65: Back On Track

Hello and welcome to Seiya Spotlight Season 2 Episode 25, we are Josef Jäk and Matt here to discuss all the events of Matchday 22. Before we get into that, our goal of the week as you heard from the intro was Daniele Verde's second goal against Empoli, the Smatchday, he's back and he's back scoring goals. What a goal and before the game started, Matt and I had been discussing how long it had been since Daniele Verde actually came off the bench and contributed.

He's kind of, as a player he's utilized very similarly to Bayrami at Empoli where he's brought on for like 30 minute cameos or he starts but at the 60th minute he's substituted but Daniele Verde historically has always made the difference in the past three seasons for Spezia but this year he was a bit quiet and of course it took our big mouths to change that.

Yeah of course and he has a very sweet left foot Daniele Verde, there's no denying that whether he's whooping in a cross to get a guy clean through or whether he's having a strike from outside the area so he's definitely a dangerous little player that Spezia can utilize especially when they're fighting relegation. Definitely bro, let's see if this was a fluke or if we can keep this up. So regarding our bets, we did a bet along, I'm not even going to talk about it. Nope, three bets, three losses.

Imagine bro, instead of putting five euro on all these bets, put them all in a savings account or in a piggy bank bro. Why is there a good fucking chair or something to sit on you know for the podcast? Are you trying to put me in a bad mood? Don't get going into this podcast. Fuck that, chairs don't give you adrenaline and that's what we're here for bro, the adrenaline and no betting. Exactly, exactly, we've read Zlatan's book. Yes, you remember what it's called? Adrenaline. There we go.

Remember to follow us guys on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter at say a spotlight, please reach out to us, we love to hear from you. If you see something funny send it along, we might put it on our story. If you have an interesting opinion, a funny joke or something, do send us a voice note and we might even feature you on the podcast. 100%. As always, we're going to be going through the happenings of matchday 22 before we get into everything. Quite an action packed one.

It started off with Napoli dismantling Cremona as a three goals to nil, first against last, I don't think anyone expected anything different. However, second against 19th, Sampdoria against Inter ended 0-0. Lazio were defeated by Atalanta at home, two goals to nil, what was probably supposed to be the tightest affair this matchday. Milan finally managed to beat Torino, one goal to nil after they lost by that scoreline twice this season.

They did carry that momentum into the Champions League and beat Spurs, one goal to nil. Lecce held Roma at home, that was one goal to one. Pasquerotto once again was there, even though it did go down as a no goal. Juve managed to get past Fiorentina, one goal to nil, two disallowed goals, Fiorentina will be furious, especially with the amount of hate they have towards Juve for nicking all their players.

Odinese 2, Sassuolo 2, a bit of a… you know, a lot of blunders in Odinese's defence which led to them conceding those two goals. Bologna nil, Monza 1, two teams on top form but it was Monza that came out the victors. Empoli 2, Spezia 2, so first Empoli got a red card and Spezia scored two and then the second half Spezia got a red card and Empoli scored two, crazy stuff. Verona and then continued their winning ways as they went at home once again beating Salernitana, one goal to nil.

Good stuff, I mean nothing to really write home about this matchday, there were no real standout fixtures apart from maybe Lazio Atalanta, Milan Torino and Juve Fiorentina. Well, and for the hipsters, Odinese Sassuolo, Bologna Monza, Empoli Spezia… It's always lit, even when it's not lit. But the thing is, you're right, there was nothing really crazy that happened, nothing totally unpredictable. Maybe the Sampdoria intergame, that's probably the most.

One thing I'd also like to address before we go into these games and take a deep dive over there is Jakub Jankto. Remember Jakub Jankto from Sampdoria? Of course I remember Jakub Jankto. He has come out as homosexual and it was very moving and very inspiring and wow, well done to him, I really hope that more people follow suit because in football it's still the fucking 60s when it comes to the shit.

Of course, it could be quite a toxic environment from football fans and even in the dressing room sometimes. We see a lot of racism, we've seen homophobia as well. Jankto is actually, I believe, the third or fourth professional footballer to come out openly as gay and I mean hopefully he won't be slandered for it. Like he said, he just wants to love who he wants and he wants to be accepted. Jankto, Serja Spotlight accepts you brother. We accept you and we love you. We love you very much.

And we miss you. We miss you. Where is he nowadays? He's at Slava Prague, I believe. He's a Czech Republican gentleman, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's there. Czech Republican. Czech Republic is a Czech guy. He's trying to complicate stuff. He is currently, yes, playing for Sparta Prague. Sparta Prague. He's on loan from Getafe. Okay, yeah, because he's been playing in Spain. I remember him. I believe he left from Sambdoria to go there. He was also at Odineza for some time.

We actually posted about it at free hour because I spotted it. If you see Serja content on free hour, that's because of me. That's all you, baby. Always, always. Shall we dive in, brother? Yes. Let's start off with Napoli 3, Cremonaise nil. Now this game was played on Gvarackelia's birthday. So happy birthday to the birthday boy, baby. Here we go. The previous encounter was a 4-1 away win for Napoli.

However, there was that fixture in the Coppa Italia that ended 2-2 with Cremonaise advancing on penalties. After that, Cremonaise also knocked out Roma. Now they're in the semi-finals of the Coppa against Fiorentina. So let's fucking go, Cremonaise. If it's not Milan, it's Cremonaise. Come on. However, they did have a few injuries and suspensions coming into this game. Cyril Desses, Davido Carecke, Bianchetti, Koaliata, Buonaiuto and Laososkevili didn't make the trip.

That did leave them lining up in a 3-5-2 formation, Carnesecchi in goal and the back line of Ferrari, Kirikas and Aiwu, wow. Serin Nicola out on the right, Vasquez out on the left and a midfield three of Piquel, Meite and Benassi with Saju and Felix Afenajan up front. For Napoli, you guys could probably guess it was a 4-3-3 formation. Maret in goal and the back line of Mario Rui, Kim Minjay, Rachmani and Di Lorenzo.

A midfield three of Zielinski, Lobotka and Anguissa and a front three of Gvaratzke, happy birthday to the birthday boy, Ossimen and Chucky Lozano. In the 22nd minute, the birthday boy opened the scoring, Gvaratzkelia collected the ball from the byline, took the ball inside the area when skipping past Serin Nicola and slotted into the bottom far corner from a rather tight angle. 22nd minute on his 22nd birthday, the birthday boy. Dude, stop.

Brilliant. In the 65th minute, Ossimen scored obviously, Di Lorenzo's header after a Zielinski corner was very well saved by Carnesecchi, but as he was grounded, Kim squared the ball to Ossimen who tapped it into an empty net. It was then in the 79th minute that substitute Elmas made it 3-0. Di Lorenzo dinked the ball through to Elmas who hit the ball into the bottom corner on the bounce. Carnesecchi got a hand to it, but the shot was too powerful for the young Italian goalkeeper.

I mean, the stats and the scoreline pretty much says everything that there is to be said about this game. 3-0 victory for Napoli. They had 63% ball possession in this game to Cremonaes as 37. They had 14 shots, 9 of which were on target at 9 corners, whereas Cremonaes had 3 shots, 1 on target and to be fair to them, 7 corners. But I don't think we expected the game to go any other way, right? Yeah, I mean, nowadays this is not the Napoli that we've been used to.

You know, everyone was saying at the beginning of the season, when Napoli were up there that Christmas time will come, they'll consume too much panettone and they will falter. But no, they have not. They have been incredibly consistent, constantly blowing these smaller teams out of the water. What a performance over here. There's no complacency when it comes to them. They always give their best. They're all, you know, can't be said for many of the other teams in Serie A at the moment.

But yeah, they're running away with it and, you know, it's tangible at this point. We have the bookies. I think the odds of Napoli winning the league at this point are 99.7% or something. A friend of mine sent me a link saying 99.7% and it makes sense, you know, the way things are going. The Milan clubs, you know, they're going to have to, okay, there's 15 points between first and second, but, you know, they have to win every single game if Napoli lose those 15 points.

It's looking like it's Napoli's year. And the people of Naples who are notoriously superstitious, these are the types of people, they wear a little dog dick around their neck because they think it's fucking good luck, right? That little chili pepper was all the fuck it is. It looks like my chihuahua's dick. But yeah, they're super. They don't even talk about like, they don't believe in saying things because you would end up de-manifesting them. You know, probably from experience.

They're singing right now, la capo lista se ne va, you know, they're, we're running away with it. Yeah. They've slipped up again. They're getting cocky with it. You know, I mean, and you know, if they're believing and they're being cocky about it, then clearly there's a reason for that. Yeah. I mean, 22 games and they're only on one loss, which was against Inter after the World Cup break. Napoli really are a force to be reckoned with right now.

They've won nine straight Serie A home games the last time they did that was under Sarri in 2016 when they almost won the league. Back then there was a Juventus side that were, you know, up there with the Napolis. So Napoli, unfortunately for them, they didn't manage to get it done, but now you have been docked 15 points. Should Napoli be docked 15 points? That's still the first by goal difference, which is fucking crazy, man. So Juventus fans are using it as an excuse.

Maybe they should look at the likes of Napoli. Yeah, that's a crazy stat. Actually, it's true. Yeah. Crémones are the only side in the top five leagues that haven't registered a single victory this season after Elche grabbed a victory in Spain a couple of weeks ago. They did. You know, against Lourdes. I don't remember. It's okay. We don't have to prepare that stuff.

In addition to this, only four times in this area as a team played their first 22 games without any win in Serie A. So there was Varese twice, once in 1966 and once in 1972, Ancona in 2004 and Verona in 2016. So Crémones are making history for all the wrong reasons. And they're in the semi-final of the Copa. That's crazy. The game of football is a very mysterious one. But let's talk a bit about individuals, man. I believe that obviously, let's start with the obvious one. Gvaratzke Elija, I mean.

In Serie A, he's played 18 matches, scored nine goals and assisted 11 times. In the Champions League, he's played five matches. He scored two and assisted three. In total, he's played 23 matches this season, scored 11 and assisted 14. That is ridiculous for a 21-year-old Georgian international from the back arse of nowhere, man. 10 million euros. 10 million euros. He has just come out and said that he'll never play for another Italian team, which to be honest, I was quite bummed to hear, man.

I mean, as if any other Italian team affords him. Yeah, that's fair enough. I mean, Juve, probably. Maybe at the moment, no. It's very much dependent on whether they get Champions League or not. Their finances, I believe, at this point. Don't worry. You just wait until they sell Perrin for 60 million euros. Then we have it closer. They'll have to be careful, obviously. Yes, bro. So Gvaratzke Elija has been incredible. But for me, again, I'm more fascinated by Ozzy Mendenkvara.

I mean, he's a superhero, no? Yes, that's it. He's Batman, dude. It's like he's the Flash up front, man. He's a one-man army. One-man army. Give him the ball, he'll do the rest. And it's the thing that we always say, right? He's always fucking putting his body in the way. You see him, he wears his mask because he broke his face going into a 50-50 with Scrinney O'Neal. Constantly getting his arm taped, his legs taped, the spray.

I think they go through three cans of that fucking magic spray with Ozzy Mendenkvara. 100%. But the guy is relentless. He's fucking relentless. And he's still a very, very young man. And it seems like he's in his prime. He seems like an experienced striker in his prime. The flair that he has, the vision that he has, immaculate. His finishing. He has the biggest balls in the world, I think, Victor Ozzy.

And I think we can go down on record and say Victor Ozzy, man, has the biggest fucking balls in the world. And they definitely don't slow him down. No, no, they don't. Those long legs make him so quick, man. You know what the craziest thing about the Sinopolis side is? They only have one player and they're starting 11 over the age of 30. Whoa. Yeah. You know who it is? Think real quick, Matt. Think real quick. It must be Di Lorenzo. No. Di Lorenzo nowadays is 29 years old, very close.

It's the guy on the other side, Mario Rui. Mario Rui is 31 years old. Okay. I thought Mario Rui was a bit younger than that. I thought he was 29. Yeah. He looks younger. But yeah, the rest, I mean, you look at the forward line, you have Guevara, 22 years old, Ozzy Man, 24, Lozano, 27. The midfield, you have 28, 28, 27. They're all at their prime. It's a good age to have a squad, I think. Like average age, 27, 28. That's where you want it. Exactly. That's a bunch of players in their prime.

