Stefano Sensi, goal! Wonderful effort! Montserrat ahead in the 34th minute! An absolute belter of a free kick! Hello and welcome back to Serie A Spotlight Season 2 Episode 7 where your host Jake and Matt are here to take a look at matchday 6 in Serie A. So as you heard from the intro, our goal of the week was Sensi's free kick against Lecce for
Monza to take the lead. However, it was quite a tight one because Luis Alberto had a fantastic strike to the bottom corner, Debala had a curler to the top corner and Samardzic displayed some serious skill before curling the ball into the bottom corner as well. Honestly it was so hard to pick this one bro. I was a big fan of Luis Alberto's goal the way he played the defender, like pulling it and dragging it back. That was amazing.
And last kick of the game, that on FIFA you do it by holding L2, square X or in your case circle X because you're weird. Ah yes because you do the shimmy with square. Yeah with square. That's Luis Alberto's goal, literally L2 square X. Yeah kind of, it's true. Remember to follow us guys on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, rate us 5 stars wherever you listen.
It really helps us out with the algorithm and all that. And send us voice notes guys with your hot takes and your opinions or just chatting about football, we might feature you. Yeah last week we had Mintov and my god I'm so sorry what's the guy with M2? Matthias come on bro. Matthias, apologies Matthias. We had their fantastic takes on both teams and it's always
different hearing them from genuine fans that follow the same team every week. We take a bit more of a unique stance because we try to watch as much serious as we can get but it's always different coming from someone that solely focuses on one club and can give you a full breakdown of one club. So if you're that guy send us a voice note and we will be featuring you in one of our episodes.
Yeah I love these people like Matthias is a Roma fan but he follows Empoli closely you know. I know quite a few people like that like Mintov primarily is a United fan but he follows us all extremely closely. Speaking of Mintov brother I have a surprise for you. Mintov sent me a voice note the day after our last podcast was released and I've been holding it to show it to you at this moment. It's one minute long. Oh my god.
Bro I mean I'm still in 26 minutes of the podcast but Matt smoked some I don't know man some crazy ass shit the stuff he's saying right now. Skorupski second best goalkeeper in Italy. You got them right. Overhand, Danovic, Ciesny, Silvestri. What? Juve don't get top four. What? I mean Guaraceria is very good but amongst the best players in the world right now. Man I have forgotten who there is in the world. Alan, Bappen, Neymar, even fucking Moller still
insane. Sanen, Manen, the things they did against Inter. Benzema, Ala, Haaland, Madonna sometimes. Mintov is that one guy that definitely takes everything too literally. But I have to say I'm going to defend myself in two of those things. Number one, sure yeah he's right Guaraceria isn't among one of the best players in the world. That's a bit of fun sensationalism is what I fucking call it. I'm watching the guy every week he fucking blows
my mind. He may as well be up there among the the best players in the world at the moment. It's very early. It's very early. But Piontek would have had that shout when he was banging them in for every single game. Yeah but I've only seen Guaraceria play six games now. He came from the back ass of nowhere and suddenly he's ripping things apart. He's by far one of the best players in the league at the moment and he could be by the way hot take the first non-striker in Syria to compete for top
scorer in a while this year. He might be competing for that. I think he'll eventually come back down to Earth though. I think this was a very good start for him of course but I think just as you could tell his touch is magic man. The man has the sauce in him. I don't think that's going anywhere. And on another note Skorupski is definitely better than Silvestri. I'm not sure about that. Let's not get into this debate again but you know it is quite crazy to
put Skorupski as the second best keeper in Syria. I don't think so because he's with Bologna. No it's just many factors you know to take into consideration. Always the other thing. He said something about Juve not getting top four. I said this could be the season that Juve don't get top four but I never said they're not going to get top four. But anyway guys back to this. So Syria spotlight slips. We have officially gone bust. I repeat
we have officially gone bust. Our first bet we made 50 euro. We were happy. We started big spending. It's like we've never done this before and suddenly we have no money left from a 20 euro pot. We're literally we're jinxing at this point. We bet on Atalanta. They're having a great start. They haven't lost the game. They always beat the Mennosides. Safe bet for them to beat Cremona. Nope. It's like Roma. Street smart to beat Udinese or draw at worst lose four. No problem. So we're
bust basically. Are we going to put in another 20 euros the question? Of course we are bro. God damn right we are. We're putting them all on one game next week. All on one game. Now we'll discuss. But yeah we'll continue the series for sure. Just paint the graphic red. Exactly. We'll see you guys next week with our predictions. Now before we get into it because we always forget to do this. I'm going to read the results for any of you commuting at the moment.
Who don't have time to listen to the full thing. Exactly. So the first match that we're covering Sambodoria won Milan 2 followed by Inter 1 Torino 0. It was then Napoli that got it was a close call against Spezia. They won 1-0. Salernitana held Juve in Turin. Atalanta won Cremona as we were just discussing. Udinese keep their winning streak alive after beating Sassuolo 3-1 at the map A. Lazio go 2-0 up against Verona. Roma beat Empoli away 2-1. Bologna get past Fiorentina on their
first match under new management 2-1. Relegation battlers Lecce and Monza draw 1-1. So anything stood out for you bro this week before we get into the particulars? Oh many things man. I don't want to to be honest start spitballing because we'll go off on a tangent and we'll mess up everything to be honest. I think it'd be a good idea to take things one by one game by game. Anything that stood out
you don't need to comment in too much detail dog. Write a poem about it like just us. What did you like about this week? A lot of nice goals. What did I like about this week bro? The drama bro that's what I liked about this week the fucking drama. A lot of red faces. A lot of emotions bro a lot of emotions. The Milan-Sampdoria game was extremely difficult rather than the Milan-Sampdoria. The Juve game against Salernitana was a
fucking masterpiece of intelligence. A lot of late goals bro. Controversy. Yeah Brozovic's late goal. Raspadori's late goal. Luis Alberto's late winner. This is culture. This is culture. But a fantastic week should we without further ado jump into our first match? Let's do this boy. So the first match we're
going to be covering is Sampdoria 1 AC Milan 2. It wasn't as easy as we would have predicted it to be so Sampdoria lined up in their 4-1-4-1 formation with our Gelland Berezinski as the wing backs. Jesus I should probably start from the keeper. So there's Audero with Augello and Berezinski in the wing back positions. Murillo and Ferrari forming the two centre backs. Villar in the holding midfield spot with Sabiri and Rincon ahead of him. Out wide Juricic and Leris and Caputo up front. Milan in
the classic 4-2-3-1 formation with Mannyan between the sticks. Calabria and Hernandez the right back and left back. Calullo and Kier replacing Tomori in the back line. Pobeg and Tonali in the double pivot. Messias, Decatilare, Leao with Giroud just ahead of them. So those are the lineups and it was quite an early start for Milan. They managed to get a goal in just six minutes. It was some great team play with a finish at the near post by Messias after a layoff by Leao. You can call it a
layoff. It was at the near post. Audero probably should have gotten to that. It's not the first time we're criticising Audero at his near post. So yeah that happened to open the scoring in the sixth minute and we're like okay gonna be quite a chill one for Miel. This round for once. They don't need to scrap to win a game. 17th minute Leao yellow card. Very very soft yellow card. 47th minute second yellow for Leao for attempting an overhead kick and kicking Ferrari in the face.
Obviously definitely a second yellow card. Milan down to 10 men and Leao misses the Napoli match next time round. 10 minutes later in the 57th. Sampdoria capitalised from that and Juricic scored with a header at the near post after an Augello cross. Thankfully for Milan fans, 10 minutes later after that Milan were awarded a penalty after Villar handled the ball in the box. Needed VAR. I don't believe any Milan players contested it and then suddenly it's at VAR. It wasn't a clear hand
ball by Villar but it was an extended hand. Giroud stepped up and converted. There was a red card for Larius, a second yellow card in the 95th and I believe that was for complaining. What did you make of this game brother? A scrap on the half. Milan just managed to get away with three points from the spot. So the first thing I'd like to mention is that I wasn't too worried in the first half. If you look at the statistics as well Milan absolutely dominated up until the red card.
