Cristante Dibala from distance! That's all he needs! Torino stepped off him and how he has punished them! Hello and welcome back to Seria our spotlight. This is episode 115 and I'm your host Jake, not joined today by Matt. But I have the pleasure of having one of our patrons, one of our first patrons actually, Alan along with us. Hello, Alan. Hello, Jake. Hello, nice to see you. How are you? How are you doing?
I'm good. I'm good. I'm a bit tired but I'm excited to take part in the podcast. That's going to be fun. I'm great, thank you very much bro. Also a little bit tired but I'm very excited to get this on the road after dealing with all the technical not issues per se but technical steps that took to to get this on the road. Yeah, Matthew is not here today because it's his birthday and I don't know if he's mentioned it on the podcast but this is a very special birthday for him. It's his lucky
birthday. Yeah, 27th February he's turning 27 so it's a very big deal for him so he's pretty much on a bender for the entire week and we're going to have to carry his ass, right? Wonderful. I was hoping it was something like that. That was a really important question. Yeah, so it's better than the whole Australia. Exactly. I wanted to ask you Alan, you're one of our patrons. What's it like being a patron? Is it worth it?
Oh definitely. What kind of things do you get from being a patron? For me the first thing is the group chat. The group chat is lit. The group chat is higher and that's for me to become my go-to Seria discussion, the group chat and over the weekend I'm sitting watching the games with the phone in my hand. I didn't used to do that before so whenever something happens during the game the group chat is that's my go-to discussion. Yeah, we've absolutely ruined you so because before
you'd watch the football without the phone but now you've got your... Exactly. Sorry about that. No, with you it's a nice and experienced. I'm having a lot of fun. There's always people who are making funny comments, good takes and it's amazing. Yeah, quite the spectrum of characters over there. You've got the... I don't call them the intellectuals but the debaters, you know, the Matthias type of person. You, to be honest, you often hit us with like a paragraph with
an equation and then we... An essay. It's an essay. Yes, and I'm all for it to be honest. I'm sure that's one of my favorite kinds of essays to read. That's for sure. But yeah, an action packed episode we had. I'm not episode sorry, matchday. We had it was matchday 26 of course. Let's not forget that all the games of matchday 21 have been played. The last two being
Inter for Atalanta Nyl. This was quite a show on Inter's End. The CDK opened the scoring in the 11th minute but it was disallowed and then Darmion, Lautaro, DiMarco and Fratesi all went on to score. Fun fact, Fratesi has scored more goals than Arnautovic and Sanchez combined despite not really settling into this team. Yeah, and Inter had a top run of games, bro, and they've won them all. Yeah, definitely. They're cruising. It's funny you mentioned that about Fratesi because I actually
wrote it down in my notes as well. Yes, I wrote it down. I guess they, how many minutes was precisely 530 minutes or something in the S? Four or five goals. It's unbelievable to be honest. He's very good at inserting himself in these offensive pockets, kind of like Miketarian does, the space behind the strikers. He's very good at taking advantage of that. We saw it a lot at Svall, we saw it at Monza in Serie B. It was I think the highest scoring midfielder that one
season he spent over there with Monza. And yeah, nice to see he's still got it despite not hitting the ground running at Inter. But to be honest, not his fault. Their team is pretty much set. Yeah, look, I saw an interview with him quite recently and it appears, or given that he's telling the truth, which probably is rarely the case with his interviews, it seems that in the plan all along, like he was not expecting to play much the first year. He said it himself and it's completely,
for him, it's completely fine to sit on the bench. And yeah, I guess he's content with this first year introduction as it is. Age is on his side and he's not a team adding nice accolades to his Wikipedia page. So I doubt he's complaining, right? Because if you go on the Honoris deception of Frattese's Wikipedia, it's going to start now. Scudetto, Coppa Italia, Champions League runner up, you know. We'll see how that goes. Because that's actually a question I wanted to ask you, man,
Inter right now seem absolutely unstoppable domestically. Outside of Italy, they're hailed to be in the top five teams internationally at the moment. What do you think about that? Well, definitely they are the top five. That's without a doubt, I think. The question is more tricky once you get like who is the best who's going to win the Champions League. And the margins are quite small as well. Right. And again, you can have the first goal by a random chance
and it can completely change the entire two leg time. Right. Yeah. So but I don't know what Inter is. You have Inter, you have Real Madrid and you have Manchester City, I think that's the top three. Yeah. Yeah. And it's in no particular order. I think any of those teams can take on the other one on any given day, to be honest. It's pretty much a coin toss. When it comes to domestic dominance, though, no one's quite done what Inter have done. And it's actually quite a historic run
of the run. Because I think by this time, I heard somewhere that by this time in the past 90 something years, no team has accumulated as many points as Inter have basically in the last 90 something years after this many match days, something like that, something absolutely insane. Yeah. So we'll see. The question is, can they also beat Juve's point record on their content? I believe it was 102 points domestically. I actually checked it. It was a listener question. Yeah, 102. Yes.
Yes. Simple answer, no, they can't. Why not? Why not? Look, I did the math. They would have to win every game but one for the rest of the season. And to be frank with you, like even if they tried to do that, like fully committed, it's not a given that's going to happen. But I also think that they're not going to try it. We saw it with the people rotation when he was prioritizing the domestic league in January. I'm pretty sure he's going to do the opposite now in
April, March, April. I mean, they have secured us to that. They're never going to say publicly, of course, but I am fairly confident that they are going to start rotating. And we can see now Kallano blue is out. Barrela is going to be out. And yeah, they're not going to care that much about the league, I think. I tend to agree with you totally. My answer was going to be no, simply because they have so much leverage in the league that it would be foolish for them to push for this
record when they can risk players for the Champions League. As you correctly mentioned, their injuries are mounting. It's time to rotate the squad a little bit. The substitutes have proven to be dependable. You can count on these guys, Carlos Augusto, Fratese, Aslani to a certain extent. They've all done a pretty good job. Even Sanchez has proven to be quite a dependable player man nowadays, still at his age. So yeah, I think it would be foolish for them to continue
fielding their strongest 11 in the league. Yes. We also had another game that happened. This was Sa Swolo, one Napoli six, of course, Ratchic opened the scoring for Sa Swolo. It was a very well taken goal and then Rahman equalised. Ozzy Men went on to score three goals despite only having 15 touches and four successful passes and one assist as well. Veratschelia went on to score two goals. Napoli dominance under Carl Zona. Do you think that this was the plan all
along for Spalletti? Let's try for De Laurenti. Sorry, let's try to recreate the Spalletti team and what better way to do it than to bring in Spalletti's assistant manager at the time. Thanks. You're laughing while you're asking the question, Jake. I will say with a lot of confidence that there has been no plan from the De Laurenti season. Everything has been done sporadically. Opportunities have arisen and he has taken
them, he has taken risks, he has taken gambles. It hasn't worked out and now he went with Carl Zona. Looked deeply. One game against Barcelona, another game against Verona and now they hit the ground running against Sa Swolo. But keep us in mind that Sa Swolo has a junior coach who just put the helm over there. It's a bit too early to tell, I think, if it's Carl Zona's credit or if it's a coincidence. Junior coaches have had limited time to influence their squad.
Yeah, I'm sorry to cut you off over there. It's definitely interesting. We haven't even mentioned on this podcast yet that Dionisi has been sacked. Matt and I have been wondering when that was going to happen for a while and it's been a talking point in the group chat for a while as well. Sa Swolo, for the talent they have in their team are sitting in the relegation pool. It's inexcusable, to be honest. I think Dionisi had to shoulder the responsibility and he deservedly
got sacked over there. The question is, was it the right call to bring in the Primavera manager? Why not just bring in someone like Balardini, for example, who can tighten things at the back? Berardi comes back from injury. You've got Berardi, La Oriente, to feed Pinamonte, for example. And suddenly, you've got a more tighter, more organized unit and with a bit of creative expression, creative freedom, I think that they have enough in their locker to get it done, I think, personally.
What do you think about that bringing in a Primavera manager? Not the best thing to do in a relegation standoff, right? No, of course, in hindsight now it's easy to tell that that turned out to be catastrophic in the first game, at least. Yeah, it seems quite desperate. And as you say, why not try to bring in somebody more experienced at this level? But I will be careful to be convinced whether it's right or wrong, because it's way too early to tell.
It seems like it's very wrong, but maybe there's something there that we are not aware of. Yeah, who knows? Maybe he's the next big thing. Napoli were on, though, they were on it. I haven't seen them play like that all the season. And it came at the perfect time, just in time for their second leg match against Barcelona and their next match against Juventus in the league. So they needed this confidence boost, despite being against Loli, SaoSolo.
Look, Italy needs this confidence boost, because of the coefficient, right? Italy needs Napoli to be Barcelona. Yeah, while we're on the topic of European fixtures, Roma have drawn Brighton. So we're talking about the Rossi against De Zerbi, which does not bode well to me personally. I think Roma will not progress. That's my prediction. Are you comfortable making a prediction? Yeah, I'm actually leaning towards Roma progressing.
Really? Yeah, I don't know why. I mean, they are in such a good flow. Currently, everything is clicking for them correctly. Brighton has been like they've come a lot through magic. I have to be honest and say, I don't really follow the Premier League that closely. But I pick up on general stuff and the general thing is that Brighton is starting to rumble. So that Roma is on a hot streak. So I think there's hope.
De Rossi has had the Trebi as a coach as well. So they are a bit familiar with each other. Frankly, they've been exchanging texts and tactics over time. So yeah. That's going to be interesting. I had no idea that they were tight like that. Where exactly were they together? I don't know. Where was it? Trying to think. I know De Rossi went to Argentina randomly. Couldn't be there. I don't know. I highly doubt that. I saw an interview with De Rossi where he said that during his time in Spal,
he was in close contact with the Trebi quite often. Maybe I'm wrong about him being his pupil at some point. But I'm sure that De Rossi has said that they are very close and they often speak together. Yeah. Okay. Cool. That would be very interesting. A very fiery friendship over there. I can imagine them playing FIFA together, smacking each other on the back of the head. Yeah. They're actually young enough to do that.
Yeah, exactly. Atalanta have drawn Sporting Lisbon who have been pretty bloody good this year. And that's going to be quite a showdown. Atalanta might not be clear favourites over there at all. And they've just been demoralised by Inter. We'll see how they bounce back. I'm a little bit worried about this one as well. Yeah. This will be probably a tight one. Again, I have to generalise, but we have seen that the
Portuguese teams have been doing quite well in Europe. And I see no reason why Sporting should be an exception from that. And their form is really good. But again, I think Atalanta is also in good form. I don't think that this intergame is too telling. I think they played Milan not many days ago. I think Atalanta are going to bounce back quite quickly. Yeah. And the way they have been playing up until the intergame was very promising. And I would
have easily called them the fourth best team in Italy. The fourth team I'd like to face the least in Italy, I'm probably for sure. When it comes to the full package, because Bologna are good. But Atalanta's squad is deeper than Bologna. If you catch Atalanta on a good day, they're going to humiliate. No, it's not just deeper. It has more quality, it has more talent. Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. And as Matt and I often mention on the podcast as well, very intelligent players.
Technically gifted with a good brain on them. I like what Atalanta have done, putting such a clever team together. Milan have drawn Slavia Prague, which is technically a good draw. But the other good teams in the Europa League, the other favorites, have also got favourable draws. So it's a matter of not slipping up and then kind of seeing who you face after this round. I mean, Slavia Prague are one of those Eastern teams where you go and the atmosphere
shocks you. That's so cool. I love it. I hope to see players. I want to see the stadium lit up. I really need more of that. Yeah, absolutely. Man, I was so surprised by Ren in the second leg. Yes. The stadium was bouncing. They were three-nil down at kickoff. I'm looking around. The stadium is fucking bouncing. Like it's getting the shots behind the goalposts and all the way around everyone jumping. Players in the air and the players are coming out and I look at Matthew and
I'm like, really, this is who you want to bring. Chouquets and Okofore and Chou in for the midweek. I'm playing them here like no chance. And then they scored earlier. I was like, this is going to be a bad one for Milan. Yeah, the atmosphere was amazing. But did you also see the pre-game friendly thing between the fans? How the Ren fans were handing out sausages? This kind of Milan. That was awesome. That was awesome. Yeah, Milan has to pass, right?
Anything else to be a disgrace? Regardless of the support from the Eastern European home crowd, that Milan has to continue on. Regarding the other teams getting easy or easier or whatever. Yeah, favourable. Milan has to focus on them and everything else is irrelevant until you draw Liverpool.
Is it relevant until you face them yourself? Absolutely man. And you know, it's good. I mean, Milan had the group of death in the Champions League and they didn't qualify by one point because of a potentially non-existent penalty that was awarded in one game to put it lightly. But yeah, this is the standard that Milan should be playing regularly with such a young team. It will only do them good to play these teams. So hopefully they can get past Slavia Prague
and play against a big team on a big stage with everything to lose. Yes, that's what we want to see. Yeah, then there's Inter-Atletico, which is... I'm trying to think of a good comparison for this game. It's like, I don't know, two submissive lovers trying to get on top of each other. Okay, I don't know. I think Inter has been quite a dominating side. I think they are the dominator right now and Atletico is the submissive one.
Yeah, it's a bit of a change of rep for Inter lately. They've become quite an offensive unit, haven't they? They have. They're scoring goals for fun. They are on plus 55 now in the... Yeah, which is mental considering we are 26 games in. I think that Inter need to be careful. Of course, they are leading after the first leg, but I'll bet you 100% sure that Diego
Simeone will say one goal deficit is good for them. If they are expecting to win at least one game, so they are playing at home, they expect to win a game with a goal and everything can happen. I think Inter need to be wary. Absolutely, man. Atletico are masters of luring you into a false sense of security and then just smacking you when you least expect it to get back into the game. The atmosphere, the manager, the personnel they have, if they manage to get a goal,
they're going to go all the way. They're hype. Those guys are just so, so motivated. They're such alphas. It's always fun watching Atletico. A very atypical Spanish team, I think. When you look at the likes of other Spanish teams, they're very different. They usually prioritise this beautiful style of play like Real Betis with this passing football. Atletico go against that completely, but they do it perfectly. Lots of buy-in, of course. Yeah, please, sorry, sorry.
Yeah, no, I was going to say, I think it's cool that they have embraced this role of being the destroyers, the demoralising side, to decide that everybody hates or not hates, but not the anti-football, but the defensive green team that's just going to destroy your spirit. I think it's cool that they have fully embraced that, even though it's not a beautiful football, but it's fun instead of it being in a sense. They're the villains. Every story needs a villain. Absolutely,
I agree completely. A little bit of Spanish catenaccio. Lots of buy-in, facing each other, of course, and Napoli Barca. Any hot takes, opinions about those games? No, I still think lots are going to get fucked, unfortunately. They're going to want to fuck them up after that first leg. Apparently now they're playing for Tushal, the players. Tushal said that he's going to step down at the end of the season, and the players apparently have taken it upon themselves to play for their manager.
