45: Quality Over Quantity

And now Kfaradzhalia is steadying himself! Is there anything this man can't do? Where on earth has he come from? No wonder they're already calling him Kfaradonah. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Serias Whatlight. This is season two, episode five, and we are hosts Matt and Jake. Happy anniversary, bro. Happy fucking anniversary, dude. This is episode, what, 45? Episode 45 and our one year anniversary is on the 26th of August.

That's when we started, 26th of August 2021 with episode one. Welcome to Serias Whatlight. We got comfortable very quickly, bro. Episode two was Empoli's massive ball, so we quickly settled in and we went for the funny podcast titles. We didn't want to be that podcast that is too, you know, corporate, so to say. We wanted to be ourselves. I mean, like I said, guys, we're available on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, at Serias Whatlight, we're now also available on Facebook.

If you're 90 years old, then Mattia, our Instagram is pretty lit, as I always say, because I look after it highly, highly, highly. And yeah, you could stay tuned. You could see our bets of the week as well. Yes, that's a good segue into our lost bet. Last year, last year, last episode, we're talking about going undefeated and possibly going up to watch a game with the money. Boom, we lost our bet. We bet on the Roma Kremanezi game that Roma would win. And so they did.

We bet on the Monza Napoli game that Napoli would win. And so they did. We bet that Milan would beat Atalanta for the fourth time in a row. But they did not. It was a one-one draw, a very close game, to be fair. And Milan could have maybe got something out of it. But Atalanta showed up and it was quite an impressive game. We'll talk about that later on. Of course, you win some, you lose some, and we'll be trying our luck again for this weekend. I have a juicy one in mind, bro.

Nice. I just think it should be one bet for this one. Yes, yes, one bet. Napoli to beat Fiorentino. Odds were like 2.25, and I checked. Fiorentino were poor. Fiorentino were poor and Napoli have been inspired. But Napoli have faced weak opponents so far in Verona and Monza. But they put, what, nine positive votes combined. And they conceded two against Verona, but we know how Verona are going forward. It's their defensive ability that's kind of questionable.

But yeah, before we go into match day by match day, we just want to read out all of the results that have taken place in this match day. Basically, Atalanta drew 1-1 at home against the champions in Milan. Inter cruised 3-0 against Spezia. Napoli cruised past newly promoted Monza with a score of 4-0. Samp drew 0-0 to Juve. Roma edged past newly promoted Cremona 1-0. Torino held Lazio 2-0-0 draw in Turin. Empoli 0-0 Fiorentina 0-0 in the derby. Sasuolo beat Lecce 1-0. Bologna drew 1-1 to Verona.

Udinese came 0-0 to Salernitana. So it's kind of like the old school say-ah thing, no, the whole, oh, boring defensive league, because there aren't many goals the same. But this isn't to say that we know nowadays, huh? Absolutely not. It was quite bizarre that there were barely any goals. To be honest, I feel like many teams are still feeling their squad out, trying things out. I feel like they haven't settled yet. It's odd, because the first match, they brought us around 35 goals.

The first match, they literally brought us a mental amount of goals. And this match, they brought us, what, 17 goals. So this was one of the quieter match days, this season for sure, during the first two match days. But yes, sometimes, I mean, we were saying all the encounters were pretty close when it comes to quality. You look at, for example, Bologna and Verona, very equal on paper. Atalanta and Milan, very equal on paper. Samp and Juve, Rom and Cremona, they may not be equal on paper.

But judging by the performances and judging by the stage that they were on, they would have been closer than people would have imagined. So yeah, a lot of draws is, at the end of the day, what was anticipated going into this, I would say. We have many tighter fears. In fact, we found it difficult to place a bet. You mentioned quality. Yes, I agree. We had, in goals, quality over quantity. Exactly. Because picking the goal of the week was a difficult task.

So we eventually went for Guvaras against Monzatputnamuandil. I'm going to avoid saying his full name, Guvaraxelio. Vica Guvaraxelio, as far as I'm concerned. That's the one. We just call him Guvaradona. We're all Guvarasexual over here. Yes, his goal was, in our opinion, the best one. It was a long discussion between his and, of course, Baradis. What do you think, bro?

So I think Guvaras takes the cake for the movement that he had before the goal and the way that the ball dipped and curled and went in off the post. And I think it was more visually aesthetic. Baradis, although he caught it on a half volley from distance. And it was coming down from way up. It was a fantastic goal. Take nothing away from that. I just thought Guvaras was a little bit more easy on the eye, so to say. Yeah, he took a man on as well. That's too nice to watch.

You know, honorable mentions to Ben Nasser for his amazing goal against Akharan Tategim. Commentary, is that what was he saying again? Clean up Nile 3! It's so good. These Americans, man. We'll post something about that on TikTok, which I think we did. I think we posted it. I went for the Arabic commentary. Yes, over that. Yeah, man, I love Arabic commentary. I love Arabic commentators. Arabic commentators. When Mbappe scores a goal.

No, that's French commentators, but even the Arabic ones, to be honest. YOLO! Shout out as well to Arnautovic's goal, executing some beautiful champagne football over there. Bologna were amazing there. They looked like fucking Barcelona on TikTok. Bologna look good this year, man. But we will get into all of this in a few minutes. But I think it's time we started going through each matchday. Let's do it, bro.

So the matchday, well, this weekend wasn't started off by Atalanta-Milan, but this was the first massive encounter between two top seven teams that this season was to see. And coming into this game, Milan had beaten Atalanta on all three previous occasions. Before that, Milan hadn't gotten three points against Atalanta in ten whole matchdays. So it's either one way or another, or so we thought, because this match ended 1-1.

So the scoring was opened in the 29th minute by the injured and on the market, attacking midfielder, the Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovskiy. He was totally unmarked outside the area. You do not leave a man like Ruslan Malinovskiy and his left foot alone outside the area. He was spotted by Mele, and the first time shot took a slight deflection of Kalula, which was enough to just take the ball a pinch over Mannyan. Nothing he could do about it. He was so close to saving that.

I feel like if Kalula hadn't moved, he blocks it. I think so. I think so. I see him exert himself, and it actually works against him. And then there's the debate of who should have been on Malinovskiy. That is the debate. I think it might have been Tonali. Tonali, 100%. I think it might have been. I don't feel like there was a reason to. Now, of course, this is the layman's opinion, but I don't feel like there was the need to double mark Duvan Zapata on that point. Not in that situation.

At least keep an eye on Duvan, but cut the passing lane or the shooting lane. You know what I mean? The thing is, he was double marked when Mele was on the ball. They must have been anticipating an early cross into the near post. You know what I mean? So they were man marking him. But once the ball goes to Ruslan, adapt, please. Fucking hell. Yeah, so this is the second time this season in two matchdays that Milan started the game off 1-0 down.

Then between the 58th and 66th minute, Milan pretty much replaced all of the players that had a bit of a stinker. Let's be real. And that was all of the attacking players. So it was Brahim, Rebic, Messias and Liao out. Rebic didn't really have a stinker. The rest kind of did. The Catelar, Giroud, Salamakars and Divock, Origi all coming on. So we got to see the Catelar and Origi getting some significant minutes over there.

It was, however, then in the 69th minute, the attacking players weren't enough. It was Ismael Ben Nasser that stepped up. He smacked a peach of a strike in off the post after dragging the ball past Koup Miner's leaving Mussor rooted to the spot. It was one of those moments for Ben Nasser. He had one last year. I forgot again. So I think Bologna was it. And this time he stepped up again. What a goal by Ben Nasser and what a performance overall. The man can do it all in midfield.

Every single thing you want him to do in midfield, he is capable of doing. I love the man. Yeah. First of all, it's funny to see how Koup Miner's always struggles against Milan. Yeah. He gets destroyed every time we meet them. Ben Nasser had an absolute master class of a performance. He was the dictator. He was way, way, he looked way sharper than anyone else on the pitch, in my opinion. A total standout performance. A step ahead constantly. Better in every single aspect.

Tonali looked a step behind, in my opinion, like he's not fully fit, which makes sense. Ibrahim Diaz, Rebic and Messias did deserve to start. Agree. Because they had a good first day. And how do you bench them after a performance like that? Go ahead, Ibrahim with a goal and then assist, Rebic with two goals. Messias with the preseason he had, difficult to bench them. So they were under their spot. They disappointed. They were replaced. This is the whole nature of the game.

Yeah. You know, I think a good point to bring up is that obviously, these guys, if you were to watch the game, you'd be like, OK, they were kind of shit. But what some people, what some casual, maybe football fans, people that aren't really into Serie A, would have noticed is that Atalanta totally changed their approach coming into this game. They sat much deeper than they normally do. And they understand that Milan do tend to struggle against teams that sit deeper. Why?

Because they can cope with Milan's quick transitions, their switch in play style, their little one-twos down the wing. They were sat back. They were not conservative, but they were capable of absorbing the pressure just by sitting back a little bit more. Yeah, it's true, bro. I've never seen Gasparini hold the fort like this. There was one instance actually last year in a draw against Lazio where they had no play. Oh, yeah, the nil-nil. That was the nil-nil last quarter of the season, I believe.

I remember him sitting back in that one. And to be honest, I hadn't seen it since. And even when they're quite thin, they like to attack. But this time the approach was completely different. And good job on Gasparini, to be honest with you, because he did outsmart Piolli in the first half, especially. Yeah. It seems like they couldn't cope. Bro, a controversial debate right now is on Leal. OK. Do you think his performance was that bad? I don't think his performance was that bad.

I think in the beginning, he was the only one that was managing to get him behind the defense. He was literally the only one behind. He was getting behind Toloi pretty well. In the final third, sometimes I still believe there were certain instances where perhaps he should have squared the ball. Even if there was no one available, you put it there and something can happen. He took a couple of shots from wide angles that maybe he shouldn't have taken.

But at the end of the day, he was the man getting into the final third. Sure, the quality, the output wasn't there, but still his raw talent is still so significant. And once he maybe doesn't have the best decisions in a game, his skill and his quality there with his natural ability is still enough. Well, not enough, but still enough to kind of bring something to Milan's team going forward when no one else is doing it. He's still capable of getting around his man. You know what I mean? Totally.

A totally average performance by him, I would say. It's true. He was still the main offensive outlet. Of course, he had four shots. He should have won a red card, in my opinion. Hans Hattaber foul on him. That was terrible. Studs up, sliding in, you hear Leo screaming. I was like, Jesus Christ. Bro. I heard the scream. I looked at the TV and I expected to see his leg broken in two pieces. Literally, man. Literally, I was mortified when I heard his scream.

