114: Hot & Cold (Full Matchday 25 Coverage)

Soslov with the corner, away by Rabiol, that's Folleroonsho! That is a glorious goal! Michael Folleroonsho with nominally his weaker foot! Ayo Pmeet Dux and welcome back to another episode of Seria R Spotlight. This is episode 114 and we are hosts Matt and Jake here to discuss matchday 25, which was full of bangers. Full of bangers and the goal of the week was a particularly difficult one to choose from. Yes, yes, today more than ever I would say.

Folleroonsho had an incredible strike with his weaker left foot, a beautiful volley against Juventus. On the turn bro! Absolutely insane strike and Huisson just decided to, I don't even know, who he became. He became Theo Hernandez. There we go, he had the ball on the halfway line, he dribbled a player, advanced, dribbled another player and curled it from outside the area, placing it into the back of the net. And then he did the softest...

It was a really chill one, it's like just gonna hit a quick sui guy, we can get on with it. It's frozen on at the end of the day, I don't want to give this my all. I think the Folleroonsho goal was special though, it was so sweetly struck and so perfectly hit. He'll never replicate that goal. He'll never connect with a ball like that ever again. Especially with his left.

It's about the cleanest, weaker foot strike you'll ever catch and obviously the stage in which he did it for Verona, getting the opener against Juve. His stocks are rising, the guy's been on loan from Napoli for a while. And he was at Barri last season, I held a promising season, but granted it wasn't Serie B. But this year he's been our goal of the week. Twice now. Yeah, twice, that's crazy. The other goal was incredible as well, he dribbled, it was similar to Huysens.

Exactly, exactly. Just Huysens' goal any other week and it would have fucking taken it, I swear to God. Most likely, most likely. Just one more point regarding Huysens' goal is that of course Huysen had to make the decision, whether to join Frazzinone or whether to join Roma, just last January. And he was confident enough to choose Roma because Mourinho wanted him and he said, I'll earn my place at Roma and I'll play. And there he is, showing Frazzinone what they missed out on.

Yeah, and Roma of course already want to extend his loan or make him permanent at the end of the season, but Juve apparently according to Tutto Sport have closed all the doors and are not trying or set to bring him back to Turin for the next season. Yeah, look, he's a young, talented and very deployable centre-back. Especially Juve, they need as many centre-backs as they can get their hands on with playing at the back formation.

Roma obviously could have used him this season when Evan Ndik was out at Afgón. But yeah, it turns out Huysen is hot property. Absolutely, absolutely. And he has the appearance of a teenager and he is a teenager, you know, but at the end of the day he plays like a veteran man. He's got a calm head, a composed head on those shoulders. Yeah, absolutely. Let's speak a bit about Europe, probably didn't speak about it. Let's go through the European competitions a bit.

You were absolutely right about Lazio beating Bayern Munich and I was absolutely wrong. Lazio won Bayern Munich in their WTA performance and WTA shift Lazio put in in this game. They were defending in numbers, they were attacking in numbers, they were confident. What did you think? Bro, at the end of the game, Sarri went in front of the press and said he was disappointed that they didn't get another goal. After what his name was sent off at the end. They honestly could have made it more.

A completely different side, Lazio. Yes, they really played the occasion and they had a lot of frustration that they vented out and they got it done. As I said, this was an opportunity for them to kind of have a blank slate, like a fresh start. You know, things haven't been going very well in the league, but this is the first round of a European knockout game. So they could write their own destiny and kind of like start from the beginning.

And they seized the opportunity by the balls and Bayern Munich didn't have a single shot on target and they made Harry Kane look like an amateur. Yeah, look like a dweeb. Yeah, fuck you, Harry. That's a fun little statistic as well that it was Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid had zero shots on target against Inter and Lazio. Let's jump on to that, Inter won Atletico Nil. I definitely think Inter could have had more goals here, I think.

Well, a lot of them were wasteful, even Lautaro was a bit wasteful at times, but particularly Anatovic, which isn't news, we've seen him do. It's a theme. Yeah, and typically in order to get a goal against Atletico, be it at home or away in this case, not really until we're home, you need to suck off the entire stadium in order to score against it the way they are quite literally a five at the back. Not even a three at the back, but a five at the back.

It's a Diego Simeone old school system, but Inter controlled the tempo of that game, they were constantly attacking and then Atletico itself. I thought Inter were good, I thought they could have made it more, to be honest. Yeah, for sure. Atletico are still in this tie, but Inter were absolutely dominant in that game. Yeah, I don't think they gave Atletico a sniff, to be honest.

The thing is, Atletico have some players that could turn a game around, they've got some real game changers, particularly Antoine Griezmann. And Inter have suffered an injury as well, through runs out for 20 days. You see, out for 20 days? Does that mean Anatovic is going to need to play for 20 days? I guess so, unless they figure something else out, I don't think they have many options, to be honest. I think they have more Sanchez. Napoli are playing. And a thing will happen.

No, Inter are running away with the league. By the way, just an announcement over here. Inter won the league, guys. Congratulations, Inter. You have won the league, it's quite official from where we're standing after Juvent Milan drop points again, but we'll get into that. Napoli are playing tonight against Barça, they started around 2 hours, so very excited for that. Milan beat Reign 3-0. It was a fantastic performance by Milan, great display, dominating. Super performance.

And you know when you play against a team that you don't really watch, your favourite team player, or a team you like plays against a team that you don't really watch, or a European fixture and you don't know what to expect. I had seen, so these guys, their numbers domestically are great. They hadn't lost a game in 2024. They had won every single game in 2024, and even the last one of 2023. Yeah, they won eight games in a row. Yeah, they were flying.

I don't know if Milan were great, or if they were absolutely terrible, but I don't know, man. Let's try to put up more of a fight than these guys, but the Neasers are way tougher side than these guys. I agree with you wholeheartedly, bro. I'm sorry about this French league, and my opinion is fucking nothing, bro. I think that the Italian league is like genuinely, genuinely, like maybe the top two, top three, can offer something.

I think maybe overall, the standard isn't the same as Italy, of course. It's known that the Italian league has improved, whereas the French league, kind of, you know, you have a few teams here and there, but a few come up and go down like Marseille, sometimes are good Lyon, sometimes go. I think they're more of like a place where players develop nowadays, man. Exactly. You get so many gems from the French league, like Arthur Théâtre is there nowadays, or Seco Fofana there at one point.

You know, there are so many bargains in the French league to go for, but of course, still an entertaining league. I'm just not sure if Milan were just incredible, or if they were absolutely terrible. I think it might have been a combination of both, because their defending left a lot to be desired, but they did show quite a bit going forward. They challenged Mike a few times, and it wouldn't be the first time if they were to come back.

If you remember in 2004, Milan, a star-studded Milan, took on Deportivo in a European knockout game. I believe this was the air inter-wanted. And they won the first leg three-nil, and the second leg, they went out full squad. We're talking Kaffu, we're talking C-Dorf, we're talking Gattus, so like, star-studded, Bro, Perlo, everyone was there. And they lost four-nil. Milan lost four-nil, and we're knocked out. And it's not the first time it happened.

You look at the Champions League final against Liverpool, for example, three-nil in the first half. You can't see three in the second half. In European fixture, anything can happen. Yeah, that's true. I don't think, I don't really think Milan have anything to worry about. I think they could go in with a fair bit of rotation and get this done after. I wouldn't rotate anyone. I think it's a good thing that Piorri got the rotation done against Monza, even though that was a disaster.

No, this Atalanta coming out. Yes, it's true, but at this point, what did Milan want? We congratulated Inter on the league. What's the point of going out full squad against Atalanta and risking Europe? Jake, it is not a guarantee that Milan are going to get Champions League. It's not. It's not, it's true, but it's not a guarantee that you'll go out with your reserves. You're telling me... You'll go out with your reserves, but you can't afford to.

I don't like the way Piorri rotates, which is something we'll discuss. But it's either like all or nothing. It's either like three guys who have never played together, or three of the same faces every time. It's like, drop one, or drop two of them, keep Giroud in the middle of the course, or let them link them up. He never introduces Chouquette with the rest of the starting team. He never plays with Giroud, never plays with Leão. You know how are they supposed to challenge for the first team.

But let's jump to the other game. It was Feyenoord 1, Roma 1. Feyenoord always give Roma a tough game. However, Lukaku seems confident that it'll be a totally different game in the Olympic Games. This was tough, bro, for Roma. Feyenoord looked fucking solid. They looked tough to break down, and solid going forward, very fluid. I mean, they're always another team that produces great talent, Feyenoord.

They have some very tricky players, and they did give Roma quite a tough time, as they always do. They gave lots of tough times recently, I believe, in the European fixture. But yeah, Roma continue to impress, man. The Rossi continues to impress. And yeah, the second leg will be a different story at the Olympic Games, definitely. Yeah, I think so. Guys, if you're new here, don't forget to drop our rating. Five stars, if you can.

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It's amazing, the amount of ball knowledge in there is amazing. But I think we've been yapping for a while, and we should really, really start talking about what happened on matchday 25. For the rundown, we'll start off with Inter's dominant display, with a 4-0 victory over Salernetana. It was an absolute baptism of fire.

For Salernetana coach Fabio Leverani will then jump to Verona, two Juventus two, where Michael Folloruncio scored an absolute screamer to open the scoring and Juve, once again dropping points. Milan had the opportunity to jump Juventus, go in second after facing Monza away from home, but lost 4-2. They did get back from two goals down with ten men to make it 2-2. However, got a little bit greedy and Monza managed to run away with a 4-2 victory.

Atalanta 3, Sasuolo, Nyl, two penalties saved by Karnasekki, which was one penalty which had to be retaken, and two fantastic saves by yet another talented young Italian goalkeeper. Lazio 1, Bologna 2, Bologna have now gotten the better of Lazio twice this season, and it was a great display over here by Bologna away from home, which is only their second away win this season, which is fucking crazy. Napoli got an equalizer against Genoa in the last minutes through in Gaunch to make it 1-1.

Another disappointing result there by Napoli, Frosinone and Nyl, Roa Matri, who is now turned into Teohanandes, dribbled the entire team and struck from distance. Empoli won Fiorentina 1, you could say what a disappointing result for Fiorentina, but keep in mind this is quite a fierce rivalry in Florence, they are the two teams of Florence, and naturally Empoli are under great momentum under their new management.

Torino 2, Lecce Nyl, a red card for Lecce over there as well, it was Pongracic who got sent off, and Udineze 1, Kaliari 1-2, end things off. Action packed, this was an action packed one quite a few high scoring games here. And no Monday night games which was quite odd, I missed the Monday night game, but it was Friday, Saturday and Sunday that the games took place.

But let's start off with one of the Friday games, I believe this was the Friday night game, Inter 4, Salernetana Nyl, Inter were coming off and away 4-2 victory over Roma, while Salernetana were coming off a 3-1 home loss to Empoli which saw Piponzagi sacked. The previous encounter was also a 4-0 win for Inter, but they were away from home naturally.

So despite Inter being days away from a crucial Champions League fixture vs. Atletico Madrid, squad rotation was kept to an absolute minimum in this match, with the exception of their wing backs as Darmian and DeMarco were rested and started vs. Atletico. Salernetana were making their debut under new manager Fabio Leverani, their third coach of the season facing a sheer baptism of fire.

Toza 3-5-2 formation for Enzagis men, Summer in goal and a backline of Bastoni, DeVrai and Pavard, Carlos Augusto on the left, Dampfries on the right and the midfield 3 of Miquitar in Chalano, Blue and Barella, with Thuram and Lautaro Martinez up front. Toza 3-4-2-1 formation for Leverani's men, Utochowa in goal and a backline of Pasalides, Boateng and Pellegrino, Sambia on the right, Zanoli on the left and a double pivot of Cullibali and Basic, with Kandreva and Diya flanking Tjuana.

Now in the opening 5 minutes Inter hit the post twice, first Thuram on a rebound following a great save by Uchoa on Bastoni and second Barella whacking the crossbar when cleaned through on goal following a miraculous pass by Bastoni, turns out Uchoa got a fingertip to this so two great saves by Uchoa as well in the opening 5 minutes. In the 17th minute Inter opened the scoring through Thuram, Augusto charged down the flank and provided a low cross to the unmarked Thuram who slotted in well.

Great work by Augusto who regained his footing after a collision during his run, showing great strength and naturally the way that he plays that ball, he's one of those that takes his time to look up and pick out a man and Thuram always so patient, also totally unmarked over here.