They had nine shots. They had 57.9% ball possession. Things were going well and even just by watching the game you kind of understood that Sampdoria weren't really going to cause that many problems with their slow attacking options to be honest. Compared to Kalulu and Theo Calabria, they can all kind of keep up. But yeah, of course Leo got his red card quite early on. It was for an overhead kick as you mentioned. Kick to the player in the face. Now it might be harsh to call this naive
but I'm going to do it anyway. You have to be I think a little bit naive or impulsive rather to attempt an overhead kick in a crowded area when you're on a yellow card. Especially when your team is leading. There's no need. Yeah he's a young flashy football player. There's not one situation in the world that he's not going to try that at the end of the day. I guess it's a learning experience. Yeah exactly. I mean it has to happen for him to learn from it. A little bit reckless
but at the end of the day as a footballer they mainly work off of instinct. They seize the ball in that position. He's been practicing it. We know he's got it in his locker. We've seen so many clips of him nailing them. And when he hit the crossbar against Atletico but it was offside. That was juicy man. That was insane. Yeah but that put Milan under a lot of pressure and of course Sampdoria played quite a clever game after that trying to overrun Milan. Quite fortunate for
Milan to get the penalty. Again no one appealed as you said. And of course Giroud who's I run out of superlatives for him. Like he's honestly man he's the only striking option left. He's playing twice a week. What twice a week he's playing right now. Literally three times a week at times. Just wait for the compliment to come back. 90 minutes like and he's just playing and playing and playing and playing. He always gives it his all man. Like granted he's a mobile. You can't
play him through but he doesn't stop running man. Agreed. No he's a superb player man. That wasn't the only thing obviously the play-by-play that I mentioned were in the only happenings in the game. There was Juricic that smacked the woodwork with an insane effort from outside the box. A curling effort. It's good to see that Juricic still has it in him. It's bad to see that he has it in him against Milan. Yeah and he's 5'9 and scoring headers against Milan.
There was a great save by Outdair. I criticised Outdair for the goal that he let in for the Messias goal that he let in but he did have a superb save on Giroud at a point. He was very well placed for that and he got down well. On the header was it? Yeah on the header. Was it a header? I think it was a header. He dropped down and like punched it out no? Yeah I can't remember if it was a header or not. I just remember him getting down pretty well. Yeah it was a header. It was a
header. And then there was in the Maltese we would describe this as a gennata. It was absolute mayhem in the Milan box towards the last minutes. I was watching this game at a wedding on a betting application. I put 250 on Milan to win so that I could be able to watch the game while drinking Pina Colada's at this wedding and I'm freaking out bro. Freaking out with Ozzy Lina singing like. What was he singing? What was playing in the background while you were watching Milan?
Um... Plenty of room at the hotel. He kept on putting this American accent. He was going come on down party people. Please do not refer to me as a party person. I'm not coming down like. Like even if you say. Here's Caputo. Amazing. Yeah would you um... How big of a win is this for Milan in hindsight when you look at the red card? When you look at Atalanta and Napoli still remaining unbeaten. How crucial were these
three points for Milan? They were crucial especially when you look around Milan's direct rivals all got their three points no? Yeah. So it was very important. Except Atalanta slipped up with the draw. Sure but the projected top four at least our projected top four all got their three points. You have Napoli, you have Milan, you have Inter and you have Roma. That's what we said at the beginning of the season.
Where's Juve? Mintoff! Juve drew. They should have got their three points as well. Let's we'll get into that later on. Yeah. Really good poor guys man honestly there. But anyway there was no particular individual brilliance say for Milan. It was more of a team effort to get these three points and it's good to see. Exactly. No one really stepped up as you said like the star players like Leao and um
Theo Hernandez you know the guys. Pobega was pretty good at midfield. That's what I was going to say. The guys who had to step up stepped up you know what I mean like the old reliable like step up. Yeah. Like Calabria had a fucking amazing game. Very good game. You know um... Manjaro. Pierre was good I thought. Tonali was okay again. Good performance. He had a moment you know where he ran the full length of the pitch and pretended to keep it and then kept going on the line.
Yeah. Amazing. And my thought that Pobega as you said had a very very good game. I thought it was amazing. He released quickly. That was one of the things I was worried when I'd see him like he'd keep the ball for too long take an extra time. Yeah. He was releasing really well this game. I think a bit of continuity for him would be great. For sure. You mentioned that Theo had a good game. I think he
was very good. I did notice Samp attacking down the right quite a bit which could be as a result of Theo getting forward especially in Leao's absence. Especially when switching to a 3-5, the 3-5-2. Was it a 3-5-2 that Milan switched? They switched to a 3 at the back. Yeah I think it was like a 3-5-1. Yeah of course because of the red card. It was like a 3-5-1 and Theo was going forward a lot so we saw Sampdoria coming down the right. But other than that like you said Milan did a great job at
maintaining the 2-1 until the final whistle. We know Sampdoria were knocking and subsequently they are now in third place. Level on points with Napoli and Atalanta and Milan with plus six, Atalanta with plus seven and Napoli with plus nine. Sampdoria on the other hand 19th place relegation zone just on two points in six matches. Yep and that's what you get when you hire John Paulo. Literally though. Before we move on to the next game I have an update for you on Hakim Mastur
my friend. Oh wow. Hakim Mastur. Guess how old he is by the way? 28. He's 24. What the fuck? Because he broke out as a young teenager. My god very young. With those youtube videos. But anyway Hakim Mastur has scored his second ever professional goal bro. Oh wow for who? He's currently playing for Renaissance and no not Renaissance Refugees the guys of Cice of Atalanta. They're in Botolatou. Botolatou he's playing? Yeah do you know what Botolatou is? Not at all. It's the second division
of the Moroccan football league. Oh wow. Yeah and he's playing there and he's only scored his second professional goal like his first for them. I hope he's happy man. He's happy I hope he's doing well man. A lot of pressure it's like when I think of Mastur I think of like the home alone kid. I thought that people are shot to fame when they were way too young like you know what I mean. A lot of pressure man people tempt them to be the next fucking Maradona like relax as a kid.
So Inter won Torino nil. Inter have not lost against Torino and Serie A bro since the 27th of January 2019 thanks to an Armando Itso goal and a 1-0 victory. Since then five Nerazzurri wins and a draw in the last match in March 2022. Inter have now beaten the Granata and the league four times in a row for the first time since a run of seven wins between 1969 and 1976. Can they beat that bro? What is this the the history channel? So Inter lined up with their classic 3-5-2 formation
with Handanovic in goal a center back trident of DiMarco, Devri and Skriniar. Darmian on the left, Dumfries on the right and Kshala Noglu Brozovic and Barela in the middle with an attacking partnership of Lautaro Martinez and Edin Zirko. Facts. This was against Ivan Juric Torino his 3-4-2-1 formation with Mirkovic salvaging goal. Gigi Bonjorno and Rodriguez at the back, Lazaro on the right, Voi Vodou on the left, Linetti and Lukic in the middle, Sanabria up front with Sek and
Vlasic playing off his shoulders. Facts. Now the goal came in the 89th minute thanks to Marcelo Brozovic who was played an incredible ball by Barela who a couple of match days ago we discussed bro who the best italian midfielder in the league is right? At the moment what do you think? I'm giving you a chance to change your... I'm not just going to change my opinion because of the first
six matches. Barela is a phenomenal man and he gets nine assists a season. The difference is that when Pellegrini is incredible he bangs in free kicks he assists from everywhere he scores from everywhere. I think Pellegrini is more of a complete player but Barela is running off way better form than him right now. Fair enough I tend to disagree with you but that's okay. That's okay bro. This is four. Yeah. But yes I think Barela is more complete bro way more complete
especially defensively offensively can't do it all he can play a good ball he can take it. Yeah Pellegrini is more of an offensive player. Yeah he's more of an offensive outlet Pellegrini. In fact now he's struggling with Romo because he's forced to play deeper. Yeah but he has way more weapons going forward than Barela. Yes that's true even the fact they can hit free kicks is crazy like but anyway the goal came in the 89th minute Barela with an amazing ball to Brozovic who just dinks it
over the six foot six Torino goalkeeper. I think this game bro to be honest with you Torino kind of deserved to take something from this one. Yeah I think you put on a performance like that against Inter up until the 89th minute. You deserve to take something away. Inter are one of the toughest
teams to play against in the league and Torino did a fantastic job. I feel like they really learned from their big loss their 3-1 loss against Atalanta and they learned from that they came into the Inter game they were a little bit more organized they maintained their shape even better they were playing the ball around nicely they absorbed pressure really well they attacked well and I
just feel like they they grew a lot from that experience. Yep maybe they deserved to to go home with a point but that's when the the effect of having magical players in your team comes off. You have someone like Barela to to play a fantastic ball like that and that's the difference man. Yeah he split them wide open man he put the ball perfectly in between the defensive line and the goalkeeper straight into the path of Brozovic nothing anyone could do about that honestly.
