50: The Big 50

Cross in the middle, right, control, then he tries, right! Mattia right! He gets out like this, at the 49th, at the first chance for Lempoli! Hello and welcome to Seia Spotlight Season 2 Episode 10, we are your hosts Jake and Matt and this is our 50th episode. What a milestone, huh? What a milestone, bro. Road to 100. Road to 100 and 50 episodes of us talking. Yeah man, for two hours pretty much each one, like that's crazy to be honest, there's so much discussion on the internet between us.

And it's funny because normally when we hang out we just sit in silence and do nothing, like play games or watch football. I mean we've known each other for our whole lives, there's pretty much nothing else left to say to each other, like what are you gonna tell him? Like, oh I really like biscuits! Dude, I know everything that you like, I know everything you dislike. Fair enough.

Our goal of the week, as you guys heard from our intro, was Mattia Destro's first goal of the season and first goal for Lempoli and what a manner in which to get his first goal of the season. Bro, his first goal in 8 months. As Freddie Mercury once said, I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike and that's what Destro did. Bicycle kick against Torino, what a goal, what a way to open his account for the season. The best display of the saying, form is temporary, class is permanent.

He's been off, he gets half an opportunity, back to words goal, provides something magnificent, something spectacular. We will get into this more later on. Honourable mentions for goal of the week, of course, there was Brahim Diaz's messy-esque solo goal against Juventus, there was Gerard de Vleufel, who was insane free kick against Atalanta and Diaz Kerler to Sack Choffey. Really, really good goals this matchday man. Amazing goals.

To be honest, matchday nine has had me at the edge of my seat throughout. We got to watch a very healthy amount of culture this weekend and I'm hoping it will be the same this weekend. Oh yeah, and unfortunately the midweek Champions League games, am I right? Forget about it, forget about it. We're not going to be talking about those. Serie A, spotlight slips. Another victory bro, two in a row.

Now we are 13 euros and 28 cents richer thanks to Napoli and Roma's victories along with Sasha Lukas's late equaliser against Turin. Now bro, I screamed at the top of my lungs when I scored that. I remember man, I remember. And he scored it with his stomach. It was one of the messiest goals this week. Totally undeserved at that point. Well to be honest, we'll get into that. It was probably deserved but it's just the funny way in which they got the goal. We are currently at 28 euros and 30 cents.

We're getting there bro. It's a slow and steady race. We understand there are 38 matchdays so that might mean that sometimes we lose six in a row and then we'll win two in a row. You know what I mean? Hopefully that becomes two, three, four, five, six. And I like these five euro bets. They're quite safe, like they're not crazy. Yeah but they're a bit lame as well, putting a fivey. Sometimes I want to toss a ten. In the beginning after we won the first. Fifteen! After fifteen, after fifteen.

We learn, we grow. We learn and we grow. So guys if you have no idea what we're talking about, the Serial Spotlight slips, you can follow us on Instagram at Serial Spotlight. That's where we post our weekly bet. You can follow us on TikTok and Twitter as well at Serial Spotlight. Always guys, yeah hit us up. Give us your feedback. Yeah don't forget we're on Spotify, Apple Play, Google Play, Apple Podcast. Anywhere you get podcasts basically. Yeah pretty much.

But before we get into it, we'll just have a quick rundown of the week. So the highlight match of this weekend was Milan 2, Juve nil, spectacular win there for the champions. Udinese 2, Atalanta 2, Sassuolo 1, Inter 2, Inter getting one over their bogey teams over there. Cremonese thought they had Napoli at one point but Napoli came off with a 4-1 win away from home. Fiorentina nil, Lazio 4. Roma 2, Lecce 1. Napoli hold Torino in Turin with the score of 1-1.

Bologna 1, Sampdoria 1, Samp under new management over there. Salernitana 2, Verona 1, Trecioffi sacked and Monza 2, Spezia nil. Thoughts on this match day bro? Amazing bro it was intense. There was a lot of drama, many big games over here all around. I really enjoyed it. 100% I mean you look at Milan, Juve, you look at Udinese, Atalanta, Sassuolo, Inter, Fiorentina nil, Lazio, Torino, Empoli as well these are all games too. Many goals man, many many goals. For sure 100%.

We had a little bit of back and forth you and I because I wanted to put Milan, Juve as the first game with cover because it is the biggest game of this weekend and you wanted to put Udinese, Atalanta why was that? So basically for me at the moment Udinese, Atalanta is the big game in Serie A. You look at the team that is second, you look at the team that is third and they go hit the head. It's literally the big game of the week. Milan, Juve is the big game historically.

Now I don't know about you bro but I am against the Super League. I know what you mean obviously Udinese, Atalanta is second against third at the time at least second against fourth. So I get that whereas Milan, Juve was what fifth against eighth, fifth against ninth something like that but these motherfuckers have played against each other in Champions League finals and they have two of the biggest fan bases around the world so I guess people are going to tune in.

No for sure that's the populist decision not the purest decision. Yeah I decided to go a bit populist but as you could see populism has once again won. So we'll start off then with Milan, Juve it was Milan 2, Juve 0. So Milan were coming off a dramatic 3-1 win at Empoli if you guys remember that but a dreadful 3-0 defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League.

On the other hand Juve were coming off an impressive 3-0 win against Bologna and a 3-1 win against Maccabi Haifa in the Champions League leading up to this.

Now both matchups last year between Milan and Juve ended in draws even though Milan went on to win the league, Juve were a bit disappointing at least towards the beginning but they both ended in draws and Milan have gone unbeaten in four of their last five Serie A meetings against Juve where they won 2-2 and drew 2 after having lost 13 of their previous 14 where they only won 1.

Now obviously those figures have changed a little bit Milan would have 3 wins and 2 draws in their last five so a bit more of a positive ratio for Milan over there. But to get into it Milan started in a 4-3-2-1 formation a much changed side from the side that took on Chelsea midweek obviously that was a 4-3-3 with Dest at right back, Kalula and Tomori at centre back with Balotu at out wide.

This time Hernandez returned from injury, Kalula was shifted to a right back position and Gabia filled in that centre back slot alongside Tomori. 3 in the midfield were Pobega, Benassir and Tonali, I must say that I do like Milan with a 3 in the midfield, Léo and Diaz out wide with Giroud up front for Juve on the other hand was the classic 4-4-2, Cezny in goal, Danilo, Bremer, Bonucci and Sandro in the back.

In the midfield it was Quadrado, Locatelli, Rabio and Kostić with Vlaović and Milik up front. Recipe for this game, Orzato, recipe for disaster normally for Milan fans that have a massive fright when that announcement comes out. It's not a popular name amongst Milan fans as you say. Absolutely, it's a popular one among Juve fans normally.

Now I don't know about you, maybe it could say something about my pessimism at times but I thought that Juve were coming in as slight favourites in this game particularly after the injuries that were announced for Milan after the Empoli game and the midweek embarrassing loss against Chelsea. I don't know what you think about that. And obviously Juve beating Bologna 3-0, then beating Maccabi, Haifa so on and so forth.

I thought that Juve had more momentum and I thought that that might cause an upset but at the end of the day I still think that Milan came into this game as strong favourites especially the fact that this was played at sun zero, you have Theo and Lea of fit, that's the left hand side, that's an offensive threat.

Backline was quite solid as well, Kalulu at right backs, fine, Gabia is holding his own lately and he's shown even last season Gabia that he can be a dependable fourth choice centre back. I thought Milan set up well and I did have a good feeling about this game coming into it. I had a terrible feeling coming into it.

Once I saw that Piole changed up the system to fit the players that are fit at the moment with that 4-3-1, adding kind of more stability in midfield, adding more stability in defence as well with Kalulu going out wide, I thought that was a good sign and then seeing Juve as 4-4-2 I was like okay, this is going to be totally different. With two classic number nines. But that to be honest has been decent for them, Vlavic and Milik. Milik was never planned to start.

You know he's starting because Di Maria is out, because Chiesa is out, so on so forth but he's doing a good job alongside Dusan. But I think that many of their problems creating simply come because they have two target men who they're trying to provide so you have literally two banks of four working to satisfy those two strikers up front. There's not much creativity there.

Yeah and you look at Quadral, you look at Kostadjic, these are two players that have been moulded to be wing backs and they're their most offensive outputs in midfield, so on so forth. We all know that Juve do have a couple of issues at the moment. But to get into the game a little bit, so Milan started off the better team from the get-go you could say.

There was a moment where Liao hit the post with a back heel, then there was a shout for a penalty after Vlavic kind of used his elbow to block a Liao cross shot. His arms were against his body so it would have been harsh but then you see his elbow was sticking out slightly, had his arm been cut off it probably would have gone through. There's a bit of controversy over there. He definitely extended his arm to kind of block the shot.

Now I mean it looked innocent at first but then when you look he pulls his arm in, realises the ball is passing by and just extends his arm ever so slightly. Yeah that's the thing when you slow it down it always looks a bit more malicious doesn't it? At the moment it could have been a simple kind of human error but at the end of the day look his elbow at least was in an unnatural position, it was sticking out. It's as simple as that.

Now I'm not too mad about, obviously I'll get into why later, I'm not too mad about that not being a penalty for Milan but it's just interesting that referees are so selective, the VAR room is so selective with when to take action and when not to and that'll be a bit of a theme over here guys.

Moments later in the 34th minute Liao hit the post one last time, it was a shot from distance this time to sting Chesney's left post and then it was in the 46th minute where Tomori opened the scoring for Milan.

Great to see him get on the score sheet particularly after the Chelsea match where he struggled, kind of seemed like he was trying to prove himself a little bit too much but this goal in particular there was a volley by Giroud after a corner that hit Tomori who thankfully was not in an offside position, the defender readjusted and he fired in from 6 yards out on the half volley himself, fantastic goal sending Milan ahead, what a celebration as well. What a celebration dude.

The entire team surrounded him as well. And the fucking fans like, who was he staring at, was it the fans, was it the… God knows. Not even the camera, I know right, it was the fans. God knows but I would not like to be whatever it was that he was staring at. That's the same face he pulled at the referee in the last game against Barcelona. 100% that's the exact same face. Every single official as well man.

That is Tomori's second career goal for Milan and they were both against Juve, we all remember that 3-0 victory where he put the icing on the cake, cherry on top of the cake, I don't know the saying here. Cherry on the icing on the cake? Exactly, with that header making it 3-0 a couple of seasons ago but yep, that was Tomori's effort.

One thing that obviously we have to mention about this goal was that they did seem to be a foul on Quadrado, Barito or Hernandez but VAR couldn't check that because it wasn't part of the build-up that led to the goal but part of the build-up that led to the corner. So that decision was made and they weren't going to VAR the decision on a corner. What did you make of it? Do you think it was a foul on Quadrado?