Just one minute later Inter scored another goal, this time it was Lautaro Martinez who got his 20th goal this season, they scored twice in a minute, Lautaro received the ball ahead of Salernetana's defensive line from a throw in, I think Salernetana forgot that there's no offside when it comes to throw ins and he held on to the ball well whilst awaiting assistance but instead set himself up and curled the ball into the far corner from the edge of the area to make it 2-0.

In the 39th minute Dumfries made a 3, Barella's cross ricocheted off a defender and towards Ochoa who spilled the ball, Dumfries who started his first match since the 6th of January, pounced to tap in. In the 90th minute, just rubbing salt in the wounds over here, Arnautovic made it 4, Dumfries' deflected cross fell kindly to Arnautovic who finished off without problem.

What I found weird about this is, well it worked out but there was virtually no squad rotation, just the wing backs, what is it because they run fucking the entire game and the rest of them are chilling? They do a lot of work, these full backs, depending on which side the ball is at, one of them drops deep close to the box, the other one advances and sprints to become the highest reference point in the team, pretty much advancing further than the striker.

It's usually Dumfries who makes that run. They do definitely work tirelessly and I think rotating the wingers is a very smart idea, especially when you have capable wingers like Carlos Augusto as your secondary choice. The moment they are playing like one of the best teams in the world, you can tell that they believe that they are one of the best teams in the world and they are one of the best offensive sides in Italy and they are one of the best defensive sides in Italy as well.

They are perfectly balanced, they can probably take on anyone in Europe. I bet you there is a belief there that they can probably push for the Champions League as well. A friend of mine put a 100 euro bet on Inter to win the Champions League. The return would be 1500 euros from 100. That's pretty interesting. Betting companies are wild in our country, they are after the sponsor the fuck out of us. Please, please.

Inter have really stepped up and along with Inter stepping up, Manlautara has stepped up as well and he's really become captain fantastic at Inter. 20 goals in the season, 5 against Salerno Tana. Like Salemacca, the oldest goal against Salerno Tana. Salerno man. They've hit a new level this season Inter and there isn't much anyone can do to stop them at this point. I must say though when it comes to Salerno Tana, on their pitpo, I've never seen a performance like this on their pitpo on Zaghi.

In what sense? Bad. Even when pitpo played. They were horrible against them. That's the problem, that's the problem because that was the worst display of them all and it came in the most important game. But against top sides like Juve, top sides like Napoli, they put on a fight man. They put up a fucking fight. But relax because this is Leverani's first game and the second is fucking Inter. I know but Leverani was always going to have a first game.

You know, you're just changing the coach constantly. It doesn't make any sense, especially with their situation right now. When the performances on the pitch were looking good with pitpo, I think they should have just fucking said, listen, it will come together. We've brought in these reinforcements. Pitpo's had one or two games with these new guys. Why the hell are we sacking him? The performances are good. With Simi in one co-op front and Boulayedia away at Afcon.

But the performances were still good. They were organized. They were compact and they didn't get any points in that period beyond the 87th minute. It was always at the end that they lost the games. I think it was a very weird move to sack him. And then especially to bring in Leverani who's kind of like an offensive manager who deploys a 4-2-3-1. Good luck with that, man.

I mean, sure, bro, but at the end of the day, when they had the Davideh Nikola miracle, he was the third manager of the season. I think it's kind of like a do or die period. Now, I know it's not because the relegation battle is so tight and I agree with you in a sense. Like if you're playing a good brand of football with fucking Boulayedia up front. No, with Simi in one co-op. Sorry, with fucking Simi in one co-op front and Boulayedia away at Afcon. Then clearly something is right.

Now, the Mpoly game is a bit of a tough one to judge Pippo on because they're on fire. They're not a bottom three team Mpoly anymore under Davideh Nikola. You know what I mean? They look insane. So they were always going to get the better out of Salernetana. But it's time to start getting three points. And I guess a more fearless style of football could get them more goals, which could result in more points. So I guess that was their kind of mind frame with the sacking.

But it is harsh to be saying, I've never seen Salernetana under Pippo Anzagi playing that bad because it was Leverani's first game and it was against fucking Inter. Yeah, it was his first game, it was against Inter. It's true, but the point does stand, bro. That was quite shambolic from Salernetana. They allowed Inter a lot of space when they shouldn't have and I think with Pippo, they were more compact.

Now, obviously, yes, he had more time to assert himself and more time to implement his system and to transmit his philosophy to the players. And we'll see what Leverani can do once he eventually manages to get his philosophy across. At the moment, as it stands, there are seven points away from safety and it's not looking very good, man. They also brought in two promising centrebacks. We've addressed Boateng, but I don't think we've actually mentioned that they've brought in Manolas.

Oh, that's true. The Greek God in Rome, guys. Maybe an offensive manager and them bringing in two centreback signings like that will offer a little bit of stability or a little bit of balance, rather. Or would it have made more sense to stick with the coach who had the team looking quite tight and organised and to give him two centrebacks who are of a better quality? Maybe that would have made more sense. I don't know. I just don't see the point. We've discussed this many times on the podcast.

Why bring in Nzagy if you're going to sack him a few games in? It's not like he's ever done anything in Serie A. He's a Serie B coach, at least when it comes to the success he has found. As a manager, it's always been in Serie B. He's a great coach for Serie B. But in Serie A, it's never worked for him. We've seen him in the event. We've seen him with Bologna, we've seen him with Milan. It never quite worked for him. So I don't know what the point was to hire him in the first place

if they weren't going to give him time. He's not going to hit the ground running because he never has hit the ground running in Serie A. You remember when Gen Oasi and Chef Cenkot didn't score a single goal in six games and then dropped them for a blessing? And then they drew six games in a row and got relegated anyway? And then they kept the blessing in Serie A. And he fell out with all the players, one of them being Hamrun's goalkeeper. Marquetti. He called him a small man on Instagram.

He called him a small man. I love when Italians call people small man. It's one of the farthest roasts. And they brought Angeloidino and the rest is his team. Exactly. The rest is his team. Just to go back a bit to Inter's lack of squad rotation in this, Turam got injured. So I don't want to be out here praising Nzagi for only changing the wingers because the wingers are the only ones that are running

because they're not. It could very much be a coincidence but these are the kind of things that happen when you're in three competitions. Alceri B is now injured as well and I believe Bastoni was doubtful for this game as well. Now the January transfer market has came and went.

They made three reinforcements. They felt were necessary and they do have a very thick squad but these things can happen when you're in so many competitions and with that thick squad I would expect him to shuffle things a little bit, especially against fucking Salerno Tana, like relax. Congratulations to Antonio Canjeva for taking Salerno Tana's only shot of the match even though it wasn't on target. It was horrific. It was a terrible, terrible shot.

But I don't think there's too much to add about this game. Turam has also hit double figures now in his debut Serie A season. Congratulations Dog, well done. Inter absolutely flying in first place on 63 points. Now I can't even do the match on this anymore. There are nine points ahead of Juve with a game in hand, which is absolutely crazy man. Salerno Tana on the other hand they have 13, so they're quite some distance away from Inter. And yes, seven points from safety.

Speaking of Juve, they took on Helas Verona away from home and they drew 2-2. Now the line up for Juventus featured a 3-5-2 formation with Chezny and Gold, Danilo, Rougani and Gatti at the back with Cambiaza on the right, Kostich on the left, Rabio, Locatelli and Mckeni in the middle with Vladovic and Yildiz up front.

For Helas Verona it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Montipo and Gold, Ciaciuo on the right, Cabal on the left, Davidovic and Magnani as a centre back partnership with Duda and Daniel Silva in the middle, Lazovic was out on the left, Suclav out on the right, Follerovnszow was in the middle playing behind, Tiani, Noslin. Now in the 11th minute Helas Verona took the lead with a thunders volley from Michael Follerovnszow,

which took our goal of the week of course. He exploited a weak clearance and put the ball into the top left corner of Chezny's goal and it was incredibly struck man, totally scripted that goal, incredible. In the 28th minute Juve managed to equalise from the penalty spot after Jackson Ciaciuo accidentally blocked a Philippe Kostich shot with his hand in the box. Vladovic converted the penalty marking the first away fixture for Juventus since September where both teams have scored.

At half-time the momentum shifted in favour of Helas Verona who quickly retook the lead thanks to Tiani, Noslin, who scored his first goal with Udinese despite playing I think four games now. With Verona. With Verona, sorry, yes, two very similar teams. He had a very smart run, he made a very smart run. It was funny to see two players who were on the ball before it eventually fell to Noslin,

both diving trying to win a free kick. I think that might have played a part with the goal because Chezny must have been like, one of those must be a foul, you know, he's going to whistle for that, boom, suddenly he's getting beaten at his near post. He joined from a team called Fortuna Sittard. Oh my God. Don't ask me where they're from.

In an instant response, Juve capitalised on defensive disarray as Robbio scored, levelling the score again after Locatelli's cross found him with plenty of time to pick out the bottom right corner. During the closing stages of the match, Juve kept pushing. It was Kieze who had two good opportunities to equalise the last one coming in the 91st minute when new boy Alcares, Alcaraz, played him through, but Montepo pulled off a brilliant one on one save.

And then I believe in the 96th minute Alcaraz took a free kick himself but shot straight at the goalkeeper and that was full time. Yeah, Shezny this game bro, just to show you how even this game was, Shezny had a season high record, seven saves for himself, personal record. So Verona were actually all over that man.

And I'm so surprised by this Verona side and I'm sure the listeners would guess that I'm surprised too because we've been talking about how Hellas Verona have just been selling everyone. It's a fire sale at Hellas Verona, but somehow man, there's still a good side. Somehow they're still solid, they're still organised, Baron, he's doing God's work with his team. Yeah, they're well run by their manager.

The manager knows how to get the best out of the 11 men that he places on the pitch and he knows how to play to their strengths. He's very fortunate that Michael Folleroon's show took an absolute turn for the better because he's been a superstar grabbing a goal and an assistant in this game. But he's got players like Duda playing fantastic football, like Duda had such a clean performance in this game.

It's not easy going up against three midfielders like McKenny, Locatelli and Rabio, but Duda to me was one of the standout performers over there. He had a past success rate of 82%. He got himself two tackles and even had a crack at goal at the point, but he controlled that midfield for Verona. Yeah, absolutely man. It was an all-round even performance, of course, possession stats, of course, you were leading ever so slightly in every department, 56% ball possession.

They had an ex-G of 1.47 compared to Hellas Verona's 0.66 for those of you who enjoy the ex-G philosophy. I know many of our patrons don't. Four shots on target for Juventus, nine for Hellas Verona, with Fesni saving seven of them. It was a very tight game, a heated game. They look shell-shocked to me. Let me tell you, I think that the reason Juve were pushing for the league and the reason why they were even in a position to challenge for it was because they believed.

And if that squad believes, a leg you can do just enough to get the best out of them. Look, if that squad believes, that squad achieves. There we go. But they lost to Winter and it was almost like a reality check. They looked distraught after the game. And ever since, they haven't really had that spirit and that determination and desire and belief that they had earlier before that lost to Winter. They've almost given up on the league.

I think they've realized we aren't good enough to win this and they haven't accepted how to go on without it. It's like, it's like, literally shell-shocked is a good way. And I don't think it was the result that threw them off. But I think those 11 players being on the pitch with those other 11 players and thinking, like, they're so far ahead of us. We can't keep up with these guys. And I think it was more like the players were like, Jesus Christ, we are not fit to win this league.

Absolutely, man. And Allegri needs his team to believe because that was like 90% of what Juve was about this season. Alright, Ted Lasso. Most of their goals came at the end of games. They would concede after parking the bus. How many times would say this? Juve sat back, they conceded and then they scored again immediately after. That's because they're hungry, they believe, they have the desire. Now it's weird, man. I don't think Allegri can motivate these guys.

And I think to be honest, they're playing once a week and they're thinking to themselves, what's the point? Did you see some fucking, some billboard in New York or something? Allegri out. I mean, like, it's not a bit of a waste of money, isn't he? That's not about the tech. Because he's off in summer. That's a good idea. Manager of Turin based Juventus out, put a billboard up in New York. Why not? And I will put up a, say, a spotlight poster in the Philippines, bro. Exactly.