Brozovic barely had to touch it. Hey and Brozovic is becoming quite a reliant guy up front. You wouldn't mind playing the ball to him. Man of the match for me was Samir Handanovic who kept Inter in the game like granted Inter dominated on paper but the quality of chances that Torino had was significantly better like Samir Handanovic ran it back man. He did and an amazing performance
considering what Onana did in the challenge. Exactly I think his 38 year old ass will be looking at that saying that was me one day this guy's going to take my place no mother fuck this guy he's not taking my place and that's the beauty of competition that's what we always say. Yeah I still think that Torino are lacking a striker of course that's the only I would say weak point in their in their team or their main weakness right now the fact that they only have
Sanabria over Trillian Pelegri doesn't really have much to offer. Bringing up Pelegri in the 90s. Yeah they don't even bring him on in the 70s they bring him on after the 75th minute every single game. Yeah yeah the guy's career is looking to take quite a lateral kind of step or a step
downwards rather started at Milan. Yeah but it's not even that Sanabria and Pelegri are bad players it's just they're not target men and I think if you're playing with one striker up top you need a little bit of a target man you need a more sizeable figure that's good with his back towards goal there are a lot of teams that play with three at the back in Italy so you need to have strength at your arsenal you need to be a bit more of a complete striker think of the Vlaović, the Ozymens,
the Immobiles, the Lautaro's strong quick individuals with great finishing and and you know Tammy Abraham as well and that's what they should be aiming for man they're growing Torino but unfortunately they're not willing to spend. Yeah they have more of a chichokaputo-esque type of striker you know yeah exactly but yeah anyway they're still doing very well though and I'm impressed by their performance once again but Inter at the end of the day got the three points
they came for. Yeah. Are we going to address what went viral today on Twitter what was trending on Twitter today? I think we have to eh but how how should we do it? That's a good question. Should we start singing Ebony and Ivory? Should we? I don't know how are we going to introduce it? Yeah let's see okay so Lautaro Martinez has deactivated his Instagram account. Okay why Drake? So Inter Twitter seemed to have come up with the conclusion that he was treating on his wife and that's why he
deactivated his account. Okay so you think she made him deactivated because he was being unfaithful? I think he deactivated it to avoid the the hate. Okay. But this is all speculation of course. And the true twist over here is that Lautaro Martinez deactivated his Instagram account because he's in a romantic relationship with Romelu Lukaku and the memes are hilarious bro they're so funny
dude. Twitter is full of them. I love how the internet jumps on this stuff like obviously guys for those of you taking us seriously like this was actually trending we're not making this up but it's it's of course it's it's I highly doubt it's the case right? I mean like I would be totally behind them it would be incredible to have Inter's front two strikers two of the best strikers in the league openly gay and openly in a relationship fucking right power to them. Imagine like they
score the league winning goal and they just kiss. Bro I would love that I would love that. Unfortunately they're not cool enough though to be to be openly gay you know what I mean? Yeah so they just paint their nails black and wear pearl necklaces instead. Yeah exactly. Lukaku would look sick in pearls. Yeah he might. Okay bro anything else you want to add about this game? No but I would like to know where they sit in the standings. That's a good question. So
Inter are currently sixth with 12 points while Torino are ninth with 10 points. Fantastic. The next game we're going to be covering is Napoli 1 Spetsia nil. It wasn't easy at all for Napoli but much like Inter they got past the line at the end. So Napoli lined up with their classic 4-3-3. It was
Tony in the middle with Jasi and Inzola up front. So firstly it was quite an entertaining game in the sense that Napoli were playing that free-flowing football they did against Liverpool and that they've done in the past five games of the league. However they weren't managing to get the final product and to get the ball past Dragovski. In the opening moments Kifara made Ampadu Ampapu himself.
He turned him inside out twice and then attempted to go for the near bottom corner but Dragovski got down well. In the beginning of the second half and then Rui tried to head the ball back to Maret and almost scored a non-goal as Maret was coming out there's a miscommunication. It's good to see that Rui is still a doo-doo shit but Rahmani managed to get the ball off the line. It was then in the 89th minute that finally something went right for Napoli.
And finally something went right for Raspadori as Lozano squared the ball past Cholito into Raspadori's path who netted into the bottom corner after not particularly having a very good game. A rubbish display prior to this. Yeah he had quite a... his link-up play was bad. He was always hiding between like two defenders. He almost looked lethargic at times. Yeah man and interesting to see after he didn't feature against Liverpool did he?
No it was Ozzy Mann and then Diego Simeone. Diego why do I keep saying that I'm such a fucking doo-doo. Jovani Simeone. Stop saying doo-doo bro. Or a doo-doo. But he has Simeone played so I don't get why Raspadori looked so exhausted throughout man. But he managed to get a goal at the end. Power to him still a young guy and he can still do good things at Spezia. So why did Napoli struggle so much to get the ball over the line against fucking Spezia?
That's because Spezia do this man. They hit you with the low block they try to catch you on the break and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it like. They're very organised. Luca Gotti has them playing quite well. I think good foundation left over by Thiago Motta. And the 3-5-2 kind of mirroring what we saw at Udinese last season kind of with the Spezia players. Every single season Spezia turn into a previous team of last season. Yeah but Italiano, they had Motta.
Like the style changes dramatically year in year out. But yeah they've given top teams trouble before and this was simply another case and nothing seemed to be going right for Napoli either. Yeah 100% Napoli had the bulk of possession. They had up to 63% ball possession. They managed to get 28 shots away. 18 of those came from open play. Spezia weren't quiet either. They managed to get 10 shots away. 8 of them were from open play. They dispossessed Napoli on 15 different occasions.
They were very active. They put a lot of pressure on Napoli and then when the time came they sat back and they absorbed the pressure pretty well. So it was a good performance overall by Spezia. Bro one thing I noticed and it's probably obvious that Napoli weren't the same side that they were against Liverpool and in the past 5 matches because the midfield was shaken up quite a bit.
There were two major changes in the midfield. However then also taking out Guevara and probably not only because it's Guevara, not licking his ass again, but them not having that active player in their team to put all their focus on and look for when they're on the ball. That made them struggle a little bit and they were attacking down the right quite a bit. They were trying to play to Politano, playing the ball to Lozano and they don't have quite the same effect as Guevara does.
So maybe they lacked a little bit of something in the second half. Not to mention bro as well as you've already addressed this but I think one of the main things was the fact that first of all they gave everything against Liverpool. This was kind of a hangover for them. They're kind of tired you know and all that. Raspadoori does not provide the same things that Ossimen provides. In fact there are very few strikers that do so. That press like he does, that attack like he does.
They went from playing with like a dragon up front to a donkey bro. You know what I mean? Raspadoori seemed to be always one step behind and couldn't create anything for himself in this game. Apart from until the goal he did very well on the goal. It was a good finish. It was put on a plate for him but you see a lot of players missing from there anyway. And the fact as well that they're playing a much better side now.
Of course man. You see what happens when they play against the Premier League team. They beat them 4-1. 4-1 4-0. What was it? 4-1. How Bad Serie A wrote something that made me laugh. It's so funny guys. If you don't follow this account on Twitter called How Bad Serie A, please go watch them. Especially if you're one of us that's like all for Serie A and all against the Premier League. Pushing ridiculous propaganda.
It's run in such a genius way. The guys are hilarious. So go give them a follow and show them something. Premier League legend Michael Essien. He came to say it. And Emmanuil Vidic. Best player in the Premier League. Best defender in a while. Really good at Inter he was guys. Amazing Twitter account. Napoli do manage at the end of the day to get another 3 points. While Spezia keep on proving time after time. That they bring the game to anyone. Anyone that they face.
They're going to have a hard time against Spezia. They're a team full of hustlers. And it always feels like they make the right decisions with managers. They always seem to choose someone that shares their philosophy. These hard working and fucking tough ass motherfucking managers. Napoli are in first place because of their plus 9 goal difference. They have 14 points. While Spezia are in 15th and they are on 5 points level with Verona.
The next game we're going to be discussing was the most controversial of the matchday. Juventus 2-Saler Nittana 2. Prior to this game Juventus had won 4 of their previous 6 Serie A games against Salernitana. Keeping 5 clean sheets and there was one drone involved in that process. Yes this is the history channel. Only Spezia have had fewer shots on target in the second half of Serie A games than Juventus so far this season.
Spezia have had 0 shots on target in the second half of a Serie A game. And Juventus have had 4. So that is the second worst. Piontek's debut for Salernitana. This is his 4th team in Serie A. Name them. Genoa, Milan, Fiorentina, Cremona. Cremona? Arain Madonna. I'm the one that we're talking about. You're the one that we're talking about. I opened that all onto Cremona instead of Juventus. It's Salernitana. It's obviously Salernitana.
Ok great. Yes you're correct. I'm trying to save you from dementia by asking these questions. Thank you. I fucking need it. Juve lined up with Perrine N'Gol, Quadrado as the right back, De Chilly as the left back and the centre back partnership of Bremer and Bonucci, Miretti, Paredes and McKennie in the middle with Kostic out wide, Keane on the other side and Vlaović up front. Salernitana lined up with a 3-5-2. Serpa N'Gol, Bron, Danilo Ljuc at the back and Fazio along with them.
Candreva out on the right, Madzocchi out on the left, Koulibaly, Major and Vilhena in the middle and a striking partnership of Dia and Pum Pum Piontek. Now it all started in the 18th minute when Candreva scored. Madzocchi put it on a plate for him. He's fucking good this Madzocchi. He's a bright future ahead of him. He was terrorizing the left-hand side, squared it to Candreva who scored. His arms were against his body but I don't think you could call that out for a handball.
In fact, it didn't even go too far. That doesn't really mean much. No, it was against his body. But his hands were in a natural position. This goal, bro, was Candreva's first goal for Salernitana and Salernitana's first goal against Juve away from home. Oh my god. Ever. The only other goal scored by Salernitana against Juve at their stadium was by Divayo in 1999. God. In the 49th minute of the first half, who handles more balls than a urologist, bro? Who? Any center back that you've assigned.
