60: Better Late Than Never

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Serie A Spotlight, this is season 2 episode 20 and we are your hosts Matt and Jake. As you guys heard our goal of the week was Coupe Miners' long-range strike last weekend against Bologna which ended up leading them to a 2-1 victory, that was the equaliser, what did you make of that goal brother?

It was purely orgasmic my brother, what a strike by Coupe Miners, I love the player and apparently Liverpool are all over him but Atalanta have issued a warning saying that unless an offer of 40 million arrives they are not interested, they are not listening. I like when Atalanta play hardball. I think 40 million is a good and actually quite a generous price tag for Coupe Miners who is a very incredibly versatile player and he's proven to be very dangerous anywhere around the box as well.

That would be a coupe for Liverpool. Literally, as it is a coupe for Atalanta. Serie A Spotlight slips. Serie A Spotlight slips, yes would you care to let the listeners know what our bet was this week? So Matthew named this bet, he gave it a title, remember what you called it when I recommended it to you? A pure Brexit bet. Pure Brexit bet or the original term used was a pussy bet. And a catenaccio bet. Exactly, catenaccio bet. It was a special bet over zero goals and a draw bet.

Now there was always going to be the risk of a biscotto taking place, where two teams who are low on the table, relegation candidates settle for a draw, a point each and they gladly take it. Now I thought that might be the case but I thought it would be like 1-1, hence the draw or let you play it a bit safe. I thought there would be a goal this game, especially with the strikers on the show, there was Nzola, Colombo, there's a lot of talent on these teams.

But then the game started and the players walked out and I caught sight of the rain and I was like we're fucked. We're fucked, it's raining, has no one scoring today. That was the theme this match, the terrible weather actually affected the football quite a bit. For sure, for sure. The thing about that game is, the reason I thought there were going to be goals was because either team would think okay this is a game where we can get three points.

So either team would gladly go for it, that's the thought process I had. I also thought that with Nzola performing so well recently and Colombo performing so well recently and other players on both teams performing so well recently that they'd be keen to show off their skills. But the rain did prove to be a bit too much for both of them. Remember to follow us guys to keep up with our terrible bets at spotlight on Instagram.

We also have a TikTok account where we can post anything we'd like because copyright does not exist. We also have a Twitter where you can interact with us. Please send us your thoughts, your opinions, your suggestions, your questions, anything you'd like to be discussed on the podcast. Definitely. The match day was full of tight encounters, so to say, a lot of one nills, a lot of draws across the board.

It started off with Milan drawing to Roma after having dominated 85 minutes of the game, but they ended up drawing that 2-2 followed by Juve scraping past to the nairse, one goal to nil, Sampdoria nil, Napoli 2, so it was last against first. Well, Sampdoria not really last anymore. Monza 2, Inter 2, one of the more exciting matches this matchday. Lazio 2, Empoli 2 was another one. Bologna 1, Atalanta 2, big, big win for Atalanta considering how they've been performing.

Fiorentina 2, Sassuolo 1, Salernitana 1, Torino 1, a very even affair over there. Verona 2, Cremona nil, things looking a bit better for Verona since the restart, particularly a certain gentleman named Lazovic, and lastly Spezia nil, Lecce nil. Yeah, good, an interesting game we had, it was very good, very exciting, lots of late drama, three lost minute equalizers, so plenty to talk about over here. Let's get started with Milan 2, Roma 2. Or can we skip this one? Maybe.

Good suggestion, but let's get into it. I want to know how you feel about this game, bro. Let's get into the lineups and we'll talk. So Milan played the usual 4-2-3-1 formation, despite Piolli saying that, ah, formations, they don't matter. It's about putting players out there. Interesting words by Piolli, that's a rough quote, but he actually did say something that affected, it's about form, it's about teamwork, it's about which players you deploy.

He's like 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, he's like it doesn't really matter. He's a very good speaker, Piolli, so that must have gotten a bit fucked with translation, I would say. Could be. And the first person who was in goal, Teo Hernandez on the left, Calabria on the right, with the center back duo of Tomori and Calullo, the double pivot of Tonali and Benassir with Leao out wide, Salamakers on the right, Brahim Diaz in the trequartista position and Giroud up front.

Roma played their 3-4-2-1 formation with Rui Patricio on goal, center back trio of Roger Ebanes, Chris Smalling and Gianluca Mancini, Roberto Mancini is the guy who failed to qualify Italy for the World Cup. And the guy that won the Euros with Italy as well. But Ventura was crucified, Mancini is viewed as a hero. Celic was on the right, Zalevski was on the left, Pellegrini and Cristante were in the middle, Abraham was playing up front with Zanjol on the ball and playing off his shoulder.

So it all kicked off to a feisty start with two yellow cards in the first 26 minutes and then eventually it was the 30th minute where Milan scored through a flying header by Pierre Calullo of a corner of Tonali. When was the last time Milan scored a corner? Ages man. Can't even remember. Ages. I think it's Milan's first headed goal this season. Could be. Could be actually. I can't recall another one. I think that's an actual stat. Yeah probably. Milan's first headed goal this season.

It took until the 77th minute for substitute Tommaso Pobega to score the second goal through it was a good run by him. Giroud ran sideways pulling Chris Smalling away allowing an opening for layout to play the ball to Pobega who finished it off cleanly. And at this point it seemed to be all done and dusted. There was a tactical change by Piole. A few players came in, Decetalari, Gabia. The formation looked to change and then all of a sudden two set pieces for Roma resulted in two quick goals.

In the 87th minute it was a corner by Lorenzo Pellegrini. Ibanez with the header scores. In the 92nd minute of ranks gave away a free kick which was whipped in by Pellegrini and headed into Tatharsano by Matich and it was Tammy Abraham who managed to score on the rebound and the game ended shortly after that. Milan 2, Roma 2. Thoughts bro. So very disappointing finish for Milan. There's always been this criticism about Milan when it comes to killing games.

Milan dominated 85 minutes of play easily. Milan were much the better team and they never looked in danger throughout the entire first 85 minutes essentially.

And then there was a goal conceded from a corner which I'd like to say that happens but when Milan have struggled so much in that department and Milan were made a mockery against Chelsea for the way they defend set pieces, I'd like to think that it will be brushed up for the Roma game in particular because Roma are so good at set plays and Milan struggle at defending set plays.

So that was always going to be something that was going to threaten Milan and that hope Milan would have had something prepared for that. With that being said, I also believe that the substitutions that Milan make when they're winning a game and winning a game comfortably tends to be bringing on young players.

So bringing on the Catelara, bringing on Vrancs, bringing on Gabia, so on so forth, bringing on Pobega and although it's good to give these guys minutes sometimes in a game against Roma that you know always have something to their arsenal, it would be good to have some players with experience that you can bring on that won't give away silly free kicks on the edge of the area when Milan are struggling at that point. Yes, that's a very good point.

Milan's project right now as it stands is to buy young, to develop, to sell for a profit or to eventually have starters in the future. For example, you look at Leao, you look at Tonali, you look at Kalulu, these were all examples of that. Theo Hernandez as well. It's proven to be successful, but at the same time, you're absolutely right.

I think Milan need to keep an eye on the market and to bring in a few low cost bargains or a few free agents that are over a certain age, have a certain amount of experience, preferably say experience, so that you can bring them on and kill off the game. Kroonich would have been perfect. I think he's a player that Milan are really missing. To bring him on in the CDM role when you need to defend a victory, I think he would have been perfect over there.

Now, Franks has looked good, but his experience really showed in that area. On that point, even players like Dest, these are all really, really young guys. Sometimes even though squad rotation is good, I think it's in certain areas, I think some of the substitutions were, let's give him a run out. That's not good enough when you're playing Roma. When Franks gave away the free kick, Roma had just brought on Bellotti alongside Abraham. They had Smalling and Ibanez. They had Matich in there.

They had all these giants. They're a team, they're a Mourinho team who score set pieces every single week. Why the hell would you force a foul in the dying moments of the game when you're down by a goal against this Roma side? You've just conceded a set piece. I don't get it. I didn't even know Roma would be playing for the fouls to get free kicks at that point. So it was clearly an experience that got the better of him over there along with some street smartness by the player who won the foul.

Pellegrini with the way he whipped the ball in, Matich getting there. It's also a debate about this whole zonal marking thing that Milan do. I don't want to get too technical and stuff like that, but sometimes you just need to go man for a man, block the spaces and just try to count the ball away as far as possible. Yeah, literally, bro. I don't understand how you have CDK kind of marking the jumper on the first goal. How does that make any sense?

