And Osimhen controlling it brilliantly and finally Kvaratskhelia, Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and still Kvaratskhelia! He's not just player of the month, he might well be player of the season. El Shaarawy, Dybala! He is something else. Roma struggling, Roma digging a deep hole for themselves and Dybala has pulled them out. Hello and welcome back to Seia Spotlight, this is season 2 episode 29 and we are your hosts Jake and Matt and we've got ourselves a new favourite song.
Dia is here, the grenade bomber you meet, you won't forget him for sure. He's got a new song now and it's a great thing that he's actually scoring. Granted Monday night was quite terrible but this song is a fun one. At least we got the song out of it, it's worth the investment, I'd lose 2 points and gain this song in my life. And if any of you know who these two gentlemen are singing this song, please do let us know, I would love to find them, they're so talented, it's brilliant.
This is honestly the second best song to come out of the season. Who's the first? You know that one right? That's great. Ah Seniato, Ah Seniato, Osimhen. Another banger. And they say the English fans have such great songs, which they do, but don't undermine the Italian songs as well. Let's jump to our goals of the week, as you heard from our intro, we had 2 again this week, I do think that Gavara's against Atalanta does take the cake for its unique nature.
But Dybala's first time strike from distance, outside the area, into the top corner, curling attempt, the classic goal, Roma needed a goal and Debala got them a goal, classic. Yeah what a goal it was man, but Gavara's scale is a goal for the ages now.
That was the type of goal, he had 8 defenders charging towards him, 8 Atalanta men, big men, and he just drops a shoulder left, he drops a shoulder right, players are tripping over their own feet, you see one of the defenders flying in mid-air before he drops a shoulder another 2 times. Then he just smashes into the top corner, what a goal.
Bro he is among the best players in the world at the moment, he is up there with some of the best, he has 26 goal contributions this season, Ossiman has 25, he's a left winger, he's 22 years old, new to the biggest stage, and wow he's a revelation. I remember Mintov taking the piss out of me because on episode 5 or something I said this guy is one of the best players in the world, I stand by it man, he's a monster.
Yeah no no he really is, and when you look at the future of football right now you've got Mbappe and Haaland, they might have a new face to join. Absolutely, Kvaratskhelia, let's not forget Vinicius Jr because he's up there of course. Kvaratskhelia man, and the cool thing about him is he has that kind of George Best scruffy messy beard, messy hair vibe, pure adrenaline, he doesn't give a fuck about anything material, just scoring goals.
And I feel like he's literally that just obsessed with the game, I feel like it's all he cares about, he doesn't have a side wrapping career or anything of the sort which is always important, it shows that football is his main focus and his natural talent is unbelievable and his work ethic is well on the pitch, he's non-stop, he really has got 5 lungs in him, the guy, because he just simply doesn't stop.
Serie A spotlight slips, our betting segment was going so well, we bet that there'd be over one goal in Cremona, Ezefioriantina and Roma Sassuolo and that went swimmingly because there were plenty of goals in both of those games. And then we also bet there would be under four goals in Juve Sampdoria, little did we know that this game would be such a shootout. My god. Six goals and a 4-2 victory for Juventus.
And we were about to cash out in the 30th minute because Juve were up to one already and we're like there's 60 minutes of play left, there's obviously going to be more goals, 31st Sampdoria get the equaliser. Yes, sir. So no chance to actually have that discussion over there and we were out and out, down and out, that's the expression. Yeah, down and out, well done. Yes, sir.
But yeah, we found ourselves a little formula, sometimes it's going to work, sometimes it's not, we learn and we move on. I'm confident that we're going to turn things around. The problem is we put fucking 10 euro because we got overconfident. Yeah, we're cocky, never get cocky guys. No. So if you're wondering what we're talking about, follow us at say a spotlight on Instagram, you can stay up to date with our bets. We post everything over there, including some snippets and a bit more content.
You can follow us on TikTok and Twitter and YouTube as well and please drop a five star review. Wherever you're listening. Yes, please. So I'll take you through the rundown of Matchday 26 guys, it seemed like absolutely none of the top teams apart from Napoli, one top four at all as every single one of them. Dropped points this matchday, there were a lot of upsets, there were a lot of away victories, there were a lot of great goals.
So here we go, we're going to start things off with Atalanta nil Napoli 2 where Gvarackelja scored that absolutely monstrous goal turning in and out and in and out before slamming it into the roof of the net. Spezia hosted Inter and got away with a 2-1 victory after a fantastic display by Inzola and a bunch of attempts by Inter, around 28 shots over there. Milan won, Salernitana won.
It's always a nightmare for Milan when they play on a Monday night and it was no different over here as Bouladia got the equaliser. Roma 3, Sassuolo 4 in what was definitely the most end to end match this matchday. Kumbula throwing away the match for Roma over there getting sent off and giving away a penalty, giving Sassuolo the 3-1 lead going into half time. Juve 4, Sampdoria 2 the game that absolutely fucked our bet.
Bologna nil Lazio nil, let me tell you what I think Bologna might have deserved 3 points in that match. Cremonaese nil Fiorentina 2 no surprises there, Fiorentina on hot form at the moment. Lecce nil Torino 2, it seems like forever ago that Lecce last scored a goal and forever ago since Torino have dropped points I believe the last time was against Monza. Empoli nil, Odinese 1 same goes for Empoli over there and Verona 1, Monza 1. A great matchday man.
Very entertaining when you look at the top 7 and you see how they performed you're absolutely right it's like no one wants it man. You look at Napoli, they won, you look at Juve, they won sure they might actually get their ban lifted by the way against all odds because a few of the individuals in that case have actually won their appeal.