So... A little delict last year, probably. Delict last year. Delict, bro. Handling the ball every other game. Especially at the beginning of the season. You had that whole joke where you're telling him, Ale, what are you playing? Ball on water? Pjantec shot, Bremer hit it with his hand. Pjantec had the penalty, Pjantec scored the penalty. Bremer hit it with his hand? Yeah, it was Bremer. That's why. The new Juve assigning. I know who Bremer is. No, but that's the joke. Okay, okay, got you.
You know, the celebration, all that, halftime, Shambolic, everyone booing Juventus, then they come out, they're all fired up. They're like, we have to prove these guys wrong. We have to prove, we have to make a case for ourselves. There's no way. There's no way we go out like this. So they came out in the 51st minute. It was Bremer who got revenge. Kostas did really well to out muscle and dispossessed Koulibaly on the left. He whipped it into Bremer who headed it in dominantly. Very dominantly.
It was one of those bouncing headers. You know, he bounced off the floor and off the net. Yeah, it was amazing. Millip shortly after struck the crossbar from a distance. And in the 92nd minute they left it late. But Juve won a penalty. Pressure was mounting in the box, Brodo was quadrado. He was twisting. He was turning. Everyone was trying to like not drop him. He's like hitting the ground. He's barely hitting the ground.
Like when people are grazing him, you know, he's like ready trying to win that penalty. Eventually the ball ended up going to Alexandra and they just bodied him. Villanar just came out of nowhere and bodied him. Literally. The penalty was given by Bonucci. Saved by Sepe but Bonucci scored the rebound. No mouthwash celebration for Bonucci as this only meant that they were 2-2. But it's the 94th minute. Juventus have a corner. Quadrado steps up, takes the corner. Millik heads it home.
He's on a yellow. Doesn't care. Takes off his t-shirt. Second yellow. He's off. Red card. But he's off as a hero. He's won them the game. Oh hold on a second, what's that? Looks like it's going too far. The goal is under review for a possible offside. Bonucci, who didn't actually touch the ball, interfered with play in an offside position. By attacking the ball, he has interfered with play. The referee goes to the monitor. Looks at it for a couple of seconds. Comes back. Calls the goal off.
Scenes. Obscenities were thrown. Shoves were exchanged. Violence ensued. Reds were dished out. Like tax returns before an election of Mota. Crazy scenes bro. Red cards for Allegri, Fazio, Quadrado, apart from of course the half naked and almost famous Archadius Millik. Crazy. Absolutely crazy. Now it's crazy because this is the wrong decision. Blatantly. Shortly after the game images came out. Bro, it's a fact. Even the AI have confirmed that this was meant to be a goal.
The entire time that this happened, first of all, let's say it the way it is. Juventus had a goal disallowed from a corner for offside. That's already funny. Cross goes in, striker hits it, goal. It's impossible to have an offside from a corner. Now, the only way that that's possible is if the guy who took the corner. Okay, so you take the corner. The striker hits the ball and someone else interferes with play who's ahead of everyone else. That's what they thought happened with Bonucci.
He didn't actually touch the ball, but he attempted to play the ball, which counts as an offside. That's the literature apparently. But that wasn't the case because Candreva was standing 50 centimeters ahead of Bonucci the entire time by the corner flag. The entire time. I saw some images, but I didn't like. I thought they were Photoshopped. Because it looks ridiculous. But it's not apparently the AI came out and said that the VAR images that were available to the referee were only those.
Yes, they didn't include the Candreva one. Bro, it's the most shambolic call since VAR has been introduced in Italy. Juve got fucking Juved, man. Juve got Juved, literally. Honestly, I was speechless. At least they came out with an explanation. They said we fucked up. When we un-conceited the handball to the doggy, they didn't say anything. I always like, firstly, my least favorite thing in the world is people who start petitions for a game to be replayed. A game is never going to be replayed.
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever. But something just has to happen. There's a call like that so blatantly wrong. Yeah, someone has to lose his job. It's as simple as that. Someone gets suspended, they put him in a wheelchair for a bit and we move. That's the way it works. But anyway, bro, VAR, of course, this is the beginning of VAR. Eventually, they'll be looking at these mistakes and be like, I remember VAR before they managed to perfect it. That was crazy. They'll be making memes out of it.
I can't believe you lose out on a goal, have a goal disallowed like that in the VAR era. It's fucking disgusting, man. Did I tell you about, by the way, Fabio Miretti being the youngest ever starter for Juventus in a Champions League game? No. He's the second youngest starter ever for Juventus in a Champions League game ever, by the way. You know who's first? No. Stefano Pioli. Yeah. Miretti is 19 years old and 34 days. Stefano Pioli was 18 years old and 335 days. Fuck me, you go, mister.
Pioli breaking records. That's what he does. I thought that Juve were awful in the first half. I thought they reacted brilliantly, to be honest with you. I'm impressed as usual by Salernitana this season. They don't look like a team that's going down at all. They really gave them a game. To be honest with you, for that first half performance, it would have been harsh for them to go home empty-handed.
So I think a draw is the... I would say a draw is the fairest result, but the fact that it's been called so unjustly says that Juve obviously deserved it. Yeah, I would say from Juve's reaction, how they carried themselves until the final whistle, just constantly chasing to get that goal. No matter in which Juve were doing it, they weren't doing it blinded.
Sometimes on certain occasions, maybe a couple of seasons ago, we used to say Milan just used to lob the ball into Zlatan's path and into Mandzukic's path. They don't just knock the ball to a tall striker, but they were playing the ball around, they were switching play, they were going forward nicely. I think Kostić had quite a good game as well. He seems to be finding himself quite a bit.
But it's tough for me to say Juve deserved any less because in actuality, for a fact, they should have gotten the three points. So it's very unjust for Juve fans. They have every right to be pissed off. Yeah, definitely. Shall we move on? Yes, if you can just... Where they are in the standings, of course. Juventus currently sit eighth with 10 points, as Salahin Tana sit tenth with 7 points. Before I continue, I just want to point out that we had the Barca Bayern game on TV.
It was on BT Sport 4 and now wrestling has come on instead. I'm watching wrestling with no sound on and I'll tell you what, it's an experience, man. Let's just say that Lauter and Lukaku would really enjoy it. For a fact. The next game we're going to be covering is Atalanta 1-1 Cremona. Finally, we get to cover whatever the fuck happened here. Atalanta lined up with their classic 3-4-2-1 with Mussongol on the back three of Toloi, Demiral and Okoli.
Sopie and Hatteberg were their two wing backs with Kupminers and De Rune in the middle. Lukman and Malinowski played just behind the goal-hungry Muriel. Cremona here we go again lined up with a 3-4-3 with Radu Engol, Aiwu Kirikes and La Shoska Vili. They had Sennikola on the right and Valeri on the left with Meite, Escalante in the middle with Pickel and Okereke out wide and Dessers in the middle. The Scrabbler side is starting to grow on me.
The more I look at that and the more I watch them play and the more I could put names and qualities, faces and qualities rather to names, the more I start respecting their starting eleven. It's always fun with these new teams you say watching them stick out and you start learning what people do and how they play. And so Cremona have a nice kit man. They do, they really do. Might get myself a fucking Dessers kit. Or a La Shoska Vili kit or an Aska Kibar kit. Okereke. Maybe.
So the game started off, it was quite a slow start for Atalanta, much like Napoli, they were struggling to get going. They did manage to find the back of the net through a Koop Miner's free kick from out wide. A spectacular strike but turns out it went in off the arm of Okoli. So VAR reviewed it and they reverted their decision and called it a handball, called it an infringement.
And it's funny because while the ref was checking the VAR screen to see what the infringement was, the manager Alvini was just behind him looking at the same screen. And as soon as the image of the ball hitting Okoli's hand came on, he started freaking out screaming Mono Mono Mono! And tapping his hand in front of the ref and the ref looked at him and gave him a yellow like, you're not supposed to do that bro.
And he reverted his decision but after the game, in an interview Alvini said him seeing the handball on the VAR screen was like a child seeing a bar of chocolate like. So likeable Alvini bro. He has a really really cute side to him man, he seems like a lovely man. He can't help but support him. Exactly. Throughout the game Cremonaizer did quite a good job to sustain Atalanta to keep them tame kind of.
However and then it was Koop with another powerful free kick cross and Demiral flicked the ball on with his head and turned the ball to the back of the net making it 1-0 to Atalanta. Demiral's first goal of the season and Koop Miners once again just proving to be such a threat for Atalanta man constantly. Four minutes later just to fuck our bet, a Skaky bar shot was fumbled by Mussa and it was rebounded in by Valeri.
Like sure Cremonaizer were doing a good job to stay into the game but then suddenly to shoot the ball it's fumbled by Mussa and they managed to get a rebound in. You could say slightly it was against the run of play but it was good to see a side like Cremonaizer getting back into the game after just being promoted. Atalanta were twice as good. They were twice as good but Cremonaizer really played up to the occasion I feel like. I feel like they did do what they had to do man.