I've never heard Leo. It was like two screams. Yeah, maybe. Peter Griffin. But yeah, poor guy. But he's a dangerous player, man. He's a very dangerous player. But speaking of dangerous players, when Milan made those substitutions, one man that significantly fucking stood out is Charles de Quetelare, by the way. That's how you say it. It's de Quetelare, apparently. I did not know that, but he said in an interview. Apparently, it sounds worse, in my opinion. How good does he look, man?

In the Treco Artista role. He looks good, yes. In the attacking midfield role. There are talks that purely might shift everything to a 4-3-1-2 with de Quetelare as the... What would Leo be as striker? I guess Leo would play as a second striker with Giroud. Rebic would be the alternative to Leo and Origi would be the alternative to Giroud. Yeah, because Origi alongside Leo and then doesn't sound like something fancy. But then it gives you Tonali Benassaradli in the middle.

Tonali Benassaradli, oh my god. And that sounds juicy. Or even fucking Pobega, dog, in that position. When it comes to balance, Pobega might be fucking monstrous over there. It's true. But there are also some French... There's a French target, I forgot his name. Onana. Onana, that's his name. He needs being linked. Onana, that's his name. The best Onana in Milan.

No, but he was so good, de Quetelare, I mean... I thought he was really good the second he came on because he played someone through and then he disappeared quite frankly, bro, in my opinion. Not really, man. I don't know, man. Not really. He had a couple of good passes. He dragged the ball forward very well as well in certain situations. He won a few fouls as well. I think for the, what, 30 minutes of play, 25 minutes of play that he got, he was fantastic, man. He was really, really good.

I mean, I thought he was okay. You know, I wouldn't say he was fantastic. Actually, I'd say that his performance kind of helps Brahim Diaz's case. Because, you know, Brahim Diaz, again, was quite invisible. He was hard to notice. And again, apart from that one play where de Quetelare played, I forgot who it was, he played someone through. I don't think he did much more, bro, than that, to be honest with you, man. I think he had a couple of good forward passes.

I think he dragged the ball forward well. I think he was mature in his decision-making so much so that Milan fans and interviewers as well were raving about his performance after they brought it up to Piole. They're like, is he going to start next to him? It's like, look, just let him get used to his teammates, let him get used to the system a little bit more. I'll say what he's saying is once that is done, then he's in. He has to, exactly.

He just needs as little pressure as possible right now, which is extremely difficult when you're playing at sun zero, for example, you know, with 80,000 people watching you and all of the fucking, the whole world talking about you. You know, Milan draw a lot of attention from the media as well. It tends to be negative attention. So I bet, you know, two more games without him really asserting himself and then start. Flop, worst signing of the season. That's not a bad shit, you know.

Literally. We saw Origi get a couple of good minutes as well. Yeah, he broke James City's leg, which was lovely to see. He was being played out wide so we didn't really get to see much of him, especially since most of the play once Liao came out, shifted to the middle and shifted to Salah Makar as his side, so we didn't get to see much of Origi going forward and gave the ball away at some point. And it was dumb the way he gave the ball away. It pissed me off a little bit.

But otherwise, yeah, nothing really to say about Origi's performance so far. Let's shift to Atalanta a little bit. Malinovsky, obviously, I mentioned that he started the game while he's carrying an injury. He still managed to score and Gasparini still insists that he's for sale. He says he wants someone to score more than six goals a year. Yeah. Do you think Atalanta would be making a mistake by offloading Ruslan Malinovsky?

So Atalanta hardly ever make mistakes when it comes to selling players, man. They always seem to get a good markup. They always seem to find adequate replacements. Now, Gasparini saying he wants someone who scores more than six goals a season. Was that just an attempt to rile Malinovsky up to perform better at this game, to prove him wrong? That's very likely. Or was it a bitter statement to someone who's forcing himself out?

I guess time might tell or it might deceive, quite frankly, but we'll see. Yeah, those are good points you bring up, man. I think what you mentioned about them finding adequate replacements, I still think they miss someone like Papu Gomez, man. He wants someone to score more than six goals in midfield. Papu Gomez. Stop squaring up with them, man. He had the guy and he was just fucking fighting. Apparently, you remember he punched them. There was something like that.

It was like an open fist punch. Like it was like kind of head back, but not. How fucking weird. That was a fever dream, man. It was like the Bonoccio Allegri one in the Champions League final against Real. You get some of these, man. It's true. One more thing I'd like to mention about Milan, by the way. I know we're going back to Milan, but it was Theo Hernandez's last second tackle on the break, bro. That was insane. Theo Hernandez, I should have made a note about.

This is the best left back in the world. Probably, bro. Bro, name, name, name, name someone that's kind of better than him. I mean, you think of the Shouts, there's Robertson, you know, that they talk about. But Cancelo's inverted on the right nowadays as he can't. I don't think so. There is what's his name as well, the Bayern Munich one, Alfonso Davies. Alfonso Davies. Theo Hernandez is just way more established than these guys.

I think Theo literally put him on the biggest stages in the world and he shows you that he's the best left back in the world. He has grown a lot from two seasons ago, man. It's true. Where he was a blind horse. But now he's a fucking, he's a horse with the brain of a dolphin. That's what Theo Hernandez is. He's become intelligent, man. It's match day two, so I hope we won't see any of those weird passes at the back or those weird skill moves at the back.

Where he tries to scoop turn at the back and they end up on one. But yeah, he had a fantastic tackle. That's the thing, bro. Right now you look at Milan's defense, you look at Theo Hernandez, Tomori, Kalulu and Calabria. They're all extremely mobile, which really suits Milan's play style. Milan get caught on the break quite a bit because Milan like to hold the ball. They like to play the ball around. They like to push forward, push numbers up the pitch.

So like in match day one, we saw Kalulu's recovery on Deleuze, which was amazing. Match day two, we saw Theo Hernandez's. These guys are very capable, man. And we'll see Tomori's and we'll see Calabria's. And on the break, you know, you're not quite clean through when you think you're clean through against Milan. That's true. Shifting again was back to Atalanta and their defense. It seems like they're going to have some woes moving forward. Like you mentioned, Jim City is now injured.

He pulled something, I believe. No, he broke. I think he fractured his leg. His tip. It was his tip, yeah. No, no, that's Wijnaldum. Yeah, that's Wijnaldum. My bad. What's his name? Origi went to shoot the ball. Yeah, he kicked the back of his leg. He kicked, yeah, I think when the shin, he might have kicked him in the shin. The mirror, not the mirror, sorry, Jim City. And the corner was given quite frankly, when it was a clear foul, which was quite funny. But yeah, I wish him well.

He had a really good game. He's a good defender. He's a very good defender, Jim City. Atalanta are going to have to make due without him for the next couple of weeks. And Palomino as well, who's still suspended because he like eats horse tranquilizer for breakfast. Yeah, his performance enhancing drugs. Okoli is the man who should be called upon to replace these people at centre back for Atalanta. He's a very promising youngster, centre back told.

He has the makings of a good centre back on the map and you will be seeing a lot of him. Yeah, I thought Lukman came on and looked fucking fantastic. I thought he looked so fucking good, man, Lukman. He was scaring the fucking shit out of me. He was really good. Strong for his size as well, hard to take the ball off of. Yeah, I think he'll be big for Atalanta moving forward. Lastly, before we move on, is there anyone that deserved to win the game? Yes. Yes, Milan deserved to win the game.

I mean, they had 60% ball possession. They outshot them. But you know what, man, at the same time, no, you know, I'm going to say a draw is a fair result. Actually, a draw is a fair result because we're mentioning 60% ball possession, but it's because Atalanta took that approach and sat back and that's what stopped Milan. Yes. So it's but then Milan did manage to get 18 shots away. You know what I mean? So it's tight if it had to stray to one side a little bit more. It's probably Milan.

I think a draw is a fair result. And they had their chances. They had their chances. They missed the header, for example. There was a moment, man, Pasalic. Pasalic is one of my favorite fucking players. A long ball is played and it touches literally the touch line, the byline. Sorry. Yeah. And Pasalic barely has time to look up. He just kicks it like the ball is. It's about to go out. Like he kicks it perfectly, crosses into the box and whips it perfectly onto the man's head. It was insane.

Like how is he so good? How does he know where everyone is? How much fucking weight to put on the pass? He's a really good player. Yeah. He's got eyes everywhere, Pasalic. He definitely has the technique to deliver. But yeah, that was the first match that we covered, obviously, Atalanta against Milan. 1-1, decent result for both sides when you think about it. But off to the next game. Yes, sir. The next game was Inter 3-Spetsja nil.

It was a positive result for Inter against the Spetsja side who have upset some of the bigger teams in the past, bro, quite frankly. And we saw them upset Milan. We've seen them upset, I believe, Napoli. It was as well. So this is a very good performance and result by Inter. Interestingly enough, though, Inter are unbeaten in all seven of their games against Spetsja. Across all competitions, they've got six wins and one draws. 19 goals scored in the process and four conceded. Parallel.

Now, there were two changes to the starting 11 from the first game. Bastoni and Dumfries were the two men who were introduced into the fray. Di Marco was deployed at left midfield this time, replacing Gossens. So he moved from left center back to left midfield. Bastoni started in the spot left by Di Marco and Dumfries started ahead of Darmion. Everything else looked ordinary. Spetsja lined up with the 3-5-2. They had the pairing of Inzola and Agudel up front. I like Agudel.

He plays, he seems to play in a different position every time I watch him. And also interesting to see how Jazzy has been completely changed to a wingback right now. It's a bit disappointing. I like him playing closer to goal, but. Yeah, he definitely has some, has some, you know, good qualities in front of goal and closer to goal. But he also has some great physical attributes that make him good in that position, bro. I just want to say that.

I didn't read out the starting 11s for Atalanta Milan, but it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. I forgot about it. Let's run you through the play by play of this one very quickly. It was the 35th minute that Inter managed to open the scoring. It was quite a tight affair till then. It was Lautaro Martinez with a Lukaku assist after Barella played a long ball to Lukaku over the top, who headed it down to Lautaro, finished accurately in the bottom left from outside the area. Lula is back on the field.

Lula is back, that's what you're calling Lula, no? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are, they, seeing them link up like that brings back so many memories of two seasons ago, man. Yeah, nightmares. Charles Anoghlu was fortunate in the 52nd minute that the ball fell clumsily towards him after Kiwi Or decided to just clear it into his path and he stroked it past Drogowski, goal 2-0. And in the 82nd minute, Joachim Correa scored. A through ball was played to Zéacon.

