a fuck when it happens if that happens within your fan base, which causes the players to walk out because of racist remarks coming from your fan base, then the people need to be responsible for the repercussions

that are happening afterwards. And and it I'm not gonna say it won't happen again, but it'll be reduced so much because they know if I'm going to do that, there's the ultimate punishment. My team is going to need to play without fans in the derby. My team is going to need to play without fans in the final and it's it's zero. It's come to a point where now we've they've tried being understanding, lenient, so on so forth. It's time to just fucking take just no no stop. I think

I think permanent bands for people involved. Absolutely as well are necessary. As well as well. Yeah. And if the teams don't want to invest in the infrastructure to be able to catch these these people out, then find the clubs club finds you know, you find you find the club in this case, Odeneza, you know, you give them a massive fine. So that next time they'll be preventative and improve their infrastructure in order to catch out the racist minority. I think

that's enough. I think you you propose stadium bands and all of a sudden you'll have people they'll be afraid, you know, but there aren't stadium bands. So if if if they're going to stick to this whole removing the fans and stuff giving people lifelong stadium bands because there isn't the technology, the Odeneza fans have been confirmed, some of them have been caught and they're banned for life. They're banned for life. Excellent. Excellent. But but I really believe

we need to go on next step as well. And it needs to it needs to impact the club they love. That's what needs to happen. Yeah, I just don't think it's fair when it affects the innocent basically, you know, I don't like collateral damage. I think that granted yes, and then the entire fan base will be on board and you know, people will be more vocal if they hear these chants and the stands, you know, that shut them up. They'll be like, listen, we want to come

back next week, shut the fuck up. Exactly. But I still don't think it's fair. And I think there are better solutions. I think that with today's technology, you can identify people from their fucking eyes or their fingers, you know, you can easily point a camera at the fans and identify who's being racist, ban them for life. Simple as you know, eventually, you'll you'll trim the fat

enough. Yeah. Well, let's let's get into the game. But yes, bro. And when it comes to the lineups, Manian was in goal for Milan in the 4 3 3 formation with Theo Hernandez and Calabria's the full backs and Simon Kier and Gabia has a center back partnership, Reinders, Adley and Loftus Creek where the midfield three with Poulissik out on the right,

Leao out on the left and Jiru up front. We might be seeing Ben Aser back into the steam quicker than anticipated, although he is carrying a knock but Algeria have been knocked out of the African Cup of Nations. Yeah, as well as Cameroon. It's crazy. Yeah. It's a 3511 for Odineza. I don't believe you're first talking about that. Okoya was in goal with Ferreira Perez and Christensen at the back of Bossella was on the

right Kamara was on the left with some art, Zichlov Rich and Wallace in the middle. And Ferreira was playing behind the formidable Tower of Lucca. So the first half was all Milan and Milan started very well. Well, the beginning of the first half was Milan. Ok, Milan were absolutely dominating and eventually managed to get a goal when Theo's cut back ball was

turned in by Ruben Loftus Creek. That was the 31st minute. However, shortly after that, that's when the racist incident happened and Manon walked off the picture essentially followed by his teammates who were really encouraging him. It was actually quite beautiful to see. Theo Hernandez was like, look, we're all we're all walking off right now. Adley was the first one to walk into the tunnel with Mike Manon. That was very nice to see. Shout out to the

Odineza 11 that also walked out. That also walked out as well. That's true. Good point. Yeah, it was this moment that there was a bit of a turning point in the game though because when play continued, it seemed like Milan were a little bit disgruntled and Odineza were allowed back into the game. And that's when in the 42nd minute, Lorenzo Lucca set up some odds who absolutely destroyed Simone Kier and scored equalizing one one and going into half

time. Yeah, before that, Kier was having a flaw this game. But the second someone starts running at him, you realize that he's not a he's an A no spring chicken. No, definitely not. And he's fine. You know, his position and play is good. He's good in the air. But then when it comes to these situations, when a man gets the better of him, there's no recovering. Yeah, at the same at his age. At times, you know, he might be a bit of a liability. However,

however, his leadership skills might compensate for that. Of course, he's still a good squad member to have. It's just the fact that Milan have such a bad crisis that he has to feature more often than not. Now, after the break, Milan appeared even less dynamic and responsive. So Vaughn exploited defensive errors, attributed particularly in this case to Theo Hernandez and Reinders to put Odinez in the lead. Can you please explain to me what the hell they were

doing? It seemed like Theo made a tackle and then tried to play it to Reinders. Did he the Reinders get in his way? What the hell happened there? To be honest, so I don't think there was tackling was convincing. I feel like it was like a half tackle kind of thing. He didn't comment himself fully. And Reinders was too close. So the ball kind of ricocheted off him. And he shouldn't have

been positioned over there and just ended up falling back to Thouvan. You know, when you used to play football in like a junior one, kindergarten and all that, where it's everyone chasing the ball and kicking the ball, no one is like taking position. Yeah, that's what it looked like between the two players. That's true. Absolutely. That reminds me of, I'm not going to say the school name actually, no free advertisement. CHS. SMC. That reminds me of CAA. Well, both

of them. Playing in the tennis courts, football in the tennis courts, there are like five games happening at the same time. Yes, bro. Yes, but I'm saying everyone's kicking the same ball, CHS. Yeah, man, those were some fun times. We would suit up and go play football. Yeah, purely responded with substitutions he brought on Okafor and Jovic.

Jovic scored immediately after Jeroz attempted the crossbar to make it 2-2. This would be in the 83rd minute and then in the 92nd minute, Milan had a corner and at this point, you know, I wasn't expecting anything. I thought the game was over. It's a draw. I'll take the draw. Milan scored in the 83rd minute. Late comeback. It's fine. Odineza, you know, like the title dream is dead. But then Okafor at the far post being the pure poacher that he seems to be. I didn't expect him

to have this kind of prowess in him. There was a flick on and he by Jeroz and he just slotted it home. Beautiful goal. Yeah, I mean riveting stuff. It's always, it's such a rush when your team wins through a last minute goal. What I want to say is, I don't believe Milan had a bad game by any means. I think Odineza have a tricky side to play against. I think there was that moment that really obviously

shifted the momentum because the momentum was all Milan. And then Milan, like you said correctly, got disgruntled. Samaritzec had a moment of brilliance. Wow, what a goal by him. That's an absolutely un-on-rable mention. And then there was that, I'll call it a f*** at between between Theo and Ryan. There's that led to Thuvan finishing at the near post. But what do I always say, bro? Good teams win when they shouldn't. Yeah, that's absolutely true. This game is difficult

to read because of what happened. Milan started off very strongly. That incident happened. Milan seemed to lose their focus and they conceded a goal at the end of the first half and then the 60-second minute. But then they showed good resilience to come back and not only come back in the 83rd, but also score again in the 92nd. So overall, as you're saying, a positive performance because Milan came out strongly. And so the setup to the game was well and the reaction was good

as well to go in. Yeah, because purely substitutions made an impact. And that was about to say that. Great impact. Jovi Trandocco for both scored. And it's good to see perhaps some of these players that were brought in are actually, so it was always a worry like, are Milan actually going to have depth or are they going to have a bunch of Charles de Keitel Arez on the bench like last season or have a bunch of Bacca Jocos on the bench that basically have zero impact. But purely

he's bringing on people that have impact. Jović has had a fantastic couple of months, brilliant couple of months. Okka 4, we all know what he's capable of. And there's certain changes in the midfield as well that are impacting the team positively. So it's good to see that finally Milan are in a stage where they say, okay, like, keep in mind, we'll have a fucking crisis going on right now with Caldor, Caldor, at Chow, Pobbe, Gattomori, Benasse and Cioquese all out. And

they're on a winning streak. Yeah. Granted, they crashed out of the Coppa Italia when they could have respected Atlanta a little bit more. Yeah. But overall, the trajectory is most definitely positive when you look at the fact that Milan are out of the Champions League because they were in the group of death and they're out because of a penalty that shouldn't have even been given between Piazza Gry and Newcastle. So granted, yes, it's true Milan could have done better against