It was a foul, he went in very aggressively, he missed the ball completely, he got the man first, that was a foul. So cancelled out there with the earlier error which is why I wasn't too mad about the first one not being a penalty for Milan. I mean these things happen, a foul in the middle of the pitch that led to a corner isn't as bad as a penalty not being given for example. Or VAR not interfering when there's an incorrect penalty call or a correct penalty that wasn't actually called.

Yeah, I mean tackles in the middle of the pitch, you think they'll lead to nothing, sometimes they do. This was one of those situations not obviously excusing the decision. If you take those to VAR you're going to end up VARing every time there's a goal you're going to go like three plays or four plays back to check. Exactly, it'll become rugby and we don't want that.

Brahim made it 2-0 in the 50-40, he intercepted a wayward Vladović pass in his own half, he sprinted away from Bonocci, rode a Millec sliding tackle and hit it so hard that it bent back Cezny's gloves at the near post. What a fucking goal by Brahim, takes his shirt off, Léo carries him around, he's flaunting the Brahim Diaz name at the back of his shirt with the number 10.

Absolute scenes there, those are, at that point you're watching the game, you just want to be a Milan fan, you just want to be enjoying that moment. Yeah man, especially for a player who comes under so much criticism and he's a young player at the end of the day who's in his third season I think.

And you know, he's not doing too badly and he has moments where you can say this guy has some quality, he's capable of taking his man on but he clearly lacks the physicality to actually do it consistently. But to see him score a goal like this, it's just like, it's the underdog's story, you know, you're seeing someone's hard work pay off and it's just amazing to watch. It's a shame Calabria wasn't there to pull his shirt down when he was trying to take it off this time, right?

Even Piole at the end of the game was like, why the fuck did you take off your shirt? Score a goal like that, the shirt's coming off, I'm surprised he didn't take his shorts off as well. Then we realize why, it's for the Messi celebration. Yeah for sure, for sure. I do think that he does look good on the right hand side, he does look better than he does in the middle. In the middle obviously he's got two centre backs on him.

Over here he could kind of slot in between that left centre back and the left back which kind of allows him to get into the pocket a bit more, make runs off the ball. It helps him when he's charging as well, he doesn't have three men around him instantly. It was good to see him over there, I heard some comments saying that before the goal he was utter shit, nope he wasn't.

He was driving the ball forward, he was playing the ball, sure his output wasn't always there but no one's output was there before the goal. He had 93% post succession for example, he barely made any mistakes. He was involved, he dribbled successfully, I can't remember him dribbling and losing the ball at any point, you know what I mean? I thought this was a very mature performance by Ibrahim Diaz. Yep agreed.

And I really like the formation change, the way Piole adapted to the players available. This was a good idea, the Christmas 3 formation, the 4-3-2-1, that famous formation that Milan won so much with. And Pobega slotting into the midfield brilliantly, we'll have to mention him obviously, we've seen Krunic fill in that role before.

I must say man, now Krunic obviously everyone here listening knows how much we love Krunic, Pobega slots in nicely, I love that physicality he brings, man sure sometimes his output is a little bit, that's where I'd rather have Krunic, but on the breakdown of play, he's such a good addition man, Pobega, such a good addition to that midfield. I mean, you're right, Pobega is fucking brilliant and he's a very exciting talent to have, 23 years old.

Krunic is 29 years old, he's Piole's probably favourite player. I think Krunic understands Piole's vision perfectly and I think that's why Piole tends to prefer Krunic in big games, in big moments, to fill up positions where there's no one else who's adequate for example. So yes, I do agree, however I disagree with your point about Pobega's output, I think that for example when it comes to long distance shooting, Pobega is probably even better than Krunic is, he can hit the ball bro.

Long distance shooting probably, we'll not say like advanced passing, sure Pobega has sometimes where they come off for him, but we do see him being a step behind play. Sometimes yes. Quite often, but he'll get there, I mean Tonali was like that the season he signed and look at him now, you know what I mean? And I think Pobega's having a way better start than Tonali did, way better.

Pobega's having very good games, like I said over here man, he slotted in and he gave Milan exactly what Milan needed to fucking win this game. Now Allegri asked for Milan injuries bro, he got Milan injuries and he's still lost, is there a message you have for this man?

Yes man, watch yourself, you have to watch yourself bro, because somehow you still have a job, it's crazy how proud Anjeli is, like not sacking him after they're lost to Macaroni Hashish or whatever the hell their name is, it's just crazy to me, how the fuck is this guy still in a job man, how much do they have to pay to sack him? 9 million. He's on 9 million a season, but I think they'll have to compensate more, now I've seen something like 30 million to sack him or something.

Because I spoke to a Juve fan at Freshers today, so this guy just rocked up to school in a Juve kit, I'm like you're brave man, you're brave, two losses in a row like that and we chatted for a while and I'm like it'll cost you guys 9 million to get to the Val Legg, he's like 9 million, like he's on 9 million a year and he's got two and a half years left on his contract which means 18 million, 18 plus 4.5 it'll be like 22.5 million

to fucking sack this guy and at the end of the day they just want to add that to another 60 million and buy Sergei in midfield, no they don't want to sack Anjeli. Yeah that's what they're gonna do now, they're gonna buy Milyinkovic-Fasavitch, I can't see that happening by the way at the moment, but money talks huh, so you never know.

Playing finances is always a task and often football you look at Barcelona everyone talking about how broke they are and they go and break the bank and suddenly they're alright playing in the Champions League as a favourite in their group once again, so it's always weird to see.

100% and still on the topic of Milan, I am in a place now because obviously as Milan fans we take a look around the roster and we say okay Tonali is consistently brilliant, Milan Asser is consistently brilliant, we're big fans of Giroud, Brahim is doing stuff and obviously you listen to pundits around the world, everyone raves about Liao and of course he is obviously Milan's standout player and I don't feel like we show him enough credit because we're hipsters, you know what I mean?

So we want to highlight… You're not a hipster if you say you're a hipster. Well I am kind of referring to us in the third person so I guess I'm allowed to do that. But we like to highlight the players that maybe aren't obviously being highlighted so it takes a bit away from Liao. Liao is something else, the touch that he has, the way that he beats every single man in his path for his… He was taking the piss late on against Juve, turning everyone inside out like it was nothing man.

There was a point he turned Miretti into Morliti, he spun in circles, he went right then he went left then he hit the chop like, he's like where is he gonna go dude? Morliti are hemorrhoids and Maltese, I repeat Morliti are hemorrhoids and Maltese. Thank you very much for explaining my joke to our foreign listeners, I hope you enjoyed that guys. One more point on Milan that I have to make, I don't know if you wanted to say something over there.

I just want to say that Liao is such a physical specimen, such a raw talent, he's so explosive right, he's a physical freak, he can take his man on, he can outpace anyone, he can out muscle anyone, it almost looks like he's playing with children sometimes. Yeah honestly, it looks like he's playing against an under 16 sometimes. It's true, it's like you have an 18 year old teacher at school and he's playing with a bunch of 18 year old kids, playing with both a bunch of 18 year old kids.

But yeah I mean, spectacular performance by Milan over here to get the win, you are in the kind of team to make it super easy and obviously Milan had some controversy with the two Chelsea games where they basically lost on an aggregate of 5-0 and looked absolutely hopeless, but hopeful in the league that they will keep up these performances and with this 4-3-1 system, even with the injuries, they can continue to be serious title contenders.

Juve on the other hand need some serious work to get there, they don't have a bad starting 11, it's just the way that they're deployed, the way that they're utilised, everything is shambolic, I don't know what comments you have about Juve's performance. No it just leaves a lot to be desired, it leaves everything to be desired quite frankly.

Overall uninspiring man, I can't even remember a time where Tatarasan was challenged, they had one shot at one point I remember with Moiskeen, no Millek, Millek had a shot at the point for a shot and Tatarasan just caught it. In fact did they even have any shots? They had a decent attempt like you said of Moiskeen but Kalulo got back and got a fucking vital touch man to that. They had three shots on target, three off target and four blocked. Yeah and Kalulo bro wow. Kalulo insane.

But yeah if I were a Juventus fan right now I would want Allegri out quite frankly as soon as possible, it can't be, he was sarcastically applauding them as well against what are they called? Makkabi Haifa. Makkabi Haifa yes he was sarcastically applauding his own players simply berating them on the sideline, don't berate your players just play the young hungry ones, play Miretti like I'm sure Miretti will put in a shift for you you know what I mean.

But yeah he has his ways, his philosophy, he's stubborn and quite frankly I think he's past it right now especially in this environment. I'm sure he can do well elsewhere but right now I think Juvent need something different definitely. Yeah Juvent need their fans to start a petition where everyone donates 5 euro and hopefully that will equate to the 34 million euro needed to remove this man.

I was speaking with that Juve fan at freshers who said why doesn't he leave himself, why is he such an asshole? Because he's on 9 million a year. He's on 9 million a year but everyone's gonna forget his fucking legacy man, everyone's gonna forget what it is that he did with Juve before that winning all those league titles in a row, it's the now that people care about and right now he's digging this team's grave.

That's an interesting point because in fact Agnelli is also on their fire for not making a decision. Some are saying he's being too passive, he's being too proud keeping Allegri on right. Agnelli is the man who brought Juve 9 leagues in a row right. So you can compare it for example to Berlusconi who made Milan a global brand for example, who turned Milan to one of the best teams in the world, best teams in history quite frankly.

And Berlusconi did do that and then he did single handedly almost fuck Milan up, he gave them many years of damage, almost irreparable at the point. Completely fucked the team financially, there was no talent, ageing players, it was looking hopeless and Agnelli is still in time to not allow that to happen. Allegri is the guy once again, yes he brought you great success in the past but the past is the past.

I always say Juve tried to progress with new management after winning all those league titles with Allegri, they're like okay let's go for Sarri now, it's time for Sarri, they gave him a season, they're like okay let's go for Pirlo now, they gave him a season, they panicked and they went back to Allegri. They've halted all the progress that they were working towards for those two seasons where they were still getting Champions League.

Now they're risking not getting Champions League in their old system stuck in a very conservative starting 11 and it's not looking good for them, they have to pick it up. Like Sarri had said, this Juve side is unculturable, everyone mocked him back then, perhaps what he said was true. Perhaps it was, Juve are currently in 8th place on 13 points, West Milan are in 5th level on points with Odinese on 20 points.

Speaking of Odinese, the best Bianconeri side in Italy at the moment, they took on the best Nerazzurri side in Italy at the moment, Odinese 2, Atalanta 2, the real big game of the weekend guys, let's go. So Atalanta were actually unbeaten, oh they are unbeaten as we speak in their last 10 Serie A meetings against Odinese with 7 wins and 3 draws. Now in the past there have been 30 goals in the last 6 Serie A meetings between Odinese and Atalanta, 5 per game on average.

This is always a shootout bro. This game marked Gian Piero Gasparini's 300th game in charge of Atalanta in all competitions since his debut in 2016-2017. Only 3 coaches in Europe have collected more appearances with a single side bro, and the big 5 leagues, do you want to guess who they are? For sure, Sir Alex Ferguson. No no, active. Oh, active. With a single club in the top 5 leagues, more than 300 appearances, fuck huh? That's difficult man. I mean some are quite obvious. I mean Allegri.

