112: Cream Of The Crop (Full Matchday 23 Coverage)

Matsuki, Faraskylia sets himself! He is top class and it is no coincidence that his return from suspension coincides with Napoli regaining their attacking threats. Skrrr, skrrr, check it and welcome back to another episode of Seria R Spotlight. This is episode 112 and we are hosts Matt and Jake. Here to talk to you guys about matchday 23. What a matchday, we had a run in of giants, Chiara described this game as two tops trying to fuck each other. Amazing, yes a very artistic girlfriend I have.

It's pretty much summed it up though but then we had one top that was way more dominant than the other, of course that top being inter, right? An actual packed matchday but to be honest it didn't get much better than Friday. I mean Friday was absolute magic that let your Fiorentina game, that would be the real upset of this matchday. I wouldn't say there were other upsets, Frazzinone got close to doing one over Milan but that let your Fiorentina were leading until the 89th minute dog.

Let your god equalizer in the 90th winner in the 90 second, nothing quite like that. Of course Atalanta turned up the heat against Lazio. They are so good bro, Atalanta are looking so good and let me tell you what bro, so firstly obviously CDK wow. Because that was the best I've ever seen CDK play ever, ever like. But Miran Csuk talk. Silky Russian. Miran Csuk, he's got that magic. He's got the magic in him. It's true, he's got that beautiful singing voice by the way.

He's got that boom boom boom. Miran Csuk is highly, highly technical and he's a super flair player. So like he can turn it on and just spin before the defender can even turn. He just turns. Problem is when Cope is back in the team then there's no spot for him unfortunately. It's hard to have a problem with Gasperini. He was literally getting the ball in the box consistently and that's what a player like that does when he gets the ball in the box. But anyway, we're jumping the gun a little bit.

We are, goal of the week. Yes, we went with Gvaratskelya. It had been a while, last season was full of Gvaratskelya goals of the week. Of course and this one was kind of similar to his goal against Monza last season. Even the commentary was very similar. The commentary for that goal was he is Gvaratskelya, steadies himself. What an absolute screamer! And this was setting himself and he goes on to scream. That technique he has the way he slouches forward.

You know how coaches say they don't lean back. He's the CEO of leaning forward. He leans forward and he just gives it that spin and he angles it perfectly into the top corner. It's a beautiful, beautiful shooting technique he has. Long distance top corner. What more would you want from a goal? Close contender, I would say Mandragora, struck up delicious. Strike on the bounce from way out, hit it low hard into the bottom corner. That was an amazing goal.

Pasalic had a great, it was a great passage of play by Atalanta, the classic cross to the far post that was headed towards Pasalic who did great to chest the ball and volley it in acrobatically. And obviously the Volpato, curler. We've got a new trademark celebration here for Volpato. An interesting one, I'm not quite sure what he's doing. I'm not sure if it's one horn on the right only or if it's an antenna or if it's like some terminator. If it's a horn it makes sense because he's Roman.

He is a Roman gentleman. But it's on the side of his head. For those of you who haven't seen it, he kind of puts his thumb, okay, so he extends his pinky and puts his stick thumb out. It's like, you know, when you're telling people like, either the wa-ah, rightly said, or else when you're telling people let's get drinks, let's get fucked up. That kind of thing you do with your hand. It's a Caputo celebration. Caputo celebration, but on his head, on the side of his head. It's weird.

I don't know man. Maybe it's like a reindeer with one antler. I don't know. But how funny, I can't hear the word reindeer. The first thing I think of is either reindeer or rhinos. Yeah, that's how polluted my mind is. Guys, if you're new here, don't forget to like our podcast, follow us wherever you're listening. Drop us a rating, show us some love. It's always great to get new people on board listening to the podcast and that's what we're here to do. We would like to start a community.

We're growing, we started a community and we would like to welcome you guys. Yeah, absolutely. You can join the likes of the people who make this podcast happen. Alan, Andrew, and Nian. Okay, let's try that again. Yeah, let's go right. Alan, Andrew, and the Anthony Tim, Campbell, Sluge, McNoodle, Lena, David, Kyle, Luca, Matthias, Mint, Michael, Ed, and Tonna. Yes, thank you for swapping. Michael, Tonna was like the one person or two people.

Yeah, but those are our patrons for those of you that don't know. Yes, we do have a patron. If you guys would like to contribute to the growth of our podcast, you know, we're currently using new microphones. We're in our studio, which now has a door, by the way, thanks to you guys who pay 3.99 a month to help us fund this. Absolutely. The money is always put back straight into the podcast.

None of it is taken for our own personal gain, mostly because there isn't enough to take for our own personal gain. But no, no, I swear, we do plan on improving the studio. It's already coming along so nicely. Yeah, and plus, let's just say that in summer we struggle sometimes to come up with concepts for content, right?

I don't know, maybe some big project in the future throughout the summer period that maybe would require travel, that maybe would require a videographer, maybe, you know, I don't know. And flight tickets to a certain part of Southern Italy. Yeah, or Central Italy, there are a few interesting ones, but let's all get ahead of ourselves. We are to sit around, baby. We shall be. Yes, we shall. So I'll jump into the rundown, of course. The rundown, brother, is this your first time on the podcast?

Yes, as you can tell, both of us have had a long day, but you know what, man, you had a long day, you don't feel like... Wow, wow, wow, bitch on the baby, wow, wow, wow, but yeah, this is probably going to be a bit of a short one because we're both fucking exhausted life, right? But anyways, we'll kick things off with the Derby d'Italia, where Inter beat Juventus one goal to Nile due to a singular, gutty, own goal.

We knew that there weren't going to be many goals in this game, and it was just one doing for Inter. Frozinone against Milan, Milan had to come back to beat Frozinone, and it was 3-2. The final result, including goals by Gabia, Lukajovic, and even Giroud for Milan. Napoli 2-1, that's where you'll find our goal of the week, and also an engange goal against his former club, but it did go down as an own goal due to a significant deflection. Atalanta 3-1.

Atalanta once again looking magnificent, and CDK was absolutely everywhere, anywhere, anything, all at once, or whatever the fuck that movie is called. Roma 4, Calieri, Nile. Mama Mia, did Roma look good in this game? Did they look solid? Now you can run over Calieri, but their free-flowing attacking football looked so, so, so good that it almost reminded me of Spalletti's Napoli without getting too carried away. The thing is, oh wait, no, I'm going to start discussing it over here.

The problem with the run here is 4-4-2, it's not to be underestimated, you know? In the run down. It's literally called a run down. Lettche 3, Fiorentina 2 in what was the upset of the week, and a real, real comeback there by Lettche. Those were the both Fiorentina. You know, Lettche were losing the game in the 89th minute, and to come back like that as one of the minnowsides is unbelievable. Bologna 4, Sasuolo 2, this is the most Sasuolo scoreline ever.

Both teams had a very good game, but Bologna just showing that bit more class than their... A heated derby. Yeah, it is actually a heated derby, of course, because they are both in Bologna. However, Sasuolo, they are based in Bologna, however their stadium is in Modena, which is probably why they don't have that many supporters. The last three games, we will just brush through towards the latter stages of this episode, because they were all nil nils.

None of these guys got the memo that, you know, it was a free flowing scoring contest this week, because it was Odines and Nil, Monza and Nil, Torino and Nil, Salernet and Anil, and Empolli and Nil, Genoa and Nil. So I think we should start off with the obvious game, bro, the clash of the Titans, Inter won Juve and Nil, the derby d'Italia. And what a derby d'Italia it was, because Inter winning would put them four points clear, which would...

And they also have a game in hand against Atalanta, so Juve would fall, would have fallen, and in fact did fall a little bit behind in the Scudetto race because of this loss. Jens Sommer was in goal for Inter as they lined up their usual 3-5-2 formation, and I think this was pretty much their strongest 11, there was Povard, Alcerbi and Bastoni at the back, with Darmian out on the right and DiMarco on the left, Barela, Cialano, Glomiketarian in the middle with Thuram and Martinez up front.

For Juve it was also a pretty strong 11, 3-5-2 as well, with Schezny in goal, Danilo Bremer and Gatti at the back, Kostich was out on the left, Kambiasso was out on the right, with Rob Jolo-Katelli and Mckeni in the middle, with a striker partnership of Vlavic and Yildiz. So can I start debating something with you from now? Shouldn't Chiesa be in their strongest 11?

So it's not that question because I understand that maybe Form plays a significant factor, and Yildiz is peak fitness and Chiesa is kind of like glass. Like when you have him, like okay he is gonna get injured, we all know that, but it's almost like he's preserved all the time for a big occasion. Hello? What's the derby d'Italia? Is it not a big occasion? Was he not 100% still? Is he ever 100%? That's a good question, I don't think he's been 100% in a while.

I think that's the type of play he is. When he's at 100% he's Italy, EUROs, at that time they won it. That is his full strength. But that's it, right? The EUROs was how many games at most? Exactly. Like fewer than 10 games. And you can get him on a stretch of form where he does well, but utilizing him that way throughout the season, starting him game in game out with the way this guy plays, he's bound to injure himself.

Absolutely. So I don't think that what Alegris is doing is terrible, bringing him on as a gear shift, introducing that fifth gear into the game later on. He's basically utilizing him the same way Ranieri utilizes Lovimbosito. And it's a shame. It's a shame because we want to see more of him, but at the end of the day you start Chiesa, he gets injured. That's what happens, he takes a knock, he's always playing with a slight knock. There's always something. But I'm all for Kenan.

Kenan Hild is baby 18 years old, and for the first time I think he did look 18 years old this game. Perhaps. This was his first real big challenge, I think. And you know, he's up against Inter. Inter, one of the best defenses, if not THE best defense in Europe. It's up there, it's definitely up there. It's not a stretch.

I know there are some listeners that maybe are tuning in that aren't too attuned with Serie A or maybe they view Serie A as a lesser league, but do not sleep on this Inter setup because they are very solid off the ball and they are incredibly effective on the ball as well. So yeah, I would say they have one of the best defenses in Europe, if not THE best. Absolutely, for sure. They've made the Champions League final loss season and cities struggled with the score against them.

So yeah, very good defense. Juve faced their second loss in seven derby d'Italia league meetings. So in reality this wasn't very straightforward for Inter and historically, Juve do well in this fixture. Okay, so despite Inter's early possession dominance, they struggled to break through Juve's defense in the first half. Okay, 80% ball possession for Inter in the opening 10 minutes, by the way.