It's true away from home they got a point against Atalanta and Atalanta side that's been one of the best teams in the league so far at least table wise. They've been good and Cremonaizer gave them a good game and they showed that they're capable man there are no pushovers. I don't think there are any pushovers in Serie A right now especially with Strappa Sacht and the names being rumoured to replace him. I think Mussa will improve as well and you know they have to improve honestly.
But on the topic of Cremonaizer I think that Radu has become a vital part of that team man. I think he's a very important figure for that team man to perform the way they are to only concede one against Atalanta would require a lot of heroics from your goalkeeper as well. If you don't dominate the game that result requires a great performance by your goalkeeper and that's what Radu gave them. Five saves today. A good goalkeeper honestly like. Blunt error prone has a blunder in him.
Has a bad blunder in him. Yeah they came close to each other the two blunders we've seen from him came close to each other which sucks so much for him. At the end of the day he's 25 years old and his teammates must look at him and say he's still standing there. He's still in goal you know after what's happened to him against Bologna and then the other game against who were they when he ran? Fiorentina.
Fiorentina he just walked the ball into his own net. They're looking at him as a guy who doesn't give up and that might inspire some kind of emotion. 100% and he's a young guy as well. Good goalkeeper man. Very good goalkeeper. Very talented. Great job to keep them in the game. On that note well on a separate note rather. Koop Miners man. Just I know I mentioned him quite a lot. He can score, he can assist. This is really his breakout season. I'd say he had a good season.
It's his versatility more than anything man. Now he's being utilized a bit more. He's not even being utilized that much more attacking than usual man. He just knows how to insert himself. Now the question is you know how we say Pasalic is the smartest player in the league. Is that a side that Gasperini can uniquely bring out in players? Because now I'm looking at Koop Miners and I'm saying he's a fucking shout for a smart footballer man.
Yeah but then there's Jeremy Boggan the same thing who doesn't see anything. No but for center mids I think he can really transform a center mid man. Or their scouting department has an eye for clever players man. I think that's more like it to be honest. Adrian Mufroyler, Derun, Koop Miners, Pasalic, even Papu Gomez. They've had these illichich man. They managed to revive him. They managed to transform illichich into a monster dude.
Their scouting department is top. Honestly top tier. And yeah Koop Miners is just their latest Koop in the middle of the park. Come on you made it once already bro. I make it every episode. But yeah that was basically Atalanta Cremonaise for you. That is in fact the game that fucked our bet and lost us literally all our money. But we live, we learn and just like Radu is still standing, baby so are we. Yes sir. So are we. The next game is the other game.
Oh shit sorry I did it now. I forgot to say. Where they stand in the table. Atalanta second on 14 points level with Napoli and Milan. Cremonaise are in 18th and that was their second point of the season as their level on points with 19th place Sampdoria. Sassuolo 1 Udinese 3. A game that we predicted would be a win or a draw for Udinese. I'm judging by the history of the game. This matchup rather. Udinese are the dark horses of Sassuolo.
100%. Sassuolo's last Serie A win against Udinese was back in March 2018. Madonna. They won 2-1. Udinese have won 5 of the last 9 of such meetings with 4 draws. Sassuolo have only won one of their last 9 home matches played against Udinese. Oh not of their loss of their 9 games at home to Udinese in general rather. This was a 1-0 victory in September 2016. So yeah interesting. Sassuolo lined up with Conceali in goal. Rogério on the left. Antolian on the right.
Ferrari and Rouen as the centre back partnership. Henrique Lopez and Frattesi in the middle. Keiakopoulos on the left. And Laurenti the new boy on the right with Pena Monti leading the charge. Silvestri in goal for Udinese. Perez, Bacow and Ebbosse on the back. At the back. Ebbosse. He doesn't have the key. Who the fuck? We watched this game. Who is he? No we attempted to watch this game. The TV was fucking up. But we were kind of flicking between this Bologna Fiorentina and Lecce Monza.
We were kind of flicking between them all. I think we watched Lecce Monza. We watched most of that because the quality was the best on that and plus. And it's a fucking good game. I mean I love watching two teams that were just promoted to Serie A from Serie B playing each other because they know something about each other that other teams don't. So I always find these matchups super interesting.
And in the Serie A they could play out way differently than how they played out in Serie A. It's like a Serie A-Ber game at the end of the day. It becomes a scrap. Literally. It becomes a free-for-all. Literally. Pereira on the right, Udodji on the left, Arslan Wallace and Lovric in the middle with Deolefeu and Sakses up front. So one of the top scorers in the league, Beto, is on the bench for them. They just bring him on as a luxury pick. They can do that. They can do that.
In the 33rd minute, Frattesi scored after mystery man Ebosse gave the ball away clumsily and Sassuolo linked up well with a move that ended in Frattesi beating Silvestri at his near post. Silvestri should have probably done better over here. That's Gorubski. Yeah. In the 43rd minute, Ruan got a red card after tripping Isaac's success as he was about to break through. It would have been one-on-one with the goalkeeper and that changed the game to be honest. It brought Dineze back into it.
They weren't really out of it, but it gave them a clear advantage. It did take until the 75th minute. It did. They fought well. But it was in the 75th minute, of course, where Beto scored. There was a good sequence of play and Pereira ended up crossing from the byline to Beto who scored. In the 91st minute was Samoar Zic who scored one of our goals of the week. An amazing goal from the edge of the area. He shimmied his way centrally and curled it in. Great goal.
We're discussing whether he curled it in or whether he drove it in. I think it's more of a curl. I think at the end of it, he placed it. Yeah. Round the keeper. You know what I mean? The trajectory was... There was much of a curve to it, I feel. I feel like I scouted Samoar Zic, bro. If you listen back, I was saying his name when he was just coming on as a nobody last season. Make a clip. God knows which episode it's in. Unless it's called Samoar Zic Massive Cock.
I'm not going to be able to find it. Great goal by him, of course. In the 92nd minute, the Swallowers were so demoralised that they just ripped through them. Once again, it was love, which we played a through ball to Beto, who scored and did his insanely alpha celebration where he knees his own chest. He pops his chest out and goes like... It's a crazy, crazy cool celebration. They ended up winning 3-1. Difficult to tell and to criticise Sassuolo, to be honest, when they were a man down.
Especially considering how Odinese have been playing. At the end of the day, Roma conceded four against this Odinese team. I know it's our goal of Dionisi and Sassuolo to brush up their back line. But you manage to contain Odinese for 75 minutes and then you get a little bit fatigued. And then Odinese are bringing on motherfuckers like Samoar Zic and Beto. And tell me what the hell can you do, man? I mean, they tried and then after they conceded the second, they're like, fuck this, man.
And then subsequently they conceded the third. Four goals for Beto this season, bro. He's having another breakout season, is it? Because last year he had a good spell and vanish. It's the Giovanni Simeone curse. He gets a lot of goals in short spaces of time. And then he goes long stretches without goals. Let's see if it can be different this time. He's being utilised with less pressure. Odinese have won four, drawn one and lost one, bro, this season. The one lost coming against Milan.
First game of the season, probably the best time to play with them. Honestly, it would be terrible to play them right now. They're so inspired. That would beat Milan 4-3, like it would be one of those. Well, it's a swallow, bro. Do you think they'll get things going this season? It's really difficult for them to play without Barraiai. They will get things going. One thing they'll start doing is beating teams that are worse than them. That's how they'll start.
They need to have a string of these games. They'll get their momentum going and they'll be fine. At the end of the day, one thing that's important to mention is they're playing without Barraiai as well. But new guy with an assist. The shit thing. But the shit thing about that is Sassuolo without Barraiai are shown less respect than Sassuolo with Barraiai. By who? By other teams.
So if other teams say, for example, we want to attack in this crazy manner against Sassuolo, Barraiai can catch us on the break. So let's be a bit more cautious. Since maybe they don't feel like Sassuolo have that guy in their team, have their main guy that can make things click for them and make things happen, they show no respect to them. They play the way that they want to. They play entertaining football. They show both a little bit. You know what I mean?
True. We'll see what this new guy can do. And of course, remember that at some point, Trauer is coming in and they better respect Trauer because he'll rip them a new one. But honestly, look at Sassuolo's team and try to find someone that can provide a serious threat. Let's say make something out of nothing. There are a few players in the team. I think the midfield is full of talent. I think the midfield three are all capable of creating something.
But their front three, if you look at it as it is right now, which is unfair, and I know because their main guys are injured. If you have Popolus on the left, of course, he's not going to be a great threat. Exactly. Because he's mainly a full back. That's having Lazović as a left winger at Lazio kind of thing. Yeah, the new guy needs to settle and Panamonti up front still finding his scoring. I really hope he does, Panamonti. When he gets going, that guy is super entertaining.