It has to be said that CDK marked Matich terribly and didn't even try to win the header over there. So some criticism needs to go to CDK as well. But for the first 85 minutes, Milan had 61% ball possession. They had 12 shots, five of them on target. They had six off target. They had one blocked. That 28 successful tackles to Roma's 12. They were really, really dominating the game. Milan's football was fluid. It was calm.

At no point did we see that urgency over urgency by Milan trying to go forward. They controlled the game really well. Roma looked really weak in my opinion throughout the game from open play. They were bad in my opinion, but they were patient, man. They were patient and they chose their moments. Yes, and this is an interesting stat, for example. 16 teams covered more ground than Milan and Roma. Only Sampdoria and Sassuolo covered less. And that just goes to show Roma just sat back.

They didn't press whatsoever and they allowed Milan to play kind of a, not laxidacical game, but like it wasn't a high intensity game by any means. And Milan totally controlled it. Roma allowed it to happen and then eventually at the end they did Roma things. Just another stat to show how poor Roma were. Only Sampdoria had less ball possession than Roma. Roma had the ball for a total of 20 minutes this game. Out of 90 minutes, 20 minutes they were on the ball.

Sampdoria were slightly worse, they had the ball for 19 minutes. And they were against Napoli, that was one before the last against first. This was Milan-Roma. An interesting thing to note about Milan's left side, everyone praises Milan's left side. But in the top three highest speeds clocked this matchday, first was Theo Hernandez with 35.33 km per hour and third was Leo with 33.98 km per hour. Rodonjic sits between them. Felić was in absolute hell. He was in hell.

He looked at a point I thought he was going to get sent off when he dropped Leo, but I don't think Leo committed to the drop point enough to get him sent off quite frankly. El Sharawi entered the game quite well. He was one of the four players to complete three dribbles, the best of matchday 17. He was quite inspiring when he came on, contributed to Roma's victory of course. Agreed. Milan currently sit in third with 37 points, while Roma sit in seventh with 31 points.

But before we move on guys, I'm handing over to a good friend of ours, Cresco, who's also a Roma fan and you've heard him on this podcast before. He's joined by another Roma fan, Mattia, and together they discuss the Milan-Roma game and their beliefs on Roma season so far. Salam aleikum Milanisti. I'm joined here with my friend Mattia after Milan-Roma. And to be honest, you have a lot to hear from us because we expected Roma to arrange a bit of their playing style after the pausa.

But this is not the case. Mattia, what do you think about Patricio first of all? I don't have no more words for him honestly because as I said before to Cesco, we don't have any more even a second keeper to keep on. Yeah, that's the thing. That's the thing. Zvilar is even worse. Zvilar is much worse. And it's sad when you're coming from Alessone and Cesc in the same team to Olsen, Paolo, Pes, Mirante. Mind you, Mirante could potentially have a Scudetto. It's funny.

I also have the memories for Alessone, Cesc, we had fucking good keepers and now it's a shit honestly. Yeah, it is. And what do you think about Massa? Every time Massa referees our games, something has to happen. Now I'm not saying yesterday he gave Milan any advantage but he ruined the game yesterday. We've been playing every time for Milan. It does nothing honestly. Tonali has to miss the next game and so does Ibanez and it's extra.

He was killing off momentum and it's frustrating when you're trying to build up some play and he kills off the game. We had three shots on target, I believe. You guys five shots on target. So you guys did not play Granke per se but we were horrible. At least in the first half you could say we were horrible, yes, but at least we killed off your game plan. But man, until that 75th minute I was prepared to leave yesterday, Mattia. Honestly, yeah. I did not realise we scored the first goal.

No, because only the last 10 minutes of the game we started playing and before it was a shit. But for me even Piole had something wrong yesterday because even the changing a bit strange. Yeah, Poggema. Yeah, Pobega. He scored but because it was a good counter attack, not because Poggeba is magnificent. Yeah, of course, everyone can score against us. I believe, I told Mattia earlier, if we get Frattese he will solve 60% of our problems because our problem is our Centrocampo.

He cannot play with Cristante and Pellegrini, not because he was the problem, I really, really, really rate Pellegrini, but he can't give him everything to do, the distribution, the defending, the passing, everything. He can't, he can't. I believe as well our formation is a big fucking problem. Yeah, and we have even to change our playing, no? Yeah, our playing style. Because we cannot play anymore with the defence tree. Yes, it takes off one extra midfielder.

I mean, no wonder we're playing like this. When you take off a midfielder and put a centre back, it's kind of logic why we're playing like this. But yeah, I think we should move to the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. And another thing, I don't know why Mourinho had to fight with Karstorp just to play Selec. If he knew Selec was going to play, I would at least find a good replacement because I can't bother watching Selec anymore, bro. I cannot watch Selec play anymore. What about Pantacalcio?

He reminds me a bit of Piri, I don't know if you... Piri, I don't know, what a dick. And Cristante, another guy. He's good at taking the ball, okay, fair, and shooting. What does he do? He tries to dribble and track back on players. This is what I mean. This is why we're suffering so much in the midfield. You cannot play like this. And it was even worse when you have Matej and Cristante together. And I think now it's a good thing that Ibanez got disqualified, unless he plays Kumbula instead.

No, no, no. But Dybala was back, and at least when we play Dybala, we don't lose. Dybala... And we scored even a bit more with Dybala. Yeah. Ironically, we scored two against Milan, but you can't score more than one against Bologna and other teams. And in the last two games, it's like he scored two for me because he saved us in the last minute. I was there at the Olympico. Four points he saved us. Yeah, he saved us four points. I saw him jump and save that corner. I saw the ball going in.

I nearly fainted on the seat. I fell down. Zaniolo, I'm a big lover of Zaniolo. I saw that guy counter the ranks, like his first game, the Bernabeu. I'm biased for Zaniolo. If it was up to me, I could play him every game. But it's like a hopeless case for him lately. It's either he's the problem or the players around him are the problem because he runs, he dribbles, he does everything, but either he does the last step wrong.

Sometimes for me, he wants to do something too much, but the problem is also that there aren't players with him playing, trying to do something. Sometimes he's alone and he doesn't go forward, no? No, yes. Sometimes he does the last decision wrong, if you know what I mean. Like where he has to shoot, he passes. It's bipolar. I still believe in Zaniolo, but we have to change some things. Is there anyone else we have to mention from the team?

For me, we can stop like this because the game of Roma are so... We could keep on going on and on and on. And that's it. We're looking forward to do better on Valtteri. We're looking much... No, sorry. We're looking forward to play for Juventus and hopefully not lose. But that's it. Technically, we're only six points under Juventus, so it's not all that bad. But we can't keep on playing like this because us fans are suffering. And it shows on the table how shit we are. In summa. Thank you, guys.

I'm looking forward to hearing our sexy voices again. See you soon. Ciao. Forza Roma sempre. Forza Roma sempre. The next game we're going to be covering is Juve 1-Odinese 0. Juve started off in a 3-5-1-1 formation with Cesny in goal and the back line of Sandro, Rogani and Danilo. They had Kostić on the left, they had McKennie on the right and the midfield three of Miretti, Locatelli and Rabiot with Di Maria and the Trequartista role and Moiskeen just ahead of him.

Odinese started in a 3-5-2 formation with Silvestri in goal, a back line of Bacow, Bijol and Neuen Perez. They had Pereira out on the right and Doudouji out on the left and the midfield three of Sandy Lovridge, Wallace and Mackengo. They had Saksas and Beato up front. Now, the only goal of the game came in the 86th minute through Danilo.

It was a Paredes long ball which was controlled and volleyed beautifully by Chiesa and onto a silver platter for Danilo to tap the ball into the back of the net. Now, we always talk about game changers. This is very prevalent for Juve at the moment. So in the last matchday they had Kostić from a free kick. In this matchday they had that moment of brilliance over there by Chiesa to put the ball on a plate for Danilo to tap the ball into the back of the net.

And it's another 1-0 victory for Juve, putting them in second level on points with Milan, but obviously only conceding seven goals this season. They're currently ranked above Milan. Yes, that was first of all a fantastic play by Juve. You look at the Moll game, they had been knocking against Odinese and their offensive play, their manoeuvres were better this game than they have been recently. But this was a masterstroke. First of all, that long ball by Paredes was gorgeous to Chiesa.

Chiesa's amazing awareness to square it, something for example Orsolini against Atalanta. He was in the exact same position with his head and he went for a goal, granted he had just scored. But a great awareness by Chiesa to square it to Danilo and the captain fantastic over there just scoring the winner. But I think the main thing to highlight about Juve is how fucking solid they are in defence and how patient they are and how they don't give up.