So let's keep our eyes peeled because Juve might be coming back into the top 4 and to be honest at this rate even without the appeal being lifted they might be back in the top 4. To be honest I think they'll break into the Champions League no matter what the situation is. I think if any of the other teams want top 4 they better aim for third because I feel like Juve's ban is going to be lifted.
The people involved were all cleared of their charges including Paratici, Agnelli and all these seem to be incredibly guilty. It'll just be super weird if they get docked 15 points halfway through the season with the board definitely knowing what a damper that's going to have on their morale throughout the campaign and then to just lift it because Juve could fucking sue in that case.
The legal side of it I'm not too familiar with and I have no shame in saying it to be honest we're football fans at the end of the day. But yes I'm sure that they will not let this go unpunished if the ban is lifted let's just say that. But other than that you see Napoli winning and Juve winning then you see Inter lose, Lazio draw, Milan draw, Roma lose as well, Atalanta lose as well. It's true bro it's a highly competitive league.
Absolutely and man if Napoli weren't in the picture this year it would be one hell of a race to the title but everyone else's kind of poor performances is part and parcel with why Napoli are currently 18 points ahead of Inter. Damn and that's a good segue I think into our first game. Napoli 2-Atalanta 0 the reverse fixture was a 2-1 victory for Napoli. Nowadays bro Napoli matches feel like all-star exhibition matches. Yeah literally.
You've got Ozymen attempting bicycle kicks, Gvarth Scalia dropping his shoulder left and right, you have Kim Jae Min overpowering everyone and just winning every header. It feels like an all-star exhibition match. Absolutely, every single one of their players just seems to be the best in their position in the league this season.
You look at Min Jae Kim, best centre back in the league, you look at Lobotka, best Regista in the league, you look at Gvarth, best left winger in the league, you look at Zielinski, probably one of the best Czech artist in the league as well. Obviously Ozymen the best striker in the league. So no competition like you said it's like watching the Serie A 11.
Yeah true. For Napoli it was their 4-3-3 formation with Golini in goal this time, Oliver on the left and DeLorenzo on the right with a centre back pairing of Kim Jae Min and Rahmani. The midfield three were Zielinski, Lobotka and Anguissa. Out on the left there was Gvarth Scalia on the right, Politano on the up front, Victor Ozymen.
For Atalanta it was their 3-4-1-2 formation with Juan Musso in goal, centre back three of Toloi, Jim City and Scalvini with Mele out on the right, Ruggeri on the left, the midfield double pivot of De Rune and Ederson with Pasalic sitting in the hole between midfield and attack. Hojland and Zapata were the striking pairing up front. Now it took till the 60th minute for Napoli to open the scoring as Gvarth Scalia who is no longer a revelation but a guarantee.
He did it again. The young Georgian produced an absolute renaissance painting of a goal as he shimmied from left to right as Atalanta defenders, about eight of them, tripped up and flew around the corner as he rocketed into the top corner. Bro, as we discussed earlier, crazy goal. And you know he's the real deal because no one should be able to pronounce his name so well and everyone seems to pronounce it perfectly.
Even your average Premier League or La Liga fan, they will go, ah Gvarth Scalia, I know him. How did you just pronounce that? I remember in the episode of the transfer market that we did in the build up to this episode, to season two, we said we're just going to call him Gvarth. Doesn't matter, we're just going to call him Gvarth. No man, we are calling him Kevich Gvarth Scalia. That's it, dude. We all know his name. Say my name.
In the 77th minute, Elmas gave an out swinging corner that came perfectly to Rachmani as he jumped and attempted a beautiful looping header. It went right over the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. Now this was a great goal by one of Jurij's best pieces at Hellas Verona in that team of 2019. He hardly ever puts a foot wrong nowadays, bro. And he's I think the most underrated player on the Snopoli team.
Absolutely. I mean, if you look at last season, everyone was talking about Koli Bali. This season, everyone's talking about Kim Min Jae. Think of the consistent player next to those guys. The consistent player was Rachmani. He was there last season, he was there this season. He just makes everyone next to him look so good because he's so good, man. He really is. He really is. Honestly, he doesn't put a foot wrong, man. But yes, bro, Napoli, it's getting a little bit repetitive, isn't it?
It's a joy to watch them. But then when it comes to talking about them, like what else is there to say? You look at the expected goals of Atalanta, for example, they had 0.28. They had six shots with only three of them on target and never actually looked like they were going to score. They had one shot with Ruggeri out on the left that was quite central as well. Yeah, Golini didn't actually have to deal with much.
Yeah, because when you try to stop Napoli, you put so much effort into trying to stop them and so much effort into trying to contain them that you're compromised. Because that's all you're focusing on. You think, OK, if I do this, then Kvichar is going to get it and he's going to score.
If I do this, Ossiman is going to get it. He's going to score. If I lose the ball anyway, Napoli are a threat because every single time they get on the ball, it looks like they're going to score, whether it's on the right, whether it's from the left, whether it's from the fence to attack down the middle. Any position, they just look super, super convincing. They're incredibly direct. When they want to play the ball around, they can play the ball around.
They're just an unbelievable watch, an unbelievable watch. And we're watching them right now playing against Frankfurt in the second leg of the Champions League. And I think it's going to be a fiery one following the footage that we saw. Crazy footage in Naples as Frankfurt fans had their band lifted and actually showed up to the game. They were roaming the streets of Naples in a pack with flares and they were just causing so many disturbances in the street.