No, well because he left, that's why. But I'm talking since I think about who's been there for ages, ages like. Who's been there for ages? Yeah, it's Simeone for Atletico Madrid, he's got 326 appearances, Klopp exactly with Liverpool with 339, and Guardiola with City exactly 363 appearances. And then it's Gasparini. Fuck me.

The gnome. Atalanta striker Luis Muriel has scored 11 Serie A goals against Sudinese in the 3 points for a win era, only 2 non-Italian players have had more against a single opponent in this competition. Are you going to make me guess who they are as well? No no, they're Crespo with 14 against Sudinese as well, and Higuain with 12 against Lazio. Jesus, was Muriel was with Sudinese? Yes he was. That's mean, that's kind of fucking mean. Inter have just scored against Barcelona.

Yeah it's 1-1 at the moment in the 50th minute. Anyway, moving on to the lineups, Udinese lined up with their usual 3-5-2 formation with Silvestri in goal, Eboce, Biol and Perez at the back, Udodji and Pereira on the flanks with Mackengo, Wallace and Lovridge in the middle, the striking duo of Beto and Deo Lefebvre.

Atalanta lined up with a 3-4-1-2 formation with Sportiello in goal, Scalvini, Demiral and Okoli at the back, Hattabur and Meili out wide, a double pivot of Kupeminer and Derun with Pasalic as the check-war tista, Lukman and Muriel up front. So it all kicked off in the 36th minute when Luis Muriel held up play amazingly on the left using tricky feet and he played a perfect low through ball to Lukman at the far post who smashed it in.

And then he was interestingly enough booked for his celebration bro. Now I don't know, Lukman's celebration is where he puts like the binoculars on his eyes, you know, he puts like his hands in binocular shape and puts them to his eyes and he got booked for it. He was like what the fuck, ref, that's my celebration. It's so fucking weird. And like I don't understand, I'm a very privileged man but in what world is that offensive like? In what world is that offensive to anyone?

As a straight white male I don't understand. He was probably he saw it as he was taunting the fans I guess. Like where are you Udinese fans? Get over it like. In the 56th minute Muriel was tripped by Udodjie in the box, it was a clear penalty. Silvestri guessed right but couldn't stop Muriel's low one heart shot into the bottom corner 2-0 that was Muriel's first goal of the season. Now Gerard de Oliveira in the 67th minute, you know, gave a bit of life to Udinese, they were looking down and out.

They still fought you know but of course the scoreline was against them, everything was against them but this fucking free kick from a distance, wow bro. Incredible, long range free kick into the bottom corner, brilliant. Mad, mad, beautiful strike. And then in the 78th minute a move straight off the training ground, it was a corner played short to de Oliveira who played it through to Pereira at the byline. Pereira kept it in by crossing it first time to Perez who headed it home.

And I was 2-2 in the 78th minute and then after that it was all Udinese bro and I thought they were actually going to do it. By the way the Luckmann celebration clearly pissed off the fans as well because after Perez's goal you can see the fans all doing the Luckmann celebration as the camera packs fans over, that was hilarious.

Arslanie at the end of the game had a good opportunity to get the winner, it was given to him at his feet, you know, he had the whole world at his feet there, he could have made the headlines but of course he failed to hit the target shortly. Just a little bit before that he was really frustrated for not being played the ball so it's funny and then when he's actually played the ball he makes a hash of it, it's always funny to see.

But yeah bro what a response by Udinese after going 2-0 down, they could have taken all three points, what do you think? For sure, so one thing we've really praised Atalanta for is that slightly more conservative approach whereby they'll get the goals, they'll defend the lead and they basically would allow their opponents to tire themselves out whilst they stay compact, whilst they stay calm and that has led them to be this side and say yeah that has conceded the least goals.

With that being said then doing that against Udinese could cause problems because like we said in the last episode Udinese pick and prod at teams for 70 minutes non-stop, they tire out their opponents who are constantly shifting formation and shifting positions to kind of defend, they keep attacking, attacking, attacking, attacking and then come the 67th minute they get a goal and then obviously momentum is in their favour and they get another one.

So Atalanta didn't technically do anything wrong, it's just Udinese have so much longevity and so much life in their game that it's difficult to execute Atalanta's game plan against them at the moment. That's true bro, we're seeing over here this Udinese side is similar to the Atalanta of the past and this Atalanta is similar to the Udinese of the past.

So yeah and when they went head to head it was quite an encounter bro, it was definitely difficult for Atalanta to keep them out with the low block when Udinese are so persistent going forward. Yeah, I mean Atalanta hardly concede goals and these guys put two past them bro, I mean I can't, who was the last team to put two past them, has there even been a team this season that has put two past Atalanta? This season I don't think so, yeah probably not.

They're undefeated, they conceded one against me, no one has put two past them. De La Feu is Udinese's assist king and he's their goal scorer too, kind of the same as Muriel right now. Who do you think is the most important offensive outlet for their teams?

I would say De La Feu, I would say De La Feu simply because he, yeah he's an assist there, he takes spot kicks so he could whip the ball in from corners, he can take penalties, he can take free kicks be it from out wide or be it direct free kicks to goal and I also think that Atalanta are kind of covered in the sense that they've got a very diverse squad like if Duvan Zapata starts for example he could have Pasalic and I don't know Kup

Miners behind him for example, he could have Lukman and one of their other guys basically behind him. I think Udinese are slightly more limited up front, I think De La Feu has been their go to guy for so long, it's been him and Pereira for so long over there. Since the Depol days, I would confidently say De La Feu in this one.

Yeah, Muriel brings something that the other Atalanta players do not have, he's got that like raw vision and that explosive creativity, that fantasy play you know what I mean, no one quite has the talent or the eye that Muriel has on this Atalanta team and there are talents that don't get me wrong like Pasalic and Kup Miners for example are very good playmakers but none with the eye that Muriel has.

But yes I have to agree with you over here, De La Feu is irreplaceable and I can see for example if he ever falls injured God forbid Udinese will be in trouble. Well they won't be in trouble but they definitely won't be as strong as they currently are. I think they'll be in trouble personally, I mean you think of his replacement which would be Isaac's success and that is a massive dip in quality for them, a massive dip in quality.

Yeah, I mean he's significantly worse but the system is there and it's ticking bro and I don't know if they're one man reliant you know what I mean, I'm not too sure about that, like they've got fucking good tools pretty much all around but yes nothing can compare to De La Feu's impact of course. Their link-up play and their set pieces will take a significant hit if you were to. But I mean Pereira is very capable from the set pieces as well you know.

As well, link-up play though, success on De La Feu, massive difference. Especially when it comes to the ability to drive no one quite has that compared to De La Feu. But yes I don't know if there's anything else you'd like to add from this wonderful game of football. It just highlights perfectly the new era of Serie A man, just two highly changed teams from last season battling it out at the top of the league pretty much after the opening nine matches.

It was just a spectacle this game and I enjoyed every second of it man. Same here bro, Atalanta currently sit second with 21 points, that's two points behind Napoli who are in first of course. Udinese currently sit fourth with 20 points, level on points with Milan and Lazio. Mad, so I just heard back a little bit of the podcast while you were at the bathroom and I sound terrible I just want to clarify guys I am super sick at the moment, my glands are the size of my fists and my body aches.

So that's me trying to talk football. So the real hero over here is me, I'm risking my health and my well-being by being here with you today recording bro, sharing a microphone you know. But thank you very much for powering through bro. My pleasure I was going to bitch off I'm not going to lie.

The next game we're going to be covering is Sassuolo 1-2 Inter getting another 2-1 victory at the Mappé, we were there the season before watching this fixture and similarly Zerco scored in this match again. So Sassuolo were coming off a 5-0 victory against Salernitana so Inter must have been shitting themselves.

The Nerazzurri beat Barca midweek in the Champions League but had lost four of their last six Serie A games including two in a row and were level on points with Sassuolo going into this game as well. So and Sassuolo are obviously known to be Inter's dark horses as well so much so that Sassuolo have beaten Inter more than any other side in Serie A with 8 wins out of 19 fixtures for Sassuolo. They also have 8 wins against Sampdoria and Genoa but they're shit like so it doesn't really matter.

So going into the line-up Dionisi's side started in a 4-3-3 formation, concilien goal with a backline of Rogério, Ferrari, Erlich and Toleon, midfield three of Torz, Vett, Lopez and Frattesi, and front three of Loriente, Pinamonti and Cede.

On the other hand for Inter it was their classic 3-5-2 formation, this time it was Onana starting in goal, we said a hundred times Andonovich will be starting and then he'll show that he's not what he used to be and Onana will be introduced to the squad as their number one. So exactly what happened onana between the sticks over there, back three of D'Ambrosio who took place of Scrinia along with Acerbi and Bastoni. Massive changes there for Inter, a back three there without Scrinia and Devry.

Downfries and DiMarco as the wing backs with Barella, Aslani and Cialnoglu in the midfield with Zerco and Lautaro Martinez up front.

So it was pretty end to end to start things off, both sides seemed confident and both sides seemed to fancy their chances in this game, but Inter did open the scoring in the 44th minute through Eden Zerco who backed his 100th goal in Serie A. Downfries flicked on ahead there from a corner to Zerco who dragged the ball into the back of the net, that's where Zerco is good and obviously the poacher.

In the 60th minute, Davide Frattesi equalised here for Saswal, it was a Rogerio cross to the back post which was half-vollied in by a totally unmarked Frattesi over there, Inter's defence caught flat-footed. Frattesi is really turning out to be what he was in Serie A and what we all expected him to be in Serie A. His output is looking better and hopefully as Azzurri fans as well would hope to see more of this from Davide.

He had a very good season as well last year in his debut season in Serie A scoring quite a few goals, 5 or 6, how many did he get by the end of the year? Something like that. Al Fak trick you can continue.

Concilier had a spectacular save on Lautaro's header, you remember that we freaked out man, it was a stellar save but moments after that and then Zerco got his 100th and first goal in the game as if the 100 wasn't enough, he beat Ferrari off the ball to head in a Mkhitaryan cross at the far post. Four goals in 3-6 Frattesi. Last season four goals in 3-6 for Frattesi, super stuff.

So this was quite an even encounter, bro, so Saswal with 52% ball possession to Inter's 48, Saswal with 15 goal attempts, Inter with 16 so just one more shot there, on target for Saswal, a 3 on target for Inter, 4 really really even stuff. But at the end of the day, do you think Inter deserved the victory?

I think they did bro, deserved the victory here, I think they persevered and they played against Boguyside, a team that has proven to give them problems and to be honest they're under a lot of pressure right now, I think that Barcelona victory came at the right time, it gave them enough motivation to come here and get the job done, what with otherwise been a very complicated game if they were still down in the dumps. For sure man, for sure.