Dortmund and Newcastle, but that's just the way things go sometimes. Yeah. Two performances I want to highlight. So first of all, Manjan granted he seemed a little bit disgruntled after the abuse, but he did pull off a fantastic save at one point with his leg, as he always seems to do. Another performer, like the highlight, is Matteo Gabia, who has come in and fit in like a glove, two incredible blocks, lost ditch tackles. One of them in the box, a cross was coming and he slid and

intercepted it. Another one, someone would have been cleaned through one goal and he intercepted the ball as well with a very good sliding tackle. He's been super, very dependable and it's time for him to make a name for himself and he really is. Yeah, absolutely. And I think he's enjoying his football. That's a big thing you see in him, especially, you know, okay, everyone's enjoying their football when you score a goal in the last minute, but the passion that you see in him when

something like that happens. And one thing I really like about him, and I think I mentioned this in the last episode, is when a midfielder or striker receives the ball, his judgment on whether to press or not is fantastic at the moment. Obviously, it's a long season. These defenders that I mentioned previously, the injured ones are going to be out for some time, so Milan are going to need to depend

on Matteo Gabia for a longer time now. Yeah, absolutely. By the way, as we're recording this Zambia on Morocco or play, yes, there's also the other game going on right now between Congo and Tanzania. And fun fact, Congo are starting Charles Pickle. Oh my god, Piquel. He's still at Cremoniza, he's representing Congo at the moment. Tanzania, I'm going to tell you two words that you'll understand very well. Pole, Pole, you can do it. You can do it.

So Milan are currently third with 45 points, while Udinese are down in 16th with 18 points. Next game, Roma to Verona one, Roma coming off a 3-1 loss against Milan where Morinio was sacked. And so this is Daniela De Rossi's first game in charge for Roma. Verona were coming off a good win, 2-1 over Empoli and the previous encounter in this game. Not sure if you remember this one, Verona to Roma one in the earlier stages of this season. So Roma had a point to prove over here

under their new manager. Now coming into this match, Roma and Hellas Verona were equal in their last seven encounters in Serie A. Three wins each, however, it does include the awarded three-nil victory for Verona on the 19th of September 2020 because Roma hadn't shown up due to a significant increase in Covid cases within their team and there was also one draw between these two sides. Now it had been an eventful few days in Roma as Morinio was sacked after crashing out of the

Coppa Italia against arch rivals Lazio and losing to Milan in the league. New manager De Rossi revamped most tactics to a 4-3-1 formation but he had a few absentees including Mancini and Cristante who were suspended as Moon, Indica and Awar on international duty plus Renato Sanchez, Chris Molling, Tammy Abraham and Marash Kumbulla out injured. Hellas had Laziovic, Duda and Coppola all banned too and they also sold Cyril in Goncetunapoli and perhaps one that's gone under the radar,

Josh Doig to Saswolo. What a signing! That happened! That has happened, a great signing, a great defensive signing by Saswolo, you don't often tend to see that but that's just what I said in previous episodes is Verona really letting all their players go just to combat this financial crisis that are currently... They played a good game over here, offensively

they were great, genuinely. Now as for the lineups like I said it was a 4-3-2-1 for Roma with Rui Patricio and Golan the backline of Spinazzola, Laurenti Huyssen and Karzdorp and midfield three of Pelle Greeny Paredes and Bove, Elsharawi and Dibala playing behind Locaku. It was a 4-2-3-1 for Verona with Montepoen goal, Ciaccia on the right, Caballo on the left and the two centre backs Romanjani and Davidovic, Fodoruncio and Serdar in the double pivot with Imboula out on the right,

Saponara out on the left and Souslo playing behind the massive Juric. Now in the 19th minute was a dream start for the Rossi's first game for Roma, Locaku opened the scoring, it was Pelle Greeny that found Elsharawi in the final third who did extremely well to break through two defenders and square the ball to Locaku who made no mistake placing the ball into the back of the net on his

favourite left foot. Shortly after just five minutes later in the 24th minute it was captain Pelle Greeny that made it two, Locaku's cross was cleverly flicked on by Elsharawi into the part of Pelle Greeny who had time to control and beat Montepo for power at his near post. Now Spinazzola went off injured with a muscular problem moments later and Huysin's angle drive flashed across the face of goal while Parades was booked and will be suspended for the trip

to Salernetana. I thought that Huysin miss was quite bad. Yeah but it's Huysin. He had to hit the target you know like even of the shots weak like if he failed to hit the target they're granted he tried to go for the far post that was a bit of a poor attempt in my opinion granted young player young defender you know young defender not known right exactly the goal scoring prowess yeah yeah yeah he'll actually we'll be seeing more of him Huysin I'm quite sure he's quite a bright

young talent. Now in the 56th minute Helas Verona had the ball in the back of the net with a follow run show header but it was very harshly disallowed by the referee for a slight push on Ric Carrsdorp I thought that was really harsh to disallow you see those tussles in goals you

know what I mean all the time and I really do think that was harsh refereeing there. Now Verona were awarded a penalty for Jurich's header striking Lorente on the arm in the 64th minute Jurich stepped up and blasted the penalty well over the bar despite sending Patricio the wrong way as you could see from the 56th minute onwards Verona really starting to attack this Roma side which was when the Rossi said hey yo I think it's best we go for a three at the back

formation over here give these guys that's stability they're used to under Morinio however in the 75th minute follow run show did manage to get his name on the score sheet the Italian carried the ball forward from the center of the pitch skipped past the sliding bofe brilliantly fainted past Paredes and took a strike for an entire solar system away which moved enough on its way to bamboozle Rui Patricio who didn't manage to keep it out despite getting both hands on the ball and it

being rather central but it was moving a beauty but a blunder by the goalkeeper nice to see follow rune show doing well he's had a pretty good season he's actually owned by Naples and has been out on loan for quite a while now many years had no idea he was Italian by the way so thank you for that you're welcome very very good display by him yeah I think so and and his show was quite a bit of maturity for his age as well he's still he's still just a young young oh it's 25 I thought he