The footage is quite, quite freaky, to be honest. It is, it is. Yeah. Another game against the top seven side where Atalanta barely got a sniff, bro. Are they excused for this one? I guess they are. But then you look at what Lazio were capable of doing last week and getting a victory against Napoli. And you think, you know, that it's possible. It's absolutely possible because Lazio managed to do it. But then you look at Lazio, who have had a great time against the top teams this season.
And then you look at Atalanta that are on the other end of the spectrum and they can't get points against the bigger teams. I can't remember them getting points against one of the top seven teams this season. I literally don't think they have gotten a victory this season against all the top seven teams. And to think that this was the team that Jean-Louis Gébouphon said that would go on to win the league. This season, right? You did say that earlier on the season, you're right.
Yeah. And I said he's on drugs and everyone on TikTok was commenting. That's actually a very possible thing to happen. So fuck you. Yeah. It seems like to beat the Napoli, you have to press to perfection. And we've only seen Inter and Lazio do that against them, where they press them all game for 90 minutes. They press the full backs, they press the center backs, they barely left any holes.
They closed out Gavratskelia and that was it. Basically, isolated Victor Ozzyman up front and actually beat him in a 2v1. That seems to be the best way to approach the Napoli side. Atalanta, they sat back. They didn't even attempt to counter though, in fact. And then they tried to do their thing where they gather men around the box and kind of play in Napoli's quarter of the pitch like Atalanta do.
You know that? But in fact, Napoli ended up counter-attacking and looked actually very dangerous when that happened. So Atalanta, I think, didn't actually go into this one very well. No, and I think they would have been happy to take away a point naturally, like anyone else would be happy to get a point against Napoli. I really don't think that they went into that game expecting to win. You see they brought on Duvanz apart and this game to give some physicality up against Napoli's tough defense.
You see that they opted to play players like Pasalic in the middle in order to add some creativity down the middle and some smoother transitions. But you could try all you want against the Napoli side. You know, on their day, they beat absolutely anyone. They beat most teams in the world. And I just want to give a shout out to Luciano Spalletti. I know we highlighted him a couple of weeks ago.
But to think that in two seasons, this is what he's managed to do with this Napoli side because two seasons is all it took. Last year was last year. Yeah, and it was his first season at Napoli. Now his second season at Napoli is 18 points ahead with fucking 12 matches to go, man, 13 matches to go. Yeah, he can play whoever he wants to play till the end of the season and focus everything solely on the Champions League.
The question now is how to find the perfect balance between resting players and between keeping players in top condition. Let's say you've got a Champions League game against Real Madrid, for example. Do you play Gvaratskelia that weekend? Do you give him a few minutes? Do you rest him completely? How do you go about it? I mean, they've got so much squad depth as well because and then they've got Poletano, they've got Elmas.
They've got so many people that they can bring on that that genuinely wouldn't be. But for Gvaratskelia's sake, like for him to be in top condition, would he need to play in a match earlier? You know what I mean? Like that week, let's say, for example, you're playing Bologna on Saturday and Real Madrid on Tuesday. You're 18 points ahead. Rest him. Just don't bother featuring him. 18 points ahead, man. What the fuck? As long as he's training, it's fine.
Bring on Elmas, bring on Raspadoori on the wing, play Poletano as a wide left winger. It doesn't matter. You could even give Gullini a turn up front. See how he does at this point. Honestly, it's 18 points clear is a joke. Now, two things I want to highlight, two quotes. Lobotka, we don't have any pressure in the Champions League. There are no expectations. And that is an advantage for them. We discussed this recently.
We said how Real Madrid fans, Bayern Munich fans, City fans are all going into the Champions League, expecting their team to actually do something. Well, Napoli fans are just happy to be there. You know what I mean? The first time ever in a quarterfinal in the Champions League. So they really are playing without expectations and they know it. Yeah. And I think so there are no expectations. Obviously, I believe there's been some talk in the camp
and some journalists have been speaking. So I wouldn't say they have zero pressure. I think they know that if they do this, it's an absolute fairy tale story. And I think they're dying to have that fairy tale story. Now, what people are also kind of failing to realize is that this isn't the only season where Napoli are going to play this well. At this rate, if they manage to hold on to Guevara and Ossimen, even if they don't, I mean, you see how well the other players perform.
Obviously, those two players are the key attacking threats that they have. But brother, they're going to be very good next year and they're going to be good in the Champions League next year. They're going to be good in the league next year. It's not like after 2022, oh, thank God. OK, that's over. Next one's going to be much easier. They're still going to be there. Well, sure. But it also does depend on if they manage to keep their top players in the pre-match
conference between Spalletti and the media before Napoli-Frankfurt. They asked him about his contract situation. He commented that he does not wish to discuss his contract because the people of Napoli want him to focus on the football, which is fair enough. Politically correct reply, safe reply. But he didn't say I'm saying, you know, and that's the same thing with Ossimen. Ossimen, it's his dream to play in the Premier League, you know, ever since he was a kid.
Guevara at Schalier supported Real Madrid as a kid. It's his dream to play for them. What's this? You know, if they do cash in on these guys, I'm curious to see what De Laurentiis can do with the money because with a very limited budget last season, he managed to create a very strong team. You know, he brought in the players he brought in for cheap Guevara at Schalier and Lobotka have ended up being key pieces and even Kim Jaemin and not only key pieces, but the best
in their positions, as you said so well, Elion. For sure, man. Think of the box office movie he can come up with with all those hundreds of millions that will get from those players. Bella Strunza, volume three. That's a song. It's a movie now, bro. 200 million, you can do what you want. That's true. I mean, he does. He is a businessman. And if he sees that he could make 130 million profit off of Guevara at Schalier, then my guess is that he'll do it. It doesn't matter how much
pressure the fans put on him. Yeah, unfortunately, I don't think they'll be able to hang on to these two for very long. And I just can you imagine if Guevara leaves in the summer and he goes to another team and in his first season, they win the league as well. They'd have gone to Napoli in one season, won the league with them, moved on, won another league elsewhere, for example, with Real Madrid. Yeah, that would be pretty good for him. He can win the Ballon d'Or. That's crazy.