If you're going to fire a coach, why are you announcing it in February? Why can't you just keep fighting for three more months and then just leave in silence when the club has planned a replacement? What's the point of announcing it already? It really is, especially from a well-run organisation such as Bayern Munich. Then we have Napoli. You think lots are out, and I tend to agree with you. The second leg is going
to be very difficult. Then we have Napoli Barca. Do you think that Napoli could edge this, or would you say that Barca are strong favourites? Nobody is a strong favourite. That's for sure. I don't know, Jake. I think it's difficult to predict this now, because we have seen them play Jor against Verona, and we have seen them destroy Sosolo. I think it's one of those games where everything can happen. I'm certainly not
going to play a bet on that one. I'm not touching that one with a stick. Definitely not. One thing I have forgotten to do that I will be doing before the round-down is thanking our Patrons, the people who support. I mentioned our Patron, but I forgot to shout out the boys who make this show happen. Thank you, Ed, Tonna Michael, Mint, Mathias, Luca, Kyle, David, Lena, Sluge, McDougal, Campbell Tim, Anthony, Andrew, Andy, and finally, Alan. Thank you, Alan, for making this show happen.
No, thank you. You're the ones who are making it happen. No, no, no. You're the backing behind it. We got absolutely no feedback. I'm not sure if we'd still be doing this. Thank you very much, honestly. I want to add one thing. We asked you earlier about being a Patron at the show, and I mentioned this thing about the group chat, which is lit. I signed up for the Patreon before the group chat existed. I signed up for the Patreon when it was, there was no benefits to it. That's really because
I think you guys deserve it. You're doing a great job. You're giving me a lot of pleasure. You're making me enjoy it, setting up more than I used to. Without any benefits of the group chat or whatever, I would still be a Patron because the product you're delivering is really, really good. So thank you. Not the Patrons. Thank you. Thanks, Al. Thank you. Very nice words. Thanks. So I think we can get into it. We'll do a rundown. Matt normally does this. I'm going to give it
my best. Bologna took on Verona and beat them 2-0 quite comfortably over there. Monza took on Salernitana away from home where they won 2-0, sinking Salernitana even further down the table. Juventus struggled to beat Procenon and it took a last second Rugani winner to finally confirm a 3-2 victory. For Inter, they played away from home to Lecce and of course they smashed them 4-0 as Inter do nowadays. Roma played Torino and this was quite a challenge for the Rossi.
It feels like every single game that Roma have nowadays is a new challenge for the Rossi. Now his challenger was the mighty Yuric, the tactician Yuric who has this Torino playing quite well and they're quite a solid unit and difficult to penetrate and they managed. They beat them 3-2 at home. The vibes at the Olympic were impeccable as always. Sassuolo hosted Empoli and lost 3-2 another Mbayan young penalty over there. Incredible. I thought about taking him on fantasy football
but I was like Jake don't make this mistake. Turns out I should have totally gone for him. I had him on my shortlist as well. Yeah, that's too risky right. Genoa played Udineza at home and won comfortably to be honest. Tugol Senil, Napoli played against Caliari in Sardinia and drew sorry 1-1 thanks to Lovbombo last-minute equalizer. Milan hosted Atalanta and drew 1-1 as well and Purantina hosted Lazio and 1-2-1 and they did very well to not
get demoralized because boy did they miss their chances. But yeah, we can jump straight into it. I think we should open up with the Inter game, get it out of the way bro. So we can cheer up afterwards, get the worst part over. But yes bro, Inter played Lecce away from home. They won four goals to Nile. This included eight alterations to the lineup for Nzagi's men and it showcased pretty much Inter's depth. I'm just going to read you the lineups right now. So Audero was in goal
with Carlos Augusto Debi and the tech playing at the back. Di Marquon Dampri was on the flanks with Miketari and Aslani and Fratese in the middle with Lautaro Martinez and Alexis Sanchez starting up front. For Lecce it was pretty much business as usual with Tuba stepping in for Pongracic and Rapia playing in the hole behind Piccoli flanked by Angvist and Sanzone. Yeah, in this game bro Lautaro scored his 100th Serie A goal and what a way to get it too, right?
Yes, he fought for it. It didn't come easy. And that first touch man was the more you look at it and the more closely you look at it the more you realize what he did right over there. I thought he mis-hit the ball but turns out he like put the perfect amount of weight to just knock it forward into space between him and the goalkeeper rushed for it and finished clinically. Nowadays you can't give Lautaro an inch man. No, I never expected that goal. I thought it was he's going
to play back or something. I thought he was going to reset the attack but no he turns around and he does that well. Yeah, same here, same here. It's absolutely incredible. Inter have extended their unbeaten away record to 12 matches while Lecce faced their third consecutive scoreless defeat. Yes, I think that Lecce, I don't know if they've made much of a difference but they did miss Pongre, which is this game definitely. I think they missed a leader at the back, Tuba to be
honest. Again, Tuba and Bascarotta were all over the place and I don't know if that's just what happens when you play Inter nowadays or if it's too harsh to criticize them. I think probably a combination of both but yeah, I think that's something that happens when you play Inter. It's unavoidable. We see it in every game now. They're crushing everybody so I don't want to judge them too harshly but of course getting their starting CDs of course will help them.
Yeah, especially the more seasoned one, the more experienced one, right? The one who came into the field in the big boots of Umtiti. They were definitely missed this game. There were goals from Fratese as well. Martínez of course scoring a double and then Deverey getting the cherry on the icing on the cake in the 67th minuetary of their DiMarco assist. Honestly, I've run out of things to say about the Inter team. Their system is absolutely
incredible the way they play football is to be honest. I wouldn't hold back from saying it's revolutionary nowadays, man, the way that they defend and the way they attack their transitional play, man. The fact that their midfield is this perfect combination of creativity and industry. And you look at the personnel this game, it was just made perfect sense, man. Miketarian is the perfect player for this Inter midfield against all odds. He's so good at advancing.
He's so clever. He knows exactly where to position himself. He's a proper counter-attacking player, man. And he's not the fastest. He's not the, you know, he's not going to dribble everyone, but he's got this slight burst of acceleration that he can just drive the perfect length and just lay it off to a teammate or have a shot at goal. And it's pretty much incredible every time. And him flanked with the likes of Shala Noglu and Barela, that's a midfield partnership of
whoever's seen one. Look, Miketian, he has all those things, but his first and foremost, very intelligent football player. He knows, he does these runs when he does them, they look effortless because he knows about the time they went to start, which direction to move, when to hold. And yeah, it's, intelligence is on his former side and he makes it look easy and effortless. Yeah. And he's by far the smartest player in the midfield, I think, when it comes
to vision and footballing IQ. And then second to him, this was the point I mentioned earlier on. This isn't that strong, man. Yeah, you've got the likes of Denzel Dumfries, you know. Alexis Sanchez, man. Alexis Sanchez is another player with very high footballing IQ, man. And I'm surprised that we haven't seen him much. And he's actually a player I picked up on one of my fantasy leagues earlier on them before the season had even started.
Because I thought he would feature, you know. The last time we saw him at Inter, he was used, kind of like Louis Muriel was used, you know, being brought on towards the end of the games and just racking up assists and goals. And I thought, okay, this guy will have a similar role to play over here. And maybe now is the time for him to play this role. Maybe. Look, I think he has, he has good industry, as you like to say, like he does the work, he is there for his team.
But I think as soon as he can be replaced, he's not going to play unless they have. As long as they have other options, I don't see him playing that much, to be honest. Like I respect the man, I respect his work, but that's it. Those Udunes days are long gone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the Arsenal ones even longer gone. Yes, absolutely. But now, of course, with Champions League games coming up, maybe he can enjoy a few league games, you know. That's probably the most he's going to get.
Yeah, Audero also was called into action and produced a few good saves this game. Amil Audero. He needed that because he hasn't really played in a while, going from playing game in game out with Sampdoria to never featuring, must be quite difficult. I didn't know that he was an intern until I saw that line up. He totally missed it. Did you think it was still the ex Crotoane man, Cordas, Cordas with the very dark, it's almost like he's wearing eyeliner there guys, like a punk rocker, you know.
No, I was looking at the line up and Audero and what's going on, somebody has some stomach to go, whatever. Audero, I know that guy. I had to go over him. I completely forgot about him. I had to go, oh, shit, he was in Sampdoria. That's right. But he was a decent goalkeeper. I find it weird that he's a backup. He could probably he could probably try, I don't know where he could, maybe he could replace a throw inside Salah Netan now for sure. I don't know. Conceivie is always a target.
He's 27 nowadays, Audero. He's quite young. He has at least five years I have a minimum. Yeah, absolutely. Of course, playing at Inter maybe might be what he wants, you know, just to go to a winning side, a big team finally and try to fight for his spot. Shame that Summer was brought in for him because he stands absolutely no chance of featuring more often nowadays. But yeah, the second goalkeeper was an area that Inter really needed to strengthen
after the whole Radu incident. Yes, which to this day, I would say this, since I'm speaking on a podcast, I would say this, I think it's incredibly unfair to him. Radu, because that third goal didn't change anything. They needed to win. They want to draw the fact that he messed up. I think he's gotten too much heat on actually not being that impactful. But yeah, all news just wanted to say. No, that's a very good point. He was definitely scapegoated as many people are.
You look at every team you can mention as scapegoating. Nowadays, like Milan, purely, purely is a scapegoat. When things go well, wow, Leão is so good, when things go badly, oh, purely set them up for failure. This is football, right? A week is like a year, it's crazy. Yeah, yeah, please, sorry. Last season or wasn't the season before, maybe I'm mixing up. Inter fans were scapegoating the Michael. Look at them now.
Yeah, yeah. I have two friends of mine are Inter fans. Shout out to Grima and Pity. Yeah, they're childhood friends of mine. I made friends with them before I knew. No, no, they're lovely. I do love their tics and their banter is witty. It's not like the cheap banter, the 20-store. Yeah, exactly. And they had described the DeMarco last season as a
decent squad player, but nothing more. And I was like, guys, you're absolutely insane. You need to listen to Serial's spotlight because we've been highlighting the Marco, we've been raving about the Marco since his Hellas Verona days. And look at them now. He's bloody incredible. And I think he might be the player that they missed the most from that midfield when he's unavailable. Because transitions don't happen without him. He offers so much. He offers a new dimension that's not possible
without him. So Inter are currently in the first place, of course, with 69 points. They've got a nice green slate over there. It says win, win, win, win, win. While all the way down in 14th, we've got lecture with 24 points with just one win and they're lost five games. I think we're going to move on to the next game. This is quite a straightforward one. You know, when it's a four and a little victory, there's not really much to say, especially when it's between Inter and
Lecture. Can I just say one thing about Inter? Please, yes. Have you seen this film from the game against Bayern Munich, where they... Where two midfielders who dropped out to the CB spot and you had to dry and... Oh, yes. Yeah. And also in the game yesterday against... Oh, my God. Katerinia. You have Barela dropping down on the right back position, playing Di Marco on the right wing position, not left wing position. My God, they are cooking there. What is Lamone cooking, bro?
Yeah, there are some budget things in that lemon sauce, I think. Yeah, absolutely, man. That's why. And I often find myself watching Inter thinking, you know, what the hell is he doing there? You know, like, I look at Paavard advancing and then you see Barela sitting in the middle, at the back in the fence. Yeah, the way they move is very fluid,
man. And everyone knows exactly what needs to be done from the starters to the substitutes. And that's all credit to Simone and Zaghi, who's really given this Inter team a new identity, post-contest, which is very difficult to do because they already had their own, you know, system under Conte, which granted was similar, but this just seems like... Yeah. It's got a little touch of pet in it, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, I think we can move on to Juve. Juve played
for Sonona. They won 3-2 in the end, but boy, did they have to sweat. And when it comes to their lineup, they played a 3-5-2 formation and were probably surprised by for Sonona who mirrored their formation. For Sonona, it started with a 3-5-2 formation and they don't often do this this season. Cresni was in goal for Juve with Gatti, Bremer, and Rugania at the back. Cambia was on the cost-stitch, were out wide with Mckeni, Locatelli, and Rabio playing in midfield.
Vlaovic and Chiesa were the striking partnership. For Rossinone, it was Cerafolini in goal with Nadir Zortea, who I'm a big fan of at right back, Valeri on the left, Occholi, Romaniolli, and Lirola as the centre-back. Crio with Harui, Mazziteli, and Brescianini in the middle, and Suley, and Kedira up front. Now, it all started with Vlaovic's goal in the third minute, and then Rossinone would shock the world when they would get goals in the 14th and the 27th minute through
Kedira and Brescianini. Very nice work by Zortea to whip in a perfect ball to Kedira on the first goal. And Brescianini with a lovely strike in the 27th as well, the former Milan man to give Rossinone a lead, but then in the 32nd minute was Vlaovic with a cyborg-esque finish, very Robo-Copesci, you know, just like laser autolog shoot, like from the beginning. Yeah, he's on fire these days. He really is, man. I saw Amim, you know, people arguing about
Ozzy Men or Lautaro, and just you the fans, you know, just enjoying Vlaovic. He's really back to his best. And in the second half, of course, Allegri tried to spice things up. He brought on Yildiz and Weyer in the 62nd minute instead of Kheyazar and Kostich. This proved to not be, it wasn't quite enough as they couldn't get the ball over the line in the 95th minute. The unlikeliest of outlets managed to get you across the line. And it was Daniela Ruggani, thanks to Vlaovic assist. Yeah, man.
I thought that for us in honor, we're going to get something here. Was it third goal of Laovic assist? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Mr. Juve, you know what it is. Yeah, 100%. Tell me, tell me. No, I was going to go on. I had the online, the pleasures of online. Yeah, it's really is. And I'm quite a talkative Mediterranean man myself. So I'm constantly interrupting everyone already. So this doesn't help at all. No, please,
interrupt me as much as you want. Yeah, this victory maintains you as unbeaten head to head record against Frosunona. They've got eight wins and one draw. This was Vlaovic 75th Serie A goal that inspired Juve's comeback. I was quite impressed, to be honest, by quite a few players this game. First of all, McKenney man in that first goal had that touch, man. First touch was amazing. I didn't think that Weston was capable of a first touch of that calibre.
And the run as well. The run, yeah, absolutely. Everything about it. Yeah. The run from the ball to the touch, yeah. Speaking of state, he's another state vote as well for Juve fans. And I mean, look, Juve assist, and who was it that Juventus, they were rather good, the previous team as well for Juventus. What was that game, McKenney? It was a draw. That's who. Hellas Verona, was it? Was it Apple? I think so. Let's take it. Let's quickly check.
Yeah, the previous game was the Verona one, yes, away from home 2-2. Ah, yeah. So yeah, he was pretty good that game. He's been good all season, McKenney, man. He's been a super revelation for them after going up to Leeds and disappearing off the face of the earth. Everyone probably thought that I'd never see McKenney in a Juve kit again, but here he is, man, playing such an important road. Yeah, now he did great, but Loewish, man, he's not just inside the box anymore.
He's coming down, he's picking up the ball, he's playing other, he's making the players around him good as well as he's performing and stuff. So, that's after him, I hate to see it though. Absolutely. One thing I admire about Loewish is even when he was at his worst and when nothing was working for him, he was always a team player, man. He was always the perfect professional. He was always working hard. He always put the team first even when he was flopping. He had
certain moments that were embarrassing when he was off form. You know what happens to a striker? You get in your head, you end up being shot on confidence like, but he was always there, man. He always celebrated hard with his teammates when they scored. He was always a proper example, man, and it's nice to see that it's working out for him and it was always going to work out for him because he's that type of person. Am I allowed to shit a little bit on him though?