was younger okay it's been out on loan for so long yeah yes you know what's funny man um with Napoli um there was a video recently where they were playing one of those tiktok games and Guevara had to describe um a certain player to to someone else and the player was Gaitano okay and he described him as a new arrival Gaitano's been there for ages yeah he's been there a long time yeah of course of course he's like no bro you're the new arrival

how did you think the Rossi did on his debut obviously he implemented a new 4-3-2-1 system he got the best out of certain players but perhaps the stability at the back is something of the past without more in you this could have gone terribly wrong um dream start for him of course um Roma were were inspired coming into the game and that's what usually happens when you change your manager initially everyone wants to impress the manager and everyone gives their utmost um Elshara we played

like vintage Elshara like I don't I'm not sure I've ever seen him play this right that hold up played he displayed before laying it off to um Lukaku was incredible yeah um so yeah definitely inspired um they looked very fluid offensively and they they did look more um lively and willing to attack however however they didn't look as solid at the back and in fact they allowed Varona away and in which we're not really used to seeing Roma doing yeah once they once they get a lead usually

they don't concede right and there was a disallowed goal and missed penalty and then that goal by for the run show yeah exactly so so I'm sure the Rossi will take it but we'll see um how he manages to cope against stronger opposition I wonder how he'll do in the Europa League against Feyenoord because I'm not too sure about that um I would have signed under good under Morinio Roma were the favorites yeah now are Roma's from favorites I'm not sure now it's interesting Cescó uh Roma fan

that has listened to the podcast well that a good friend of ours um and we've brought him up on this podcast before he's a Roma fan and and he mentioned it was good to bring in the Rossi now because they have a run of slightly favorable fixtures so he could really find his feet before facing any of the top seven teams and that is something at least he could he's right over there to say that at least

he could get some hands-on experience before facing off against any of these tougher opponents I think it's at least he starts off with three points something to work with we've even seen a tactical adjustment in his first match where he went three at the back to be more defensive so promising it's just they they do need to be careful especially without Paredes in the midfield against Salernetana yeah that's gonna be tough but offensively even their counterattacks they're

way swifter because the Rossi um he really brought because Morinio used to play like a 3-5-2 with the wing backs and then Lukaku and Dabala up front isolated exactly but Dabala's playing in a more creative role alongside El-Sharawi in a more creative role Pellegrini is in a three-man midfield so he adds the creativity over there Bovega gets that box-to-box and Paredes is like that crusher Lukaku up front for them to feed so going forward I do believe that this setup is

is more ideal for Roma to grab goals yeah absolutely um do you think that once Munchini is back he'll slot in instead of Huizen or will he go back to a three at the back you can't not start Munchini in this Roma team you can't not he's he's the leader you know what I mean he's he's not the captain but he's the captain you know what I mean he it's like not starting Sergio Ramos for that Real Madrid team that won so many Champions Leagues now obviously I suspect Huizen will be

benched um for how long is the question because of course Juve would have sent him out on loan to play yeah and and it's also a debate is it gonna is he is Munchini gonna play alongside Huizen is it gonna be Evan and Dica is it gonna be Yorente because Cameron got knocked out there you go Yorente who is a solid despite him giving away a penalty in this I want to talk a bit about the atmosphere and the reception coming into this because obviously dream kind of debut for Derossi

coming into this game greeted by the Roma fans that he's you know so he's so accustomed to and that's such a great relationship with however there were um it's a surreal atmosphere but it did include fans reactions banners and messages to Mourinho saying mister you've always protected us we will always love you um and like we can't believe it kind of kind of thing um so obviously it's it's an emotional time for Roma fans I don't know now maybe if I was walking out instead of

Derossi on my first game it's a dream and I just say everyone Mourinho we miss you like I fucking wanted here I don't know like um correction by the way um on myself um in Dica's from the ivory course not okay okay however I do believe they've been knocked out as well I've got a mistake and I need to fact check that all the big teams are being knocked out of afghan it's crazy it's been a really interesting tournament so far I'm keeping a bit of an iron

it's always exciting the african cup of nations I really enjoyed the gana coach's press conference after he got knocked out bro bro he's like he's like a moody teenager that doesn't want to speak to his aunties and uncles when they come over like I'm like sure man the ivory course started third in their group with three points for top two have seven they're out they're out they're out now we we already mentioned the first half dominance by Roma so no need to touch upon it too much I believe

the system brings out the best of El-Sharawi and and the Bala in particular um Verona got close to I mean they they arguably could have won the game they were the better team in the in the second half um let's just talk a bit about through a patricio and then we can move on because I did clash with Chesco on the group chat I said who hasn't right right um how funny last time him and Andy had a little had a little tiff on the group chat he's a Chesco told him stop talking about Morinio

because obviously sensitive Roma if I'm going through a tough time and Andy's like then block me lol yeah he was a conforming mate yeah he's right he's right um the chat lives on yes sorry Chesco um but through a patricio so I made the joke of saying through patricio has had three good games for Roma which is obviously an exaggeration because he hasn't lived up to the expectations you know the starting goalkeeper for Portugal at least at the time signing for Roma expectations

were high um to be honest if I'm if I'm being a harsh not even a harsh critic Rui patricio has been a flop Rui patricio has been a flop he was very good in the Premier League with Wilves yeah he was he was rated as a great keeper he's displayed good shot stopping ability however so good saves yeah however there there's a lot to be desired because he could have done better on many in many situations as well so many I don't see many shots and there are times they

concede one shot and it slips through so many up until recently against Juve Rabia's placement at the at the near post for example somewhere he could have done better yeah now Chesco said listen you don't watch Roma as much as me so you wouldn't have seen um that many you know I would say we keep an eye out I'd say we watch a fair few Roma games firstly and maybe without the the unconscious bias but but sure yeah I don't want to take up too much on this yeah I think it's

quite clear I think the audience gets gets a good idea um of what went down over here at least a victory in the Rossi's first game now Roma find themselves in seventh on 32 points I'm not going to stay going through who has a game in hand above them and below them um whereas Veron I find themselves in 18th on 17 points they will be kicking themselves so they didn't manage to get a draw over here yeah bro Lecce took on Juve at home yeah and they lost 3-0 the previous encounter was a