Like you said Saswal are totally Inter's bogey teams, it's never going to be an easy match against them, Saswal again coming off a 5-0 win against Salernitana and Inter coming off okay a win against Barca but two losses in a row in Serie A, four losses out of six and they had midweek football.

For them to get a win over here that might be a little bit of a turning point for Inter, still I think that for example there are certain factors like for example Lautaro Martinez in my opinion as great of a striker as he is and as essential he's been for Inter in the past three seasons or whatever, he does seem to go missing at times and this is one of those periods where he seems to be missing his shooting boots, he hasn't scored since match day four against Cremonaese.

He does go on these spells, we've seen it before, I think he's a player, most strikers are like this but he's a victim of poor form. When a dry spell starts he seems to struggle to shake it off. We see it for example with Simeone, Simeone is the perfect example of this, even Higuain was kind of like that bar, that crazy season he had at Napoli.

But yeah, I mean normal stuff over there plus it's not his job to be the main goal scorer, you know the task is in the hands of Lukaku and Eden Zerko who by the way was fucking good this game. Yeah, that's the next point I wanted to highlight Zerko quite a bit over here.

I seem to forget that Zerko last season was that starting man alongside Lautaro Martinez so I'd say they're missing a certain link up front which is normally brought about by Lukaku and Lautaro because of their very intimate relationship. But obviously Lautaro and Zerko have something going quite well as well, they came second last year and they were super together up front. Two points, they would have had the league. Exactly, but what were they for? Inzaghi, Inzaghi this game bro.

Yeah, he started substituting everyone on the yellow right? Exactly, yes, yes, yes, so he took out, who was it, Aslani and D'Ambrosio you know, in the 46th and the 58th minute. So yeah, that's interesting that his mind works like that. Well they have Salernitana next and maybe if it were last season I'd say he wouldn't have needed to sub them out but nowadays you have a game against Salernitana, do you want your best 11A so if Big's allowed to make the change.

The only problem is that he would make that substitution regardless. He'd make those substitutions maybe even in the fucking Champions League final, like he seems so committed to doing it. He's a very analytical man. Last point about Inter is the Onana vs Handanovic debate, do you think that Onana is now their main man between the sticks or do you think the 39 year old is getting some well deserved rest?

Good question, I think this is something we're going to see more often than not now Onana starting, he impressed in the Champions League, he's impressing with his performances in Italy too, he's 26 years old, he's the future for Inter over here. Handanovic of course is aging, he's pissing fans off by remaining rooted to the ground doing his palm tree impersonation but yes I do think that we'll be seeing more of Onana and less of Handanovic. Do I think Handanovic should be totally excluded?

No, we'll see him in the Coppa Italia for example, we'll see him when they play twice midweek we might see Handanovic, kind of like Perrion and Cezne. Exactly and not a bad goalkeeper to have as your second choice Handanovic, when he performs he's a man of the match performer, when he has a fucking good game he's class but it just seems that obviously age is catching up to him and he's human at the end of the day. Sasuolo, on God they play beautiful football these guys. So intricate man.

Yeah I thought they'd dip from last year but honestly their play style has improved even with the losses that they face that we all know. Their football style is still there, they have loads of injuries as well but it's just the way they switch play and the way they hang on to position, the way that they're capable obviously they didn't dominate a game against Inter, who the fuck dominates a game against Inter?

But the fact that they got 15 shots away against Inter and they had 52% ball possession and they had Inter fucking screaming to get a victory, beautiful signs, this is all gelling together very well and last year I criticised Dionisi so much but now I'm like give the guy time man. Yeah of course, of course yes. He has a clear philosophy of how he wants to play, it matches the Sasuolo philosophy and what Deserbi left quite frankly.

The Sasuolo team has been evolving since Euserbi and Di Francesco quite frankly since he took them up from Sevilla to the fucking Europa League, it was crazy. They've not been that good, they've not been Europa League good but they have been a team that can give anyone a fucking tough time and they certainly gave Inter a tough time this game. For sure. They face Atalanta next which is their fourth encounter against a top seven team this season.

Now normally they fucking demolish top seven teams in the second half of the season particularly so far they have a loss against Juve, they have a loss against Inter and a draw against Milan. Do you think they could do something against Atalanta, maybe hand them their first defeat of the season? Or a Sasuolo at home or away? Sasuolo are, let me just double check that real quick, give me a sec. Oh yeah put you on the spot baby. I can actually check here. Sasuolo are away. Sasuolo are away.

Yes. No. At most a draw but I think it will be a tough tough game for them. I think they could get away with a draw over there, maybe a draw against Sasuolo would put the odds nice and juicy. By the way next week is a tough one, next week is one of the toughest gambling weeks we have so far. For sure. Maybe we cook up, maybe we do like goals over and under or something. Yellow cards, corners.

Inter in seventh on 15 points and now you know like eight points behind league leaders Napoli which is quite crazy. And Sasuolo in ninth on 12 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Cremonaizer 1-Napoli 4. Napoli have gone unbeaten in their last seven meetings against Cremonaizer in all competitions bro with four wins and three draws. Their last defeat was back in September 1994.

Two nil away from home in Serie A. Yeah Cremonaizer were unbeaten in their last two Serie A meetings against Napoli and they have never gone three in a row against them in the competition without a single defeat. They were unbeaten against Napoli under Luigi Simone bro. That's quite crazy to be honest with you. So yes Napoli managed to end their dry spell against Cremonaizer. How weird is that to say? Bro respect to Napoli. Definitely tough opponent. They really were. Now we'll get into it.

Gaviccia Kvaratskelia bro, a little bit of a stat on him before we get into it, has scored five league goals so far this season. The only player to have had more in his debut Serie A season for Napoli in the first ten matchdays in the three points era was Edinson Cavani back in the 2010-2011 campaign with eight goals. Bro I've said this before and I've said it again. They're starting to call Kvaratskelia Gvaradona. I think it's about time they start calling Maradona Maratskelia.

This guy is something else. Super. Maratskelia. Diego Maratskelia Stadium. My god. That's amazing bro. Thank you. Cremonaizer, Lord help me lined up with their 4-2-3-1 formation with Radu Ngole, Qualiata on the left, that's a new one, Ser Nicola on the right, Bianchetti and Lacosh Rizvili as centre backs, Mete and Skaky Bar as the double pivot with Valeri on the left, Zanemakki on the right, Afanajan behind the deserts in attack.

Napoli lined up with Marete Ngole, Di Lorenzo on the right, Mario Rui on the left, Kim Min Jae as the centre back and Rahmani as his partner. The midfield tandem of Ndombele, Lobotka and Anguissa with Poletano on the right, Gvaratskelia on the left and Raspadori up front. Ozymane was not quite ready for this one yet but he did feature in the Champions League today and scored today being Wednesday.

Okay, so the first goal came in the 26th minute through Matteo Poletano, just like Gvaratskelia did against Milan, he won a penalty by dribbling into the box and just causing havoc, he was dropped by Bianchetti. Poletano sent the keeper the wrong way and placed into the bottom left corner. He's a very reliable penalty taker, Matteo Poletano.

It was in the 47th minute where something crazy happened, a deflected shot came to the feet of Dessers who lofted the ball over Marete and into the back of the net and suddenly they're 1-1 and then 10 minutes pass, then another 10 minutes pass, and another 10 minutes pass and they're still… And we're like, oh no our bet but oh yes Milan. Exactly, exactly. And oh yes the fairy tale. It was in the 76th minute where coming off the bench of course Giovanni Simeone scored.

Again just like the goal against Milan, Mario Rui crossed the ball to Giovanni Simeone, this time at the far post, the Argentine rose majestically and headed it home. Once again it was a slam dunk, what a fucking header man, so dominant. And Mario Rui and him are really getting to know each other well. Like I said bro, I'm still waiting for someone to fucking put Mario Rui on the bench.

Every season we say they need to upgrade that left side, they bring someone in and he's nowhere near the level that Mario Rui is at least moving forward. And having someone like Simeone, Ozymen, Andreas Spadori to feed must be scratching his hand game in game out man. Right man. And Mario Rui apparently bro, massive personality. Like he's the type of guy, like apparently when Guevara arrived he said that he really helped him settle in, Mario Rui. On and off the pitch in general.

He's been there for ages man. Yeah he's the guy like Mario Rui. He is the guy and he also looks a bit like Johnny Depp in my opinion. Think about it. Johnny Depp if you leave him in the washing machine for too long. And then basically Cremona of course committed way too many men forward in a desperate attempt to find the equalizer and it was in the 92nd minute that Guevara Scalio on the break charged forward squared it through Herving Lozano who found the back of the net.

Shortly after in the 94th minute Di Lorenzo crossed the ball in. It was Matias Oliveira who headed it past Raudu and scored the winner. His first goal for Napoli actually he was the guy who was brought in as the Mario Rui replacement actually. He found the back of the net interesting for him. So yeah at the end of the day the scoreline certainly did flatter Napoli bro. Cremona gave them a tough time.

Probably were full of praise particularly Spalletti who said that Cremona's position in the table does not reflect them as a side as they are actually way better than that. Do you agree? I do. I do agree. We've seen Cremona against the likes of Fiorentina for example and then other matches as well. I can't seem to remember right now but even against Napoli and against Fiorentina they can play.

They have significant bursts where they are capable of attacking and otherwise they are a very mature side when it comes to holding their shape and when it comes to defending. They are a good team. Thing is they lack quality and the quality doesn't come down to their management. It doesn't come down to their formation. It comes down to the individuals that are in their squad. They have a good system built around them but I'm afraid that they don't have many players to rely on.

I personally got excited when they signed Afen Adjian. I think moving forward once Afen Adjian finds himself a little bit more he could upgrade Cremona significantly. You know how he is when he gets into the groove, gets on the ball, goes on these tantalizing runs. Once again he's a youth player right? They are developing for another team quite frankly. But he was signed. He was signed by Cremona. Of course he was yes. More in your bottom shoes.

Cremona is a bro about their impressive games which by the way you're absolutely right. The first game against Fiorentina should have been a draw. It was Rodrius Blunder at the end. They lost 3-2. Amazing display by them with a man down. Next game against Roma they lost 1-0 barely. They lost to Torino. They lost to winter of course but then they held Sassuolo and they held Atalanta. Madonna. Then they lost 4-0 to Lazio. Everyone loses 4-0 to Lazio. They held Lecce.

They should have probably won that one if they wanted to pick up points. They were much better than Lecce. They were. They were. Oh my god Inter. Gossens. Is that Gossens? Oh my god it's Gossens. I have him on fantasy football if you want. I mean. Oh my god look at that. Oh my god. The fans have just stormed the pitch for those. It's a pitch invasion. That looks like stuff bro. Yeah that's the stuff. The entire Inter bench just ran onto the pitch in the 88th minute. This is a fucking game.