Something, Milan, for example, have been lacking recently, having players in their prime that are either very young or very old. Di Lorenzo is a player I want to highlight because of his work rate, his effective attacking and defending. The guy was everywhere in this game. He even contributed to two goals. They weren't both direct assists, but he played a massive part in both of them. And then you see him defensively. The guy simply doesn't put a foot wrong.

They have two very well balanced wing backs in Mario Rui and then Di Lorenzo. They can both go forward and whippen across. They can take on a man and then they can both defend very effectively, especially Di Lorenzo man. They're super, honestly. The perfect balance. It's true. You don't, well, you do get incredible offensive output actually from like Mario Rui nowadays. He's really up to his game. Absolutely. I think he's been on set pieces as well off on that left hand side. Sweet left foot.

But I mean, we're constantly repeating ourselves, no? About the Snopoli team. It's true every week. Yeah. I don't think there's too much to add on Cremonaise either. One player I'd like to highlight. OK. Tzajou. Tzajou, the striker. I used to follow him in his Milan days with the Primavera. Was one of my favorite players on football manager. Interesting. He was back then a kind of quick, tenacious winger as a child, as a youth. OK. Nowadays, you look at Tzajou, he looks completely different.

He's 190 centimeters tall. OK. He's a big boy. Big boy. He is very tough. Not as mobile as I remember him, but very tough. And he's changed his role completely. He's playing as a striker. He's pretty good with his back towards goal. And I really like the development of this player. This is 23 years old, and I think if Cremonaise do go down, I think maybe a newly promoted team will pick up Tzajou. OK, guys. So you heard it here first. Keep your eyes out on Cremonaise's Tzajou.

Now playing up front at 190 centimeters tall. Previously a winger. So we'll see. Maybe the next time we watch him play, he's going to be a center back. Napoli still in first. 59 points. They're now 15 points ahead of Inter. As Cremonaise said, dead last, still just on eight points. The next game we're going to be talking about is Sampdoria nil-Inter nil. Now this is a massive upset.

And if you look at the historical statistics of this fixture, you know, you can see that Inter have won nine of the last 11 Serie A meetings with Sampdoria with one draw and one loss. And then they lost two games before this one. They won each one three nil. Yeah. So typically they breeze past Sampdoria without any problems. And then you look at Inter, for example, and you see that only Roma have registered more Serie A clean sheets than Inter in 2023.

This was a particularly interesting matchup as well because of the emotional point of view, the romantic aspect of having Stankovic reuniting with Nzaghi. They played together at Inter. Yeah. And between one second, because my note has slipped to the side, between 1999 and 2003. They were teammates. Yes. A fun fact about Stankovic is that he has averaged 0.62 points per game in 13 Serie A matches with Sampdoria, which is the lowest figure for a Sampdoria manager with more than 10 games ever.

Wow. Yes. So he is statistically their worst coach ever. But yes, still early days. We'll see. But we saw how it was like last season. Shevchenko had gotten the sack after four games because there wasn't enough time. So maybe we will see Sampdoria doing something similar unless they start getting points soon, man. It could be. They definitely have improved on the pitch. You can see it.

It's very clear that they're a better team than they were coming into the season, but the results are still lacking. Exactly. In fact, the majority of their points were collected under their previous management. True. That's true. That's true. Actually. So over more games, of course. Of course. So let's get into the lineups.

Sampdoria lined up with a 3-4-1-2 formation with Audero on goal, Amione, Nuitink and Murillo at the back, Augel on the left, Zanoli on the right with Harry Winx and Kuisance in the middle, Juricic played behind Lamers and Gabiadini. For Inter, it was a 3-5-2 formation with Onana on goal, Skriniar and Devray at the back alongside Acerbi.

Darmian was on the right, Gawson's on the left, Mkhitaryan, Chalanoglu and Barela were in the middle, Brozovich, of course, has returned but is not yet fit to play in 90 minutes. Lautaro Martinez and Lukaku paired up for the first time in ages. I believe it's since August. Yes. Wow. Lukaka is back. Okay. No, what do they call it? What's the nickname for their partnership? Lula? Lula. Is it Lula? Lukaku, Lautaro. Unless it's Lautaku. Lautaku is a lit one. Lukanku would be a good one as well.

So yeah, when it comes to some blur, they didn't really threaten. They had a few nice moves from the back, building up quick counters. At one point, Lamers almost scored the goal with a flick on. That would have been amazing. Onana, of course, really controls that area. He does. He really. If you're in the box, he's on you. You know what I mean? Yeah. With that bloody bunda of his. The girls were fascinated by his ass. I mean, they didn't need to point it out, bro. That thing is juicy.

One point, I think it was during the Derby, he jumped out to punch the ball out. Superman punch. Superman punch. While he was in midair, the curvature, the callipagous nature of his buttocks, the girls both went, whoa. He looks like a character from Bug's Life with that bunda man and sass stick out in Bug's Life. Yeah, it's true. And then he can save quite a few shots with it as well. Darmian, Lukaku and Hakan did not have their shooting boots on today.

I believe the shots on target were essential and the majority of the rest were wide. Darmian and Hakan had a few shots of target as well. Lautaro had two opportunities where he received and controlled the ball literally on the center circle of the box of the opponents. On one occasion, he slipped and on the second occasion, he took one too many touches. Coming into this game, I mean, the guy scored in what, four or five games in a row? Something like that.

And then you just see him in a game like that where it's like he's a newbie, like he's a 17 year old in there. So it's very weird seeing players having such a good run of form and then they just dip in one game. At the end of the game, one of the moments you're talking about when he turned and tried to shoot, right? Dude, Zekko was wide open. Zekko was wide open, facing goal.

All Lautaro had to do was lay it off to him, roll it to Zekko before he hit the ground leg and Zekko would have definitely finished that with his experience. But no, he turned and he shot and said, that's frustrating. I can imagine Inter fans were very frustrated with him at that moment. And just before that happened, a cherry-bee took a long range. That was probably the closest Inter got to scoring, forced Emil Lautaro onto an amazing save. Amazing save. It was a very good save.

He ended up getting his forearm to it. Man, it was very interesting the way he knocked it over. So yeah, the spoils were shared as Inter dominated possession, shots, passes, corners, free kicks, everything, but of course couldn't get it over the line. My God, I'm seeing here that Inter had 25 shots and Samp had seven. Yeah, bro. It was quite brutal for them. One of those football manager games.

One interesting talking point from the game was an isolated clip that has been trimmed since and posted onto Twitter and Reddit, whatever. A bit of an argument between Lukaku and Barela. You know Barela, how he is. The commentator knows very well as well. He's always pointing it out. The fact that Barela complains a lot. He's constantly flailing his arms around, vocalizing his displeasure with his teammates. At one point, Lukaku didn't attack a loose ball.

Kind of stepped forward to attack it, but instead he extended his arms and tried to like, I'm not sure if he was trying to control it like 11 from Stranger Things, but he just stood there. Barela of course didn't appreciate that at all. Barela as a player who always gives 100%. Started flailing his arms around and Lukaku just looked at him and told him, basta, basta, which means enough, enough. And started flailing his arms, imitating him.

And basically he told him off, which is fair enough, like stop waving your arms. So then he took it a bit overboard at the end when he said, va fanculo filio di puttana, which means- Oh, Lukaku said that to Barela. Barela, yes. Which basically translates to fuck you son of a bitch, basically. Now everyone's speculating, you know, everyone, oh my God. This shit happens every single day in football for sure. Yep. Yep. I mean, happens with Milan between Tatarasanu and Tomori.

I don't know if there are any personal attacks like that, but then again, it's the Italian language. We know that being multi-speak and speaking a very similar language, I mean, the slightest of offences, if you say it in English, then it gets translated that way. And it's a way bigger deal than it actually is. But I think it should be addressed that Lukaku does seem quite out of place. He's come back after falling out totally with Chelsea.

He left Inter on bad terms because they had just won the league. He was their top scorer. He was one of the best strikers in Italy, one of the best strikers in the world at the time, which made Chelsea by him for 90 million euros. He's come back. Obviously, he had to rekindle some relationships that were spoiled along that process. But unfortunately, nothing is going right for Lukaku at the moment. He had a terrible World Cup. He's had a terrible second stint at Inter.

And it seems now like maybe it's getting the best of him. Maybe it's getting the better of him. I don't want to speculate too much. Barela is the kind of player to complain quite a lot. And to be honest, it is quite refreshing to see someone telling him to shut the fuck up because he can be a brat at times. He can be a brat. It's true. He's very, very, very good. And of course, it's these players who don't put a foot wrong, who have every right to complain.

But at one point, you're in a high pressure situation. You're nil-nil against one of the worst teams in the league. Shut up. Let's play. Please stop complaining. Give us some confidence. Stop flailing your arms around, you brat. Probably Lukaku should have tried going for that ball. He should have run around there, Lukaku. Yes, but I had a point to make, but he threw me off with Lukaku. It was a... yes, so Lukaku isn't even playing terribly. He holds the ball up pretty well for his teammates.

He plays well as a holdup striker. He's okay. And had Inter redeemed him permanently, this wouldn't be bad if they had another season, another two seasons, another three seasons, and maybe he's getting his groove back. But the fact of the matter is that Inter probably aren't going to buy him back. And at this point, with the form he's showing, Chelsea aren't going to want him either. So time is completely against him and the pressure is piling up for Lukaku.

And he's really going to have to turn it around at the end of the season if he wants something positive. Like a step up right now is looking unlikely in his career. Very unlikely. And he's going to find it hard to settle for less money than he got at Chelsea. This is why idiotic signings... Now maybe it's not an idiotic signing to spend a lot of money on Lukaku after his championship winning season at Inter under Conte. It's not stupid to spend money on him.

But when you see ridiculous wages given to footballers that it's given to them because they're on a good run of form, like you see Gareth Bale, for example, all those inflated wages, Lukaku, Hazard, if they start dropping the ball, they might as well retire because no teams are going to spend that money on them unless they go to Saudi Arabia, unless they go to the US, unless they go to China, one of these places. But it's not looking good for Lukaku's career at all, man.

I mean, as you said, there definitely are options. If he wants money, no problem. There are people who are going to give you a salary, a good salary at that, probably better than you have now if you go to the right places. The problem is going to a team of a similar level. I don't see many people wanting to invest in him at the moment, but anyway, we'll see. He still has time to turn it around. Let's see if he manages that. Yeah. So that pretty much sums up the game.

Sambdoria, we can talk a little bit about Sambdoria. I mean, it's the same thing, right? Chances have improved. Can they get the points? If you were the Sambdoria manager president right now, what would you do? Would you keep Stankovic? It's such a tough situation that they're in because when you make a brave move and you change your manager, you bring in a young, progressive, tough motherfucking manager and it doesn't work out. That third change is a tough one to take, man.

For example, Salernitana had done it last season and it worked out for them. I think that they need a bit more of a short-term solution. And I think going for an old buck, an old experience buck is the move they need to make today. Take on Go for Davide Nicola, the miracle man. He's just been let go by Salernitana. That's not a bad shout at all. It's not a bad shout at all. I think they see a project with Stankovic though.

If they're willing to get relegated, I mean Genoa did it for example last year and they've stuck by their man. What's his name again? They were planning on sticking with him. The guy who... The Gaggenpress. Yeah, what's his name? Blessin. Blessin. But now Gjelardino is the man at the helm. Oh, good. And they're doing pretty well still. Okay. So, yes, I think they see a project with Stankovic. I think at this point they accepted that they might get relegated.

I think it might be a fresh start for them. Blank Slate start from Sarriaba. A young manager, a very bright manager who has won leagues overseas. He did it with Red Star Belgrade. I believe he was very good over there playing impressive football in the Champions League as well. Holding Milan twice as well. Yeah. So we'll see. I don't know if they stick with him or not. Inter currently sit in second with 44 points, while Sampdoria are in 19th with 11 points.