They leave it till late but they get their job done. And another super professional performance by them against a tough side to be honest. It doesn't look like Juve are capable of losing a game at the moment with the way that they're performing. Not because they're performing so obviously well, but it's just the way that they're carrying themselves in the game. We know that one nil, only winning one nil and in the last 10 minutes of the game pretty much always isn't exactly sustainable.

It results in injuries, it results in fatigue, so on and so forth. It results in a lot of stress lines for fans. Or a late equaliser. Or a late equaliser as well. But if you don't concede, you're not going to lose. And that is exactly what Juve are doing this season. That's exactly what Milan did last season. You remember those one nils in a row? Another clean sheet when Tomori said that. Another clean sheet, 1-0. That was amazing. And it's the same thing for Juve this year.

They are solid as hell defensively. It's true and they gave Udinese a tough time over here. They had 14 shots, 4 of them were on target, 7 more on target, 3 were blocked. As compared to Udinese's 11 shots, 3 of them were on target. So to be honest, you look at the stats, it's a pretty even affair, but Juve just have that certain street smart to them. That experience, that allegory Satanism that gets them over the line.

Exactly. And Udinese haven't been their best, but they put in a decent performance over here. They were simply outplayed by Juve. And shout out to Silvestri, who had a couple of fantastic saves in this game. And shout out to De Maria, having him on the pitch and having him down the middle as well really showcases his creativity and his dribbling in tight spaces, his close ball control is unbelievable. He could take 4 turns with 2 touches when he's on the ball. He's absolutely magnificent.

I was seeing a couple of highlights of him from this game and wow, what a player to have on your team. He's amazing. De Maria is one of my personal favorite players. And that's the thing with Juve. I feel like they are coached heavily in the defensive side. I'm sure Allegri's tactics are all about defense, defense, defense. Then when it comes to bombing forward, it's all about individual brilliance.

You have Kostic, you have De Maria, you have Kiesa, you've got Rabiot who has his moments as well. These are the guys that have been winning the games for Juve. Exactly. And Millik as well with the free kick. And they're still missing Dusan Flavich, they're still missing Pogba, they're missing a bunch of players. And a consistent attacking outlet for them has proven to be Kostic who even got four crosses the highest this matchday. What an attacking outlet that guy is down the left, man.

Yeah, he's incredible. Honestly, what a signing by them. Funnily enough, it was Lovric who was second with the most crosses whipped in. He whipped in three. So this game had the two best crosses of the matchday, both ending in H. You mentioned that this was a tight affair. And just to showcase that, Juve had 50.5% ball possession to Udinese's 49.5% ball possession. We dominated. I don't think Juve's game is about domination, but I think it's about the ability to kill off games.

It's almost like they spend the entire game just wearing out their opponents and testing the waters. And then they just have a moment of brilliance towards the end that gets them over the line essentially. That brings Juve up to second. They're on 37 points. Like I said earlier, level with Milan, with Napoli ahead of them on 44 points. So quick maths, that is seven points ahead of Juve and Milan. On the other hand, Udinese are in eighth place still on 25 points.

They are now six points behind Roma and two points ahead of Fiorentina and Torino. Fantastic. The next game we're going to be covering is Sampdoria nil-Napoli 2. Sampdoria played a 3-4-1-2 formation with Audero in goal, Mourou, Nuit-Inc and Murillo at the back, Augello on the left, Leris on the right, Viera and Rinconas in midfield double pivot with Vere in front of them and Lamers and Gabbiadini as the two trees up front.

Sampdoria fully deployed the usual 4-3-3 formation with Maret in goal, DeLorenzo on the right, Mario Rui on the left, Juan Jesus and Ming-Jae Kim formed the centre-back partnership. Elmas, Lobotka and Anguissa were in the middle, with Poletano out on the right, Kevart Scali on the left and Ozymen up front. The formidable Victor Ozymen.

In the opening moments of the game Sampdoria gave away a penalty, Poletano stepped up to take it and Audero got a good hand on his low and hard shot which then hit the post. Sampdoria were clearly inspired after this, Viera took a shot from outside that threatened the goal, Nuit-Inc had a big miss on a header from a corner but eventually Mr. Inevitable Victor Ozymen in the 19th minute managed to score.

It was an early cross in the near post by Mario Rui, it was met by Ozymen on the half volley and it hit the back of the net.

In the 38th minute Thomas Rincon did Thomas Rincon things where he had missed time the sliding tackle into a full speed Ozymen and it turned out to be the last man, was at an awkward angle so it didn't quite look to be a red at first but then you realise it's the denial of a goal scoring opportunity, a clear goal scoring opportunity, boom, red card, that's what you get of a player with the experience of Thomas Rincon.

Rincon, CV like that, age on his side and age against him rather on his side as it comes to the experience. And he fucks the game for Sampdoria because there was no coming back, 10 men against Napoli. Exactly. And in fact it was the 82nd minute where VAR awarded the penalty to Napoli and Elmas converted going the opposite direction and high into the top corner this time. What do you make of this game bro? So I mean I don't think there is much to make of it.

I think Sampdoria still looked good in the opening moments of the match, they looked much better than they were before, they defended better, I think Noitink is such an asset over there, they went forward better, I think Lammers has been such an asset over there and everything is just working a bit more fluidly than it was before for Sampdoria. They're retaking their shape a bit faster than they were, I think that was because they were very wary of the Napoli side that they were facing.

But all it takes is a stupid red card by one of your teammates, in this case it was Thomas Rincon and then after that if you get a red card in the 38th minute against Napoli there's no way you're walking out with anything out of that match and Napoli managed to get away with three points and kill the game off in the 82nd minute. Yeah and that's it. I was kind of disappointed at the red card man because I thought that Sampdoria were going to give them a good second half.

Again they attacked really well and I feel like Noitink really brought them defensive stability. Lammers, I'm not too keen on, he's more involved here than he was at Napoli but I don't know he seems a bit rusty for now. We'll have to wait for the rust to settle I guess, wait for him to get used to the system. His movement is definitely better than any other striker that was representing Sampdoria this season which gives them at least a little bit more excitement.

They can play the ball in certain positions where perhaps they didn't use to play it before. A special shout out to me, an outstanding performer in this game was definitely Audero stopping Poletano's penalty, something Mike Mannian wasn't able to do earlier on this season and Napoli had 24 shots, 8 of them on target so Audero had to deal with all of those. He did have a fantastic performance over here and again man if it weren't for the red card maybe things would have been different.

Yeah totally man, a fantastic goalkeeper. I believe he's a youth product, one of the ones that had gone for an inflated price. No way! No way dude! But yeah at the end of the day it was all Napoli who had 66% ball possession, 24 shots as you mentioned too, Sampdoria has 9, Sampdoria had 2 shots on target compared to Napoli's 8. Napoli passed them to death eventually after the red card they had 608 passes, 91% successful passes off of the total. The best of the matchday.

Mario Rui completed 87 passes alone, the most of matchday 17, he had a fantastic game Mario Rui. Madonna, 87 passes for a left back is mad man. Yeah man he's like Theo Hernandez level contribution. So many good left backs in the Liga, very good left backs. And I feel like this often happens when a big team plays against a team that gets a red card early on, they just end up dominating all the statistics.

Another one, Napoli created 17 goals scoring chances the second best of the matchday, inferior to Torino's 19 by the way. They had 24 attempts the most of the matchday. Napoli had the ball for 36 and a half minutes, the best position start of the matchday. Sampdoria had the ball for 19 minutes, 35 per... Listen to this. So Sampdoria had the ball for 19 minutes, Napoli for 36. That leaves 35 minutes. 35 minutes of play halted. This is why the World Cup stoppage time system was introduced.

I mean that's the way it should be. No, isn't it 90 minutes of play that they're after? No, ref says, okay, let me add 30 seconds whenever there's a substitution. No, let me add this amount of time every time a free kick is awarded. Should stop the clock and the clock continues or add 15 minutes at the end of the game. The game is there to be played over 90 minutes.

We are lucky that it's not the stop clock system where on 90 minutes a massive buzz goes around the stadium and it'll end up being like a basketball thing where everyone starts shooting from half pitch at that fucking point. But 35 minutes wasted is... It's not football. It's not football. It's interesting because this is the polar opposite of what Agneli had said. Agneli when he was on the board of the FIFA directors or something was...

Or he's just a person whose opinion is extremely respected or was extremely respected. He said that football's biggest rival right now is not other sports. It's not the NBA. It's not the bloody Olympics. It's e-sports. It's League of Legends. It's Fortnite. Because nowadays the new generation coming up, I don't know if you're listening, Cesco, the attention span is obviously lower. A kid will find it difficult to sit through 90 minutes of football.