Crazy. Okay sorry guys. Now. Yes. The next point I would like to make is that every new Napoli signing has now officially scored. Respect. Respect. From Olivera to Raspadori to Simeone to Gavarazkelia to. No actually there's one who hasn't. Indombele. Oh okay. Indombele hasn't. Once he scores every single signing with a score. Raspadori by the way four goals in the Champions League so far one behind Haaland. And he's played 93 minutes. He's scored four goals in 93 minutes.

There we go Raspadori. Mini Aguero. Raspadori. Rahmani bro had a crazy run in the third minute where he struck the bar. Everyone wants to get one for Napoli right now. And Simeone I want to highlight bro that at the end of the game he was looking good with the ball like he was playing some fucking good passes bro. Pre assist to Lozano. Should have also had an assist on Lozano too when he crossed the ball and Lozano missed a crazy chance. But yeah Simeone is looking super inspired right now.

Come to think of it dog. The three forwards that the three strikers that Napoli have all I mean I was going to say fighting for their place but they have Ossimen they have Raspadori and they have Simeone. They all deserve to start. None of them are bench players. Verona's top goalscorer third top scorer last season. Raspadori was the leading not the leading forward because there was Skamaka but he basically any excuse to play Raspadori. Add left wingers injured play Raspadori.

Barardi's injured play Raspadori. Nidalee 10 play Raspadori. Our striker Raspadori. So that's another striker and then Ossimen is fucking the joint probably best striker in the league as well. It's true bro that's a good point. From Cremones I wanted to highlight Mata who is the former Milan player played against United in the Europa League. He's still a very nifty player. Those fucking dribbles and tight areas. He's really good. Yeah I forget that he knows how to use his long legs.

Yeah yeah yeah. He really does. He's very elegant actually. But yeah bro not much else left to say about this game. There were fucking relentlessness by Napoli shown over here to keep going in such a manner that they just fucking keep beating them. And a heroic display by Cremones. A very unfortunate for them to let it collapse at the end and make it look like they were embarrassed when in reality they totally weren't. Yeah agreed agreed. So oh my god. What happened? That's a goal.

Lev Avandowski. This is mad. Mad game. 3-3. Now Napoli currently sit first solo on top of the league. They've lost five games in a row. 23 points for them. Second at Atalanta on 21. Cremones on the other hand sit the 19th with three points. The lowest amount of points in the league along with Sampdoria. Shocking. Well not really. The next game we're going to be covering is a shocking result to say the least. Fiorentina nil Lazio four.

Now much like the game we just covered this wouldn't exactly do in you know it looks like Fiorentina had a shambolic performance. I'll get into why it wasn't exactly that shambolic very soon.

So Fiorentina coming off a 1-0 loss to Atalanta and a midweek 3-0 away victory at the hands of Hearts in Scotland whilst Lazio obviously had won two games 4-0 in a row making it three games winning 4-0 in a row and they drew 0-0 to Strumgrad midweek but clearly Lazio don't give a fuck about any Europa League. And they're still alive there. Are they? Yeah man if you look at their group they're still in it. Okay okay you want to look that up whilst I do this? They'll have it right here.

Okay. Let's have a look. So check this out standings one sec. So fuck Allah doesn't give me their group. Ah yes so here everyone in their group is on four points. That's mad. Feyenoord, Mittleland, Strumgrad and Lazio are all on four points each so that group is very much still alive and well. You look at the opposition Lazio should be on nine points. It's crazy.

In the league they beat everyone 4-0 like three games in a row 4-0 victories and then they come against these guys and they can't do it. I mean that's Strumgrad. This is the comfort zone right bro? Yeah the comfort zone. We saw it with Milan as well. So Fiorentina 4-3-3 Lazio 4-3-3 it's the Italiano system against the Sarri system. So for Fiorentina it was Terracciano between the sticks with a back four of Birraghi, Igor, Martinez and Dodó.

Midfield three of Mandragora, Amrabat and Bonaventura, front three of Ikone, Jovic and Kwame. For Lazio it was Providelli in goal with Lazari, Patrick, Romagnoli and Marisic at the back. Sergei, Antonio and Vecino in the midfield with Anderson, Immobile and Zaccagni up front. Nothing really, nothing too shocking to write home about over there obviously.

Luis Alberto didn't start the match, Fiorentina did some Fiorentina things, once again not starting Nico González, not starting Barak, not starting Milenkovich, not starting Malé, obviously a bunch of changes over there as we're used to. So in the 11th minute Vecino opened the scoring with a header at the near post against his former club. He didn't celebrate, very sweet of him. Now the assist was from Zaccagni but I think we should show some respect to Sergei.

He was literally signalling to Zaccagni to play the corner to him, signalling with his head so that no one sees him pointing. It was mad, he deserves a plus one or plus two on Fanta over there. 25th minute Zaccagni turned from Provider to scorer, it was an in-swinging cross by Sergei to Zaccagni who flicked it in with a header.

It then took all the way up till the 85th minute for Lazio to get their third, it was Luis Alberto after Chiro laid the ball off to Alberto just inside the area who slotted into the bottom corner. And then in the 91st Chiro, Moble scored thanks to a Sergei assist classic. Alberto played the ball to Savicu at his back towards goal, he laid it off to Chiro with a clean finish, this was a super, super goal and the perfect kind of example of what a hold up striker should be.

See the hold up striker in this case being Sergei Mlinkovic, motherfucking savage. Now they won 4-0 right but there's a lot of factors to go into. Fiorentina created a lot. They created the most of this matchday, no other team has created more chances than them this matchday. 24 attempts, second Milan of 21. 62% ball possession. They also had the most key passes with 18 to Fiorentina. So it's not a system problem per se. No, no. And I'm going to highlight the problem. Yes please.

Lukajovic, right, he's not solely the problem. You know if you had a squad like Lazio it seems like everyone kind of wants to get involved over there and no one seems to want to get involved for Fiorentina. Probably because they don't have many staple starters in their side. It seems like there's a lot of rotation, a lot of what Atalanta were doing last season that caused them to struggle. I'm seeing that a lot in Fiorentina this season. But Lukajovic is a high caliber striker, right?

He got 6 shots, one was on target and they were all bro, half-assed attempts. It's like he doesn't follow through his shots, I don't know what it is. What is it? Why is he weak? It's a striker who isn't inspired right now. It's a striker who is doubting himself and you can really see it. Smack the ball, man. You know what I mean? Put your leg through it. Put some whip in it. Do something. He simply doesn't at the moment and I don't know what it is about him but you could see it.

He missed a penalty as well in all the seasons. He's not having it at all. He hasn't settled in well, he hasn't acclimatized well. There's a lot of pressure on him to fill in the massive shoes of Dusan Vlavic of course. But I think they would have been better off keeping Pjantec honestly when Cabral looks like, I don't even know how I'm going to put this nicely, he kind of looks like a canteen man right now. You know what I mean? Like someone who eats too much greasy food right now.

He's not looking good at all bro. He looks out of sorts, out of shape like not the same player that we saw on the Europa League. And Kwame probably is looking like their best striker. Honestly at this point I'd start with him as the 9 and I'd play one of the million wingers they have on the right. Maybe Nico Gonzalez on the left and Icona on the right or something. Honestly like it's clear that now Fiorentina aren't shy of investing some money here and there. They do invest.

Now they invested in Lukajovic. Obviously okay it was a free transfer I believe. Don't quote me on that because I think it's a loan. It's a loan with an option or something. We'll fact check that and we'll get back to you guys. But at the end of the day the man needs to be… it's tough to say after 9 matches but it seems like the man needs to be replaced. Honestly. Oh you're right bro. He left Real Madrid on a free transfer. 3 years after the club paid 60 million for him.

Yes he joined Fiorentina on a 2 year deal until 2024. Crazy bro. Okay so they could potentially cash in on him this summer and give him a season and see if he picks up. But I think it's also the fact that this guy hasn't played regularly in a while. So it could be that he needs some time to get back into shape. To get used to the intensity of playing week in week out sometimes even twice a week with all the pressure and all that. A goal would definitely help him right now.

Bear in mind that last season he was loaned out to Frankfurt so he did see quite a bit of the ball while he was there. So technically it's his first season in Serie A still but I still think there were certain occasions where at least one or two chances that he hit the target. It was honestly a little bit embarrassing of a performance from Jovic. He had 8 appearances for Frankfurt. Just 8? In the German Bundesliga. 8? Yes exactly bro. 8 fucking appearances last year only.

With them 4 goals though. I mean that's fucking decent. Yeah that's a good return. Way better than now. Yeah 100%. But I obviously don't want to just blame him for it. He and I have been weird the entire time. I think there are many occasions where I believe at one point Nico Gonzalez should have scored as well. He totally totally missed the ball. It feels like Bonaventura never plays the ball forward and he always takes a bunch of additional steps. Just a bunch of additional steps.

Yeah it really does overcomplicate it sometimes. Nothing left to add over there. The only highlight I would take from Fiorentina's team is Amr Abad. Amr Abad bro super player. Super super super player. He's good at everything. He's good at breaking down play. Like when Fiorentina are off the ball he's a pit bull. When they're in possession he's the metronome and he's fucking good at pinging the ball to the wing. He's got things perfect passes to Icon at the point.

And Icon's touch was quite good. He played him a fucking superb all over the top man. It was amazing. I think he's one of the positives for Fiorentina bro as well as Jonathan Icon has actually improved lately. He has improved and he's a highlight when you look at his past couple of performances. With that being said I do believe that Fiorentina even though they do have Amr Abad that like you're saying is a metronome, he missed Torreira so much bro. They missed Torreira so much.

Just that midfielder that's capable of turning defense into attack. That's capable of getting the final touch. Change direction so quickly. Literally man. Literally. That's something that they missed 100%. But let's move over to Lazio because Lazio have been spectacular. Lazio have been in my opinion alongside Napoli the team and Udinese to be fair the most relentless team going forward. So a couple points to make. In my opinion this was another 10 on 10 display for Fiorentina.

You can't fucking win a game 4 in the land it's not a 10 on 10 display. All around annihilation they scored their first goal in the 11th minute and their last one in the 91st. Just a whole game scoring. Hot take bro. If Chiro and Serguei actually had some titles to their name, let's say Lazio were slightly more of an accomplished team, they would be considered the best partnership in Serie A history. Serie A history? I wouldn't say history but active players definitely.

Active players they're 100%. 100% probably the best duo. For sure when it comes to assist the goals I think yes. But historically I don't know about that. Like god knows who was around in the 50s in Serie A. If you look at their numbers, they're there. If you look at their numbers they're there. The only thing that's missing is the silverware. Maybe that will come one day in the near future if they manage to hold on to them.

Yeah 100% but still they've been doing it together for such a long time. They've had this understanding. It's not this season, it's not last season that they found this understanding for each other. They've had this understanding since what 2017, 2018. It's actually quite crazy, it's super impressive and again if these guys were for example part of something special, part of a Lazio that would be winning league after league or something of the sort.