Shout out to our listeners from the Philippines. I don't think we have any. I don't know, we'll need to check. I'm sure there's one homie in the Philippines. One interesting thing I found, one thing I found interesting about Hellas Verona's approach was that Darko Lazovic is often isolated and very pushed up. And the other flank play very, very closely together and they almost seem to look to him as an outlet. Kind of like the same thing in Turidu with Dumfries, but it's always Lazovic.

And Lazovic is always the furthest player. So Lazovic is always kept in heaps of space. Exactly. He's always trying to stretch the game, always. And I was looking at Juve's heat map as well and I noticed that Rob Bjor took the most advanced position of the mall, even more advanced than Vladovic with the other game. Just goes to show, right? Yeah. A little bit weird there. I don't know if there's much else to say about this game. Juve got close at the end.

The bench thought that Keza had scored when he came one-on-one with the goalkeeper with Montipo. You can see from the replay, they started running onto the pitch and then they realized Montipo was saved and they instantly, everyone touches their heads. Yeah. Which was quite a comical sight, to be honest. Keza flopped the season so far. Keza works so hard. He works so bloody hard and it's just not working for him. No. It might be a combination of many different things, man. Is he ever fully fit?

Is he... It's a question of is he ever going to live up to this fucking crazy potential? Because season after season, he's showing us 30% of what he's capable of because he is glass, because he is never fully, fully fit and running this team. It's always like the first three games of the season. He's the one charging forward, creating chances. And then he gets a bit of a knock and then Allegri keeps him out for another two games and he starts bringing him on and he starts starting so on.

It's always the same cycle with Keza's career at Juventus, unfortunately. Yeah, and he's 26 nowadays, man. So he doesn't really have that much time as an explosive winger to cement himself in the Juventium as a starter. His playstyle, as we've mentioned many times over here, warrants many injuries, many challenges, many hard tackles as well. It's hard, painful tackles. And yeah, as we've addressed, something's going to have to change, man.

We're going to need to create a petition, this is what I want to do with Keza. Start a petition to preserve him and just let him play for the national team every two years. He's fit for every Euros and that he's fit for every World Cup because on the international stage, the guy is insane. He's insane for Italy. Unfortunately, same can't be said for his club career. Yeah, and at the moment, you know, there are many Italians who are doing quite well, especially on the wing.

So his position as starting place isn't even guaranteed for the Italian national team as it stands, man. Keza, but I'm also curious to see what he would look like under a different coach. Because let's remember he's playing a leg-reball here. So maybe under a more, you know, positive manager, he might... Imagine him under at this area before example. He might have more support because right now a lot of the things he tries to do, he's an isolation attempting them.

But yeah, Juve are currently second because Milan choked. And they couldn't overtake them despite them dropping points. They're on 54 points while Hellas Verona have momentarily climbed out of the relegation pool and are in 17th spot with 20 points. Below them, Sasvolo also on 20 points. Sasvolo have fallen into the relegation pool. Granted, they do have a game in hand. Madonna! So we'll see. As if they're gonna win their game, it's against one of the beasts if I'm not mistaken.

One of the monsters. I think it might be tomorrow. I think their game in hand might be tomorrow. I'm just pulling that up very quickly because I saw Seja tomorrow. Oh my God. Seja, no, there's Torino Lazio tomorrow. Torino Lazio tomorrow. Torino Lazio tomorrow. That's very nice. Very nice. And the next game, Monza 4, Milan 2. This was Milan's opportunity to overtake Juve. It was clearly stated by Piori that this was Milan's goal. It's to jump Juve and get as close as possible to Inter.

However, obviously, that didn't work. Monza were coming off a nil nil home draw to Verona, whilst Milan were coming off a one nil win versus Napoli and a Thursday night 3 nil trash ring of Gen. The previous encounter was a 3 nil victory for Milan. This had a Milan victory written all fucking over. It came off two clean sheets. A win over Napoli, a win against Wren, winning the previous encounter 3 nil. Monza coming off a fucking home draw to Verona.

This had a Milan win literally written all over it. Now, they knew a win would allow them to leapfrog Juve into second, but they made six changes to their starting 11 because it's never like, you know, medium rare with Piori. It's either all out or nothing. Naturally, they made these changes with the midweek Europa League clash in mind. This included the return of Malik Chow after pulling his hamstring on November 28.

Calabria, Tomori, Calullo and Pobega were out of action while the host Miss Suria, Caprari and Vignato. Starting 11s, it was a 3-4-2-1 formation for Monza, Di Gregorio in goal not for long with a backline of Carboni, Mari and Itso, Mota out on the left, Bredelli out on the right and the midfield 2 of Galliardini and Pesina with Carboni and Carboni flanking the formidable Jurich.

For Milan, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Mike Manjani in goal, Florenzi out on the right, Teohanand is out on the left with Gabia and Chow as the back 2. Benassir and Adli were in the double pivot with Cicueze, Loftus Cicci and Okafor playing behind Jovic. So off the bat, let me just start the conversation here. What do you make of the line-up by Milan? Fair enough, that's what I make of the line-up. I think that, okay, so Juve drop points and Milan are in a position to overtake them.

Inter's lead is still healthy, but you have to believe these are the players that the management has given purely to use and to utilize. They have all been unavailable for different reasons, to be honest. Jovic started off the season terribly. Cicueze couldn't dribble a bloody, I don't know, Maracone, like at the beginning of the season and then he went off to Afgorn, made it all the way to the final and came back and he still can't seem to get going.

Okafor has scored goals, but when it comes to his wing play, it hasn't been consistent enough and he's also struggled with injuries. Chow has been out, but if you're going to bring Chow back into a game and give Chow a game to get his form back, this is the game, to get his match fitness up. So I think these are the men purely has at hand, purely wanted to go out in the second leg against Ren with the strongest possible starting 11 and fair enough you rotate.

These players are meant to be our depth options. He disagree. So you think you should have gone full squad, the rest of the thing is Ren. No, no, no, relax. I didn't want him to go full squad and let everyone get injured, but if in the game against Ren or Ren or Stimpy or whatever the fuck we're gonna call them. Drop Giroud from that game, start Jovic, for example.

That gives you the opportunity that in the game against Monza, Chukweze and Okofor actually have a familiar outlet that is going to help them link up play and give the team some element of familiarity because I don't think I've ever seen Chukweze, Jovic and Okofor start a game together aside from this game.

You're just putting in a not a do or die game. I don't be dramatic, but you're putting these guys together for the first time and saying, because you're the players I have, this is quadratation, you know, just drop and plug and play, plug and play, but it's not as simple as that. You don't just put three forward players together for the first time and expect a win. I don't, I think these guys have been here for long enough to have a season.

Yes, but the season, it's been a while, think about these guys, they're training together every single day man. And if it comes to a point where you're beyond matchday 20 and you can't feel them together because they don't know each other, then I'm not quite sure when they're going to know each other.

But if purely for eight games or whatever it was in a row, let's say six, so I don't exaggerate, for six games in a row, feel that the exact win, lose or draw feel that the exact same starting 11 with zero changes made. Milan suddenly are a win away from overtaking Juve. He makes six changes and it's not strategic changes. It's let's take this first team and put them all in one basket against Ren. Okay, they were beating Ren, they made the changes, then they came into this.

It's like, and totally new faces in the team with no familiarity whatsoever. The thing is, it would have all gone to plan probably for purely because when he brought in his boys in the second half, they changed this round. The problem was that one of the boys who fucking started in Lukajowicz got sent off for lashing out. Wait, because we'll get into that. But that's a massive point. That's a big part of the game because if they were tuned down already, they were tuned down before half.

But then with 10 men, with 10 men in the second half, they managed to equalize. You don't think that maybe with 11 men and a proper striker on the pitch, they would have won this game. They might have. There was a good chance of doing so. Purely had no control over Chowicz's mistakes. Chowicz was the one rotation piece I think that no one could argue with because Kier has looked terrible lately. We saw last game where Jesus cries at a tempter of attack along Gwarat's scale. It was embarrassing.

Hilarious. And you bring in Chow, of course, who we all know what his standard is. We all know that he has been very good for Milan. This was a game to throw him in. He let him down. There's not much else to say. I don't know if the approach was wrong from the get-go. I'm not sure I agree with that. To be honest, I find it hard to believe that this isn't talked about enough. Sure, the players let him down.

Yes, there were multiple individual errors. Chow, Jovic, both of them deserve a rating of negative 3. He really didn't step up. Oddly was shit as well. But the thing is Milan couldn't rely on any familiar faces. Why? Because one second, Purely is making zero changes to the starting 11-4-8 games in a row or whatever the fuck the number is. And then all of a sudden, six changes. Yes, but Purely has given Milan. At the end of the day, what was the objective for Milan this season?

I guess qualify for Champions League. I think going into the season, Milan would have expected more. With the new players to their arsenal. Maybe, maybe. But the main objective, the most important thing was stop 4. Purely put Milan in a position where they had a comfortable gap between them and the team in 5th place. By fielding that exact same 11. Eight times in a row. Without rotating, without any nonsense. He just played the best 11 in a row that he had available.

And he took the team on a good run. And suddenly, they found themselves in a position with a bit of breathing room. The Europa League clash came. That's a trophy that Milan are serious contenders for. They're one of the favorites in the tournament. So he gave the supporting cost a tryout. They didn't deliver. He tried to fix it, to correct it by bringing on the big boys. But one of the starters let him down.

And I think it's as simple as that this game. I don't know if it was a problem with approach. I think the players literally let everyone down this game. I think it's a bit of both. Don't forget that Milan were down 2-0. They were down 2-0 before the second half. And before Jovic got the red card. Why were they down 2-0? It was individual errors. Sure. But did you see Milan going forward in the first half? Yes. But again, what I saw was Adli not connecting his passes properly. Jovic invisible.

Cioquese had, I think, one moment where he attempted to charge down the right side. And didn't really do much. Do you not nail that down to unfamiliarity though? Because that's what I nailed it down to. I just think that they're not too sanded at the moment. The players definitely let Piori down. This could have been an all-right risk to take had the players performed better. 100%.

But I am concerned. It's not because Milan failed to overtake Juve. But what's going to happen? Milan advanced to the quarter-finals, to the semifinals, whatever. Is this going to be the system? Are they going to be two completely separate squads that are competing in two completely separate competitions? It needs to be a bit more sustainable. It needs to be. Sure, let's start Liao and Polisic in Europe. Let's put Jovic between them.

Let's save Giroud's legs for this game because top four is important. Jovic hasn't had a good performance as a striker this season. As a starter, sorry. Not a single. The last time he started the game, I believe, was against Atalanta in the cup and he was atrocious. He's only found success coming off the bench at the moment. So I don't know if it would be wise to go into a European fixture with him as a striker,

even though now Jovic has forced Piori's hand. Because he's going to have to start the next game. Because you're going to have to rest to Giroud. You have this guy unavailable for two games. You start Jovic. What are you saying? Jovic is a shit starter. Throw him into the starting eleven in a Serie A game. In a Serie A game, yes. Because this was the game where you could find his footing. Monza, not Ren or Khaan. This is the level where you get him to hit the ground running as a starter.

Jovic was very impressive with Fiorentina and Europlast here. And I think just because he hasn't had a good performance as a starter, it doesn't mean he's ever going to have a good performance as a starter. Let's get into the play by play, so that people know the actual fuck we're talking about. In the 30th minute, Juric almost scored a fantastic header to open the scoring. It was a header from distance, but it hit the outside of the post.

Moments later, there was a horrific collision between De Gregorio and Andrea Carboni as the keeper dove out to intercept a cross and collided into the defender. The collision left De Gregorio completely delirious and totally dizzy and with a huge black eye. He was replaced by Sorrentino after a very lengthy stoppage. This was horrible news for Monza and at the time, fantastic news for Milan.

However, did you see the picture of De Gregorio? Bro, he honestly looks like he got in the ring against Francesc and Gano. It was really brave the way he got out as well. It wasn't even the first knock he got in this game. And Chiquiteo just ducking out of the way as two of their players collided. Teo could have gotten it terribly, bro. Terribly he could have gotten it because he was between them, but he ducked. I love Teo so much.

In the 44th minute and then just before half time, Pesina, obviously that is the first X that scored against Milan in this game. From the penalty spot, he sent Manjane the wrong way. The penalty was awarded after two very reckless and clumsy challenges in under 5 seconds by Malik Chou. First, he brought down Joric just outside the area with a horribly timed tackle and then sprinted directly to Danimoata and clarded into him inside the area and he gave away a penalty.