Juve 1-0 victory at home thanks to a Millic goal um the lineups we had Chesney and Gould for Juventus in a 3-5-2 formation Danilo Bremmer and Gatti at the back with Costich out on the left Cambiasso out on the right with Meretti Locatelli and McKenny in the middle Yildiz and the Duzan Vlaovic were up front for Lecce it was a 4-1 4-1 formation with Falcone and Gould, Jean-Jeré Pongratius Basquerotto and Gallo at the back with Ramadani playing in front of the defense Alngvisque was

out on the right with Udon out on the left Kaba and Gonzalez playing behind Kristović now in the first half um it was a little bit cagey um Juve almost scored and Alngvisque cleared the ball of the line he headed the ball of the line brilliantly and he celebrated that like a goal he's been on did you say I believe this was Kristović Kristović as I say Alngvisque I believe so I'm terribly sorry I thought I'm terrible yeah yeah it was Kristović yes and it was a very good

clearance and he celebrated that like a goal because he's been on a bit of a dry streak it's been a while since he's celebrated so you can do that why not yeah absolutely um the absence of Rabio did affect Juve's tempo in the first half and they really did struggle however in the second half Duzan Vlau which exploded as he has been doing lately in the 59th minute he scored a goal after being set up by Kambiazon then later on in 68th minute was McKenny who set him up um for his double

and then the 85th minute was Bremer who scored a towering header um assisted by Samuel Illing Jr brother Juve are back they are the highest scoring team in Europe stop five in 2024 oh I didn't I yeah yeah yeah actually yes they they have outscored Real Madrid Barcelona Bayern Munich Manchester City they've outscored all the big dogs Liverpool as well what is going on with a leagry so this is Porto Muzo no no but but it's his last season maybe he's going a bit all out over here

also who knows man maybe a leagry's always competed in three competitions when he's been at Juve this is the first season where he's not perhaps his pragmatic style of play was a way to keep his players fit and to keep his players performing in three competitions and now that they have less he's letting loose a little bit and letting them battle to the bone but earlier this season when they were partaking in simply the Copa and the league they played in exactly the same way as they

always have questionable in certain games perhaps but you know even in the in the opening game of the season we saw them score a couple of goals and and we saw that fire in them we're saying Juve looks scary you remember that Kiesa's goal yeah so inspired no they're definitely a united group absolutely this this year and I give I tip my hat to a leagry who has created such a group it's nice to see him blowing teams out of the water because they definitely have the fire power

to do so honestly confidence is a crazy thing man in football I've loved which has transformed as a player it's I would say bro when it comes to player performances I don't want to take anything away from technique class quality or anything like that but I would safely say 80% of it is the state of mind that you're in you see some footballers I was watching a video today of the Nigerian players after a game and and like they're all playing FIFA and all doing this and that finding their way

to relax after a game and I got this thought I was like the life of a footballer man constantly on the road in a hotel room with your boys now sounds fun sounds like a dream but these guys have got their wives their girlfriends their family their kids at home they're constantly out on the road they're getting abused by fans they're constantly being critiqued by people like us and and social media and Twitter so on so what it's tough it's no wonder that it's 0.5% that make it to the

professional stage some people and then they go through a drought they think Vladovic Vladovic went through a drought I remember there was in particular one team he always fails to score against and we said he's never gonna score against them because it's just a state of mind it's it's a mental block but once they regain that confidence once the it's one goal that can change everything bro you think Charles de Ketelari had he not scored that first

particular goal for Atalanta would he be playing as well as he is now perhaps fucking not he wouldn't have these six goals or how many as you would look at the way he played for Milan at the beginning and at the end yeah yeah absolutely it's true confidence is massive man and it's it's nice to see Vladovic thriving and apparently I think I mentioned in the last episode he has a new girlfriend so that might help yeah do you know Vladovic is known to have a massive penis do you know that

I had no idea bro but please I was scrolling through Tik Tok it was during the time of the the last World Cup and Vladovic had in the game for sustained somewhat of what you can consider to be a cock injury all right the studs to his cock I believe and and obviously the first thing you do when you hurt yourself in your nether regions is you put your hands on my dick oh my boy whatever bro clasped it with two hands and girls were reposting that moment on Tik Tok saying

yo who is he like that is hilarious I have no idea it's funny we know we know Vladovic to be a goal scorer former fear and Tina player playing for you girls know him as that handsome guy with the big dick yeah would love to be him for a day huh his new girlfriend's fan yeah shout out McKenny as well McKenny fantastic fantastic season he's having yeah a great character on social media as well as seeing more of him on podcasts so on so forth he's funny man he's funny he's very funny

but that's the thing about Americans they're so authentic yeah they can they're really themselves and interviews they're they are shamelessly themselves you know and that's that's nice to see it's refreshing yeah oh marocco's respect yes hakim ziek um yes McKenny has been amazing he went out on loan to leads last year they got relegated he came back I think at the fright of his life he's like I need to work I need to work I'm gonna end up in the championship it was cold we kept losing

everyone kept talking about Bielsa and this bucket he was Bielsa was a bucket but yeah I thought let's open the game off quite well they were good man and Christavich was well looked lively Kaaba looked good as well um I liked the I like the fact that Christavich I'm really squeezed a shot out from yeah yeah that's my favorite thing about man that's why I'm always so excited to see him because he can be between two players at an awkward angle and

still squeeze the shot out yeah and and that's what I enjoy that I think he's a very talented young player absolutely but of course they didn't have enough to to go all the way no no yeah Pongratio by the way has been better than Basquerato this year hasn't he yeah yeah no without a doubt I don't think we've seen Basquerato's greatest qualities at the forefront of his performances recently yeah in fact I have him on Fanta and I'm like when the hell am I gonna play

this guy I think I'm playing him this week yeah yeah might as well man maybe I'll get the hit or something yeah yeah yeah but at the moment when recording the standings Juve are first with 52 points and the game in hand do keep in mind what happened the last time in the game in hand Lecce are down and 14th with 21 points this is bragging rights to not get it twisted Juve and Inter they absolutely despise each other Juve will Juve fans and whatever will be teasing Inter fans

saying we're first you're second we're first you're second this is personal now Juve are getting a taste of it pressure is suddenly on Inter who are competing in all competitions I believe they play on my birthday they play each other February 4th baby what we're gonna do what we're gonna do we're gonna watch the game watch the game that's how we get baby on the couch at home um Empoli 3 Monsignola I was looking forward to doing this one ever since the start of this episode um Empoli

we're coming off a 2-1 loss to Verona that got Andrea Tsoley sacked and prompted the the hiring of Davide Nikola who is a miracle worker this is their third manager of the season fun fact he was also Salernetana third manager of the season when he managed to keep the boat afloat and fun fact he was also Joseph Manala's manager at Barri and this is did we speak about this we mentioned it it's fine new listeners since the Manala episode yeah um Joseph Manala the former player

with former Lazio Salernetana and Barri player and Slema Wanderers player who we interviewed in our last episode and spoke very highly of Davide Nikola once we had stopped recording it's a shame we stopped recording because he gave us some really insightful information about Nikola's managerial style and the fact that he really gets the team behind him and the team will die for him on the pitch and Manala was there on loan and he said that I was there for six months but this guy

had me playing like yes I would have died for him yeah yeah probably so I believe he said to some of the best football he's ever played yeah um Monsauer coming off a 5-1 home loss to Winted the biggest in their history of during their time in Syria big whoop it's their second season the previous encounter was a 2-0 clean victory for Monsauer now this was Davide Nikola's managerial debut for Empoli after the club sacked Andrea Azoli during his fourth spell at Empoli after

being 19th in the standings and suffering their 13th league loss in 20 games when they were beaten 2-1 by fellow Strucklers Helas Farona on Saturday this is their third manager of the season um after