This is crazy. He can win the Ballon d'Or because if Napoli make it to the final of the Champions League, for example, and Napoli win the league, he can. Why can't he win the Ballon d'Or? He's got a fair shout to it. Definitely. Absolutely. Especially if they go far in the Champions League. And that would be the deciding factor. Yeah, he's already nominated. Yeah, we could say that. Spalletti has said that Kim is the best center back in the world. Now, I'm not sure which one he's talking
about because there are quite a few on the Korean national team. The best center back in the world, perhaps not that much of a stretch. Not that much of a stretch for sure. But Napoli are very dominant. So we haven't seen him tested so much. Then again, we don't see the best defenders, pardon me, being tested so much because they're normally on dominant teams. Think about Van Dyke that season with Liverpool where they won the Champions League or when they won the Premier
League. I don't know. He was barely tested naturally because he was at Liverpool and he was a dominant team and the best players are the best teams. But absolutely not a stretch. He's definitely in the conversation. I'd say he's top five center backs in the world right now. Yeah, top five is probably more realistic. To be fair, I hardly ever see him lose a one-on-one situation. No, he comes out on top in most aerial duels and ground duels as well. You look at the
statistics, they're quite impressive. Yeah, that's basically it. Excuse the little spasm I had. I don't know if you heard it. Napoli are currently in first with 68 points while Atalanta have fallen to sixth with 42 points. They're on a four-match winless run. My God, very different, those two phrases you're going to say. Yeah, very, very different. The next game we're going to be covering is the biggest upset in this match. It was Spezia 2-1 Inter to think that the previous
encounter was a 3-0 victory for Inter. Milan's screen yard, Joaquin Correa, were still injured with Federico Di Marco not fully fit as well, but Brozovic and Samir Handanovic got rare starts. Reka and Giselo Gokeeper Marketti sat out bands with Simone Bastoni, Emil Homme, Joao Mutinio sidelined in a switch to 3-5-2, hoping for their first home win since September 2022. And that they got, my friends. As I said, Spezia are in a 3-5-2 formation with Drangovski
in goal and a back three of Nicolao Caldara and Ampadu. They had Giasi out on the left and Amian out on the right with a midfield three of Agudelo, Borabia and Zurkowski. They had Schumorodov alongside Nzola up front. For Inter it was also a 3-5-2 formation with Handanovic in goal and a back three of Dan Brosio, Acerbi and Bastoni. They had Darmian out on the right, Gossens out on the left and a midfield three of Varela, Brozovic and Mkhitaryan. And they had
Lautaro Martinez alongside Lukaku up front. Very interesting to see just Handanovic randomly in the starting XI this match. They're replacing Onana. We'll get into it but it's a very... Nzaghi said that he was resting Onana. Yeah, oh, okay. Resting him. Resting him. Yeah, good choice. Resting Onana. You rest Lautaro Martinez. You don't rest anyone when you're playing away from home and the only team you managed to beat away from home was Cremona.
But you're resting your goalkeeper. He might as well rest himself from being on the sideline. So in the eighth minute the referee deemed Caldara's challenge inside the area on Dan Brosio a fair one. However, he then reverted to VAR and saw that he had caught Dan Brosio with a dangerous high studs challenge. A penalty and a yellow card were awarded. Drangowski pulled off a great save to deny Inter's top scorer from the spot with Lautaro now failing five out of 16
attempts from the spot for Inter. Another interesting choice over there to see Lautaro stepping up to take that with Lukaku on the pitch who has 13 out of 13 penalties scored for Inter. That was definitely questionable. I'm telling you sometimes I think they're not familiar with the table. That's what it feels like. I'm going to save this conversation for the talking points because I feel like I want to go through quite a bit about some calls that Simone made in this match. Go for it.
The momentum was then in Spezia's favour as Agudelo's attempt in the 32nd minute bounced off the crossbar after a cherubi's block. Moments later Drangowski once again denied Lautaro Martinez with a brilliant save during an Inter counter attack. Lautaro then thought he got the equaliser just after the breakthrough header but Lukaku was in an offside position.
In the 54th minute there was a long ball by Drangowski to Wenzola who held up two Inter defenders before playing the ball to the one, the only, Daniel Maldini who finished perfectly into the bottom corner just nine minutes after the Milan loanee came on. He's now tied for goals against Inter with his father, one goal each, the great obviously Paolo Maldini. In the 83rd minute Lukaku scored a penalty as Inter equalised making it 1-1.
It was a great penalty by the Belgian, power, precision and he sent Drangowski the wrong way. Lautaro take notes. The penalty was given away by substitute Salva Ferrer who kicked down Friesen in the stomach when attempting a clearance. It really seemed like Spezia just wanted to fuck it as well. It's not like Spezia were so great, they gave away two very clumsy penalties over there. They did and you look at their defenders as well, they had Nicolao and Caldara both on a yellow card
towards the end of the game. Quite reckless, but to be fair when you have a team that shoots 28 times against you, you're bound to put your body on the line, maybe get the man first. They gave away two penalties and probably that first penalty is what gave them the spirit and drive to actually go ahead and win the game when you have a player and goal like Drangowski who's such a good penalty saver and he's a penalty specialist between the sticks. He fired his team up there, he was great.