Honestly, it was a moment of absolute madness for Malik Chou and Pesina actually stepped up, no problem whatsoever. Obviously, there were 8 minutes of added time because of what happened to De Gregorio and in the f***ing, what was it, in the 50th minute, Danimoata scored.

Monson knocked the ball forward, which was firstly misjudged by Venace. He failed to deal with it. Colpani collected it and he nutmegged Chou, just like Chou Chou Chou, played the ball to Mota who set himself up and curled the ball into the far corner.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that this was also Chou's fault because he got nutmegged but roasted, he got nutmegged. He wasn't patient in defending over there and once they bypassed him, there was a 1v1 situation between Florenti and Danimoata, an unformed Danimoata.

Danimoata, you never know if he's going to go right or left, he's cut inside, he's cut on the outside, he's taken it to the byline and he can shoot with both his right and his left in those situations. So Florenti, it was justifiable that he was confused in that situation because honestly, if he would have gone to block the cut in shot, he would have just gone round and slotted the post.

Just one thing I want to congratulate Danimoata, honestly, because if his goal is to make every meal on fans blood boil and get so angry they don't know what to do with themselves with that celebration, good job bro, good job. Because when I'm devastated, the worst thing you can do to me is look me in the eyes and go nene nene nene and stick your tongue out at me. I was going mad bro, mad I was going.

But anyway, so Milan have their team talking, Opiole is like fuck guys come on, we need to go out there and fucking get them. They're like yeah! So in the 51st minute, Jovic went out and fucking punched Itzo in the face. A var czech turned a yellow card into a red card, so he was spotted not punching him but he maliciously swung his palm into the face of Itzo, it was very, very, very...

He made fingertip contact with Itzo. He swung. He definitely swung, definitely red card, it's violent contact but he didn't connect with him properly at least. And let's talk about the provocation before. Because Mari was provoking him before, he pushed him. Mari pushed Jovic, Jovic swung at Itzo but it was Mari who pushed him.

It was like the whole incident of me at Tricycle if you remember, it was an incident between me and Matthew, I can't say it here. But yeah. So I don't know if maybe it would have been fair to take the whole situation into account but you know, you're well within your rights to shove a player but swiping at someone's face or trying to slap or punch someone.

It's violent contact, it's malicious, it's stupid. And Jovic was, there are so many words I can't use on the spotcast to describe how stupid it is what Jovic did over there and how he let his teammates down from hero to zero to say the least. From zero to hero to zero. Yeah, from zero to hero back to zero and it's gonna take a lot to get back to. No, tomorrow night hero again bro.

Come on Jovic. 64th minute Milan got one back through Giroux. This was when you know Giroux came on, Leão came on, Polisic came on. Because that's the thing, fixing the initial, like it's when Milan needs a win, just bring these three guys on. It was Florence across that was flicked on by Polisic to Giroux who scored after extending well and finishing into the far corner.

Milan kept the momentum up, they were constantly chasing that equalizer and in the 87th minute 10 man Milan actually managed to get an equalizer through an exquisite goal as he cut inside the area, fucking 10 men in the box defending, he cut inside the area and curled the ball into the top corner brilliantly.

Excellent goal and it was one thing that maybe goes on the radar, what a fucking tight angle it was from, it was very very tight and by the way he curled it around, chef's kiss and Polisic was the best player on the pitch. That's what I was going to say, when you saw the personnel that Milan brought on, you see the likes of Leão, Giroux and Polisic, you're like okay Milan's best player.

It's like the Avengers. Leão was on, Leão was on, the highest turner, the star of the team. Leão didn't shoulder the responsibility that he had to shoulder this game. Grant was against a low block and we know that goes against all his strengths but Polisic really put on a display this game and he really showed that he's the main man for his national team.

Exactly what I was going to say. He was the main man for Dortmund for a while and he was even the main man for Chelsea at the point in his career. He's used to show during the responsibility and Leão quite frankly maybe might not be it. Yeah, no, Polisic is a huge character. He's a huge character. I mean what he does for the US with that captain's arm band, we all know right, the US they're improving when it comes to football.

But Polisic is the key player in that team and the amount of times he has bailed them out single fucking handedly and this is exactly what he was doing for Milan in this game. Even the Giroux goal that Flickon was perfect and he was calling for it. He orchestrated that. He played the ball to the wing, ran into the box and he's like hey, hey, play it here, play it here man, play it here bro. And he passed me the guy, damn soccer ball.

So what happens? Milan get the equalizer. The commentator is like will they go for the win? Will they go for the win? Polisic is holding the ball telling everyone look calm down. I'm seeing you all right now. Relax, we got the equalizer. Let's fucking keep it or whatever. Two minutes later, Milan are fucking attacking. They're attacking to try to get the win because momentum favors me.

10 man Milan and Bondo scores. Milan, this is what I want, Milan carelessly search forward to find a winner. Daniel Maldini, loaned out from Milan to Monza, broke forward, laid the ball off to Bondo who struck the ball into the top corner from just outside the area. What I hit by Bondo and there you go and assist by Daniel Maldini owned by Milan to make matters worse. But 89th minute, Monza regained their victory 3-2 so shortly lived that Milan hoped.

95th minute as if the heartbreak, as if the fucking heartbreak wasn't enough. Milan fought back. 10 man Milan fought back to make it 2-2. Went for the winner. Daniel Maldini assisted Bondo and Milan fall behind. 95th minute. Monza within a 5v3 situation. Pessina on the ball plays it to Colombo. Colombo loaned out from Milan to Monza who beat Manian at his near post. Shoot me in the fucking dick. Pessina. Pessina has not played with Milan once upon a time in a piece of cherry wood.

But Daniel Maldini with the assist owned by Milan, Colombo with the goal owned by Milan. This was as a Milan fan and I'm sorry I'm wearing it at the forefront of my personality over here but this one was fucking crazy bro. This one was, only Milan can go through something like that in this league. The best part is Monza in the history had never beaten Milan. That's another thing as well obviously. This is so the perfect type of game. That's everything man. That's absolutely everything.

My favorite part of this game was going from oh my god we're not gonna get anything to oh my god we've equalized we can potentially get 3 points to oh my god please let's get 1 point. And then it's oh my god please stop fucking me. Everyone stop fucking me please. Let's start off Malik Chow returned and unfortunately he was absolutely dreadful bro.

Gave away the penalty and think as anyone can give away a penalty by accident. Virgil van Dyke, Maldini, the greats have given away penalties. But the challenge is you saw them. You saw them. The first one on Jurich horrible. And everyone was like hey! He fucking clotted. He clotted into I believe it was Mota. The problem with Chow, the most concerning part is that physically he was up for it. Physically he looked better than ever.

But Ringgras though. Exactly. Even the recovery to go from Jurich to Danny Mota as the lost man. The way he covered that ground was impressive. He's in great shape but mentally man. Definitely a lot of Ringgras man mentally. Because he was always a step behind. He looked lost man. Gabia looked so much better than him. Absolutely. Like a mature head man. And let's not forget by the way, Gabia. I just need to say this before I forget because I don't have this written anyway.

At one point Leão got the ball and he tried to just touch it ever so slightly so it moved slightly in front of him and the player gets it but obviously his teammate wasn't expecting it and it was nicked. They nicked the ball. And they advanced and Gabia was forced to kick the man. Remember he kicked the player in the knee? The camera panned to Gabia who was getting a yellow card and he says superficial a cazzo. Which means like superficial dick.

Or fucking superficial would be the most accurate translation. When you have the leader of the team like like I said he's meant to be the leader. He's meant to be the best player. And then you have a player who was sent out on loan to Villarreal and only recalled because there's an emergency and he's shouting and telling him off because of his immature decision. That's very telling.

That's all I want to say. Yeah I think so and I think that was when I believe Milan had already equalized if I'm not mistaken. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Milan had already equalized. That was carried this play by Leal and obviously he wasn't the only one. That's be real. But you're absolutely right. Gabia was forced to become a veteran of this team which he is because he's been with Milan since he was like 3 and a half.

Bro, he's with Milan so 3 and a half this guy. So yeah he was loaned out of Villarreal because he's nowhere on the level at least they thought of Kier, Tomori, Kalulu and Ko. But he's come in and he's become a veteran. He's become a leader and he's really showing what he's all about. He didn't bug me in this game either man. Jovic, what an absolute twat. Yeah, Alan made me laugh. I'm going to find it and I'm going to read it. I don't know if how long it will take me but bear with me please.

I'm going to get a keyword. Let me search for it. Face, I think said face at one point. I'm quite sure he wants to do something to his face. Alan, when it happened when Jovic got the red, I fucking hate the sport. Fucking idiot. I don't want to see that stupid face of his ever again. Murphy's law. Fuck everything.

Oh my god man. That was just too good. It was a tough one to digest by Milan but I think there's one thing people take footballers take for granted when they get a big move when they represent clubs is that footballing ability and performances is a massive part to how you are welcomed at a club and it dictates your status at a club.

But then there's something and I would consider this to be as high as 30% as being a representative, especially for clubs like Milan, a representative of a historic, what's the word, massive entity of a football team to wear that shirt. You have to ensure tip top, professionality the entire time. Tip top, sportsmanship, discipline, and this is the bare minimum that can be provided.

Now you're too nailed down. You're on the pitch as the striker, as the guy who's supposed to get the gold and you've already shown that you can do it and you go ahead and lose your head like that because some tall handsome guy. Oh by the way, Milan were running rings around Mari, particularly policy when he came on rings you was running around Mari. He is nothing special because Mari hurt your feelings. You can slap it so on the face was a weird thing to do by the way.

He gave him exactly what he wanted. That's what I find so idiotic about this. It's like Jovic is in a position that this guy grew up playing football in Serbia. God knows the provocation he dealt with coming up in the lower leagues or whatever at youth level in Serbia. He's probably got a lot of shit housey up his sleeve as well Jovic.

The thing is, Mari obviously wanted only one thing from this incident. He wanted to get Jovic, he wanted a reaction out of Jovic to get a yellow card. Hopefully he'll get red. If he's dumb enough to react, he'll get a red. If he's dumb enough to react properly, how he wishes to react. And Lukaj Jovic gave it to him. That's it, unfortunately. So we know where Milan fell short. We discussed that. One more thing is that Milan have received six red cards this season which is pretty crazy.

It's definitely a coaching problem, I think that. Because you need to have a hard share either a straight up philosophy when it comes to red cards. You can only get them if absolutely necessary. And finds if they're stupid something, put something in place. Stop your fucking players from getting red cards. Because it's become ridiculous. Six red cards in a season. Four games, Milan against a red card.

And now, which lost Milan the game. Obviously that goes under the radar. And enough about Milan. Monza did a spectacular job at capitalizing from these errors. And Monza are great at counter attacking football. They could really attack fluidly. They go from defense into attack in a matter of seconds. Okay, they haven't consistently shown it. For a team like Milan who hold on to possession so much and attack so much, Monza really managed to use this to their advantage.

So they were winning the ball. They were counter attacking. They were charging forward. And I think they did that flawlessly. They were defending in numbers. I don't think they defended particularly insanely. It's not like they were impenetrable. But obviously they got a helping hand maybe from the starting 11 and from the early and from the sending off naturally. But what did you make of Monza in this game?

No, good job. The Monza, they showed up. They really took advantage of the fact that Milan didn't get going in the first half. And not only did they score, but they scored twice and they managed to create a nice advantage for themselves. They were very street smart to force a reaction off of Jovic. They dealt with the fact that Di Gregorio, a vital piece of their system, went off injured and they somehow managed to survive.

You know, granted Sorrentino came on and conceded two goals. But once again, they reacted well. I don't think their approach of trying to defend the Tune in Lide worked out and I think they could have regretted that because they could have definitely pushed and tried to cause a few more problems for Milan. But it all worked out well for them in the end. And I think that this is a nice team with a good coach.

Yeah. The youngest coach in Serie A as well, but 39 years old. That's fucking fucking young. It's 39 years old. And I think he's the only one that wears a full suit. Well, they're from Milan. Yeah, literally. You know, by the way, Milan played against Ren, right? Did you notice who Ren had in goal? Ren had Steve Mandanda. Yes, we spoke about this. I'm like, how is he not 50 years old? He's 38 years old. How is it 38 if he's been 40 for 10 years?