Andrea Azoli had taken over from Paolo Zanetti in September after a 7-0 thrashing at A.S. Roma left them bottom of Serie A without a single point in four games you remember that I believe they hadn't even scored a goal yet yeah Nikola who's previously coached Salernetana saved them from relegation in the 2021-22 season as you guys would remember um but he did have to make do without the suspended Canceleri injured Caputo Bastoni everywhere he is Miley Gaurino and Petzella

so he threw in the new signing Cherry straight into the starting 11 and I really like Cherry he looked good he looked good I like his um I like his mold I like his uh the type of player he is yeah no nonsense big powerful forward yeah not particularly great yeah but just hustle baby hustle it's power and hustle yeah absolutely absolutely Monza had Birindelli banned Maschine on international duty plus the Gregorio and Caprari on the treatment table coach Palladino

also had to watch from the stands due to a touchline ban now Nikola instantly inserted history at the back formation over here we saw this as well with De Rossi that instantly went with his system a four at the back it's always interesting to see how managers approach joining a new team we were saying how Mazzaria attempted the four at the back formation that Napoli were so used to only to go back to history at the back sometimes it's the coaches system that would be

the way to go sometimes it'll be um what the team is used to and how the team performs best so three five two formation for Empoli Caprila and goal and the back line of Luperto Valukovic and Ismaili Giasi has the left wing back Berezynski has the right wing back and the midfield three of Marin welcome back Marin good to see you on the pitch Grassy and Zurgowski uh Cherry up front alongside Kambiagi for Monza it was a three four to one formation Sorrentino and goal and the

back line of Itzomari and Calderola Kiriokopoulos on the left Pereira on the right and the midfield two of Gallardini and Pessina and Colpania and Muata playing behind Colombo now in the 10th minute Luperto unleashed an inch perfect pass to Giasi who was cleaned through one goal and should have scored but was denied expertly to be honest by the 21 year old Sorrentino um classic Giasi there I say we throw a bit of shade here and there but he should be scoring those chances uh two minutes

later in the 12th minute Zurgowski scored his first goal of the night Pablo Mari cleared Kambiagi's cross only as far as Zurgowski at the edge of the area who powerfully volleyed the ball into the bottom corner with his right foot amazing goal in the 31st minute Gallardini almost got the equalizer with a brilliant strike from distance which just curled a fraction too wide of Caprila's post seven minutes later and the 38 Zurgowski got his second Kambiagi once again delivered a

dangerous ball into the area this time to the oncoming cherry whose strike was denied by Sorrentino but the ball fell to Zurgowski who headed in off the crossbar in the 55th minute Caprila got down very well to deny Muata's close range header and 73rd minute Carboni's Miss Carboni misplaced his pass in his own half to Zurgowski who played it out wide to Maleh Maleh squared the ball to Spendi but his strike was blocked by Calderola but the ball fell too you guessed it Zurgowski who slid in

and smashed in the rebound on his left foot completing his perfect hat trick and his fourth goal in only two matches in Serie A this season making him M police top scorer this season in just two matches overtaking the striker the veteran striker Ciccio Caputo so is this form is he amazing what is it about Zurgowski he's inspired right um he's just come back to Serie A after being in a probably terrible environment in Spetia they're not doing very well um in Serie B they're pretty much a club

that's free falling right now um he got off that ship and he found himself in an environment where there aren't many goal scorers there isn't much going for them but they've brought in a new coach so everyone around him's probably inspired which inspired him even more and he he did really well and he's he looks amazing right now I wonder how much his Fanta culture stocks have gone up man like you know the January transfer market is coming up for us and it's going to be whoever has the most

credits is going to take him like Zurgowski right well do you think this is sustainable how many goals do you think he'll end the season with no I don't think it's incredibly sustainable I like I don't think he's going to be scoring hat tricks willy nilly not scoring regularly maybe not regularly but he has definitely inserted himself as a goal scoring midfielder which is what he is now it is highly dependent on how impoli are playing their football um David Nicola who creates an atmosphere

of togetherness could really get the best out of his players so if impoli keep playing well then I do expect to see Zurgowski on the on the square sheet more absolutely his late runs into the box much like Ruben Loftus-Triek are very effective it's not just like the ball fell to him and he was lucky but he was his position and where he roams allows him to be in the right place at the right time so if someone clears the ball away and it forces Zurgowski and he can volley it in from outside the

area or smash in a rebound with his head or with his foot it's brilliant um he is definitely a great addition to an impoli side that we're struggling to get goals absolutely man and at 26 years old I'm sure he was worried about his career when he found himself at Spezia but nice to see him back at impoli where he has played very well and where he's continuing to play very well regarding on whether this is sustainable or not it's not this is not his own he's not going to be scoring very regularly

I can guarantee that he will dip of course this is abnormal but he can turn their season around and that's more than enough you know and that's what he was brought in to do and hopefully he can keep impoli afloat yeah you are judged on your of course on your accomplishments but when you're a smaller team like impoli naturally your accomplishment is staying up so if he manages to help the team stay up then he's going to be sought after um he's quite marketable as well

they could have a good career he can turn it around at 26 years old um if he keeps performing the way he is as the game ended Nikola had his players huddled up in the center circle for a pep talk after the victory displaying just how he unites each squad that he manages I have a note here that says Minnala said that he would have died for him yeah he's really showcasing that togetherness kind of because it's one thing you know everyone knows that Nikola is going to get the best out of these

players and that he's a miracle worker so on so forth but just he wants to show everyone look look at us we're together we've got arms around each other we're celebrating this victory together but on to the next it's not over he's definitely in that center circle telling them this is just the start don't get carried away don't let it get to your heads yeah yeah um absolutely he is a fantastic manager and he always seems to disappear after saving a team from relegation against all

odds he disappears and then he comes back when another team is in danger of being relegated he's just riding a bicycle around Italy and that was another thing he did by the way once he I forgot from where to where but he said that if we managed to stay up I believe it was when he was a Croto on a yeah he said I will I'll ride my bike from it was a crazy unreasonable distance and he did it he did the picture I wouldn't do it with a car on our own exactly he did it on a bike yeah

he could have easily been like you know how we survived fuck it no one will remember every time I'm on the score a 13 year old starts going berserk on the mega phone it's hilarious it's always like I can't believe that there's a that there's a goal that's such a that's that's the club man very family based and worker based you know like a child on the mega phone yeah that's that's great well I think it's a definitely sounds like it's definitely not

a man so it's either a boy or a woman I think it sounds like a boy to me sounds like a kid I don't know because if I say it sounds like a boy and it's a woman I don't know maybe people with shit on me so I definitely doesn't sound like a man I can't believe that the guy with the mustache on so yeah spotlight is he gonna tell us what a woman should sound like and this is em police first win in eight matches fun fact and and yeah I mean there's not too much to say I think it's it's a great

instillment of confidence for em empoly again through the new system I think this three five two formation suits them really well I thought come be a g and as a striker he was getting out white quite a bit and for the two first goals he was the guy that whooped the ball into the box initially and that's a place where they really struggled getting the ball into the box and so I definitely think that offensively and defensive to be honest of course inspired but they had a

great performance Monza on the other hand they looked dreadful defensively okay what can you do about the two rebounds and the great volley you know what I mean I can't critique them well I can critique them on their defense because they still can't see the three goals to fucking empoly but it was more you remember that sexy free-flowing fucking football that play going forward yeah yeah that bold football nowhere near that yeah nowhere and and to be honest man as we spoke