They would go down in his Serie A dynamic duo though. That's for sure. 100% I've never quite seen anything like it at least since I was born. Yeah I mean Immobilize joked in the past that Mlinkovic Savic knows him like his wife knows him better than his wife he said actually. Yeah my god. Lazio are serious threats for everyone. It seems like occasionally season by season they do go on these four nil streaks. Especially at the beginning of the season they always start off well.

Even last season when Milan played them I remember saying that they were the hottest team in Italy at the moment. It was like matchday 6, matchday 7. But it is hard to make a prediction and not have them in your top four at the moment. It's very difficult to do that. But then you have to remember that Inter are going to find themselves, Juve are going to find themselves, Roma are going to find themselves, Zidanezza might dip so on and so forth. So there's so much that's going to happen.

I don't want to get carried away. Lazio are currently in third on 20 points. So as for Inter they are in 13th on 9 points. Very good. Now Roma 2, lecture 1. This is on the other side of Rome of course. Now fun fact about this matchup, Roma have actually won 9 of their last 10 Serie A meetings against Lecce scoring 2.4 goals per match on average. So if we actually trusted the stats we could have done easily 2 goals over 2 goals. It would have been a safe one.

They lost their last one 4-2 on April 7th 2012. The same year the world ended. Lecture are the only side which Paolo Di Balla has faced more than once and scored in every single game in Serie A. My god. So 3 goals in 3 meetings. Fuck. Yeah that's fucking pretty impressive. It's a shame that he pulled his hamstring scoring this one. But yeah and a fun fact about how Roma's goals come bro because we've discussed this a lot with set pieces and their training ground routines.

Roma have scored the highest percentage of goals via headers in Serie A this season. 40% of their goals bro came through headers. In the big 5 European leagues only Mallorca and Monaco have a higher percentage than the Giallo Rossi who are level with a team called Ayaccio. Ayaccio? Okay. Yes they have 40% as well.

But yes Roma lined up with Rui Patricio on goal, Ibanez smalling a Mancini at the back, Vigno on the left, Zalewski on the right, Pellegrini and Crisant is a double pivot and Zanjol on the ball playing behind Bellotti up front. Another game on the bench for Tammy Abraham. Falcone started the goal for Lechia, very impressive Falcone I might add. John Drey on the right and Petzella on the left with Umtiti and Basquerotto as the centre back duo.

Askelson, Humlind and Gonzalez as the midfield tandem with Streffetza on the right, Banda on the left and Cissé up front. Standard stuff for Lechia over here. So it was in the 6th minute that Chris Smalling scored his third goal of the season, it was a great cross by Pellegrini from the right to the far post. John Drey stood no chance on Smalling who towered over him and headed it home. Fun fact, Smalling has more goals than Abraham this season.

Fuck. Yeah. So whoever took Abraham on their fantasy league he must be swearing. You? Now in the 22nd minute bro there was a 50-50 battle between Humlind and Bellotti. Humlind's studs were kind of up in this 50-50 and they hit Bellotti's shin. The decision went to VAR and Humlind was sent off. I think it was really harsh bro. Like Orsolini the same match they had a foul on Rincon that was way worse and he didn't get sent off. So classic inconsistency over here. I just want to make a point.

I think sometimes people are going to get hurt and that doesn't necessarily mean that someone needs to get sent off for it. There is such a thing called intent and I think malicious intent 100% deserves a red card. I think if you go into a 50-50 and someone gets the short end of the stick because he's half of a second slower than his opponent it doesn't necessarily mean that the man should be sent off. That was the case over here.

It was the 22nd minute Humlind gets sent off and it's just a little bit. That decision could have been avoided. Yeah I mean there's the referee's interpretation of intent right. It's a grey area but I do kind of agree with you over here. If it's not malicious if it's a 50-50 and the challenge isn't that dangerous like this one. I think he put Bellotti in any danger to be honest. He was greatly exaggerating to get him sent off but yes it worked.

So by the second 22nd minute Roma were 1-0 up and the man up against Lecce and they were probably like yeah this is straightforward let's get this done. 39th minute indecisive defending by Roma on a Lecce training ground corner routine. So the hosts conceding a clumsy goal at the hands of Streffetza. The shot was not central so of course Rui Patricio could not save it. And yes this put Roma quite a bit of stress and half time arrived with the score at 1-1.

Now it was in the 48th minute in the second half that Abraham received the ball in the box he had just been subbed on and he threw himself between the man and the ball and was fouled by Askelsson. The referee pointed to the spot penalty, Debala steps up and he scores the penalty but pulls his hamstring. He substituted off for Nermanja Matij. I call him Nermanja, Olaraina. But yes Mourinho after the game said he thought it was bad but after speaking to Debala he can confirm that it is very bad.

So I wish him well, it's a shame he's really injury ridden, who knows the player could have been without these injuries right? But apparently it's not as bad as Mourinho. He's missing the rest of the year right? That's what I saw. I saw between 4-8 weeks. 4-8 weeks I mean that's pretty much the rest of the year, it's more towards the 8th. Because of the World Cup. Because of the World Cup that's true. He missed 14 games with Roma this season and last year I did the maths.

How many games has he missed for Roma? 14 so far. 14 so far. So not games, days, 14 days. Last year he missed about 80 something days for you, injured for 80 something days, poor guy man. What can you say you know. And it's a pity because he brings so much to this Roma team. He really does, he's really dynamic. Yes bro so it was essentially Letria's red card that helped Roma get the three points here. Not sure they would have been able to otherwise to be honest.

Letria are a super organised unit capable of scoring goals through Cissé, Colombo, Streffetza and Banda bro. What did you make of this? I think like you pretty much hit the nail on the head man. Roma again kind of rely on those dead ball situations to get over the line. They do get over the line so there's not much criticism to be made over there. Did they exactly look pretty getting it done? No. I believe that sides like Letche, Cremonaise, Monza, these three teams that have been promoted.

Sure Letche and Cremonaise like we said earlier lack the quality but they do have an element of know-how and they know how to stay in a game and it's rare that you see them getting absolutely mauled by their opponents unless they're a lot or something like that. Roma struggled but the whole thing is that a team that struggles and gets away with three points is not only a winner but a champion. That's true. Yes. So not much criticism for the result.

We hope to see that Roma are a bit more convincing by now. Yes. Particularly their strikers man have been woeful. Tammy Abraham man. The end product is gone. Granted he won them the winning penalty right Tammy Abraham but he's still misfiring man at the point he received the ball in the box in acres of space which is in common when you're against Basquiatta and Umtiti but he had a lot of space on the volley like and he volleys and the ball goes upwards. Crazy like how poor he's been.

These strikers that start misfiring man it's tough to watch them play sometimes. It's an uncomfortable experience. What the fuck happened to Umtiti? I thought he was dying at the point. At the point it's true even I thought he was out for the season. No but he got up and he was fine. I'm glad. It would have been so anti-climactic if he came to Lecce and just got injured in his third or second appearance.

I like that Pellegrini is finding his feet again he had a really good game this game potentially the man of the match. Yeah. I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add about this game bro.

I mean Roma returned to that system where Pellegrini was in that midfield too alongside Cristante and to be honest that earlier kind of comment that we had made about Mourinho maybe wanting to utilize two holding midfielders and rotating between Zanjola and Pellegrini or Debal and Pellegrini and Zanjola so on so forth wasn't entirely accurate. I think Pellegrini's natural position is in the heart of that midfield. Of course a bit more offensive than Cristante.

He could do a lot with Cristante covering for him so that's why he's so ideal to have over there because he does have someone to cover him while he goes forward and tries a shot so on so forth but it's good to see him finding his feet again. Yeah I like him playing deeper as well. I think he has a lot of energy and he's very good at almost playing the ball out you know shifting the game left to right. I think he's very good. I don't think he's a pure Trecortista for example at all.

Kind of a Metzala he'd be good and a double pivot would be okay. They seemed a bit slow with Matej and Cristante over there like for the transitions Pellegrini is really clean man he's really good to have there and it'll be interesting to see what they do when Gini is back in the team and how he's going to be utilised within that midfield. For sure he'll totally transform them to be honest. Roma sit in sixth with 19 points while Lecce sit in 16th with 7 points.

The next game we're going to be covering is Torino 1-1 Empoli 1. So Torino coming off a three game losing streak most recently a 3-1 loss at Napoli whilst Empoli were coming off that 3-1 home loss against Milan. Empoli unbeaten against Torino in 16 games out of 20. They have a very very good record against Torino.

So for Torino it was the 3-4-2-1 formation with Milinkovic Savic in goal, a backline of Rodriguez, Schuers and Gigi, Lazaro and Aina out wide with Linetti and Lukic forming that double pivot, Vlasic and Mirancuk playing behind Tony Sanabria. For Empoli it was a 4-3-1-2 with Vicario on goal, Ebuhehi and Parisi as the left back and right back, Wintour and Luperta as the two centre backs with Huss, Marin and Bandinelli as the three centre midfielders, Bayrami just behind Kambiaki and Lammers.

So obviously like I said Torino had lost three on the bounce and they also had their coach Ivan Juric suspended for this match. But thankfully at last for them it was an empty treatment room, we saw Mirancuk making his way back into the team, that must be a breath of fresh air for them. Empoli on the other hand missed Adrian Ismaili, Grassi, Akpah Akpro and Tonelli, most of those came to that, came against the game. My god, came in the game against Milan. Came in your mother. What the fuck.

So in the opening moments of the game there was a red card for Tony Sanabria but the referee Forno went back on his decision to send off Sanabria after checking VAR, reverting back with a yellow. So it was the interpretation of the referee that his studs were showing, there was a stomp but he stepped on him and he didn't stomp him, there wasn't that intent so he went back and rightly so he handed a yellow card and deleted the red card.

It's funny how Sanabria was so smug with the referee, even when he took his decision back he was just like see, you're wrong, you know, shook his hand. Respect for being so open minded and not letting your pride take control. Maybe Champions League refs should have a look, I don't know. Yeah that would be nice. Later on, 12 minutes later, Miranchuk scored a header and they got VAR'd off after Sanabria was caught offside 7 years before the ball went into the back of the net.

But jokes aside, like we mentioned about the Milan-Uva game, this was part of the same attack. So in that case they can go back and deem the, you know, if the ball was still in play, they could technically go back to the previous attack and say yep, he was offside there, stop play, restart. And that's exactly what happened there. That's phase of play, you know, phases of play, so it can't be too long. Yeah exactly. Of course, of course.

Shortly after and then in case Sanabria didn't hate the ref enough, he scored with a little dink over Vicario, but again he made the run too early and he was in an offside position so the goal got cancelled. That would have been the second time in a row that Vicario got tripped. But yeah, that won't happen to Vicario. Heroic performance by Vicario. Vicario is unbelievable man, he is literally unbelievable.