What this does is it makes a football game longer, which for us is great. It's better. The more football the better. For these guys who can barely sit through 90 minutes of football, does it make sense to make it even longer? This is one of the things Florentino Perez and Agneli were after when it comes to the Super League. One thing they said is make every game 60 minutes so that it gets more viewership. There we go. Because of the young generation.

And do I agree that the younger generation are used to fueling their minds with this quick content on social media? Instead of gratification. It's the cocaine of social media. You watch one, you just want another, you just want another, you just want another. Football is something to me, what I enjoy about football is I like watching every single piece of movement that happens on the TV.

If a player keeps the ball in, in a nice way, if a player passes and goes in a nice manner, if a player tracked back properly. But people just want to see goals and they want to see, you know, an hour is a good time for kids to watch football. But to me, this is the game that was created. It is 90 minutes. It's a chess game. It's 11 men against 11 men, two armies, over 90 minutes. And if it's 90 minutes, all I care is that the 90 minutes are played. It's open play and it's 90 minutes. Exactly.

These younglings can watch the extended highlights. Exactly. They're available. Exactly. There you go. Leave the football to us. Poletano had the most goalscoring chances of the matchday and Sampdoria completed a grand total of one dribble, the worst of the matchday alongside Lecce, Spezia and Torino aka the nerds. Napoli are currently in first with 44 points as they prepare to take on Juve, who are in second with 37 points. This Friday, that's going to be a juicy affair. Very juicy.

While Sampdoria sit in 19th with nine points. The next game we're going to be covering is Monza 2-Inter 2. Before I get to the lineups, I just want to provide a bit of an update and say that Inter have advanced in the Coppa Italia after beating Parma in extra time through Anna Cerbi header, making it 2-1. Parma were winning the game. It was a fantastic goal by Parma. Gigi Buffon had a fantastic performance as a 44-year-old starting at the San Siro. What a spectacle that game was.

Another time Inter were struggling against the Serbian. Buffon turns 45 in two weeks time and that was his 50th appearance at San Siro. Amazing. He was really good. He had a fantastic save on Zerko. He had a super save. But let's get into this. What? Milan's starting lineup against Torino. The Coppa Italia tonight is out. I saw a rumor. It starts in an hour. And it looked terrible. It looked like Milan aren't even trying. And I think that Coppa Italia would be a good route for Milan this year.

Yeah, I think it would be an option to win. I still think Milan are obviously planning on winning. Look at this lineup, bro. It's a 3-5-2. Tatarzano will go. Kalulu, Gabi and Tomori at the back. Not bad, not terrible. Salamakas on the right. I like it. Dest on the left. No. Pobega, Tonali and Vranx in the middle. No. Decaytelare and Diaz up front as a striking partnership. Decaytelare. And Diaz. And Diaz up front. Pass it later when you're done with it, please. Thank you, brother.

Yeah. So we'll see how that goes against Torino. Torino tend to take Milan to extra time when it comes to the Coppa. Yes, especially if you're starting that squad against them. We're acting like Torino are walking the park or we're going to focus on Serie A or Champions League. But whatever, man, we'll see what happens. This should technically in paper be enough to take Milan over the line. The problem is that, for example, Decaytelare is flopping. Not flopping. He hasn't hit the ground running.

You have Dest on the left who played. I saw him play once on the left and he didn't look good at all. But we'll see anyway. That's a different story. We'll keep you guys updated. So Monza 2-2 for Monza, it was the 3-4-2-1 formation. It was Di Gregorio on goal and the back three of Itzo, Mari and Marlon. They had Augusto, Carlos Augusto, of course, out on the left. They had Berndelli out on the right with Maschin and Pessina in the middle.

They had Mota on the left, Curia on the right and Petania up front. For Inter it was a 3-5-2. Onana and goal with a back line of Skriniar, Acerbi and Bastoni. Darmian on the right, Di Marco on the left and a midfield three of Barella, Cialanoglu and Mkhitaryan. Lautaro Martinez was up front alongside Dzeko. Isn't it crazy how Pablo Mari got stabbed and still managed to make a return to the field faster than Manon? Literally mad.

But after this performance, maybe he would have wished to take some more time to get over the trauma. So in the 10th minute, Bastoni's cross into the far post was half-vollied into the near post by Darmian. That is quite frankly a classic Inter goal. If it's not Di Marco, it's Bastoni. If it's not them, it's Cialanoglu. So on and so forth.

Just one minute later, however, there was a really clever ball by Pessina that put Curia in a good position to place the ball past Onana into the far corner on his favoured left foot. Just 11 minutes later and then Lautaro stole the ball off of a slow Mari who controlled the ball in defence. And with Di Gregorio out of position, Lautaro had no problem converting. He gave the ball away in defence when his keeper was out of position. It was absolutely dreadful.

A few moments later, well not a few moments later, but throughout the game, Di Marco scraped the top crossbar, Lautaro hit the post with a stunning strike as well. But then in the 92nd minute, Monza were on the attack to find that equaliser and the ball was initially headed by the former Inter player Caldi Rolla. But it took a significant deflection off of the shoulder of Dumfries and into the far corner. So it did end up going down as a Denzel Dumfries on goal in the 92nd minute.

So very entertaining encounter. Inter looked good, Monza looked good. It resulted in a draw. Inter did look better than Monza, but Monza did enough to get the draw. What did you make of it? I think Monza really played to Inter's level. These things always happen when you play a lower side in the league, like Trujillo scored, that's his first ever goal in Serie A. Caldi Rolla got the winner and certainly equaliser Ruolo de Lecce, he's a former Inter player. So these things tend to happen.

I couldn't help but notice that Inter's build-up play was once again, once again, stalled by Lukaku's lack of sharpness and now he's injured and he's going to be out for some time. Really good again for some mental clarity. I'm starting to think this guy needs a lot more time out to get back to himself. I would agree with you over there. I'm not sure if it's time out that he needs. Or time on the pitch, right? Or a boot camp.

You know when a couple of seasons ago when Milan were on a losing streak and when they couldn't win a single game, boot camp, close all doors. Or a zero. Exactly. But the team has to be in crisis. That's a punishment to the players essentially and it wouldn't be fair on his teammates. No, but I'm saying like a solo one. Solo or zero. For fucking Lukaku. Because quite frankly, I mean, look, he had a great season at Inter and he helped win them the league a couple of seasons ago under Conte.

He was signed for 80 million by Chelsea. He went there and it was his lack of professionalism that lost him that job essentially. He cried and cried, went back to Inter out of shape and he's simply not performing. At this point, at the end of the season, if things keep on going the way they are, Inter aren't going to want Lukaku. Chelsea aren't going to want Lukaku. And did you see Garrett Bale retired at 33 recently because no one could afford him because he was always injured.

Same thing can happen to Lukaku. It could. I still see a future for Lukaku. I think he'll recover. I think he'll be back. Maybe not with Chelsea, but somewhere where a new environment where he feels support of the fans, where he has less pressure on him. Maybe that could be better for him. It's also probably a bad mental space he's in after his shocking World Cup performance rushed back from injury. Now he has another injury.

I just hope the guy is dealing with that in the most efficient way possible, speaking to his teammates, finding his form and hopefully we'll see him getting goals in the near future. So Monza drew 2-2 to winter. Do you think they got their bus full of whores or do they have to beat them? Did they get their bus full of whores?

Because Berlusconi, for those who don't know, actually said to the team, like, if you bring a beautiful victory against one of the top teams, he mentioned Juvent Milan specifically, I'll get you a Pullman Detroitia, which means a bus full of whores. Exactly. Excuse the language over here, ladies and gents. But I think so, especially with the goal being in the last minute, he would have been hyped Berlusconi, man. He would have been on the phone straight after.

Gagliani lost his shit at that Calderola goal. One day, I remember 10 years ago, Gagliani looking this old, screaming when Milan scored in the last minute and me thinking he's going to drop dead. Like, I'm really scared one day he's going to get up and just collapse from celebrating a bit too hard. He's like our great grandmother, Gagliani. He was old when we were young and he's old when we're adults. I wonder what he looked like as a young chap. I wonder what he was. He had hair. No way.

Monza had 55% ball possession. They had 13 shots, four of them on target. Inter had 11 shots, three of them on target. So you can see the stats were quite even over here. Monza, I drink it slightly. This was a high intensity game, contrary to the Milan-Roma game. Only Lotso covered more ground than Inter this matchday and Monza were a close third. It was fast paced. Pessina is the player who covered the most ground this matchday.