Same. Shall we move on to the...actually, I'll tell you where they stand. My god. Drink every time we do that. Yeah, Colin's sick tomorrow, guys. So, Udinese are currently fourth with 13 points. What a start. Sassuolo are in 13th with six points. A bit of a slow start for them, but it's not too detrimental right now. So, the next game we're going to be covering is Lazio 2, Verona nil.
So, Lazio played in their 4-3-3 formation with Providel in goal, Maricic, Patrick, Cazale and Lazare being their four defenders, with Amit Piltri of Basic, Antonio and Milinkovic-Savic. Up front, they had Ciro Mabile partnered by Zakani and Philippe Anderson.
Verona, on the other hand, played that 3-4-1-2 formation, Monte Paul in goal, Ceccherini, Hien and Coppola being their three defenders, Terracciano and Doregaute wide with Illich and Veloza in two holding with field rolls, and Lazovic in a more attacking with field roll. Onri and Lazania formed that formidable striking partnership, if you want to call it that. Everyone was terrified of them. So, the scoring was opened in the 68th minute by Ciro Mabile.
It was a header after a cross to the far post by Milinkovic-Savic, a brilliant cross to the far post, those two guys together. And I think it's a fact. Yeah, it's a stat. It's a stat that they are the partnership that have scored the most goals basically with Savic having the most assists. Most direct assists to a striker. Exactly. And Mabile having the most goals. And in the top five, there was also Luis Alberto to Mabile.
So, Mabile is the guy you want at the end of your… Exactly, exactly, because he's so well-rounded, like we said earlier. That was his 185th Serie A goal. Quite a landmark. Can he hit 200 this year? I mean, probably, man. 185 goals. Yeah, in Serie A. That's crazy, yeah. I can't think of 185 things I've done. Yeah, neither can I. Well done to Ciro Mabile. He'll definitely be one of the top scorers this year again. By the way.
And then it was in the 94th minute. It was actually the last kick of the game that Alberto scored one of the goals of the season so far. And it almost made top goal this week. He stopped and rolled the ball past the defender and he finished into the bottom corner from just inside the area. It was the last kick of the game. It was just a magical move by a magical player.
When things start going for Luis Alberto and he's on form, he's unstoppable, man. And it's exciting to see the dilemma that Sarri must have of, okay, my system or sheer quality, sheer tantrum of the best midfielders in the league, for sure when he's on at least. So that was the last kick of the game and lots of cruised. Sarri's finding success with bringing him off the bench. Yeah, the problem is will Luis Alberto's pride be too much?
Like, can you keep doing this to him or will he throw a tantrum? Yeah, and he has thrown tantrums before. Yeah, and I don't think he has the best relationship with Sarri either. So it's a matter of do I want to play this cunt? He's such a diva. He's always doing this. He's always doing that. And Sarri is always scoring bad. Sarri will drop you if you step out of line. You know what? Okay, I'm saying that.
But then he had this caper taking the piss out of him. So maybe I should take that back a little bit. I'll take it back. I said Lazio cruised in this game, but they really didn't cruise. It was made tough by Verona. I know Verona have dipped and Lazio are looking really good. Just probably why Lazio won this game. But Verona brought it to Lazio. Monty Pogh kept them in the game quite a bit. He saved that and had a Maricic attempt.
It was a brilliant attempt by Maricic. It was heading right in and he got there. He fingertip the Basic rocket onto the bar. That was a superb save. And then in return, Hellas clipped the woodwork with Thomas Henry. So it's not like they weren't threatening either. And Cancellari scored offside for Lazio against his parent club. When I saw it, I was like, how many times is this going to happen? They're one of their legs.
It's actually a thing. You score against your ex. Is it because you know your teammates better? You know your opponent better? It's a mental thing. You're like, I have to do it. I have something to prove. You play better. It's like a final. I think you're just more, for some reason, more comfortable. I think you're more determined. People are happy to see you. OK, but you're competing with them. You feel a bit like a hero. It's a bit more of a friendlier environment.
At the end of the day, he's a young guy that's out on loan to the fans. And the fans don't hate him. It's not like he did them at their age. It's like a child and ugly relationship. So he must feel comfortable in that setting. He did manage to get a goal, but it was offside, I'm afraid. I really like Cancellari. He's good, man. I thought he should get more minutes at Verona. He was coming on at the very end, man, towards the end of the season.
That's true. He's only 20. He's a big man. He's strong. He can dribble really well as well. He's good. He's got a good pace to him as well. He reminds me a bit of Chiesa, the way he plays. He's bigger. He's clunkier than Chiesa. That's true. But he glides. Yeah, exactly. That layout effect, but obviously on a much smaller scale. Lots of you are looking quite steady, bro. Lots of you are looking good. They are. They're looking decent. Bear in mind, they beat Inter as well. I'm acting all shocked.
It's true. I'd like to see their last five games. Their streak is win-draw, win-draw, loss-win. Yeah, so they have three wins, two draws and one loss. I mean, not the best start, but they're still competitive. Of course, they had a few tough fixtures over here. They had Napoli, they had Inter. Quite tough. Verona are no easy feet as well. Sampdoria, they could have done better against. But anyway. But yeah, they're definitely going to compete for that top six spot. They're going to want Europe.
Yes, top six will compete. Will they get it? I'm not sure, but there's always just a one to four point gap between not making it to Europe and making it to Europe. They'll be there. They have subtly dipped. They were a top four team a few years ago. And then they made it to the end of the game. They have dipped. And now it seems that they've settled as this top six kind of ambitious team. Europa League would be their main objective, I think.
And it's interesting to see if, because obviously Lazio had to adapt to the new change in management because they had in Zaghi for a while. If they'd have to go through that again, should Sarrinot maintain his spot as their head coach? So they'll have to adapt to another manager soon if he doesn't keep his place. I think they're trying to build a philosophy at Lazio. Like they're trying to really implement Sarrinot's philosophy.
You know, and that with a little bit of pragmatism, they could really get things going and they can make it work, taking it a few points. I think it'll take them a couple of years to really see this happen. Two years, maybe most of they managed to hold on to Sarrinot. Maybe I can see them again pushing for top four, but some changes need to be made and Lotito needs to invest, of course. Yeah, I mean, there's only so much a man can do without his tools, you know what I mean? Exactly.
Lazio find themselves in seventh on 11 points. So they're right where we said they would be, fighting for that top six spot at the moment. Obviously, all jokes aside, they're just three points behind league leaders, Napoli, Atalanta and Milan. Whereas Verona are down in 14th and they have five points in six matches. They've only won one game so far this season. They lost three and they drew two. So things need to pick up on the other hand for Verona. Yeah, they need to get their shit ticking.
Yeah, one thing I'll say. They have many positives though. They do. They do. They're a tough side to face. They still have that hustle and that grind in them. They do lack a bit more of creativity since Barack has left. Yes, that's evident. We've seen Laziovic playing centrally, no? Exactly, which isn't ideal for them. For my fun thoughts, a bit more ideal because it's closer to goal. But otherwise, no. Go ahead, King. Your go.
So up next, we have Roma. Roma took on Napoli away from home and beat them to one. Roma are now unbeaten in their last 13 games against Empoli, winning their last six in a row. Their best streak against a team tied with Crotone. They had beaten Crotone six times in a row as well. Now, Roma lined up with Patricio on goal, Mancini smalling and the Baniers at the back, Cielic on the right and Spinazzola on the left, Matich and Cristante in the middle.
De Baal and Pellegrini flanking Abraham up front. Empoli lined up with Vicaria on goal, Stajanovic on the right, Parisi on the left, Luperto and Ismael as a centre-back partnership, Bandinelli, Marin and Huss as the midfield trident, Piaka behind the strikers who are Lammers and the Satriano. In the 17th minute, De Baal scored. Mancini's cross was cleared by Luperto onto the path of De Baal, who scored a wonderful goal. Amazing goal it was. One of our goals of the week as well.
It's such a classic De Baal goal. It's literally the standard De Baal. If De Baal scores a great goal, I think it's exactly like that. Exactly. Coilard, perfectly placed. Shortly after, Satriano struck the post from a Parisi cross. In the 43rd minute, Bandinelli scored an amazing goal. The thing that was amazing about this was the Stajanovic ball, in my opinion. The cross was really good and it was a commanding header by him.
So it wasn't like a screamer or like a crazy skill move or something, but a well orchestrated move. Yeah, I agree. Satriano missed an easy one on one to be honest shortly after this. He missed two big chances this game. He toe poked it past the keeper. In the 71st minute, Tammy Abraham managed to score the winner. It was a perfect ball by De Baal, speaking of perfect crosses. This one was incredible as well. To Abraham, who smacked it into Vicario, who couldn't keep it out.
Fun fact about Tammy Abraham, bro. Tell me. She has become the first English footballer in Serie A history to score under two different rulers of England. Now that's a stat, huh? That is a stat. That is what they call a curtsultana stat, no? Yeah, a curtsultana stat, exactly. At the end of the game, bro, Pellegrini missed a penalty on his 200th appearance for the club. Things aren't looking great for Pellegrini. Not right now, not right now.