Very, very interesting stat over there because I remember the game starting off pretty end to end for a bit. But I just Inter piled it up, man. I'm watching it back, Inter just fucking piled it up on the line. And it was in the second half where Juve came out with a little bit more momentum but we'll get to that eventually. Isn't that what Juventus do? It's what they're notorious for doing. No, you take the ball, we'll chill off it and then we'll hit you on the break.

Absolutely. Shalom Oglu had a defense splitting pass that created a threatening chance. It was an absolute laser. The referee had to duck out of the way and it came to DeMarco who played the ball through Ram. And I think the ball wasn't as ideal as it should have been. It was kind of behind the man. It allowed Gleason Bremer. I always call him Gielsen. That's the thing I've been doing since season. This is actually Gleason Bremer.

Bremer's crucial attacker denied Throm, of course. What a defender he is, man. Bremer. He's incredible. And I'm telling you, Juve have a few miracle workers back there in this game that really showed Shesney being, of course, the god amongst men over there. Juve, okay, were stuck in their own half. They found their rare opportunity through McKenney setting up Vlaovic who missed a golden chance.

His first touch was too heavy and he couldn't even take the shot on, to be honest. He just ran it out of play. Unlike Vlaovic, we've seen his first touch has been very good. His first touch was usually one of the best things about Vlaovic. Last season against Tampoli, he had two goals. The ball came over the top and basically glued itself to his foot. This time, of course, the pressure was mounting and he flunked it.

It reminded me of Giroux's touch. Last season against Inter and Sumo and Giroux! Giroux! Giroux! The turning point came just before half time when Pavard's miss-hit bicycle kick led the chaos in the box. Federico Gatti, an advertid, he chested the ball into his own net. Of course, Turam was there to pounce. Had he not done that? Pavard is a naughty little minx, isn't he? He's been so sound defensively. That was expecting him to be a bit more of an attacking outlet for Inter,

particularly with the way they use their wing backs. We've seen Pavard excel as a right wing back, particularly for France when they won the World Cup. I was expecting to see him in more threatening situations. There he is in the box with his backwards goal. Bro Bro goes for a bicycle kick. I would hardly call it miss-hit. I don't think he meant to strike it. He meant to put the ball in a dangerous situation. He meant to guide the ball, I believe.

He went for the assist bicycle kick. I'm not sure he might have gone for goal. The technique was there. The strike wasn't exactly 100%, but it led to a goal, so I'm sure he'll take that. Of course, Turam did not claim the goal he celebrated anyway. After the break, as I mentioned earlier, Juve came out with a different approach. They managed to out-shoot Inter 10-6, but somehow, Summer was never really called into action. Do you remember Summer making any saves this game?

No, in fact, Matarazzi poked fun at that. I don't know if that's a point that you're going to bring up. No, but thank you for reminding me. Please go for it. I'm totally stealing it. There was a stat that said the amount of fans, the amount of inter spectators that there were in the stadium. Matarazzi posted that stat, the amount of support that there were, plus Young Summer, because he was one of the spectators. It's the screen that says the total spectators of the stadium.

Plus, Young Summer. Brilliant. What a shithouse. Brilliant. Summer was never really called into action, basically. Inter had their opportunities, they had chances through Dimarko and Chalanoglu, with Chalanoglu striking the post with a wonderful volley. Dimarko was lively, but he wasn't quite accurate in this game. He was quite wayward with his cross-event and his shooting and everything. Something was off. I don't know if the occasion got to him a little bit.

Of course, Cesney had saves on Thuron, Barela and Darnadovic, that were absolutely phenomenal, particularly. The Barela one was amazing. It was a tight angle, granted, for Barela, but he was one-on-one. He struck the ball venomously. Cesney got down and saved it really well. And the one on Arnautovic was just super. He made himself so big, charging out.

To the point that it looks like a bad miss the first time you see it, and then you watch it over and over and you realise that Cesney rushed out so quickly that Arnautovic didn't really have much to do. Yeah, it was a proper goal. He shot him to the space and Cesney's hand was there. There was nothing equal to that. Inter maintained their impressive defensive record beyond the 76th minute, securing a sixth successive home league victory.

On the flip side, Juve's 19 match on beaten streak came to an end, a massive disappointment for Juventus. And the mood at the end of the game was really telling. Juve were pretty disappointed and Inter were over the mood. Obviously, we know how competitive these two sides are, and we know that there was a lot of shit talking between both parties before this game, including the managers throwing subtle jabs, well not so subtle jabs at each other.

So there's a lot of pride on the line in a derby like this, and obviously people coming into this were deeming it as a decider. Now, I know it's too early to consider this game as a decider, especially with Milan being so close to Juventus now. But yeah, with all that pressure on the line, naturally the mood is gonna be horrible for Juve.

Yeah, absolutely man. And again, it's not looking good because you need Inter to lose three games, two games and draw one, but you need to win them all, and that is fucking difficult. Champions League is gonna kick off like in a week or two. I believe today week there are matches, Champions League matches. Inter are gonna play, Juve are not gonna play. So that might cause a little stir, you know, Inter can drop some points over there, will they? It definitely increases the chances.

Yeah, yes, but the point is that Juve need to win every game. They don't get far from that. Juve were just on a 19-match undefeated run, and they won most of those games. Juve can remain consistent so long as they don't have to play Inter. Or Rampoli. Or is a swallow. Yeah, just those. Of course, yes, it's very tight. Anything can happen. One poor round of form for Inter or an injury crisis for Inter could really topple the season round, to be honest.

So I would definitely say it's too early to count Juve out of the title race or even Milan for that matter, but it is looking likely that it's gonna be Inter's year. And Inter, man, they just seem like they're another level to these teams. They beat me, they smash Milan every time they play them. They beat Juve over here, if Juve didn't have incredible Voicec, Czesne, and Golo, there would have been a 3-0 victory for them.

Absolutely. What I think is, this team is so strong, kind of like the Napoli of last season, Spalletti's Napoli, that most of the reason they beat teams like Juve, beat teams like Milan, the top 7 teams, is because these teams are so scared of playing them. And what I mean by scared is, so Juve hung back, for example, because, you know, they're a counter-attacking side. Inter love having the ball. Inter adore being on the ball. What happens when Juve get the ball and they break forward?

They are mortified of losing the ball because Inter on the break are fucking unstoppable. They are devastating on the break. So that fear kind of kicks in and it doesn't allow you to be that confident person that tries something special on the ball. It doesn't allow you to get into that flow state because you overthink everything. Because this is a risky pass and Mkhitaryan can intercept it or Marella can intercept it.

And when one of those intercepts your pass and you've got one player out of position, you are going to be exposed. So I think Inter, because they are so good, they instantly have an advantage by literally not doing anything, because you put any side up against Inter and they instantly become worse, man. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. One interesting thing is that Charlie Al-Kharaz featured this game despite having only trained for one day.

Now, for those of you who don't know who Shale Al-Kharaz is, he's a midfielder who was signed by Juve on loan from Southampton. And they have an option to buy him of 51 million. Are you calling him Charlie? Isn't it Charlie Al-Kharaz? Yeah, I've got Carlos here, bro. You've got Carlos? Yeah. So Carlos is his name. His name is Carlos Jonas Al-Kharaz-Duran, but his nickname is Shale. Or Charlie, one of them. Probably a strategic nickname considering the tennis star at the moment, Carlos Al-Kharaz.

Yeah, in fact, googling him has proven to be quite difficult. He was at the Rossing Club, he's from Argentina, of course he's 21 years old. With Rossing, he had 38 games and scored 4 goals. With Southampton, he had 41 games and scored 7 goals and now he's been shipped to Juventus. Quite the career trajectory for Rossing Club, Southampton, Juve. Yeah, and what did you say the buyout clause was? 51 million. 51 million? Jesus Christ, man. Who is bro? This game happened on your birthday.

Yes, it did, and I didn't get any birthday presents from it. You got a PlayStation 5. From you, from this game. Not from just me, to be clear, I'm not sourcing out here. From Matthew and everyone he knows. Yeah, you've finished this game, bro, with one shot on target that came in the 72nd minute. And that one shot was a weak shot of the left foot of Lavish from outside the box with an ex-UG of 0.07. So safe to say that Juve didn't really threaten, despite always looking in the game.

That's what Allegri's Juve gives you. They're always in the game. Even if they don't shoot, they're not going to concede, they're not going to go too behind, they're not going to go too down. I noticed this when watching the game, and I was almost getting infuriated because at times it didn't look like Juve were looking for a goal. Inter would have the ball, and Juve would have all 11 players behind the ball. So it's a problem of urgency.

Yeah, it was like Christ fucking pressed them, do something. But they're piling all men back, they definitely don't want to concede another goal, and that is their priority. Yes, I feel the need, bro, before we move on to praise Hakan Chalanoglu, who has really stepped up. Honestly, he was insane in this game. He was pretty much flawless, man, pinging balls over the top long passes, tackling hard.

His work ethic was one of the things I enjoyed most about Chalanoglu at Milan, and it's one of the things that I thought was invaluable about his game. And something that most Czech artists actually do not offer, that defensive hustle. And every time I defended Chalanoglu with my peers, I always said, ah, his defensive work rate, you know, what he gives to the team, what he contributes defensively is irreplaceable.

And, you know, I was mocked quite frankly because your Czech artist is not meant to do that. He's meant to create chances and score goals, and that's something that Chalanoglu was never consistent at doing at Milan. But Enzagi has reinvented him, he's playing him deeper, he's got more time on the ball, he's got more time to ping these perfect passes, more room to ping these passes, and he has really transitioned into one of Europe's finest midfielder.

Agreed, agreed, and a very versatile one at that moment because he can play as a Czech artist, he can play as a regista, and let me tell you what, bro, as a box-to-box midfielder, he definitely has the qualities to play there as well. Yeah, absolutely man. When it comes to the table, of course, we've got first place and second place with a point discrepancy of four with Inter in first and Juve in second, Inter have a game in hand.

Yep, remember that game in hand shan't just be considered a guaranteed three points because this is a match that they're playing against Atalanta, who are obviously a very tough side to play against, they've looked immense, and also if you look at Inter's running throughout that period, so they play against Salernitana at home on the 16th of February.

Four days later, they play against Atletico Madrid at home, five days after that they play Lecce away, and then three days after that they play Atalanta at home, and then just five days after that they play Genoa at home. At least they get to stay at home quite a bit throughout that period, which is good for them, and they can probably afford to rest some players against Lecce. Ah, of course, their substitutes have proven to be dependable.