Giroux scored his first professional goal against Mandanda. They played against each other a few days ago. That's crazy. Wow. What a sweet reunion. Sweet reunion for the veterans. Yeah. That was Milan's first loss of 2024. However, they maintained third place at least on 52 points. They are two points behind Juve, whilst Monsign 11th place on 33 points. Yeah, and they're on decent form now. They are unbeaten in their last four after losing two on the trot before that.

Yeah, we should have left Milan game till the end, man. I'm riled up. Yeah, I'm in a bad mood. I'm in a bad mood. Atalanta 3 sasvolo nil. Skip. Skip. Atalanta good to swallow bad next. Karnasekki was in goal for Atalanta with Skalvini, Jim Cityanko, Lassenang, shot the back in their 3-4-1-2 formation. Emil Holm was out on the right. Davidez zappacosta on the left. Ederson and Pasalic were in the middle with Koopminers playing behind Miran Csuk and Decay Talare.

For sasvolo it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Andrea Consigli in goal. Josh Doig as the left back. Marcus Pedersen as the right back. Viti Andruan as the centre back duo with Henrique and Lepani playing in midfield. Laurenti and Bayrami playing on the flanks with Pinamonti starting up front and towards Vett playing behind them. Now Atalanta continued their impressive form, securing a sixth consecutive league victory and strengthening their pursuit for top four.

Romar on their ass but they're definitely looking like favourites right now. For that top four spot. Without a shadow of a doubt. Sassuolo on the other hand faced yet another setback extending their winless streak to five games. Congratulations! Midway through the first half Atalanta seized the lead when Mario Pasalic capitalised on a spill by Sassuolo goalkeeper Andrea Consigli. How I'd like him, how weird. Putting the narrative firmly in control.

Despite Sassuolo's attempt to equalise with Matius Henrique's deflected shot hitting the crossbar, Atalanta maintained their advantage. Atalanta pretty much had it all figured out from the get go. Just before half time Sassuolo had a golden opportunity to level the score after a handball by Giorgio Scalvini. This was literally at the end of the first half and the referee was about to whistle the blow the final whistle in his mouth and everything.

But he went to the VAR monitor and he gave a penalty. Now the first penalty, Pino Monti stepped up, Karnasecki, no Pino Monti went right, Karnasecki went right and saved it. Colassenac ran to the ball and cleared it but it turned out Colassenac had encroached, he had entered the area too early and a retake was given. Pino Monti stepped up again and now there's the whole psychological battle.

I've gone right and he went right and he saved it. Should I go right again? Should I go left? Should I go down the middle? He went kind of central left. He would have tried to go left. Karnasecki ran like a book again and saved it again. How absolutely humiliating and devastating for Pino Monti but what a rush. How incredible by Karnasecki. For me, how old is he? 22 years old? 23 I believe. Karnasecki is 23 years old and obviously he's a physical freak of nature and he's a good shot stopper.

Maybe his distribution and the way he controls his area as a young goalkeeper still needs a certain element of work but clearly man, one of the most important things for a goalkeeper is that mentally you can read your opponent and you're cool calm and collected under pressure. Now I know there's more pressure on the shoulders of the person stepping up to take the penalties.

Penalties shootouts and penalties are too bad for goalkeepers in that sense but Karnasecki to stop two penalties in a row like that. Amazing. He read them like a bookman. Yeah, if his nickname was Magic he'd be asking for eight million a season. In the second half, Atalanta extended their lead as Koop Miners scored their second with a first time finish into the top corner, demoralizing Saswolo even further.

Substitute Mitchell Bucke sealed the victory in the 75th minute with a heavily deflected effort from outside the box, just a minute after coming off and it deflected off Marcus Peterson by the way, because I wrote down Saswolo three over here. Yeah, plain sailing for Atalanta had that penalty going in, I'm sure they would have recovered in the second half because as it stands right now, they've got so much firepower Atalanta. This goalkeeper is a freak. We've been following him for a while.

We even posted a TikTok video of him with the song Fly Like an Eagle playing in the background when he was playing in Serie B. He's a very, very good talent. You remember the Meet the Boys episode where it was like Meet the Boys with the love-hide tune at the cover of the artwork. This was the first episode of season two, the throwback. It was him with a shirt all red sitting now posing like it was like oiled up. Season two episode one Meet the Boys.

And a really sus photo of Cardis like Pete and Saif. Concilio man, how is he still playing? He's a good shot stopper. He's a good shot stopper, Concilio. Don't get me wrong. And even this game, he managed to pull off a save that made the highlights of the best saves of the week. It was okay. It was okay. It was one of those where he dropped down and hit cleared it with his foot. It was a buffon at Parma save, that's great. There's a category of those saves.

Absolutely. But he does make these saves. He's not a bad shot stopper. He's had some good showings this season. He's error prone man. And he's blunder prone, not just error prone, blunder prone. Fits in. Yeah, he fits a swallows system perfectly because apparently that's something they prioritize. Cranio is there on the bench. God knows what's been going on with Cranio because the last time we saw him. So he was a regular at Caliari rated as one of the best goalkeepers in the league.

He went to Monza, couldn't get a sniff because of the Gregorio. Understandable. Eventually got a sniff, conceded three, looked weird, never featured again. Came to Sassuolo and I was saying okay, Cranio is definitely going to play at Sassuolo because Concili is washed. Yeah, they're not just going to get Cranio. Exactly. Just get Cranio, you know. A good name, a well-known goalkeeper in Italy. But again, he hasn't had a sniff man. And Concili continues to wreak havoc in goal.

Yes. Cranio is 29 years old, he is missing the prime time of his career man, this guy. Absolutely man. Do you think, okay, let's play a game bro right now. If Sassuolo got relegated, who would leave? Who would leave? Actually, who would leave? Yes, who would definitely leave? Everyone. Everyone would leave. Everyone except Ruan. I think Ruan would leave.

I think bro, they have too good a team for anyone to play on Serie B. We also think that, but let's remember Nathan Nandes, who we thought was too good for Serie B, did two years there with Concili. Dennis Mann for Parma. Exactly. So many players, even Mahaila for Parma, stayed everywhere. Lauriiente. Yeah, too good. Serie A, he'll probably move overseas. Pinamonti, I believe he's owned by Inter. I think, no, no, no. Sassuolo bought him. Sassuolo bought him. Yes. He leaves.

Even though Pinamonti, a season in Serie B, will not do him bad. It will probably be great for his career and development, but he'll probably join one of the newly promoted teams and do that for a while and eventually turn into Bonazzoli. Yeah, maybe. You know, because that was the trajectory of Bonazzoli. Baranadi will leave. Obviously. I can't believe he's still there, kind of thing. By Rami, towards Vett, they leave as well. By Rami and towards Vett leave. And Enrique leaves. D'Oig leaves.

Viti, Tresoldi, leave. But I genuinely think they all leave. Have to rebuild or play with a bunch of youngsters. Molattieri stays like it's what he's used to. Youth system. Yeah. Viti probably stays, you know, and Lepani. But yeah, absolutely devastating stuff by Atalanta destroying absolutely everyone in their part. Atalanta are the second best team in the league at the moment. At the moment. And I heard the guy say that Gasperini is like Sir Alex Ferguson in the way that like, I mean, no way.

He boys come up and he develops them and he molds them into his system. I mean, to a degree. It doesn't matter who leaves like Ronaldo left United, you know, they managed to replace him and to maintain success kind of like, yeah, that's that's the thing. He's kind of like a budget Sir Alex Ferguson. I see it. But if you're going to compare someone to Sir Alex Ferguson, they should at least have 10 trophies. I don't think they have a budget. Alex Ferguson from Wish, right?

Not even, bro. Fucking Alex Ferguson at home. And I love that. It's not about a prolific goal score at Atalanta. The goals come from absolutely everywhere because they have so many different avenues to attack from. This year they have 47 goals scored. Coop Miners is the top score with seven tied with look like you're kidding me. The K Talari has six, Kamaka six, Ederson has five. The list goes on and on and on. They've all been getting goals, man. This is these are the boom town rats, baby.

Why am I so hyped after you said that? Atalanta are the fucking you're right, bro. Atalanta are the boom town rats. And they're on 45 points in fourth place while Saswolo are in 18th with 20 points. Cutting it pretty close. We need to get mint on so we can see what he has to say about this. I'm surprised Dionysius still in charge. Why the hell don't they sack him like? Because I don't know man, Leverani is taken. Bring him Balardini, man. Put him on the Saswolo bench. Why don't they go for 42?

Loki Balardini is a great shout. I would even go so far as to say baby Walter Mazzari. He was, bro was just at Napoli. Like I'm sure he could bring something to the Saswolo team. No, stay away. Stay away from Mazzari. Red flag, red flag. Yes, yes. I don't know what they come right now, man. Plus I don't even think it wants to go because he's still getting paid from the other. So that's probably impossible.

You go for one of the experts, you go for Balardini type of guy if you're in this position. I think that's what you do. And then next season you try to bring in a manager with a bit more pedigree to try to rebuild with. And then the Saswolo guys have had a pretty successful time and say, since they came up, I mean, what's his name? The Francesco took them all the way to the Europa League. Let's not forget that. He brought them up from San Eritrean and took them to the Europa League.

Then Deserby joined them. We watched them against West Ham on the Mediterranean cruise, bro. Exactly. Smoking cigarettes in the casino, man. What the fuck? I love cruises so much. It was a gorgeous time. They brought in Deserby who had them playing this incredible brand of football that no other team in Italy was playing. He was also on the verge of molesting everyone. And then Dionisi came in. And Dionisi at first seemed to be a promising up-and-coming manager.

But things have definitely gone stale, as we've said. Things haven't gone totally stale at Saswolo and it's time for a change. Yeah. Next game, Lazio 1, Bologna 2. Lazio were coming off 3-1 away with Tokaliari and a mid-week 1-0 win over Bayern. Bologna coming off a 2-0 win over Fiorentina, which took place mid-week. That's something we forgot to mention. There was the mid-week game between Bologna and Fiorentina where Bologna won 2-0.

The previous encounter between these two teams was a home victory for Bologna with the score of 1-0. Vecino and Romagnoli were suspended with Zacani, Hissai and Rovella injured, so Patrick returned to the starting 11 for the first time since dislocating his shoulder a month ago. But that wasn't for long as he got injured in the beginning of the game, which led to Cesare replacing him. Froyler sat out a ban and Saumauro was injured for the visitors who beat Fiorentina 2-0 on Wednesday.

On the 13th minute Immobile thought he opened the scoring but the goal was disallowed and this had done very well to Gibril and outmuscle posh before playing a defence splitting pass to Ciro who finished through the legs of Skorupski, however it was disallowed, but 4 minutes later, Isaacson managed to get a legitimate goal with the help of Ciro Immobile.

Momentum obviously favoured Lazio, Isaacson won the ball high up the field off of Ferguson, played a lovely 1-2 with Ciro Immobile and finished into the bottom corner very well. You told him to relax, hey how about he doesn't? I think he's relaxed, he has relaxed a little bit. He doesn't look as frantic. He looks more composed and his confidence has gone up. I think he's getting positive reinforcement for his performances, so he's starting to build up his confidence.

He's active but not frantic, he was quite frantic before. In the 30th minute, Matti saw reactionary, this is save of the season so far. The fully extended one on Isaacson bro. Finger tips, Isaacson cut inside and curled the ball. He curled it around Skorupski but at the most full stretch possible, he managed to finger tip literally like with the tiny tiny parts of his finger, the one that has a lack of cartilage. Finger tip stuff, to save it onto the post.

If you watch the highlights of this game, there's a fantastic angle in slow-mo and you get to see him pulling off, that's if you get to see his face while he does it. The full stretch. I haven't heard you use the word finger this much since you were 14 years old. That's true man, that's true. 39th minute, Bologna equalized through El Azuzi. Lazio absolutely fucked it to say the least. Providell played up past Luis Alberto.

Luis Alberto played the ball back to the keeper as though he didn't have four Bologna players around him. To be honest, he still could have done much better because he played the first time pass without looking. He crucified him. Yes, he did crucify him. But he played it directly to Fabian and bounced off and fell to El Azuzi who finished. The linesman called for offside immediately but VAR confirmed that El Azuzi was in an onside position. So the goal stood.