His touch was quite heavy, but his extraordinary technique quite frankly made up for it as he managed to get round Drogowski and squared it to Correa, who dribbled his man, tapped it in and blew Matthew a kiss. Oh, come on, man. Come on, come on. Well done. Did you win 26.5 million? Well done, bro, well done. He had to scoop the ball to the right and finish like into an empty net. Come on. Spezia's only real chance, bro, came through Strelic in the second half.

He found himself at the far post and to be honest, he should have scored a much better game by Inter, though, compared to the first one against Lecce. Oh, 100%. 100%. And I think they must have faced a better side than Spezia, a side that are more experienced in Serie A, quite frankly, have better players. And yeah, they managed to cruise past them 3-0. Not only did they do that, but they outshot them 19 shots to 2 and they dominated possession with 55% possession to 45.

Inter had one of their high press and high control matches with Brozovic at the heart of it all. They had their two strikers on top form at a point, Lukaku smacked the post. He smacked the post and obviously had that great assist on Martín as those guys just have a great understanding. So Inter had a near perfect performance against Spezia. I would agree. The difference, the main difference in my opinion being, of course, the introduction of Bastoni, who is not a northern centre-back.

Bastoni is a regista. Bastoni is a ball player, man. Bastoni is a playmaker. He can whip a fucking ball, bro. And that is the point I want to mention. So Lukaku is back, but he is not the same Lukaku in my opinion. He is heavier, he is slower. He doesn't have that like, or at least he hasn't shown it, that he can kick the ball forward and outpace his man. He is certainly much stronger than the opposition. We've seen that, it's very clear.

But it's the way he is being utilised that is very fucking good for Inter right now. They have players like Bastoni, Demoako, Chalanoglu, Brozovic and Barela who can all play amazing possible. They play them to Lukaku's head and he's either going to go for a goal or knock it down to Lautaro. And that is a combination that is extremely dangerous for Inter. And they can rely on it in my opinion. It's a good game plan. It's a different Lukaku and it's a different system he's playing in as well.

You might be deceived by seeing a similar formation that Enzaki utilises to Kanta back in the day, but it is different. It is a different play style. They're not so focused on a sole man up front, you know what I mean? Under Kanta, Martinez was more of an attacking, not an attacking midfielder, but a secondary striker. And although it's similar under Enzaki, Lukaku won't be utilised to have the final touch. It's like Vlaović at Juve versus Vlaović at Fiorentina.

Is he going to get the tap in or is he going to set up the tap in for Martinez? Because he's going to be at the far post, which is where, I don't know, Demarco or D'Amfriese will whip the ball. He gets ahead on it, gets it to Martinez, who slots it in. That's kind of what I'm anticipating, which is why I took Lautaro on Fanta. That makes sense. I'm not sure I completely agree with that, though. I still think that at the end of the day, the idea is to give Lukaku as much service as possible.

But to your point, to your point, Lautaro Martinez is allegedly a 100 million euro striker. And if you have 100 million euro striker, you're not going to fucking get him to serve as someone as all day every day, you know what I mean, hence the knockdowns. So maybe you're right. Maybe on fantasy football you have the top scorer out of these two, Lautaro or Lukaku. Who do you think scores more this season, Lautaro or Lukaku? I mean, Lukaku would probably be on pens, eh?

Lukaku would probably be on pens. I try not to look beyond them. They share them, man. I still... According to my prediction, it would be Lautaro getting the more goals. And I'm going to stick to my guns and say Lautaro will get more goals. However, I obviously would not be surprised if Lukaku outscores him. Because sure, he looks heavy now, but wait until he's running at someone like Roman Ioli. I think we'll remember that the guy is a powerhouse.

I bet he's licking his lips waiting to play for the chance. But anyway, it isn't every day, bro, that you compliment a goalkeeper who's conceded three, but Drogowski... Drogowski! As the commentators all come, Drogowski. They all say it differently. It must be the correct way, though, because this commentator in particular pronounces names weirdly. And once he was interviewed about it and he was like, I do my research. He pronounces Shesny. So Shesny. Shesny or something like that.

It's like he's been knighted. Apparently. So Shesny of... Yes, Drogowski, bro, probably Drogowski is correct way, had a brilliant fucking performance pulling off five very good saves. Oh, he's a good goalkeeper, man. Drogowski, we always say I think a team like Spezia suits him as well. A team with some some balls. Yeah, I wouldn't exactly use Spezia as a demonstration of a team with balls. I'd say individually, their players have big balls, man. Individually. Explain yourself.

I think they're a rough side to face. I think they don't shy away from a challenge. They're street smart, man, these guys. That's what... Big balls, street smart. I guess that's the same thing. So shall we move on? We can move on. Yes, the next game we're going to be covering is Napoli 4 Monza 0, an absolute walk over by Napoli. So it wasn't even a football match, it was a party. Literally, literally.

So Napoli had the new signings, Raspadouri and Simeone and Ndombele on the bench, but stuck with the same 11 that beat Verona 5-2 in the season opener, which was Maret, Lorenzo, sorry, Di Lorenzo, Rachmani, Minje and Rui forming the back line, Zieliński, Lobotka, Anguissa and Demitvill, Gvara, Ossimen and Lozano as the front three. Andrea Petania faced his former teammates moving to Monza just over a week ago.

Pessina was not fully fit, so he didn't start the match alongside Mari, Augusto and Mota Carvalho. So it was Di Gregorio on goal with Santos, Ranocchia and Carboni forming the back three, Brindelli and Alessandro being the two wing backs with Ranocchia, Barberis and Sensi in the midfield, Caprari and Petania up front. So it was in the 35th minute that Gvara curled a rocket in off the post from distance, nothing any goalkeeper in the league could have done about that.

This is the goal that we covered in our intro. What a goal by Gvara. In the 46th minute, just on the stroke of half time, Ossimen scored. It was a quick counter-attack by Napoli which ended with an Anguissa through ball to Ossimen who used his pace and finished through the legs of Di Gregorio. This was some beautiful play by Napoli. It was Anguissa to Ossimen, Ossimen utilising some pace over there.

And then from a tight angle, the way he'll be travelling at that pace, at a tight angle, you can just get that power and that precision on his shots is ridiculous. In the 62nd, Gvara got his second of the night as he sent Antov to the land of Yoghurt with a fake shot and finished into the far corner. I thought it was Ranocchia, didn't he spin Ranocchia? Because someone was saying that like, like remember, even Petania feels fast against Ranocchia. He fainted Antov and Antov went sliding through.

It could have been. I thought it was Ranocchia from the first time I saw it. The land of Yoghurt, by the way, is Bulgaria, which is his homeland. And Bulgaria is the homeland of Yoghurt. If you're wondering. Really? Yes. Okay, I had no idea. Exactly. How do you know that? Because I googled funny things about Bulgaria. I have a podcast that I need to make jokes. Say, what the fuck am I supposed to say? I'm sure everyone got that bro. I'm sure people crashed their cars laughing.

For all the Bulgarians. He said Yoghurt. He said Yoghurt. You pronounce some things weirdly. Okay, give me some examples. Yoghurt. Scolips. Okay. That's it. Now you say Scolips. So Yoghurt I was told off at Saint Martin's for saying Yoghurt once. But it was Miss Vicky. Miss Vicky had told me off for saying Yoghurt. Was she an English teacher? I don't remember what Miss Vicky used to do. Miss Vicky never even taught me. She used to see me in the hall and we used to get together.

One day we were like, fuck me, the song with Yoghurt. No, no, no. Literally. And she said it's pronounced Yoghurt. We speak English, not American English. American English is Yoghurt and English English is Yoghurt. I don't know, man. And Scolips, I literally heard the word scallop or Scolip for the first time when I was in Scotland. And they pronounced it Scolips. So I just, you know, it was a fine dining restaurant, five red star hotel. I'll take their word for it.

Petania scored a brilliant headed goal against his former side just over, just under a week after joining. But it was disallowed because he, bro, he pushed Rachmani to the ground. It's such an effortless push, but Rachmani goes flying into the ground. Absolutely face planting. And then the 92nd minute, Kim scored his first goal after headed in after a Zieliński corner. Yes. So Napoli were great all around, bro, obviously winning 4-0 against Monza.

We wrote in our predictions, we think that Monza won't stand a chance against Napoli because Monza are very static when it comes to their defencing. Their defense and their kind of immobile, while Napoli are the opposite going forward. Did this play out the way you thought it would? So I think right now is the best time to play Monza. I do think they'll get better as this is in progress. But right now they're still figuring things out. They have a bunch of new names over here.

They're trying to make it click and it's clearly difficult for them at the moment. So I think this was always going to be a win for Napoli. Was I surprised by anything? Not. Okay, of course I'm surprised by how easily Kim and Gwara Šelja have actually settled. They've both... They've shown the force now. Gwara has scored with his left foot, his right foot and his head. Kim has looked dominant at the back and he's actually got a goal for himself as well as that's going to help his confidence.

Zieliński, who's meant to be playing a very important role, has been actually doing very well. He got two assists this game, a goal in the other game. So everything's ticking. Lobotko is the replacement. Everything's ticking for them. They had a few good fixtures for them. Now we'll see if they can do it against the good teams. Agreed. I would be surprised if they completely flopped against the good teams at the rate they're going. But remember, it's still early.

Last season, Lazio started similarly to this. Yeah, literally. Can Napoli cope with someone putting pressure on them, with a big team putting pressure on them, be it Inter, Milan, Roma, for example? Can they cope with that? Because we've seen them going forward. Now you mentioned Kim being dominant. Now, sure, against Monza, Kim was dominant. Sure, up against Petania Capri, who really didn't see much of the ball. Of course he was.

Against Verona and then who have Lasagna and Henry up front and more quality in the midfield, Napoli were a bit fragile at times, conceding two goals against Verona that are a shadow of what they were last year. So Napoli look great. They look excellent. They look fluid. They look dynamic. They look great going forward. Can they defend now? That's the question. They did fucking lose their leader at the back in Koulibaly. Rachmani needs to step up in that centre back role.

It will be interesting to see them up against Vlaović, up against Giroud, up against Léaou, up against Lukaku, Lautaro. It will be very interesting. Imagine, okay, so first of all, their main weakness at the back, in my opinion, I think it's the opinion of the world, Mario Roux. He's a weakness at the back. They have Oliver who's coming to replace him and I bet we'll be seeing him sooner rather than later.