Yeah, everyone, all of them. So yeah, I'm just curious to see what will happen to them if they experience three semi long term injuries, just like the other teams, you know, Juve, Milan, Atalanta, these teams have all suffered, yeah, Lazio as well, with serious injuries,

and it seems that Inter have been quite unfazed, and it seems that Inter are quite unfazed by injuries overall. They really don't struggle, I don't know if that's a matter of just medics and management and workload management, or if it's just a matter of luck to be on the side. Yeah, like how is Barella not injury prone, you know what I mean, the way he rolls around.

Yeah, right. But anyway, that's enough about that fixture. Let's jump to Frazzinone, two Milan three. This was a very, very feisty encounter. I really enjoyed watching this game. Obviously, you know, as a Milan fan, I didn't enjoy it so much at the same time, but it was, from a neutral perspective, very enjoyable.

So Milan were coming off a 2-2 home draw to Bologna, Frazzinone coming off a 1-1 away draw to Helas Verona, the previous encounter between the two sides was a 3-1 victory for Milan at home. Now, the Rossoneri were coming off a dramatic 2-2 draw with Bologna, which saw both Giroux and Theo missing penalties in case anyone forgot.

Tomori, Calulu, Chiaopo, Bega, Caldara and Chiquese remain unavailable, while the Canarini, Miss Bonifazi, Oiono, Marvin Cooney, Gedhiemi, Sorteia, Kallai, Luzwardi, Baez and Marquitza. So yeah, these are the kinds of injuries that other teams face. This game saw the team that has scored the most first half goals in Serie A this season, Jarmilan with 24, Tecon decide that concede that the most goals in the opening 45 minutes this term, Frazzinone with 20. Damn, you did your homework, huh?

Yeah, sirsiria.com. Documents, stats. So it was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Frazzinone with Turati and Goul and a backline, listen to this, a backline of Brescianini, Romaniolli, Occholi and Gelli. Brescianini and Gelli as the wing backs, very interesting. Berencea and Mazzatelli in the double pivot with Harui on the left, second, right and Sule behind Kyo George.

For Milan it was also a 4-2-3-1 with Mike Manjani in goal and a backline of Calabria, Kier, Gabia and Hernandez, Reinders and Adli in the pivot, Pully second right, Laia on the left, Loftus Tric playing behind Giroux, this is the same exact starting 11 for the past four matches.

Yeah. Now in the 16th minute Giroux opened the scoring for Milan, Laiao Anlishtan early in swinging across to the far post that was met by Giroux, heading into the near corner, beating the scrambling Turati at his near post. Good start for Milan. In the 20th minute though, Sek forced a great save from Manjani after striking from long range, forcing the French goalkeeper to tip the ball over the bar.

Just three minutes later in the 23rd after threatening, Frazzinone equalized through a penalty by Soulet. The penalty was awarded to Frazzinone after a cross met the stray arm of Laiao. Soulet converted very well despite Manjani going the right way. There was a debate about the penalty because it was very short distance from when the ball left the player's foot to striking the arm of Laiao, but at the end of the day it was an infringement so the penalty was awarded.

In the 64th minute, Mazzatelli made it 2-1 for Frazzinone and not against the run of play because Frazzinone were the better side at this point. Mazzatelli squeezed the ball in from a very tight angle, just bubbling over the extended leg of Manjani. The first time you watched that you'd think it went through his legs. Soulet got himself a great assist here through a very well-weighted through pass. I do think Manjani should perhaps be doing better in that scenario.

Yes, and it's not really a hot take, is it anymore? Manjani needs to improve at the near post. Simple as. We've seen it. We've seen him scramble it. Exactly. There's enough evidence of this. Especially if his demands are actually what they are reported to be, with the reported figure of 8 million a season contract request. That's too much, bro. You need to be pretty much flawless to be the highest earner as a goalkeeper on a team like Milan.

Layout doesn't even make 8 million a season. He's a game changer. I granted, okay, Manjani has also been a game changer, of course, but you can't win a game unless you score a goal. I'm not sure about the goalkeeper being the highest earner ever, to be honest. I'm not sure that's a sustainable model. Yeah, absolutely. I agreed. Especially when he's leaking in goals at the near post.

Now Manjani is a fantastic goalkeeper, but he's not going through the best spell at the moment, even with his error against Salernitana. And a few errors around that as well. However, in the 72nd minute, Gabbia got the equalizer for Milan, which made every Milan fan so, so happy after he returned in January. Giroud was once again available at the far post, as he received a cross from Adli.

And the veteran striker squared his header to the part of Gabbia, who slam dunked the ball into the back of the net with a flying header. Thank you for saying that, because this game wasn't mine to prepare. And when we're watching this, I told Mati, I can't wait to describe this goal as a slam dunk on the podcast, because that's what it was. Giroud, man, that instinct to play the ball across goal.

How many times have we said, this player should have squared it across the face of goal in that situation, but he went for goal and said Giroud, at least, was mindful enough to square it. And that's what you get. We often complain about having a 37-year-old striker, but that's what that experience does tend to get you. In the 81st minute, Milan got their winner through who else? Luca Fak in Jovic once again.

Now, Benacer did very well to win the ball off of a Frosinone defender, why is the defender did horribly to lose the ball? Benacer crossed the ball to Jovic, Roman Jolian Valeri made an absolute fucking mess of things. I can't even describe what happened. I'm sorry, the ball ping-ponged between them, one of them lost his footing. Smash-thick to each other.

The other started running away and the ball bounced off his back, and it fell perfectly to Jovic, who finished into the bottom corner with his first touch of the game. Bro, so Milan are out here scraping wins, bro. Milan are scraping wins. What was the difficulty in this match? So, Frosinone are always the side that are going to cause you problems, right? I guess. They're a side that... Coming to a degree? Coming to a degree. They press high and they force mistakes to a certain extent.

Their lineup of Sek, Sule and Haroui, you've got a nice combination of aggressive pressers and technically gifted players. You look at them, but Sek is going to press you to oblivion. You look at Sule, he's going to press you and he's also got that technical flair as well, same as Haroui. Kyle George as well, more of a pressing forward than anything else, more of a presence to literally press and disrupt the back line. And Milan's back line at the moment is a little bit fragile, isn't it?

We all know this. And we have Theo Hernandez, who's kind of... Not kind of, he's definitely an unorthodox left back. His position can vary, you often see him up beyond the halfway line, right? Gabbia has just returned and he's been pretty solid to be honest, but then he has Kier, right, as well, who's a little bit older nowadays. So Milan's defense is there to be fucked with. And Frosinone definitely fucked with it, man. And they fucked with it and they gave Milan the scare of their lives, man.

I did think that Milan would only get better as the game progressed, because one thing Milan have that Frosinone don't have is quality of the bench. And how many seasons that we see where Milan didn't have quality of the bench? That's actually quite nice, you know, bringing on Benacer, Okofor, Jovic, Florenti and Moussa is pretty fucking good. It's excellent. It's great. It's excellent. That's not to mention obviously the youngsters that Milan have, in case any of those guys aren't available.

Simic, Jimenez, Barthazaghi, all good. Notice I didn't say Filippo Tera, Tchano's name because I'm angry at him. We're fighting. We're fighting. We're not talking right now. Yeah, so I think that thankfully purely substitutions have really been working. Jovic coming on, I don't know, and people often say that, oh, CDK, CDK last year, what the hell on their purely purely couldn't get them going. You know, purely ruins players, they don't get the best out of them.

Imagine Leal under another manager. Dude, you look at the numbers that some of these guys have this season, like Giroud and Jovic. They haven't had these numbers in a while. No, come on. It's very harsh to criticize purely over what he got out of CDK's first fucking season in Italy after joining from the Belgian League. And I have a point to make about that. Maldini, we're sorry. We're sorry. Because he's great. He got sacked because of CDK, bro. From today to tomorrow. They fired him.

They're like, look, we gave you 35 millies. We gave you 35 bags and you fucked them by signing this nerd. No, no. He's not a nerd at all now, bro. He's a fucking lion. He's a total nerd, bro. He's a total nerd, man. He's a dwee, but you see it, you know, but I like when he's playing well. He gets this nerdy confidence that I find sweet. Yeah, but funny to see how CDK got Maldini fired and then went and he's killing it at Atlanta and might actually qualify them for the Champions League.

He is, as they say in Italian, assassin. Yeah, yeah. And come on, purely develops players. He does, he does develop players. There's no two ways of looking at it. The two case studies that are mentioned to kind of shit on purely CDK, who's an anomaly because you look at the chances he missed. It's not like purely didn't put him in positions to succeed. He missed so many one on one and easy chances at the point.

At the point, I remember one chance towards the end of the season when everyone was just done and emotionally exhausted with CDK. He had, he missed an opportunity and the crowd laughed. I had never heard that in a football game. Madonna, man. Where the crowd, you hear like, like you're watching two and a half, man, you know? Like that actually happened with CDK. The other case study is Brahim Diaz, who purely developed. Brahim Diaz is a pupil of purely. He spent three seasons with him.

Tomori, Theo Hernandez, these guys, okay, they came to Milan somewhat developed but underperforming, no? And he gets the best out of these guys. They were far from the men they were today. Even Leo, as he said. Leo, when he arrived, I was like, get this guy out because he was being played as a striker. And he was like, Leo was still kind of raw to a degree. His style is raw. And he was, he had that touch and like the lack of certain qualities of a nine. And he was playing as a striker.

I get this guy out, but purely found his position. He worked on him and he has cultivated a great fucking left-winger. Absolutely. Look, I think many people are confused nowadays with their stance on purely. I don't think it's ludicrous or ridiculous or uncalled for to say that Milan should go for a new manager at the end of the season. However, it's important to acknowledge purely's success at Milan and the fact that purely took Milan out of the fucking ashes and back into the sky, bro.

Because this team, this team were low below low. And he hasn't dipped. He hasn't dipped. Statistically. Well, I don't have it on me. No, basically Milan have the same points at the same stage of the season then they did when they won the league. Exactly. The difference is that that you were no longer shit and then they are no longer throwing away games. That's the fucking difference. Everyone's getting better. So Milan want to get better.

So sure, they want to change their culture, want to upgrade, but purely has not dipped. Yeah, that's a very good point. Last season was a little bit of a dip, of course, if it weren't for Juve bending the rules, Milan wouldn't have qualified for the Champions League, but fortunately for us at least. Juve bent the rules. If you're a Juve fan listening, unfortunately.

And we empathize because there's nothing worse for a football fan to go through and some political bullshit that sees your team punished. Messing with your team, man. Yeah, okay, Luca. I want to talk a bit about Leo. A lot of people will say, you know, he's on a dry spell. He had a great fucking game. He was so good, man. He was so good. And you know what? Fuck you. He was so good against Bologna as well. He's doing what he does best.