For sure man. And then in the 86th minute a penalty was awarded to Spezia. The guy that won it earlier, Dumfries, now gave it away as he charged Kovalenko from behind very very clumsily in the 86th minute. Handanovic guessed right but the ball was a fingertip too high for him as Insola wheeled away in celebration. So let's before getting into Spezia and how they managed to get the victory,
I do want to talk a bit about Inter. So the fact that they had 28 shots, seven on target, they had two penalties, one that was saved, you could go on to say this just wasn't Inter's day.
They did all they could and they didn't manage to get away with a victory or a single point. They did do everything they could but I feel like they were compromised because of one man and I think that one man is Inzaghi and I've held back from criticizing Inzaghi because his brand of football and the football that he plays, his identity is so attractive and he has got Inter ticking. However I feel he's a little bit spineless because of two things. Number one, the fact that he hasn't
gone up to the squad and said look when Lukaku is on the pitch, Lukaku takes the penalties. If Lukaku is not on the pitch and Cialanoglu is on the pitch, Cialanoglu takes the penalties. If none of these guys are on the pitch, Lautaro Martinez then steps up. It seems like Inter in general want Lautaro to be this talisman. They want him to be a Ciro Móbele, they want him to be an Ossimen, they want him to be Avlaović. He's not. Yeah Ossimen doesn't even take penalties. Exactly.
Like that season where Zlatan was Milan's top scorer and he just stepped down from penalties because he himself said he was shit at them. What Lautaro is, is a perfect striker in a two up front. He's a perfect striker in a contest system, he's a perfect striker in an Inzaghi system and that's how he's utilized. He's good at reading the movement of the striker alongside him, he's good at creating space for the striker alongside him and he is typically a clinical
finisher but they are trying to make him this fucking superstar up front. They're trying to make him seem like he's the solution, like he's bigger than the club and he's simply not man. That is an interesting point and I often wonder why the hell you would make some, why you wouldn't just go for the player with the best penalty conversion rates to take your penalties in a game. It's a simple thing. It's very simple. Like you look at Lukaku, if he scored 13 out
of 13, well 12 out of 12 at the time, you put him on the penalty. No, for sure. I mean it's common sense. No, it's no debate. Why? It's not like he was going through a gold drought, he's on fine form. Exactly. Why screw it up? Yeah, I think Inzaghi leaves it to the players to decide between them. That's dumb. Yeah, it is dumb, it is dumb but at the same time maybe he
thinks that it's better for the group, right? Everyone has their own coaching style. Yeah, everyone's got their own coaching style and I don't think Inzaghi is a great man motivator. I don't think he should be leaving the calls up to the player. I think he should have a tangible solution for that situation. Our penalty taker is the one that simply doesn't miss a single penalty. Number two, Handanovic starting in goal. Now Inter are one of the teams that are blessed with two
very good goalkeepers, right? Questionable obviously how good Handanovic still is. But here's the deal, I get that sometimes you're going to play Handanovic, you're going to call up your second goalkeeper, maybe in the cup, maybe in the Champions League. But with Inter's away form, number one. With Inter's compromised back three with Dumbrows you're starting and with Inter needing
a win in the race for top four. It was a terrible, terrible decision to start Handanovic in this game because they lack confidence in him because he's not great off his line and then he's very static on his line as well. He doesn't command the back line. It's like starting Tatarasano to a certain extent. He's obviously better than Tatarasano but the goalkeeper affects the performance of the defenders. Your defenders are compromised already because of screen yards injury. You're
away from home where you're fucking shit and you decide to play Handanovic. It doesn't make any sense. Play your best goalkeeper, especially away from home where you've been terrible. Why would he play him? I think it's simply rotation to keep everyone happy. That's it, to try to maintain positive vibes in the dressing room. I'm pretty sure that's the main reason why
to keep him happy. You have Handanovic, former captain, former key player for Inter and probably this is him paying his respect and saying, listen, we've got a new goalkeeper in but you're still involved. You're still part of the team. When it comes to his leadership skills out there and his ability to control the defense, Handanovic, I would say that's one of his stronger suits. Fair enough. I jumped the gun there. When it comes to literally his work on the line and in
the area, he doesn't move much. He's a tree. Yeah. But Simone Nzaghi went so far to blame himself, right? Not for the right reasons. He seemed to blame himself for the wrong reasons or maybe he was being a bit vague. He didn't want to get into it. What he said is in football, you get no discounts and we paid for those errors. It's not right that interlaced the Spezia. We won't sleep tonight. I take responsibility for the defeat, but the lads gave it their all tonight. We just
weren't clinical enough. This is football. Defeats make you stronger. We had a few too many this season, especially away from home and naturally the result is unsatisfactory. Well done, bro. That's a standard post upset interview. But he is right that, well, essentially that he used to blame that his players gave it their all. They didn't have their shooting boots on and Drangowski was on fine form and Spezia are a fucking annoying team to play against. So he's not wrong about that.