In the 49th minute, Mattia Destro, so there was a ball into the box by Ebwehi across that wasn't in the position that a striker would normally like the ball, back towards goal, Mattia Destro, control, bounce, overhead kick into the bottom corner. For goal of the week, contender, for goal of the season, form is temporary, class is permanent. That's his first goal this season, first goal in eight months, first goal for Empoli. Brilliant brilliant stuff by the party animal.

It was then a 90th minute equalizer for Torino through Sasha Lukic. So Vicario was down after a save, Luperto got his foot under the ball for the clearance, but Lukic was there to deflect the ball into the back of the net with his stomach and it was almost cleared off the line by Stojanovic. It was an incredibly messy goal, but nothing short of what Torino deserved after the performance that they put in after Empoli.

They were prodding, they were moving forward, attack attack attack attack attack. 20 shots, seven on target, 66% ball possession. They had 11 shots of target. They had two blocked shots. They had six corners. It was madness. It's crazy how Torino didn't manage to get more goals in. By far the better side. What do you make of this result? Yes, so Torino certainly deserved something out of this game. Perhaps not a victory, but a draw for sure at the least.

They dominated in pretty much every aspect of the game, but Empoli were once again very street smart and almost got all three points had it not been for that very unlucky goal at the end of the game. Vicarrio, super performance. Cannot stress enough how good he's been. Empoli would be a totally different side without Vicarrio on the team. For sure, for sure bro. But yeah, Empoli have proven that they're a team that can rack the points up. They're not looking like relegation candidates right now.

I know it's still early, but they're on eight points, which is quite decent for them in nine games. They're a side that wants to survive right now. That would be their focus. I think last year they shocked all of us with the first half of the season and the performance they had over there. That was like if they were to try that again for the next 10 years, I don't think that managed to pull off what they did last year. With the win against Juve early on as well. Exactly.

But that's three losses to their name. I mean Inter have lost more than Empoli. That's true. They're experts at drawing. They've got five draws. That's the most actually in the league so far. So be careful when you go up against Empoli because they might just hold you. Exactly. Exactly. Torino and then a little bit disappointing. We know that they started off quite strong. We saw their opening performances were like, okay, Torino are there. Torino are good.

They're improved even though they lost fucking Bellotti and Bremer. But I made this point earlier, but I want to make it again and I want to use Torino as an example. Torino have a good system. They have a good team, but again, again, again, and again, there's a certain quality that is lacking. Sanabria isn't an option. The striker, man, they need a striker and they've needed a striker since Bellotti left. Even in Bellotti's last season, they needed a fucking striker.

Honestly, like they're like what Bologna were without a striker, man. Exactly. You know, Bologna brought in an out of action all of a sudden, they're completely different. Exactly. There was a pundit on Dazen, is that how you say it? Dazen, D-A-Z-N, Dazen. I guess so. On Dazen who said that if you put Haaland on Torino, they'll get top four. And honestly, with the way that Torino play, they feed their strikers. So that's not that much of a bold claim, man. No, it's not. That's to be said.

It's not. Yeah, and Haaland's an animal, of course, as we've seen. I know we don't often address the Premier League, but what he's doing there is next level. Yeah, I think there comes a time where even on the most passionate Serie A podcast, you to stop and kind of admire what people are doing elsewhere. It's very rare that someone brings that much attention about, but this time Erling Haaland is by far at the moment the most impressive player there is in the world.

It's unbelievable what he's doing. It'll be interesting to see how he copes in a tough league like Serie A. It's true, man. Maybe rather than getting a hat-trick a game, he might score two a game. You know what I mean? But yet, Empoli, you know, they didn't have many chances unlike Torino and they needed a stroke of magic to kind of get a goal to put them in a good position all game and get something out of the game. The boy did they get it. Two shots on target. One of them was the rubber shot.

I like that. Exactly. Crazy. Yeah, exactly. But that's the game for you. There isn't really much to add over here. I mean, it was very one sided for Torino, but Empoli had half a chance. They took it and they rode their luck for the entire game. Brilliant performance by the goalkeeper. Good shape by Empoli. I mean, that's something we can never complain about. The wide man played pretty well. The Parisian and the Buéjy were very good. For sure. 100%. 100%.

And even the midfield three, man, I'm quite a fan of that midfield three. It's quite on and off. Same, bro. And since we've been seeing Bayrami playing more over there nowadays, he's really proving himself, man. And Baldanzi is back from injury. We should be seeing him soon coming back. Amazing. He's a very promising player. I think he'd be good in rotation with Bayrami. Yeah. Torino are in 10th on 11 points, whilst Empoli are in 14th on 8 points. Off to Bologna we go.

For Bologna 1, Sampdoria 1. Thiago Motta and Sampdoria new man Dejan Stankovic reunite. Ex inter-colleagues, of course, I believe they won the treble together. So yes, it was nice to see them hugging and exchange formalities before the game kicked off. Bologna are actually unbeaten in 14 home games against Sampdoria and Seiya with 8 wins and 6 draws. While Sampdoria's last win at the Dallara in the league was back on November 2nd in 2003. Oh ho. Yeah, thanks to a goal by Cristiano Doni.

Oh my god. These two teams, by the way, bro, are two of the teams with the lowest distance covered this matchday, so it was one of the lower intensity games of the week. It was like everyone decided to take it a little bit easy this game. Skorupski was in goal for Bologna, the second best goalkeeper in the league, right, Matt? Liko Duran is on the left and Kambiasso on the right with Lukumi and Saumour as a centre-back partnership. Medellin and Schouten formed the double pivot.

Orsolini was on the left, Abishev on the right, Dominguez as the attacking midfielder and Arnautovic as the striker. This was the best I've ever seen Dominguez play in my life. Yeah, yeah, he's back. Out there, he's back, he never started. Exactly, which is why he's here. He's here, he's arrived. Yeah, he's arrived, but he was there last season. He's back since that one FIFA card he had. What are you talking about, man? Dominguez, he wasn't playing this season, he's back in the side.

I thought you meant like he's back, like he's back on form. No, no, he's back, he's back. He's actually physically back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, excuse my lame FIFA joke. Audero was in goal for Sampdoria, Berezinski on the right, Augiello on the left, Colli and Murillo at the back with Ronaldo, Viera as the central holding midfielder over here. Doesn't play like Ronaldo, doesn't play like Viera. Sabiri, Rincon, Angiuri, Cech with Gabiadini and Caputo up front.

Yes, I mean, you can take Jean-Paul out of Sampdoria, but you can't take Sampdoria out of Sampdoria. I mean, it's not the best, not the best line-up. Absolutely not. But they did look a little bit better. Let's get into the play by play. It was in the 30 second minute that Arbishev charged down the left-hand side, cut in and shot centrally. It was saved by Audero onto the path of Dominguez who managed to bounce it off the floor and into the back of the net. Back, man. Yeah, he's back.

This is his FIFA card. Shortly after this, Dominguez actually had a shot from a distance and rattled the crossbar could have made the two goals in a quick succession would have been quite beautiful. It took till the 72nd minute for Sampdoria to equalize through Juricic. Laris kind of had like a cross shot on the ground. It came to Juricic who headed it unorthodoxly also off the ground and into the net.

So basically, Laris assist was bounced off the ground and in Juricic's head there was also bounced off the ground. Oh my God. Yeah. Ping-pong. Sampdoria actually went all the way at the end of the game when Caputo had a great chance, but Samaro had an incredible block and the results were a good double save by Skorupski at the end of the game to deny a late winner. Of course there was. So Sampdoria do look a little bit better, bro.

Bologna to be honest, arguably even look worse, bro, than they did with Mihailović. Like they're exactly the same, but this time are not efficient scoring anymore. I agree. I agree with you. So far this whole MOTTA thing at Bologna hasn't really, I thought it was a bit of a weird move from the start, but everything seems a little bit out of place so far.

Now either things are going to gel together and the team is going to get better, but Bologna aren't in a very good place at the moment and you should be beating Sampdoria. You should now is the best time to play Sampdoria because they can't get anything fucking right. Yeah, true. They've also exchanged their manager and that does tend to have an immediate effect at times. So did Bologna though, dog, and they haven't won a game under him.

But you know the first game everyone's playing to impress this guy, you know what I mean? There's the first game with a new manager that's always a little bit shaky. In fact you should never bet against a team of a new manager. Yeah. Never bet on a team of a new manager either. But yes, bro, talking points about this game. I think it was a fair result. Bologna started off better, Sampdoria grew into the game or probably the better side towards the end.

Three shots on target for each team, even in possession, lowest distance covered this match day for both teams of course. I just need to point out bro that Bologna are, they are better with Medel on the pitch though. Oh 100%, 100%. And especially since he's moved into the midfield again, we get to see more of him. We get to see his aggression more significantly and higher up the pitch which allows them to kind of settle a bit higher up the pitch.

Which you would hope is the case but obviously Medel spends most of the time defending when he's playing for Bologna. But like you said, I would say it's a fair result between two teams that are struggling, that are looking to find themselves. At the end of the day, they could both use a point, can't they? Yeah, for sure. And they both got a point. Like you said as well, lowest distance covered. I think they're both like, eh, we'll settle for this. We'll settle for this f**k it, one each.

Let's go. Bichir is getting quite good at bombing forward, bro has to be said. But yeah, I mean that's pretty much it for this one. Yeah, quite a disappointing game. I don't think anyone looks at the fixture and sees fireworks but I would hope that for two teams that are struggling, they would have gone a bit more all out to kind of get the victory over there. Was this a relegation 6-point? It is a relegation 6-pointer.

I mean, I know long term we probably don't see Bologna getting relegated per se but at the moment that's exactly what it is. At the moment, yes, it is but yeah, I do agree with you. Sampdoria I think will linger but Bologna I think will improve. If you want us to live in the moment and not look at what's going to happen in the future historically. So right now, my friend, relegation 6-pointer. Right now the match of the week was Udinese-Atalanta, right? Exactly, exactly. Sharing logic.

So yeah, we both swapped there. Bologna are 17th with 7 points just outside of the relegation pool while Sampdoria are dead last with 3 points. On to the next game. Is this the last game? No, we've got Monza-Spetsia too. Oh, Monza-Spetsia after this. So this game is Salernetana against Verona. Salernetana winning 2-1 over here after coming off a devastating 5-0 loss at the Mape. As Verona were coming off a hard-fought loss against Udinese.

They did decently in that game but obviously got away with nothing. This was the match that got Trophy sacked after a 4-match losing streak. He's the fourth manager this year to be sacked after Marco Johnpaolo for Sampdoria, Sinisa Mihailović for Bologna and Giovani Stropa for Monza. Verona are one of only 5 teams against which Salernetana are unbeaten in Serie A. So starting line-up.

Salernetana in their 3-5-2 formation with Sepengol, Pirola, Danilulic and Gjomber at the back, Matsoki and Kandreva as left wing back and right wing back, Kulebali, Radovanović and Majore in midfield with Piontek and Bonozzoli up front. 3-4-2-1 for Verona, Monte-Pogon goal with Jens Gunther and Keccherini at the back, De Pauli and Duhigg out wide with Veloso and Tamerze in the middle, Hrstić and Verdi playing behind on Rhee.