30th minute after some chaos in the Bologna box, Lukumi did brilliantly to head Gwendozzi strike off the line. In the 74th minute, Skorupski produced another great save. This time it was a brave stop to... He was very brave to dive into the feet of Tati Castellanius who was clean through on goal. In the 78th minute, Zerg Zey got the winner for Bologna. He played a lovely ball out wide to Christensen who returned a dangerous cross into the area where Zerg Zey made his run.

And the lunchman finished with a sharp volley into the bottom corner. An exquisite rifle of a volley into the bottom corner and just shows he can create, he can score. Yes, sometimes Zerg Zey is uncertain when he's in front of goal. He's always called between two minds. He always favours the pass but as time progresses he can hopefully really improve in that area. Yes, that was the killer's goal. That was the goal of a killer and that's not something we've been saying about Zerg Zey.

Zerg Zey is silky, he's technical, he's a beast but that killer instinct wasn't something that he's known for. So it's good to see him scoring goals like this because they would be important for his development. If he were to be a number nine for an important team he has to get goals, like proper goal scoring striker. You have to be that. I thought Lotzio approached the game well, I thought they started very strongly, I thought they picked up where they left off against Bayern Munich.

I just think they didn't have enough in the tank to be honest, to do it for two halves. And I do think that that mistake really rattled them and it was all downhill after that. I mean these guys are only human. If they make a mistake like that, you know, Luis Alberto and Providell will both be a little bit frustrated afterwards, frustrated, annoyed. I can't even imagine the feeling, embarrassed. Now keep in mind Bologna also had the midweek game against Fiorentina.

But the thing is with Bologna's style of play, I don't think these players can get too fatigued. They play, so it's often been mentioned, this 2-7-2 formation of Motta. Yeah, the vertical one. Yeah, it's a horizontal, rather, a horizontal 2-7-2. So it's not like two defenders, seven players. No, it's two players on the left, seven players in the middle and two players on the right, which really allows Bologna to dominate. The midfield part of the pitch.

Now if you look at the way they play, switching play from side to side with short, fast passes, almost in a tiki-taka way. And they base a lot of their play off of trust. No matter what situation a player is in, they pass the ball to him because that is the routine. And the player, more likely than not, they are able to pass the ball out of it. But because of this style of play, there isn't much, let's call it, physical activity. It's not very taxing physically. Exactly. Exactly.

So they had the capacity to beat Fiorentina 2-0 midweek, which aren't an easy side to play against, and then travel to Rome and beat Lazio 2-1 away from home. So I understand that Lazio didn't have enough in the tank following their great historic victory over Bayern Munich. But I think Bologna's style of play is so sustainable that Bologna are one of those teams that are dangerous for 90 minutes, because they don't gas themselves out.

That's a fair point. Plus they have the personality come off the bench and do exactly what the starters were doing. Stylistically at least, the personnel on the bench can get their job done. Yeah. Yeah, the heat maps are very interesting, one of Bologna as well. It's like a straight line of the halfway line and no player beyond that. So it's like they press in the middle. But it's weird because they force the goal on Provedale by pressing high.

Yeah. So there is an element of course of pressing, but it's very tactical. Yeah, it's strategic to say at least. And it's more about the positioning of the players rather than the press of the players. Like you see Fabian for example, he's positioned so high of the pitch, more often than not, he is more advanced than Xerxes. More often than not, Xerxes is out in a number eight role, looking for the wingers or looking for Fabian in the middle.

But yeah, Bologna are back. They went through a bit of a spell where they suffered. But now they're unbeaten in five and they have four wins on the trot. Before that it was their two-two draw against Milan. They're definitely back with a vengeance. I was quite surprised at how they dipped because they had looked so promising and so consistent and they seemed to have everything figured out. And they seemed to have a plan B and a plan C when things weren't going to plan.

So it's nice to see them bounce back and it would be great to see a team like Bologna in Europe with that stadium. Can you imagine that stadium on a European night? Absolutely man. I would absolutely love that. Come on, give us the fifth spot man. Give us the fifth spot. Honestly, it's going great right now. Co-coefficient wise, it's going well. Italian teams just keep winning in Europe. Lots of you are beat-buying, Inter beat Atletico, Milan beat Ren, this is going swimmingly right?

Let's just hope that no one shits the bed. It's looking good. Lots of you, like you said, they started the game off well. I thought Immobile is showing us signs of the player he was a couple of seasons ago. However, Luis Alberto, it seems like he's fallen off a little bit in recent performances. It's like a lack of insertion almost. Yes, he looks pedestrian in the games nowadays.

He doesn't have that kind of, I don't know what it is, but sometimes I feel like the best quality of Luis Alberto is how pissed off he is when he plays. How fired up he is. He probably hasn't fought with the management for a while. He plays with the scowl in his face when he's playing well, you know, and he's always swearing and mouthing everyone off. I feel like he looks a little bit either indifferent or not 100%. Maybe it's his condition. That's not great.

Maybe he's tired. All I know is that it's difficult to rest him right now because Camada, once again, not really showing much. He came on against Bayern Munich when they were a man down. He really had a mobile. He could have totally attacked them and he could have really seized the opportunity to try to get his confidence up and make a name for himself on the European stage. Instead, he kind of let play happen around him instead of actually asking for the ball and trying to make things happen.

Exactly. Just two things before we move to the next game. Zergyz has been sucking Milan off a little bit. Talking about how it's every Dutch forward or every Dutch player's dream to play at Milan, that he's impressed and in awe of the San Siro and the atmosphere over there. Obviously, there have been links and him passing these comments, obviously, it creates speculation. Now, we're both massive fans of Zergyz. He's young. He's talented. He's amazing.

He would typically, on paper, suit the style of Milan who enjoy playing with a more creative number nine. However, you said something interesting last time about how you don't see him fitting the system. Please elaborate. Ah, because I see Milan lacking a killer man up front and Milan thrive when they can, when they, when Giroud pulls something out of his hat, you know, and like, scores something out of nothing.

For example, let's look at Milan's most recent successful season, the Scudetto winning season. They were playing their best football. They went on a great stretch. And let's look at the head to head game that's essentially one meal on the league that season, the game against Inter. The winning goal was Giroud being an absolute killer. Turn, shoot, devastating, you know.

So that's what I wonder when you have a player who's kind of who beats around the bush, let's just say that like Leo, for example, Leo was a player who, who isn't, as we said, a prolific goal scorer. What you would want to counter that is someone who's more direct, someone who's more goal scoring focus, someone who's more of a killer. Xerxes, I'm not too sure is that type of player. He's a very creative forward.

And I wonder how he could link up with Leo and I do hope and I do envision them having an incredible partnership and this incredible chemistry of, you know, passing and moving and passing and moving and dribbling and not make that would be incredible to see Xerxes and Leo link up well. However, I'm not too sure about it because they're quite similar in the way that they both beat about the bush. They're both not very prolific.

If you know what I mean. Of course, Xerxes is still young and this can change and we have seen moments where he has actually been a killer this season. Like this game, for example, he created that last goal all himself. As you said, his movement into the box was absolutely top notch and that finish was cold. But yeah, I'm not sure. To be honest, I'm quite sold by him and I would probably want him more than anyone else.

I get what you mean because up until last season he wasn't scoring and scoring doesn't exactly seem to be his priority. He's often looking for the pass. But I think he's got it in his locker. I think he can unlock something in his teammates like Milan don't have someone that can play a defense splitting pass in their team. Xerxes can do that. Maybe we'll start seeing Leo and more goal scoring opportunities.

Maybe we'll see him because the thing is with Leo, what I hate is when he cuts inside and goes for it himself. But we never see him making a dangerous run off the ball into a goal scoring area inside the box. When is Leo ever attacking the box off the ball? Xerxes could encourage that. He could encourage that with Pudisic. He could encourage that with Loftus Tric. I think it's, I don't know, I think it would be a great investment.

My favorite thing about this potential deal is that Milan have some room for Líhuém over here because of Salimácarz is over there. We have the likes of Colombo who's been offered in every deal. I think they could make it happen because I feel like Bologna will ask for something upwards of 30 million.

Yeah, I think they'll ask for it. I think they'll ask for Scuola, Bayern Munich, Humo, Arc de Blu-Guy. 20 million on Salimácarz I take it. 20 million Salimácarz I'll take it in a fucking heartbeat dog. Last question, Providell overrated, underrated or perfectly rated? Perfectly rated, Providell slightly underrated. I would say in Italy perfectly rated, overall global reputation underrated because he's a good player. Granted he made a mistake over here but he's a fantastic goalkeeper.

I agree, no cause obviously Twitter has been going nuts. He's overrated and I totally disagree with that. Remember the guy who was at Spetzia two years ago. Stupid bird-up. Yeah, Lazio are in eighth place on 37 points, whilst Bologna are in fifth on 45 points, level on points with Atalanta who have a game in hand against Inter. Napoli, face of Genoa at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona and Drew 1-1.

So for Napoli who at the time were under Mazzari, played with Merettingol in the 4-3-3, with Dealer and Zorrahmani, Ostegar the Mazzocchi at the back, Anguissa Lobotka and Chama the Trauer in midfield, Poletano, Simeone and Gvarratskelia leading the charge. For Genoa it was a 3-5-2 formation with Josep Martinez in goal, Vasquez Bani and De Winter as the centre-back trio, with Sabelli and Martin on the flanks, with Frendrup Baddiel and Messias in the middle and Goodman Cenedretegui up front.

Now, Grigio Gvarratskelia aimed to capitalise on Victor Ozi Menzapsens and equalise the Nigerians, say, Tali, initiating promising attacks within 2-1.5 minutes. He was doing the whole trade marketing at the moment, it's the Gvarratskelia, I would call it, when you cut left, cut right, cut left, cut right, it's like, where's he gonna go? He pulled off against Al-Antalas. Exactly, and he almost scored one like that from the get-go of this game.

This was literally broad, this game, I could just summarise it, I don't even need to go through the play-by-play. It's Gvarratskelia against the world, man. Honestly, because it's only him attacking, and then eventually at the end they brought in Gunga of the match, and he saved them, that's it. But throughout the game, man... I see you've committed to the in Gunga. I don't know what to do, man, no one's saying in Gunga anymore. It's true, man, it's true.

It was all about in Gunga, I guess it was in Gunga at Verona, and in Gunga at Napoli. Yes, bro, went to the south of Italy and switched up real quick. Yeah, I'm still going to run you through the game, obviously. Napoli dominated the first half, Hamatra and Anguissa created goalscoring opportunities, but they couldn't get anything done. And the second half, Genoa seized the lead when Frendrup capitalised on a poor Napoli. Clear and silencing the home crowd with a well-placed shot.

They get his first goal for Genoa, and his first goal in Serie A, the exciting Morten Frendrup. Gvarratskelia responded with skillful manoeuvres, creating chances, but Giovanni Simione and others could not convert. Gvarratskelia's set pieces kept Genoa the defensive, notably a corner that Zambonguissa missed from six yards with 16 minutes left.

With time ticking away, Napoli mounted the late comeback, Giovanni Diller and Sos Cross found Cyril in Gunga of the far post, and in the 19th minute in Gunga maintained composure, turning and firing post-goalkeeper. It was a little spin on shoot. At a point you said, in Gwange and others, I think. My mind is thought it's like... That's the title of the episode? No, it's like when you wrote someone's photo, and there's someone you follow likes the photo of 109,000 others.

Yeah, that's it. This game, it's like Gvarratskelia and seven others attempt to the shot. But yeah, man, Genoa are just so impressive, as always, and Napoli are so underwhelming, man. They really don't have any strategy going forward, especially on their Mazzari, and in fact, this is going to take all the talking points. He's been sacked for a man called Francesco Calzone. Did we cover this in the last episode? No, we didn't, of course not.

So Francesco Calzone, of course, has been appointed as Napoli manager just two days before their clash against Barcelona in the Champions League. Now, you'd ask me, okay, but surely he's an experienced manager, right? No, he isn't. He's only been the manager of one team, and that happened in 2022, when he became the manager of the Slovakia national team. Now, he is still in charge of Slovakia, he's in charge of Slovakia and Napoli at the same time, didn't even know that was an option.

Like I thought, couldn't Spalletti have done that? But before that, he was the assistant manager at Napoli, Caliari, Empoli, Sorrento, Alessandro Aperuja. He has worked alongside Sarri, and he worked at Napoli with Spalletti. So what De Laurentis is doing is absolutely hilarious to me. It's like, if you can't get Spalletti back, bring his assistant back. At first it was just get someone who plays a 4-3-3, because it's the same thing.