For me, bro, I don't know honestly what the hell Nzola has become. It's fucked up how good he's become. I remember him two seasons ago. He went on a little scoring run. He scored in like six games, six goals in like a couple of games. At the start of the season. Right before January. Exactly. The January market. And then he didn't score again, but he didn't look as sharp as he does nowadays. Now he's 26 years old. You look at his build, he's big, but he's very lean. There
was a moment when I don't know who was lifting his shirt. Someone was charging, they were dueling in a 50-50 and he grabbed his shirt and pulled up like honestly no body fat. You could use his abs to slice your guantral. Guantral is very tough to fucking slice, man. Yeah, you could just slice the one in his stomach. But honestly, his hold up play was incredible. The way he was just holding it up, just shrugging the fenders off, knocking the ball slightly forward and just going to collect
it. He was a one man unit. And he was isolated. Yes, completely, completely isolated. Fighting off three inter defenders. Waiting like an entire minute for his teammates to catch up to him. And he still has the ball. That was a very good performance by Nzola. Bro, if Spezia gets relegated, I see him. I've been telling you that I just get this feeling that Atalanta are going to offer Duvan Zapata for him because he is like a prime Duvan Zapata. They have no use for Zapata
this season. As I was also thinking, he's not a bad shout for Inter, bro. They like a good physical striker. It has been said now that Lukaku is going to be returning to Chelsea, especially because Inter don't afford him. I think it's a no brainer. It is, especially when you look at the financial situation of Inter. It'd be a decent solution for them. Absolutely. It's still a risk at the end of the day because this isn't a player who's been doing it for a long time, but it might also be
a fantastic investment as well. 26 years old and that's your play style. You're good for another five years. Six years for sure. And you could pay him like four million a season. Way less, probably. You could pay him way less. But the fact that I really anticipate that there'll be a bit of a fight for him at the top. I think Atalanta would be interested. I think Inter would be interested and I wouldn't be surprised if Milan have something to say about that considering their
striking situation as well. Yeah. For me, the Spezia team showed up. It was their spine of Dragovski. And goal, of course, he was the leader, the real driving force behind this victory, in my opinion. And on the other end, of course, Enzola, they at the bottom and at the top of that team sheet led this team to victory. But then I'd also give a shout out to Ampadu who, again, fantastic performance. Yeah. He barely makes any mistakes. And in the middle, Kevin Agudela was
amazing in this game. Kevin Agudela was very good as well. You mentioned Dragovski, just to make it clear. Inter had 4.04 in XG, expected goals. And they didn't because Dragovski was in goal and, well, Lautaro was up front as well, to be completely fair. Just one more point before we move on. There's so many talking points in this game. I feel like I'm just blabbing on now. Maldini. Oh, yes. We should be talking about that more, to be honest. Maldini,
fucking. So he's got three professional goals, right? His first one came against his current team, Spezia, for Milan and a header last season. The winner, I believe in that match as well, then went out on loan for Spezia and he scored against his parent club, Milan. And Milan were like, ah, like, how could that happen? You know what I mean? It hurts so much. He's like, don't worry, guys. He goes against Inter at home for Spezia and he scores the opener over there.
Daniel Maldini, bro, a revelation. No? There's something about him, right? I mean, he's 21 years old. And for a 21 year old, when you watch him on the ball, it's nothing groundbreaking. It's not a hot talent. That's a freak of nature. You know what I mean? But he's got this fire in him. He's just built for big moments. You look at that moment against Milan,
it was written in the stars and he went for it. He strikes me as a dreamer, someone who dreams big, someone who has a fucking difficult career ahead of him and has had a difficult time because of people, you know, claiming, calling him an imposter. Yeah. An imposter. I mean, if you are the son of Paolo Maldini and the grandson of Cesare Maldini, you better be good, you know? And this guy, not only is he not a defender, but he's a winger who's not particularly flashy or eye catching. You know
what I mean? So what he does have is very good close ball control in tight spaces and a long stride, like a long stride, a bit of a caca style, if you know what I mean, that caca style. And I mean, that was a great finish in this game. It was. No, no, he's honestly opportunistic. He's quite good. And I think this is his level at the moment, of course, and not even a starter at this level, a substitute. And I wonder how long Milan will keep him out on loan. I wonder what
they'll do. You know, I can't imagine them selling him, of course, because of the dynasty, but we'll definitely see over there. It's going to be interesting to keep an eye on him. It's interesting to see when the Milan players talk about Daniel Maldini. I don't know whether it's to respect Paolo Maldini, but they say he's one of the most gifted players that they've ever seen. And to be honest, I see it. I see his talent. I see that if I were to watch him at Milan
training, I'd go, fuck me, this guy should start. Like it'd probably be that level of good. He's probably fucked up. He's probably insane, but he's getting used to the big stage. He hasn't been given many opportunities. He's on the bench at Spezia. He was on the bench at Milan, but he will get his time. That's a fair point. I'd forgotten that his teammates had hailed him to be one of the most talented players in the team alongside Leo, I think, at the time. Top talents. Or a future Ballon
d'Or winner, I believe the question was. It was like Daniel Maldini and Leo. Like what? Daniel Maldini. Maybe he'll blossom late as well. He might. Who knows? He just needs game time at this point. And at 21 years old, he should have a bit more experience. But the fact that he started at Milan did him no favors. The fact that Piolli would bring him on to take a corner in the 93rd
minute of a Champions League game, like for his debut didn't help at all either. I also don't think it's a good time for young attacking midfielders because it feels like that role is ever changing at the moment. Not only at Milan, but over the years, it seems like they were saying that the attacking midfield role is dying out. Because of the Gaggenpress?
Because of the Gaggenpress and just because a lot of teams aren't utilizing it at the moment. You see players like Isco, Asensio and a bunch of these guys that that's why, for example, Kevin De Bruyne is now playing in a deeper role because they're not utilizing them that much. It's an ever-changing role and they have to keep on adapting to it. Yes, football is becoming more direct, right? Yes. More down to business. But anyway, I won't blab on for much longer.