Unfortunately, when it comes to remember that stat, we're dreaded out a few episodes ago where we compared the Wingers who have. Yeah, but it's Leo with Farah. Exactly, so exactly Leo. Guevara and Keza play closer to goal, while Leo was more of an XA kind of guy, an expected assist kind of guy.

Leo, as I'm tired of saying, excels at taking the ball to the byline and finding a teammate or cutting inside and placing it into the bottom corner without having to put himself in a complicated position to shoot. Because in those situations, he does not thrive. I've never seen Leo score a curler from out of the area, for example, like Guevara did.

However, I've never seen Guevara take the ball and obliterate three men and take it to the byline and just look like he's a totally different species to them. He's more of a close kind of quarters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yes, Leo has his strengths and he's playing to them. I regret taking him on Fanta College, well, definitely, because he's not really that prolific goal scoring in the 20s. And you spent on him, bro. Yeah, man, 300 and something credits. Like 370 credits. Out of a thousand.

Yeah. PSG are like, they want him. PSG are losing in Bappe, right? So they're looking to fill in that left wing slot. Now, apparently, according to sources that aren't so reliable, Leo considers the five year mark of his time as Milan as time to move on. That's what certain reports are saying. Again, reports that are not so reliable. However, apparently doesn't seem too interested in the French League, probably because the French League is shit.

And he's interested more in the Premier League and La Liga. Which is a good thing. Because I think Real Madrid are set. Real are set. Barcelona aren't as attractive a destination as they once were. I mean, they would. But their sponsors Spotify, Betle, I would love that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They'd be like, oh my God, when worlds collide, you know, my rocker, you know. Yeah, look, ideally, he doesn't leave. It does. It's 175 million. That's his clause. Smacarouni is well. That's pretty good, man.

If he leaves, hopefully Milan will will reinvest and solidify and really fix the holes that there are in the team. However, it is difficult to replace a player like Leo because I think I would safely say that unless you bring in a Bappe, you cannot. In Bappe or Vigny, you can't replace Leo otherwise. Yeah. He's stopped through with those guys when it comes to your ability on the ball, when it comes to that just ability to just terrorize that left flank. Not many people can do it.

He has authority on that. You know, who's really coming through. I can use the fastest player that I have ever seen in my fucking life, Mudric of Chelsea. He's starting to play better. That's going against more than the fucking bastard. It's a second season in the Prem now and things are a little bit more settled, I guess. He's a youngster now, Mudric. How old is he? 23. I think he might be even younger. Let me just fact check. I don't know why.

I had to fact check Mudric's age on a Serial Art podcast. I got it, bro. 23 years old. Never doubt yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That's a couple more points and then we'll move on. I think Milan's worst performers in this game and a big reason as to why Milan struggled in this game were Reindersen love to streak. I think Reindersen love to streak left a lot to be desired. They've each been insane for Milan this season.

However, this was a bit of an off game for them, particularly when it comes to, you know, losing the ball because there was a very high amount of press on them. And this is something purely said about Milan, which is Milan's style of playing. Because no one knows what Milan's style of play is. In case you can't put your finger on it. Milan have a controlling style of play. Milan like to have the ball. You there don't. Roma didn't. Milan love having the ball.

What happens when Milan don't have the ball? When Milan don't have the ball, they are bad. And purely said, we cannot be a good team of the ball. I don't know what he means by that. I doubt we can be a good team of the ball. But that is what Frazzinone managed to do. They managed to win the ball of Milan and attack Milan. Yeah, yeah. I mean, probably the lack of physical presence in midfield, apart from love to streak, was playing in the pocket behind the striker.

And the fact that you have two, that you have an aging centre back and a plug centre back. That's it, right? That's it of the ball. You are definitely going to struggle. One thing I want to mention, bro, before we do move on is the heat map. If you have time, go on sofa score guys and open the heat map of Milan from this game. And you'll notice a 262 formation. You'll notice that Gabia and Kier sit alone, as the bottom two, of course.

And that love to streak plays slightly left of the centre circle, while Benaz, sorry, Adli and Reinders both played close together in that centre circle. Theo was out on the left, and Calabria out on the right. And playing right next to Calabria, playing off of him, was Pulisic, in a slightly deeper position. Giroux was the most advanced number nine, and Leo out on the left as an advanced ten in space. And it's...

This is kind of like what transitions into that weird formation that we always address, now where you have a front line of five or whatever. But yeah, this game I thought that the system was pretty promising at least. Yeah, it was okay. Obviously shout out to Frazzinone for putting up an amazing fight against the top quality team. Shout out to Gabia, amazing stuff, getting his second goal for Milan after his return in, well, his first goal since his return, but his second goal ever for Milan.

And Lukajovic, one of the... I love clutch players. And Jovic is just that clutch player. He's won me over, bro. And if you go back a few episodes, you'll hear me shitting on him. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's amazing. I love him. I love Jovic. I love him so much, like, kind of thing. The thing about Jovic that I like, man, is you take him out of the box and you see what type of player he is. You put him in the box like Fiorantina did and you just work to feed him all day.

You're not going to see what type of player he is, man. You take him out of the box and you try to include him in some fluid build-up play, then you'll see the real Jovic, man, and he is a joy to watch, honestly. But you know what? Jiru, starter, Jovic coming on and doing what he does. That is the best way Milan can set up. It's hard to work with that with the numbers, man, that Jiru is on it. He has 11 goals and 8 assists this season. Are you meant to?

He's great. Jake, I always tell you, Jiru is the perfect striker for Milan. He's the perfect striker for Milan. And now, at least there's that depth and there's a competitor. That's what Milan needed. That's what Jiru needed, because he can't be the sole striker. But yeah. Milan, third place, 49 points. Now, just 4 points behind Juve. Milan are going to be keeping the pressure up on Juve over there. That is their goal and obviously get us close to Inter as they come.

But it has been a good run for Milan. You look at Frozenone, on the other hand, they are on 23 points in 23 matches in 14th place. And flirting with that relegation zone, they are only 5 points above Calieri in 18th. Speaking of relegation zone, Helos Verona took on Napoli at the Maradona. That's what I mean. And lost to one. Not without a lack of trying though. So Gualini was in goal for Napoli in the 4-3-3 formation, the part-time goalkeeper, full-time rapper. Di Lorenzo was out on the right.

Mario Rui was out on the left with a centre-back partnership of Rahmani and Juan Jesus. And Guisla Lobotka and Caustere were the midfield 3 with Poletano, Simeone and Guardschia leading the charge. As you'll notice, Guardschia and Caustere are back from injury after getting an accumulation of yellow cards. In a rather silly way. Back from suspension. Back from suspension, yes. You said back from injury. That's fine. Yeah, suspension. Montepo was in goal for Helos Verona. The octopus.

Who played the 4-3-1 formation. Chachua was out on the right. Yes, bless you. Cabal was out on the left and Davidovic and Coppola formed the defensive partnership. Serdar and Duda were in the midfield too. It's funny because you know how we say Duda means penis in Maltese. Serda without the S. What is it, did you say? It means suck. Erda. Erda. Erda Duda means suck-a-willy.

So, Erda Duda was the midfield double pivot with Lazovic out on the left and Folloruncio out on the right with Soslov playing behind new boy Tiani Noslin. Now, by the way brother, am I gassed? Not for Tiani Noslin, but for Karol Zviderski, by the way, who's joined from the MLS. He's a type of striker who scored wherever he's been. He's got 20 goals for the Polish national team and he's been snapped up by Helos Verona.

If any of you have your repair auction on FantaCulture, I do recommend this guy. I think he'll get maybe, you know, 4 or 5 goals at the end of the season for Helos Verona. We'll see. But yeah, I'm definitely more excited for him than I am about Tiani Noslin. So, Napoli came off a game where they only took one shot on target. And this game was a completely different story because Gwad Skjellir from the get-go started testing the goalkeeper from all sorts of different angles.

It was all him. He challenged Montepo on multiple occasions. He got a strong claim for a penalty in the first half as well, which to be honest, I think should have maybe been looked at. Verona were quiet in the first half, but Lazović squandered chance just before half-time. It was quite a bad one. Verona started the second half strongly with Koppola and Lazović creating opportunities. Simeon's attempt was well saved by Montepo, keeping Napoli fans anxious.

Verona took the lead with an unexpected breakthrough as Koppola's shoulder connected with Soslov's free kick. It was a weird goal. At first I thought he scored with his arm, then I thought he scored with his back, then I noticed he scored with his shoulder. He was going for a header. Yeah, full on, full on. The boy from Verona! Koppola. I love when commentators get gasped for young players. Napoli swiftly responded. This time it was, of course, Iruolo del Lecce that was exercised.

Cyril Ngongj, or as they started calling him today, nowadays, sorry, Ngongge. They just switched up on us. Before they were calling him Ngongj, so we called him Ngongj, though they're calling him Ngongj. And I'm kind of married to Ngongj. I like Ngongj. I like Ngongj. Cyril Ngongj. But you know, Ngongj, a completely different dude here. Ngongj. This goal eventually did go down as a Davidovic own goal, so it's not quite Ngongj's first goal for Napoli yet.

Do you think it's fair for that to go down as an own goal? No, I don't think so. I think this could have been Ngongj's goal. It was helped over the line. I believe it was going in. Yeah, it was going on target, right? Yeah. I thought it was a bit harsh. Yeah, it's always random when they decide that. The Xerxay one was probably going off target, so I get it like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just before in Ngongj's equalizer, there was a fantastic double save by Montepo on Lindström and Matsuki.

Lindström really changed the game around when he came on. He was brilliant. It was so good. Simeone missed a one-on-one from a tight angle shortly after and attempted to chip Montepo on the rebound, but fails to challenge the goalkeeper or hit the target. Gwadzkelia then delivered his moment of magic with a stunning curler, securing three crucial points for Napoli in the European race.

For Verona, of course, the loss extends their winless away streak to 11 matches, keeping them in the relegation zone. The match showcased Napoli's resilience and Gwadzkelia's impact as one of the best players in the league, while Verona will, of course, regret the missed opportunities they had that could have shifted their fortunes.

For me, apart from Gwadzkelia really stamping his authority and letting us know that Napoli can't do shit without him, Lindström looked super promising to me and I think having Lindström and Ngongj offers Napoli some good solutions off the bench. Yeah, I think so. I think so. That was the first time we saw him really insert himself in the manner in which he did, but he was very, very involved. He was always on the ball, man.