And then it was just bringing someone that's managed him before. Now it's like, ah, maybe we should try harder, and replicate Spalletti. So he got his assistant. If they don't beat Barca today, I think Eid i Erbil will give him a call and tell him, hey, can you shave your head? No, but look, at least Caliari has had a lovely playing career. He played for one season at Arezzo, where he had featured three times and scored no goals. Yeah, once in the Coppa Italia as well. Respect, respect.

His manager career has been the assistant manager. I know you said this already. Perugia, the Sandria, Sorrento and Poli, now Poli Caliari. Yeah, and with the Slovakian national team, he has a 50% win rate. He's managed 14 games, won seven, drawn four, and lost three. Actually, to be honest, for Slovakia isn't bad. I don't know the quality of opponent, but yeah. Definitely not a long term hiring over here, unless you find success and you have no choice, right? Yeah, exactly.

Maybe though, when the Champions League. It's definitely interesting with Barcelona happening so soon after, but yes, that is pretty much what's happening at Napoli. I'm very curious to see how they'll play. Are they really going to move back to a 4-3-3? Because Mazzari kind of had them playing a 3 at the back formation, at least in games he would opt for that if not starting like that. So the players must be so tired of this at the moment. Napoli are in... Where are they? In ninth, okay?

Ninth to 36 points. While Genoa are in 12th with 30 points. Next game, Frosinone, Nyl, Roma, three. Frosinone were coming off a 5-1 loss to Fiorentina, whilst Roma were coming off a 4-2 home loss to Winter, and a midweek 1-1 away draw to Feyenoord. The previous encounter between these two sides was a 2-0 home victory for Roma.

DiGiallo Rossi rested the Bala after Thursday's 1-1 Europa League playoff draw away to Feyenoord, so Baldanzi got his first start with Tami Abraham now being the only remaining absentee. Surprisingly, or not, Zvilar was chosen ahead of Patricio in goal. However, the Canarini had Romaniolli suspended, plus Gaggiammus, Gaggiammit, Gaggiammit, Gaffaqit, Zortea, Marquitza, Oyono, Bonifazi, and Luzvardi out injured. They've had an injury crisis for a while.

It's probably because you know how Frosinone played their football the same way the Japanese fought in World War II. Turati in goal for Frosinone with a backline of Valeri, Occholi, Monterisi, and Liralla. Mats Italian-Brescianini in a double pivot with Gelli, Reiner, and Sule playing behind Caio Giorgio. There's a 4-2-3-1 formation for the Rossi's men with Zvilar in goal and a backline of Christensen, Mancini, Oysin, and Angelino.

A double pivot of Cristante and Paredes with Baldanzi, Azmoun, and Elsharaoui playing behind Lukaku. In the 23rd minutes, Vilar pulled off a great save to deny Sule's curling strike from distance. It was quite similar to the save of the season, of Skorupski. But he didn't need to stretch that much to get his finger, he managed to get an entire palm, you know, so it was a bit easier. But no, fantastic save by the keeper stepping in to replace Rupa Trish.

30th minute, Frosinone had the ball on a plate three times in a row inside of Roma's area. First Vilar saved, then Mancini blocked, and then Kyo George hit it just wide. In the 38th minute, Oysin was like, why are Frosinone absolutely demolishing us? He collected the ball on the halfway line, skipped a pause, George, charged forward through the middle, sent Matsuteli to church, and curled the ball into the far corner from outside the area and hit us with a sui during the celebration.

What a fucking screamer by the center back, amazing. Everyone lost their minds. It's one of those things you love to see a center back getting a goal like that. Like I said earlier, he was linked with a move to Frosinone in January, but he chose Roma and he showed Frosinone just what they missed out on. In the 71st minute, Asmune made it two. Christantes' crack from distance was saved by Toraati, but fell to Asmune, who finished on the rebound.

Now, I don't think Asmune ever played for Frosinone. I don't know, man. So why is he apologizing for the goal? I have no idea why he put his hands up, why he... Maybe, maybe, maybe it was because Oysin had celebrated so obnoxiously. He didn't really. The half-assed sui. I honestly can't understand why he wouldn't celebrate. It doesn't make any sense. He has no affiliation with Frosinone. Not at all. It's just like, sorry, guys. How sweet.

But with a nice guy. Now we know Asmune's one of the real ones. Exactly. He doesn't celebrate against Frosinone. He's never played for them. Until you find out, I'll just say that in the 80th minute, Paredes converted a penalty, sent Toraati the wrong way. The penalty was won by Baldanzee's shot that struck the stray arm of Ocali. Are you still looking? Yeah. No, bro, he never played for them. There you go. What the hell is going on? I have no idea. He played for Rostov and Zenit and Leverkusen.

But never, never Frosinone. Weird, man. Weird. I feel like Frosinone has started the game off trying to expose the defensive vulnerabilities that Roma are currently facing under the Rossi. And I feel like had Roma not opened the scoring in the first half, then it would have been quite a tough affair because Frosinone really set the tone with consistent offensive football and they can stun a team. But they, Roma did well to remain calm and weather the storm.

They got a hurrah goal and after that they really managed to showcase their dominance. Frosinone, I'm not quite sure about their approach. I love the fact that they play positive football and was working like a charm for them. But in this day and age, lately as the season progressed, this is going to get them relegated, man, because you can't continue with this approach because you've stopped scoring as many goals as you used to.

And if you do go out with this plan, you need to score three goals to win a game. Like you're conceding at least two goals every game. It's not working. There's something seriously broken about this system. And they need a plan B, they need a different approach. You can't just attack everyone, especially with the quality you have on your team. You can't just attack everyone. Listen to this. Frosinone lost seven out of their last nine matches.

But their last nine matches were against. Listen to this. Juve, Lazio, Monza, Atalanta, Milan, Fiorentina, Roma. Those are the seven games they lost. They then drew to Helas Verana and they beat Calieri. But those seven, give them a break. You heard who I said, bro. All of them, all of them. All of them except Inter. And they have Juve up next. But then this is going to be very telling. Letcher and Saswalo back to back. That's going to be telling for Frosinone. You know, attacks of Swalo.

Attack Letcher, sure. I mean, Letcher are quite dangerous on the counter. But you can't go out and attack this fucking Roma side from the get-go. You know, I don't know. There's something wrong with the approach. Yeah. I think Roma, they rotated quite well. And this is what I'm talking about, dude. This is exactly what I'm talking about. They brought on Baldanzi and Azmoun. You know what I mean? They kept Lukaku in there. They kept Elsharawi in there. They kept Cristante, kept Paredes.

Subtle changes in order to remain sharp. Even in a game like this, sure. Same as Inter to that degree. But I don't think there's too much to go into. A team like Roma, a team like Frosinone, three goals to it. No way. A stellar performance by Roma. Daroski continues to impress, as we said in the intro. We discussed last week if his performance, if Roma's performance against Inter warranted failure on Daroski's behalf. I said, yes, he failed to get anything out of the game.

So it's a failure. You said, no, it's a success. He passed the first test because he gave Inter such a run for their money and the conditions that there were. If that was up for debate, the rest of his tenure has not been up for debate because even in the European fixture he got a draw. And the away match against quite a formidable opponent. So far, so good for Daroski. Absolutely. What a start for him. I wouldn't have expected this at all. Roma are in sixth on 41 points.

There's still four points behind fifth-placed Bologna. They can't get there very much. Frosinone in 15th on 23 points. Just three points ahead of Saswal on 18th. MPolitec on Fiorentina in the Tuscan Derby and actually held them 1-1. They lined up with Kaprile Engol. It was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Izmaili, Valukovic and Loperto at the back. Giozzi on the right, Kakarce on the left with Grasian Male in the middle.

Zorkovski and Kambiagi playing behind Alberto Czerri, who is not related to Juven X-Genz Czerri. For Fiorentina, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Teral Cano and Goul. Biraghi on the left, Faroni on the right, who both experienced injuries this game. Milenkovic and Martina Squart as a centre-back partnership with Duncan and Mandragora in a double pivot. Nico Gonzalez on the right, Ricardo Sotel on the left and Lucas Beltran playing behind. Ilegalo Bellotti. And Zolaas somewhere crying.

And Zolaas underwater right now. So, Empoli extended their unbeaten streak in Serie A on the survival specialist Davide Nikola to a club record 5 games. So that's how the season is going. It started terribly. They had one goal in how many games, remember that? But now they're making history with Davide Nikola. Truly a special man. I would love to be in a room with him to see what his aura is about. Because he changes teams by stepping into that dressing room.

I might fucking get promoted two days after speaking to him. Granted it seems to be short-lived. Maybe his effect isn't long-lasting. Yeah, the good season, the season after. That's all there in Italina. Yeah, the decent season. But he always gets sacked, you know. He always gets sacked after. Sometimes even twice. Exactly. Bro, what's this jazz he got a yellow card in the first minute? That's a fantastic question, bro. He got that yellow card in the first minute. A robust tackle, brother.

Okay, it was a very hard tackle. It was a very aggressive game from the get-go as well. I mean, Birag in Faroni and Grassy all got injured and they were opening half-hour in this game. They were kicking the shit out of each other. It was like a loose cannon, bro, out there. The 29th minute Mandragaura's precise pass set up Lucas Beltran and he went low into the opposite corner, giving quarantine out the lead. He literally squeezed the 10-man. He squeezed the 10-man. Yeah, literally.

From a tough angle, man. From a tough angle. Very good goal. After half-time, Empoli displayed renewed vigor, missing a chance to level early in the second period when Contrilieri fired wide. On the third, Empoli seized an opportunity to equalize when Faroni fouled Contrilieri in the box. Contrilieri, man, is the most chaotic player in the league. He'll get the ball, he'll charge, and charge, and charge, and you never know if he's going to turn, if he's going to pass, if he's going to shoot.

But his industry is second to none and he is the type of player I think a coach would love to have because he leaves everything on the pitch. And that was the same point, by the way. I know I'm going to deter a little bit over here, but this is the point I wanted to make about Gvara Tskeli as well. It's true, off the pitch there's a little bit of controversy around him because his agent talks a lot and he's open to leaving.

He's open to leaving publicly and all that, but on the pitch, he's never disinterested, he's never pedestrian. He's always involved, he's always calling for, he acts like the guy. But anyway, Contrilieri has the same philosophy and approach to football. So yes, Contrilieri was fouled in the box, which means that new boy, Mbaian Young, could step up and show us if that first penalty was a fluke or not. And boy, was it not a fluke because this penalty was just as tasty as the first one.

He is a specialist man at penalties, wow. He used to be at Milan at the time, Balotelli was there, and Balotelli used to take a similar penalty, similar style of penalty, so I wonder if he learned that from him because Balotelli was his big bro, remember, at the time. Balotelli was his big bro and Balotelli also had a 100% he had maintained a 100% record from the spot which I believe got screwed up at Milan. I had it on video, remember?

No, I was like, he never misses, he never misses, and Tori goes, he will miss and then he'll miss when I screamed on the video cut. Yes, that's crazy. Yeah, so I'm sure he learned a thing or two from Super Mario over there. And Pauline? He probably learned what not to do from Mario and maybe his personal life. Remember when he crashed and said he was Trauer? Did he too?

Yes, he crashed, he was in a car crashing young, and the police came up to him and they asked for his identity and he said that he was Trauer, Trauer was playing with Milan at the time, the Balotelli. Can you imagine, bro, you get an axe and I'm Zach, I'm far. I haven't done that before. Empoli anyway, fueled by the equalizer, pressed forward, Razvan Marin tested Taraciano from a distance. Despite Empoli's efforts, they couldn't find the second goal.

Fiorentina held for a draw, preventing their first run of four straight series away defeats since November 2021. Wow, what a milestone for Italiano's men not getting their fourth away loss in a row. Really, really massive congratulations to Fiorentina. I would say that everyone was upset after this game because Empoli didn't really jump, didn't really clear the relegation pool and Fiorentina dropped a little bit further away from that European spot.

Hard for though, Empoli are tough not to crack nowadays, they can really absorb. Fiorentina were all over them the first half but they remained organized, they remained compact and then by the end of the game, I think Empoli had the better chances than Fiorentina did. So they can grow into games. How crazy is it that one man can do that? Now I know he comes in with his coaching staff and all of that, but one man, bro, one man.