Since he's had to take a deeper role to allow De Baal to play, he hasn't looked as good as he typically does. Now he's returned to that more attacking role because of Zaniolo's injury. But we're still not seeing that Pellegrini. It has to be the mental game, man, because we know he has it. Unless it's an injury, it's the mental game, I'm sure. Akpa Akpro hit the post from a distance. He's the Lazio Loni. In the 87th minute, he kicked smalling in the face, and he got sent off.
So that was a good cameo by him, but he looks useful, huh? He looks really useful. He would be useful, he's not a shambolic player. No, no, he's good. He has, obviously, his style and his experience would bring a lot to Empoli. Someone that can break down play quite nicely. I was speaking to Matthias. He said that Hus, he gets that he starts because he's an industrious kind of player.
But he wouldn't be surprised if Akpa Akpro benched him, or even Piajka, to be honest, in that required to stop position. It's more likely to be there, actually. He doesn't really rate Piajka. What do you think of Piajka? I quite like a bit on and off Piajka, I would say. That's my thing, his spell. He's useful, man. He comes in handy, but I see him more in a row like coming off the bench. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean?
I wouldn't want him starting in my team, but he's a good coup to have. Maybe sometimes he'll be on form and he'll start. I was saying they probably signed him just because of his CV, to be honest. He has a lot of experience, he has that Juve card and he can just throw out there. But he's a player who comes into the game and phases out of it. And then comes into the game again and phases out of it. He's not a consistent player at all. Exactly. So he's probably good for this Empoli.
They have many of those, to be honest. Their manager probably being one of them. Zanetti with his beautiful style of football. But anyway, at the end of the game, bro, we saw Bellotti one on one with the goalkeeper. He shot, at first I thought he skied it, but he didn't actually sky-dive. He forced Vicario into a wonderful, wonderful save. Big miss for Bellotti, to be honest, but an impressive save nonetheless by Vicario. What do you think, bro?
Mourinho at the end of the game said that things are looking terrible considering the way they're playing. Okay. What does he mean? What does he exactly mean by that? He's basically saying performance-wise, like judging by these performances, they are not there, no. No, and I agree, I don't think they're there right now. But we covered this a little bit in our last episode. At the end of the day, they're getting points.
Now they're needing to hustle, they're needing to fatigue themselves, they're needing to probably pick up a few injuries to get these points. So the question is how sustainable is that? And probably not very sustainable. So they need to get things going, they need to be a little bit more fluid, they need to be a bit more adventurous. It looks like they play with a bit of a stick in their asses sometimes, man. It's true. Unless it's Debala carrying the ball forward.
Now that they've lost Zaniolo carrying the ball forward as well, before they had two of those, and they still weren't that exciting to watch, but they were better. So I can't wait for Zaniolo to come back and to see Roma hopefully growing into a more fluid side. Yeah, they're much better with them. There was a game earlier this season, I was surprised they didn't score four. I think it was Kramarji. I think it was the first game of the season, bro. That or the second.
They were so good against them. But yeah, Roma, bro, again, it's true that they've had a few problems. What I find funny is that what Mourinho says and what Tammy Abraham says are two completely different things. Tammy's like, I feel good, I got the goal. Mourinho's like, we're in trouble if we keep playing like this. But Mourinho has had that relationship with many of his players, man. Many of his players. And they ended in one or two ways.
The first one being they take that criticism, they improve, and they become one of the top goal scorers in the league. Or as they end up loaned out or they end up leaving to a shit side. That's what normally happens when Mourinho gives that treatment to players. So which one will it be? I personally think that Tammy has so much love for the club and he is so confident in his abilities and he's willing to work hard. So I think he'll get Mourinho's backing. I think he has Mourinho's backing.
Yeah, I think so too. And it's just Mourinho giving that facade. He's, again, 24 years old. He'll still grow. I think he needs to put on a bit of muscle, improve his hold-up play, and he'll turn into a very good striker. He's getting the goals though to help him with his confidence. The one against Juve was massive, for example. That kept him afloat. And this one might plunge him forward. But we'll see. Nothing I really want to add about this game, bro.
I feel that Roma, did they deserve this victory? Let me ask you, did Roma deserve to win this? I wouldn't say they definitely deserve to get away with three points because it was made very hard for them. But you know what I always say, man, at the end of the day, if you scrap hard enough to get that goal, no matter how you get it, then it shows you had something that the other team didn't. Yeah, true. Be it a stroke of luck or be it a stroke of genius.
So I would say that Roma deserved all three points. However, it was a tight encounter. It was a tight encounter, it's true. And they probably did deserve the points. Empoli had their chances, they couldn't really take them. Exactly. Where are they in the table? So Roma are currently fifth with 13 points, while Empoli are 16th with four points. OK, the next game we're going to be covering is Bologna 2, Fiorentina 1. Once again, Fiorentina failing to pick up points over here.
So this was Luca Vigiani's first game in charge of Bologna. So he's the under-19 coach of Bologna, but he was called up to look after the team while Mihailović obviously was sacked and they're currently in the process of onboarding someone else. Probably Mota. They wanted... Oh yeah, is Mota confirmed? I think yes, pretty much. Because I know that Zerbi rejected them. Zerbi rejected Bologna, but I think they're very close to Mota. I think some pages were even confirmed.
Vigiani, just to give you a bit of a background, he was a super average midfielder. Played a bit in Serie A, but played a bit in Serie A too. OK, cool. I totally appreciate that. Have you ever had a stint in Mota? No, he didn't. Bologna lined up in a 3-5-2, so nothing really new over there with Skorupski in goal, the second best goalkeeper in the league. With Lukumi Medell and Posz as the back three, some names I've never seen before over there.
Campiasso and Cassius as their two wing backs, with Soriano, Schouten and Arbisher in the middle, Arnautovic and Barrow up front. For Fiorentina, it was a 4-3-3, with Terracciano in goal, not Gollini. Dodo, Quarta, Igor and Biragi being their back four, so once again, seeing a bit of versatility by Fiorentina. Bonaventura, Amrabat and Barak in the midfield, nice midfield. Kwame and Sotil out wide, with Jovic up front. Still unsure about that. So it was Fiorentina that opened the scoring.
It was a stroke of genius by, I know his number one fan club by Saponara, Ricky Saponara. Come on, Ricky! It was a gorgeous assist by him. That's the moment of brilliance. Exactly, that's the moment of brilliance that we talk about. Now in the next maybe three games, he'll score a goal and then he'll disappear. Exactly, and then we'll be here calling him a little bit unfit, but a genius nonetheless. Exactly. So it was genius by him.
He juggled the ball around the defender and he squared it to the far post, low heart to the far post. Probably a bit lucky that no one picked it up over there, but the defence might have been lucky that the first striker didn't pick it up over there, as it was Martinez Quarta that ended up getting at the end of it and getting his first goal this season. Martinez Quarta is being that centre-back that can get a couple of goals. He puts himself in those positions. That's true.
Bologna then equalised. It was just five minutes later. It was Moussa Barrow that got the goal. So Igor failed to control that desperate blob by Arnautovic. It was embarrassing defending by Igor. Barrow carried the ball forward. Still a bit of work to do and managed to finish past the goalkeeper and finish past Terracciano. So 1-1 at that point. And then it was only around 13 minutes later that Arnautovic managed to get the lead for Bologna.
This time Quarta failed to get rid of the ball, but it seemed like he was elbowed in the head by Cassius Bro, because he went down and it looked like he got out-muscled, but in the replay you literally see an elbow to the head and he goes down holding his head. That's when you stop play. So it was interesting because the ref saw it and he was wagging his finger like, no, he didn't do anything to you. And played on, no Varchek, no nothing.
It was then square to Arnautovic with Terracciano scrambling and he slotted into the back of the net. Almost kind of missed by the way. Into the side, netting too close for comfort. But his sixth goal of the year, at the end of the day, I was telling a Man United fan today, I was talking to Ed, and I'm like, you missed out on a good player Arnautovic, he has six goals this year.
I'm like, yeah, I can't complain right now as a United fan because suddenly things are going well for me, but we could use six goals up front. So don't be too quick to judge, guys. In the 91st minute there was a really funny moment. We're watching the game and a player is carrying the ball forward in the 96th minute for Bologna. And Igor is tracing him. And the commentator goes, Igor's got to be careful, he's on a yellow card. As he finishes the sentence, Igor just takes out the man completely.
Just lunges into it. Gets zero ball and he clatters the guy on the ball. The commentator was almost disappointed. He wasn't even happy he called. Literally. I go, no. So Igor got sent off in the 96th minute and he had only picked up his first yellow card in the 91st. So good to see Bologna getting some points. It was a tight match against Fiorentina, tighter than we thought it would be. We thought Fiorentina would get the win over here. Or at least a draw.
But Bologna once again getting points when Sinise isn't in the picture. So we saw it last year at the end of the season. Might have been motivation, obviously, because of the situation, but it might also be he's not the man doing the tactics at the end of the day. It's a second-hand man. And with their second-hand man, they managed to get a win against Fiorentina in the first match, so what do you have to say about that? Their first win of the season, bro. Massive display by them.