The next game we're going to be covering is Lazio-Nil-Atalanta 2. These are two of the three sides with the highest shot conversion rate in Sarriaba this season. Obviously, Napoli is the third team. The previous encounter was the same result, but for Lazio. Away from home, 2-0, and now Atalanta are winning away from home, 2-0. Lazio were blessed in inverted commas with the return of Ciro Ammobile.

They only had Stefan Radu missing, while Sladea had Muriel Andamela suspended after receiving red cards against Asuolo. Plus, Mario Pasalic was also out with a sprained ankle. Palomino and Zappa Costa also returned from injury. Lazio start in a 4-3-3 formation, classic Sarri system, with Providel in goal and a backline of Hisai, Romagnoli, Ciasale and Marisic. They are the midfield three of Luis Alberto, Cataldi and Milinkovic-Savic, and the front three of Zakkanji, Ciro, Ammobile and Anderson.

On the other hand, Atalanta start in a 3-5-2 formation, with Juan Musso on goal, a backline of Toloi, Jim City and Scalvini. Hattabur out on the right with Zappa Costa out on the left, Ederson, Cope Miners and Dahome forming the midfield three, with Adam Ola-Lukman and Hoylund up front. Now in the 16th minute there was a big miss by Ciro Ammobile as he skied the ball after taking the ball off Sergei Milinkovic-Savic who was clean through on goal.

I think it was the right decision for Ammobile, had he scored. I mean it would have been great but it was a bad miss. At the end of the day it was him against the goalkeeper, nothing and nobody around him and he absolutely skied it. In the 20th minute a full stretch save onto the crossbar by Providel is what kept Lazio in the game momentarily after Lukman's long-range attempt took a bubble on its way. The commentator absolutely lost his shit to this save.

Over three minutes later Zappa Costa managed to open the scoring after returning from injury. Maricic tackled Lukman inside Lazio's area, the ball fell perfectly to the right foot of Davide Zappa Costa who curled it into the top corner from just inside the area.

Just before the break in the 42nd minute Gyms City's poor clearance fell to the dangerous Zaccani who went for a goal from just outside the area but Mussau pulled off a wonderful one-hand save and once again the commentator lost his mind. Shortly after the break in Ammobile missed another sitter, this time it was saved by Mussau who had a very good performance.

Moments later Hoyland broke through Lazio's last line of defence with some serious power and pace but Providel denied him what would have been one of the goals of the season thus far. His run was immaculate, the way he just knocked the ball past two defenders, one of them was Luis Alberto and the other was Hisa. The way he just charged past both of them, I mean I would have bet my house that he wasn't going to get to it but the guy is looking more and more like Hoyland every single game.

In the 65th minute it was Hoyland and Enn who scored, Lazari lost the ball in the build-up and this led to Lukman squaring the ball to Hoyland who finished into an empty net on the slide to score his fifth goal of the season. But the game georgios Calvini and Martin De Hoene were booked so they will miss the lettre game whilst Hattieber was also carried off in agony after seeming to sprain his ankle.

It was a tight affair, Lazio had 63% ball possession, they had 7 shots and 5 of them were on target, Atalanta had 37% ball possession but they had 16 shots and 10 on target. It's a very different approach to how we normally see Atalanta, we've seen them control possession more nowadays but more of the old Atalanta's what we saw in this game.

I think they're just showing that they can do both, they give up possession no problem and they will out shoot you, they will out score you anyway without having, without controlling the ball. You talked about that Hoyland sprint, now this is interesting, he clocked 33.6 km per hour on that sprint. One of the fastest yes but not in the top 5 fastest sprints of this week, of this match today. So ahead of him is David Ezeh Pacosta with 33.62 just a little bit faster. No wonder he was in agony.

Kingsley Ezebui, the guy who keeps fucking showing up and we don't know how to pronounce his name. Ezebui. Ezebui, Udinese's man. Denzel, downfries Federico Chiesa and the fastest of the lot this match today was Wilfred Singo with 33.93 km per hour. It was the turn of pace for Hoyland, that's what it was. Both defenders were flat footed and the way he exposed that was miraculous but it was a good save by Providel, two outstanding goalkeeping performances it has to be said.

But I'm very impressed by Atalanta despite their previous loss to Sassuolo and the suspensions that they had coming into this game as well. They now gained serious ground, level on points with both Milan and Roma after Roma's draw to Lecce. Atalanta are certainly there, we have discussed before that they have less fixtures than the other teams competing for that Champions League spot, they do not play in Europe, they do not play in the Copa.

And they have a relatively deep squad, they have good replacements, adequate players coming off the bench. You see this game for example they brought on Zapata who has scored double figures in the season for many seasons in a row, they brought on Demiral who is a highly rated defender, they brought on Jeremy Boga who has been on super form this season and was one of the key players for Sassuolo and Palomino who is a very good centre back as well. These guys are fucking great.

Plus you look at the starting XI as well, the talent they have, Koup Miner is incredible, but Hoiland man, every single game he is showing us something new. Yep, he is getting better and better, he is just adapting more and more to the league and more and more to the system Gasparini has in place. It sounds like Gasparini has one system in place and just a plug and play kind of thing, what, 3-5-2, 3-4-3, 3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1, if it has three at the back he has tried it and he is mastered.

He is all about the three etc. He must be, Atalanta must be so difficult to prepare for, it's like what approach are they going to take in this game? And they all overlap, you never see them keeping their position, they are always moving around. Now coming into this, I thought Lazio would have the upper hand, we've seen them be very effective this season, they are on a bad run of form at the moment.

You look at this fixture historically, Lazio have now won only two, however, of their last 12 Serie A meetings against Atalanta, they drew five and they lost five. Although one of them was earlier this season, right, because they won two another way from home earlier this season, but their last Serie A win at the Olympico against Atalanta was back on January 15th 2017, it was a 2-1 thanks to goals by, you guessed it, Milinkovic Savic and Demobile.

So historically it is Atalanta's fixture but I don't know if I were to compare both sides this season as much as I really rate Atalanta, Lazio at their best are just a scary side to play against, man. They have the potential to dismantle you, it's true, and they do have a few nice pieces in that team. However, I think that there are certain weaknesses in this Lazio team, obvious weaknesses, and the same can't be said about Atalanta.

I can't look at this Atalanta starting 11 and point out an obvious weakness because everyone is very capable and they excel in their position. You look at, for example, Lazio, you see the full backs are Hesay and Maricic, those are two massive weaknesses. You look at the Regista, the guy controlling the play, it's Cataldi. Granted, he's a homegrown player, loves the club, but at the end of the day he's not going to cut it. He's significantly worse than Lucas Leyva and he wasn't even that good.

That's true. Plus, let's not even address the consistency issues. You have Luis Alberto coming in and out of the squad complaining saying, they bought a new plane but they haven't paid our salaries yet. And saying all that shit publicly and then he disappears for 10 games and he comes back and he scores. You have Anderson sometimes playing like fucking, what was his name, the Brazilian guy, Garrincha. Sometimes he looks like Garrincha, dude. Sometimes he looks like fucking, I don't know man.

They do have very streaky players. Robagnoli, for example, is another very streaky player. They have the wing backs like you said, Hesay and Maricic, Luis Alberto as well. They do have a very streaky side. It's their second season under Maurizio Sarri. This is normally when shit starts ticking for Maurizio Sarri's teams, but apparently it's still not enough. We have pointed out that the signings that Sarri has to make are with a very tight budget.

Lazio do have a very tight budget to their names. So the signings that they had to make, I mean players on a free, players from Hellas Verona, so it's not an easy job being their manager. But as long as they win some games 4-0, right? Must be fine for Lazio fans. They must be happy. So congratulations. Lotito, man. Lotito is very stingy when it comes to Lazio. A very frustrating guy to have on the helm of your team, man. And it seems like he's been spending a lot of money on his clothes lately.

Did you see his hat? I didn't. He looks old, bro. Like about to, you know. Oh, God. And he was just dressed in like a coat and this fucking massive hat. It's almost like the outfit was a distraction from how old he is, but it wasn't a good one because it just highlighted his face. Did he look like that character? The Emperor? Jack Horseman? Which one? He was trying to pretend to be an adult. He looked like the opposite of that. So those were three kids on each other.

It was, but the outfit is hilarious. The outfit is exactly like that. It's like Chancellor Palpatine from Star Wars wearing that outfit. Maybe it's not the worst thing in the world for Lazio fans to see. Some new ownership coming in over Lotito. But subsequently because of that, Lazio are in sixth place on 39 points. On the other hand, Atalanta are now in third, level on points with Roma and Milan in fourth and fifth. The next game we're going to be covering is Milan 1-Torino 0.

Now as you know, Torino won their previous two meetings against Milan in all competitions. Of course, this includes the Coppa Italia knockout and the reverse fixture. The last time they defeated the Rossoneri three times in a row was in 1968. It was two Coppa Italia quarterfinals and one Serie A game. So Milan were like, oh, another record. Shall we break it? Worst ever month when it comes to conceding goals. Perhaps we should add this one to the tally as well.

The previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Torino. Of course, the goals came through Gigi and Mirancuk and Macias got one back for Milan. Oh wow, I was certain they were two 1-0s. I think the Coppa one exactly was a 1-0 next time and the other one was a 2-0. I remember the game now. For some reason I thought it was a 2-0. It's okay. I think you mentioned it. It's fine. It's fine. Tata Rusano was in goal for Milan. It was Cao, Kier and Calullo at the back.

Milan of course opting for another three at the back formation. It was a 3-4-2-1 this time. Theo Hernandez was on the left. Salah Makars was on the right. Tonali and Krenic in the middle with Giroud playing in between Liao and Ibrahim Diaz. For Torino it was a 3-4-2-1 formation, basically mirroring each other over here. Milinkovic-Savic was in goal. Gigi, Schuers and Buongiorno were at the back. Singo on the right with Ricardo Rodriguez on the left.

Debutante Genetis was in the middle with Adopo. Miran Shokan Vlasic playing behind Sanabria. The goal came in the 62nd minute when Theo Hernandez was given a little bit too much space and by a little bit I mean a lot. They should have pressed him. They probably showed a lack of respect because of the terrible form he had. Probably. And to be honest this was the only chance. He gives Theo too much time and he's going to play a perfect ball into the box.

And he did and he played it to the head of Olivier Giroud, one of the best headers in the game and he converted. And that was enough for Milan. Milan won the game with 47% ball possession, three shots on target to Torino's 4. For you, was this a positive game for Milan? So it has to be considered a positive game because Milan got three points and they kept a clean sheet in a new system. Now the performance wasn't great. The performance wasn't great. And is that so much of a problem?

I mean it's not ideal but after Milan got that goal they looked much better. From the 62nd minute onwards it was all Milan. In the build up to that it was rocky, it was shaky, it was against that team that got the better of Milan twice. That must have played in the minds of all the Milan players and the entire Milan camp. Totally new system for Milan. But they managed to keep a clean sheet. They managed to get the three points and they even followed up with a victory against Spurs after that.

So you just need to get three points and then form will follow. And that's exactly what Milan did over here. Perfect bro. I agree completely. Milan just had to get a win and I was surprised that Milan even managed to clean sheet alongside the win. And you look at the defense and you wonder what's different, that Arizona looks decent. Maybe it's the fact that he doesn't have Tomori screaming at him every three seconds. I'm sure that stuff kind of affects either game.

Imagine working with a colleague who's constantly criticizing you and shouting at you, you're going to perform worse than if you have Kier in front of you clapping and tapping you on the back. Yeah, no, no, 100%. But I think an even bigger factor to that is the three at the back for Milan. I mean, Tata had a decent game against Inter, he had a decent game against Torino and he had a decent game against Spurs. And those all took place when they had three at the back.

I mean, previously Milan were conceding from every shot. Why? When Tomori is out injured, Kalulu is off form and you have Kier and Gabia or Kier and Kalulu, it's simply not enough. Now there's always an extra body at the back. And at least that person is putting pressure on the person taking the strike and therefore the strike is a bit easier for Tata Rossano to save. But he has been having good performances. Yes. Tata, he's had three good games in a row now.