And Lautaro Martinez was one of the four players to complete three dribbles, the best of matchday 17. He's alongside Arsharawi, as we mentioned. There was also Danny Mota who completed the dribbles for Monza. Monza had six successful dribbles and it's the second best of the matchday behind Fiorentina. I would say that I don't think Inter had a bad performance. I think there were bad aspects to their game that slowed down their play, for example, Lukaku as you mentioned.

I think Monza showed a lot of heart and a lot of spirit and that's why they were able to get back into the match. I do, however, still believe that this is a very disappointing result for Inter, especially after a big win last week where they handed legally their Napoli their first loss of the season. That was a huge result for Inter. And then their next match, they dropped points against Monza and now they only just scraped past Parma. So maybe the issues are still there.

They're certainly capable of good performances, but they're also certainly capable of very weak performances. Yes, sir. Inter currently sit in fourth with 34 points, while Monza sit in 15th with 18 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Lazio 2-M-Poli 2, another lost second winner.

Lazio lined up with their usual 4-3-3 formation with Providel in goal, Marisic, Romagnoli, Ciasale and Lazari at the back, Lewis, Alberto, Kataldi, Milinkovic, Savic in the middle, Zaccani on the left, Anderson on the right and Mwabela up front. Empoli lined up with their 4-3-2-1 formation, the Christmas tree formation, Vicaria was in goal, Stojanovic on the right, Parisi on the left with Luperto and Ismaily as a centre-back partnership.

Marin Grassi and Fazzini in the middle, Baldanzi and Caputo playing behind Satriano. Interesting to see Caputo on that role over there, who had a pretty good game apart from one wasteful moment. Things got started nice and early for Lazio who had a corner, Lewis Alberto crossed it in as it was flicked on by Philipp Anderson and Caputo and passed to Vicario. It was technically an own goal by Caputo, but I believe it was given to Philipp Anderson.

I know for sure it was given to Philipp Anderson because Lewis Alberto got an assist for me on Fanta-Calcio. There we go. In the 54th minute, Mattia Zaccani found the back of the net after some confusion in the box. Zaccani managed to chip the ball over, Vicario was sliding out, Zaccani scored with his new neck tattoo, which I'm not a fan of. Not a massive fan of massive text tattoo on the back of necks or anywhere. Cursive, cursive text. I'm not a big fan.

Savic hit the post from about 35 yards out with a strike that was amazing. Nice to see him getting his shit together after last week's mediocre performance. And then it was in the 83rd minute that Empoli started their comeback, there was a good counter. Now this is what confuses me. Why are Lazio committing so many men forward when they're 2-0 up? I don't know.

Like, Empoli had a numerical advantage on the counter, Kambiagi and Caputo both got in behind the defense, Kambiagi provided a low cross and Caputo controlled it and finished it. It looked really raw and sloppy by Caputo, the control and the finish, but Kambiagi got in behind the defense. Well, it is shocking to me that Lazio were going forward. I think it comes down to a lack of respect for their opponents. Probably, yes. I think it's more like, let's see if we can score, let's go.

And then in the 92nd minute, eventually, Razz Van Maren smacked the ball into the top corner from outside the area after a clearance by Philipp Anderson. In the build-up play to this, Bayrami ended Pedro's career by knocking the ball past him and getting around him. He was so flat-footed, Pedro, incredibly flat-footed. But Bayrami does that sometimes, he turns into Zinedine Zidane and that was one of those moments.

The ball was crossed in, cleared poorly by Philipp Anderson and good finish at the end of it from outside the area by Maren. All of Lazio's hard work for nothing, for one point. They covered the most distance this round. They were in top three for shots taken. They were in the top three for key passes played, top three in ball possession. And probably the only stat they had to their advantage this match, there was the dribbling stat. They were the best dribblers alongside Fiorentina.

But they also had the fewest goal scoring chances with four of the matchday. Yet, they managed to score two of those chances. Lazio dominated the game at 54% ball possession and they had 18 shots, four of them on target. Empoli only had two shots on target and they were both good. Exactly, exactly. I think that pretty much sums up the game brilliantly, to be honest, man. I really like this Empoli team. I really think they have a certain flair to them.

They have a really nice little unit over there. Lazio, on the other hand, naive, as naive as Milan this matchday. No, I would agree. And you look at the Lazio we're seeing just before the break. Now, okay, just before the break, they had a devastating defeat against Juve. But before that, we're talking about Lazio pushing, man, pushing in that top four region. Well, this is classic Lazio, to be really brutally honest about them.

They get going the same way they got going last year with a number of four nills, the same number they had this season. And then they just... Plateau. Plateau. And I don't know if it's people figuring them out. I don't know if it's just a group of players or the owners or whatever that are causing this to happen. But I would be livid with that ending to the game if I was Maurizio Sarri, particularly with Empoli's first goal.

Sarri has mentioned many things that hinder him from playing his optimal football. With Lazio, he mentioned the pitch not being the standard. He mentioned the players not being the standard. So yeah, Lazio need to improve in some aspects over here. They currently sit in fifth with 31 points, while Empoli sit in 13th with 19 points. Before we move on to the next game, I just want to highlight Luis Alberto because I think him again in the midfield, he showcased another great performance by him.

He really adds a lot of fluidity to their midfield. And I think in certain games, he should start the game and then just be substituted out for maybe a more conservative player. And I think in certain games he could be brought on to provide an additional attacking outlet. And now it's just down to if Luis Alberto accepts that being his role. Luis Alberto could slot into any of the top four teams in Italy.

Agreed, and he'll probably start in an attacking midfield role at Milan pretty much any day. That would be a clever signing. Definitely. The next game we're going to be covering is Bologna 1 Atalanta 2. So for Bologna it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Skorupski in goal, Lykodzianis as a left back and Posz as a right back, Lukumi and Saumauro forming the formidable back two. Dominguez and Gary Medel in midfield with Soriano out on the left and Orsalini out on the right.

Ferguson was in the attacking midfield role with Sansone up front. For Atalanta it was a 3-4-1-2 formation, Mussou on goal and a backline of Toloi, Palomino and Scalvini. They had Hattabere out on the right and Ruggeri out on the left. 3-3 of their own, Kukminers and Pasalic just ahead of them with Hoiland and Zapata up front. Now things got going in the sixth minute. Orsalini cut in and curled the ball low and hard into the far corner. It was a brilliant goal by him.

I forget that Orsalini is a player that's full of flair and when he gets going his turn of pace is fantastic. One movement and one shot. It all took one second and it was in the back of the net. It was a brilliant goal by Orsalini and it's really got things going there for Bologna. Explosive. He's an explosive player. However and then in the 46th minute, pardon me, it was in the 47th minute there was a bullet strike from around 30 yards out straight into the corner of the net by Thion Kukminers.

What a fucking goal by him. Our goal of the week. So we already described that as well as we can. Just a moment of magic by him. He has that so often, Jeremy Boga did lay the ball off to him. A couple of moments later in the 58th minute, so just 11 minutes later, there was a great run and pass by Boga to Hoyland on the break who dinked the ball over the oncoming Skorupski Hoyland with another goal. Boga with his second assist of the night.

So Atalanta get away with three points against Bologna who have been very good. Bologna recently so a massive three points for Atalanta. What do you think? Totally Bologna scored early, but they couldn't keep up with Atalanta's intensity. As we mentioned last week, they crowd the box so well Atalanta. They pushed so many players out. They have Hattaburn, Ruggeri out wide who crossed the ball in relentlessly.

I believe it was Kukminers and Ruggeri who whipped in three crosses each, which is the second most of the match day behind Kostic who whipped in four. So that's six crosses from two players. Amazing for Atalanta. Hoyland is like Holland from Wish. He's a bright player, very sharp. I'm a big fan of Hoyland. We'll see how he develops. He's in good hands, let's just say that. Atalanta are no strangers to developing beasts. Exactly, especially upfront man.

And it seems like with every game, he's getting slightly better. That's like a consistent slow rise for him. I have to say I was a big fan of the substitutions that were carried out by Gasparini in the match day. Bogard really turned things around when coming on for Mario Pasalic. He had some great moments. He was straying out left quite a lot and that's where he is so dangerous. We know how Bologna's defense could be at times and he was just attacking them and attacking them and attacking them.

And that led to him getting two assists. Okay, one was a layoff to Kuk Miners, but the second one was absolutely brilliant by him. So maybe this is something we could start seeing more of by Jeremy Boga. He looked really comfortable this game. He was the only player to get two assists this match day. Very good performance by him, of course. I also want to highlight the performance of Gary Medel who recovered 14 balls. I wonder if one of them was Francesco Alcerbi. Oh my god. No way.