And you know what, even Madzocchi, when he came on, was quite involved getting in those dangerous areas as Napoli were attacking. He's a good little player to bring on over there. A guy I would like to highlight, and you know me, I love a good goalkeeper, man. I thought Montepo was phenomenal in this game. Montepo, last season, he was the keeper with the most saves in the league. And okay, it's probably because Verona conceded a lot of shots, but he has, and I've always said,

he is a very good keeper. He is one of the good ones in the league. Now, of course, sometimes he makes the odd error, but I really, really like Lorenzo Montepo. Then you should ask him out, man. You never know. Maybe the feeling is mutual. Sentimental DM or something. He's only a year older than me. I really, really like you. Really, Lorenzo, I really fucking like you, man. Those eyes, the trim. The hands. God, the hands. Napoli are in seventh in the league with 35 points.

They're one point off of Bologna in sixth, while Hellas Verona are actually in 17th. Of course, Caliari did not get anything against Roma, and they conceded four goals. So they're now down in 18th. Verona are in 17th with 18 points. So, Scott, what I said about them being in the relegation, who they are currently out of it. Thanks to God, difference. Yeah. Let's do Atalanta three Lazio one.

Atalanta were coming off a two-nil victory against Odineza, whilst Lazio were coming off a very boring nil-nil home draw to Napoli, which you made reference to as well. The previous encounter was a three-two home victory for Lazio. Now, this was, in fact, a head-to-head encounter for fourth place, though both teams also have a game in hand. Coke miners, Sheehan and Palomino were injured with Lukman at the African Cup of Nations.

The visitors had a mobile back from a ban, but Miss Zacani, Patrick and the suspended Danilo Cataldi. Atalanta have won 37 of their 111 matches against Lazio in Serie A. Only against Bologna have they achieved more successes in their history in the top flight. Lazio were, however, imbued in five of their last six matches against Atalanta in Serie A, after having failed to win any of their previous seven matches against Ladea in the competition.

Now, it was a three-four-one-two formation for Atalanta with Karnezeki in goal and a backline of Kolasinac, Jim City and Scalvini. Rogeri was on the left, Holm was on the right and Dehoun and Edison formed the midfield too, with Pasalic playing just behind Miran, Csuk and Decay-Telare. 4-3-3 for Sarri Zlatio, Providell in goal and a backline of Lazari, Gila, Romanioly and Barisic, a midfield three of Gwendouzi, Rovella and Alberto, and a front three of Isaksen, Castellanios and Felipe Anderson.

Now, Kolasinac got very close to opening the scoring in the fourteenth minute, after his header following Amaranth Choukros forced a good stop from Ivan Providell, and then the scoring was opened in the fifteenth minute by Pasalic. And Cdk's cross to Scalvini was intelligently redirected to Pasalic, who controlled the ball on his chest and volleyed the ball into the back of the net in an acrobatic manner, great build-up, great finish, that is what football is all about.

In the forty-second minute, Cdk won and converted a penalty, he sent Providell the wrong way from the spot and the penalty was awarded after a handball by Marisic. Still in the first half in the forty-sixth minute, Atalanta almost made it three before the break, as Holmes' header hit the crossbar following another brilliant cross by Miran Chouk.

Again, Atalanta almost made it three in the sixtieth minute after another great attacking move, which ended with a brilliant save by Providell denying Miran Chouk a simple finish after a great and powerful square ball by Pasalic. In the seventy-fifth minute, Cdk got his second of the night, can we call him a wonder kid from now on, Cdk? I guess so. Wonder kid? Would he be a kid? He's young, Cdk. But he's a young buck. No, he's twenty-two years old, yeah. He could be a wonder kid.

He cut into the box from a white position and surprised everyone, including if I'm Providell, by opting for an early low strike into the near corner. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant stuff there by Charles de K. Tlaere, who was on fire in this game. In the eighty-third minute, Ciro and Mbola converted a penalty after winning it. I'm in order to get a consolation goal, essentially, for Lazio. Jim City giving that one away over there. Yeah, Jim City, yeah, that ruthless, silly kick by Jim City.

Very silly to really affect his rating on my Fanta culture negatively. Yeah, of course. Cdk has the spirit. Look at the heat map. Look at them all the way up there in the box. 17th. That's crazy. You look at the midfield, it's completely flat, pretty much, and then Miran Csuk is just connecting, play to Cdk. That's why then you have Barat Jim City literally as the last man. That's such a cool system. And then you look at Lazio.

Lazio literally tried to attack through the middle with Castellanios and Philippa Anderson playing together, trying to charge down the middle. And of course, they were pretty much pinned back as the highest player was in the center circle. The highest pushing player, his average position was the center circle. I guess that typically be why there were Zacanis on the pitch, I guess so.

Yes, I think what they did here is they tried to attack Atalanta down the middle simply because they're so strong out wide at the moment and overloading those flanks. They're so good at that. I thought Atalanta absolutely destroyed Lazio. I thought they were better in every single fucking area and every single duel. I think that Lazio are a bit of a step behind this season. I agree, yes. Atalanta looked like a well-oiled machine.

They looked so, so, so organized and so ruthless, against Lazio, literally pinning them back and forcing them to do nothing all game. They had one shot on target and I'm pretty sure that was the penalty, no? Perhaps, probably. While you look at Atalanta, they had 19 shots, they were peppering the goal. Five of them on target, of course. But five on target and three goals is impressive in itself. For sure, for sure. I think obviously we have to talk about Decay Tolarre.

I know we mentioned him, I think three times already in this podcast, but fuck it, he is the star of the week, CTK. Just a brilliant all-round performance and I think maybe this is his position. We've often spoken about the system that he's playing in, suiting his playstyle more. I think, so at Milan he was often played as an attacking midfielder, as a trequartista rather, and sometimes popped in as a lone striker, sometimes.

And I think at two up top and CTK being one of them, that must be his best position because he can drift slightly wide while still having the technical ability to play in the tight spaces and to link up play in the middle of the pitch. And because he's got very smart teammates, he's always got someone to pick out, man. Yeah, fair to say, of course. Seeing as the success he's found in his career has come literally from that position.

I believe he was a striker at Bruges when he was bought, because that was one of the things people used to say when he would play as a trequartista for Milan, that that wasn't his position at Bruges. Yeah, who would have thought he would play him in his position and he would do better. When in Bruges, right? When in Bruges. Yes, I'm totally impressed by this guy. However, as a striker, your mental strength is very important. And CTK has proven that when it's not going his way, it's devastating.

Now, I don't know if that's because he was 21 years older. I don't know if that's something that we'll be seeing throughout his career, but I really do hope that's something he overcomes, because as a striker, if you're going to make it all the way to the top, being ruthless will be the difference between becoming Benzema or becoming Higuain. You know what I mean? Like, they were on a similar level at their best, Higuain and Benzema.

Higuain just had that confidence block, that issue, when it came to finishing, especially in big moments and big games. It's a momentum game with strikers like that. It's either penalty, it goes a season or it's fucking three. Absolutely. Imagine in a world. So obviously, Atalanta have the option to buy CDK for 25 million, correct? Now imagine Atalanta are like, you know what? He's been great, 25 million is a lot of money, and would rather invest it elsewhere.

Let's imagine a world where Atalanta would not extend or not exercise their option to buy CDK. And he ends up back at Milan. Who's that? Conte, come in, 352, CDK up top. Boom. That sounds nice, but I'm pretty sure Atalanta have already made it very clear that they're going to exercise the option. It's 25 million for them, it's looking like a steal right now. Yeah. Imagine Lea or Leafs, you know, he goes to PSG and Milan get shards back and they're up for a 352 on their Conte.

Oh no, I don't know, just, you know. That sounds weird. I'm feeling a bit sick, bro, to be honest with you right now. Conte has already shard the K-tile. And Lea or God? No, no, crazy stuff, crazy stuff. Miran Truc is a player I really want to highlight because as you said, he links play to the attacking end seamlessly. It's weird, this comparison that I'm about to make, but on the ball, with the ball at his feet, his style and his technique reminds me so much of Modric.

I'm not even kidding you. Is it the close ball control and the ability to shift? Exactly, exactly, very well put, and it's also the inability to lose the ball. I draw that comparison and I'm not kidding around. Except when he loses the ball, Miran Truc doesn't even move, you know. Modric will go running for it like this. No, Modric is a harder working player, but obviously not drawing comparison between Ballon d'Or, winning fucking Luca Modric, World Cup finalist Luca Modric and Miran Truc.

But the technique, I really see similarity. I mean, it's fine to say that they look similar. It reminds you of it, you know, I mean, there were moments where people would say that Gurkhaf reminded them of fucking Kaka. You remember that shit? Gurkhaf's nowhere near Kaka, but maybe certain movement reminded people of a certain player. That's perfectly fine. Lea reminds people of Thierry Henry. Lea was a long way to go before he's at the level Thierry Henry was, but there's something there.

Thank you for standing up for me. You're welcome. On our podcast, brother, I suddenly feel much more confident doing this. That's great, man. Don't worry, I'll deal with the hate. But Miran Truc is amazing and they are stacked in that area. And I just, I find it weird that they let him go to Torino last season for a season long loan, like, because they had also removed Malinovsky that season.

And I feel like, I don't know, man, maybe if they had Miran Truc, they would have had a fucking better season last season. They could have definitely used him. But one thing about Miran Truc was he's never been this consistent ever since coming back from consistent playing time at Torino. His Torino spell was very successful. You know, he scored, he scored four goals over there. He had a really good season. He played 29 games. He was, he was very good for them consistent.

I think that was the first time since his Moscow days, his locomotive Moscow days, that he actually had a full season being an important player. At Atlanta, it was always a fringe player. You know, he spent two years kind of on and off. But yeah, nice to see that he's developed and he's 28 years old. He's not as young as you would think he is. Well, he ain't no spring chicken at 28 years old. Definitely not. And it is complicated when you send out a guy on loan at 27.

But I think this is one of those cases where it worked out well. You know what? Nana Mer told me at lunch the other day, bro. She's like, I don't believe what she told me. She was like, how are you going to be Matt? My birthday is at the end of February. It's my lucky birthday in exactly 20 days. I thought I'm going to be 27. She's like 27. Like you are not a teenager. Like don't think you're a teenager anymore. I'm like, thanks, Nana. You fucking bitch. Very nice of you to say what are you?

74, relax. Why were you acting in a rascally way? You were there. I was fine. I was sitting down eating my avocado toast. Don't act like no teenager. This is like a way past your prime. But anyway, enough about Nana Mer. Before we discuss Lattio and where perhaps they are struggling a little bit, I do want to point out a very sad, some sad news that we've heard. Muriel apparently linked to a move to Amoraga. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone. He's gone.