Is it about his hairstyle? Because he looks a little bit... Oh yeah, his hair is definitely weird. Who cut that? No, he has, I think he has a bit poor attitude since you were mentioning his team. When he doesn't get the passes he wants, he's a bit of a private, I have to say. I think he is complaining maybe a bit too much. And he does this one thing that I hate from a lot of football players. Lukaku also does this as well. I was going to say Lukaku, man. I was going
to compare, I was going to make the comparison, but go. Okay, so he does this one thing where let's say our player teammate has a ball, he's dribbling inside the box and he tries to shoot or he tries to cross and it ends up in nothing. Lovic comes three seconds later and is pointing with both hands down to the table. Oh man. I was here, I was here. No, you were not there. You were not there when the pass came. You were not there when the run started. You were there
three seconds after, which is completely different. So he does this and I actually bothers me. Lukaku does the same thing. It's like the run is over. He's already shot at goal. It didn't happen. Lukaku continues his run for some reason for two more meters and it's like, I'm wide open. What are you doing? Shut up.
Yeah, but that's not the strikers, right? I mean, they're technically well within their rights to complain and to demand the ball because low scoring figures for strikers reflect very badly on them and under CV. No one wants a striker who doesn't score. So yeah, it's a little bit understandable. The funniest one of the week though, it is annoying by the way. The person who I couldn't stand is
when Higuain joined Milan, I couldn't wait for him to leave from the get go. Do you remember the way he spoke to his teammates, the way he he just acted like he was bigger than the clubman? Arrogant, absolutely. And I couldn't stand watching him and then the meltdown against Sjouve, that was the time when I actually realized this guy is not okay. And it was a record key at the time, wasn't it? Yeah, I believe so. Or for Milan, at least, of course, the record key was from Napoli's event.
But for Milan, it was also like top ten or six pensive players ever. Yeah, absolutely. He did have a few moments where he showed us what Pipeeta can do, scoring out of nothing, that turn and shoot, I love that. Absolutely. As long as it's not an important game. One thing I wanted to mention was Simeone, this matchday. Simeone had the exact same thing.
Honestly, Napoli lost. I'm jumping to Napoli a little bit because you mentioned this thing about strikers, you know, pointing right in front of them for their teammates to play them. You should have passed, I was hoping. Simeone screamed. He screamed at one point when they were one and up towards the end of the game. I think it was Poletano who had a clear shot at the goal. But Simeone was wide open on the left and Poletano went for an outstep shot instead.
And you literally hear from the TV, Simeone going, literally screaming. And Poletano apologising, only three minutes later, Simeone was in the exact same position and he shot and he missed with a teammate wide open. I was like, you, sir, are a hypocrite. That's the difference between a striker and a winger. Yeah, exactly. The winger will forgive his teammate. We'll sidetrack a little bit, haven't we?
Yes, totally. I want to go back and talk about Kedira. Kedira scored his first goal since September. Can you believe that? He's the leading, he's a starting striker for Frosinone. Of course, Kai-O George has been stepping in a little bit. But as a player, I don't know if you've watched a lot of Kedira, but I've never really been much of a fan. I used to watch him at Barri and I always thought that as a striker, he leaves quite a bit to be desired personally.
I'm curious about his age, because I don't even think he's that young anymore. Kedira is 26 years old. I think that this at the moment might be his level. And I think another year in Serie B or another two years in Serie B or just staying in Serie B would probably be better for him. Yeah, there's nothing remarkable about him. You don't really notice him when he plays.
But in his first goal, I will credit him in the build-up. If you follow just him in the build-up, not the beautiful pass from Sunne and the cross and everything, you can see that Kambiasso is there wrestling. He's holding him with both hands on his shoulders. He's pushing it. Kedira is pushing back. This is not football at all. This is a wrestling match. Kedira somehow slips him. He goes behind Kambiasso's back. He tricks him and then runs back out towards the penalty spot.
Kambiasso has no idea where he is. So he did a clever Fox in the Box movement there to get rid of the marking man. But I agree with you, as you say, there's nothing extraordinary about him. There's nothing that brings attention to him. That's a very good point because he totally outsmarted a younger player, which is always nice to see. So hopefully this could prove to be a little bit of a confidence boost for him. I'm scoring against you, but it will always be a
confidence boost. A player who's never impressed me, but at the end of the day, maybe it's not the perfect time to mention this because he has just scored against me. But I do want to highlight Zortea in my opinion. First of all, I'm surprised that Atalanta have loaned him out because I think he's deployably even at that level. He has been a beast at Frost and On in the two or three games he's played, bombing up and down that flank. He's offensively a threat defensively, not as good as
he's offensively, but he's still quite dependable. I'm a big fan of Zortea. I think he's got a bright future ahead of him. But in Atalanta's defense, Emil Holm has been rather good as well. Emil Holm has been a revelation for them. I can't believe this is the same Emil Holm that was at Spatia. He's good. I think it's okay that Zortea is not in Atalanta right now because we've been denied of watching him play. Absolutely. There's a Pacosta there as well, so he's definitely got
competition if you were to say so. But I was surprised because in the first few games Zortea actually played and I think he scored for Atalanta in the opening, one of the opening three games of the season. So I did think that he was going to feature. But yeah, a loan move at Frost and On right now, a very exciting Frost and On who play an attacking brand of football will definitely be good for Nadir Zortea. And trust me, when it comes to Atalanta, they know what they're doing
when it comes to their development. Yes, they know how to fight the race. They know how to... yeah, bend the rules a little bit. This is Breff Shani, he's the third goal of the season. He's also been looking quite good. When it comes to this Frost and On aside, the individuals look good because of the brand of football they play. It's offensive, it's exciting. There are many highlights, many moments for these players.
But personally, if you had to ask me, Alan, I would say very confidently that, okay, the three things that are going to get relegated is a very difficult question. One's the most confident about are Salernitana, of course. And second to that, I would say Frost and On. I would say Frost and On. And I'm sure you know this because you're a listener. But what do you think? I would say it's Salernitana, Frost and On and Hellas Verona.
That's my take on Hellas Verona. I'm not confident at all about it because they've actually been pretty bloody good. Yes, that's really weird considering I have fought so many players. Yeah, they almost seem better. But yeah, we're not talking about Verona right now. Look, I remember you put up that poll in the wonderful group chat. Subscribe everybody. The thing about Barcelona is that they have had a tough couple of runs. They have made good things.
They will have easier games to come. And it's an offensive team. I didn't vote them to get relegated. I voted on Salernitana Verona, for the same reason as you. And I went for Sassola, actually. But the thing about an offensive team is that they can lose, let's say they lose four games in a row. But I think that's why Nona has it in them to win that 15. And when the margins are as close as they are in the bottom group, winning, let's say if they get nine more points
for the rest of the season, that might be actually enough for them. Maybe not nine, maybe 12. But I think they have it in them to get a surprise victory. And they did rattle Juventus away from home. So it's not, I think they have a chance even though they're getting steamrolled in a lot of games against the top sides. That's always going to happen when you're not stubborn in a negative way. But when you're stubborn with your approach, that's always going
to happen when you attack every single person, every single team that you come up against. That's always going to happen. You might experience quite a few losses. The thing, a question for you, and maybe I'm putting you a bit on the spot over here. But you mentioned that for Cenoine have the potential to win one odd game in every five. But wouldn't you say the same about Sa Swallow and Baradis back? That's not yet. Yeah, that's the thing. And when Baradis
back, it's not going to be just an odd game. It's going to be, I guess, yeah, exactly. Well, that's not a possibility anymore. They have played each other twice or have never mind. But yeah, you're right. You are. But let me just say this. Sorry to go back a little bit because I switched my tabs over while you were talking. Cenoine recently played Fiorentina, Roma, Juventus. Their next games are going to be against Lecce, Sa Swallow, Lazio, Genoa, Bologna.
That's good. That's going to be very telling and very entertaining for us to watch. Yes. But your counter-argument definitely stands. If Cenoine can win an odd game here and there, definitely Sa Swallow can do the same once they get Baradis back. But there's something about the Sa Swallow team that crossfades me a lot. I think they're really, really poor. The way I justified it in the group chat is that I wrote that I have a feeling, this is my feeling, most likely as well.
I have a feeling that a lot of these other teams, they have this final do or die spirit in them. They want to die. They want to kill. You know? It's a solo doing that. For me, a solo is like, let's see what Baradis does. I don't see that team spirit, the will to sacrifice themselves. I don't see that will to die for the team, that I can imagine the other ones to get. That's a very good point. That's something that I've also observed with Sa Swallow because
it's almost pedestrian. It's almost like everyone just blaming each other when I go to a squad and they have no team spirit. However, I feel like that team spirit and then is all embodied and encapsulated by one man. That is Baradis because Baradis can't stand losing. He's the type, man, that he will do everything within his power, within his skill sets to try to avoid a loss and to try to fire up his teammates and to try to lead the way. He's become a proper
leader over there, man. Look, the next team to basically buy Baradis is going to be a very lucky team. I know he doesn't have the flashiest name. I know that he's got quite a bad rep as a player who's settled and a player who's always been afraid of the big stage. But that, in my opinion, is not true at all because he has always thrived whenever Sa Swallow had a big stage game against a big opponent. Who was the man to win them the game? It was all Baradis, man, always.
I talk a lot with him, 100%. I think the criticism towards him and the stats and the national team are very unfair. I think he has shown that he has a quality. Look at the team with him and look at the team without him. That speaks for himself. I don't need to say anything else. That's my opinion. Absolutely, man. When I was growing up, I had Dina Tale as the provincial king.
I was Baradis, man. Baradis, absolutely amazing. We're lucky to watch him. Even when he's trying to force his way out, when he comes back into that team, he's leading the way. Fabrizio, I had the pleasure, actually, I'm sure, you know, of watching him play for our local Berkley car side. I'm lucky, man. Dude, incredible. He was slightly over with. Let's keep that between
us and everyone listening. He was a player to me. He was never picked. Yeah, he was always. I think that's what stopped him, to be honest, ultimately from really becoming a great player because he was fucking incredible, man. The things you could do on the pitch, shooting from anywhere, anywhere, like a superhero. You look at him as just a tiny Sicilian, stocky guy. Then when he came from Malta, he had the McDonald's logo on his stomach. Yeah, he utilized the sponsorship, right?
Yeah, I think so. I think that's fair enough. But yeah, man, you were honestly, I think that this was a very important victory for them, finally winning a game in February. They were destined for another draw towards the end. To be honest, they were resilient and up. I'm going to say it, you know, maybe they were lucky, okay, that Rugani found himself in that place. But first of all, that finish by Rugani was very good. That was a tight angle, you know, squeezing it into the back
of the net from that angle was very good by Rugani. But it's the fact that they never gave up. It's the fact that this Uve team, this is what I thought Matt in the last episode, they are demoralized. The Scudetto slipped out of their hands. They're playing once a week. Top four is pretty much secure. They don't really have any major worries, you know, I mean, they're probably going to get over the line, they're probably going to qualify for Champions League. So they're at the stage
right now where they're at the crisis. Why are we playing? Why the hell are we even playing? What is there to fight for? You know, apart from trying to impress and trying to improve my own records and my own statistics, why am I playing week in week out? What is there to win? Nothing. There is pride to it. You saw it in the game. I have to confess, I didn't watch the first half. I tuned in during the second half because I was like, oh, you might actually drop points here.
And they fought. It didn't look like a team that was careless. They fought and, you know, okay, you can say that they were lucky with the goal in the end and like he takes the shot from that weird angle and it's a hey, Mary. He probably doesn't believe it himself, but what else is he going to do? He's going to take the shot, right? But on the other hand, you can also say you were quite unlucky to not score earlier because they completely
dominated the second half. What I was watching, you were dominating every aspect of the game. So, to leave. But the big chances were missing, which is probably the biggest criticism against you. Maybe this entire season or Allegri's UVA or if you're in Allegri out, whatever. The chances were lacking, but in terms of the play, there were two leagues above. Maybe I'm exaggerating, but so, yeah, they were lucky with the goal, but they were so much better than I think they deserve.
No, absolutely. Yes. The statistics speak for themselves. I'm going to mention XUG, trigger warning. You had a 2.19 XUG, while Frasenone had 0.48. I mean, Frasenone had two shots on target and they scored both of them. That's always quite telling. You look at UVA, for example, at 22 attempts, five of them being on target and they managed to get three goals. That's still an impressive conversion rate when it comes to the shots on target.
Yeah, at this point, I think it would be a good time for you to really figure out what are we going to do next season? What's the plan from here? What are we going to do with QIESA? What are we going to do with the midfield? Who's going to stay? We're bringing Solea back. These are the questions, I think, that need to be addressed now. I would go as far as using the next few games, just simply as an experiment for QIESA. I would deploy QIESA in different
situations, play him on the wing, play him as a freaking nine. It doesn't matter. Play him alongside Vlaovic again. Just see what you're going to do with this guy because as it stands right now, I think they're probably leaning towards taking the next offer that comes in for him. Yeah, you're leading on to the question you got from Moses Frank now about what? Yes, exactly. I tend to do this. I asked them before for the question segment. Yes,
but Frank did also this question and we'll get to it again in the end. We'll just shout them out. What do you think? Do you think that they should set him? Look, I think I thought about the question a little bit. I'll just say the question now. Yeah, go for it if you have it. I don't, but I have it for memory. What should you do with QIESA? Should they prolong him or should they let him go given? I think the salary was a question as well
there. Yeah. Or if they should use the fund somewhere else, right? I think you went to, first of all, needs to find out who's going to be their head coach next season. That's that one. After you've decided that, you can make a stand on what to do with QIESA. But playing him alongside with Vlaovic as they were doing in this game, it didn't really work that well. I'm a bit sad to say because I like him. He's complete. He's a whiney little bitch as well.
But I like his football. I like what he does with the ball and spit. Right? In this game, was it towards midway in the second half? Was it around the 17th minute? I can remember. There was an open, because Inona was left open. Vlaovic had the ball in the center. He played QIESA through. QIESA, he could not, like, QIESA and the Euros would have out front the entire Fusenon team. Instead, he had to slow down. He just didn't look like himself at all.
So, yeah, he's not the same. I agree. But I also agree with what you said. They need to try him out a little bit. And they need to figure out who the court for next year is. If they're going to play like this next season as well, get rid of him. There's no point to have a player of that quality on that salary doing what any other player could do. A bit harshly. But the way he plays now, he doesn't stand out at all. But the salary he receives does stand out.
Absolutely. That's exactly it. Perfectly put, man. That's it. Well, there are expectations that come with a high salary. And he's not quite living up to them at the moment. You see him, his work ethic is never under investigation. He's never... You can't question him as a professional, man. What you can question is how these injuries have affected him if he's ever really 100% fit. Because that's the question with Kierza. Is he ever fit nowadays? Is he playing at 70% constantly?
Because as you said, in the Euros, he would blitz-poss defenders and absolutely destroy them. Here, we're seeing him slowing down and playing back something. Maybe it's preventative. I don't know. Maybe he was instructed to take it easier. Dr. Tworefensic. This is a leg ball. Exactly. But yeah, it's definitely a weird one with Kierza. Because the type of player he is, poor guy, I mean, you need to kind of be lucky enough with injuries to get longevity, man.