No way did he just say that. That's so bad, bro. Alcerbi scored an amazing goal against Parma to win the game against them during the Copa. No, it was amazing. Gary Medel had a very good performance. He's kind of similar to Thomas Rincón in the fact that he's an experienced veteran player who is a bit hotheaded. But when he keeps it cool, Medel is a massive asset to Bologna. I think we've seen a lot of that hotheadedness kind of drift away from Medel when he realized his role at the club.

He's such a leader in that camp. Sure, he'll get yellow cards here and there. He's no stranger to yellow and red cards. But his leadership qualities as well, in particular this season and last season, have been brilliant. He's been played center back, he's been played in defensive midfield. And I have to say, I missed him a lot in midfield. He's so good over there, man. He had so much stability and it does as well allow Dominguez to be a bit more creative and going forward.

Ferguson also comes back quite a bit to partner Medel when that happens. Bologna have a very nicely balanced team over here. I think that Mota did exactly what he had to do to put this team together. They were simply beaten by, on the night, a better team in Atalanta who were just attacking after minute six, really. Do you think the results would have been different had Arnautovic not been injured? It's difficult to say. I don't think it would have been much different.

I think definitely the team would have been more fired up to get a goal to kill the game rather than just score one and settle to the defensive area. But that's the thing, I don't think it was their choice to settle on defense. I think they got outrun by Atalanta. I think they got outpowered by Atalanta. We did see a bit of what we were used to seeing more out of Atalanta, especially in the second half of the match.

I think a lot of that had to do with Jeremy Boga giving them that outlet and running forward, the same way Gossens used to, the same way Papu Gomez used to. And then with someone like Hoyle up front to finish the chances. I have to say once again, Duván Zapata wasn't great. And he did end up getting replaced by Ederson, who as well, I haven't really seen Ederson perform to win. Ederson hasn't hit the ground running, but he plays Salernitana next and that was his X team, so he'll probably score.

Palomino, by the way, bro, again, another monstrous performance. I'm really happy he's back. I really like him. And to think he's only playing at this level because he was hand-picked by Papu Gomez. That's crazy, man. That is crazy. And it's such a shame that there were certain allegations against him that kept him out of the game for so long because he comes back in and he's miles ahead of the other centerbacks at Atalanta. Clearly their best defender and one of their best players this season.

Atalanta sit in sixth on 31 points, they're actually level with Lazio, who are in fifth, and level with Roma, who are in seventh. On the other hand, Bologna are in 12th place on 19 points, who are also level with Lecce, who are 11th, and Empoli, who are 13th. The next game we're going to be covering is Fiorentina 2, Sassuolo 1. Fiorentina play the 4-2-3-1 formation with Terracciano in goal.

Biragi has the left back, Venuti has the right back with Milenkovic and Igor as the centerback partnership. Duncan and Bianco played in the middle, with Kwame and Icone on the flanks, Bonaventura in the free roll, in the middle with Cabral up front. Sassuolo play the 4-3-3 formation with Concilie in goal, Tolean and Rogério as the fullbacks, Ferrari and Rouen as the centerback pairing.

Frattesi, Aubin and Traore played in the middle with Berardi on the right, Loriente on the left and Penamonti up front. It took late for this to get started, the first half was pretty uneventful, no goals over there, but then in the 48th minute, just 3 minutes after coming on, Riccardo Saponara bounced the volley over Concilie after some confusion in the area. Confusion in the area meaning a Ferrari mistake. Yeah, it was given away by Ferrari again. It's becoming too common.

This happened the last matchday as well, when will they do something about their defense? I don't know. I told Mintov the second Saponara came on, I'm like bro he's scoring, he's too smart for this shit defense, he's gonna fuck them up. And in fact, later on he had a brilliant ball to Gonzalez, who had an open header and he missed it. But anyway, in the 57th minute, VAR caught a handball by Dodo and it was converted by Berardi sending the goalkeeper the wrong way.

One of the most reliable penalty kick takers in the league, Berardi. An amazing player, Mr. Sasuolo. In the 91st minute, there was a penalty given the other way, Rouan handled it this time, it was caught by VAR. Nico Gonzalez stepped up, who was described by the manager Italiano to be mentally unavailable. So he stepped up and he scored, which will do wonders for his confidence. He sent Concilie the wrong way. Concilie has fallen injured by the way. Oh, has he?

Yeah. He's not much in the shower, no? Yes, probably. That's probably it. I liked seeing the way Fiorentina reacted to the penalty being awarded, right away handing it to Nico Gonzalez, who was brilliant from the spot. He had a good game as well after he came on, he was involved. And we always say that he is a player that is vital in the second half of the season. And this could be the start of that. His teammates handing him the penalty.

In the 91st minute when the stakes are high, he keeps a cool head and he converts the confidence and the balls on this man to step up. And the manner in which he took the penalty as well, quite central, just relied on sending the keeper the wrong way, relied on his technique. Fantastic stuff by Nico Gonzalez. Hopefully we'll get to see more of that throughout the entirety of the season now. For sure. I certainly hope so. He was a really good player on his day.

Fiorentina dominated the possession of 53%, although it didn't really feel like that. It really didn't. I think we're better in the first half, in my opinion. Fiorentina had 15 shots, five of them on target. Sassuolo had 16 shots, four of them on target. Barati had the most attempts of the matchday with six. Mintov said last week that Barati were shooting like he was a kid in the playground, just having it. And once again, that proved to be the case.

Fiorentina proved to be a less tactically oriented side, as we saw earlier at the start of the season. They're given more freedom. In fact, they're completing many dribbles and they're up there in the statistics as well. No team covered less distance than Sassuolo this round, by the way. So they do seem uninspired right now. Something seems off with Sassuolo, man. Something does seem off with Sassuolo.

We always kind of look to choose one thing that that's not that good about Sassuolo this season. We've blamed their defense. We've said because they replaced so many players up top. We've said it's because Lopez is injured in the midfield. That's a massive one. Lopez being injured. That's a metronome. These are all massive ones. Their defense is shit.

They're losing their metronome in the midfield and he's been replaced by Obiang who, although he has his own skill set, he doesn't add that fluidity that Sassuolo are known for. Lauriente is great. Berardi is great. Pinamonte just still. He was more involved in this game, but not exactly in a great way. He just wins penalties by shooting into hands. That's all he's doing lately. Honestly, I want to see Alvarez. Minto is right. I want to see Alvarez. I really want to see Alvarez. He waits long.

I have to bring him on. I don't know why he doesn't bring him on sooner, especially if Pinamonte is firing. There's also the loss of Thor's vet in midfield as well. That is massive for them. But again, a good team with a good manager adapts to these situations. I'm not going to compare them to Juve and Milan who've dealt with a plethora of injuries and we're still at the top of their game. Of course, I'm not going to compare them to those teams.

But Sassuolo haven't gotten a well-earned three points and haven't outplayed a team in such a long time. And I'm just starting to think that this isn't exactly a great squad, man. That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. And they're going to keep losing players if they keep removing players themselves and if they keep performing the way they are. Berardi would be the next one out. And well, Frattesi is the next one out actually.

Our resident Sassuolo fan Minto highlighted in the last episode, he said that Sassuolo are a team that's run almost as a business. Their stadium is far from the city. They have no fans virtually. You look at their stadium, it's always full of opposition fans, totally dominated, no matter who they're playing. Mattias asked us a question. He said, if Sassuolo were to sack Dionisi, who should they get instead? And there are quite a few free agents right now, managers.

There are quite a few, but probably a lot of them are too big for Sassuolo, so to say. I think... Yeah, there are like two shells, the Zidane's, they're not going to go there. No, absolutely not. I think that they do need a slightly more traditional coach that would really focus on solidifying the formation, solidifying the identity, solidifying the shape and prioritize that rather than the fluidity that they're so known for. Do you think they should shift to a pragmatic approach?

I think they should. I think that's the only way they'll concede lesser goals than they're already conceding and that will already put them in the right position. I think their players are creative. I don't think they need someone like Ranieri, who is the first person that came to mind. In fact, I think Ranieri would be my shot. He would really encourage that fluid play that Sassuolo are so well known for, but I think that still leaves the terrible defense that is over there.

I don't think he encourages a back four that is so solid. It would be interesting to see, but I think that still struggle defensively in that case. Di Francesco could, I think, do a good job there. I mean, he's already taken this team to Europa League. He got them promoted all the way from SEHA, I believe, and took them all the way to the Europa League. Why not? He's in his comfort zone. He flopped afterwards.