Now imagine Navas does come in. If Navas comes in and he's organising this defence, he becomes the leader at the back. And we're talking about a player here with a Champions League winner, a player who has played at the fucking highest level leading the back line. So that's a massive character coming in to replace a massive character. An even bigger character coming in to replace a big character.

Oh, for sure. For sure. A winner, bro. A winner. He's performed fantastically on the larger stages of the Champions League. He's in the World Cup, bro. He was fucking insane in the World Cup as well. At PSG, he should be benching Donnarumma and I say that with no animosity towards Donnarumma whatsoever, but he should be fucking benching him. So yeah, that can change their back line. Very true.

Yes. Yeah, we'll wait and see. We'll wait and see what happens. It'll be interesting to see them getting attacked. Napoli play who next? They play Fiorentina. Fiorentina. We'll get into Fiorentina soon. We're getting into Fiorentina soon, but it's already a bit of a test. Serial Spotlight slip, baby. Baby. Oh, I forgot to plug in the sinkers, the money. Oh, yeah. We only do when we win. Nice. That was the plan from the get-go, guys. Who is the best striker in the league in your opinion?

Okay. Ah, so it's between Vlachovic and Ozyman. It's definitely between Vlachovic and Ozyman. I would say the style of play that Napoli play suits their man way better than Juve's, so Vlachovic. For that reason, I would say Ozyman is the best striker in the league at the moment. Forget style. If you had a team, who are you putting there? Probably Vlachovic. Really? Probably Vlachovic.

Look, Vlachovic is amazing, right? Of course, his touch is phenomenal. Next level. He had two goals against Napoli last season. The first touch on both goals, one was better than the other. It was music the way he fucking took the ball down. He's very good. He's a lethal finisher. Of course, he has the ability to turn and shoot suddenly. You don't even see it coming. His movement of the ball. We'll get into this as well, but he is incredibly intelligent of the ball.

Ozyman too, and Ozyman has that pace. For me though, I asked this question because I believe that Ozyman is the best striker in the league. Simply because you can give Ozyman the ball at the halfway line with no support and he'll fucking charge, bro. He'll start charging and he'll take his men on. He'll dribble, he'll shoot from tight angles. He's a menace. He's an absolute menace. He's good in the air. He commits himself. He throws himself in 50-50s face. He doesn't give a fuck.

He doesn't give a fuck what happens to his face. He doesn't care about his body, man. It's terrifying to see him like, I'm actually having that guy against you, man. 50-50 and he's putting his face where your knee is. I'm 5'9 and 59 pace at most. You think you're 59 pace? I guess 59. No, my stamina would be 3 and then, but... You think you're faster than Zlatan? No way. You think you're faster than Shiro? No way. No, no, no. Dude, you and I, realistically, we're like 7 pace. But anyway.

Yeah, I think... For me, Ozyman the best. Your point is fantastic. Yes, Ozyman can make a shit team better because he's not only good in the final third, but he... Through his movement, through his pace, through his strength, through his... Him being an all-rounder up front, he does make teams better. I think Vlachovic is better in the final third. I think if a cross comes in, whether it's a volley, a header, a chest down to a volley, I will choose Vlachovic in that situation.

If it's a penalty, I would choose Vlachovic. If it's a free kick, I would choose Vlachovic. Vlachovic is also great with his runs of the ball. Probably as good as Ozyman. He's very, very quick as well. He's very fast. He has great acceleration, Vlachovic. It's just right now we're not fucking seeing it, bro. We'll get into that. I'm fucking frustrated. It's a tight one. I say Vlachovic nicks it. But definitely through the style of play, Ozyman is backed up by his team 100%.

Let us know what you think. Okay, so we've addressed Napoli quite a bit. They look great, but we want to see how they can do against tougher opponents. Monza on the other hand, bro, have looked dreadful. But on the other hand, they're the polar opposite of Napoli because they face Torino on Napoli. Not very. They start the season playing those guys. They have a tough start.

If they play Lecce, if they play Salernetana, if they play Spezia, could you see them getting something out of those games now? I think they look like the worst team in the league right now. Same. I mean, they could get something out of the Cremones again, maybe. But I think to be that good... Maybe Cremones look quite good. They need to settle. Monza need time. That's all they need. Yeah. Shall we? Yes, we shall.

Moving on to the next game between Sampdoria and Juventus, which ended in a 0-0 draw. Now, Sampdoria continue to build on their impressive performance against Atalanta, bro. They played really well that game, in my opinion. They did. And they had a goal probably ruled out mistakenly, in my opinion. Perhaps. And Juve, their creativity concerns remain. Oh, 100%. We'll talk about that. Stop it, like... Juve, prior to this, had been on a six-game winning streak against Sampdoria.

So this is a bit of a slap in the face, a bit of a wake-up call. Yeah. Their last draw against Sampdoria came in 2014. It was 1-1. The goals were scored by Gabbiadini and Evra. Patrice, fucking hell. Random cameo. Take us to the play-by-play, bro. So the play-by-play. In the 65th minute, there was a goal, actually. It was a Rabiot goal. Rincon, his brain must have switched off or something. He was dispossessed by Maretti, who had just come on. We'll talk about these youngsters.

They actually changed. Maybe you want to go to the starting 11. I don't know, bro. Sure, sure. Let's do that, actually, very quickly. Juve lined up with a 4-3-3. Yeah. Sandro, Bremer, Rugani, and Danilo at the back with Perenengol. Rabiolo, Catelli, and McKennie in midfield, basically three versions of the same player. Kostić on the left, Quadrado on the right, and Vlaović in the middle.

Yeah. On the other hand, Sampdoria had Audero at the back, Berezinski on the right, Augelo on the left, and the center-back pairing of Colli and Ferrari. Colle. Yeah. Viera was the holding midfielder on his own over there, with Juricic on the left and Leris on the right, Sabiri and Rincon in the middle, and Caputo up front. Facts. In a 4-1-4-1 formation. Yep. Okay. Now, as I was saying, the 65th minute, yes, Rincon was dispossessed by Miretti, who played a lovely ball to Dusan Vlaović.

He spun Colli and played it to Rabiolo. Rabiolo scored, but of course, Dusan Vlaović was in an offside position upon receiving the ball. Yeah. The best opportunity for Juve came for Kostić at the far post. He fired it directly at Audero. The best one for Sump was Leris. Did you see this game? I watched this game. Which one was it of Leris again? Oh my God. Sabiri gets the ball on the left side, just further from the halfway line, and he plays a curling through ball on the floor.

He destroys Bremer with the pass, splits the defense completely, and Leris ends up one-on-one with Perrion and forces Perrion into an amazing save. That pass by Sabiri, bro, would have been the assist of the fucking team for sure. Yeah. Amazing it was. But yes, the goal was disallowed, of course. Let's get into my talking points, bro. So at one point, you know Matteo Bonetti? Yes. He's, for those who don't know, he's a commentator and a pundit.

He's very active on Twitter, and he often speaks his mind, which is quite refreshing to see. He highlighted Allegri's octagon setup. He posted a screenshot of one of the moments where you can literally see all the players in an octagon shape of Juve with absolutely no one in the middle. There was no midfielder, there was no plan. Vlaović had three touches in the first half, one of them being a clearance onto his own post from a corner.

There was a heat map that was posted, not a heat map, but… The touches, when you had those significant touches, like… I'm not sure how accurate this was, but his average position was behind Perrion, I'm assuming it's because he was defending corners more than getting the ball up front. He could have got a goal, Vlaović, and I'm confident he could have got a goal.

When Quadrado broke through after dispossessing a player, and he decided to shoot with his fucking left instead of squaring it to Vlaović, he was wide open, very selfish by him, he was wearing the captain's armband, that's no example to lead by, and then he had the fucking audacity to complain after. To wave him off like… Exactly, to be like, hey, what the fuck, I did the right thing, like, no you didn't, and I'm sure you know you didn't.

Yeah. What do you think, Rob, about Allegri's system right now? They made good signings, Bremmer, Di Maria, these guys are good signings, Pogba… Will the midfield forever be a problem for Juve? So Juve's last signings, correct, have been fantastic. Di Maria, Bremmer, fucking Pogba, Vlaović, Zakaria, Kostić, those are their most recent signings, great signings, right? Now, in the first match against Sasuolo, Juve looked great, they looked fantastic. Sure Sasuolo looked rubbish.

But Di Maria was very inspiring, he was linking up with Vlaović well, Juve looked quite fluid, sure their midfield still didn't look great, but there was a lot of work being done by the wingers. That being said, the system that Juve played in this match was embarrassing, it was hilarious.

I noticed, once seeing the starting eleven already, Rabiot on the team list, lining up with McKennie and Locatelli, Rabiot was super close to joining United, Allegri was happy to let him go, and he benched Miretti, he benched Fagioli, and he benched Rovella so he can start Rabiot. Not giving a fuck about the young talent, none of them are loaned out, he's kept them all and he's gonna let them rot on the bench. That's number one.

Number two, sure they're thin, but aren't Quadrada and Kostić wing backs and they're up there playing alongside Vlaović in the attacking roles. There's no wonder the man gets no fucking service, man. There's no wonder.

There's absolutely zero creativity about this, it's true he had two defenders essentially playing wingers, he had three midfielders who have very similar qualities as you're saying, it's not the fact that he started Rabiot, I have a problem with bro, it's the fact that he played again three midfielders who have exactly the same qualities. I feel like Miretti should have probably been introduced earlier or maybe even got the start, man, you know, there's nothing, there's no creativity.

There was a meme recently, remember the Simpsons movie where Mexico against USA and the game kicks off and they're just passing from one player to the next player to the next player. It's not even that, because they had so many disprocessed passes, they had so many bad passes, they gave the ball away so much. Yes, it's true.

It was a dreadful display by bro, I was watching it after finishing prepping for the podcast, it was after kickboxing, so fair enough, I was already tired, I was watching the game trying not to fall asleep. When Samp had the ball, I was a little bit excited, but then when you were on, well bro, they posed no threat, no threat whatsoever throughout the entire game.

Yes, it's a combination of a lack of courage, bro, lack of ambition from the coach, lack of fucking midfielders, no playmaking, no vertical passes, nothing bro, absolutely nothing. Let's shift the focus a little bit to Sampdoria. So Perin had a great display, I think Odero had an even better display, he had a good performance over here, pulled off a few good saves. I was really impressed by Omar Koli, man. Same, same, I was going to mention Koli.