Fiorentina once again disappointing. They really have to get their shit together. Yeah, not much else to say really. Yeah, they lack a bit of creativity. They did fucking try, that's for sure. They were attacking quite often. They were aggressive. They stole the ball a lot from Bologna. They were breaking down their play and they were managing to get forward. They have options in midfield. They have options up front in every single position. Left wing, they have a bunch of options.
Right wing, a bunch of options. Striker, they have two good options on paper. In midfield, they have many versatile players, can do different things. But then at the back, they don't really have any substitutes for their starters who are capable. Yeah, you could say they have Igor, but for example, Igor played here and he had a terrible display. I'm just seeing his rating over here, 4.1 and I know he got a red. But he was also at fault for the goal.
You know what, I think he failed to control the ball. So terrible display by him and replacing, like, if Milenkovich was injured, they have to bring this guy on. That's a significant, that's too hard a downgrade, man. Even if Quarta is injured. Look, I don't mind Igor. I thought he had a good spell last season. He had a good season last season, to be honest with you. But these performances this season are really worrying. And it's not that Milenkovich has been great.
And even Martina Skvarta has dipped a bit from that good moment he had last season. So things are looking quite shaky for them at the back. I'd say Biragi is the only consistent one. Dodo looks good, but I think he got injured. Did he get injured? He definitely got subbed out. Yeah, he got substituted. I think he got injured. Was it due to injury? I don't think so. So things are looking a bit grim for them over there.
Okay. And obviously they still have that weird ongoing thing with Gonzalez, where no one knows if he's injured or on his way out or hungover. Waiting for the cocaine to leave the system. Exactly. So we don't know. But on the other hand, a really, really good sign for a Bologna side that always deserved more than they got. And finally they managed to get their big win and their first win of the season by beating Fiorentina 2-1. And out of it, once again showing that he's the man.
Again, Soriano, Arbisheir and Schouten aren't looking too bad. They're not looking too bad at all. They're okay. I mean, they're good players on paper. Yeah. And it's been a while since Soriano played well. It's true. It's true. But yeah, big win for Bologna. First match without Sinisa. And onwards and upwards, they find themselves in 12th. And they are in fact level on points with Fiorentina who are in 11th. Lit. So the next game was Lecce 1-Monsa 1.
Lecce have won their last two league games against Monza in Serie B. So coming into this game, Monza were the underdog. In fact, Monza have not won any of their two games away to Lecce and have not scored a single goal in any of those games. Okay. Listen to the stat. Lecce have both the player with the most clearances in Serie A this season, Federico Basquerotto, and the player with the most tackles so far this season, Morten Hümlund. And they also have Umtiti on the bench.
So they're looking pretty good, huh? Yeah. Defensively at least. They're looking decent. So Lecce lined up with Falcone and Goal, Pezella on the left and Gendry on the right. With Basquerotto and Pongracic at the back. Bistrovic, Hümlund and Helgesen in the midfield. Banda on the left and Di Francesco on the right with Cissé up front. While Monza lined up with 3-5-2 formation with Di Gregorio on goal. Santos, Mari and Itso at the back. Birindelli on the right, Carlos Augusto on the left.
Senzi, Rovell and Pessina in the middle. Caprari and Mata up front. That's a good team. Like hard to label these guys as the underdogs. How many have Pessina, Rovell, Senzi in midfield, Caprari up front? But then you watch them play together. Then you watch them and they're terrible. Honestly, like even their goal came from a free kick. But that is some midfield, huh? Yeah, it really is. Birindelli, Pessina, Rovell, Senzi, Augusto. Then Caprari and Mata up front.
And they have Petani on the bench. But anyway, in the 35th minute, Stefano Senzi scored a wonderful curled free kick. It was one of our top fours. It was our top one, in fact. It was? Ah, you're right. Oh my god, it was our best one. Wow, it's getting late. Yeah, Senzi scored our goal of the week this game. Hype, hype, hype. Amazing goal. Okay, hopefully he can stay fit and continue this form. In the 48th minute, Juan González scored a good work by Ciceto for De Gregorio into a save.
De Gregorio found himself on the floor and there wasn't anything he could do about it as the ball fell to González who scored. Funny, shortly after this, there was a cooling break that was mistaken for a penalty. What? Yeah, there was a cooling break. The ref whistled for a cooling break and everyone thought he whistled for a penalty. It was a bit of chaos. Also, about the Roma game, I forgot to tell you, bro. When Abraham scored, a fan ran onto the pitch and celebrated with it. I saw that.
Amazing saves, bro, by De Gregorio, especially right after this cooling break was mistaken for a penalty. He had an amazing save on a header. And then shortly after, another one on Colombo. Two amazing, top tier saves. I can't see Cranio starting anytime soon, I have to be honest with you. Hey, man, but then you watch Cranio play. Cranio is amazing, but De Gregorio is not a joke. No, he's not a joke. He's not a joke.
Yeah. At the end of the game, bro, this was basically Monza's first point in Serie A this season. So as a reward for his efforts, Giovanni Strappa has been sacked. I think it's like you have to get three points against that chance. Exactly. That's the thing. I think that Berlusconi and Gagliani, look at this team that they've built and this team that they've brought up from the bottom of the bottom. And they're like, we want to stay here. We want to fight in this league.
We're not relegation candidates. That's what they think of themselves. Yeah. And to be honest, I quite agree with the decision. It's a good approach, better now than to ride it. Exactly. If I'd gone until January, you would have lost half of a season off points. It sounds harsh, but the guy is there because he got them promoted. But he got them promoted through the playoffs. It's not like he got them promoted convincingly. Exactly. It was a bit of a miracle.
Exactly. It was a fucking hassle for them. They had to play Pisa, a little regressional scoring left, right and center. I believe they didn't win once against Pisa. There was some weird technicality like that put them through. I think that was them. Yeah, probably. I think that was Pisa actually against Benevento. Yeah, Pisa Benevento, Pisa Benevento. Exactly.
It was no surprise, bro, that Stroppa was sacked because on Monday Berlusconi in an interview literally said that he'd have to fix Monza's tactical issues personally. Okay. So this guy's saying like the coach is so bad, I need to fix this myself. Exactly. It must be terrible to work on there when things aren't going well. Yeah, man. And now he's looking to onboard. I think they're linked with Don Adoni. Yeah, and Ranieri.
And Ranieri. So he's looking to get the old boys. I mean, he's an old boy, he wants to get one of the old boys. Ranieri would be an amazing signing for them. It's hard to see him getting relegated, man. But we'll need to wait and see. A former Juventus winger is currently in charge of Monza. His name is Palladino. He will be in charge in their upcoming fixture against Juventus. Oh, wow. Baptism of fire for him. And apparently he's being considered for the role as well.
Okay. So if he does well, he might stick with him. Manages to get points against Juve. That's a good way to make your mark. The main thing I took from this game, bro, was that Banda is a very good player and he's their main offensive outlet. Banda has looked pretty decent. He looks really good. He creates most of the moves and Cissé links up well with him.
And, you know, having De Francesco on the other side isn't a bad option as well, although he didn't have a particularly amazing game over here. So let's have a decent team. They have good options up front, good options at the back. I think they're pretty solid. Do you think that Cissé should be starting ahead of Colombo? I think Cissé. Yes, Cissé looks better when he plays. Colombo deserves minutes, but I think right now Cissé deserves to start.
If Colombo scores a few, it's literally who starts scoring, man. I think you start. Like if Colombo starts coming off the bench. It's like that's Piotr Kabral kind of thing. Exactly the same as that. Exactly the same and can't you lay your dribbles like Leo? Exactly. Nice. That's it, bro. I think we've got that game covered. Please tell us where they are. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Monza are 20th with one point, one hard earned point.
Lecce are 17th with three points. Go on, Lecce. I like Lecce. I want to have them in the league. Me too, man. Milan have had some thrillers against Lecce with that yuppies goal at the end. It's a Nocerino hat-trick, I think. Boateng, bro. Boateng of the fucking bench. Who was Nocerino's hat-trick against? I don't know, but I'm going to check because I'm so curious. In the meantime, you can entertain the listeners. Exactly. Nocerino was... It's hard to describe Nocerino.
He had a great work ethic and he was an all-rounder. He wasn't particularly extraordinary in many areas, but for a player that used to break down play a lot, he had quite a magical touch about him when you come to think of it. He was a good passer of the ball and used to go forward well. So he was a real all-rounder, man. He was, man. And he was a product of Zlatan. He was good when Zlatan was there. When Zlatan left, he dipped.
Zlatan came and made Boateng and Nocerino into these amazing players. Yeah. And he had competition in that role, bro. It was against Parma's hat-trick, by the way. Against Parma? Nice. I really liked Nocerino. Then he had gone to West Ham, I think, and he never really played, man. That was the situation with Nocerino. But yes, that is a nice way to end things off, talking about Nocerino. Who would have thought?
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