Because you fit it out very quickly. Imagine Theo Hernandez. Imagine Theo Hernandez had the streak of injuries Kierza had. He would totally change as a player. He would go back to being a CBN, he would totally dominate. Regardless, Theo dominates. That's it. And guess who I have at the back of this, by the way, bro? Yeah, you haven't commented on it. It's a beautiful fit. It's lovely,
isn't it? Yeah, I feel like an Arab prince. Obviously, somebody listening and only Spotify won't know, but you're wearing the, is it the special edition kit that's called from here? Yeah, this is, I believe this is the new Awake kit, no? Or am I mistaken? Is it the fourth kit? I'm not sure it's one of them. It might be the fourth one. Yeah, I mean, it's probably the fourth one. I'm just mixing it up because it's white. But yeah, it's one of the new special kits. If you
tune into YouTube, you might be able to see it. I say might because I can't promise you that I'm going to manage to put this stuff together. I'll try my best. We are recording this. I'm sure. I'm sure you can head over to YouTube to see our beautiful faces. Is that a scarf or is that your chair, by the way, with the Milan logo? It's a scarf. Yeah, I don't actually have this out, usually. I tried to decorate it for the podcast. I love it. My Sapanara shirt on display is the...
There we go. Your favorite shirt. Of course, of course. That's a sweet kit. And what's not visible right now in the video is that it has the Dumo lines. So if anybody has been in Milan on the city, you will recognize the Dumo in there. And you're wearing your Mexico kit, aren't you? Yes, my Mexico kit. Do you have a name at the back? Nope. It's currently nameless. I was hoping that something humanist maybe would sign for Milan
one day and then I could get his name. But for now, it's nameless. Fair enough. Fair enough, bro. So, name this. To be honest, it's kind of cool to, you know, aesthetically. So let's get back to it. Juve are currently in second with 57 points, while Frost and Ona are down in 16th with 23 points. And we can move on to the Milan game, bro. It's Milan 1, Atalanta 1. I mean, it would be nice to skip it. And I'm sure you're going to have a lot to say about this one,
because you couldn't believe your eyes with the penalty, right? No, I couldn't. Oh, I'm still angry. The thing that's the most annoying thing about that penalty, I'm not even going to go to lineups. I'm going to jump straight into it. Okay. Dude, Atalanta were awarded the penalty for what was it? A high boot by Jirou on Emil Holm.
Holm went down holding his face. He was nowhere near his face, right? So if anything, the contact was made with his chest and he played the ball and it was the slightest contact imaginable, right? Now, Orozato, the infamous Orozato, the same Orozato who Modric called the disaster of a referee, ran up to the monitor. As he was running up to the monitor, purely approached him, said something to him. I'm not quite sure what purely said to him, of course, but he was booked
immediately. Orozato is a disciplinarian. He's a teacher. He was a fucking yellow card immediately. He goes to the monitor and it's almost like he did it out of spite because purely spoke to him. So it was almost like a punishment. That's what it says. He saw one angle that wasn't clear at all. We saw what Orozato was seeing. One angle, one time. One angle, one time, turns around, whistles, penalty awarded. What are you doing? And then this is a proud referee, Orozato. Orozato is the type
of referee who doesn't like to be proven wrong. He's the type of referee who would challenge bar usually. So I don't know what the hell this was all about, man. That penalty was fucking bogus to me. Bogus. Totally bullshit. Everybody who's seen it has said this bullshit. Every pundit I've listened to has said it's bullshit. The commentary on the Norwegian TV that I was watching said it's bullshit. I was rewatching the highlight for this recording. They said it's bullshit. The English
commentary, it's not a penalty. It's never a penalty. I want to say one thing about Orozato. Honestly, I don't want to talk about the penalty too much because it angers me. It's never a penalty. The whole mist coming from behind on Jiru. Jiru lifts his coat. He pulls it back as soon as he sees that a collision is happening. The touch is so minimal. I almost doubted Emil Holm even stuffed it. He holds his face. The entire thing is a charade. Orozato goes and gives
a yellow because he's a big man. Let's assume he only said something. The penalty is bullshit. What I almost frustrated me equally much was the yellow on Rafael Alayá at the end of first half. He gets butchered out there. He stands up and says, what the fuck, Ref? Something you see players do 10 times per half of the game. It's how Barella plays football. Barella does that all game. Precisely. Within a split second Orozato is lifting the yellow card.
Second half, Lukman enters for Atalanta. He does something similar. Lukman is a bit more, his body language is a bit more aggressive. He does this thing with his arm. His pistol. He gets off. He's instantly yellow to Lukman. I disagree with that one too as well. What bothers me and this is the big thing after Lukman gets his first yellow. He gets fouled three or four times more that game. He does the same thing. He gets pissed off every time. He does the same
movement. What the fuck, Ref? What is this? No, no, no, no. He got the yellow first time he did that. He didn't get the yellow the next three times. He did that same thing. Where's the consistency? I don't want Lukman to get double yellow for that. I think it would be wrong. But if you're going to set a standard, follow it. Thank you. Absolutely. I totally agree with you. There was also one moment. I think it was Lukman and Theo Hernandez. Was it Lukman? They
were just shushing each other. It was a funny little moment. I couldn't believe how long they were doing it for. They were still going at it like. But yeah, that's the thing when it comes to these yellow cards. If someone protests, you can easily hand out the yellow card. But what happens when they're on a yellow and they do it, then it feels harsh. So it doesn't really warrant the yellow card from the get go. Absolutely. I agree with you totally. I think in a heated affair, this is
competitive sports at the highest level. I think a little bit of dissent can be excused, a little bit of protest to the referee. Or is that so the type to be like, only the captain can talk to me. If you talk to me and you're not the captain, you're getting a yellow card. Which is kind of an old school approach. It's ridiculous. I want to say one more thing though. I think I think this is something that we brought again. He played a great game. He fouled Laos.
Him fouling Laos. Nobody else. Just now, at least five times. Like that was the part of the plan. The plan is much game for Svalvini. If Laos is about to pass you, you foul him. He did it five times minimum. I didn't count but minimum five times. How does that not accumulate to a yellow? But Leal and Lukman getting upset because they got butchered out there is an instant yellow. It's like you're more concerned about your ego than protecting
the player you're supposed to protect. You're more concerned about your ego than doing the job you're supposed to do. That's what people don't seem to realise when they... People don't seem to realise the importance of a referee actually handing out yellow cards in situations like that. Because as you said, these players need to be protected. The likes of Leal, you know, Leal was getting killed out there. At one point I was pretty sure that Milan were
forcing play down the right hand side, down the police side. Probably because of that reason. Leal was getting butchered and nothing was happening. It was one foul, two fouls, three fouls, no cards. No cards at all. It's the referee's responsibility to sub this because it's on sportsman-like behaviour. More than speaking back to the referee or protesting the decision of a referee. Yeah, I mean, priorities yourself. You're an experienced manager nowadays.
You know what I mean. I'm trying to not go into this dark deep home and ruin your podcast. But let's go to the positives. Jaceen Alve, this game was amazing. He was fantastic. He was fantastic. He had this cool thing about calm with the ball. He doesn't get stressed. If the player is stressed, he doesn't get stressed. If the passing option isn't there, he's going to keep the ball another two or three seconds to find the correct pass,
to find the correct option and he's going to play it. In this game, it worked against Monsa. It didn't work and when it doesn't work, it looks horrible. But again, Atalanta, it really worked and it was so pleasing to watch. I really enjoyed it. I was worried that it was going to be a downward spiral after the Monsa game to be honest because that was an abysmal performance. But the way he picked himself up and is commendable and he did play a very good game and he's so
fun to watch. He's got the whole vintage vibe about him, the way he whips those balls over the top. You can't help but say it. No man, that's Andrea Pillo. It's the same exact same thing that Pillo didn't get stressed because the player was pressing him. He kept calm. He was waiting for the correct opening to the correct time to play
the pass. Atalanta has that same thing. There's one thing that Pillo definitely had that Atalanta doesn't and is that Pillo was aware of every other teammate before he received the ball. I feel that Atalanta has a little bit of he received the ball and then he looks around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Pillo was one of a kind, generational. He was the best in that role. You know, when you think deep-lying playmaker, it's Pillo. Pillo is the prototype. He's the
example. So of course, yes, Adley is a long way to go before he reaches Pillo's level, of course. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Very promising signs for Adley. This is the first season where he's actually playing first team football for Milan regularly. So I'm very impressed. I thought he was going to be forced out. I'm so proud of him and I'm so happy that he managed to essentially force his way into Pillo's system. Because that's what he did. Yeah. He started out as a 10, right?
Exactly. As a 10. Absolutely. We haven't even talked about Lea O's goal, by the way, which was absolutely incredible. Just three minutes into the game. He's played the ball by Theo Hernandez. He does Lea O things. He absolutely destroys it. That's 14-12. And the attack that started with Adley is what you play from right to left. Exactly. Very important detail there. It's on top of and Lea O just absolutely does his man. Takes a slight touch of his knee. Slightly lucky that it
fell right in front of him. But of course, it feels like when you see Lea O enter his stride, Lea O's like everything is in control. And then the finish man. Yeah. Look, I saw it when I saw it on TV watching the game. I thought that the ball was bouncing. So I was a little bit like, oh, lucky now that the ball was bouncing so you can hit it from under on a good angle. But then I saw the replay and the ball was actually rolling around the
grass. It wasn't bouncing anymore. The bounce was already passing. So it's such a perfect strike. It's insane. And yeah, you can say he was lucky in a sense that he was able to move the ball forward with Lea. But then again, the ball bounced up and he improvised in that second. I'm going to drag it further with me with my knee and bow. What a goal man. Incredible goal, honestly. And how important was that for him? You could see how much it meant
to him. And the signs of it. Keep fucking talking. Serious but like. You were not bashing in, were you? Oh, no, no, no. Well, we do criticize him sometimes as in we criticize when he doesn't play to his strengths, for example, we criticize when he's attempting long range shots because
Ledzberiel, he hasn't scored a long range shot. He has a set of skills layout that he stopped here at when it comes to beating his man in one of the one situations out wide, when it comes to driving to the byline, when it comes to cutting back, when it comes to cutting inside and shooting his top, but you're not going to get the ball drive, try to cut inside down the middle and have a crack from outside the box. That's not what you do. That's not what you're
known for. That's not your strength. That's literally wasting everyone's time. And that's my only criticism for Lea. I don't even mind that he walks because he lures the people around him into a false sense of security. Second time I've mentioned that. And then he bursts, you know, he bursts all that walking. I think it's part of a tactic. It's part of a game plan to get the defenders to walk. And then he has that burst of pace that no one around him seems to have.
I like it. Look, what's the best football player he tends to walk a lot as well? It doesn't mean anything. Exactly. Walk and scan, baby. Coop Miner is his penalty. He went down the middle. Manjan dove out of the way. One thing I do want to say about Coop Miner is that he's, as we mentioned, he's one of the genius Atalanta players. And he, this is what I said on the group chat after his penalty. How clever is Coop Miner's man? He knew that Manjan, he must have known that Manjan is a goalkeeper
on the fire at the moment. He's been criticized for not saving penalties, been criticized for not even tracking his penalties. So Manjan with all this criticism over him, he has the whole world watching. We know what type of goalkeeper Manjan is. We know what type of person to a certain extent Manjan is. He would want to save that and he would want to save it extraordinary, extraordinarily. The last thing Manjan would want to do is be, is not dive while a penalty is taken
top corner. You know, while he's caught flat within the middle. That's only going to call for more criticism. Coop Miner steps up and he blasts it right down the middle. Obviously Manjan's going to dive out of the way. How clever is that man? How clever was that penalty? Yeah, yeah, yeah. As you say, he's, he's one of those genius Atalanta players. Currently he's playing this offensive position. He's intelligent. I'm sure you could plug him in a lot of positions
in the field and he would still be amazing. But yeah, as you say that, that penalty kick he had it so get out. He knew what he was going to do before he put the ball down on the penalty mark. It was all calm and cool and controlled and he didn't look stressed for a one second. Yeah, yeah, absolutely man. Imagine a universe bro where Jim City scored that back heel attempt, by the way. You know the one on that corner, he bloody, that was crazy if that went in. Thankfully,
thankfully we're not talking about that. By the way, total disaster, forgot the goal of the week. Didn't even talk about it, didn't even address it. Totally forgot the goal of the week. Goals two. Who was our goal of the week anyway, right? Paulo de Bala. Paulo de Bala, yes, yes, for a fantastic goal. A fantastic curler from miles out. He might a little bit, but probably not. I mean, he's probably grateful that the episode happened
anyway without him. Yeah, this would have been a disaster if it weren't for you, Alan. You've heard the episodes that I had to do alone and they were never fun. It's always like I make a point or I blab on and then I stop and it's almost like I'm waiting for someone to react. Then I just have to pick up from where I left off. It's very difficult. One on podcasts are totally difficult. Yeah, one thing I do want to say is that I have been so impressed by Pulisic.
So, so, so impressed by Pulisic. He's a leader. He's tidy. He's so tidy in his play, so tidy when it comes to his first touch, the way he controls the ball, the way he can either cut inside or go towards the byline. I think he's a very, very good football player and he's finally found some continuity. He's not struggling too much within the injuries and I'm going to touch wood over there. Pulisic so far has been so impressive to me, so impressive, even when he's not scoring.
A very impressive player. Anyway, I don't know if there are any other takeaways you have from the game, Alan? Besides Pulisic, I'm sure the H is the official pronunciation, right? And he bastardized it? Well, yeah, he said that he himself pronounces it American way, some kind of a thing, even if it goes all against all my natural instinct. Pulisic, yeah, he's great. He's really stepped up, stepped up and as you say, he's taking this leader role. Other notes I've written down about this game.
It's a bit about Atalanta's game plan because it was very evident that they didn't want to allow any space to run into, so they were defending very, very low, but they also wanted to do the high press at the same time, which resulted in this weird dynamic where there was this wide open area in the center of the pitch that both teams kind of left open because Milan also does the same
thing, right? They press high with their strikers as high as possible. They want to press the defending line and they try to build up from the back with the defender, so there was left this huge gap in the center of the pitch, which I think worked to Milan's advantage, especially in the first half, until Atalanta got that penalty. You could see Milan playing the ball to Adli, I think Adli looked
better because of that tactic. Adli had the space and time to look around and pick out the pass, but it was a very unique and weird, unopening way to play football, where both teams had a lot of players in each end of the pitch and the middle was kind of left wide open. Absolutely, and that
resulted in Milan having pretty much 70% ball possession, 68% to be totally accurate. Statistically, Milan totally outperformed Atalanta, but Atalanta, as we said, have transitioned into this more pragmatic, street smart side, and they can really take, they can get a team like Milan who wants to play possession-based football and be like, listen, you can have the ball all you want, we're going
to get what we came for, and we just don't want to lose over here. I'm surprised to be honest that Atalanta didn't push for more, because I think they might have been able to manage, they exercised their typical play style, I think they could have been able to get more out of the game, but perhaps they would have come at a risk. Maybe Gasperini was happy with the point against
the Rossoneri. Yeah, I had that feeling that they were maybe happy with the point, and it may be tough, like, okay, we're playing Milan away, we're going to play Inter away like three days in between, or whatever it was. Let's just get past this, and we're going to get the points against the other teams, which I'm sure they will. So yeah, and the game against Inter, just since I mentioned it, you could tell like they started off quite good in the Fournier loss, but once things went sideways,
they kind of took that put us to bed and said like, well, we'll take the next game. So I think in this Milan game as well, they were a bit of the same attitude, we don't want to lose, but we're not going to risk too much on winning. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, I tend to agree with you totally over there. Prez must be given to Karnasekki, who had a solid game, unlike his game against Inter, to be honest.