about confidence earlier on they started the season of well Colpani was on fire they were flying people were saying maybe they can make a push for the conference leave this season and then all of a sudden they took a bit of a slump and I think their their confidence took a bit of a hit and then that plowing against them there's something they're not used to at all because they went there they played their brand of football they probably thought they could get an upset or something or

maybe even hold them hold them off but they they got trashed and and yeah and they came into this game probably demoralized thinking okay let's try to turn this around and they lost three nil so I'm a little bit worried about them let's see what Paladino can do over here this this will be very telling of him as a manager because so far it's always been an upward trajectory with Paladino now he's facing a crisis of some sort you know eight goals in two games that's that's not a joke

it's not a joke at all he and and no goals well did they score against him? they scored one one okay Pesina Penalty yes Pesina Penalty yeah um yes and Pesina had missed a penalty as well before that so confidence has been a bit of an issue for them but we'll see we'll see if you can't turn it around I'm curious because I do believe at this point that he's a good and promising manager let's see yep absolutely when it comes to where they stand in the table winning myself

sometimes just like Jake here Empoli 19th on 16 points they're only two away from Kalyari who are in 17 so Empoli have a lot of time to make this work and they have the manager just to do that um when it comes to Monza they're in 12th on 25 points level on points with Genoa speaking of Genoa that's the perfect transition actually Salernitan took on Genoa at home and lost to one after taking the lead classic Salernitan right yeah their previous encounter was a 1-0 victory

for Genoa thanks to a goal by guess who Albert fucking Goodmanson baby hell yeah and this time Salernitana got the show starting early but before we get into that let's look at the lineup so we had Ochoa and Gold for Salernitana in the 4-3-2-1 formation the Christmas tree formation he must have got this one from Carl Angelotti right 2007 exactly Pierotti out on the right brother each out on the left the brother each by the way totally transformed as a player he's

looking much better at Domagoi shout out brother Gionbert and Lovato were at the back with Martegani Majora and Basic in the middle Chuna and Kandreva playing behind the great Simeon Wangqo yeah or as we like to call him the Wangqo for Genoa it was a 3-5-2 formation with Martinez in gold the ever impressive Josep Martinez he is my favorite this season he's good him and the Greg the Greggy baby Vasquez Bani and Voleaccio were at the back with new boy Spence out on the left where did Spence come

from Spurs what up Spence what up friend Rupp was on the right with Strittman Badeli and Malinowski in the middle I always struggle to pronounce his name Badeli Badel Milan Badeli I call him Badel but that's us playing it safe Badeli Badel correct us please I'm sure there's someone good mitzvah and Rittag we were up front so the first half was marred by incidents of the pitch this was not a very good ad for Seiya this weekend because of the off field issues

and there was there was tension between the fans and the police and there were objects thrown and unfortunately Rittag we was hit by one of the objects yeah by a rock from a rock yes there were like people that up and showed everyone it was a fucking rock like a rock you know you think you throw a rock at someone probably wasn't from the Amalfi coast it was a lovely rock one of those you take home you know keep it like near a candle or something there's a memory flinging at Rittag we

man keep it at home so you can throw it out of the bottle my god honestly I'm gonna I'm gonna say it's fucking caveman caveman and dude I've been to games in Italy the security is shit man they pretended to frisky like they just like tap you twice on the hips until you go you know well one took my lighter once you remember for the sasvolo game one took my lighter one fucking I don't even know if I should say this right now say it now squeeze my wiener yes yes old fucking perverted

man fuck yes man fuck yes get give me a nice job before the game yeah thanks bro say I'm ready no go be that I was like what's this I want to fuck it you think that is you fucker I don't move it around but yeah both teams displayed great determination Kondreva of course tested the goalkeeper from from range and there was a moment where he failed to hit the target and he dropped on his knees desperately because he couldn't believe that his rocket from miles away didn't go in for

the first time in his life is like no no I can't believe that I'm human Simi came close on the other end but Martínez came out super bravely good defensive work by both by both sides in the first half however yes it was sorry I forgot to mention that Martínez actually scored an early goal assisted by brother Rich that was the second minute and then Retegui equalized in the 13th minute thanks to our buddy assistant had been a while since we saw Retegui score and this was a very

very convincing goal yeah he was in Andal but here he did excellently to score at the near post with a thunderous strike absolutely bro so they went into halftime with the score of 1-1 however in the second half Salernitana continued their aggressive approach but Genoa capitalized on a Lovato handball with Goodman's and converting the penalty Lovato it was very naive of him he went ahead the ball he mistimed it and was judged with completely he had his arm extended a bit of a rookie

move to be honest in the ball if you hit him on the arm it was a blatant and obvious handball scusey scusey ma Matteo Lovato non è fenomeno non è fenomeno il primo il secondo Lovato non è un giocatore di Serie A capace in Serie A capace capace he shouldn't be in Serie A he shouldn't be in Serie A look Lovato is one of those players who looked amazing at the other time he was one of the ones they were they were saying when when Duvano Zapata was in great form Lovato was the

only defender who managed to pocket Duvano Zapata the season everyone's saying that now he's showing his flaws and I don't think he should be depended on at all perhaps his level might be Serie A but not as a starter I think personally I don't know man I think I've given him a lot of time to show growth he's plateaued man that's it he's plateaued he looks like bro he plays like a like a 17 year old coming off the bench to feature for Milan a little bit you know what I mean those are

better than him to be fair absolutely yeah in Salernitana hit the crossbar shortly after Kandreva from a free kick he smashed the crossbar and then he turned to try to come back into the game in Zaghi switched to a 4-2-3-1 introducing Kastanos there were substitutions as well Thors Bianzanoli came in to try to control the game but unfortunately for Salernitana they couldn't do it and Janawa got the ball over the line taking home all three points Salernitana it's depressing bro

it's super depressing because they're reminding me of all the teams I've fallen in love with man they're reminding me of that season of Crotone with Benali, Simi and all those guys they're reminding me of Venetia where they play a positive brand of football they get close and they get close and they get close but you know what the problem is if you continue to get close but you don't actually manage to get those points you'll fall into oblivion and you drop you know and I

worry because this Salernitana team is good for the league man granted they're out here throwing rocks at the players but the atmosphere is fantastic at the stadium the camera angle when you watch it on tv in that stadium is so cool man and they have a nice project going on with their supporting director maybe not a nice project they have a good supporting director not a nice project you mentioned you mentioned those those teams they remind me of that Empoli team they

remind me of Spal and most of all bro they they remind not most of all but they also remind me of another team Pepon Zaghi had gotten relegated Benevento yes Benevento with Gaich up front yeah exactly and Spal had Patania they were 10th or 11th and just free fall absolutely crazy and well I just want to point this out please when in Zaghi's start at Salernitana they were playing at three at the back yeah yeah yeah past two three games they've been playing