Koli keeps on being season by season one of Sampdoria's greatest players. Bro, what ever happened to Maya Yoshida? Maya Yoshida is currently in Germany, I believe, playing football in Germany. Or Turkey, either Turkey or Germany, I'm not sure if it's Germany or Turkey. We'll fact check that. But yeah, Koli has been a long servant of Sampdoria, he's been great. They've improved now with Yoshida leaving, it has to be said.

They would get absolutely destroyed in the air with Yoshida playing at the back. No, that's what I feel like they tried to do with this game. They're like, all right, we'll put Quadrado on the right, he'll cross it in, put Kostas on the left, he'll cross it in, Vlava in the middle, he'll beat these guys in the air. Like no, he didn't, quite frankly. It's true. So yes, so it's Koli who was very good. Sabir Kaputo, Juricic are a very interesting kind of dynamic trio over there. Yeah. My opinion.

No, no, no, it's different to see by some. Firstly, Sabiri is wow. Sure, he had a few disappointing shots in this game. The commentator is like, there's another one. There's another one. Sabiri, Moroccan international. Like he kind of has that, he has a bit of Juraj Kuczka sometimes in his shot. You know what I mean? Yeah, the wayward. But he dominates that midfield area for Samtoya. They're creative outlets. Ever since they lost Candreva and Sensi, they had Sensi in all last season as well.

They still have him. No, Sensi is at Monza now. Oh shit, you're right. They had him on loan. They had him on loan in the Trequartista role. Exactly. Now they have Ronaldo Vira. Exactly. A combination of two amazing players. So their outlets since they lost Sensi and Candreva have essentially been Sabiri. I think Caputo has looked quite alive, quite lively up front. And I think Coiarella has looked decent. Man, honestly, he's come on and almost scored in both games. Literally.

Honestly, there's a stat of Berardi. Currently, as it stands, only Berardi and another guy, shit, who was it, have scored in each of the last 10 seasons and say, Who the hell was it? Last 10 seasons. Yes, it was Berardi along with Bonaventura. Oh, OK. If Coiarella scores this season, he will join them as well. This is since 2013, 2014. Of course, Coiarella has been scoring before that, to be fair to him.

Now, there's a quote, bro, I would like to highlight over here because it's actually comedy, bro. It's pure comedy. Allegri at the end of the game was questioned. He asked him, like, hey, what's going on? Where are your midfielders? What's this? Like, what are you doing? And he said, talking about formations makes me laugh, man. So football is a very simple game. You get the ball and you pass it to the people wearing the same shirts as you. He actually, that's a quote, word for word translated.

IFTV posted that and I commented, then why did you give the ball away so much, bro? If this were the team I support, then my manager came out and said that. I'd be devastated. Score! That's what you have to do. You have to score. But you can tell now he's just mocking the media at this point, like trying to take off from the pressure, trying to take away from it. Or maybe trying to just take away from the team and put some pressure on himself.

So once Juve gets rid of Allegri, I see him having his most success with mid-table teams, looking to break into, or like the Sampdoria is looking to be our top 10 team, Torino looking to be our top 10 team, although Torino don't fucking need him at all. But I see him being a great mid-table manager, like a shithouse, because he has a very classic style. I think he's too established to stoop. I think he'll go for like an Italian national team role one day. Oh, that's such a move he'd make.

I would not watch it until he was the manager, man. He's actually a terrorist. He was the way terrorist and I agree with you. He is a bit. There's this quote, bro. You either die a hero or you see yourself or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. I absolutely butchered that. It's a very well known quote. You either die the hero or you live to fight another day or too many cooks. But yeah, that's exactly what's happening with Allegri right now, man.

He was a hero at Juve only with a fucking Scudetti back to back. He left on a high, man. He left on a high, came back and yeah. Struggling. It's that, you know, Juve parted ways with Allegri looking to break into a more modern style of play and, you know, move on and just improve and have a new breath of fresh air with them. They failed to do that with Sarri and they failed to do that with Pirlo. Or maybe they didn't give either of them enough time to be quite frank.

And they pussied out and they got Allegri back to safeguard results, halting their progression entirely by playing this dreadful, boring, annoying football. It has to be said, once they get Di Maria back in, once they get Chiesa back in, they will make Allegri's life a little bit easier because they can carry the ball forward and they can be quite creative themselves. Juve do have quite a few injuries. Yes, true, bro. There is not much else left to say about this game.

I think we should just move on quite frankly. Sure thing. The next game we're going to be covering is Roma 1-Cremonese 0. So it was Mourinho against Alvini. So Roma lined up with their classic 3-4-2-1 formation. It was Patricio on goal with a backline of Ibania, Smalling and Mantrini. Wing backs in Spinazzoli and Karsdorp with Pellegrini and Cristante in the middle. Zaniolo on the left, Di Valla on the right and Tammy Abraham down the middle against a team with Radu in goal.

Aiwu, Kirikes and fuck me, this is the second week in a row I have to pronounce this. La Shoskvili at the back, Gilione and Valeri out wide with Aska Kibar hand-picked in the middle. Zani Makia in the attacking midfield role with Dessers and Ocarreque up front. I apologize. So Roma warmed up wearing Giorginho Wijnaldum shirts after he fractured his tibia during a training session. But fielded the same 11 that beat Salernitana 1-0.

While Scremonese made numerous changes which is why I couldn't pronounce half of them after their 3-2 defeat against Verona. So Zaniolo was tackled cleanly by Lach, but fell awkwardly onto his shoulder. Initially people seemed to think, the media seemed to think that he dislocated his shoulder. After several minutes of treatment, the Italy international was stretchered off. Mourinho was emotional on the flash line saying yet another player at the time he thought, fuck me, now I have two guys.

He seems close to the players, seems like it's a cute little relationship between them. But it seems like Zaniolo will only be out for three weeks because he tweeted for those of you all that wish it'd be longer. See you in three weeks. Yo, for all you people that said I never amounted to anything. Three weeks. Three weeks. Sorry, can you pour me a glass of Please, bro. Thank you.

In the 65th minute, Smalling got the only goal in the game after he headed in from a Pellegrini corner, which was totally unmarked. Bro, in the last minute, Pickle smacked the post from a half volley from distance. It was an unbelievable attempt. And before that, I also need to highlight that Dessers had a couple of crazy attempts as well. You also hit the post now. Dessers hit the post as well. I tell you, Roma lucked out here. That dipping shot. We'll get into that.

So far, Roma, and like Napoli, well, same as Napoli rather, sorry, they faced Salernetana, who battled delegation last year and newly promoted Cremona. So like Napoli, they faced, in a very easy side, so to say, one would expect that with the squad they've got, they'd have their fucking shooting boots on. Yes. They had, so they created chances, a myriad of chances they created. They were fucking going for it, but they just couldn't score. They were quite unlucky.

But you know what, man, you keep creating chances, the goals will come. And once again, this is a team that needs to jizz. The ball needs to get used to his fucking surroundings. Granted, many of the names are actually quite familiar. But I do believe that the goals will come and Celik eventually will, I think, start instead of Karsdorp. I think Karsdorp has that Hattaburr effect now. The three longs. The three longs and nothing else. That's it.

You just endless energy down the flank, which is an asset to the team, especially three at the back team. But yeah, I think they'll improve significantly. I think they will improve, but it is quite concerning that now. Sure. I mean, you said that they need to gel a bit better at the end of the day. Right now, Debala is the only new name on the team sheet. Sure. It's not just a player. The entire system that changes once you bring in someone like Debala, especially with Pellegrini in that role.

Zaniolo and Debala being the main focus. Zaniolo is in a new role too. I'm sorry to interrupt. Yes. He's closer, much closer to the striker, but he was kind of last season. He was being utilized as a striker quite a bit with two men up front. So it is a new system. One would still hope that these guys could get more goals at the end of the day, because they're getting in the position. I'm sure they will. I'm sure they will. But it's been a bit disappointing watching their opening two matches.

But I have to admit, I can't say I'm disappointed. Because at the end of the day, this is a Mourinho team. This is a team that will win, maybe not in the sexiest way, but they'll win. Kind of like Mourinho has a similar kind of philosophy to Allegri, of course. This is a type of philosophy that when it doesn't work, you're fucking criticized. When it works, you're praised. When it works, you're a fucking loser when it doesn't. And with Mourinho right now, it's working.

And it has worked in the past, so I'm fucking winning the Champions League with Porto this year. You know what I mean? Using this exact philosophy. It can very much work. And it probably will work in the future. As like you're saying, the team grows more into the system. They gain some confidence. They go on a good roll. But at the end of the day, what I'm trying to say is, last season, we used to criticize Roma because they'd win one nil. And that score from set plays.

What happened in this match against Cremona? It wasn't criticism. It was more like just highlighting how boringly predictable it is. It's boring, but they are creating more chances. Yes, and they will get them. But the fact of the matter is, right now, they haven't taken that step up yet. Only two matchdays in, but the step up isn't quite there yet. I thought it would be more instantaneous. I thought we'd see, I don't know, Debala curling one into the top corner. You know what I mean?

I thought we'd see Zaniolo being able to finish when he's inside the box on his favorite foot. Roma play Juve next. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's a fucking nil-nil, bro. That's our bet. Borek score nil-nil. Yeah, it's likely. It could be. It could be. So aside from that, do you think the gap that we spoke about was still there for Roma? Ah, at the back. Between Cristanta Pellegrini, Smalling, Bani, Zanmash and me. Yes, bro, I think it was very much still there. I agree.

But we'll see, man, if they manage to sort that out. It seems like I'm shitting on Roma. Well, I am, but I have a lot of faith in the team, and I do think that they're going to do better moving forward. I just feel like they have a lot to work on, like most teams in the first two opening matches of the season. I think Roma, for the amount of hype that was there, they're not quite there yet. But I'd rather they have a slow start where they still get six points in two games at the end of the day.

And then they start gaining more confidence and they keep getting the three points throughout. You know what I mean? You know, this year, bro, Rome wasn't built in a day. There you go, bro. That's beautiful. Thanks, man. Fucking hell. Now, question. I've been seeing some serious praise for... Stop looking. I've been seeing some serious praise for Pellegrini, and he deserves it. Yes. He's versatile. He's good with the ball at his feet. He's good at tackling. He's good from dead ball situations.

Is Pellegrini A, the best midfielder in Italy, B, the best Italian midfielder in Italy, or C, the best Italian midfielder? They're right here. If you want to revisit them. Yes, please. So he's not the best midfielder in Italy. He's one of them. Who is the best midfielder in Italy? He's got a lovely mustache. Sergei Milyakovich Vysav. Ah, okay. But Benassi is a Milyakovich Vysav type. Benassi, in my opinion, might be the best midfielder in Italy, man.