Maybe it has something to do with Tomori, but I think this three at the back system is turning out to be a good decision by Piolli. Yes. He turned it around, thankfully. And before it didn't seem like it was the right time for Milan to try out a three at the back. Why? Because Kier is off his game, Gabia isn't great. Gabia's Gabia, Kalulu was off. We didn't know anything about Chau. We didn't know anything about Chau. Tomori is injured. But we play with a, well Milan play with a treco artista.

Milan play with a treco artista as well. But Malik Chau has come in and changed everything in that back line. He really, really has because of his physicality, because of his maturity in his young age, his size, his tackling, his work rate, his energy. To ping a ball, bro. He pings balls forward like a playmaker. He's very good at this guy. Really good player. Malik Chau, and it has to be said, the tactical switch was necessary.

Tonali said in an interview recently, he said, when every shot you face destroys you, it's important to basically have more rows between the keeper and the ball, basically. That's what you said last night. He's absolutely right. You need to tighten up defensively to stop conceding these goals. You concede one, then three minutes later you concede another one because you're shell shocked. That kind of has stopped now with the straight at the back formation.

And it's getting the most out of certain players like Salah Makars, excels in the right wingback. Wow. 100%. He's so good in that position. 100%. And I don't think it's good news for Calabria. No, not at all. If Milan keep the system, because we saw Junior Messias replacing Salah Makars later on in the Spurs game. He put in a good shift as well. He was good, bro. He intercepted so many passes with a slight tackle. You notice at the end of the game. Yes. Yeah, man. That was a good game.

And you know, Giroud and Kier, man, they were so good against Spurs as well. You can really count on these experienced players in these big games. Everyone, Kier, why is Kier starting? Play, play, Xiao, Tomori, Kalulu. Are you crazy? Are you actually insane? You're going to put a 25 year old as your defensive leader at the back. You need a guy to fucking instill confidence and calmness. At least while the system is still being implemented.

Because once the players have got the system nailed down, sure, maybe Kier will get phased out and maybe it will be Xiao, Kalulu and Tomori. But at least the guidance of Kier has gotten them to the place that they need to be in order to be able to perform in that back three. And I think that's what Piole is going for with that. Also, that being said, I believe that Milan trying this out and Milan getting success with this, it just gives them this sense of unpredictability.

Now imagine the next team they face. Monza for example, they prepare for a 3-4-3 formation and Milan hit them with the 3-5-2 or Milan hit them with the 4-3-2-1 or Milan hit them with the 4-3-3. It just adds so much to Milan's game. But I do think that it's here to stay, man. For now, yes. And even Piole has said, and I think going forward, yes, this will be the system. And you know what? Offensively against Spurs, it didn't look bad at all.

When Brahim Diaz has proven to be kind of a big game player and then these big games he does show up. Liao against Spurs came back to life. Which goes to show that worries me a bit. Is it complacency? Or is it just that the stage is so big that you can't help but play better? Look, at times we use the word complacency. And it would seem like complacency coming from players like Liao. But could it simply be demotivation? Could it be the players aren't confident?

Could it be the players are in a bad headspace? It's that rather than complacency, I would say. Because the second you change the system, you get some success and you start seeing players take again. It's a confidence thing. 100% it's a confidence thing. And sometimes, sure, when you're not confident, you tend to get laxadaisical. You tend to give a fuck a little bit less. But now the players are revitalized. They're hungry again. That being said, I think two points I want to make.

Number one, Brahim Diaz. This is by far the best season that Brahim Diaz is having in a Milan shirt. And he was still being criticized by every single Milan fan I know was criticizing Brahim Diaz, even when he's at the best that he's ever been at Milan. And now suddenly people are talking about redeeming him for 20 million from Real Madrid. Now is it going to happen? Probably not because we have invested 40 million in Decate Lare. And it's probably knowing Maldini and knowing Massara.

I don't think that's going to happen. Second point I want to make is still Milan are in desperate need of an attacker. Still. I know that Giroud had a great game. He had a great work ethic. If I have one point of criticism to Giroud is his controlling of the ball outside of the box has been rubbish. The flick-ons? The flick-ons have been okay.

But once you give him a direct ball and he's just outside the box with his back towards goal, if he takes a touch, unless he flicks it on, the ball goes wayward. His control isn't what it used to be. He's a 36 year old man playing pretty much 90 minutes a week. He's playing too much and that's not exactly his fault. They can't blame him too much for that. But I have noticed.

And I think that is where, because if Milan are going to stick with the 3-5-2, then suddenly they have an abundance of talent on the right-hand side. Whereas before there was no talent on the right-hand side. Now Milan have an abundance of it. But now it's time to start talking about a striker. And you know, Rigi's back. Maybe he'll adapt to this. Maybe he'll be able to help Giroud out a bit. Zlatan is back.

So yeah, things are looking good for Milan, especially heading towards the return leg in the Champions League against Spurs. They will have recovered Tomori, Mannyan, Benassir. Zlatan will be properly back as well. These are good things for Spurs. However, it will also improve as they only had two available midfielders in their team against Milan. And it must be said that Milan did play a depleted Spurs side. But this was probably exactly what Milan needed to build up confidence.

That's two 1-0 victories on the trot for Milan. As they start to recline, they currently sit in fifth with 41 points, while… I didn't highlight them, bro. Torino. Torino, yeah. There they are. Torino sit in seventh with 30 points. Now Torino are tied with Udinese on points. It's a juicy, juicy, juicy one. Ah, Torino have been climbing. I think they were terrible against Milan.

I genuinely think that part of the reason Milan managed to get away with three points is because Torino were shambolic in this game. They really didn't offer anything going forward and their midfield was a bit shaky. They were decent at the back. Defensively, they were sound. Defensively, they were good. In fact, it took a Juru header to score from Mateo Cross. But really offered nothing in the midfield area. They'll be very disappointed.

And that probably has to do something with Adopo and Ginetis starting the game, obviously, with Ricci being out, so on and so forth. It would have been a difficult affair for Torino to keep up in that department. The next game we're going to be covering is Lecce 1-1 Roma. The previous encounter was a victory for Roma, two goals to one. Roma had barely scraped that 2-1 victory despite Lecce having Morten Huleman sent off after just 23 minutes, if you recall.

Mourinho was still without Spinazzola, while Zanjola was sold to Galatasaray last week, whilst the hosts missed Yousef Malle, Castriot Dermacu and Marin Pongracic. Lecce started off in a 4-3-3 formation with Falcone and Goal, what a performance by him. A backline of Gallo, Umtiti, Basquerotto and Jean-Drey. Gonzalez, Huleman and Blin formed the midfield tree, and the Frenchers scores out on the left, Streffetz out on the right and Colombo up front. Such a consistent 11, eh?

They barely ever have anyone out. It is, they're a very systematic team nowadays. In fact, I have a point to make later on comparing them to Roma, but I'll save that for later. Roma lined up in a 3-4-2-1 formation with Rui Patricio on goal, a backline of Montrini, Smalling and de Baniers. Szalewski out on the right, El Sharawi out on the left with Cristante and Matich in the midfield. De Bala and Pellegrini played off of the shoulders of Tammy Abraham.

So in the seventh minute, Lecce opened the scoring. It was a Streffetz across that seemed to be headed in by the formidable Basquerotto, who even claimed the goal, but the ball took quite a significant deflection of Roger Rebañez and was deemed an own goal. Did you see the conversation that he had on Twitter or on Instagram? I did, it was Lugaceta de la Sport. He basically told him, it was like, El mio goal. El goal, El mio. El goal, El mio. The goal is mine. And he put a crying face.

Like he really wanted that goal. Like, bro, you've scored enough. He has scored enough, but obviously, you know, the more the merrier for the formidable. He's so lit, bro. He's so good. He's so good. Seven minutes later, in the 14th minute, De Bala converted a penalty. It was Streffetz who gave away the penalty after blatantly sticking out an arm to deny a dangerous ball to Tammy Abraham. De Bala stepped up and sent Falcone the wrong way with a perfect penalty.

Later on, then throughout the game, Falcone was just on fire. He produced three fantastic saves on Tammy Abraham, who looked lit in this game, but Falcone just kept denying him and denying him. He is a true protagonist in earning this point for Lecce. 100% Tammy Abraham, dude, with the silky legs, dude, with the moves, huh? The fucking tekkers, dude. He's the sauciest scarecrow ever, dude. Like, he's six foot five, six foot, what is it? I think it's like six foot four. Six four, six five.

Six four, six five. Even the bro, he's got legs on him and like he can change pace very quickly, change direction very quickly. He does that thing, you know, where you knock the ball from one leg to the other. So good, man. So good. Yeah. He looks like a FIFA street kind of player, you know, with those long legs on and close ball control. It's crazy again, how we started off the season really criticizing his performances. And so he was low on confidence. He was, he looks awful.

It's crazy how not only does confidence improve your ability to score and your belief when it comes to scoring, but dude, every single aspect of his game has improved massively. I would say like 50% of a footballer's ability is confidence. Oh, 100%. 100%. That's why confidence is so important.

You can never go into, like I was seeing, I believe Mike Tyson speak recently and he said, how could I have been one of the best boxers that has ever been if I had a single doubt in my mind that my opponent was going to beat me? You know, when you get anxious, we've all been anxious before and we tend to freeze for a split second. Imagine freezing for a split second or even a tenth of a second on the world's largest stages. You'll fumble it. You'll fumble it.

Players, the second they start lacking confidence, you can see it in their game. There is absolutely no hiding it. And we saw it in Tammy. Now we're seeing his confidence back and hopefully for him, he managed to keep it up. Falcone, however, bro, what a fucking performance by him. He's a very, very, very good goalkeeper and I'm wondering how old he is nowadays. He's 27 years old. He's 27. Good age for a goalkeeper.

I think it's, well, he'll probably be in Serie A with Lecce next year, which is a good place to stay for him. I was expecting Sampdoria to keep him because when he benched Audero last season, he was significantly better than Audero and we were hyped about him. We'll see him even if God forbid, Lecce go down. God forbid. I mean, I don't predict it to happen. We'll see him stay in Serie A. He is one of the brightest goalkeepers in Serie A, man. Yeah, definitely.

And at the tender age of 27 as well. In this game, I don't think Roma did many things wrong. I think they were unlucky, dude. I mean, what they did wrong isn't what they did wrong in this game, but it's been a bit of a theme. They struggled to get goals from open play and once again, they did so in this game. You look at the attempts. It's all just Falcone, Falcone. What can you do about that? You can create the chances. Tammy's shifting, taking it.

Di Balla crossing the ball and Tammy with the header, he saves it again. Scuffle in the middle, boom, Falcone is on it. What can you do? What can you do? And Lecce were super tight defensively. They just had a, and Lecce always have this, they are a shape. They are a shape that keeps on shifting, but the shift is consistent. The players always have the same amount of distance between them.

It's like everyone knows when to press, when to hold back, when to man mark, when to cover the spaces, when to go for an interception, when not to. They are such a mature side. And I really do believe that in this game, Lecce out Roma drama. They had such a similar approach to Roma in this game where they held the ball. They kept men back. You give up possession. Exactly. And then when given an opportunity from a set play, they capitalize from it.

They were literally a photocopy of Roma in this game. It's true. They played it very intelligently and I really like what Marco Barone is doing over there. Very exciting manager, great stuff. It has to be said, bro, I have drawn comparisons. Lorenzo Pellegrini, Alberto Aquiliani. Do you remember Aquiliani? Of course I remember. Do you remember how sometimes he was scoring rabonas and creating these crazy plays and shooting from long distance with this technique?

And then he'd randomly suck for long periods of time. That's Pellegrini. Right now, not only does he look bad, because let's be real, he looks bad, but he looks like he has lost a little bit of that spark that he had. He looks like he isn't bothered to complete the action in the purest form of what he's meant to actually do. There was a point, it was three players on the break and Pellegrini just lets fly high and wide.

You see the ball and Abraham, they're looking at him like, what the hell are you doing right now? It's frustrating. It is frustrating. I think he's one of the most gifted midfielders in the league. Earlier this season, I was saying he's better than Barela because he was on a great run of form, which was very consistent back then because he had a great season last season, a great season before that. But now it seems like he's taken a bit of a dip, particularly his output.