Inter are still in second on 50 points, 18 points behind Napoli and one ahead of Lazio, while Spezia and Seventeen have now gained some ground away from the relegation zone on 24 points, is now five points ahead of Hellas Verona. Milan won, Salernitana won. A Monday night special over here. The previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Milan. For the first time in history, Milan's lineup didn't feature a single Italian. Berlusconi is quoted to have been devastated
or furious. He might have even found it funny. To be honest, it's hard to tell behind all the plastic surgery. I'm surprised we're not out here saying Berlusconi is rolling in his grave. Somehow he's still out with a big titted blonde. Got to love him. Got to love him. But anyway, yes. Milan lined up with a 3-4-2-1 formation with Mannyan in goal, Tomorin, Ceau and Calhulu at the back with Teo Hernandez out on the left wing and Salamakar is out on the right. Kroenich and
Benassir were in the middle with Leao and Diaz playing behind Giroud. For Salernitana, it was their 3-4-2-1 formation, literally mirroring Milan over here. Ochoa was in goal with Danilulic, Gyomber and Pirola at the back. Matsoki on the right, Broderic on the left with Koulibaly and Bohinen as the midfield too with Kastanos and Kanjeva playing behind Boulayer and Diaz. In the first half, the highlight of the first half, actually there were two. There was a Giroud
overhead kick that almost went in and was reacted to with a standing ovation by the fans. There was a Chao mistake that led to Boulayer and Diaz charging towards Mike Mannyan one on one and then Mannyan coming out and just Paolo Maldini tackling him outside the area. It was a phenomenal one on one save by Mike Mannyan. Some Prem head friends of mine were sending it to me, like it actually reached them, which is a crazy thing that they even take a look at our league
every now and then. Great news. Shout out Prem heads. In the 46th minute, Benassir gave a corner to Giroud who headed it in. He got his first goal in a while for Olivier Giroud. In the 61st minute there was some slick build up play that led to Damagoi Brotherich squaring it to Boulayer Diaz who finished expertly. Did you know that Brotherich's first name is Damagoi? I've never heard the name Damagoi before. I don't think I'll ever hear it again.
There we go. Milan were awarded a penalty on a foul on Benassir towards the end of the game, but VAR overruled it. Now, fair enough, it was a soft call. I didn't think VAR would overrule it, but the fact that the contact was made with the upper body and it was so slight and there was actually no contact with the legs makes it, I think, a fair decision in my opinion. When I initially saw it, I said, oh, come on, this mug, get up. And then the referee whistled
and I'm like, oh, that's not a penalty. It's going to get overturned. And then seeing it from certain angles, I'm like, all right, there was contact, but no, it was very soft. When you slow it down, it obviously looks worse, but I had very minimal contact and it was a very harsh call to start with. Yes. And we've seen penalties given for similar situations as that. But yes, in my opinion, it was the correct call. And the 70th minute onwards, it was literally just Milan trying
to move the ball upfield. Chao was taking an advanced position, trying to flick the ball on to Origi and Giroud who had come on. It was extremely frustrating to watch. There were wingers out there who weren't even being utilized, the full backs like Theo Hernandez and Salah Makar were out wide and Milan kept going down the middle, the same old thing, to Tomori or to Chao, flick on, trying to get it to Origi or what the fuck's his name? Or Zlatan.
Fuckin' hell, how the hell did I forget Zlatan? But yes, that was extremely frustrating. And you look at the expected goals in this one, Salah and Netanah had 0.78 and Milan had 2.29. So they underperformed over there as well, 64% ball possession for Milan. Now, bro, what were your observations from this game? Something you want to talk about? So mainly the lack of, what's the word, clinicalness? What the hell is that? Milan aren't clinical. That's it. Let's word it like that.
In the slightest. So you've got this 3-4-2-1 formation, which is great because Giroud is the kind of striker that plays a lot with his back towards goal, pulls the defenders with him, and then you have Léo and Diaz going in behind him and he can play them through. Fantastic, right? It would be fantastic if Léo and Brahim could score. It would be fantastic if Léo would give a shit during the game and he wouldn't seem so fucking laxadaisy during the game. It would help
if Diaz could shoot without going, eh. Milan don't have any sharpshooters. Milan don't have anyone that can get a goal apart from Giroud. And that was obvious in this game. Milan got the first goal through Giroud. Well done. Kill the game. Kill the game. Now Salah and Netanah are always going to be a frustrating opponent, but what confuses me the most about Milan lately is Rafa Léo, as you said. First of all, he looks like he doesn't give a shit and that's a fact. You can't say he doesn't
because he totally looks like he doesn't give a shit. And he'd get the ball, lay the ball off to Benassir, make the laziest half-ass run down the middle. Benassir obviously doesn't play it. How many do you see him waving his arms around? He wasn't even in space. It wasn't a good run. I don't know why he's being deployed so centrally. I don't know why he keeps trying to cut in.
The best thing about Léo, the thing that makes Léo unplayable, as we've said a million times on this podcast, is his ability to get the ball, stop and then burst out of nowhere, burst towards the byline. And he will do any defender, even Matsoki, who's quite a fast fullback over there. He would have destroyed him every single time, but he didn't do it. He kept trying to cut in. He kept trying these long range shots that kept getting blocked.
I don't know, man. I don't know what's going on with Léo and Piole has addressed it. Piole said that Léo in training gives 100% and seems like a professional. Then the games come and he looks like this. So I don't know what the fuck that is. So clearly there's that. There's that side of it where Léo just seems lazy. He's a bit of a one trick pony where he'd always do the same thing, but no one could contain him. But now it seems like they've got him figured out.