He's there. But I think Milyakovich Vysav is the best midfielder in Italy. Agreed. By some distance. The best Italian midfielder in Italy. Maybe. Maybe. Who else? I mean... There's Locatelli. No. No. There is Tonali, I guess, but no. Barella. Barella, bro. Barella is the best Italian midfielder in Italy. And the best Italian midfielder is Verratti. So he's the third best Italian midfielder. Okay, so he's none over the above. He's none over the above, bro. So it's D, that's what's wrong.

He's a fraud. No, he's a fucking fantastic player, but I don't think... I'd say he's the best Italian midfielder in Italy. I think he takes the cake over Barella. I don't think so. I think he's more consistent than Barella. I don't think so. I think he has more output than Barella. You're full of shit, bro. Definitely not, bro. Barella is a fucking phenomenal player, man. As much as it pains me to say this. Of course he's a phenomenal player. They're both phenomenal players.

But Pellegrini is so much more of an all-rounder than Barella. He has so much more technique, so much more skill to him. Look, again, I think that Pellegrini is better than Barella if he's playing closer to goal. But in that fucking, for example, put him in a double pivot or in a midfield three. I know who I want. I take Barella all day every day for balance. Barella is a workhorse, box to box. He can win the ball, can play the ball, can have a shot. Individually. Who's the better player?

Individually. Fuck their systems. Fuck the balance in the midfield. You have these two against each other. You need to pick one. You need to pick one. Barella. OK. I choose Pellegrini. That's fine. That's fine. All right. I wish we could see the fight to the death now. What's Pickle's surname, by the way, bro, Rick? Brilliant. So what I have to say about Cremoneze is that they're mature side with glimpses of explosiveness.

Dessers and Pickle, who both hit the post, are very dangerous, including Ocarreque. Yes. That is how I would sum up Cremoneze. Is that not Bangon? I would say it's Bangon. Sure. Perfect. Let's go. I'm a fan of Guglione as well, by the way. Guglione is good. Guglione is good. He murodes down the flank. And didn't Radu have a really good game as well? Radu. And the other good game, last game. Radu. Until the 90 something. We have to praise this guy simply because of his mental health as well.

I hope you're listening, Radu. He had an amazing fucking performance. 10 saves, bro. That's not a joke. Absolutely stand out, perform a man of the match for me. Agreed. Yeah, probably. Man of the match. Man of the match, Radu. Round of applause for Radu. Okay. Excellent. I think we can move on to the next game. I'm enjoying our anniversary so far, bro. It's fun. It's very romantic. Now, Torino nil, Lazio nil.

Vanya Milinkovic-Salvic comes out as the superior Milinkovic-Salvic and the Milinkovic-Salvic derby. Excellent. Juric continues to show that he can turn water into wine, my brother. 100%. Juric is my god. This was a fucking bet, bro. Four draws in a row between these sides. This was the first time it happened since between 1976 and 1970. That's such a missed one. Yeah. So first time since the 70s that this has happened. The lineups were quite cool. I like these two teams, man.

I'm a really big fan of Torino and Lazio. I'm not a massive fan, to be honest. I always talk to you about why I don't really like watching them play. But they have an attractive lineup. They're a sorry team that I'm not too fond of watching. But anyway. So Vanya Milinkovic-Salvic was in goal for Torino with a back three of Ricardo Rodriguez, Bon giorno and Gigi Olain on the left, Singo on the right, Linetti and Ricci as the double pivot with Radonjic and Vlasic playing behind Sanabria up front.

Providel was in goal for Lazio, Lazari on the right, Maricic on the left, Romagnoli and Patrick as the center backs. Vecino, Cataldi and Milinkovic-Salvic in the middle. Poor Milinkovic-Salvic. Yes, they put up with those two numpies. Anderson on the right. Zaccani on the left and the Mabilla up front. Is it not mad that just Ek, Luis Alberto wasn't starting? I mean, he's transfer listed. That's it. And we'll see. If Sarri eventually gets sacked, it might happen.

Not saying it will, but it might. He's the first name on the team sheet. First name on the team sheet, exactly. Luis Alberto in the middle together. I can't believe Cataldi is playing instead of him. More than Cataldi, Vecino. Vecino. He benches Vecino. What is going on? You have to be nuts to play Vecino instead of Luis Alberto. You have to be on the brink of death. You must have lost. You just don't give a fuck at that point. You have no oxygen to your brain if you're doing that.

How can Enzagi utilize Savage and Luis Alberto for so long and have such great success with them? He can even come on the Coppa Italia with them. Sarri comes in and says, they don't work together. No, Luis Alberto has to go. Now we're sending to Sevilla. What's going on? And then when he brings him on, he brings him on in the 82nd minute to replace Sergei Milyankovic-Savage. At least he's remaining consistent in his opinion that they don't work together.

But it's horse shit because we've seen it work. We've seen it work under him, bro. Last season. For sure. You're right. Let's get into the game. The best chance of this game, bro, was when Sergei Milyankovic-Savage found himself one on one against his little brother, Vanya Milyankovic-Savage. Yes, you heard correctly. Vanya Milyankovic-Savage is 25 years old. He is two years younger than Sergei Milyankovic-Savage. Even though he looks 30. They're our age. Right. That's fucking nuts.

If they're not safe, why are they alive? Bro, we look terrible. But anyway, he found himself one on one. Oh my god. I'm Sergei and you're Vanya. No, you're Vanya, bro. You're fucking Vanya. Vanya is younger. Yeah, but you have the look. And then I have the look. You have the mustache. You have the curly. I have the beard and the bald head. That works. So, yes, that was the best chance of the game. Sergei Milyankovic-Savage failed to get it past his younger brother.

It seems he called for a deflection. I'm not sure if it really was. But yeah, he missed the one on one. He had time to shoot earlier. He hesitated a little bit. They were interviewed after the game. They said they were both disappointed with the result. But their mother was extremely happy with the draw. That's very sweet. But anyway, Singo had a free header from the corner, bro.

And honestly, if you had to watch this game in black and white, you would think that Torino or Lazio and Lazio or Torino. Because Torino absolutely dominated the whole way up in the game. Agreed. You know, they had 53% ball possession. They were calm. They moved the ball around. They were patient with it, man. They created chances. I think that Vlasic Andradonovic looked really good. And it's a shame that they lost Mirantchuk because he was playing really well, too.

Yeah. I think Ricardo Rodriguez has settled in nicely as a left center back. Very good on set pieces, too. He's their captain nowadays. Gigi has been unrecognizable since his Crotone days. In a very good way and the best way possible, of course. This guy was terrible with Crotone. But it seemed to be like... I don't recall him with Crotone. He had a season, bro, where it's just like every single week, week in, week out, he was just getting fucked.

Week in, week out, just fucking getting dribbled, falling on his ass, like getting yellow cards, red cards. He was terrible. It's almost like he was... He had a baptism of fire, bro. That's what it was like. And now he's become quite a commendable player, you know, very good player. Now, do you think a draw was the right outcome for this game, my brother? When you take everything into consideration, perhaps. Because at the end of the day, short, Torino...

Torino were a much better side than Lazio were in this game in particular. They had 10 shots on goal, one of them on target. They managed to get one on target. Lazio had seven, they had two on target. Not saying that Lazio were anywhere near as good as Torino, but I don't think there was any moment that Torino were clean through on goal. They had the opportunity and they should have made it 1-0, 2-0. I think, if anything, there was a point where Lazio should have scored.

Yes, no, no, Lazio's chances were very good. Lazio's draw is probably a fair result here. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. It could have gone either way with the quality of the chances that both teams had. You think it was quite a boring game, bro? It was a little bit of a... It was an interesting... I just enjoy watching Torino, man, to be honest with you.

And watching them against a team that does have quality with Mwobila up front, Zakani on the left, I thought it was a pretty interesting game. Zakani against Gigi was an interesting mashup. I felt like Gigi got the better of him on multiple occasions. But yes, I don't think it was... I wouldn't say it was very boring, no. Okay, okay. I thought it was a little bit boring. Fair enough. Are you good to... I'm good to move on. I just need to say that Lazio seem far from being a top four side.

I'd be surprised if they even make Europa League at this point. They really need to get things going over there. I think I have them in eighth. They need some players, man. Letizio needs to get his shit together and sign some players. Agreed. I think he's going to be funnier. He's having fun. But then let's move on. At least he's fulfilling his dream of playing Lazio. Not lifting a fucking trophy with Milan, but whatever. Empoli nil, Fiorentina nil. This is the local Tuscan derby.

Did you know that? I knew that, bro. I didn't. So, local... I found out at kickoff that it was a local Tuscan derby. The commentator went, and we're off on a local Tuscan derby. Literally. Obviously, Fiorentina are somewhat distracted by the Europa Conference League playoffs against Twente. That they won 2-1 on the Thursday before this match. The Sotil masterclass. The Sotil masterclass.

With that in mind, Italiano made several changes to the lineup, including Dodo's first start, benching Biragi, benching Sotil. I'll actually just read out the lineups for it. It was Gollini and Goal. Dodo and Tercic as the right back and the left back. Milenkovic and Martinez as the two centre backs. It was Bonaventura, Mandragora and Malé in the midfield. Ikone, Saponara supporting Lukajovic up front. For Empoli, it was Vicario and Goal.

Parisi, Luperto, Ismaeli and Stojanovic as the four defenders. Bandinelli, Marin and Henderson forming the midfield tree with Bairam in attacking midfield road. And Destra and Lammers up front. So, I mean, in the beginning of the second half, referee Matteo Marchetti sustained a muscle injury, which is probably the most exciting part of the match. He was replaced by Juan Lucas Saki, the man that I have nightmares about every single night.

The same referee then awarded a red card to Luperto after he dropped Jovic as the last man. He did need VAR to turn his yellow card into a red. But yeah, that happened quite late on in the game. Kam Biaghi and then had muscular problems in stoppages. So Empoli ended the game with nine men, but still Fiorentina barely got a shot on target after that. Fiorentina posed little to no danger to Empoli, to be quite frank.

The most dangerous they were was from Biaghi's deadbolt situations once he came on as a sub. What did you make of the performance of Fiorentina? So Fiorentina do everything well apart from the final third, right? The last thing is always missing with them, as of late, especially. Now, I was quite disappointed by the performances of Saponara and Deku on out. Why? They didn't think they played well at all, particularly Saponara. He was fucking, he was terrible.