I still think he's a fantastic player. His decision making has been incredibly off and I think that is the area of criticism. Whether it's him being slightly too selfish, not slightly, he's been a bit too selfish. However, and then in dead ball situations, he is key for the Sorama team. That's the reason he's there, man. That's the reason he's there because Mourinho always masters the dead ball situations, even in Spurs till I die, the series that we're currently watching.

They had that nailed down. They had their set plays absolutely nailed down and you see him talk about it in the dressing room as well. That's why he's in the team. That's why Pellegrini is in the team. In fact, I saw an article that was posted 11 hours ago. Mourinho literally said that Pellegrini is crucial to the way I play. He might be dropping these disaster classes.

He might look terrible in open play, but as you have ever so correctly said, Pellegrini is the man on these dead ball situations that lead to the majority of Roma schools. There was a player in the Premier League once, I can't remember the name of the team, man. Shit, they weren't a great team, but they had a gentleman named Rory de Lap. Was it Watford? I don't think so. I think it was either Southampton. Bowden? No, no, no. But that this gentleman named Rory motherfucking de Lap.

You know what this guy had? An incredible throw in. An incredible throw in. Every time. You're a football player and that's your main trait. Anytime there was, there's a video on YouTube, you can look it up. Every time they get a throw in anywhere close to the opposition area, the fans start celebrating. It's like it's a corner. It's like a free kick in a dangerous area. Just hoofs the ball in and he always finds someone.

When he retired or he left or whatever happened, they signed another guy with a wicked throw. Rubbish footballer, rubbish footballer. But that's how they'd get their goals. They would fucking put 10 men at the back for the entire game and they would survive and they would get their goals because of the throw ins, because of the throw in scenarios. And it's a bit of an exaggeration to what Mourinho is doing at Roma. But from the dead ball situations, you can draw comparison.

He used to play with Stoke City, Sunderland, Derby. Stoke is the team that I was referring to. And then he had left and they got, oh, it could have been Stoke. But it was Stoke. And they signed a direct replacement for him. Rory the lap. Rory the lap. Little Easter egg in our podcast. Coming into this fixture, Lecce were one of three Italian teams that Mourinho had a 100% win rate against. The other two teams are Empoli and Siena. So now it is just Empoli and Siena.

And also on this topic of set pieces, Roma have scored the highest percentage of their goals from set pieces in the current Serie A season, a 43%. While on the other hand, Lecce have conceded 42% of their goals from set pieces, the most of any side in Serie A, which is quite surprising considering they have Basquerotta and Umtiti at the back. Yeah, that's totally true, bro. But Roma sit in fourth place now on 41 points, leveled with third place Atalanta and fifth place AC Milan.

Lecce are in 13th place on 24 points, leveled with 14th place Fiorentina and 15th place San Suono. Wow, wow Fiorentina, I'm 14th. Yeah, well honestly, they're having a dreadful season. Speaking of, Juventus won Fiorentina nil. The reverse fixture was a 1-1 draw. And looking at these teams, you look at the last five games that they played before this one, Juventus had won just one of them.

As Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri has seven wins in seven home Serie A games against Fiorentina against no other side. I say I have more. Sorry, I learned how to read yesterday. Fiorentina hate Juve so much. So they've lost. Let's just go through it off the top of our heads. Okay, there's Chiesa, there's Vlaović, there's Quadrado, there's Baggio, of course, that's the biggest one of them. That was the start of Bernardeschi.

Bernardeschi, they just take their stars and they keep sending them to them. I guess money talks. You ain't got none. Or discussion. Yeah. And as you can see, as I will say very soon, Fiorentina started Christine Kwame up front this game, which is weird because they have Jovovich and Cabral, who are two very dependable strikers in theory.

But apparently I saw the stat, Juve are the side against which Christian Kwame has been involved in the most goals in Serie A. He has two goals and two assists against Juventus. So yeah, he probably saw those stats at Alianza and was like, Kwame, you're up front this game. Exactly. Exactly. Juventus lined up with a 3-4-2-1 formation with Cezny in goal. Sandro, Bremer and Darnilo at the back with Kostić on the left and De Cilje on the right. Rabio and Locatelli played in the middle.

Vladovic was up front with Chiesa and Di Maria playing off his shoulders. Terracciano was in the back, at the back, not in the back of your girlfriend, for Fiorentina as they lined up for the 4-3-3 formation, the usual Italiano system. Dodo was on the right, Baraghi on the left with Ranieri and Milinkovic at the back. Milinkovic, as clumsy as ever. Bonaventura, Amrabat and Duncan were in midfield with Nico Gonzalez on the right. Jonathan Iconi on the left and Kwame up front as the lone striker.

Now in the 34th minute the ball fell to Di Maria who was in the box, kind of slightly to the right, in a shooting position. Instead of shooting he played a clever curling ball over the top, curling outwards towards the head of Rabio who headed it powerfully and at first it looked like a brilliant Terracciano save. I don't know what to say from close range.

But turns out he was just late to raise his arms to the Terraccianos, the ball had crossed the line ever so slightly and that was a goal for Juve and that would prove to be enough to win the game. But there was drama and there were two of the closest offside calls I have ever seen in my life in one game. Vlaović was played through brilliantly by Di Maria in the second half and got the perfect slightest amount of elevation on the ball, acutely chipping Terracciano.

Now when you look at the way Vlaović finishes these one on ones, if the goalie comes out he's going to dink it ever so slightly over your most extended limit. And that's what he does every single time and it's incredible how good he is with these angles. If any of you have ever played League of Legends you would be a well-caused player. I just nerded out right there. Thanks Black Comparison King, I really get it now. That's who Vlaović is, he's Velcro.

We have Dortmund, Chelsea on and Rhys James got a bunda as well. Ok there we go, we can join the Onana family. So he chipped Terracciano, he didn't celebrate, he put his arms up as many people thought he would. It went to VAR and he had once again his forehead was offside and his shoulder and the top of his head from the way he was running. Close call, at the end of the day do I agree that that's offside?

Yes. Finally, finally, finally when it comes to refereeing in football, in Italian football there's a little bit of consistency. I like the fact that offsides are objective nowadays, I like the fact that there's a metric, I like the fact that it's black or white. That they're not objective rather. That they are objective, they're not subjective to the referees opinions. Ah subject to the offside, ok ok I got confused.

I totally agree with you, we've been crying, we've been crying for consistency. The second you leave it up to interpretation that's when there's inconsistency. So the fact that a computer is looking after it now, I'm a big fan of that. Lucky, very unlucky, harsh, very harsh, but it's the truth.

Yes it is and the fact that there is consistency makes it feel like in this case Juventus weren't robbed and neither were Fiorentina because at the end of the game Saponara crossed the ball and there was an overhead kick clearance and the ball came to Castrovilli, like where has he been this whole time, but he's there, he's there and he shoots and he scores and there's crazy scenes they manage to equalise at the end, but during when the defender bicycle

kicked the ball away, the offensive player had his back heel ever so slightly offside, I'm talking like two centimetres even, like it was the closest offside I've ever seen in my life, but you know what once again there's a metric, it's consistent, it's fair.

Exactly, no and I couldn't agree with you more, just to make sure on the same page, his heel was offside when the ball left the foot of Castrovilli, which is why it was offside and obviously he was behind the last defender, his heel was behind the last defender and he was somewhat interfering with play.

Now that is when there is a slight grey area because when are players interfering with play, when aren't they, at this point it just seems to be, if there's a player in an offside position when the ball hits the back of the net then it's not a fucking goal. Well to be fair the defender was forced into an overhead kick clearance while he was tussling this offensive player, so I guess that makes sense.

Yes, Allegri was saved by VAR in the same way that Dusan Vlavic fell victim to that same semi-automated technology. Crazy. Very true. Do you hear what I'm saying? No, the way you said it it's like you were uncertain of what you were saying. I wasn't sure, to be honest, I hesitated between semi-automated and semi-automatic. Which one is it? Semi-automatic or semi-automated? They mean the same thing. They do mean the same thing. It is automated and it is automatic.

But I get what you mean, it is the same thing that Bitjuve and Iass ended up biting Fiorentina and Iass and saving Juve from dropping points and Juve managed to get away with a good three points considering the situation that they're in and Fiorentina once again getting nothing out of this game. Grinding out a 1-0 win is not something that people probably expected coming into this game looking at the attacking trio that Allegri rolled out over here, it was Vlavic, Chiesa and Di Maria.

This is what we'll be seeing more of. This is why he signed Di Maria. And these three guys, they make Juve worth watching. Despite the negative tactics, despite the slow pace, the tempo, the killing the game of these guys make it worth it. Particularly for me, Di Maria, he is a football pure sweat dream.

I'm not going to lie, last season and the season before, I would choose watching most games over any Juve game unless obviously it was against one of the top seven teams or the derby against Torino. Most of the times I love to watch another game because Juve, I found them not to be exciting. Now, just simply because of Di Maria and I love Chiesa, I love Vlavic, but Di Maria, being able to watch that guy every week is a joy, man. An absolute joy.

He's one of the brightest talents in the world and we all thought he was washed up. Still the same old Di Maria, still the same old Di Maria, man. That's it, bro. The exact same guy. Allegri got into a fight with a fan. Really? Yes. A fan apparently was insulting Keane. I can only imagine what was being said. And there's footage of Allegri literally pointing at this fan in the face, like screaming at him, maintaining eye contact the whole time. Good to see.

These little victories when it comes to homophobia and racism, they're always good. Maybe Bonucci on the bench should have taken some notes. No? Yeah. You should have told Allegri to sit down. The last time Moïse Keane was racially abused, Bonucci criticized Moïse Keane. He said, I think the blame is 50-50. Like are you joking right now? Out of your mind. You have to be out of your mind. But at least Allegri had, obviously, like most other humans had the right...

Right approach to that, defending his player. Definitely bro. So this very narrow, dramatic victory for Juventus has shot them up to ninth place with 29 points, while this Fiorentina loss leaves them in 14th with 24 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Odinese 2, Sassuolo 2. The previous encounter was a 3-1 away victory for Odinese back when they were lit. Sassuolo arrived at this game after wins against Milan and Atalanta, completely turning things around.

It was Odinese that lined up in a 3-5-1-1 formation with Silvestri in goal, a backline of Neuenpeires, Bijole and Becquo. They had Odoggi out on the left with Ezebué out on the right and a midfield three of Sandilov, Rich, Wallace and Samardzic. They had Pereira playing behind Beato. We've seen Pereira used as the right wing back, but probably Ezebué's form has allowed Pereira to go back to his usual position and that's where he's best behind the striker.

Do you prefer Sandilov, Rich or Rockylov, Rich? Who the hell is Rockylov, Rich? Rockylov, Rich. Oh my god, Sandy and Rocky, you're… I just want to make this point over here. Rocky beaches are better for a quick dip, while sandy beaches are better for a day at the beach. Yes, totally agreed actually. And if you're on a night out and you decide to get crazy and go for a dip, you want Rocky. You don't want to get your clothes all sandy. Absolutely not.

And you also don't want to spend five hours in the sun on a fucking rock, do you? To be on the comfortable sand on your towel. Whatever. Sasuala lined up in a 4-3-3 formation with concilien goal, a backline of Zortéa, Erlich, Rouen and Markitza, midfield three of Fratési, Aubiang and Henrique and a front three of Berardi, Defrel and Lauriente. In the first minute, so firstly, all the action took place in the first half.

The first goal came after just 25 seconds by Odoggi as he cut inside from the left flank and unleashed a clean strike into the bottom corner from outside the area after just 25 seconds of play. The soon to be Tottenham man coming in clutch there for Odinese. Moments later, Samardzic almost scored an own goal after a Silvestri save bounced off the German and was heading in, but Samardzic managed to clear it off the line to save himself the embarrassment.

You will see that Odinese's defending and almost scoring own goals will be a bit of a theme in this match. In the sixth minute, Henrique scored for Sassuolo making it 1-1. Odinese were unable to keep the lead as Jaka Bijol deflected Matheus Henrique's strike inside the net only six minutes later. In my opinion, this was a Bijol own goal. This was definitely a Bijol own goal.