I like the way that he commands his box, he's very protective of the area, he comes out very well, he collects the ball, he commands the area brilliantly, and I think that that really plays out of the hands of a player like Giroud, who thrives in space and that gap between the goalkeeper and himself, that's a space where he attacks, and the goalkeeper is rushing out, he just makes it
even harder and harder for Olivier to do what he does best. So yeah, shout out Karnasekki, very good goalkeeper, been following you for a while, well done. But yeah, Milan are currently in third on that island where they're quite safe in that top four spot,
but they can't really push for the league. Purely said that the league's pretty much done, he pretty much congratulated Inter who are on another level this season, and you know, why not, yes, they're all thinking it, so he might as well say it himself. Right now I wonder what Milan's objective is right now this season, surely it's to go all the way in the Europa League, I think the Europa League must be a priority right now for Milan.
Yeah, there's nothing else, so it's no better. They have to push all the way, there are not many other teams up to their level, anything but Europa League final for Milan now would be a disadvantage. I agree with you man. The next game we can talk about is Bologna,
Bologna Verona. It's weird that we're talking about so early on, you know, despite being one hour and 34 minutes in by the way, but Bologna are in fourth place man nowadays with 48 points, and they're really cementing that despite their little dip a few match days ago, they had a slight dip where they weren't quite as... Microscopic. Pardon? Microscopic dip, sorry to interrupt.
Exactly, no absolutely, it was a microscopic dip, and I thought to be honest it would spiral out of hand, but they bounced back very quickly and they've won their post-5 games in a row, to be honest with you. Yeah, and this game saw Giovanni Fabian's fourth goal of the campaign, he converted Avoli from Orsolini's set up. The match was actually disrupted when Rosario Abisso, the referee, was replaced by Giacomo Campione after three minutes he pulled up injured,
the referee was injured three minutes into the game. That's quite uncommon and you know, I can't help but find that a little bit amusing. Yeah, it's so fun, I don't know why, like it's... He can get injured, he's just like the others running out there, it's always so funny when a referee gets injured.
Remov Pruyler scored the second goal by volleying high into the net from Fabian's cross, so Fabian went from goal scorer to goal provider, and this was actually Pruyler's first goal in Serie A since returning after departing from Atalanta, and his first goal for Bologna. Yeah, so good to see him back on the score sheet despite that not really being his game at all.
But yeah, Bologna continue to prove that they are a side not to be taken lightly, because this Verona team have given the likes of Juventus problems recently. Yeah, I actually just now realized that when I was talking about Napoli earlier, I said that they drew Verona, obviously I meant that Napoli drew Paglia.
No, Bologna totally dominated this game. We saw the Bologna that we've seen all this season, and I don't know what to say about them anymore, they just played really good football, and you can see now, as you said, more avenues for scoring goals, more pairs of scoring goals, it's not just a zero-to-one show. Has the Diago Molta coach of the season probably? Absolutely. Yeah, for sure, for sure coach of the season of course,
of you. I think that the word might have to go to Zaghi, just by the way, how dominant in there have been. But yeah man, Motta has definitely done God's work with this Bologna side, and when you look at the quality of the team in comparison to where they stand in the table, it's definitely about Motta, who's over-achieving over here. The most exciting manager in the league.
Yes, definitely. And yeah, they are ticking on all fronts. Zergsi has been a revelation, but so have the players around him, and Fabian, his goal-scoring prowess and his instinct always impressed me. I'm always surprised by how this guy manages to insert himself and to put himself at the end of these chances. He looks so young as well, you know, he's just so crazy seeing him being so productive with that baby face, you know. Yeah, tell me, tell me. I looked through this match,
I looked through this pass, I looked through the preparation for this. I saw the match on my phone on Friday because I saw like 10 minutes there, I was interrupted 10 minutes there. But looking through the highlights and looking through the stats, Verona had absolutely nothing to show for him. There was one mistake by Skorupski that they almost, and there was this one random counter-attack. Otherwise, it just belonged all the way.
That Skorupski mistake was actually pretty well handled by Soslov, who went for a first-time chip and managed to get it on target, sorry, and it was cleared off the line. I'm pretty impressed by Soslov, had that gone, and I think that might have been the goal of the week. Another player who has risen this long aside. Yeah, for Verona, surely. You mean? Oh, sorry, yeah. And I think Soslov has been the main guy for Helas Verona, actually. He's been the
constant all season. If you look at, okay, Zürich started the season very well, but he fucked off halfway through. He got out of that trainwreck of a team. It's pretty catastrophic what's going on at Helas Verona. And when it comes to the teams that I want relegated, man, I look at the likes of Saller and Netan. I don't want Saller and Netan at one, man. I think that Saller and Netan have actually a pretty interesting project with a nice sporting director. Granted,
the sporting director wasn't there from the get-go. I like the fans. I like the club. I like what they are. I don't want to see them going. Then you have the likes of Helas Verona and Udineza, who have just been fucking free-falling. Season after season, they just get worse and worse and worse. Kind of like what Genoa were doing up until their relegation and their revitalization.
But yeah, it's a shame that Udineza will probably survive. And let's hope that Verona get the punishment they deserve so that they can start from scratch and create a new blank slate. Yeah, I totally agree with you. For Saller and Netan, just the fans want me to have them up there. That's all. Everything else, I don't care that much about. We haven't come to this Saller and Netan game, so I'm going to try to keep it short. But the other fans are amazing.
Fair enough. Yes. Bologna with their impressive victory have cemented their position in fourth spot with 48 points, while Helas Verona are in 17th temporarily out of the relegation pool, tied on points with Saswolo with 20 points. Yes, bro. Skorupski, when it comes to Skorupski, by the way, this is a point I wanted to make that I totally forgot. He is a great goalkeeper, quite error-prone at times. He does have mistakes in him, and I think that's what's really stopping
him from taking the next step. But I would love to see him play in Europe. I think that Skorupski is a player who very much deserves it. I mean, it was only last season that Matthew hailed him as the best goalkeeper in the league. We mocked him, we laughed at him, but he might have been on to something, you know, because when it comes to shot stopping, when it comes to full stretch saves and this clutch impressive acrobatic saves,
he's probably one of the best. Yeah, definitely. He's doing the job, no doubt. Can I touch upon the Yurich comment about Zerze? Yes, please, please. Yes, he compared him to Zlatan, didn't he? Yes. What do you make of that trick? So, when someone's compared to Zlatan, I often think to myself, okay, why would someone be
compared to Zlatan? If a player is compared to Zlatan, what do I expect from the player? So, first of all, I expect size, I expect physical superiority, I expect this player to be able to out muscle his defender pretty much quite easily, right, a titan of a striker. I also expect, I would expect this player to have fantastic technique like next level close ball control, able to turn,
able to shoot, able to make something out of nothing. That was Zlatan and let's not forget Zlatan, some of the younger fans might not know how mobile Zlatan was when he was younger. He was incredible when it comes to his movement, man. He was like imagine Zerze but times 100, you know, and not to mention the lethality man. Zlatan was and until the end was a killer, you can't give him a second because he would punish you for it. Zerze, I understand the comparisons
that have been drawn to Zlatan because he's thought he's quite strong. He's got good technique, very good technique and to be honest, it's the technique that's closest to Zlatan than anything else because when it comes to physical superiority, he's got a long way to go, I think, and when it comes to being clinical as a striker, he still has a lot to prove personally. That's my opinion. Yes, I do agree with you. I think it's fresh to say the least to compare to Zlatan.
In Yurits defense, he said that he didn't say that, like he said that in certain movements, he was similar to Zlatan. But yeah, come on, bro, there are such different players. And once I, because I wrote this down as a Patreon question to you, and I googled just to ask myself, like how was Zlatan at age 22? And I googled like Zlatan in Iax. He was there for a few seasons. And Zlatan at that time, he already had that killer instinct. He was going to kill everybody
that stood in his way. He was a mentality monster from day one. And that's not something you can teach or adapt during your career. Either you have it or you don't. Right? Zlatan has it. I would say that Zertse doesn't. Zertse is a great player by all means, but he doesn't. The mentality of Zlatan is such a big part of his game. The will to kill. That actually rhymes. It was not a question. Zlatan has the word to kill. Zertse is an elegant player. He does move the ball around in
a similar sense. He drives it with his foot. He doesn't kick it. He drives it with him. His pulse, I get that part, but otherwise there's no really very different players. I totally agree with you, man. Zlatan had the upbringing of a mentality monster. Zlatan had a tough life, man, from the get go. He was a minority. He was racially profiled wherever he's been. He grew up in poverty, not poverty, not poverty per se, but his father was working class and had to try
to provide for him. He openly admits that he used to steal bicycles and things like that. Modern day footballers that came up through a system would not really understand, I think, I think that these life lessons can play a big part on the pitch. And that's why, for example, South American football players would always have this edge when they have the talent. If you have an equally talented European player and an equally talented South American player who grew up in the
streets, in the Favelas, in Brazil, they're going to have that edge. They're going to have, they just know more about life, man. That's it. Yeah, they have more of them there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man. Bologna in fourth with 48 points, while Helas Verano are down in 17th with 20 points. And that takes us to Roma against Torino. And this was a shootout, which ended with the score of 3-2. It was Debala who opened the scoring with a penalty before Duvan
Zapata scored an expert header after being set up by the ever impressive Raul Bellanova. The second half started in the 57th minute. Debala got the second goal, which was absolutely outrageous of a strike. Outrageous goal, and that's our goal of the week. And Brian Cristante got the assist over there, but I'm sure he didn't expect that to happen. In the 69th minute, Debala, after some brilliant hold-up play from Lukaku, Lukaku had some amazing centre-forward play over there.
I'm holding the ball up and playing him in behind. And then Debala had the tightest angle to finish from, and he still managed to squeeze it into the back of the net to complete the hat-trick. Huyssen would go on to score an own goal after coming on in the 89th minute, but that would be all for Torino, and Roma would get all three points. Bro, there are Cs Roma. Yeah, it's amazing. Look, the third goal from Debala is the one that, of course,
the second goal is the most beautiful one, without the goal of the week. But from a manager point of view, that third goal was fantastic. You have two players who single-handedly passed through four defenders like it was nothing. It's a simple play and go, a play and run, or how do you say the name? Give and go. Give and go, right? Yeah. And the entire defence was open, the defence was open. Debala has the quality to put it from that angle. Vanya Milik, with Savitis, no joke,
he's a really good goalkeeper. But Debala just has that snap, that's wild. He made them look a bit shit, and we know he's not shit, but he made them look a little bit shit the way he just kept putting it past them. Yeah, I think it's fair to say it wasn't his best thing. I think a player, a goalkeeper of Vanya's reach should have gotten quicker to the post on the second goal. I don't want to take anything away from Debala, but I think that he should have
been able to reach it. Yeah, I do agree with you. However, man, the weight on the shot, it bounced at the back of the net. It kicked to it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, safe to say Torino are missing Bon Jovano once again, yes. They had Maslina, Lovato and Gigi at the back who, they're deployable, not quite Bon Jovano though, let's be real,
Bon Jovano I think this season has been a revelation for Torino. I would expect that he's the next defender to be snapped up in a similar way to the way Bremer was snapped up by Juventus. Raul Bellanova, when it comes to this Torino side, for me, Duvan Zapata first of all has this new lease of life that I thought the guy was kind of finished with the way he was playing. I must admit, I thought that he didn't have much left in him and I thought that he wouldn't be as
prolific as he once was. However, this season at Torino is showing that he can still score a good handful of goals. Raul Bellanova, bro, just playing well, man, just playing really, really well and consistently and being a threat and making, being a menace, you know, and he just
seems to be fitter, man, than his opponent every time. He can track back and being fitter offers you more freedom to attack and to stretch the opponent because you can track back in time and I think that's what Bellanova is really taking advantage of right now is his fitness quite frankly, his ability to really stretch the game and then recover and he's been super. But his, yes, fitness, obviously, but secondary I would say that he has the confidence as well, especially you can see it
in the goal. He's starting to run, defender catches up to him, he has to track back, he's like, fuck it, I'm gonna go around him anyway. He has the confidence to do the things that many other defenders or fullbacks would not dare to do. He lifts it up. Can I ask you, I'm under the pressure, the pressure, the impression that the beer is starting to get to me. Yeah, yeah, same here with the wine. I'm under the impression that the Zapat has gotten fitter. When I'm fine jumping up there,
like that one looks like a beast. Didn't you look like that with the talent I felt? Not towards the end, that's for sure. He was looking more kind of like Louis Muriel towards the end of his stay. Perhaps it's, yeah, sometimes you need a new environment. Sometimes you need to work for a new man. I mean, imagine, you know, this guy went to a new team, the coach came up to me, he's a respected coach. You are the centerpiece of my team. The team is
gonna play to serve you. You just need to get in shape and you need to make yourself available and be as ready as possible for all the service that you can possibly imagine because this team will work for you. You'll have the likes of Ricci, you'll have the likes of Bellanova, you'll have the likes of Vlasic and Sanabra, everyone trying to serve you up a plate. And that must have motivated them much more than playing 30 minutes every week under Gasperini.
Yeah, definitely. Now he's looking very good, but Bellanova also is, I feel like Bellanova is involved in every attack that Lino has. I'm not gonna say that everything goes through him, but in one way or another he's practically always involved in their attacking play as a fullback. I feel like every week we're praising him. Precisely. Can I ask you, I have one question. Inter had the possibility to sign Bellanova. Do you think it was a mistake?
Yes, for sure it was a mistake. I think now they're looking to offload the Dumfries. They've brought in Buchanan, Buchanan, Buchanan. Buchanan, Buchanan, Buchanan. Yes, I think it was a mistake. Pardon? I believe he's Canadian. Yes, I believe so. Yes, I think it was a mistake. I think when you look at the options they have, they have Dumfries who they're willing to let go of. It's pretty well
known that if an offer comes in for Dumfries, I think Inter would let him go. Then they have Dar Mian who in the event of an emergency would have to play as one of the centrebacks. I think that Raul Bellanova could have been a good fit for the centre team. Can you imagine the mark on the left Bellanova on the right with this Bellanova? For sure he would be even better in Inter, obviously.
Absolutely. I remember him when he was still a Milan player. I don't know if you had the last episode, I was talking about how when he was 16 or 17 years old, he would post the videos of his assists on Instagram. They go such a long way. How do I hurt every episode of the game? The mad. You're the mad. Matt and I had prepared. For those of you who don't know who are listening right now, Alan actually visited Malta and we watched a little bit of
football with him over at our place. Matt and I were living together at the time. We had a question prepared for you, bro. Who do you prefer? No, no, no, no. You don't ask a mother which child she loves the most. I don't know. Do you have any favourite moments, any funny moments, any highlights in your head? Yeah, I have those. There are moments where because you're brothers, you have this MSG and you have this inside jokes that in a sense transcend very well to the listeners.
I don't think I have a favourite moment, but there are like random moments. I remember when Matt was talking about Ponyakic. He's a horse out of the blue. It's not the comment in itself, but probably you're laughing. Both of you were just rolling on the floor laughing and I was just imagining like what is going on over there. I did not catch the reference that Matt was. I had not seen the TikTok.
The funny thing is I hadn't seen the TikTok either. I hadn't seen it. He had to pause and show it to me. He was like, he's a horse. I was like, what the hell is he saying? What's the horse doing over there? I don't think I have a favourite moment, but definitely when it's like those moments when you get the feeling or when you see how well you know each other, that you are able to transmit well throughout the podcast. It's genuine. It's real. It's not some people pretending to know
shit or pretending that the other one is funny. That's something I often hear in other podcasts. I'm not an animal. This fake laughter or like you never have that. You're real. You're you. Those are the moments that I enjoy the most. Thank you, bro. Thank you. That's lovely to hear. Yes. Having a brother is a blessing and a curse at the same time. He knows everything, which naturally is too much. Roma, bro, on the other hand, we can talk a little bit about them.