with a four at the back and Simi as a striker we say this all the time he's the first line of defense and that's the way that they're playing yeah they played the counter and that goal that goal they scored today today against Genoa yes was absolutely beautiful what a team goal that was started with a semi tackle and the transition was supposed to do do do do do do do do do do you think they're going for a more defensive approach with the four at the back or a more offensive

compact system tougher to penetrate but good on the break you know offensive they have offensive options but they three at the back had really impressed me against Milan because when it came to attacking and defending it was always in significant numbers now tell me that they're still doing that absolutely but they had a system like in a three five I believe it was a three four one two that they used to play or a three five one one much like Odinesa but basically a system in

which the two players or the yes it was a three four two one the two players that played behind the striker used to join the center of midfield when they were defending so they had a line and then obviously the center midfielders would drop deeper in order to support the three at the back and the wing backs would drop back to create a five at the back so and then when they were attacking the wing backs would go back to wing back the two center midfielders would go back to being

wingers and the two defensive midfielders would push forward and they would often when they attack that have seven bodies forward you see in that game against Milan they were devastating Milan with their numbers yeah I feel like that is a real pro that I used to see with the three at the back formation man he still tries it in Zaghi has tried many different formations he adapts during the game sometimes not very well he sets up better than he adapts and I've said this before yeah I

like the way he approaches games the way he adapts to them not as much granted they have been unlucky yeah like goals coming so late on in the 90th minute onwards 80 50 minute onwards this game granted it came a little bit earlier in the 58th much earlier but but yeah they couldn't get it over the line and I'm a little bit worried about them I don't think they'll go down still I still don't think Salernitana will go down I agree with you like I wouldn't say it with my chest I'm saying

it with my chest say with your chest because they're playing well man they're playing very well and and I feel like they've got the personnel to make a difference and with that organization now that think about it this is a new manager in the new system and they're playing so much better than they had already they're only gonna get better right now they're dead lost with 12 points 17th place is on 18 points so it's still early days they're still very much capable they just need to get

a few points now this was a game this was a must not lose game against Genoa and they lost so that's one challenge already already lost when it comes to Genoa by the way they're 11 to 25 points man oh man how I wish this was a Boulayedia season but it's a shame they really need him they really need him to step up it's a significant shame he's currently away of course the the biggest shame in the world I would say that's that's true um credit to Genoa by the way Albert Goodman

Singh continues to show that he's a fantastic player and a very good penalty taker as well he hasn't missed one Rete Guineas is him scoring again he's had quite a difficult season when it comes to injuries he's spent at a very good game considering he's just coming um other than that solid stuff by by Genoa yeah that was your lost game right that was my lost game okay um what a bite sized episode you know what prepping for three games and I watched pretty much all of them

even yours I watched a lot of them but it's it's nice obviously I prefer it when there's 10 matches to the fucking choose from but this was this was a bit different um let's jump to Frosinone 3 caliari 1 this was another very interesting game that took place Frosinone were coming off a 5 and they lost to Atalanta so you would think that that that would have affected their confidence right uh caliari coming off a 2-1 win over Bologna so you think that make

them confident right um the previous encounter was caliari 4 Frosinone 3 in the comeback of the ages and the match of the season thus far without any shadow of a doubt um in this reverse fixture on the 29th of October 2023 caliari became the first side in Serie A history um to win a match with a

three goal deficit after the 70th minute bringing it back to 4-3. Frosinone were missing Baez, Monterizzi, Oyono, Cali and Marquitza and Bonifazi um Zortea was thrown straight into the starting 11 for them after his move from Atalanta Ranieri was without Zito Lovumbo, Mancozu, Shumorodov, Oristanio and Rog I love like just saying Rog um a 4-3 yeah yeah yeah he has um Himbro and Nandes and I remember when I think of those two players the first one comes to mind is Marin

you know what I mean yeah yeah yeah absolutely now there's a 4-3 to 1 formation for Frosinone with Turati and Gold and the backline of Gelli, Ocoli, Romaniole and Zortea, Brescianini, Berencea and Mazzatelli as the midfield three, Rainier and Sule playing behind Kedira. I can't help but look at this team and like it because they're so young and they're so you know they're so fresh onto the scene like you look at Rainier, Sule, Berencea, you know the Ocoli, Turati even though Turati has

had his struggles but I do have a significant soft spot for Frosinone. A 3-5-2 formation for Kallieri with Skufe and Gold, a backline of Vietesca, Dosena and Zappa, Nandes as the right wingback, Azia as the left wingback and Sulema and Aprati and Mukumbu as the midfield three, Petania and Viola starting up front together that's interesting Viola naturally a bit more of a free role now in the 16th minute Kedira forced a great stop from Skufe striking with power from a tight angle

then on the resulting corner Kedira scored but only after wandering offside so the goal was chalked off immediately. In the 26th minute Kallieri opened the scoring through Sulemana, it was an in swinging cross by Atzi that ended up falling perfectly to Sulemana after a physical battle between Petania and Ocoli and Sulemana made no mistake by powerfully striking the

ball into the bottom corner for the 20 year olds first ever Seria Al-Gol. Frosinone thought they equalized on the stroke of half time where they put incredible pressure on Kallieri's backline Berentia had the ball in the back of the net but VAR spotted a foul by Brescianini on Dosena amidst the chaos Skufe denied a brilliant solo attempt by Gelli in the 52nd and in the 64th minute Frosinone equalized through Mazzatelli the captain was totally unmarked in the box heading in an in

swinging harrowing cross to equalize for the hosts. In the 75th minute Sule got the second goal for Frosinone making it to 1 a free kick from just outside the area at an angle you barely see these go in when they're so close and the wall you know it it's so hard to get the ball up and down so quickly but Sule managed to curl and dip his strike with power into the top corner

leaving Skufe rooted to the spot brilliant technique. In the 93rd minute Turati's save was described as stupendous by the commentator as the young Italian tonight Pavoletti's low and powerful header with cat-like reflexes in the 95th minute Kyo George made it a fact making it 3-1 on the counter attack Zortea squared the ball brilliantly to George George who finished

into an empty net. Now I don't want to sound too basic but Kaliari slowed down and it seemed like they got tired to a degree and Frosinone sped up we know that Frosinone go for 90 minutes now you can tell me ah but Frosinone in the previous game they were winning 3-0 and Kaliari went for 90

minutes and they got a 4-3 lead yes but this is another game. Yeah it's the it's the personnel that they brought on right now Lovum was away at Afqon so Kaliari didn't have that gear switch that they usually have yeah the triple substitution that Ranieri opted for in the 72nd minute were included Di Pardo, Goldaniga and Pavoletti again they're nothing it's not an injection of flair and pace you've got a target man you've got a center back and you've got Di Pardo over

there not not the fastest players in the world not the most flair players in the world of course with Pavoletti great to have them there but you still need to give them the ball and they did get close on certain occasions but not quite close enough I do think that they need a person like Zito Lovumbo to really give them that different dynamic because other than that this team is quite flat yeah yeah they don't have many technical or creative they they're all about like like Nandes is all