Amoraga. He's off to America. Lewis Muriel in America. Yes. I mean, Muriel has never been the epitome of peak footballing fitness, you know, and peak physical level. He's a player who we kind of knew that wouldn't have longevity to his name. Yeah, and I think maybe a season or two in the MLS followed by a return to Colombia to play for his boyhood club or something of the sort. He can hang up his boots, he's had a good career. At least he was very highly rated on Seria Spotlight.

Absolutely, one of our favorites. You know how we said that you can draw comparison through a play style? Here it comes. Three, two, one, El Fenomeno. Yes, El Fenomeno. Yes, absolutely. And this isn't only us, you know, I mean, of course, this is a comparison that has been made many times by many people.

It's the way he moves, the way he rounds the goalkeeper, the way he moves, the way he like a ballet dancer, the way he bounces the fucking, he does this bounce shot thing of the ground, you know, is it? He does make that booty pop as well, bro. He does, man. He does make that booty pop. He's thick. He's thick. Muriel was incredible. Just a small kind of note on Lazio. They're in a massive transition phase and it's no wonder that they do tend to struggle in these scenarios.

You look at this team, this is very different to the squad that they had last year, bro. Okay, Profidel was there, Lazari Romagnoli, Marisic, Alberto Anderson. The rest are a different dog. They've got Gila. They're midfielders, Guendusi and Rovela alongside Luis Alberto. They've got Isaacson and Tati Castellanos again and I know I've exhausted this point. But they lost Sergei, who was their guy, their star, their fucking star. And Ciro Mopile is not the player that he used to be.

He's showing, perhaps finally showing his age and he's looking like Italy's a Mopile and Lazio's heroic immobilia. And remember all the stats of how many goals these two players have scored in combinations, like assisting each other, finishing off each other's assists, so on and so forth.

And we know that Lazio last season and the season before, they were very attacking side getting you all of these goals because they were capable of utilizing those two players as their main outlet and if not, there's Anderson and if not, there's Acani and if not, there's Luis Alberto and there's always Mopile being a poacher inside the box and they had their ways to get goals. Now Tati Castellanos, Isaacson to his right and Guendusi, Rovela behind him, it's not bad

but it's a transition. It's a transitional season for Lazio. Which sucks. It sucks because they don't have any guarantees that Sarri will be there next season. Philip Anderson is apparently joining Juve, he'll be going as a free agent. Luis Alberto is approaching the latter stages of his career and he's 31 years old. A move is now or never for him if he wants to have a new experience. I'm surprised he hasn't mentioned it yet.

Yeah, honestly. You risk the transitional year being just a wasted year and next year being the transitional year. It would be hard to keep this group together without European football. So let's hope they get their shit together and that they start to play more consistently and get these wins up because honestly it's going to be difficult for them to maintain consistency going into next season. They had a point where they seemed to have things figured out.

They recovered and they went on the streak but now it seems... No, look, they'll fight for Europa. They'll fight for Champions League but they'll probably make Europa or a conference. They're still in the mix but it's just... Before the draw to Napoli and the loss in this, they were doing quite well. They were on a winning streak. One, two, three, four, five game winning streak. Let's say Roma with Denese, Frosenana and Ampoly. Roma was in the Coppa.

Yes, exactly. Brother, Ayn Maiden said it best. What's that? So understand the wasted times always searching for those wasted years. Lazio find themselves in ninth on 34 points whilst Atalanta find themselves in fourth on 39 points. They have a game in hand and if they win that then there'll still be a bunch of points behind Milan but game in hand. Delicious. Roma took on Calieri. It's against Inter so take that claim that they might win it lightly.

Roma took on Calieri at home and smashed them for zero brother. It's safe to say that they absolutely annihilated them. I can't use the adjectives that I want to use to describe what Roma did to Calieri. Let's just say that the Calieri players must have taken a very long shower after this game. I think they performed Roma performed every possible form of assault on Calieri, every single one. And this is interesting and there are scenes, there are scenes Roma, it could have gone terribly wrong.

This is the important thing about bringing in a new man when the fixed share list is kind of easy. Not easy, just less demanding because Mazzari came in and the games he had to take on ahead of him. That's a baptism of fire I've ever seen one in my life. But Roma came in, they had to play three teams or bottom tier. So that was good for him to get some confidence in the team as well. The way they're playing these guys, counter attacking force.

The commentator came in to the game and was like, to be honest, Roma draw points over here, I'm really not going to be surprised. I watched their game against Salerno Tarn and I thought they were awful, especially this Elsharao guy. The commentator, I thought you were saying me because I played money on a fucking Calieri or draw and both teams scored. The commentator couldn't believe what he was seeing, he was like, why is Elsharao good? Why are Roma doing this? Why do they look so good?

Honestly, I haven't seen Elsharao play like this since he was a freaking teenager. But since he had that very, very, very spiky Mohawk that you could chop a tree down with. They got to be glued Mohawk with the line, how many times I've asked for that in my life. So Lorenzo's lineups, I was going to go straight into the action. Don't forget Jesse Pinkman as the left back for Roma. Don't worry brother, of course. For Roma it was a 4-3-3 formation with Rui Patercio and Goat.

Cars door upon the right, Jesse Pinkman on the left with Mancini and Lorente at the back of you wondering who they are. Jesse Pinkman, that's their new boy Angelino. Angelino. He's got the little whoop whoop whoop on the end. Like Gilar de Nio. Two seasons ago I was 84. What happened? I lose a leg or something? I lose a leg or what? Angelino brother, first of all he wears the number 69 on his kit. So respect automatically. Yes, definitely. Him and Drangovsky, ballers.

Second of all, I've been a fan of this guy. Seeing him sporadically in the Champions League with Leipzig, I've always thought Angelino was a good hard working, industrious, skillful... Much like Jesse Pinkman. He's a great fullback. He showed that in his first game to be honest. He demonstrated it immediately. Pellegrini, Paredes and Cristante were in the midfield with DiBala, Lukaku and Dari Sharawi playing up front in his 4-3-3 system.

Ranieri went to the 3-5-2 formation, starting with Skoufé and Goul, Obert, Mina and Dossena at the back. Did I know Mina was at Calieri when this game started? No. I found out during the line-up. So I was like, there's Yeri Mina. I found out because his bar on my Fanta culture went to green and it's never green. I'm like, what the hell, Fiorintina are starting Mina? I went to check and it's like Mina, Calieri.

He got beaten in the air by Huys in this game. We can see why he's been sent out on loan. Atzi was out on the left, Zappa on the right, Nandes, Pratian, Makumbu were in the middle with Lapadula and Petania as the not-so-formidable striking partnership. Lorenzo Pellegrini's early goal set the tone after Petania spilled the ball into his path after a corner, followed by Angelino whipping in a delicious ball to Cristante who struck the post.

The ballers well worked effort on the penalty conversion after the break. Maitre was 3-0 for Roma and then teenage Redine Huyson who's currently on loan from Juventus, added to the tally with a towering header from Paredes' corner. Calieri are on a 16-game winless away run and they struggle to make an impact. They miss their chances and var over turn the penalty. The baller had opportunities for a hat-trick while Lukaku's efforts were denied.

The result places Calieri back into the relegation zone after the heaviest defeat of the season while Roma and Beton in the last 9 hit the head-encounters rise to 5th. So I hate to say this, I have their kit, I really like them, I love Sardinia, I love the current setup of the team, I love Ranieri, Calieri through no fault of their setup, of their management or whatever, they are very very very limited when it comes to quality players. Very limited when it comes to quality players.

Especially because Lovumbo's been away at Afqon, because with Lovumbo on the side, especially coming on in the second half. They could be pragmatic and then breakthrough. Exactly. And you know what man, having Lovumbo and Viola, and ok, Makhumbu, let's include Makhumbu as well, it gives you a little bit of quality, just a splash, a dollop of quality. Or Estanio's out in Jets, Shamoradov is out in Jets, so is Rogue.

Yeah, it's not really going well for them, but I don't understand this idea of playing Lapadoula and Beton together up front against Roma. What's the plan here, go for a more mobile team, go for a counter attacking team, we're playing two essentially target men, two target men up front. That's exactly what they're doing. Yeah, and in fact when Lovumbo eventually did come on, I know that you can't really, they couldn't have given him more time in this game, because he'd just come back from Afqon.

And you would have thought, by the way, he came back from Ibiza, bro, he came back blonde. But he looks as good as ever after his experience with Angola. It makes me love the decision to get this hair dyed, it's like go to the African cup of nations, and then before I go to continue to play for Kalyari, I'll get a quick, I'll just get my hair dyed, blonde, and then go back. Unless you really wanted to stand out at the tournament, I'm sure he had it for the tournament. Ah, perhaps. For sure.

Roma's next game will be very telling as it is against Inter, so we'll see what Daros is made of. Let's see if he's really got that spunk, or if he's just been bullying kids in the playground. Kalyari, of course, are in a little bit of a tough situation right now. We'll see how they can do to recover.

The relegation battle is getting tighter and tighter, and I am seriously concerned about some of these teams that I love, because I'm looking down there and I'm like, these guys aren't all terrible, you know what I mean? Like, Hellas Verona are the ones who've really moved many of their good players on, so you think that they're automatically candidates.

You think that Odineza and Saswolo are simply out of pedigree, and because of the fact that they've been in Serie A for so long, and they have so many quality players, you think they're safe. That doesn't leave many teams to get relegated, man. You look at Leccia and Monza as well, they've been playing well. Genoa have been playing well, that literally leaves, let's say Verona, and then two of Kalyari and Polly and Salernitana, and then Polly have been playing much better than the other two.

So perhaps Kalyari and Salernitana. I'm not going to say anyone is safe, but I wouldn't count Genoa and Monza as part of the conversation. I think 13th down, they are all part of the conversation. Absolutely, yes. I'm talking Verona, Odineza, Saswolo, Frozano and Leccia, all part of the conversation. 34 points, you're safe, and Genoa and Monza are on 29. And Polly got relegated with 34 points once upon a time, and a piece of cherry wood, something like that.

Okay, let's say high 30s, you're usually safe. Okay, so that's literally fucking 10 more points for Genoa and Monza, they're fine. But yeah, they can definitely do that. As per the standings, Genoa, Genoa. Not Genoa, we're just talking about Genoa. Kalyari are in 18th with 18 points, while Roma have clients to 5th with 38 points. Leccia 3-Fiorintina 2, finally, probably the best game of matchday 23, brother. What a game it was. What a game, a Friday night thriller.