The player shot, it was Henrique that shot, it deflected off Bijol, went the other way and Silvestri couldn't do anything because the ball completely changed direction. The commentator kept screaming that it was Silvestri's mistake. How is that Silvestri's mistake? I doubt he could see the ball and by the time he saw it, it had deflected. There's nothing much to do in those situations. This was one of those 1230 games man. It was one of those 1230 games.

It was one of those games where all the confusion and all the mistakes came in the first half when everyone seemed to still be asleep. Then in the second half after getting a scolding from their manager, no goals, nothing. Exactly, exactly. And this was six minutes in and already one goal for Odinese, an own goal and almost an own goal by Samardzic as well. And then the 12th minute, Berardi was forced off the field due to a muscular problem in his thigh, which is still being assessed.

He could potentially be back for this weekend's fixture, but they probably won't play him just to make sure that he's okay. He was replaced by new signing by Rami playing out on the right in this match. In the 25th minute, Fratezzi hit the post after connecting with Amarkitsa across on the half volley. In the 28th minute, Bijal scored after scoring what was in my opinion an own goal.

The Odinese defender made up for his previous error after Lazar Samardzic's long range free kick found the 24 year old who stretched his leg out in the middle of the box and sent the ball past Andrea Consigli, making it 2-1 to Odinese. In the 46th minute, still in the first half, new in Pérez put the ball into his own net for Odinese. Berardi's cross was knocked into the back of the net by the arm of new in Pérez whilst he was tracking back another stroke of luck for Sosuolo.

Again, the commentator was like, I think Defrel got the final touch to this. Nowhere near the ball, Defrel. Nowhere near the ball, another clear own goal. This time it was new in Pérez. Thankfully he was on my bench in Fanta. But 46% ball possession for Odinese to Lazio's 54, 13 shots for Odinese to Sosuolo's 4, 8 on goal for Odinese and 1 for Sosuolo. I can't help but feel that Sosuolo were very lucky in this game, but also with their luck Odinese were shambolic at the back.

Yes, they definitely were, but at the end of the day Sosuolo scored 2 goals with 1 shot on target. Yeah, exactly. All game, you know. And you look at fucking Odinese, they peppered the goal, they had 17 shots in total to Sosuolo's 6. So, yeah, safe to say Odinese looked like they were the team that would take home 3 points here. Perhaps Sosuolo were a little bit lucky. But yeah, it was one of those 12-30 games. Obviously Bijal was very involved here.

He had a goal and assist and kind of an own goal himself over there. The assist, because I didn't mention, was in the first goal that Odudji scored, to be honest was a simple pass by him and Odudji did the rest, but very, very involved in this game Bijal. And to be honest, although he had that moment, he had a fantastic performance, Bijal. A really, really good player, man. He is 24 years old, Slovenian national player. Very good.

Yeah. Odinese have only gathered 6 points in 2023 out of a possible 21, brother. 6 points out of a possible 21. How the hell do you explain the start they had, man? Everything was ticking, right? No pressure. All their top players were there. But nice to see Pereira back. It is good to see Pereira back. But on to your point again, how is that possible? How is it possible to have that start and then continuing the season in this manner?

They're in the position they are because of the opening 10 games that they had. And you have to look over at Andreas Otel and think what the hell is he doing wrong now? Because he did so much right. What's going wrong now? What do you think it is? So I think it's the fact that they have been on quite a negative spell of results for a while. Of course, it's the mental aspect of it. I highly doubt that that helps. Their last 5 games, they have one victory, for example.

Slowly, slowly, their goal difference is going lower and lower and lower and lower. Yeah, I think it's just that. Top players had a little bit of an attitude problem as we discussed. They lost a leader in the back in Bram Neutink, who do not underestimate how good he is and what a vocal leader he is. He improved Sampdoria greatly with his presence at the back. They sold their best player. He's still playing there with Audrey, but he's gone. He's off to Spurs.

They tried to offload de Oliveira, but an injury stopped them from leaving. Beto Stricchi. Beto Stricchi. Pereira was kind of in and out. Some are still growing. That's it. What remains in you? What kind of belief? What remains in you is a direct Maltese translation, Shipp Afiq. Shipp Afiq? Shipp Afiq. It's like, how do you tolerate as a football player? How are you expected to give your best when the club is working against you, trying to sell the key pieces?

At the beginning of the season, they believed. They believed maybe we can make Europe. We have all these guys who are performing well. Suddenly they started getting frustrated with the guys who aren't as good. All of a sudden, everyone's for sale. Boom. Give us enough money, we'll sell you. Maybe we'll take a bit off of Dinez and improve Watford a bit. Exactly. The Pozzo family. Exactly. The Pozzo family. That's the point I was going to make.

That Udinese are not a club set up for victory, much like Sassuolo. These are two very, very good and effective groups of losers. Because not the players. I'm not talking about the players. I'm talking about the clubs. They're businesses and that is all there is to it. Udinese and Sassuolo are not set up to win titles. They are set up to make money for their owners. It's as simple as that.

And it's sad because you see Udinese, they're one of the only teams in Italy who actually own their stadium. There's the foundation there to build something good. It's a shame that. Well, we'll see. We'll see what they do with the money they brought in. They could still make Europe as well. They're still fine. They're still fine. I mean, if you had to tell me that they'd be here. What six points in front of one ridiculous man. Yes, it's true. But thankfully they had that start to balance it out.

Now we'll see where they go from here. If you had to tell me at the beginning of the season that Udinese would be in this position, I'd be like, ah, good season. So yeah, I guess maybe we are being a little bit melodramatic. Would Sassuolo regret letting go of Hamatra or Renault that Berardi is injured once again? I mean, he should be back soon, but at the end of the day, Berardi, he has five goals and three assists in 15 appearances, which is great. But he's been struggling with injuries.

He's already missed 12 games for the Nero Verde this season. He suffered a bicep femoris muscle injury at the beginning of the season where he remained out of action for seven matches. He then had a thigh problem that kept him out for another five matches. And now he's injured again. Thankfully for them, they signed by Rami. He can either play as a number 10 or he can play out on the right. And I'm guessing now they're going to need to utilize him out on the right.

But you know, when you look at the successful Sassuolo side of, what was his name again? Fucking... De Zerbi. De Zerbi, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I love you, De Zerbi. They played one of the most dangerous things about that team was the Czechos. Was it De Zerbi's and the De Francesco's as well? He had Juricic. Yes, exactly. De Zerbi. And that was a pivotal player for his system.

So I wouldn't be surprised if maybe Sassuolo try something out where you play a 4-3-1-2 formation, 4-3-2-1 formation with Laurente and by Rami behind the striker, Penamonti or Alvarez. Exactly. So yeah, interesting stuff over here. To your point, by the way, before of Sassuolo and De Zerbi being run like businesses. You look at the difference between Sassuolo and Napoli. It is simply an infrastructural approach that changes the whole philosophy, the whole culture of the club.

The Napoli Stadium... I love this fact. Was built in a rundown part of Naples, working class people around, bang in the middle. You have peaks, you have points of houses that actually have a view of the stadium. When they play the Champions League, Napoli in there, the whole city screams the champions. The whole city, so this is the people in the stadium watching. The whole city is behind them and they're watching.

Then you look at fucking Sassuolo who are a 30-minute, 40-minute drive outside the city. Was it a one-hour drive or was it something else? Bro, we caught a train. Yeah. It's too far away from the city. Plus the fact that Sassuolo were at Mino side, of course, coming up from the depths of Serie A, so the people of the city already had someone else's support. They're all Milanisti, Interisti, Uventini. So it's just sad to see that they're not even exposed to their own stadium.

They have to fucking go out of their way to go to the stadium. Like I don't know, man. To me, football is... When I say a team's sport, I'm not only talking about the 11 men, I'm talking about the entire cities that are behind their teams. And the management. And the directors. It's a whole... Everything ticks. Like even the beauty of the Napoli Stadium is that it's built at a very low point in Naples.

And then all the buildings around it is at a higher point and the higher point and the higher point. And people can look at the stadium. Everywhere you are on the stadium, you could see the stadium from your balcony. It's just a beautiful... Obviously if you're on the top floor, it's just a beautiful, beautiful way to set things up. And that is the difference between the Napolitan football culture, that it's what they live, it's what they breathe. It's pizza and football over there.

And then on the other hand, you have Sassuolo, who are a team based in Bologna with their pitch in Modena or whatever. Emilia, if I can remember. Emilia-Romagna, whatever. But Sassuolo are picking things up again. They're in 15th place now. A couple of weeks ago, they were in 17th. They're now in 15th on 24 points, level on points with Fiorentina and Lecce. On the other hand, Udinese are in 8th on 30 points, level on points with Torino and just nine away from Europa League spot, to be fair.

And it's either them, Torino, Juve, Monza or Bologna or Empoli that are going to get the conference league spot. Tight, tight, tight. So at least there is some competition left in the league, right? Yeah. Bologna nil, Monza one. Excuse me. The previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Bologna, which saw Orsolini net the winner. Monza have only beaten Bologna once in nine matches. This one time came in 1983 on the 23rd of January and it was in Serie A, of course.

Since Thiago Mota's first league win as manager, as Bologna manager, Bologna have won seven of their 11 games in Serie A. They've drawn one and lost three. They've collected 22 points, only fewer than Napoli, Inter and Juventus in this period. So Thiago Mota has won an average of 1.53 points per match since he joined Bologna. And this is the best ratio amongst coaches with two plus games for Bologna in the three points era. So Bologna have really picked a good guy over here. 100%.

Yes. This game, Bologna-Monza, was the game between two of the three youngest coaches in Serie A. Wow. So it's Palladino and Thiago Mota. Guess who is between them in age. Vincenzo Italiano. No, good guess, but no. The younger guy. Ratatatata. Zanetti. Yes, brilliant. Very good. So, yes, Bologna lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Skorupski in goal, Liko Jannis at left back with Cambiazzo at right back, Sosa and Posch were the centre backs.

The double pivot was Schouten and Arbisher with Kyriakopoulos out on the left and Orsalini on the right, Dominguez playing behind Ferguson. For Monza, it was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Di Gregorio in goal. Marizzo, Mari and Marlon at the back with Donati out on the right, Shuri on the left, Sensi and Rovella in the middle. Donati, this was his first game, definitely this season. He's a veteran player. Pessina Caprari played behind Petania.

If you look at this team, bro, it is kind of the whole Berlusconi philosophy. There are nine Italians here. Oh, that's true. That's true. And what a team it is, Manu, look at the individuals. Wow. Really good team. I love this Monza side and I think people are really falling for them as well. Look at the YouTube views, for example, they're really increasing. People are actually watching. The goal came in the 25th minute for Monza when Petania went berserk.

He went on a crazy rampage driving towards Skorupsky, shaking off defenders, he just kept going, this guy. And I feel like he picked up so much momentum along the way that he was unstoppable. Yeah. It's like a... A prime Duvanzapata. Yeah, like a boulder just rolling down a hill. Exactly. Like you can't do, you just have to get out of the way or get fucked. Sounds so unflattering for him. That's it, dude. Get out of Petania's way or you're going to get fucked.

So Skorupsky, on the other hand, you have to be meant to... Jumped into Petania's feet, like jumped at his legs, like to try to stop him. The ball came off fucking, I don't even know, like Skorupsky's knee into Petania's fucking... No, off Skorupsky's face into Petania's knee and into the path of Giulio Donati, who finished on his first start this season into an empty net. And that goal was enough thanks to a few de Gregorio heroics over there. Classic de Gregorio. Classic de Gregorio.

And Monza managed to win with 37% ball possession. Bologna did have 63% ball possession, but despite that, Monza shot up shot quite... Shot up shot quite well and only had, in fact, Bologna only had three shots on target. Yeah. It was surprising to me, the final scoreline. Monza getting the better of Bologna away from home, especially with the form Bologna have been on. They look so, so, so good. But Monza have really turned into just a proper, like they could be a top 10 team.