I personally was not aware of Asmune's game. I don't know about you, but this game, I was so impressed by him. Yes, he was very good. I was not aware of his game either. And I'm not going to say that Lukaku needs to look behind his back because he doesn't, but he's also not replaceable. Lukaku gets injured. Roma are not going to be in big trouble. Yeah, yeah, because he's a good link-up striker as well, similarly to Lukaku.
He services his teammates very well. Yeah, he has a good interest in the industry. He's strong. He keeps the ball. I think, based on this game against Torino, I think he's the type of guy who will make the others around him appear better than they are. I agree. I had no idea he could drive like that with the ball personally. Every time I got the ball and he started driving with it, I was like, he's actually pretty good. For Roma, everything's
ticking. I'm very happy to see Zavilar and Goul who had another good game over here. A much better goalkeeper all around at the moment than Rui Patricio. I'm going to straight up say that because Rui Patricio, man, I often find myself wondering, is he at this level? Is he at the level? This isn't the same Rui Patricio that was at Wolves. Definitely not. Jessica praises Rui Patricio. He says that I'm a little bit too harsh. Jessica being the Roma fan or our
patient. But yeah, I am enjoying what Zavilar has been doing. Yeah, Chester knows Roma better than I do. Yeah, but for me it's obvious that Zavilar appears a lot more stable consistent. I will say that on the first Zapata goal, I think that Zavilar took his time to get over the possible. Because it was a weird looping one, no? It appeared savable, but I don't think he expected it personally.
Yeah, I think he miscalculated it. I think he was expecting it. He didn't know if he was going to jump far or he was going to run over and it turned out to be a thing in between. But look, everybody can make a mistake on miscalculation as part of the game. Yeah, and that header by Zapata was perfectly placed as well. It was like kissing the post. So yeah, it's totally excusable. But yes, I do agree with you.
I think Zavilar is the future for Roma right now and the way to go. And of course, they will have to evaluate in the summer if they're going to stick to Zavilar or a bit from the options. When it comes to Zavilar versus Patricio, bye. Absolutely. Yes, and with this victory, Roma have charged all the way up to sixth with 44 points. They are in contention for that Champions League spot. Actually, there are just four points behind
nowadays and they're really flying up the table. It just goes to show, right? With a good run of form, you can really, really, really rush up that table. On the other hand, Torino are perfectly mid-table. Just anytime you would say, guess where Torino are on the table, if you guess 10, you're probably correct because they sit in 10th right now with 36 points. Perfectly mid-table. And I guess that's where they're happy to be. That's where Cairo would ideally like to be, right?
That's where they belong. Look, I want to make a point on Torino because I know you and Matt have been joking a lot and it's super fun. But they're missionaries? Yes, they are the missionary team. But look, they are as high as they can expect to be. I think you and it's all the knowledge doing a good job with them. What more can you expect from Torino? Are they going to be better than, okay, Bologna is overperforming. Sprite, Bologna, look at all the other teams in front of them.
Why are they going to be better than Torino? We don't know. Will they be better than Atalanta? No, they don't have the talent to compete with that. I think, okay, Torino are boring, but they are solid. They're doing the work. They're doing the job. Maybe they are waiting for the right time to strike gold with a player or two. But I cannot see them doing any better. They are getting what they are expected to get and they are not losing the points. They are not expected to lose.
Absolutely, man. Eurydice is doing God's work and granted, things maybe have gone stale at Torino. It's not Eurydice's fault. It's the lack of quality, to be honest with you. I mean, the starting level is okay. That's already being a little bit lenient saying the starting level. Because there are a few question marks over there. But the squad could improve a lot more. And I mean, Cairo, to be honest, should take that extra step and invest a little bit more if he's
capable of doing it. To really push for those European places, because Torino are there with the manager they have and the way they've been playing. They can totally do it. Interestingly enough, by the way, they're so mission-reality. Guess their goal difference? Goal difference has to be quite equal. When you say it like that, it's probably like 22-22. Dude, their goal difference is zero. They've scored 25 and they've conceded 25. Yeah, so it's three goals away.
Totally, totally, totally mission-reality. Yeah, I've said where they are in the table. We can move on now to Kalyari, Napoli. This, in my opinion, was Napoli failing at their own hands. This draw was all Napoli's fault. Because I feel like towards the end of the game, they could have killed it. But the individuals went for glory instead of playing their teammates and who were in a better position. And this happened twice. Simeone being on the receiving end of it, as I alluded to earlier on.
While he could have set up the second one, but he went for glory himself, proving to be a little bit of a hypocrite. Ozyman started up front. Raspidori was on the right with Baratskelia on the left. It was business as usual, pretty much with Matsuki as right back. Rahmani, Kwanhezus and Olivera at the back. Everything else was pretty much orthodox. For Kalyari, Zito Lovumbo started this game out on the left in a 4-4-1-1 formation.
One of Ranieri's most infamous formations. Just two blocks of four, two rows of four. Very difficult to penetrate. It was Yerimin and Dosena as the formidable center back partnership with Nandes and Argello on the flanks. Yankto was on the right, Lovumbo was on the left. My least favorite player in the world, Deola was in midfield with Geitano playing behind La Padula. Yes, bro. I thought Napoli should have won this. They should have totally won this.
Yes, but they didn't, right? I think they need to thank themselves for it. It was there to win and they didn't take the chance. One thing that I did find a bit funny was looking at this lineup. You had Raspadori on the right wing, not on the left, which is not his natural position. Yet again, he was among the best players, not players, which makes me say, what the fuck is going on? He could be, but definitely Napoli could have done better in this game.
Yes, Raspadori was magnificent in this game. I think it's one of his best games this season, to be honest with you. Towards the end of the game, of course, the first goal came at a 32nd minute, actually. It was a disallowed goal. Rahmani got into the back of the net, but it was disallowed due to him being in an offside position in the 66th minute. Then it was Victor Oziman, who was set up by the impressive Raspadori, who gave Napoli the lead. They went out to miss
all their chances, basically. Then in the 96th minute, Dossana just hail marries it over the top, boots it over the top. He's like, I've got the Wombosuit all charging at them. Let me just try to play him in behind. I wasn't even playing him in behind because it was a 50-50 in the end between Lovumba and Juan Jesús. Pardon? He didn't really think much else. Lovumba found himself in a 50-50 with Juan Jesús, who did what every coach has instructed me not to do with my very amateur
brief spell at Milita FC in Malta. Don't let the ball bounce, man. When you have a physical advantage over your opponent, don't let the ball bounce. Juan Jesús let the ball bounce. Lovumba acrobatically, and you know how tenacious he is. He just spun with those massive ties in his high shorts. He just turned his man and put it in the back of the net, punishing Napoli. On the scenes, of course, you can imagine inside the knee. We're absolutely phenomenal. At first it looked like he got injured.
I don't know if he was faking it. I don't know if it was one of those trends. What do you think? The TikTok thing? No, I was going to say fortunately, not fortunately, I don't want him to be injured, but I'm glad it wasn't one of those TikTok trends. I think it was actually injured. But did you see they were not giving a fuck about his injury? Yeah, no one cared. Your teammate is in pain and you're just grabbing him from the behind.
It's like, be happy, bitch, be happy. No. In fact, one of his teammates became self-aware, and they actually tried to get the teammates off him, but they just kept appearing out of nowhere and jumping onto him. It's not nice having the likes of Dos Sena and Yerimin jumping on you. You're the size of Lvoombazito, right? That's a lot of kills, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then after everyone had jumped on him, when the fans were calling his name, he did this funny little celebration where he just kind of taunted the Napoli fans. I love it. I love it. I'm a big fan of Lvoombazito, bro. I think that he's destined for a step up. Right, especially if Kaila gets relegated, he has to move on. The question is probably where? I don't see him in the upper half of the table yet, but he has to be...
Where should we put him? Manzai is probably not his level. Can it be... Maybe Manzai. Yeah, I was going to say Manzai, but too far off, I think. I think we could do a good job over there. When it comes to... Yes, so Alan and I spoke a little bit about Lvoombazito off here because I'm a big fan. The main question that you had is why doesn't he play 90 minutes, right? That's a phenomenal question. We have discussed on the podcast, perhaps it's
Ranieri's overthinking. Maybe he tries to save Lvoombazito for an extra gear while also protecting him because we've seen how players play against the likes of Lvoombazito and Leao as well. They just kick the shit out of him. Maybe he's protecting him. Maybe he's protecting the best player that could save them from relegation. Or perhaps it's something deeper. Perhaps it's a fitness issue.
Perhaps it's a work ethic issue, which would be very concerning. We don't know the reality behind it, but if serial engange can get a move to Napoli, then I don't think Lvoombazito can get a move to Manzai. True. Look, if this Ranieri protecting him thing was for one or two or three or even four games, I might buy it. But when you are on a full season and you're in relegation, in a relegation spot, you're a second-person elite, and you're not playing who is presumably your best
player, I don't think it's a tactical choice anymore. There's something more to it. I think there is a matter of discipline or fitness or maybe understanding of tactics. Who knows what. I don't think it's about protecting him anymore. Because if protecting him isn't working anymore, you need to do something. Like, okay, I have this card on my hand, but I choose not to pay it. My team is going to get relegated, but I'm still not going to pay this card because I have this theory
about protecting him. You're about to get relegated, you play your best cards. And this is where I'm starting to question what is going on with Lvoombazito. Because there is something there that we respect. I'm not able to see why he is not playing. That's a very good point. When you're 19th, you need your best man out there. And Lvoombazito is by far the best man. He's everything. And quite often we find Lvoombazito being introduced to certain games when they're pretty much over.
They're done. The game, they're 2-0 down, they're 3-0 down. What's he going to do? And sometimes he manages to ignite these miraculous comebacks. And let's not get the twist. These comebacks, if you watch, for example, the game against Frostinon and where they came back from 3-0 down, it was all Zito. It was all him. It was all Lvoomba coming on. Shopping on the right, on the left. No matter where the ball is coming from, it's him on the end of it. I'm curious to see how his
career develops. I'm a big fan of his and I do hope that he... My ideal is that Kallieri survive and he stays there and he develops there. That's the best case scenario. Yeah, you and me both, yes, Kallieri survive. We'll see. I've got this scarf right there. Matt and I are actually thinking of going up to Sardinia, man, before the end of the season and watching a Kallieri game. I think that would be maybe the
lecture one. Kallieri lecture end of March, I think that would be an incredible game unless we go on it's an... Apparently they have a really good atmosphere. That's not very visible on TV. I don't know, but that's what I heard. They post some behind the scenes on social media. They've got their Instagram admin on the pitch and he takes videos. They've got these incredible angles of the goals when the players are basically running towards the camera, man, and he films
the fans and it's spectacular, man. The atmosphere looks amazing in Sardinia, really. When it comes to the standings, Kallieri are in 19th with 20 points, while Napoli are in 9th with 40 points. They'll be hitting themselves. We're not closing this one out, especially after demolishing Saasvolo, six goals to one. The next game we can cover is Fiorentina 2, Lotzjoh 1. This was a massive game that happened on a Monday night. It was a little bit of a
treat, to be honest. I think to summarize this game, you can basically say that Fiorentina came out and they attacked and they attacked and they attacked and they missed and they missed and they missed. They hit the post four times, I think four or five times. Three times in first half. Yeah, so unlucky to not score. They even missed the penalty. You had Nico Gonzalez in the second half doing his little jump and he shot the left, as he always does, and he hit the post.
No, look, I wrote it down in my notes because I had to check it out after the game. He has taken five penalties this year, three goals, two misses, and all five have been more or less identical, except the only one that stood out was really the last one because it was more wide to the left than the previous four. If hit the post, usually it's like one or two,
one and a half meter within the post. The goalkeeper was wrong-footed. He would not have stated if it went inside the goal, but it's really surprising that a player can take five identical penalties in the same season. If I as a spectator can see it on TV, then imagine what
the goalkeeper is actually studying and take notes. Then I wonder, Alan, could it be that the technique is so misleading that you never actually think, but when you're in it and you're the goal keeper, could it be that you actually have no idea where he's going to go or maybe he really hints that you're going to go to one side because it is bizarre. He always shoots bottom left, always, no matter what. The season he's always going to, and I think Summer is the only one who saved it.
Yes, Summer really like an open book, but Summer has done his homework. For sure. Yeah. Look, I think it's, yeah, the technique can explain a lot of it, but okay, you only once, only twice, the third time, bro, I know what you're doing. If I was a goalkeeper and Nikko is stepping up to take a penalty, I'm going to die left regardless. I'm going to die left before he strikes the ball. I'm going to be on the left or my right.
Yeah. This run up, man. If I was the coach, not for me, you're not taking another penalty I'm sorry. I can't do it. I can't do it. It gives me anxiety watching it. And especially when he missed, you could see he was so embarrassed. Of course he's going to be embarrassed. That run up is the cockiest, most obnoxious run up I've ever seen. And it's true when it works, you know, he's such a confident guy. And when he gets the run up, you know, when he runs up,
there was one game he scored the penalty. I think he was laughing before the referee even blew the whistle. He was laughing. The referee blew the whistle. He runs up, skips, scores, wheels off in celebration. But it's just not for me, man. If you put power behind the penalty, you're more likely to score. And I'm all for that, man. I watched Mario Ballatelli taking penalties for Milan growing up. And I watched him never miss a single one, except for one game against Sudanese.
And what was the common factor about these penalties, man? They were all different. Every single penalty was different. And he would smack some in, like, you know, three penalties, you should hoof them into the roof of the net. And the next one, pass at bottom corner, you know, keep the goalkeeper guessing. That's it. The goalkeepers are going to study. This is their fucking job, for God's sake. I do my research for a podcast. These guys are making millions to do
this job, you know, don't know what research they're doing. They have people hired to do this research for them. They don't even do it themselves. They can get the paper and say, kid, here's how to say USB stick with all the penalties for him to stay in the past three seasons. There you go. That's how you know. Nice. I think it's inexcusable. And I will say this about since you mentioned Ballatelli, all his penalties were different. But the common factor is that he always waited the goalkeeper
out. And he shot where it was open. The difference that they both do a kind of a skip or Ballatelli kind of starts faster and then slows down. He slows down a bit towards the end. Yeah, very similar to me. I'm sure we're going to get on to later. While Gonzalez, he does this skipping thing like Georgina, but he shoots at the same angle every time. So if you do the skipping thing and proceed to shoot an additional angle where the goalkeeper is not going or like where
it's open, okay, I can get it. But if you do the skipping thing and you shoot at the exact same angle every time, you're just being repetitive and easy to read. I agree. Totally bro. Yeah, but this penalty came in the second half, of course, and it was towards the end of the first half in the 45th minute that against the run of play, Luis Alberto scored the goal after Guendouzi passed him the ball, setting him up in a space kind of like between the midfield and the defense.
There was quite a hole, quite a pocket over there and Luis Alberto was intelligent enough to take advantage of it and end his dry spell, to be honest. He's been under quite a bit of criticism lately. In the 61st minute, of course, in the second half, Fiorintina did not give up. They kept pushing and pushing and pushing and a ball came into Coyote who smacked it upwards and it looked like it was going to hit the crossbar to be honest. It did the honest way to the roof of the net, right?