From the Empoli we saw the opening seven games, I believe six games, seven games, they hadn't scored a single goal yet. Incom's a fucking miracle worker, Davide Nicola, snaps his fingers and they're holding Fiorentina, they're holding Juventus, they're beating anyone that's around their level. Amazing, amazing stuff man by Empoli, they're really, really impressing me. And I'm really happy Joseph Minala told us what he told us because we got some insight on Davide Nicola.

Because I didn't know that before we spoke to him, I didn't know that he was the type. You want to reiterate this for… Yes, we've mentioned this of course, regular listeners will know this but Joseph Minala, the former Lazio man who we interviewed on our podcast, basically told us that Davide Nicola, who he was playing for at the bar at the time, yes.

He's the type of manager who comes in and even though Joseph Minala was on loan at the time and didn't really have a career at bar, he didn't really have a long term future at bar, Nicola made him want to die for him. He said he makes football, Joseph Minala said and I quote, about life. He makes football about life so I'm curious to see what his approach is.

I'm honestly going to read more about Nicola because he does, he's honestly a miracle worker and he's done it twice and you can't take a team from dead loss to a miracle survival twice in a row by Comis. He's the one at Crotone and one with Salerno Tannamann. He must have some real vigor about him. We also mentioned that he lost a son, Davide Nicola, which obviously… not to say that a dreadful experience like that would give him an asset in a locker room.

But tragedy occasionally brings groups of people together and using a devastating anecdote such as that to really get your players to feel a certain way, to feel that emotion and to go out there and say like, yes, this is a matter of life and death. You know what I mean? That's what he can do. He's a fucking miracle worker, man. Yeah, honestly, respect to him and disappointing stuff for Fiorentina as I struggle to open the table. Yes, we're going over two hours in this one, guys.

It's okay, it's a treat for you guys. Fiorentina are in seventh with 38 points while Ampollia are down in sixteenth with 22 points, two points clear of relegation. Yes. Torino to Lecce nil. Torino were coming off a 1-1 away draw to Sasuolo while Lecce were coming off a 4-nil loss to Bologna. The previous encounter was an away victory for Torino with the score of 1-nil.

The Granada were eager to reboot after back-to-back stalemates but had Thames suspended with Bonjorno, Rodriguez and Schurz injured so into an emergency situation in defense. Torino, don't you worry, we know all about that. Gendry returned from his ban for Lecce but La Megbanda was out. It was a 3-4-1-2 formation for Eurydice Men with Vania and Gola and a backline of Masina, Lovato and Gigi.

Bellanova on the right, Lazaro on the left and a double pivot of Illich and Ricci with Vlasic just ahead of them. Zapata and Pellegri starting up front. 4-3-3 for Lecce with Falcone and Gola and a backline of Gendry, Pongratric, Basquirozzo and Dorgo. Raffia, Blyn and Dramadani formed the midfield tree with Anq vist on the right, Udan on the left and Piccoli up front.

Now in the 13th minute Masina had to clear the ball off the line after Vania Milinkovic's savage spilt a corner kick which led to a Piccoli attempt on a characteristically error by the big Serb. In the 49th minute Bellanova got his first goal ever for Torino with a low thunder strike into the bottom corner from the edge of the area. This guy just every time I see him he impresses me. It's much before his time at Torino that we noticed his talent.

He charges forward so effectively he dribbles like a winger and turns out he has that shot in his locker as well. And he's quite a tough motherfucker as well. In the 17th minute Pongratric got his second yellow card of the evening following a missed time challenge on Ritchie, reducing Lecce to 10 men and one minute later Falconer was forced into pulling off a super save to the Nysa Nabria header from point blank range.

In the 18th minute Voivodas corner was headed in by Duvan to make it to Nel and seal the victory for Torino. Finally Torino who struggled to win games, struggled to get goals, they always look so solid as a team. We know that a Euro-rich team is going to look good. But struggling to get wins they got two draws against Sasvalo and Salernetana, which are obviously two teams they should have beaten but good to see them get the ball over the line now.

Yes, absolutely. I still think that it's gone a little bit stale but they are in the running for a European spot and they can push for a conference league spot right up there. They're on 36 points, that seventh spot is occupied by Fiorentina at the moment with 38 points. So they're right there, they're still in the running. Let's see if they manage to consistently see games out until the end of the season because it's definitely not a problem of defence.

They started off the season with a terrible defence of display against Milan and they recovered after that and they became tighter and tighter and tighter but the goals always struggled to come. Now Duvan Zapata has found some form, he's been in a revelation over there and Raul Bellanova as well by the way, I'm sure Spalletti is watching him very closely because this season is special for him. Di Lorenzo has been slack a lacking recently alongside all of his teammates.

Calabria, he's good but he's not an Italy starter and they don't like him. He never gets called up. Bellanova might be this new right back for Spalletti's men, he might just be it for Italy. Give him some time because he's still young. 33 years old, still young. For me, he can start some games from now. It depends on how he would cope in a four at the back because we always see him in a... He's open to a three at the back.

If he does that he would have Di Marco on one side and Bellanova on the other potentially. Even Di Lorenzo, he's good but Bellanova, when it comes to... The way he charges forward is exceptional, it's very good. He's got a good stride about him. Honestly, I often call players horses, but don't take anything away when I call people horses because I mean it. The guy is a horse. He's a horse.

I remember following him at the Premavera and he was supposed to post videos of himself on Instagram making these runs as a 16 year old. I always used to look at my pictures of Kylini's dick. I always thought to myself, this kid is promising, he's a good player. But then eventually when he went off to the French League, I was like, ah, it's a shame that he's taken this trajectory. Then he came back to Italy, I don't know who it was with, Calieri, I think.

Then Inter right after and now he's at Torino and this is his best season by far. But nice to see that he's learning, you know, when you move around and you spend some time at Inter, you learn from good players. Absolutely. And to be honest, this season Inter could have really utilized him because Don Fris has fallen out of favor. Darmian is great for the way that he's utilized, but Bellanova to me, his ceiling is high. His ceiling is very high. So yes, that's enough about Bellanova.

That's enough about this game, I believe. To be completely fair to Lecce, who are quite... It's hard to put a finger on Lecce because they are part of the conversation for relegation, but sometimes they don't look like they're part of the conversation at all. They were many people's favorites coming into the season for relegation. Many people were saying, Lecce haven't strengthened at all, their team looks weird. Lecce and them play for relegation.

They've done well so far and I think that I wouldn't write them off as a relegated team this season. No, I wouldn't write them off, but they're part of the conversation. Yes, absolutely. Anyone from 13th downwards or from literally lecture downwards, everyone's in the conversation. To be honest, technically even Jereannou and Monsar are in the conversation because if they lose every single game left, they're relegated. 33 points, it's happened before the teams have been relegated.

Look at them, Poli, they're one season. But obviously, 13th downwards is... I would say 13th downwards, they all have a solid, solid transfer relegation. It's a toss up between them. Torino sit in 10th place on 36 points, level with Napoli. They both have a game in hand. Whilst Lecce sit in 13th place on 24 points, just 4 points ahead of Sasvala on 18th. Up next. Of course, we're talking about Kalyari, the island boys, the Sardinians. They're on Udineza away from home and they drew 1-1.

The island boys! For the island boys, it was Skoufet in goal in their 4-4-1-1 formation without Jell on the left, Zapp on the right, Dossana and Mina as the centre-back partnership. Jakub Jankto was out on the left, Zito Lovumbo out on the right with Deola and Makumbu in the middle. Lapadurra was the soul striker with Gianluca Gaitano playing behind them on loan from Napoli.

For Udineza, it was a 3-5-1-1 formation with Akoyo in goal, Niuen Pérez, Udranetti and Christensen at the back with Ezebue on the right and Zemmoura on the left. Lovrec, Wallace and Samardzic were in the middle with Florian Thuvan playing behind Lorenzo Luka. Udineza with just one home victory this season quickly pleased their fans as Udjord and Zemmoura ended an 18th match goal drought with an exquisite curling strike, giving the hosts an early lead. This was a magnificent goal.

It was a very good goal, yes. In front of their flans. Bro, flans. I don't know why I'm saying flans. Despite Udineza's dominance, Lorenzo Luka's shocking miss in the 30th minute, heading just wide with no defenders nearby, proved to be costly for them. Kaliari capitalized on this reprieve just before halftime with on loan Napoli player Gaitano confidently heading home. Augello's cross. And this was a fantastic header. I didn't think that Gaitano had this in his skill set.

I thought he was more of a player who thrived with the ball at his feet, but he beat a man in the air comfortably. He attacked the box well like he inserted himself perfectly. Good header there by Gaitano to score 2-2 with a lone spell so far. Entering the second half, Kaliari, known for a lack of goals on the road, aimed to increase their attacking threat.

Labadoula's fierce effort at the crossbar early on while Udineza felt aggrieved when a potential handball by Zappa went unnoticed by the referee. That was quite a controversial moment over there. In the 74th minute, Samar Zik's powerful strike narrowly missed the target, concluding the goal-mouth action. I think this game went down to Lorenzo Lucca being a little bit too wasteful. In my opinion, Lorenzo Lucca's strengths are actually not what many people would think that they are.

Many people would think, ah, a 6 foot 7 strike must be great in the air. I think he could be much better in the air. I think he's still far from the final product. I think for his size he should be much better, much more dominant when it comes to aerial duels, especially scoring headers. He's very good with the ball at his feet, much better.

At one point, though, a cross did come in and I do think he had time to take it down, but he went for a volley on a stronger foot, but he failed to hit the target. These moments come because, this is his first season in Serie A as the main man for a team. It's going quite well overall, but you will get these games out of a player in his first season as the prolific goal-scorer.

That's it, he was thrown into the deep end. He's starting week in, week out for Odeneze and Serie A, which is naturally great for his career, but he's still figuring it out. Odeneze are still figuring it out as well. Absolutely, man. Jordan Zamora got his first goal in Serie A, the man from Zimbabwe. Very happy for him. He looked pleased with that. Nice to see another goal. I don't think we've seen a Zimbabwe score this season. Definitely not this season. Nice to see that.

I want to highlight Yeri Mina. Great performance. His first good performance, let's be real, this season, because he's looked shaky so far. But that's why it's important to highlight him, because he's had a bit of a breakthrough. He had a lot of dicks tackle, he loved it at the end. One of them was incredible, he got up in fist bump deer, he loved it. He's a showman. He scored the penalty for fearing it and he broke into a little dance. I rolled my eyes so hard.

Lapadoula stepped up and took a free kick. I found that funny. That's true. I never expected Lapadoula to be on free kick duty. Right. When it came to who deserved to win this game, I would say Udinezah slightly deserved it. But they didn't take their chances, so I guess in the end a draw is a fair result. Calieri would be the more disappointed side. They currently are in 19th with 19 points. Just one mere point from safety.

While Udinezah are up in 14th with 23 points. It's tight, tight, tight at the bottom. Yes. That's it for this episode. I don't think we'll have anything else to add. It was a bit longer than usual because Milan went through a tough time this week. Sorry, we spent a little bit too long speaking about Milan. But you know what, man? My show. We often say that. Who's our boss? No one. Exactly. Wanted to speak about Milan, man. So we'll talk about Milan.

Look at the patrons come to me and they're like, we don't like the Milan content. Milan content gone. Yep. Well, let's relax. It'll never be gone. But yeah, we hope you guys enjoyed it. Some good talking points here. Some smashing goals, Marianne. We'll see you all next week. This is something we should say. We're going to Salerno, bro. To watch Salerno and Natana. Yes, we're off the book. That's going to be fucking crazy. Because you don't like saying you're doing things before it's confirmed.

That's a thing about you. Yes, I don't like saying I'm going to do things till I do them. That's a fucking weird thing. I have real dreams moving silent like lasagna. Yeah, there you go. Are we lasagna? We've been lasagna. Thank you for listening and we will see you all next week. Goodbye, guys. This is Serie A Spotlight. If you like Serie A or have ever liked it in the past, it's a good opportunity for you to listen once a week and you'll get filled in.

In the football weekend, that's like the main dish. But then a few days later, you drop your episode and that's like the dessert. And the dessert is just perfect. It's good, okay? It makes it feel like we're all sitting in a room together, just be assing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics. Some times it may be good, some times it may be shit. I love how you go into so much detail and show so much passion towards each and every team.

Literally, no team is left undiscussed. When I listen to you, it's like I'm talking to you in a pub. It's like I'm chatting to a friend and you're chatting to me.