about industry and he's fast and he's he can dribble but but he's not the type to obviously burst into space and deliver a perfect cross he's a hustler on the wing he's gonna win the ball back he's gonna cross half his crosses aren't even gonna land Lovumbo is the only freak they have in their team yes yes yes yes he's the only non-human that they have in their team they're almost they remind me of and that's why I like them I'm a working class team do you know what I

mean like if they get a point from a game there's blood sweat and tears that is left on the pitch which makes me worry about their longevity in Syria because as much as it's great when they win a game and sometimes they look they never look convincing but they look like they put the work in and I wonder I wonder just how far that'll get them in Syria um it might be enough for them to survive I think um it's funny that last week we said that first and oner will will go down oh first

no they're going down bro they'll go down I think um as we mentioned right they don't have the experience but that's what Kaliere do have they have the oldest manager in the league in Claudia Ranieri you know the thinker man and he'll definitely figure a way how to keep these guys alive and with Lovumbo coming back they can hold out until bringing him on in the 70th minute to terrorize the exhausted fullback yeah yeah you know I'm actually dealing with Nandes for 70 minutes

just pulling at your shirt and stomping on your feet um and just trying to run past you and like trying to pass the ball between your legs you know he's Nandes like a little hustler imagine substitution you know he's off and Lovumbo comes and you're like yeah shit have to deal with this guy now yeah absolute nightmare um now typically relegation six pointers in Syria they tend to be quite cagey afage you know especially this part of the this time of the season it's the time of the

season teams they they would rather ensure that they get one point rather than risk getting three and get none but when these two teams go head to head for Zinone and Caliari it's almost personal now because for Zinone and for Zinone would feel embarrassed that they you know the that breakthrough stat of the comeback from three goes down after 70 minutes um it's very flattering for Caliari but it's fucking embarrassing for for Zinone yeah fucking embarrassing to concede four goals in 20 minutes

after having a three in the lead it's it's it's shameful for them so so this is you know how like Napoli Milan last season was personal you know what I mean yeah this season for Zinone Caliari is very very personal just because of what happened in the last game yeah good point it was a fun watch to be honest and that last goal really meant a lot to them Zortea breaking through of course breaking free on the counter and setting up Jorge Zortea I'm not sure I'm sure you mentioned

it in your rundown Amazon loan from Atalanta correct yeah he's doing he's doing great already yeah he's a good player he came in at a perfect time for Frozano on a firstly smart coupe but yeah that's a good sign firstly some to to a degree not experience but I level up yeah um higher standard higher standard and secondly Monterese and Ollano are out injured so so it's it's great to to be able to to put him in over there why are you smirking I'm wondering who actually plays for

Frozano and I'm looking at the steam I'm like all right Reiner on loan from Real Madrid you know Suley on loan for Juventus Bresciani and he okay recently signed from Milan I'm sure they have a buyback Berencea on loan from Juve Zortea on loan from Atalanta on loan from Atalanta George on loan from from Juve to Ratio on loan from Saswala do these guys don't own any other player this is why like like I have a soft spot for them because there are a group of youngsters but yeah

how fucking sustainable is this like Monza they had a clause on everyone look we have the finances to buy these players which automatically gets triggered if we survive not only did they survive but they came 10th yeah and it was 10th I believe and but this frozen on there they're not backed by mad finances and it's just like like last season the team that got them to Syria is a completely fucking different team like managed by a different person as well imagine they stay up

what's gonna happen like because they're gonna lose all their players everyone's gonna predict them to go back down exactly I will be here going oh my prediction is frozen on exactly exactly but think about it like I remember Verona they had so many loaned players in I remember there there was Giovanni Simione who was on loan from from Caliari there was country Larry that was on loan from Latio from Latio I believe or was he loaned out to Latio from Verona yes he was on

loan loaned out to Latio from Verona and Capriari was on loan with them as well but they still had a good backbone back then yeah they did own a few solid players granted of course many of them would have a buyback or whatever but it wasn't as ridiculous as this yes this frozen on a team is ridiculous yeah yeah absolutely I don't have too much to add about this game in particular um frozen on are they're in 13 on 22 points it's crazy bro because you go all the way up to 11th

place Genoa on 25 points and you think Christ they're only eight points ahead of there are only eight points ahead of 18th place Verona on 17 it's it's still early man anything can happen literally brother I'm telling you Genoa Monza frozen on a leche sasuo Odinese Caliari Verona Empodi Salernetana none of them are in the clear neither Torino on 28 you know I haven't been relegated with 33 points and lots you have 33 points right now and they're in sixth so that's how early it is

yeah oh man I this is one of my as much as I always love the end of a season um this is probably my favorite time because I can all I can also I'm enjoying the now and I can look forward and say so much good shit is to come like it's bittersweet right the end of a season because yeah you want to know what's gonna happen and every game there's so much on the line um but then you know that after that like last five matchdays you know you're gonna have a summer yeah rumors you know you never know

which players are gonna be episode what's the segment gonna be and we have as well bro we're emotionally attached to so many players now because of this podcast and we've always been we watch the league quite quite um intrinsically um and it's always the summer rumors always come in you know like this time we had winter winter rumors and winter coupes as well like draguesin was taken from the league for example god knows who's gonna be taken in the summer and zeet olivombo

wolves have come in fume he's gone you know you never know yeah yeah odenesia whatford playing there no you take him no you take him no you take him but yeah that i mean that's it i don't believe i said where kalyar here kalyar and 17th on 18 points just one from from survival but funny thing is like i was saying about how there's so much to come which makes the league all that more exciting in the now when milan won the league when milan won that last game against aswolo sure i had a

smile on my face for two months but a massive void was inside me because it's always you know they always say like it's about the journey kind of thing like the fact that i wasn't watching milan strive to win the league anymore kind of upset me yeah it was over we like it was there's sense of now what did that the olympic gold medal effect like you know but then you need to remind yourself that that moment is etched in his history forever forever forever forever that's if you ever feel

like a football game isn't that significant if you ever watching the super coppa italian and you think to yourself ah because it's in rio then there are 23 000 fans and no one cares you know that will if that trophy no man people do care that trophy is in your trophy room and if you're ever watching a documentary in the future about in zaghi's inter that's going to be mentioned you know tell daniel vs who has one of the deepest fucking collection of medals and trophies that a

single one of those trophies didn't matter exactly yeah you're one of the most i do believe he's the most decorated footballer of all time like yeah probably go tell him one of those one of those cups doesn't matter absolutely i think that's that that's that that's that we'll have more to bring you in the next episode and i can't wait for the latter stages of march so we will no longer have games in hand and we'll have full transparency um on what's going on but thank you so much if

you've made it this far guys um love you all and we'll see you next week grazie hafna this is seria spotlight if you like syria or have ever liked it in the past it's a good opportunity for you to listen once a week and you'll get filled in in the football weekend that's like the main dish but then a few days later you drop your episode and that's like the dessert and the dessert is just perfect it's good okay it makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together just

be assing with each other the atmosphere is fantastic i promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics and sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit i love how you go into so much detail and show so much passion towards each and every team literally no team is left undiscussed when i listen to you it's like i'm talking to you in a pub it's like i'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me