Much changed side here for Verona, without Lasagna I believe he is out injured for this one and with the introduction of Verdi and Hrstić. Now in the 18th minute the scoring was opened by Kristof Piontek, he still had a lot to do after Bonozzoli's true pass, he finished well after a good touch that took him past the two centre backs.

It was then De Deughe's deflected cross which caused confusion in the Salernitana box leading to De Pauli heading in at the back post to get the equaliser in the 56th minute. Moments later and then in the 59th it was a penalty awarded to Verona for a Radovanović handball which was cancelled after a Varchek. What is going on this week? What is going on this week? Everything is so confusing.

But rightly so, penalty would have been incredibly harsh and it is, joking aside, really good to see referees going back on their decisions and not having that fucking pride. It was then in the 93rd minute that Salernitana managed to regain the lead, it was absolute scene here, it was some fantastic one touch play by Salernitana which ended with a butthame layoff to Dia who curled it with a first time strike into the corner.

Absolutely brilliant, golden commentary as well, I was tempted to put it as our intro just because of the… BLYAT DIA! The fans roaring Salernitana have some of the best fans in the league man. This led to a pitch invasion which sparked a touchline brawl leading to red cards for Radovanović and already substituted Verona defender Federico Ceccherini. Absolute scene there. What a game, what a game, what a game. Dia with the dagger into Trofi's heart my friend. Literally bro, literally.

Now what pisses me off is that I was on Twitter surprisingly while this game was going on and everyone was saying that after this game David and Nicola is gonna get sacked if he drops points to Verona. Ah yes, bullshit right. Bro, do you think it's as bizarre as I do that it's even a consideration to get this man sacked? I mean brother, they're in 11th, they're in 11th, he saved their asses last year and they're still looking good, they're 11th bro.

Look, there's the whole thing about being humiliated man. When you're humiliated people don't take it that lightly. Like if they sacked him it would have been a punishment for the 5-0 loss but I think at the end of the day common sense prevailed because the Salernitana side were saved by David and Nicola and David and Nicola can probably turn water into wine man after what you did. Literally.

And he's done a crothone as well you know I think he deserves a full season pretty much uncontested especially if he's 11th right. 100%. I think Mourinho. They're playing so well too. I think Mourinho said it best when he said he'd rather lose a game 4-0 rather than lose four games 1-0.

Salernitana were embarrassed by Sasuolo, I couldn't put my finger on what happened over there and why they were so weak but look at them now man, they bounced back well, they beat Verona, Verona are not an easy side to play, I know they're weaker this year but I did enjoy seeing a moment of humanity at the end of this game with Verdi and… was it Verdi and Mazzocchi? No, was it? It was one second, it was Verdi and Bonazzoli because they were together at Salernitana.

Exactly, sharing a pizza in the tunnel, that was beautiful, really cute to see. Yeah I heard that Phil Foden and fucking John Jones shared the fucking fish and chips bro and the fucking website. John Jones, the UFC heavyweight. Johnny Bones Jones. But anyway, I think that Salernitana play way better against teams that focus the playout wide because they can actually beat teams out wide with their flanks, they have Kanjevan and Mazzocchi.

I think the biggest problem against Sasuolo is that Sasuolo were forcing the play down the middle and they exploited them over and over again in doing so. That's true, that's true. Verona still had their chances, they had 12 goal attempts, only two of them were on target but Verdi and Gunther also hit the post. Verdi with a good attempt, Gunther with a header. Now Verona obviously they've sacked Trophy, right? Oh it's early, oh it's early.

Verona did the exact same thing with Di Francesco last year, shouting about oh it's early, oh it's early, oh it's early and it was proven to be ideal for them because they got Tudor on board and they turned things around. Now I trust that they're making a good decision from experience, however I was looking at their potential replacements and everything is pointing towards a gentleman named Diego Lopez who has managed, so he was a former… Former Real Madrid goalkeeper?

No not him, he was a former Uruguayan footballer though, there he is. He managed Caliari in 2013, he managed Bologna in 2014, Palermo in 2017 and Caliari in 2017. They went to Pena Rol and then Brescia in 2020 and he was most recently the Chile manager. Yeah young guys, well 48 years old for a manager that's quite young. I remember this guy's face on the bench. Yeah I remember the salt and pepper look.

So we'll see what they can do with him, I mean I was impressed by the signing of Choffy who's just been sacked so maybe we'll be impressed with him and then he'll be sacked. Yeah exactly, I don't want to kind of say ah because this guy hasn't really been with anyone or anything like that because I mean we're seeing guys like Sotil doing magnificent things so I hope he comes in and he gives Verona one hell of a season.

I want to see Verona fighting for a top 10, I don't want to see them down there and I believe they really have the squad to at least be the best of the rest, you know what I mean, be between the 12th to 10th place. But as we stress every single week the management just keeps weakening them and weakening them by selling the best players and not replacing them quite frankly. But that's pretty much it for this game and our breakdown of Salientana and Verona.

Salientana are in 11th on 10 points, Verona still the danger zone 18th on 5 points. The final game we're going to be covering is Monza 2-Spetsia nil. This was the first match between Monza and Spezia when considering competitions such as Serie A, Serie B and the Italian Cup. So they've never played each other. Oh my god. Yeah yeah. Very exciting game.

The last six official appearances of Monza manager Raffaele Palladino as a footballer came while playing for Spezia and Serie A between January and April of 2018. So a nice way to play his first match against them as well with Monza and you know beat them. This was Daniel Averda who appeared off the bench. This was his 100th match in Serie A. 56 of these so far have arrived with Spezia. The player born in 1996 has been involved in the most goals for Spezia and Serie A. 21.

He has 14 goals and 7 assists. The man with the beautiful beard. Literally. So Monza's super team line up was Di Gregorio on goal with Caldi Rola, Mari and Itso at the back. Carlos Augusto on the left, Shuria on the right, Sensi and Rovella as the double pivot with Caprari and Pessina playing off the shoulder of the formidable Gitkiere. Dragovski was in goal for Spezia with Ampadu, Kirvior and Nicolao as the centre back. Trident. Trident that's the word thank you very much.

I blanked the fuck out. Holm was on the right, Simone Bastoni on the left, Agudelo, Burabia and Kovalenko in the middle with Jazi and Denzola up front. You know classic Spezia as we always say this is literally their team every single season. The game started off quite toksy-turvy you know it's a fucking relegation 6-pointer at the end of the day. On paper these teams have both been in Serie A but quite recently because Monza obviously more recently than Spezia.

In the 32nd minute there was some intricate build-up play by Monza that led to Pessina playing Carlos Augusto through who made no mistake with the finish. It was an amazing sliding tackle by Sensi on Agudelo that started the whole thing off bro. By the way man Carlos Augusto, Augusto Carlos, Roberto Carlos is the 23 year old Brazilian playing out wide for Monza bro.

He looks solid as fuck to be honest with you and I had my eye on him when he was playing in Serie A as well because he was on my Fanta culture shortlist. He's quite an offensive player back over there. He also looks like Arnautovic and Frattesi's long lost love child. Have you ever seen this guy bro? Carlos Augusto? Tell me he doesn't. I've never zoomed in on his face you know what I mean. Look at this guy. I'm going to show you a picture of him.

Tell me he doesn't look like the combination of Arnautovic and Frattesi. I'm going to make a post about this on Instagram. Frattesi and Arnautovic? He's literally Frattesi and Arnautovic infused into one man. He's giving me the creeps. He's freaking you out. He's freaking me out a little bit. He looks a bit creepy. I'm going to bite my tongue. So the next goal came in the 63rd minute through Pablo Mari.

It was a perfect corner by Barberis into the feet of Mari who blasted into the roof of the Manet. What a goal by them. Spezia's best chance came through Daniel Maldini who kind of cut in on the right, cut back on the left, shot and forced Di Gregorio into a great save at his near post. Three wins in a row for Monza bro looking good for them under Rafael Palladino. Yes, sir. Another win for him man. He kept on saying because he wanted to win a row maybe Berlusconi was right. You know what I mean?

Another win here. Another convincing win. Spezia aside, none of these matches that they've won out of those three in a row were easy matches man. They got away with three victories and it seems like their individual players are playing with much more confidence. So Caprari has found himself, Pesina has found himself, waiting for Petania to find himself. He's currently injured but when he comes back I'm looking forward to it. I think he can get a few goals over here.

Coming into this game, you know, Spezia were on eight points, Monza were on seven. So Monza did very well to leapfrog a direct rival over here. That's massive. And they beat a team that has a lot of say experience as a unit. You know granted Monza have a lot of say experience individually but the fact that everything's gelling for them quite early on.

I thought it would take them a little bit longer to start gelling but this was a situation where sacking the manager was the best thing to do apparently clearly. Stroppa's magic had stopped if there was ever any magic. Exactly and you have to respect that they did attempt to give Stroppa some time. Yes. The fact that they even gave him the time of day to manage these players in Serie A shows a lot of respect from his higher ups. I'm not surprised that he was sacked there.

It's like show us something, we're giving you the players, show us something or we'll need to get a higher caliber coach. That they didn't do. They got Raffaele Palladino but again they're showing faith in him. So this is what we need to see more in football. Money doesn't get you everything. It's loyalty, training and continuity that gets you great results as well.

Even though they literally splashed cash on Caprari, Pessina, Sensi, you're talking about continuity because they upgraded Palladino. No but yeah you're right, you're totally right bro and I think that these guys will stay up, they'll definitely survive. Solid victory for them against Spezia who have given many opponents a tough time this season. 100% man, 100%. It's two minutes to midnight bro. We soon get to kiss. What's this man, every episode we have to make a kissing joke.

Why, what's the matter with you, you made it in the last one, it was my turn now, it's not that bad. Fair enough, we'll make another one in the next one. Guys it's not looking good for me, I'm sweating buckets right now like, sweating buckets. Yeah you don't look great. Thanks dude, thanks you're the fucking man. You're gonna call in sick now or tomorrow morning? I'll see how I wake up man, I'll see how I wake up. We'll see you next week guys, thank you very much if you've made it this far.

We actually got quite a few messages about people telling us whether they prefer blondes or brunettes, that was hilarious. I love it. Yeah I like these at least, I guess we can add at the end of the podcast. Shall we plug something in? Yeah let's, we need to think of one real quick. Really, let us know if you think I'll make it to work tomorrow judging by the sound of my voice. So you can do hashtag Matt went to work, hashtag Matt called in.

Oh no no, hashtag Matt got the bag, hashtag Matt called in. There we go, send that to us DM bros. Yeah, guess and maybe there's something in it for you if you get it right. There isn't. Exactly. Follow us at Serial Spotlight, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. Guys we love you and appreciate you, thank you very much and we will see you next week.