You know what I mean? You look at their individuals, you look at the way they play, there's no reason they can't be there. I definitely the most impressive newly promoted side. Obviously there was an injection of cash that went in there, but also very smart signings. Yes. League proven. Exactly. When you see them, when you see the signings, for example, Premier League clubs like Nottingham Forest make, they made fucking what? 15 signings and only one played in the Premier League before.

The complete opposite of that. They made six, seven signings, all proven. Petania, Pessina, Caprari, Rovella, Sensi, Itso. These are fantastic, fantastic signings. The fact that they managed to get their fucking hands on Craniot. Their goalkeeping duo is Craniot and Di Gregorio, two top Italian goalkeepers over there. I am petrified because Milan play Monza now and I really think Monza can get something out of that game. They're a very dangerous team. There are a few rewards in how they do.

Yes, yes, because it's Milan. Milan are one of the two teams. They get rewarded for playing against. What was it again? I can't remember what Berlusconi promised. Something in great volume. Yeah, great volume, good amount. Yeah, yeah. I think it was like a vice of some sort. Something, was it drinking? No, no, no, it wasn't cigars. Ah, it was a bus full of who's. That's what it is, a bus full of who's. I always wonder at this point, would the listener be laughing or rolling his eyes?

Probably a bit of both. It's like a chuckle and these guys. These guys, I love these guys. I love recently a great listener of ours, someone that we truly appreciate. Lewis sent us a joke on Twitter, I believe it was. And after that, we posted on our stories. In fact, it was motivation for you guys to send us stuff as well. And he signed it off by big hug to Jay and them. And I found it so sweet, man. And shout out to you, Lewis, man. You're the man.

The joke for those curious was that he saw someone basically call Handanovic Stan Danovic because he never dives. That's hilarious. It's Samir Stan Danovic. I love it. I love it. But Monza as well on this point as a city, just so you know as a fun fact, they have one of the most famous circuits in F1 history. Really? Yes, of course. He's got it in Monza. He wins in Spa. He wins in Monza. I believe it is the most fast paced track in F1 alongside Silverstone, I think.

But yeah, that goes to show this is a city that is made for success within sporting. And I don't think Berlusconi would have just chosen some fucking team from Serie A. He chose a team with culture. And no wonder the Monza fans are getting into it. No wonder Monza are getting more viewers because they are a very well-oiled machine. And I know they have some low knees in with them. Ravella being one of them, Sensi being another. I really hope that they manage to redeem a lot of that.

They've got El Condor, bro. Gagliani, dude, is their fucking sporting director. Let's see if he's still got it on that motorbike, on that bicycle. Thiago Mata, of course, still doing great things with Bologna. This was merely a slip up. We'll see if they can recover from this. Monza are in 10th with 29 points, while Bologna are 11th with 29 points as well. A massive fixture this month was Monza actually jumping Bologna. Yeah, big stuff for Monza, very big stuff for Monza.

The next game we're going to be covering is Empoli 2 Spetsia 2. This was by far my favorite match this weekend. The previous encounter was a victory for Spetsia. Surprisingly, it was a 1-0 victory at home for them. Tonnelli, Destro and Grassi were still injured for Empoli, whilst Ethan Padua and Mattia Caldara sat out bans, with Bastoni, Kovalenko, Zyrkovski, Zala, Zoet and Mutigno out of action, but Giassi returned from his ban and Mbalanzola was back too, but only fit for the bench.

Empoli set up in a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Vicario on goal, a backline of Parisi, Luperto, Ismaeli and Ebwehi, a midfield three of Bandinelli, Marin and Akpa Akpro, with Bal Danzi just behind Cambiaghi and Ciccio Caputo. For Spetsia, it was a 3-5-2 formation, with Drangovski in goal and a backline of Nicolao, Amian and Wisnefski. It was Giassi out on the right, Reca out on the left, with Agudelo, Esposito and Borabja in the midfield, with new signings, Shumoridov and Verde up front.

In the 20th minute, Verde netted a penalty. It was a Spetsia corner swung in from Daniele Verde that took a deflection off the head of Wisnefski and it was cleared off the line by Fabiano Parisi's hand. VAR intervened and the referee assigned both a penalty to Spetsia and a red card to Parisi. So early on, Verde's penalty was brilliantly saved by Vicario and so was his rebound before Luperto managed to clear the ball out.

However, the referee awarded a free retake as Luperto had entered the box before Verde struck the penalty. Vicario guessed right but couldn't keep out Verde's second penalty, making it one deal to Spetsia, with Empoli down to 10 men. Vicario, I'm fed up of saying all these things. Kisses for Vicario? Kisses. Kisses, kisses, kisses for Vicario. We're posting on our stories, just freaking out. We're watching it live on TV.

We had a bet on as well, we're all freaking out over his save but then Luperto just entered the box a bit too early and then to make matters worse he cleared the ball away. So obviously it did have to be a retake. That's the only reason I think. I think that's the only reason because typically an eye is closed for players entering the box early unless they actually do something defensively.

Once the keeper saves it, and that's a different question because you bombard the box whether you're putting pressure on a striker, you're interfering with play. So that's what Luperto did and that's why it was retaken. Also bro, I understand that your reflex at the time would be to do exactly that but Parisi's fucking handball, what is he thinking?

I get it, it was probably reflexes, sure, instinctive, but nowadays there's VAR, the cameras are all over you, everyone's fucking… It's funny because barely anyone fucking realised on the pitch and neither did we and then we're like oh my god, that is the most blatant penalty I've ever seen in my life. Exactly, cleared it off the line with his fucking hand, man, with his hand.

He fucking threw the game for them over there but of course it was probably the intentions were good for the team, a little bit silly perhaps but yeah, cost them a lot. And in fact Spezia, 11 men against Empoli, 10 men, Verde had just scored and he had supreme confidence and then just 11 minutes later Verde scored an absolute screamer into the far top corner from distance that dipped viciously at the last moment, absolutely nothing Vicario could do here.

Verde had not scored since May 2022 and gladly took the yellow card for over celebrating over there. Brilliant stuff, that was our goal of the week. So they entered the dressing rooms at half time, probably Gotty was like oh my god, we're 11 men against 10, maybe I get to keep my job, guys, just don't do anything stupid, hang on, defend, we can get a victory over here, oh my god this is gonna be so good, we won't get relegated, Jesus yes I get to keep my job.

In the 49th minute it became 10 vs 10 as Esposito received his second yellow card. He was really unlucky to be fair, he was swinging to clear the ball and he made contact with Jassi who had just nicked the ball off him. They were both in sheer pain because of the contact but obviously it was a foul and Esposito was sent off so it was then 10 vs 10 and Gotty started worrying at that point.

In the 71st minute Cambiaghi pulled one back for Empoli, the Italians smashed the ball into the roof of the net after Caputo pulled the ball back from the byline making it 2-1 and then in the 93rd absolute scenes as while Empoli were piling men forward and getting men into the box, the ball fell kindly to Vignato on his debut who curled the ball into the bottom corner on the volley with his outstep. He is on loan from Bologna and what an impact to make. As a result of this, Gotty was sacked.

Do you think that is the right decision? Things were going well for Gotty at the start of the season but it seems he has plateaued since perhaps as the relegation zone is looming this might be exactly what they needed. They have brought on the relegation expert Leonardo Semplici, sorry he hasn't brought him on yet but he is heavily rumoured to be joining. He has previously coached Caliari, Spal, Pisa. Relegation teams.

His senior career was nothing to write home about, he used to play for San Gimignano. Oh I went to San Gimignano, it's a very cute little fortified city, beautiful in Florence. I've never been, in Florence, I've visited Florence, I don't think I went to San Gimignano. It's beautiful man, beautiful. I love San Gimignano, I didn't know they had a football team. Wow. He didn't play a single game for them. Okay. No appearances.

He was just manning the only entrance into the city I think at that point. Empoli had 64% ball possession to Spezia's 36, Empoli had 22 shots and 11 on target, what a performance it was by Drangowski. Spezia on the other hand 36% ball possession, they had 10 shots, 5 of which were on target.

I mean I would ask you do you think that it was a fair result, it being a draw but with two red cards coming so early on I think it was so unpredictable that any outcome would have been predictable so to say. I think Spezia were naive to let this one go, very naive and that's probably what made them consider, like we can't maintain a tune and lead against Empoli with a man up, how we're meant to put our faith in this guy to keep us up.

And it was a hard fought 2-2 and Empoli will be the one smiling here. It was as well Sousa that was linked to be joining Spezia. Yes but he's been hired. But now he's been hired. By Salernitana. By Salernitana obviously who just sucked Davide Nicola, we'll get into that very soon. The former Fiorentina manager.

But this was a proper dog fight between a team that is maybe becoming a Serie A by a team against a team that just got promoted to Serie A. A true dog fight, that is exactly what I expected to see. Did I think that had it been 11 against 11 do I think that Empoli would have run away with it? Potentially. But I think there's a debate to be had about the approach both teams would have had coming into this game and this was what we were discussing before the game even took place.

We were saying are both teams just going to settle for a single point because Spezia need points desperately and Empoli are in a good position so they'll settle for a point? Or are Spezia just gonna go out and go fucking solely for a victory and a victory is their own thing on their mind and Empoli to have the same reaction because Europe is a possibility? Yeah. I think the main objective is don't lose for Spezia. Always at this point. However this was winnable.

Spezia have lost three games in a row but they're definitely going to be disappointed not to get the most out of this one. Very disappointing for Spezia. At least they have a new manager with them. They have Verde back on form now. Empoli are in 12th place on 27 points while Spezia are in 17th on 19 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Verona 1-Salernitana 0. Now Hellas and Salernitana have met three times in Serie A with Salernitana winning twice and there was also one draw.

Each of these games has seen three or more goals scored so this was the first low scoring affair between these two sides. Hellas Verona lined up with a 3-4-2-1 formation with Monte Pongole, Coppola, Heian and Maniani at the back with Doig out on the left and De Pauli out on the right. New man Duda and Midfield alongside Tameze. Lazovic and Engonj played behind. What's his name again? One second I've got this. Adolfo. Adolfo Gaić. Adolfo Gaić.

Adolfo Gaić you might recognise him from his Benevento days. He was on loan from Bayern Munich. Now for Salernitana it was a 3-4-1-2 formation with Sepe Engole, Pirola, Truste Kong and Braun were at the back with Candreva out on the right, Brotherich on the left, Caviglia and Czernigov were in the middle. Czernigov has just arrived from Venezia. Villena was in the Czech-Whites top position with Dia and Bonazzoli playing up front.

Now in the 29th minute Engonj scored but the goal was disallowed due to him being in an offside position. Two minutes later Engonj scored again after Lazovic put him on a plate. He literally set him up so beautifully that after the game Engonj literally said I love Lazovic more than my wife. He's constantly assisting. No, he said I love him like my wife. I love him more than myself. He had a divorce over here from his quoting. This is what he said. I love him like he's my wife.