He had a good run with Roma in the Champions League, but eventually had a bad run of a form even with Caliari. When he joined Caliari, he was sacked early on. So I think maybe a return to Sassuolo for him might rejuvenate his career as well as Sassuolo as a club. Another interesting idea, bro, is I don't know about the wagers, and I don't know how possible this is, but Bielsa. Ooh. Bielsa would be an interesting one. I think it brings more of, again, it's the same thing as the tinker man.

He's going to encourage that, but actually Bielsa is very solid defensively as well. He would encourage players sliding into tackles, keeping their shape, and staying in that, like with Leeds, we saw Leeds, they were a unit. They were hard to penetrate when he was there, especially in the championship. In the Premier League, it was a different story. That would be a good shout. Yeah, I would love to see it.

I just wonder if it's doable for Sassuolo if it's too much, you know, because he has clout as a manager. It's tough. Sassuolo can only attract people who want to move to Italy, young managers that this would be the highlight of their career essentially. So people that are smaller than Sassuolo, or else they are resident managers that see the true value of Sassuolo, because otherwise this is not a franchise team that people aspire to manage.

It would have to be a project that, I don't know, fucking, what's his name, the manager of Malta. He was the manager of Malta. Devis Manja. Devis Manja would be the next manager of Sassuolo. Who do you think he'd pick on? He would pick on, I think, Berardi. I think he'd pick on Berardi. So you guys know there were strong allegations about him making sexual passes at Maltese players telling them, like, if you fucking, I don't know, show me your ass, you can play tomorrow. Try to keep it PG-13.

Yeah, that's a really good approach. Show me your ass. Show me your ass. You start striker tomorrow, you show me your ass. I think Pena Monti would be fucked, bro. Pena Monti would be fucked as well. Pena Monti would be fucked. Yes, there was another point I wanted to make. What the fuck was it? Broadno. About the manager? Yes, Iacchini is one of those managers that you mentioned. There's Ballardini and Iacchini. They're like the relegation experts.

So if this goes tits up for Sassuolo, I wouldn't be surprised if one of those guys came in as a caretaker. There's also Sampaoli who's available. So we'll see what happens. I do think, however, that Dionisi should be given more time. He should be given more time because nothing is favoring him. And even though nothing is favoring him, they're still playing that fluid and dynamic football. However, he needs to control that four at the back, man. There aren't many options for him.

And maybe there's not much funding to go into signing players. Well, not enough funding. They're selling players left, right and center. They must have funding. They just need to be a bit smarter in the market because they're so focused on replacing those big players up front that they're forgetting that the actual problem is the defensive region. They were smart with the way that they replaced those players. They got Laurente, they got Torzvet.

However, Pinamonte maybe in hindsight, well, it's a shock that Pinamonte isn't performing well. But they're playing a game and maybe they should give more time to Alvarez and that'll prove to be a smart signing from their end as well. Perhaps. Sassuolo currently sit in 16th with 16 points, while Fiorentina sit in 9th with 23 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Salernitana 1-1 Torino 1.

So Salernitana start in their 3-1-4-2 formation with Ochoa Ngole, a back line of Fazio, Danilo Lich and Bron. Bohinen was in the register role with Brada Reca on the left and Candreva on the right. It was Villena and Caviglia in the midfield with Dia and Bonazzoli up front. For Torino they lined up in their 3-4-2-1 formation with Milinkovic, Savic, Ngole and a back line of Zima, Schuurs and Bongiorno. They had Lazaro out on the right and Voivoda out on the left.

They had Linetti and Lukic in midfield with Vlasic out on the right and Radonic out on the left and Sanabria up front. Things kicked off in the 36th minute where Sanabria scored a flying header after a great Lazaro cross. Shortly after, Schuurs hit the post with a header, shortly after the restart then in the 49th minute Villena shot into the bottom near corner from outside of the area to finish off a beautiful Salernitana counterattack.

For the rest of the game Torino piled forward trying to get 3 points out of this as they proved to be better than Salernitana in this game. Ochoa just save after save, particularly his save in the 84th minute on Ricardo Rodriguez at the near post pushing it onto the post. Some fantastic saves by Ochoa again. Villena totally dominated this game, that 62% ball possession, the most key passes of the matchday, the most attempts of the matchday.

The difference for Salernitana or their saving grace was Ochoa. 100%. And it's Ochoa's world and we're just living in it. Exactly. Where does he rank right now currently? We've only seen two games of him to be honest, but he looks like a top five goalkeeper in the Liga. At the moment, I mean, like you said, it's his first two games. It's interesting because normally with any other goalkeeper that I've watched play before, I can tell you where I believe that they rank just from their qualities.

But when we only watch this guy a couple of times every four years with Mexico in the World Cup, then it's, I can't believe I forgot the word World Cup over there. You see him a couple of, whatever. You see him a couple of times every four years at the World Cup. You can't really gauge how, if he's actually good or if he has more. Exactly. Right now, he looks like a good goalkeeper. He was coming out and blocking shots, making himself big. Interesting one, man.

He's definitely the keeper that is on hottest form right now after the World Cup break. And he's replacing Luigi Cepa, who's a fantastic goalkeeper himself. And this is a great move for Ochoa, you know, he's playing in Serie A, he's living in Salerno, one of the most beautiful places in Italy. It's a good place to retire for him. So life is good for Ochoa at the moment. 100%. Man, again, I can't stress on how much better Torino looked in this game.

Again, it does go down to maybe the finishing touch. This time it was Ochoa that kind of moved the focus onto him rather than the striker situation for Torino. I have to say Sanabria scored a true striker's goal with that flying header in this game. However, they're still lacking that target man. Someone that can play with his back towards goal and then facing goal as well inside that area. Someone lethal, someone that can finish off a chance pretty much.

Just a focal point, having that focal point up front, man. In fact, you look at the stats, Torino should be winning this. It doesn't make sense to create this much, to press this much and to not win. And that's what they're missing, a target man. So we'll see if that problem will ever be sorted. Ochoa, seven saves as we said, man, that's another seven saves. That's 14 saves in two games, by the way. Massive. Vlasic had the most key passes and the most goal scoring chances of the match.

They were very, very good player over there. Torino, again, just superlatives all around. Yeah, superlatives all around except for the striking department. No? That's it. Exactly. So not technically all around. Exactly. So we have described as what good teams do, it's be the shitter team and still get away with something. Yeah. Torino are intent on 23 points level on points with Fiorentina, while Salernitana sit in 14th on 18 points level with Monza. Monday night madness.

They're like the way you move. Yes, sir. Verona too, Cremona is nil. Verona lined up with a 3-4-2-1 formation. Montepaw was in goal, Cech Carini was at the back with Hien and Davidovic, Doig was on the left, De Pauli on the right with Tameze and Illich as the midfield duo, Lazovic and Cologne played behind Juric. For Cremona, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Karnazeky in goal, Sir Nicola on the right, La Cosvillie on the left, Bianchetti and Ferrari as a centre-back pairing.

I hate reading Cremona's line up. La Cosvillie. I mean, even if you told me a hundred times I won't pronounce his name correctly. La Cosvillie Cantare. Castagnetti was in the middle alongside Piquel with Zanimacchia on the right, Valeri on the left, Bonaiuto as the attacking midfielder and Dessers up front. Thank god that is over. Now it all kicked off in the ninth minute when Lazovic scored a striker's goal. He took a hard ball down, brilliantly turned and nailed the ball in from close range.

It was a Jaya Kalon assist. He looked like fucking Dennis Bergkamp over there, man. It was brilliant by Darko Lazovic. Verona didn't leave it very long to get another one. In the 26th minute there was a brilliant run by Doig who played a brilliant pass. Such a good player, Doig. He's like the Aaron Hickey Regen, the next big Scottish youngster. Lazovic plays full back, it's uncanny. So Doig unleashed Lazovic who finished very cleanly into the bottom corner.

Lazovic playing closer to goal is really paying off for them. These two early goals were enough for Verona to kill the game off. Cremonese didn't really get into it at all and it was a very professionally done job by Verona. Maintaining a 2-0 lead, we saw how... They say that a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous lead to have in football. Yeah, I mean we saw that twice. Exactly. Lazio and Milan. They couldn't do what Verona did. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And Milan drew 0-0 to Cremonese.

So many teams have struggled against Cremonese. Verona come out and beat them 2-0. They had nine shots for on target, of course. Two of them were the Darko Lazovic goals which were absolutely sensational. It was a very quick and lethal start by Verona. Something they were notorious for last season and they showed it again in this game. Cremonese grew into the game throughout the game. They had 14 shots, five of them on target, five of them on target and four blocked.