And that was a well taken goal and he really enjoyed the Coyote and you can see the passion in his celebration. It's always nice to see a young player scoring a goal on a stage like this. How cool is it when he runs to the pan and just like screams in his face? I don't know what they're saying but I imagine it's like, did you see that? Did you feel it in the pan? It goes like, fuck yeah! And there they are, hugged each other. Ah, it was a really cool moment.
You can feel it. You could feel the energy coming off of Coyote through your screen. I get pumped myself watching that and it's like, I want to hug them as well. Same here man, absolutely. I love this stuff man. I'm not all for the refined celebrations, you know, the ball I can score a hat trick and then just hit you with a... I want to see pure human emotion pouring out of you man. That's what I want to see. I want to see you lose your cool. Do you remember Lokatelli's goal against Saswolo?
Amila's goal against Juventus. It was a matchday before. He scored against Saswolo, his first ever goal in Serie A and he was a winner and an equalizer in a high scoring game. He cried exactly. He seemed running and crying, couldn't believe it. Or Grosso's goal in the World Cup man. Those celebrations, the pure emotion, that's what I live for man. That's why I watch football to be honest with you. On Coyote's goal though, I just want to point out that he was the
one who started the attack. He broke down the ball, he played it and he kept running and kept running and in the end he found himself at the back post on mark and he buried it. So, Hassan's game that was a really cool moment. Every young defender has to dream about. Yeah, for sure. Totally well deserved, especially when winning it back. Of course, shortly after this, just six minutes later, Nico Gonzalez missed the penalty and then two minutes after that,
Bonaventura scored the rebound after I believe Beltran. His shot was saved by the goalkeeper and then Bonaventura basically finished perfectly and he had hit the post in the first half. He was quite unlucky to not score earlier on. It's nice to see Jack DeCouart doing well. Yes, as a mid-lanf and every mid-lanf fan loves him or likes him and if you dislike him then you're not a mid-lanf. I'm just a dead lanf. But he, Bonaventura found himself in a scoring position at least three times this game,
I believe. He has this thing at least against Lotz and now where he comes in after somebody shoots, he comes in and rebounds. He had one big one in first half. Just now, he cleared it off the line. Not off the line, he blocked it. Provedo was taken out of the game. He only needed to bury it but he chose to go with open wide foot. It was him. But yeah, he has a tendency to find himself in these positions where
normally a striker would be. But so this is part of your intense game, I think, where the Beltran drops, Melotti runs around, walks and then you leave these spaces that Bonaventura can run into and catch the rebound on those situations. It was nice to see he got it. He's been on a
bit of a dry spell, hasn't he? Yeah, it's been a while for him. I don't know if you feel the same way about Bonaventura but when I really think about his days at Milan, I can't quite place if it's going to sound harsh but if he's an intelligent footballer or not, you know what I mean? I mean, spatial awareness, why he's very good. He knows where he should be off the ball. But then on the ball sometimes, I feel like he often makes the wrong decision, especially if it's
not his day. And I remember this with Milan, clearly when Milan were having an off day, he was always like there was something he wouldn't see. I mean, I don't know if you remember the same thing as I do. Yeah, I struggle to actually. I remember the good parts mostly. I remember him as being the one who was doing the little extra when the other ones were lacking and that's why I love him so much is that because there was a time with Milan
or not that good. We had players that we were pretending that they were better than they actually were but Bonaventura was one of those that was lifting us. He was and it wasn't just because he's very skill-during but he had that determination and that heart, yes, that heart that made me or any other Milan fan, Bonaventura or Bonaventura. Yeah, man, I was so emotional when he left. That picture of him in the empty Sun Zero, the touch line holding his head and hands,
the fucking air, man. And think of what he could have done. Think about what he could have done with Milan, the level he's been playing at still at his age. It's a real shame, honestly. He deserved to stay. He really deserved to stay. He was far from finished and he gave Milan so much in such a dark time. Definitely, yeah. It doesn't feel like he's regressed that much, really. Yeah, not at all, to be honest. And even now he made his Italy debut a few months ago and he
scored. Was it his first goal for the Italian national team against my country, Motha, the boss in the Alli Stadium, in front of my fans? But yeah, I'm happy. No, he deserves, he deserves success in the word, man. Yeah, Fiorentina totally deserved this victory. Lots you right now find themselves in a little bit of a sticky situation when it comes to the league.
They're in eighth with 40 points. Surely they'll be pushing for an Europa League spot, but the team, when it comes to simply just quality depth, understanding of the system, a little bit behind. No, they're a little bit behind. They sold key pieces without really replacing them. They keep rotating Sarri's, like give Sarri some continuity with some players, man. Give him continuity with some quality players and he'll get you over the line, I think.
Yes, yes, I agree. But I will also say that isn't that something you would expect from a coach? Like it's pocket football. You will never have this full continuity unless you're a top team who can afford to pick, cherry pick whatever you want to have. Right? Yeah, I think he, I'm starting to feel a little bit, how do you say, unsure about Sarri. Regarding his level, the level that you should be coaching at? Yeah, getting the most out of his team. He's been there for three seasons now.
I don't see anything particular with Lazio now that makes him stand out as a quality side, really. And I think it's too easy to blame on the players. He's been there for a time. He has had his own opportunity and as I said earlier, the reality football is that you won't be able to keep all the players you want and you need to adapt to the players you have. And that's the brutal reality. Yes, but surely when you look at the personnel, let's say this game, for example.
So three years ago, Sarri joined Lazio. He had the Chiro mobile at the peak of his game, right? Starting up front. Granted, Chiro mobile is still there, but is it the same Chiro mobile and not quite? He's saying Chiro mobile, but he's lagging a little bit. You can see the movement is still very dangerous, but he's not quite as sharp as he used to be, especially on the ball. Isaacson, first season. Philippe Anderson, don't even get me started on Philippe Anderson because
I don't know where I stand on him. He's so inconsistent, so wildly inconsistent. Luis Alberto is still their quality player. Happy that he's still there, a little bit of a difficult player to manage, but I think Sarri has done well to get the best out of him. Cataldi is a deep-lying playmaker. Now in a Sarri system, the deep-lying playmaker is so important. Why is Cataldi your deep-lying playmaker? I don't know. I think he could have used a little bit
of reinforcement from Lotito. You look at the full backs in a Sarri system, very important as well. He's still deploying Maru Sech and Lazari, who are average. They're okay. They're not bad. They're not great. They're average. So yes, I do agree that maybe they could be doing better, but I don't think he's got the support of the owner personally. I think that he deserves more support. Yeah, I think you make a good point. I do. I don't know. There is something there that I
don't, I just don't feel it. I say it like that. But yeah, I agree. You make a good point when you say it like that. When you look at one player at a time, they don't have the quality of the kids around them. I have to admit that. And even when you look at the good players, the players that are actually playing pretty well like Guendouzi and Isakson lately, they're new, man. This is their first season in a Sarri side. He's already getting quite a good amount of production out of them.
I'm pretty impressed by Guendouzi. I didn't think that he was. I know he was about this game. You know, and Isakson as well has really grown into a decent player for Lazio. Castellanos hasn't really hit the ground running and he's my biggest disappointment, to be honest, because with New York, I believe he was and he went on loan with Geron. He scored four goals against Real Madrid and he scored quite consistently. He had pretty much one goal in two games everywhere he went.
But it's not really working for him at Lazio. Yeah. They currently set Lazio in eighth place with 40 points, while Fiorentina are in seventh with 41 points. So this was a crucial head-to-head over here between these two teams in a fight for that Europa League spaces. So, bro, we've got three games left, by the way, and we are two and a half hours in. We'll mess it up totally. Yeah, no problem. Bro, whose show is this? It's your show. Our show. Today, this is our show. This is our episode.
Four hours. Fuck it. New record. Once Math and I, towards the beginning, had recorded an episode that I think was just so. It was two or three hours. We had named it Bohemian Rhapsody. It was revolutionary the length of the episode for Serious Pathide. Then we went on to record one episode that was called The Extravaganza. I don't know if you remember. It was four hours long. I'm sure I'll listen to it, but I can't remember right now.
It was wide. We recorded it over three days and we got drunk three days in a row. Ah, yes. That's when we took the break. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, that was fun. So, Bro, we can quickly brush over this game. We had Monza taking on Salernitana away from home. Monza won with a score of two goals to Niel. Now, personally, I was very, very disappointed by Salernitana and their approach to this game. They never really
looked like they were in the game. They were outclassed, outpossessed, outscored, outshot, out everything by Monza. And then this pretty much put the nail in their coffin, I think, personally. Yeah, it's been there for a while. It's been in the making. This was one of the games that they maybe could step up and overachieve a little bit. We saw nothing. Monza were in complete control from the start to the end of the game. You said earlier that Day Ola was your least favorite player.
For me, it's Judith. I wanted to ask you this, Bro. Why is your favorite player? How do I put it? If I find him so one-dimensional, I feel like if you take away his physique for me, and this is hard, but I'm seeing what I want to say. If you take away his physique, I barely see him as a popular player. I think the physique is too big part of his game. It's, show me that you have something more than your height. In first half, he was wasting chances, or not wasting, but
there were chances that good strikers would have utilized better, more fair way. I don't like it. Look, you're absolutely right. I think the reason you don't like him is the reason Matt and I are in love with him. I love the fact that he's a shithouse. He's just size, man. He's just size and power. He's the typical cross to the jury, and the type of player. If I'm not mistaken, it was his header that got Mons of the first goal. He headed them behind to Pesina, was it?
I think it was. Maldini's goal was the first goal, and Pesina's was the second. One of them was over the top from behind, right? He had an assist on the second goal. There was a long ball, and he nicked it. Yeah. Look, he's fun for relegation teams. I'm just surprised to be honest, that Mons of both. Yeah, that's it. I like him at the Salernetana. I like him at Leica Collier. I like him at the Alas Verona, but I don't think he should be at Mons of. I'm of the same opinion as you.
I have been slightly impressed by Visman up front for Salernetana. I like his movement. I like what he can do. It's a shame that his teammates are often not on the same page as he is, particularly Castanos, who should have played the ball back on multiple occasions when Visman played it to
him, but he put it for a shot instead. The 25-year-old Cypriot. Yeah, I think that if Castanos was on the same page as Visman, this could have been a totally different story this game, but Mons of simply had too much for Salernetana, who have simply gone through too many changes this season, when it comes to players, when it comes to managers, when it comes to everything. Yes, but Castanos is just because you're good at shooting from far, doesn't mean that you have to do it. Exactly.
Salernetana, man, it's a shame. Matt and I honestly originally wanted to go and watch them, because their atmosphere is next level as well. Salerno, man, they're absolutely crazy. Some of the roughest in the league, and they've got crazy songs, they've got crazy T-Falls. We really wanted to go there, but we realized that probably would end up being the case. I would book the flight and by the time we get there, they're already relegated. So maybe we'll just go watch them in Serie B next season.
It's better to watch someone who's still in it, someone who has more to fight for, of course, someone like Kaliari, who have a great atmosphere too. Do you find yourself falling in love with these lowly teamsters, if just me and Matt? Oh, no, I definitely do. Salernetana and Kaliari both, I really enjoy them, but they have to have a little bit of, how do you say, a little bit of mmm, about them. A little bit of a spunk.
Yes, I will also shout out to Vetscher, I think they're also quite entertaining at times, at times they're shit, but yeah, I do. And they make the league more fun. There's been this debate about, should I say, I'll reduce to 18 teams or whatever. Please no, don't take away this glitter from me. I want Salernetana, even though they are not playing well.
Don't take this atmosphere away from me, because I'm sure that a fellow patron, Andrew from London will agree that some of the bottom teams have better atmosphere, or they're more of a football club than the top team, Primadonna. It's all about authenticity, man. And nowadays the game is moving, it's becoming less and less authentic, and it's becoming more superficial, quite frankly. But then you look at the lowly sides, and that's where authenticity really sparks.
And if you climb, for example, up the table, I like, for example, what Genoa have, for example, in 12th spot, you look at the Genoa stadium, it's a shit hole. It's an absolute shit hole. Like I went there. Pardon? It's so charming. It's charming, yes. It is charming though, because it's a shit hole, but everyone goes and everyone has a great time, regardless of if the toilets are modern, or if the toilets are a hole in the floor, regardless of the baguette that they give you,
and you order food. Are you really there for a dining experience, or to take a piss in a toilet, bro? Are you there for some football? These teams are honestly so genuine and so pure, and so authentic, and that's what I love about Serie A, and people ask me, oh, why the hell are you upset? I teach many Italian teenagers. I can't quite understand my obsession with Italian football, bro. And quite often they ask me, why do you follow
Italian football? Some even tell me, like, the Premier League's better. I'm like, no, the Premier League's not better, bro. The Premier League is the Marvel series, Serie A's the godfather, you know, Serie A's authentic, Serie A's a work of art. You look at Bologna Stadium, it's an architectural masterpiece with the fucking tower in the middle. You look at the Genoa fans, they're so passionate, man. The chance that they sing, the, I don't know, the closeness of the fans,
the team, I don't know, it just feels real to me. Yes, yes, I get, look, I'm not a Premier League fan to begin with, but I get so much enjoy or satisfaction from these teams, and I think Genoa, this is the best example, they have such passion, they have the flags, you know, the entire fourth end of the Genoa pitch is insanely crowded and everybody, it's in colors and everybody's in great spirits, and how can that not rub off on you, comparing it to, let's not say tourists,
but let's say people who can afford to pay 70 euros for a ticket all season round, like, there is maybe 70 euros, let's say 120 euros, which is more, more tickets, right? They don't have this passion, they don't have this love for the team, as Genoa has, it's remarkable, and I don't know if you follow Genoa on Instagram, I do, yes, they are
the best. They're hilarious, they're so funny. And they, I'm falling in love, yeah, but I have one thing, I do switch based on who's playing well, I'm not like, so Genoa is playing well, I like them this year, I like Verona when they were playing well, I like let's change certain periods of the season and how they choose sheets, I don't have the same enthusiasm to watch
them, so I'm not completely authentic myself after me. That's okay, that's okay, that's just the underdog story, the classic underdog story, everyone loves an underdog who's over-achieving, who's over-performing, Salernitana that one season won all our hearts, just like Crotoana that one season under Nicola, just like Genoa this season, so many teams, so many teams have come,
sold in our hearts and left. Salernitana are in 20th with 13 points, seven points from the other delegation candidates, it's really getting dire right now, they've brought in a manager who's quite offensive and simple, I think they should have brought in someone to maybe tighten the ship or just stick with Pippo, things weren't looking too bad with Pippo, the performances were there, the points weren't, but the points are bound to come when the performances are there,
I think it was a very risky maneuver to bring Pippo in the first place and then to sack him after a tough run of games, I thought it was just bogus from the Salernitana management and I think they brought this on themselves, because this is obviously a learning period for Leverani, he needs to, you don't expect him to just come and beat Monza, you know?
Yeah, I know you and Matavou are really cooperative, I'm not going to repeat what you said, but if you're going to bring in a guy, give him the chance to do something.
Exactly, I agree. Monza on the other hand are in 11th, still there, still quite as impressive as they were when they first got promoted to Serie A last season, another successful year I would say for them, they're in 11th with 36 points, pretty much confirming I think safety, because I don't think I've ever seen a team relegated with 36 points, I think the most I've seen is 34, that Mpolis team that won the season, 34 points and they got relegated I think if I'm not mistaken,
the one that had Traore and Caputo and all those guys. I went back not too long ago and checked and I think I wrote down that 33 is the safe spot, 33 is very for your sake. So they're probably okay, so another successful season for them in Monza,
let's see what happens to Monza, man without Berlusconi, right? At least Gagliani's still there it's still under the Berlusconi family name, at one point the owner of, he's a Greek owner of Olympiakos was rumoured to be taking over, but thankfully that didn't come to fruition, because apparently he's quite a messy owner and he's the owner of Nothing and Forest as well, who have been docked points or who are going to be docked points. Your father's team. My father's team exactly, yes.