Mm-mm-mm, brother, and where we thrilled. Leccia were coming off a 2-1 loss to Genoa, while Sforintina were coming off a 1-0 home loss to Inter. The previous encounter was a 2 draw between these two sides, so Sforintina have failed to beat Leccia this season. How funny is that? No significant injuries for either side, but breaking news, in case we haven't mentioned it, Strafetza to Komo Dan. He is no longer part of the Leccia team. The guy was a staple for them.

He will be remembered in Leccia, especially for his season last season, where Leccia had just come back up and he was shaken at Boody and dribbling those players. He looked really good. It was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Leccia. It was Falcone in goal and a backline of Gallo, Basquiro, Topangracic and Gendry. It was Blyn and Kaba as the double pivot with Banda on the left, Anquist on the right and Udon playing behind Christovic.

There's also a 4-2-3-1 for Fiorentina, Terra Ciano in goal and a backline of Farooni, Martinez, Ranieri and Biragi. When I say Martinez, not sure it's Martinez-Quarta. Maxime Lopes started in the double pivot alongside Duncan. Inzola was on the right, Sotil was on the left and Bonaventura played behind Beltran. Now, Chaos ensued in the 10th minute as Kaba struck the post with a powerful header and Terra Ciano denied a follow-up attempt by Anquist.

In the 17th minute, Leccia opened the scoring through an Udon free kick. It was a very close-range free kick that went through the wall and into the bottom corner, slugged goal, but the wall was absolutely atrocious. It was Sotil who moved his lower body out of the way for some fucking unknown reason. Bonaventura didn't stand too far behind, he kind of went a bit to the left, but it was all Sotil, the way he raised his knees up to his chest and turned to the side.

He jumped up and did a split midair. I'm going to be honest, I'm going to be so straight to the point. If you're a pussy, you can't be in a wall. Because if you're going to jump quickly, give me five players in the league who should never be in the wall. By God, last season's have been so much easier because the first two that came... So, Banda, he's like what, 5-1? Yeah, it's 5-3 and I agree Banda should never be in the wall. Sotil, clearly, should never be in a wall again.

Should CDK be in the wall? I think CDK can be in a wall. He's tall, he's tall. But is he brave? That's the question. Probably not. We've seen him roar. It's not the most intimidating thing ever. Who should be in a wall? I like this question. I'm going to say Debala and Kiesa because if they jump too high, they risk injury. The both of them. I have a dream wall, bro. You have a dream wall? I haven't said my fifth one. Well, to be honest with you, I don't have my fifth one yet.

Simeon Wanguo, Luka, Yerimina, Bascarotta. My God, my formidable wall. The great wall of Serie A. That is a great wall, to be honest. And then Vanya and Gord. Oh my God, Vanya should be in the wall. I can't think of a fifth one. But I'm going to go for Barella because he also gets hurt very frequently. And if he gets hit by a ball, then he might spend 10 minutes rolling around on the floor. I wouldn't want my most, in ideal, an ideal, an ideal.

My most ideal wall would be like Guendouzi and Xerxie and all these Afro having players. The ball flies through them out of the fucking bushes. Well, that was Udon opening the scoring in the 17th minute. And it's good to mention that before this, Lecce had hit the post, as I mentioned earlier, but went off a bit of a tangent. Moment later, the 26th minute was all Lecce at this point. They were at it again when Kristovic hit the post when striking on the turn after a quick counter-attack.

So Lecce entered the second half with a 1-0 advantage. However, in the 50th minute, Mandragora managed to get an equaliser for Fiorintina. The substitute came on along with Bellotti to try and find a goal, but it was the midfielder that managed after striking on the bounce from outside the area after collecting a defensive clearance. It was a magnificent, powerful, low strike that was a contender for a goal of the week.

In the 63rd minute, Banda failed to score past Terraciano when cleaned through on goal. He found himself in such a position after Milenko, which failed to control the ball at the back, totally fumbled it and obviously couldn't catch up with Banda once he got hold of the ball. 67th minute, Beltran made it 2-1 for Fiorintina. The Argentine intercepted a horribly dangerous pass by Falcone. And just one touch and he guides it into the back of the net.

Horrible stuff by the keeper, just never played that kind of pass. Dreadful stuff, but great, great press by Beltran over there to put pressure on the keeper and to force the error out of him. Bellotti almost opened his account for Fiorintina in the 87th minute, only for his very Bellotti-esque volley to strike the woodwork. Bellotti-esque volley is a very scrappy, hard-working volley that ends up being quite dangerous. If you watch Bellotti, then you know exactly what I mean.

Kind of volley that your mouth is wide open while you're doing it. Like the form isn't great, but he should have never gotten to it, but he got to it. You're hunched over, you know, kind of leg in the air, I know exactly what you mean. Bellotti always looks uncomfortable, doesn't he? He does. He always looks like he's freezing, bro. He always looks like he's freezing. That's an interesting lipo, yes, I see it. Thank you, 98th minute, let's check at an equalizer, it's fucking Piccoli.

It was a free kick cross by Sansone that was meant to be headed away by Insola, but instead, perfectly guided to Piccoli who rose the highest and headed in very well. I've never seen anything like that, like Insola. Like I've never seen someone try to clear a ball and he puts it on a plate for someone else. It's just next level, I bet you, Fiorintino fans kind of wish that Insola had gone to Afgan. Yeah, well, bro, so true. I don't know why I get the feeling that Insola will end up in Turkey.

I think he'll like it. He's got that vibe about him. Roberto Piccoli is on five goals this season. Yes, he is. I have an argument to make with you about how he should be starting out of Kristovic. 90 second minute. You'd think that Lecce are busy celebrating their equalizer to get a great point against Fiorintino where they expect it to get nothing but absolute scenes. Scenes, Dorgo with the winner. He smashed the ball into the top corner after Terraciano saved Kristovic strike well.

Two goals in two minutes. He's off celebrating, going crazy with the fans, immaculate stuff. I really didn't think Lecce would get anything out of this game, but they got away with all three points. What did you make of it, bro? Why did Fiorintino struggle so much in this game? So, Lecce came into this game ready. They were totally ready to take on Fiorintino and to really push for something more than perhaps draw this game.

I really liked the approach with the high aggressive press and it turns out that the substitutes were bang on as well by what's his name? His name escapes me right now, brother. Letras manager. Yes, Daversa. You did nothing. They scored in the 90th and the 92nd minutes to get the winners. That winning goal can be simply a case of Fiorintino losing focus after conceding a goal in the 90th minute. They're like, damn, we've thrown the lead.

And then while they're thinking, damn, we got nothing out of this game because Patrick Dorgo is scoring the winner. So, yeah, I think that's pretty much what happened. Yeah, and also you look at the form of Fiorintino at the moment, they haven't been doing great.

Let's be real, they had every opportunity to be in fifth because Roma were slipping up, Bologna were slipping up, Napoli were slipping up, Lazio keep slipping up, but they have failed to remain consistent and get wins when they needed wins. If you look at their past four games, they don't have a single win, bro, in their past four games and they have three losses and one draw. And I think a large part of that comes for two reasons. Number one, I feel like they're struggling a lot defensively.

I think if you put pressure on Fiorintino, chances are you're going to score against them. Secondly, they sit, well, there are three things. Okay. Secondly, I don't feel like they properly control games and games kind of escape them a little bit. Now, I don't quite know why that is, but it's there, it doesn't seem like the game is ever in their control and they're always catching up to it. Third point is they suck at scoring goals. They are not a creative team by any way.

Beltran and Dinsola are not the strikers that they want. Now they brought in Bellotti and he came in off the bench, you know, just until he settles. Nico came in off the bench because he's coming back from injury. And just at the moment, it's all going south for them. And all they needed was to come up against a highly motivated Lecce team who are battling relegation. And they know that every, every point is crucial and they were fearless against Fiorintino.

They really, really took the game to them, bro. Yes, I think Bellotti is the type of profile that actually fits this Fiorintino better than, this Fiorintino side better than Beltran or Dinsola do. I like what Bellotti can do in link-up play. I like the type of, like towards the latter part of his season, at his tenner, sorry, his tenure at Torino. He was playing balls from deep, you know, deep, forward balls. Like, through balls, defence cutting balls.

It just goes to show, you know, there's a lot more to his skill set than we've seen at Roma. And I think this could be a good environment for him where he's competing with two strikers who, one of them, Zola, is just offering nothing in play. And it's assisting the other team and scoring penalties, you know. And then you have Lucas Beltran who granted his goals, are coming through very hard work and very high levels of awareness.

He's a hustler, but it's not been easy for him at all and he has struggled to settle into this Fiorintino side. So I think that number nine position is there for the taking, and I think Bellotti is a good candidate for it. Yeah, I think so. How much would they be kicking themselves that they let Jovic go on a one-year contract with Milan? Probably not too much, because we saw the way he was playing at Fiorintino and he was very frustrating to watch.

It was over one season, bro, and he was also very good for them in Europe. Don't forget that. In the conference stick he was a monster for them. Yeah, they might be kicking themselves, they probably are kicking themselves, let's be real. But Fiorintino like to put strikers in the box and feed them, and Jovic is not that guy. No, I mean you're absolutely right. But let's move towards Lecce a little bit. We've often, well, we haven't really often debated it, but you are a fan of Kristovic.

And the fact that obviously Kristovic does tend to create chances where chances aren't there to be created. He'll have a strike from distance, give you a good shot on the turn. What is obviously really struggling for goals, he got one recently, but let's not pretend that that wasn't a crazy own goal. Let's not pretend that was the case. Pickoli, to me, looks more certain to grab a goal. When Pickoli is playing, he's simply grabbing goals and Kristovic is not.

So I can't help but be more towards Pickoli. It's a matter of form, towards the beginning of the season, no one would have ever dreamt of displacing Kristovic for Pickoli. But it turns out that their form is working in parallel ways, which is actually a very good thing for Lecce, because they always have one firing. Like last year with Cece and Colombo. Exactly, literally, literally, literally. That could be a way in managing their men, that could be intentional. Who knows, we're not there.

Oh, Kristovic has more goals. Kristovic has five, Pickoli has four. Kristovic started the season super well, man, and he was looking like a natural striker, and now it's clearly a problem of confidence. And he has improved. This game, he got quite close to scoring. The goal on the rebound was his shot. Yes, but I find that Pickoli is more intelligent when it comes to his positioning as a number nine. I feel like he finds himself in goalscoring opportunities more often than Kristovic.