Yeah, I mean, when Saponara isn't the best player in the world, he's kind of the worst player in the world. That's it. Saponara, guys. OK, so we talk about Saponara a lot over here. I'm going to explain. I'm going to explain exactly who Saponara is. I get a lot of questions about like, why do you have Saponara, kid? So Saponara is a player who lives. Saponara is a normal human being. OK, Saponara is you. Saponara is I. OK.

Saponara is a normal human being who is blessed with moments of pure quality. He sometimes becomes possessed with the spirit of prime Zinedine Zidane, dude. Honestly, like he'll have the ball outside the area. The average guy. All of a sudden, boom, he trips the Roma goalkeeper from out of the box, scoring the winner later on. You know, he gets the ball on the edge of the area against Milan, fucking cuts in, curls the top bin.

You know what I mean? He's very capable of these moments. You know what I mean? And that makes it, you know, the fact that he's human just makes me really like the player. He has the touch and the football mind of a genius. Yes, his understanding of the game. Vlaović nicknamed him the Professor. The Professor. Like the Professor of Culture. Like the one of Maneheist. That's how good he is. He's the professor in Maneheist.

Unfortunately, because he is real, he is not backed by physical capabilities. He's not backed by significant strength. He's not quick. Yeah, like he wouldn't be in a room shirtless with Vlaović. He'd keep his t-shirt on. Exactly. He might have dipped into the pool with his t-shirt on at a pool party. Maybe he cut off the sleeves because his biceps are, you know, with the right lighting, they're kind of large. That's Saponara for you guys. Top quality content. Top quality.

Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary, dude. No. Yeah, man. This was Mike. I think I was... What did you make of the performances? You said Icona and Saponara had a bit of a stinker. Again, I thought that they did everything right, but it's just the wingers couldn't deliver the service. I think that Bonaventura is a player who... He got close to scoring this game, but he's kind of... When he fails to insert himself, he fails to insert himself. It's as simple as that.

Empoli, I feel like we haven't seen them at their best yet. And a friend of mine made a point, Luke Minto, friend of the podcast, a Sassuolo fan, our resident Sassuolo fan, he said that Empoli are relegation favorites in his opinion. OK. That's a hot take. He loves them. Yeah, he loves a good hot take. I disagree. I don't know. I look at the pieces here. I look at, for example, Smiley and Luperto are a competent center-back duo. Vacario is a good goalkeeper. Parisi, Stajanovic are OK.

Bandonelli, Marin Henderson, decent midfielder. Are they Caliari though? Could they be Caliari? Caliari had a good side. Relegated. They might be Caliari. Relegated as fuck. Marin, Bayrami, Destra, Lammers, that's a fucking solid team. It's a good team. Their coach got relegated last year, no fairness. And their striker got relegated as well. Destra. Yes, you're right. So they've got a couple of losers in their team. I don't think they're... at least they're definitely not relegation favorites.

No, no, no. I can't see them going down. No. They can. They deserved more from the Spezia game, but fact of the matter is they lost to Spezia and Spezia just got hammered by Inter. Not that that's anything to be ashamed of. They're playing Inter. But then they managed to hold Fioratina at 1-0-0 draw. Which is a good result. Perhaps they're... they haven't had a bad performance yet, Empoli in these opening two games. They haven't had a bad performance yet.

It's a bad performance playing decently and losing to Spezia. At the end of the day, yes. But it's still early days and they're showing something. They're showing that they're not a walkover side. They held Fioratina right now. About Fioratina, forgetting too much about Empoli. Do Fioratina have the squad to juggle multiple competitions? Wingers, yes. The rest, no. That's what I was going to say. Yes, they do, bro. They have quite a deep squad. Champions League definitely not, of course.

But Conference League, Coppa Serie A, they can do it, man. They can totally do it. They have decent rotation. Wingers, they have all of them. Jovic and Cabral are competent strikers. They can easily swap for each other, give each other a rest. They have Duncan who can put in a shift in midfield as well. But do they? They do, man. They do have the squad depth to allow them to play in three competitions. I think they do, especially at this level. They do definitely have the players.

The players are there. The individual pieces are there. Is it an Atalanta thing, an Inter thing, where every player is capable of playing the system? And would the team be as fluid with either player on the pitch? Italiano has his style and that's the idea. That's what he's going for over here. He wants everyone to get the system ticking. Because I think they dropped points in this game. I think had they not had Conference League midweek, they would have won this game.

But then they struggled against Cremona as well. So they're in an interesting place right now. It's still early days, bro. You see these guys get ticking at the end of the day right now. That when in the Conference League was essential, four points in their first two games were probably the minimum thing they wanted. Four points will take six great.

At the end of the day, it is the amount of points that you get, like we said about Roma, and the same should be said about Fiorentina at the end of the day. Same boat as Milan. Like I said, Empoli were the better team against Percival, got nothing out of it. Now they walk away with a point against Fiorentina. Thoughts under the Tuscans, under Zanetti. Yeah, I think I need to see more of them. I think they've been okay, to be honest with you. It's hard to tell.

Of course, the red card skews the performance, but they held their own in the first half too. First game of the season. Refresh my memory, brother. Lost to Spezia. Lost to Spezia, 1-0, but they played well. They played really well. I don't know, they have an identity, they just need to be more street smart. They need to get things done. And I don't know if Paolo Zanetti is the man for the job. He showed good, he played good, he had Venezia playing good football. As well.

He has Empoli playing good football right now. Now he needs to add, not only do you have to play good football, you need to get some results. That's it. He's learning, at the end of the day. He's getting great experience. He'll probably be a great manager in the future. Shout out to Vicario as always, Ismaili and Parisi had phenomenal performances. They were key in keeping that clean sheet, the three of them. But yeah, other than that, this game again was nothing really to write home about.

So I think I'm comfortable to move on to the next game, bro. Let's go. Sasuolo 1-0. Dionisi's request to concede fewer goals has been granted. Asberardi scores a screamer after renewing his contract to 2,000. Oh fuck me, I didn't know that. Opening his... Last time I was thinking of the expression, what's the expression? Opening your mm for the season. Account. Your account, yes. Why the hell couldn't I remember that? Opening your register. Opening your door. Opening your numbers, your wallet.

He opened his account for the season, yes. The last game between these two sides in the top flight came in 2020 versus Sasuolo 1-4-2. Now, Concilie started in gold, Rogerio Antolianas the full backs, Erlican Ferrari at the back. This was a 4-3-3, so the three midfielders were Henrique, Lopez and Frattesi. I have to say this is a midfield that is much, much, much, much, much, much, much better than Juventus is. Honestly, honestly. No, probably. So mobile, bro, the midfield.

Henrique is really good, bro. Lopez is Lopez. Love what you did to your hair, dude. Summer vibes, bro. You can tell it's summer in Italy when half the players show up blonde. Kyriakopoulos was playing as the left winger, of course that's a bit of a makeshift thing going on over there. Berardi on the right and Pinnamonti up front. Such a new look team as well, man. So cool, man. I can't wait for Thierry to make his way back in. Same, same, same, same. Naughty. Falcone in goal for Lecce.

And apparently the guy on the right, bro, his name isn't Gendry, it's Jean Drie. Ah, comment ça va Jean Drie? So Jean Drie was on the right. Blin and Basquiatto as the center backs and Gallo as the left back. I'm a big fan of Gallo. The midfield three, they married each other 4-3-3. Bistrovic, Humelund and Gonzalez. De Francesco on the left, Strafetz on the right and Cissé in the middle as the sole striker. What can you tell us about Blin and Basquiatto talking? Blin and Basquiatto?

They're no longer going to be the center back pairing for Lecce. What do you mean? Why did you ask that? Wait. Because in the last episode I mentioned that Blin is a midfielder and Basquiatto is on the right back. Of course, they're not going to be there anymore in fact because Let's get into this now bro. Okay. They're signing bro Lecce. Oh my god. Lecce are signing. Um Titi, a World Cup winner with great Champions League experience. And they're also signing Pongracic.

Is that how you say it? Pongracic. He's a 24 year old Croatian center back from Wolfsburg who's arriving on loan and he also has Champions League experience. So suddenly they're a center back duo. These guys is fucking solid. They have a good spine all of a sudden. They need a center back. They do. And they're bringing in two extremely capable, overqualified center backs. I would take them at Milan. Genuinely would take them at Milan. Yeah on the bench though.

Now 40th minute of course Domenico Berardi did what he did. A corner was taken, was cleared up. The ball fell high up. Berardi is just outside the area, strikes it with his right foot. Beats the goal. Fantastic goal. Madonna. Absolutely fantastic. Leading by example when this team can't quite break the deadlock. He comes in and he does that. Captain fantastic. What a player. Now I already told you the stats of course.

He's become the second player in Serie A to have scored in the past 10 seasons. In each of the past 10 seasons. Sorry, Bonaventura is the other one. And Qualiere Luffy scores the season ahead of that too. Streffetza is a player who I find very interesting. He always is good. He's really good. He's good. He's 25 years old. He's Brazilian. Even though his name sounds Italian. He is very short. He is the Brazilian Eden Hazard. You watched the way he plays, where he shakes his ass a little bit.

He cuts inside and plays a long ball to the wing. He's very good. Cissé had a pretty bad miss in the first half. It was bad. The finish was bad. But everything else was pretty good. He dispossessed Ferrari who has been having a bit of a nightmare so far this season. And his shot, curled shot in the top corner just went over. Was it the right approach is the question. That finish. He might have over complicated it. Honestly, let's say quite impressive from the sides that have come up.

They definitely seem to be the strongest ones that should not come as a surprise as they did. When the league. Sorry about the end of the day. But yeah, bro, good victory by Sao Suolo. With a few missing pieces. They actually have a left winger here. You know, competent display. A victory for them. Clean sheet. Can't complain. They move. They move. The first point with the first three points of the season after the devastating loss against Juve.

What was a nice little way to bounce back for them. Like we said, they have a few key pieces missing, particularly in Traore on the left. They're playing Kyriakopoulos at the end of the day in a left wing position. They've just lost Raspadori. They've lost Skamaka. Of course, Pena Monti is still settling in. So these are they just have to win right now and wait for the guy to settle so you can start smashing them in for them.

Sao Suolo will do what they always do, they'll get off to a slow start and they'll pick it up halfway through the season. I'm confident to say that that's exactly what will happen this time round. Yeah, fair enough, bro. There's not much else I would like to add to this. We've already discussed pretty much everything. Yeah, pretty much. Are you happy to move on? Yes. Perfect. Next game we're going to be covering is Bologna 1-1 Verona.