Every week he's giving me the assist. The ball was perfect for me. I just had to tap in. Lazovic I love him more than myself. What a guy. What an addition he's been. He's been so good. So good, bro. He's fucking he's perfect to finish off these chances that he really knows how to put himself in these positions

A very smart player. Yeah. Yeah, he's very dangerous out there on the right hand side as well It was the ice I was a little bit worried that they're gonna need to play either lasagna or Verdi out on the right But having someone like in gonj who came out of nowhere to be honest, but 22 years old and he's Belgian and he was previously playing in the

In the Dutch League with Groningen. Yeah, so a nice little coupe there for for Verona Yeah, the Paulie had a good chance shortly after but he skied it the DIA got the closest for Salernitana on the first half He shot the ball and it just went wide And the second half Pirola had an amazing slide tackle on Doig in the box the referee initially thought it was a foul and He gave the penalty he had to go to the VAR monitor only to realize that Pirola had timed his tackle to perfection Yep

He canceled the penalty but then a few minutes later He gave Pirola a yellow card because I think he was so gassed that he just committed a foul immediately Yeah Sambia apparently is a free kick specialist he can hit them very well and Towards the end of the game Salernitana were just having it from everywhere He had a free kick just over the the halfway line and he shot Wow Montepo saved Verona

By beating Piontek in a 1v1 at the end of the game after Vilhena unleashed him in a one-on-one situation Salernitana dominated the possession with 63% but they only managed to get two shots on target while

Verona with a measly 37% managed to get three shots on target. This is the game that saw David and Nicola get the sack and in his stead ex Fiorentina manager Susa will be coming in to take the helm Yes now this time I'm not surprised that that he got the sack because it's clearly his second chance and When you lose against a team now, albeit Verona are on great form But when you lose to a team in the bottom three, that's when shit starts to get concerning

Not only do you lose against the side that's in the bottom three But the fact that you barely put up a fight against that team the fact that you had one clear-cut chance through Piontek and otherwise it was Sambia shooting from half pitch like then it's not too hopeful and it almost now does seem like David and Nicola's spice and that unity that the Salernitana team had is slowly diminishing so now is the time to get in some fresh blood, they've onboarded Susa and hopefully for them they can

Maintain staying out of the relegation zone after that. Yes, bro. I totally agree at this point. Condreva looks tired Dia looks like he's the only one who can score Bonanzoli and Piontek need to get some goals for confidence. The system is okay You know, it was a bit rigid this game Verona did very well to defend and to close things out

They could have easily won this two goals to nil. There was a point when Duda Yeah, was literally a small penis No, he was that like a little dick a little dick but like shriveled Yeah, he had Lazović wide open All he had to do was square it to him and he had an open goal and said the guy tried to shoot He he fumbled it, you know, he tried again later and he had the opportunity to leave it for Lazović

The keeper saved it. It was falling to Lazović, but he sprinted in again and he tried to shoot it again So twice he denied Lazović a clear-cut goal scoring opportunity over there. It looked Comical it looked like you were you or myself like he's definitely gonna get a scolding for that He definitely got a scolding for that. Yeah, I will see that again selfishness when you're playing trying to fight your way out of relegation is Is not tolerated no, I'm selling it on I have another two goalkeeper

They have one of the hipster goalkeeping doors. No, we mentioned the Monza's goalkeeping though they're going to be Gregorio and Cranio Salernitana have Sepe and Ochoa. That's a fantastic goalkeeping duo. And in fact Sepe did start this game Yeah, a great goalkeeper. Yeah, we will I think see them being rotated a little bit more obviously Ochoa and Sepe's age Are two very different things

One of them is 31 years old and the other one is 37 years old. The 31 for a goalkeeper is you know It's not young but it's it's somewhere close to his prime and to be fair Sepe had great performances before Ochoa came in so it would be unfair to Just make him a second choice based off of some performances. They saw on the World Cup. Definitely agreed, bro We have to keep everyone happy right? Exactly. You have to balance those hours

Verona have closed the gap. They are four points behind Salernitana You know, there are two points behind Spezia. It's it's crazy how they're catapulting themselves out of the relegation pool But to be fair, we did see this coming didn't we? We did we did and and it was shocking to see them sat in dead last over the first 10 games Very very surprising now. They still have some serious improvements to make I can explain. What the hell just happened?

I opened my phone. I was on TikTok to play the Engonj interview Matias basically dropped us a few a few thoughts on Hellas Verona and I wanted to read them out on the pod I realized I never got back to him, which is horrible. Terrible terrible behavior from your end. It wasn't me Matias

It was Drake. Let me just finish making this point. Please of course. Yes, I was gonna let you out of my show I was gonna say they still have serious improvements to make obviously they've had great performances now I still think that for example the striking and defensive department are two departments that need to seriously be addressed now Their midfield has looked tight Their creative players have looked creative. Montepo has looked good. However

Like Henry hasn't really been at the races. He has been out of the side for a long time Juric is he the man that they want up front? Do they want to play for the team? Juric is he the man that they want up front? Do they want to play in gonj up front? I think that is something that they need to get sorted out or gaij bro He's also looking a little bit selfish, but sometimes in a striker you need that and a striker. Yeah, that's true. That's true

Someone hungry. I mean we saw fucking Lautaro not pasto zeko. Exactly. And then in the Defensive region they tend to shake things up quite a bit. They have a few to choose from but none of high quality Essentially, so you look at the back line that they fielded in this match for example

And it was Coppola, Heian and Maniani. We've seen Davidovic there before for example And we've also seen Gunther over there now whilst it's great to have options It's also good to have some quality and to have some stability And I think their recruitment even though they've offloaded a bunch of players hasn't gone in the right areas And hopefully they will invest a bit more in the defense and just come up with the striker that they want to identify with

And which striker is going to give them the the best outcome. Yeah, at least they have a few options Yeah, so let's move on to Matthias's comments our very loyal listener Matthias Krussel on instagram He told us my thoughts on Verona post Illich Now, of course Matthias was the guy who announced Illich watch and then of course he he fucked off to Torino

No, unlucky. They did a fine job tactically Okay, let's try that again They did a fine job tactically to expose Salernitana by keeping a high tempo and winning duels in the midfield There was little controlled possession from either side But this hurt Salernitana more since their regista Nicolusi who looks talented but lacks a experience and physicality Fair point Tameze rather than Duda has replaced Illich by playing in a deeper role

He is covering the back three but also setting up quick and direct plays to avoid the team getting stuck and overpowered in the midfield Verona barely made any attempts to keep the ball on the ground and midfield Salernitana couldn't cover for this And there were reoccurring situations where Verona's front four could attack a Salernitana back three plus Nicolusi, of course Salernitana coped better when more players dropped down in the second half to give Nicolusi more passing alternatives

I think Nicola should have used Vilana as a second holding midfielder rather than as an attacking one That's an interesting point They did need numbers back there because Hellas Verona were overwhelming them on the break For those of you that didn't hear Nicolusi being named in the starting 11 of Salernitana when Jake was reading it out

This is Nicolusi Caviglia. He's a 22 year old that is unknown from Juventus at the moment First name Hans, Hans Nicolusi Caviglia Duda almost plays like a number 10 or second striker with Losevich out on the left and Engonj often slightly above him Tameza and Duda are very rarely collaborating instead It's four in the front and four at the back and then Duhigg and De Pauli covering the wings and trying to win headers in the midfield Yes

Duda if he brings one thing is he brings very good balance to the team and he has very good energy about him as well You often see him like What he has correctly said linking up with those front four now, obviously he had that moment But that moment is a moment that footballers have sometimes but that's not to take away What he's bringing to the team that balance was very well needed for Verona With Illich they had someone who was the glue in midfield

But now they are rather trying to use the disjointment of their central midfield as a weapon. Very interesting Yes I think they will be good as long as they are winning But they could be exposed by teams who can play out of their pressure even if Lazio struggled a bit with this The upcoming games against Roma, Fiorentina and Spezia will be of importance I feel that both Roma and Fiorentina's midfield should be able to slow down and ground Hellas

And with two losses there the game against Spezia could be a tricky one Fouls could of course be a factor since they are dependent on their aggressive identity Suspensions and unfortunate red cards could be a factor But the longer the match goes the more bookings goes to the opponents since they often succumb to Verona's game plan And start tackling back in a reckless way Tameze is very important as a leader and a surprising possible captain for this team

He also highlighted the rumors that Southampton are looking to hire Urich as their new coach I wouldn't be surprised It would be a shame to watch him leave the league

Thank you, Matias. Spot on as always. Honestly, I have nothing to add to your points I love the way you watch football Yeah, he watches it the way it should be watched Yes, yes And not many people watch these games like that, you know No, these hipster fixtures especially like Verona's Aler Nitan is one that would typically go under the radar But someone like Matias who is a hipster when it comes to Serie A It's much appreciated that these are the kind of listeners that we attract

A point to be made about their upcoming fixtures against Roma and Fiorentina So I don't think Verona could get much done against a team like Roma So in the midfield department even though Roma have the static Matic and Cristante I think the way they run the midfield as a team and not just with those two in the double pivot And the amount of pressure they put on the midfield I think that can cause Verona to collapse I think they will be outnumbered

And just from the dead ball situations that Roma excel in and the shaky back line that Verona have I think Roma is the perfect team to expose this Verona side On the other hand, I do see them being able to come away with a point against Fiorentina for example Because Fiorentina have a more relaxed approach to their games They're not very high pressure And they're more they try to maintain possession and play the ball around And I think that is where Verona could utilize their high pressure

Now obviously we can see And they're error prone at the back, Fiorentina You press Dodo and you press Milenkovic, you might force them to a mistake Exactly and Lazovic will find himself in space And Gons will find himself in space and that's where they can attack really Now Verona will probably adapt to Roma's game Whilst Fiorentina will probably adapt to Verona's game So it won't on paper simply be a Roma victory or a draw against Fiorentina But definitely going to be an interesting watch

Definitely Now give me a minute while I put my password into my new iPad Thank you very much for the iPad bro You're welcome, you're welcome I didn't pay for it all myself guys It was a week pulled in and stuff Yeah and it's perfect for the podcast I've been using Keynote You know I'm not much of an Apple enthusiast myself I much prefer my Android devices But when it comes to tablets you know Apple do them very well And as we said I really enjoy preparing for the podcast

I'm just swishing, swishing between tabs Like you know my extended highlights on one I've got the notes on the other it's great I use Apple for everything so I second that So hello Verona are currently in 18th with 17 points While Salernitana are in 16th with 21 points A relegation 6-pointer at its finest What a joy to watch this was Yes sir, yes sir Let's have a look at the upcoming fixtures of next week And see what we should be keeping an eye out on Before we conclude this episode

So Seria Fixtures is what I'm googling I know you guys can't hear it But my dog is snoring in my ear Every time And it's pissing me off so much Ask us to add you to our close friends And you can see the dog I posted a video of him today So just DM us on Instagram Ask us add us to or add me to OnlyFans And we will add you to our Instagram close friends Exactly code words and code words only So there's Saswal on Napoli on Friday Massive That's a good game Samp Bologna

That is potentially Samp can potentially get a point over there The Berlusconi derby The Berlusconi derby Ones against Milan Inter Udinese Udinese had won the previous fixture Trash them 3-1 I think it was Something like that Atalanta Lecce Fiorentina Empoli That's very very nice Salernitana Lazio Spezia Juve Roma Verona and Torino Cremonese Saponara scores against Empoli Sorry I touched the mic Saponara scores against Empoli Saponara will score against Empoli Imagine that's our bet

That's Saponara to score against Empoli It's an X he always does well against an X He looks on form at the moment Saponara He's hot right now He only came on for like 12 minutes or 13 minutes against Juventus But he was lively as well when he came on Especially you look at players like Icone That are underperforming at the moment And you just right now The way to go for Fiorentina is Nico on the right Saponara on the left There's no other right answer over there True true

Massive games atalanta lecce will be an interesting one That I can't wait to watch as well Very And then Monday night mayhem with Torino Cremonese I have a five aside so I can't watch that one All right I'll be watching it in Ormi probably On dog sitting all week from Thursday to Thursday What dog is it? It's a Labrador A very big Labrador that likes to lick a lot man I fucking hate when you ask someone what dog is and they say a Labrador And it's like what flavour is the ice cream?

Vanilla A Labrador She's a very sweet dog But I need to walk her three times a day Before work, after work and before bed I need to wipe her ass man You need to wipe her ass And they're like well uh-huh But to be honest it makes sense Because shitty ass sitting on your sofa You know what I mean But I've never heard of such a thing Wiping a dog's ass Like I feel like Maybe we just live like animals I feel like a proper fucking piece of shit When I'm wiping the dog's ass Yeah

Just imagine me like lifting the tail up Like with a wet wipe in my hand Just wiping a Labrador's ass I could be just like sitting back or whatever It's gonna be fun Three times a day Wiping a dog's ass Three times a day Shit's three times a day Yes man Yes It's two times more than me Guys thank you so much for listening Once again We've been Jake and Matt at Serie A Spotlight Don't forget to give us a rating Wherever you're listening And message us on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok

If you want to you know send us a voice note You can feel free to do so Or send us anything you'd like And I promise we will get back to you So thank you for listening We'll see you all next week And we love you all We love you