Up the forest, I don't know what they say about something like that. The next game we're going to be covering was a thriller, Sa Swolo 2, Empoli 3. Empoli, of course, pretty much doing God's work over here under Davide Nicola. The scoring was opened in the 11th minute by Luperto, assisted by Marin and the 54th minute Penamante would be relieved to have scored the penalty after the one he missed the previous week. Mbayan Young followed
up with another penalty, his third penalty in three games in the 64th minute. Ferrari equalised in the 77th and then Simone Basta won it with his first goal for the club in the 94th minute and another dramatic authentic moment, right? Yes, I think this was my favourite game of the entire round. Yeah, it was good. I loved it. It was Empoli driving Sa Swolo coming back and then in the second half it could have gone either way. It was like a total mess and somehow Empoli got it. It could have gone
always. It was a great match. Yeah, it could have definitely gone either way. I would have bet on a draw, thankfully. I didn't touch this game or if I did it was one of my overall one slips that I've been doing lately. By the way, they are so much fun, bro. I'm just watching every gay going go, go, go. It's no matter who is attacking. It's the best way to watch football. You enjoy every chance. You think, shoot, shoot. Yeah, but when it comes to possession stats, Sa Swolo had the slight
edge. When it comes to the shooting stats, pretty even, to be honest. So it was a shootout end to end. That's what I enjoyed about this game, to be honest as well. It feels like when it was end to end, when Empoli weren't attacking, they had to defend because Sa Swolo were attacking and vice versa, end to end to end. What do you make of Empoli? Were you the one who told me you're not too sure if they'll survive or was that someone else's my mistake? No, it wasn't me. I'm pretty usual
shot there, Sa Swolo. Yeah. I, Empoli are doing great. They, they had a really good first half. Things crumbled a bit in the second half. They lost their organizational, they lost their structure. And maybe by coincidence, they came back and got the winner. But considering they were the away side, and maybe they have a bit less quality than Sa Swolo does, that debatable, obviously.
I was really impressed. The thing I liked the most, I think about Empoli is in first half, they had that stretch of, let's say it was a minute and a half, maybe it was two minutes, where they were just passing the ball back and forth on the left side. And Sa Swolo couldn't touch it. They, they were completely possession. Like there was, it looked so effortlessly. And it taught, it gave me association with Bologna when they are playing well. Everything is just flowing
perfectly effortlessly. There's no, how they say, there's no uncertainty about it. They know what they are doing. Obviously, they, that couldn't last for 90 minutes, but I am super impressed by the Empoli side. And I cannot tell them how a coach like Nicola, after just a few weeks, is already making them play that much better. How is that possible? I don't get it. I don't understand. Everyone in Italy talks about his humanistic qualities, his human qualities, his ability
to transcend that into the game. I would love to be, I would love to be a fly on the dressing room. Yes. I have no idea what he does, what he says. But honestly, I think it's just powerful for a short period of time, because none of his 10 years have really exceeded more than a season, right? Davide Nicola, he always seems to get the sack six months in. I don't know if he's got it figured out. He's just like, how to give the team a boost
a few months. Maybe. I have no idea how to follow up about that. Maybe he's just a very difficult personality to deal with. It could be too. I don't know. We can speculate. We could go on all day speculating. But what's evident is that this guy is definitely a fantastic, fantastic manager. And it's just crazy. You throw him into an atmosphere where everything's on fire and he'll get them out, no matter who it is. He's a miraculous save with
Ratona, with Salernitana. And now with the same police side who had only scored one goal, and I don't know how many games that came through Baldanze, who's left since. And now he's got them scoring three goals away from home in a thriller, in a high scoring thriller in a relegation six pointer. He is in the fire. He likes the fire. Definitely. I think so. I just wonder if we'll ever see him on a big team, man. I don't have that. In a sense, I feel like he's never had a chance.
I didn't mean a big team, but like to stay in a place for a long, for a long time. Yeah, I don't. He's quite young still, isn't he? Or at least he is. He's only 50 years old for a manager that's very young. If you look at his manager career, he's managed the likes of Lumezzane, Livorno, Barry Crotone, Udineza, Genoa, Torino and Salernitana with his longest. They're all a year. They're all a year, man. Livorno was his longest. Other than that, it's a
year, just a year. Maybe that's part of his strategy. Like, sign me for a three-year contract fire me after this first year, and I will collect the salary for two more years. Maybe he's got it all figured out, man. This guy, maybe he's just an elite manager, but he's just enjoying life and playing the smart hand. Yes, surely Sasvalo are okay, right? To survive? Yeah, sure. I wouldn't say so, but that's where UMEA disagree. We talked about it briefly about an hour ago.
Oh, really? Woos! Yeah, did I mention that when Barahidi comes, it'll be okay? Yes, you did. Okay, yeah. Now, surely I'm still of the opinion, and this hour my opinion hasn't changed. Sasvalo are okay. They're okay. Okay, you said it, man. They're okay. But what you said something earlier about Sasvalo, about the manager and during the recording, our friend, Nukmitov, told us something. Oh, yes. Oh, my God. I haven't even spoken about that, man.
Yes, I'll break it, sure. The Sasvalo Primavera manager was appointed as Dionisi's replacement, as the head coach. I haven't even learned his name, but he's been sacked. I'm going to look it up. It's, okay, I don't know how to pronounce it, Bigitia or Bigitia. It's called in Bigitia or the bitch for short. Yeah, he's been, he's been sacked after one game, and guess who they've brought in? David Balardini, dude. The one guy said, why didn't they bring
you a guy like Balardini? And they literally brought them in while we're recording this episode. It's honestly, I'm so surprised. Is it really that straightforward? I guess they're tired of Yakinie, right? They must be tired of Yakinie at this point. But it's funny because, okay, this is going to be a bit, maybe not so good to retell, but we
were not recording, we took a break. And that's when we realized that this news, and during this break, we're talking about like how we found it a bit weird that sometimes you as a spectator feel like you have some insight or knowledge that you're not supposed to have. Like how is this not evident for the people running the club? And that's for use of like, how does not Sasuolo just get Balardini or something? And then five minutes later, Sasuolo gets Balardini and
it's like, bro, I should be running the club. Exactly, really? Really sign me up. To be honest, I wouldn't mind Sasuolo getting relegated, don't tell mint of this, of course, our local Sasuolo fan. I'm just not a fan of the atmosphere, man. I don't, they have no atmosphere. It feels plus, like the stadium's far away from the city centre. The people of Emilia, Romania support other teams. It's just not a cool team.
And it's a warm man team. I, okay, granted, I think Pusztvett has been very impressed with this season, but no Balardini or party and that kind of decision he's gotten on ACL and now he's continued with some muscle injuries, which isn't that uncommon after an ACL. It's boring to be honest. I find them a bit uninteresting right now. Yeah, it's almost like they're waiting for Baradí.
Like, Laurent hasn't stepped up at all. I'm starting to wonder what my stance is on Laurenti as a player because I don't, I hate it when you've got, okay, Laurenti and Pernambuente Baradí, when they're all available, they all play well. The second Baradí is gone, no one steps up. You know, like that says a lot about their mentality in my opinion. In this game, I think Laurenti had like at least three good opportunities, at least three minimum good opportunities to shoot,
but shoot is like 10 meters above the goal. He has this, I wrote it in a group chat, like he has the biggest back-back on his back, just like straight up. Yes. Yeah, leaving back boy. M. Pernambuente on the penalty kick, brother. He missed the two penalties before. He missed two penalties like back-to-back and then he had to retake one. He took the penalty this game. He places it and he does the celebration with the hands behind his ears and then he's just like
stone cold looking really cool at the crowd and I'm thinking like brother relax. You scored a penalty. I understand that you've been criticized, but please come on. It's weird. And you've missed the previous two. You haven't scored an open play in a while. Like what are you doing? What are you doing? This was Matias, he criticized Vlava for a while back as well. It was hilarious. Like Vlava should score that to win his dry spell and he pulled out like three celebrations. It's like how eager have
you been to the point that you haven't even chosen a celebration yet? Yes. Well, I think Pernambuente had at least two. He had the hands behind his ears like I want to hear you now or talk now or whatever. And then afterwards he was like pushing his hands downwards, going like calma, calma. I got this one. Super calm. This case. I agree with you. It's insufferable. Sassuolo are currently in 18th with 20 points while Empoli are in 13th with 25 points. It's
looking good for them. Of course, plenty of points to be won. We're only on matchday 26. There are 38. So we'll see if Nikola can keep this up. We've got one more game to cover which featured a spectacular goal, bro. This was Genoa 2. Odineza, Nyl. This game saw a brilliant Retegui overhead kick. Bonnie, header, thanks for the lovely Goodminton assist. And then Goodminton in the second half getting Kristin's incentive for a second yellow card. Pretty much a comfortable and dominant display
from Genoa. And I know that when I was planning to record this episode on my own, you had sent me quite a few points, thankfully, because I would have flopped, bro. And you mentioned Mr. Gilaradino flying under the radar. Gilaradino is a very, very highly rated manager in Italy nowadays. He's considered to be one of the hottest up and coming prospects and management in Italy. He is tactically flexible. He's adaptable. He adapts his system depending
on the game. He's not afraid to change things up and to change personnel up, to switch formation every now and then. And to be honest, when it comes to uniting a group, he also seems to be pretty bloody good at it. He took over Blessin. And Blessin was a pretty good manager already when it comes to these things exactly. And Blessin was the king of Gaghan press, no, they called him. So he had big shoes to fill and taking over. But he's done fantastically. He's got them promoted and
he's got them pretty much mid table in Syria. I think Gilaradino is doing a fantastic job. I did not know he had that much space in Italy. And this is a little bit why I asked the question to you because for me, it seems weird that he's so good at doing such a good job, but I don't hear much about him. I don't hear that much about Genoa. And that's why I asked, like, is he being a little
bit overshadowed by Tiago Mata, who is also overachieving? Or is he being overshadowed by Monza, who also was a newly promoted team who did very well in the first season. But yeah, he's definitely found the right balance. And that's, I think, the main thing is, it's not offensive. They are offensive, but they're also very solid in defense. They're not that allowing many goals to get. Yeah, absolutely. And even with the departure of Dragosin, who many
could have easily said, oh, you lose Dragosin. Obviously, you're going to take a dip defensively. You're not going to be as good, but they've been solid with or without Dragosin. And you get to see, he's got the system, man, where you don't really know who's playing where, man. Like Vasquez had two of the best opportunities in the first half. It was all Vasquez getting on the end of it. Like, he's kind of mirroring this system that like Atalanta and Inter are doing with the
center back, or like what Fiora and Tina do with Martinez-Quarta. He kind of does it as well with Vasquez. I think Vasquez is a pretty good offensive center back as well. He recently prolonged his contract to 2029, I think. Yeah, yeah. Let me help you with that. Vasquez is Mexican, right? Yes. So I keep writing back of my kid. That's a name. No, honestly, I remember Vasquez from last time in Serie A. I wasn't too impressed with him, I'll be honest. But he seems that he's
growing throughout the season. I didn't really notice him very much in the beginning of this season, but now in this game particularly, he's starting to come up to the goal. He's getting to those chances, but then again, you can also say he missed it. Yeah, absolutely. That's totally fair. As a defender, he reminds me a little bit of Romero when it comes to the rushing, the way he presses centerbacks, sorry, he presses strikers a little bit aggressively.
You know what I mean? He fouls a lot and he often gets booked. That was my big criticism with when he was with Cremonese. I believe he was with Cremonese, I think. He would often get sent off, man, I think back in the day. Don't quote me on that. I'm not sure if it was with Cremonese. Yeah, I can check that. But yeah, he's an aggressive dog as a player, but he's really learning how to kind of balance that and to add more to his game, because you can't just be all
bloody fucking aggression all the time. Busquets, Genoa. Turns out I can't multitask, I truly am male. Now let's see. No, he's been with Cremonese, by the way. He was with Cremonese on loan last season. That's the last game, yes. We can pretty much say where they are. Genoa 12th with 33 points, while Udineze are down in 15th with 23 points. Udineze also have a little bit too much quality, right? To be worried about. Yeah, definitely. They are safe. I was, dude, Matt and I often talk
about Lorenzo Lucca, because I'm a big fan of Lorenzo Lucca. When it comes to more shit Zlatan comparisons, that's another shit. One of you want to make another shit Zlatan comparisons for another guy who's big and has decent technique. However, man, when it comes to being a nine, it's a shame he's not better in the air. Yeah, I haven't really thought that much about it, but maybe he's better with his feet than his head. When you look at the player who's standing at
six foot six, six foot seven, he's a giant. The guy is massive. He's taller than most goalkeepers, he's taller than most centrebacks than all the centrebacks, to be honest. You'd expect him to be a little bit more dominant in the air. Do you not think that's something that's kind of comes by itself, in a way? As long as he keeps playing at a high level, he keeps progressing, he keeps doing his work constantly. I think that's going to more or less sort itself out. I think so. He's
got age on his side. He's quite a young striker, 23, 24, something like that, years old. Yeah, I think he'll only get better in that department. The impressive thing is how skillful he is and how good his first touch is and how intelligent he is. Those are the traits that it would be concerning if he didn't have at his age. I guess he's on the right track completely. I'm a massive fan of Lorenzo Lucca, don't get me wrong. It's just a shame when you see how wasteful Daneze were
in the first half and he was the one missing them. The second half he scored, he actually scored, but it was deemed to be a foul and it was called off. Apparently he got the ball first, slightly controversial. I think it's understandable that it was called off. He did swipe. It was a foul, but what I liked about it is he's shown this, if we're going to do this lot on comparison, he's showing this hunger, he's showing this passion. I think that's something that Lucca has,
is that he has a determination he doesn't like to lose. He gets pissed off. He has this inner drive to compete and to win. I liked it about him. Absolutely. Yes, I totally agree, bro. Yeah, we're done, bro. That's a wrap. That's absolutely crazy. It's three hours and four minutes. Now, from what I saw from the stream yard thing is that we get two hours of upload time. So I might have to pay the subscription, but I'm going to be on some willing. I'll do it for a month.
Yeah, fuck it. This has been great, Alan. I think we should do this more often personally if you're willing. If I'm willing, but if you're willing, I mean, three, an hour over time, I think Matt is going to kill us. No, he'll be fine. He's going to enjoy listening to it. He's got a 15 minute commute, which means that he'll be listening to this episode for a month. Now, if you need me, I'm there, but I will be on the side, but for you, I'm not because that's
the chemistry that I like. You're great together. So I hope I never would be needed again. Matt, yeah. Thank you very much for accepting, Al. You really saved me. Honestly, I don't mind recording alone, but it never comes out quite as good as it does with someone else to bounce off of. You've got a very good amount of ball knowledge, to be honest, bro. You spoke well about every single team. It shows you either watch very carefully or you listen to
a very good podcast. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, you see the run of those. I don't know which. So thank you very much for listening, guys. We have been Alan and Jake. Thank you and we'll see you next week. Cheers. 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 BSing with each other. The atmosphere is fantastic. I promise nobody will ask you to send boob pics. Sometimes it may be good, sometimes 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.