This was one of the more entertaining draws that we saw this weekend. So the starting 11s for this match, Bologna started with Skorupski in goal in a 3-4-1-2 formation with Bonifazi, Medel and Silvestri forming the back three. I keep missing the Ds today probably because I'm reading them from their Silvestri. Cambiasso and Cassius as the two wing backs with Schouten, Dominguez and Soriano forming the middle three. Arnautovic and Orsolini up front.

Versus a Verona that fielded their 3-5-2 formation that they'll be utilizing this year with Monte Pogol, Coppola, Gunther and Ridsos forming the back three. Faroni and Lazovic as the two wing backs with Tamez, Ongla and Illich forming the midfield three. Lasagna and Onri up front. So in the early moments of the game, Onri smacked the crossbar from close range after a low cross by Ongla. In the 21st minute, Arnautovic scored after some brilliant play by Bologna.

It was a clean finish after a low cross by Cassius and a great counter attack. He pointed down to the ground in his celebration as though to say I am staying following interest by Man United. He did that match day one as well when he scored. I just keep doing it now forever. I'm here, I'm here. In the 43rd minute, Onri scored after a good cross by Lazovic fell perfectly to him and he finished off with a clean header.

In this game, the commentators kept on saying there are two fantastic strikers on the pitch. One for each side, one being Arnautovic and the other one being Onri. And they both scored so I guess they weren't wrong. Orsolini's finish in of the crossbar was ruled out for offside following a Varchek. It was a sick goal. Sad to see that one. It was sick, the way it bounced back out. He shot with so much power. He then got a straight red card after a boot to the face of Ongla.

It was no hesitation whatsoever. Definitely a deserved red card. Orsolini had a bit of a mirror this game, poor guy. He celebrated the goal, then he got called off, then he got the red card. And the way that he got the red card as well, they were pretty much playing Germaniza over him at that point. They were just chipping the ball over him. He kicked the ball and he kicked Ongla on the face. I doubt he fucking meant it but he did go in a bit of a rush over there. Chances all round.

Thames had a big miss. There was a great fucking save by Skorupski at a point to deny an Illich wonder going. Oh man, what a save. It is the league with the best keepers in the world. I agree and we've said that a couple of times as well. Orsolini tried one from half pitch after Monte Polo's footing outside of the area. It was a very, very eventful draw. But we mentioned Skorupski. Where would you rank him in Italy when it comes to goalkeepers?

I always really want to do an exercise with you where we rank all 20 starting goalkeepers in a row. And that's probably the most difficult task in the world. Where would you rank Skorupski? I'd have to make a list, don't I? I'd have to top 10. Look, he's top 10. He's better than Golini, for example, in my opinion. Oh, for sure. He's better than Djagovski. Look, I'm going to tell you who he's worse than. For sure. He's worse than Mannyan. He's worse than... ...Schezny.

Okay. Sure, he's worse than Schezny, yes. I guess. On his day. When Schezny's on his day, excluding the nightmares. He's... Look, let's save it for the next episode. I'll bring a list to the next episode. Let's do it next episode. I need to think about this. Let's do it next episode. Remind us, guys. We'll end next episode by doing our 20 goalkeepers in a row. Yes. From start to finish. Now, brother of mine, I have to say that Thierry Henry's... Thierry Henry's... Thomas Henry's... Oh my God.

Thomas Henry's new lease of life at Verona is a very interesting one. They also have Jurich on the bench, so if his head doesn't get the job done, they just bring on Jurich. I'll add it to you. Interesting, interesting, interesting. How many goals do you think he'll get this season? Henry? Yeah. Nine. Nine? That's pretty good. Ten. Yeah. Eleven. Nine, ten, eleven. Cool. I think it was a goodbye for them.

I didn't think so at the beginning because, like, he was a bit of a disappointment at Venezia. But at the end of the day, he is one of those strikers that sits inside the box, waits for a service and he can deliver. He is nothing more than that, but he's very talented at that. He is, he is. Now, at Venezia, I think we overrated Venezia a little bit last year in the service they could provide to him. Yeah, fair enough. He has better service now. He has Lazovic, he has Illich, he has Faroni,

he has Lasagna to his side. He will not have Barac. He's off to Fiorentina. Verona are significantly worse now, man. Oh, they are. I'm seeing shots for them getting relegated. Obviously, don't think about getting relegated. It's every season, even last year. Honestly, how many seasons have these guys been getting relegated? They lost at La Zancanio. No way. They don't get relegated, for sure. If they get relegated, we'll stop the podcast. Hey, and they won't make top ten.

They won't make top ten. Like, I was going to say Bologna, Verona, Udineze. Those three are exact same level. Bologna, Verona, Udineze. Yeah, I agree. Bologna, Verona, Udineze. I think Udineze are slightly better than their... Really? Yes, I would say so. Okay. I would say so. Okay, interesting. But anyway, shall we? Red sauce had a strong performance. That's all I wanted to say. Red sauce? Red sauce.

I wanted to bring it up because obviously we've criticized the back three of Verona and Red sauce really stepped up in this game. Cool. You can't move on. So the next game is the game that nobody watched. Udineze, Nil, Salernitana, Nil. Thank you, good night. And then the goal is, of course, and we're here to talk about it. It was on at the same time as Torino, to be honest. I wanted to watch this one simply because I wanted to see how Kandreva and De Oliveira play.

I love watching those two games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But of course, I couldn't say no to the Torino-Lotio game. Coming into this game, Udineze had won three of their four meetings, matches against Salernitana. This is the first time ever that these teams have drawn. Wow. Yeah, yeah, that's quite the fancy. Fucking hell, hey. So Silvestri was in goal, three at the back, Mazina, Biol and Bekao flanked by Udogi and Nil.

The midfield three were Makengo, Wallace and Pereira, and the two strikers were Isaac Success and De Oliveira. For Salernitana, they had Sepang, goal at back three of Braun, Gyomber and Fazio. On the right, Kandreva, on the left, Mazocchi, Vilhena Radovanovich and Majura in the middle, Bonazzoli and Botham up front. An interesting match, both teams mirroring each other's formation. It was an action-packed match, quite frankly, 15 shots to 17, quite even possession as well.

There was a red card in the 47th minute in the first half. 48. Yeah, 48, 47. It was on Neuwin Perez. He was like, oh, yo, I was in the fourth game, man. It was an intentional foul on a counter by Neuwin Perez, to be honest with you. He probably made the right decision. Neuwin. Neuwin. Neuwin. How do you know? Because I've heard the commentators say it before. It's Neuwin Perez. I've heard Neuwin last, but it was Italian. God knows. This is called Perez.

Perez, an intentional foul on the counter and it was a straight red card. He's on my Fanta. Straight red card. No, he started it, thanks to my advice. True as dude. It was a very entertaining game. Super goalkeeping saves all around. Udinese had better chances than Salernitana. Salernitana had more possession. Deleveaux causing all sorts of problems everywhere. Salernitana, bro. They don't look like pushovers, are they this year?

No, no, no. Like we said, they picked up where they left off last season. That Davide Nicola spell, he's there to stay. He brought something special to them. Clearly, he triggered something in them. And yeah, they're off to quite a good start. A good start, a lot of people had them getting relegated. Yeah, that's true. I had them getting relegated. No, you did. Did you? No, of Spezia. You have Spezia? Oh my days. Spezia lettre cremoneze. And have months on 12th. That's the wild pick, eh? Allah.

We'll see, it might happen. Early days, early days. Early days, baby. Alright, I mean, I don't really have anything else to say about this game. Apart from the fact that it was very entertaining, goalkeeping superstars, red card, and Salernitana couldn't capitalize. I mean, I think we gave you guys a lot of content for the amount of draws and nil nils that they were still managed. What's this, the last one? I don't have any left. Holy shit, we're done. Yeah, we are done.

So I think we gave you guys a lot of content for the amount of nil nils and 1-1s and 1-nils that there were. Really not the most entertaining match days we will ever see. But I think from next week, you know, we'll have a couple of bangers. We'll have Roma, Juve. There's Napoli Fiorentina. That'll be quite... Juve, Roma, apologies. Lazio Inter. Lazio Inter. Verona, Atalanta. Salernitana, Sampdoria. Can't drive us scores against the X. I mean Milan, Bologna.

Legge, Schampoli, Leinz. Even Spezia, Sassuolo is nice to be honest. Okay, next week, this weekend is going to be better. Monza, Udinez, that's okay. Sign me up. And then we have midweek games, bro. This is something we have to decide on what the hell we're going to do. Oh, yeah. We're going to cover fucking 20 games. Or we'll do a quick fire episode or something to cover. I think that's one we'll discuss and we'll make an announcement to let them know. It takes a lot of thought.

Obviously for us guys, this is something we do on the side. We both have full time jobs. Yes, I'm a full time porn star. Exactly. And I'm a full time sex worker. So we could go for something a bit more creative. It has to be about sex, man. Should we say what we actually do? Yes, of course. Go ahead. I'm an English teacher. Oh, you're not? Well, I'm an academic coordinator for a language school. And an English teacher. And an English teacher.

I'm the head of sales at a startup called Free Hour, a student platform in Malta. So both of our jobs are very demanding, obviously, for two very different reasons. Very time consuming. Very time consuming. Unfortunately, we don't have enough time to maybe focus on this as much as we would like to. Exactly. Exactly. It's as simple as that. And obviously we have our hobbies and endeavors as well that take up our time. We have friends, we have girlfriends, we have family.

So unfortunately, we don't dedicate as much time to this as we would like. Maybe in the future, obviously. But you know what? At the end of the day, we work on this every day. Yeah. I mean, we do. We do. Every day. Maybe there's one day like on a Friday. Friday, I think, we find it difficult to work on because it's work and then the weekend starts. Saturday, there's always a part where we can actually make a snippet or two. Exactly.

So, you know, hopefully in the future, we'll be able to do this with a little bit more freedom. Yeah. If you want to enjoy the work that we come up with on a daily basis, please do visit our Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. We post our snippets there and we post some really cool pieces.

We post our bed slips as well in case you guys want to follow our journey to getting, I don't know, money and doing something with it and like recording it for you and as well if you want some betting advice. I mean, we're not one to give you betting advice, but we give you the reasons. We place those bets. If you think they're great reasons, you can hop on board. If not, then don't. It's been a pleasure having you on our one year anniversary, guys. We'll see you all next week. We love you.

We love you all. Take care. Bye.