I'm not so sure I agree with that. I like Kristovic as a... I love Kristovic as a fox in the box. I think his movement is more... Some fox, he is. Some fucking fox. But you know what, man, this is a good problem for Lecce to have, because they're both 23 years old. They're both scoring and say, you know what, they have two potential good sales over there. Yeah, apparently Lecce have a certain Salvatore Sulla as one of their coaches.

And apparently since his arrival, the team has been performing much better. So I don't know enough about Salvatore Sulla, what he's doing, and why he's making Lecce better, but Salvatore... You're listening. Good on you, man. Keep it up, man. Keep it up. Fioridina find themselves down in eighth. That's how fragile your position is in this league. In eighth place on 34 points, whilst Lecce, massive step in the right direction for them, they're in 13th on 24 points.

Some breathing space now. Six points ahead of 18th place Kalyarian, 17th place Verona. The Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones Derby. Bologna 4, Sa Swolo 2. You don't get that reference because... Of course I don't. You've never watched Game of Thrones. I never watched. You've never been disappointed by the worst ending I've ever seen in my life. Really? I remember you couldn't stop talking about it. Because Game of Thrones is incredible, bro. It's just a journey up until the final season.

And it's an incredible journey. It takes you through a range of emotions. You sound like a mother. It's fucking incredible, man. It's incredible, honestly. And you never know what's gonna happen, bro. You can't get emotionally attached to anyone because they'll just fucking kill them off. It's a crazy good show. But then the last season was just rushed because apparently they had a contract to make some Disney film Star Wars or something. Yon, bro.

Yon. Yon, it was fucking... I can't win that, basically. I can never watch Game of Thrones because of my fucking pride, man. Because my ex-girlfriend was always like, I can't believe you never watch Game of Thrones. It's an egg. It's an egg that never watch Game of Thrones. It's like the greatest of all time. You're not hipster, man. Not watch it. I'm like, let's watch it then. Let's fucking watch it. Watch season one. Oh, sorry. Every watched episode one.

Thought it was amazing. I thought it was great. And there was this kid who climbed the tower to try spy on this girl that he fancied. And there was her brother fucking her. There's an incest scene. And the brother sees the kid climbing and he just fucking punches him in the face and sends him flying down this castle. And it ended and I was like, holy shit, oh my god. And I was like, you know what? I'm never gonna continue this ever again. And I was like, we have to watch episode two right now.

And she's like, no, no. I don't feel like I have a headache. And I'm like, can we please watch episode two? I really need to know if this kid is dead or not. So he's not dead. You just, you, what? Like how can, what are you doing? What if I told you that that kid becomes the most powerful person in the world? And he's a piece of shit, no? Piece of shit? No, he's not a piece of shit. There's some king piece of shit. Bran, I believe was his name.

But anyway, man, what the fuck are we talking about? Bologna for is a swallow to score. Rupski was in gold posh was at the back with Boca, Macalafuri and Christensen for Bologna. Abysse, Froyler and Ferguson were in the middle with Fabian, Zergs and Urbanski playing up front. He said, score up ski brother. It's skirupski skirupski. We had a terrible mistake as well. It's like one to pull. Yes, not multiple Falco on it. I also confused that. They came up at the same time.

And Falco on it. They were two up and coming goalkeeper. Falcone better. Conceali was in goal for Saswolo with a back four of Josh Doig, Matthea Viti, Martin Ehrlich and Pedersen with Lippani and towards playing as the midfield to Christian Volpato. I'm on loan from Rome actually bought from Rome. Yes, right. And by Rami was playing behind Andrea Pinamonti. Now Bologna showcased a lot of resilience this game overcoming a goal deficit twice for a remarkable victory.

Key moments included towards Wetz early strike which was a gift from Skorupski who played the ball directly at him. Zergs is deflected equalizer of Viti and Volpato's curler to end the half to one. And that Volpato goal was incredible. Yes, very nice. The technique was really nice. Zergs' shot was also good. I thought it was a fantastic goal from the get go but it took a massive difference. They gave me the 10 and they took it away. It was crazy. One of those.

In the second half Fabian scored a lovely header. I really like this player. He's on loan from Inter. Smart in it. He's got good positional awareness and a good finish on him as well. He finds himself in front of goal. He's scoring. And it's not very common with young players. Young players such as himself. And he plays quite deep. He plays him in the pivot sometimes. He's a versatile midfielder Fabian.

Mata's substitutions including Salah Mackers and Orsallini played a pivotal role while Ferguson's late curler into the far corner secured the victory. Salah Mackers got his first goal for Bologna shortly after after a clumsy dribble and a well-placed finish. He celebrated doing like one. That's my first one. That's the first one. I hope you're counting. I'm counting. I'm counting. That's the name of this episode. One. Next time his scores will name it two.

Oh my God. And the audience is Salah Mackers holding a one. No, I don't have time for that. That would be Hillez. Absolutely Hillez. Bologna's unbeaten home streak. He's got ten games elevating them to fifth in Serie A. While Saswala faced concerns with seven defeats in nine matches. This game, granted, Saswala brought it and they really did their best to take something home from this one. But Bologna absolutely dominated the possession. When it came to shots on goals, Saswala actually had more.

So it was quite a balanced game in the shooting department. But of course, possession-wise, it was all Bologna. I think they had a bit too much spunk for Saswala to handle, especially in the later part of the game. Because the winning goal came in the 83rd minute and then right after that, the lapsing concentration, of course, in the 86th minute, in the fourth goal. You've been saying... You think I'm going to stop saying spunk? You literally just said that. Much spunk for Saswala to handle.

Yeah, much spunk, man. Like how much spunk did they have, bro? They didn't stop, man. But yeah, that was quite a good victory for Bologna, who are on the right trajectory again after a bit of a lapse in form. Looking at the standings right now, that fourth spot is up for grabs. But Atalanta are definitely looking to be the more consistent side. Roma are obviously shooting their way up there, but they're playing in there next time. We don't know what's going to happen.

They've had good fixtures for now, and we don't know how the Rossi will cope against certain other teams. We've seen, for example, certain spells in the Salernitana game where Salernitana looked like the better coached team. Yeah, absolutely. Now, probably another Moody side, but it seems like they've accepted the fact that there are three at the back team at the moment, and they're actually getting the results they want with that granted, not in the prettiest way possible.

Fiorintina a little bit Moody at the moment, inconsistent, Lazio inconsistent. So there's a lot of inconsistency in the league. But one thing that we saw, brother, is the new competitors for Champions League Europa, which are Fiorintina and Bologna, went through a spell where they reminded us perhaps why they are not consistent competitors, and why they are not part of the top seven discussion. They went through that spell, and you know what, perhaps they will go through another spell like that.

Let us not get carried away with a streak or a run-off form, because sometimes teams look unstoppable, and then... The thing that excited me about Bologna was their tactical flexibility, but we always address the fact that two injuries, or one injury, could ruin them, and their chances for a serious European push. The season has long grown with 22 games in, there are a total of what, 38 games? With 23 games in, but some teams 22.

So yeah, season has long, we'll see, I think, time will most definitely tell who the more consistent ones are. And I'm a bit concerned about Sa Swallow, when it comes to where they're finding themselves in the table. Because they see the 41 goals. They are one point ahead of 18th place Caliari, and one point ahead of 17th place Verona. Oh my goy, yeah Verona, Caliari and Empoli, each on 18 points.

If one of them win, or one of them draw, we can see Udineze or Sa Swallow in the relegation zone next week. Yeah, because only Salernetana have lost more games than Sa Swallow. And that's what's crazy about that. Caliari and Empoli and Verona have actually lost the same amount of games as Sa Swallow with 13. Brother, we could record the entire podcast just looking at this table. That's not a bad idea. Now we had three nil nils. Yes, we have 10 minutes left, so we have good time to...

So much for a quick one. This is supposed to be an hour. This is the Fennec Quickie, alright? You're never gonna get one. Tarina were all over Salernetana, but of course the usual problem with Tarina not being able to score or convert their chances. They had an exugy of 0.95 to put into consideration, which means they should have scored one goal. Salernetana had an exugy of 0.10. I can't remember them having a proper shot on target.

What we did see was Jaron Boateng, his debut at the back, and he did look like a proper leader. At the end of the game, high-fiving everyone. Come on, boys, you know all that shit. He'll be a useful player for them. Come on, boys, you know all that shit. You had the other two nil nils, anything of note in those? Well, I had the Udinez Monza game, which basically, to be honest, saw Udinez deserve the victory over there.

If you look at the statistics, it does not take a rocket scientist to see that Udinez had probably deserved more out of this game. So it was Monza at the line of possession with 53%. Udinez had 21 shots, six of which were on target, eight off target, seven blocked. When you look at Monza's attempts, they had three shots to one target. The exegy for Monza was 0.11, whilst it was 0.9 for Udinez. So they were almost expected to score the game, scoring this game.

I thought Udinez looked good in this game, had it not been for the great Michele Di Gregorio, who had a superb game. We could have seen Udinez get one of their few victories this season. Di Gregorio had six saves in this game. Luca played well, Thuvan played well, Sandy Love-Rich looked good as well. It was overall, I was quite surprised by the performance of Udinez considering where they find themselves in the table.

As for the other game, which is Empoli against Genoa, this was possibly the liveliest one and one that could have gone either way. There was a notable moment that came in the 90-second minute, which was descending off on their winter, on loan from Muver, but obviously that didn't have much of an impact on the outcome of the game. Very even affair, you see Empoli with 48% ball possession to Genoa's 52% ball possession.

One thing you will see over here is the increased confidence of this Empoli team putting up a fight against Alberto Gelardino's Genoa. They were not scared to bring the game to them knowing the certain assets that their opponents have. Goodman, Sinritegui, Malinovsky, Spence nowadays who looked fucking good in this game to be honest. But they were threatening that 15 shots, 4 of which were on target to Genoa's 10 shots were 2 on target.

And again, man, it's all about the press of Davide Nikola side and it's all about the durability of his teams. Man, and it's also crazy just to see how a simple change in formation has changed the way that this team looked so drastically. They were looking so flat, so boring, they weren't creative at all with their 4 at the back formation. Now just a simple switch to the 3-4-2-1 formation.

You have Zorkovsky and Kambiagi playing behind Cherry and wow, man, they look way more creative and way more dynamic for that. Genoa struggled to penetrate this unit of a team who when they're defending, they defend as a team and when they attack, they send a couple fellows to attack up there themselves. But it was a very entertaining affair, I couldn't tell you who I think deserved to win this game, romantically I would say Empoli, but it was a very even affair. Fair enough, brother.

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