So once again, Cremonese, you definitely can't say that they don't try. No, certainly not. But the thing is Verona scored too early and just let them play. They let Cremonese play and they just sat back. So obviously the stats are going to be in Cremonese's favouring position, stats 53%. But in reality, Verona allowed that to happen. It was a tactical choice. They didn't do the amateur thing that Lazio did and committed too many men forward, for example, on a corner. They actually stayed back.

I still don't think, as much as I agree with you, I still don't think it's a choice to let a team have 14 shots and five on target because five shots on target is very dangerous. So perhaps Verona still lacked that intensity that they had for the past few seasons. They still let teams play their game when they're trying to be a bit more controlling. They also only had 3.8k supporters in their stadium, which could have played a role over there. Definitely. They lack intensity.

They only have 3k supporters. That's it. This game was played for 3k people. Isn't that mad? 3.8 at least. Yeah, 3.8. But yeah. Hien had a pretty good game, he had 13 recoveries, very deeply played pretty well this game too. But I'm impressed by Verona and how they've managed to pick things up, especially Laziovic. I did not think that he had these types of finishes in him. I think he could finish the ball this well.

Yeah, I think he was struggling to adapt to that new role in the attacking midfield area. He was, however, this time utilized as an attacking midfielder, but more to the left hand side as he had Calhoun on the right as well. So it was like he was left forward, so to say. So that allowed him to be dangerous on the ball.

And rather than taking too much of a creative role, it allows him to make runs in behind the defense, especially with a player like Juric up front who can play with his back towards goal and to drag a defender off with him. And Laziovic gets him behind the spaces, I think this is a dangerous position for Laziovic to be in, particularly with Doig around his flank as well. I think they could really turn things around and Laziovic came back from injury as well and he's looking brushed up.

We hope he can keep that up. Me too, bro. Matias, our resident fan, fan, I wouldn't call him a fan. He's our fucking brother, man. Yeah, he's the man. Matias is the fucking man. He sent us a text summarizing the first half of the Verona game. He watched it. He's the man who announced Ilici watch. He said Ilici is back from injury, he's going to be instrumental for Verona. He said, I watched the first half of the Verona game up until the goals were scored. Ilici was rather mediocre.

The game was more of a midfield battle and I think Tameze did more noticeable things as well as Doig and Laziovic who were decisive in both goals. Then Verona tried to control the pace and possession more and Ilici was more involved up until Suleiman was brought on instead. Let's say Ilici did grow into the game and I think he will grow into the season as he has just come back and his performances will most likely pick up.

I think he will be instrumental and I do like Tameze as a midfield partner. I think he's very good. Yeah, that's a good balance having Tameze and Ilici. Both can offer a lot going forward and they're both very stable in the defensive areas as well. I think Ilici just needs more minutes to get back on track, to get his fitness back.

It's good that when they, like Matias said, when they started controlling the tempo and the play a bit more, he saw much more of the ball over there, allowed him to play it around to get a feel for it again. And yeah, I think it's still Ilici watch for the rest of the season. Verona currently sit in 18th with 9 points while Cremona SS sit last in 20th with 7 points. The next and final game that we're going to be covering is the game that fucked our bet Spezia nil, Lecce nil.

So for Spezia it was a 3-5-2 formation with Drangowski in goal and a back line of Nikolaou, Kiwior and Amian. That's how they say it. They all say Drangowski, the commentator. I don't know where the N comes from because if there was an accent somewhere, I'll say, okay, if there's an accent on the G, it means the G is NG. But there's nothing. It's just Dragowski and for some reason there's an N somewhere. Yeah, man. Polish names are a nightmare. Sir Shesny. That I get because it's like an SZCHZ.

So it's like, sure, just take your time to say that. So a back line of Nikolaou, Kiwior and Amian for Spezia with Reika out on the left and home out on the right as the two wingbacks. Bastoni, Ampadou and Borabia in the midfield with Insola and Giassi up front the same way it has been for all these years. Come to think of it, Piatek, there's an N there too. It's spelled Piatek, but it's pronounced Piontek. But there is an accent somewhere, I believe, in Piontek. I have Polish colleagues.

I'll ask them. And if there are any Polish listeners, please educate us. We don't want to come off as dickheads like we're pronouncing everything wrong. So please do educate us. You've heard us pronounce Kup Minersh now. Exactly. And Deron. For Lecce, it was their 433 formation with Falcone in goal, a back line of Jean Drey, Mascherotto, Umtiti and Gallo.

It was Gonzalez in midfield alongside Blin and Malle with Streffetz out on the right, Di Francesco out on the left and Lorenzo Colombo up front. This was a 0-0. However, there were many chances for Lecce in particular, who managed to hit the post twice through Gonzalez and Blin. Otherwise I don't think either team did enough to win the game. I do think if I favored anyone in this game, it must have been Lecce, but still not enough. What do you think, bro?

Lecce had more chances, or the better chances rather, well more chances with four shots on target. And Spezia had more possession. So it was a weird one. You know, once again, it was an extremely rainy day. It seemed like Enzola and Colombo weren't going to score from the get go. The two posts got so close, man. One of those goes in and we would have won our bet. Fuck it, we move. There's nothing to do. This is a biscotta, as they say, shared points for Spezia and Lecce. One point each.

They live to fight another day. Yes, sir. I don't think there's much any of the teams could have done in this scenario. Sure, they were both like me and Jake were debating in the beginning of the episode. On one hand, with the conditions of the game, with the opponents that each team had, you could take an approach whereby you want to get a singular point in this game. There obviously is a large gap between the bottom three and then 17th.

In fact, Spezia are in 17th, they're on 15th and then Verona 18th on nine points. So there's a healthy gap over there. So Spezia would have been happy to sit back. Lecce and then are pushing mid-table, bro. They're in 11th. And had they won that game, that'd be one point behind Torino. It's all about their defense, man. It's all about their defenses. And again, it's a similar kind of vibe to Juve where they have a lit defense. Basquiat and Umtiti are amazing.

Jean-Drey and Gallo, out wide, are amazing too. Then they have Streffetza, Banda, Colombo and Di Francesco who are all capable of these random moments. Similarly to what we said about Juve. They're like a mini-budget Juve. Also I like Maleh and the way he's playing on loan from Fiorentina. He's cut his hair and it's a new start for him. New year, new Maleh. Yeah. I find Maleh to be so clumsy. There's no denying that he's a good footballer, but I've never seen him perform myself.

Every time I've seen Maleh on the pitch, I always said, okay, these guys are right at best. But at Lecce, we're seeing a bit of a different side to him. More involved, definitely. More of an opportunity. Exactly. He's from Fiorentina, he had way too many competitors alongside him. But Lecce played well, man. Lecce played very well, to be quite frank. They hit the post twice. They looked very positive. And yeah, I think out of the, who wins in a match between Lecce and Monza tomorrow?

If Lecce had to play Monza tomorrow, it would be... What would you bet on that rather than what would happen? Oh, fuck man. What would you bet on that? I don't want to bet on that. What would you bet on? Lecce are home. I'd see the odds of a Lecce or a draw, to be honest. But I think that would be a draw, to be honest. A similar result. These bottom teams, when they come up, these lower, lowly teams, they tend to draw.

Yeah. And it's always interesting seeing two Serie A teams in inverted commas in Serie A, because they know each other so well. They battled each other for so many times in Serie A, so who knows what would happen over there. Let's just give you a quick rundown of what's to come. On Friday, we have Napoli against Juventus. That's the massive game of the weekend.

Then we have Lecce against Milan, Sassuolo against Lazio, Udinese against Bologna, Roma against Fiorentina, Cremonese against Monza, Inter-Veorona, Torino Spezia, Atalanta-Solernitana and Empoli-Sampdoria. Stretching on from Friday to Monday. I can't believe the Friday game though. I can't believe it's on Friday. What do you think? What do I think of Napoli-Uwe? Who's Napoli-Uwe? Honestly, either one-one. I'll go straight for a draw. That's an interesting bet.

So they concede their first goal, Juve, in eight games. If they do, it's against Napoli. I have noticed Guevara being more contained. He was contained against Inter. He was contained against Sampdoria. Will he have more freedom with Juve's wing backs? Depends who plays on the right-hand side over there. It would be interesting to see that direct. Do Napoli get their second one, the loss of the season? It could be, man.

It's one of the best attacks in the league against the best defense in the league. No matter what happens, Milan need to beat Lecce and Milan need to gain ground on either go second or just gain ground on Napoli. Will Inter play a bogey team as well in Verona? So we'll see. Interesting matchday to come, guys. Stay tuned and send us your thoughts. Yep. Love you all, guys. Thank you very much for listening. Another short one, obviously, with the tight schedule, but we hope you enjoyed it.

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