And then there's the thing of him playing more centrally. That's a fault of the formation, right? Because it's a three, four to one formation that allows Léo and Diaz to be not exactly wingers, but a bit closer to the striker, which allows Hernandez and Salah Makars to charge up and down the field. And that on the left really helps Hernandez. What it does is seriously compromise Léo because Léo at the start he was playing up front for Milan and anywhere inside the
box, he's not great. In front of goal, he's not great. You need him in a white position to cut the ball back in blindly and hope to God that there's someone in a good position to turn the ball into the back of the net. That's where you need Léo. I think that now with Chao in the team, with Kalulu in the team, with Tomori in the team, with Benassir Antonelli in the team, with Milan, with Mike back as well, I think Milan should swap to a four at the back again. 4-2-3-1? 4-2-3-1 or
4-3-3. And I would like to see Diaz stay on the wing because that's where he's best. That's where he has been the best. And I wouldn't mind him being one of those wingers that cuts in a little bit more. Léo to stay wide. I'd like to see Kalulu right back and I'd like to see Chao and Tomori as the two center backs. Benassir Antonelli double pivot. And who's the Czech-Whitista? The Czech-Whitista either play Charles, bring Charles in and actually look, you're not going to win the league Milan,
right? Might as well. You might as well play Charles. Try to get him match fit, try to get his confidence up, just put him in every week. Exactly. Or else do a 4-3-3 and play Krunic, play Benassir and play Tonali or play Pobega or play one of these guys. Apparently Astor Vranx is growing in training. Apparently he's playing very well. I agree with the latter part of what you said,
especially the formation change. Why not now that Milan are back to full health, now that they've got Manon back and all these protagonists back, they could go back to the formation that actually won them the league. Sure. Yes. What I disagree with is when you said that Léo has been figured out, I don't think he's been figured out. I simply think he's not playing in the same way. The reason he's not performing at his best is because he's not doing the things that he's
succeeded in doing before. Why do you think he's not? Because he's not charging down the byline anymore. He's not getting the ball and knocking it forward. So it's the position change. Yes. He's never in 1v1 situations anymore out on the wing. You put him in a 1v1, even at the halfway line. You're fucked. He's going to run past you. And once he does that once, twice, you see him, he gets confident. He starts doing, then he'll cut inside. And then suddenly it's like, okay,
so this guy's done me on the byline three times in a row. And now he's cut in. I can't read him. But now every time he gets the ball, he tries to cut in. I don't understand. And he hasn't got a great shot on him as well, as I said earlier. So cutting it on his right is something that you should be avoiding like the plague. I also think that it doesn't tell that obviously there's all these contract negotiations. And like, fuck me, man, if you're going to ask for so much money,
put your fucking money where your mouth is, at least for the love of God. For the love of God, if you're asking to be Milan's most expensive player, act like you Milan's most expensive player. Put in more work than anyone else because that's the person who deserves most money. I hate it when people say, Leo deserves asthma, give him anything he wants. He won Milan the league last year. That is, I'm going to go so far as saying, that is my least favorite saying in the
world. And there are some fucked sayings in the world, but that Leo single-handedly won Milan the league last year. Go fuck yourself and pull your eyes out with a fucking toothpick because you don't know what you're talking about. He was great. Milan's player of the season. And the best player in the league. Yes, sure. But Tonali and his last mid goal against Lazio and his various contributions, Ben Nasser controlling that midfield, Giroud getting those
winners against Inter and getting so many goals. Tomori, Theo, Kalouni coming in and solving that defensive problem. He was the catalyst. He was the X factor, Leo. Leo was the difference between a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 victory. So was Ben Nasser sometimes. Sure. Yes. No, especially towards the end of the season, everyone became a big moment player. Giroud, especially, for example, look at the goals he scored, but Leo, bro, was that driving force. He was the only player on this team that
was actually unplayable. You can't play against him. It's true. When he's on, bro, there is nothing you can do. You can't put anyone against him. The only person I've seen contain Leo when he's in top form is the guy of Chelsea. What's his name? The fullback, Reece James. Reece James was the only one I've seen who actually managed to hold Leo. But other than that, man, on his day,
he's totally unplayable. Yeah, but that's the thing. On his day, on his day, on his day. And I do think that as much as obviously he's brilliant and I hope to God that it wasn't a simple run of form that made him this good. I think a big part of it is how marketable he is as well. He's a very marketable player. He's got his trademark celebration. He's good looking. He's going on these shows with fucking speed. He's hilarious on Twitter kind of thing. He smiles when he's on the
ball. Everyone's in love with him, which maybe if he didn't have that, maybe it'd be 60 million and it wouldn't be 100 million. You know what I'm saying? But thankfully he's 100 million. Yeah. I think for his ability, who would be worth closer to that. But I understand your point. Yes, definitely. So Salernitana are undefeated in three games in a row now as they sit in 16th with 26 points. Finally, Semplice decided to start Dia. Dia of course scored. Not Semplice, bro, actually.
Sousa. Sousa. Sorry, my bad. Of course, we're just talking about Semplice. For Milan, they are currently in fourth with 48 points thanks to Roma's freak loss against Sassuolo. Taking it week by week. Yes, sir. And that is the perfect segue. Well done to Roma three, Sassuolo four. Now we thought I was going to rage during the Milan one during the interval. I feel like this is going to be an episode of me raging because I have a lot to rage about in this game as well. I'm so angry, man.
Roma three, Sassuolo four. The previous encounter was Sassuolo one. Roma one. So Pellegrini and Bellotti, sorry, Pellegrini, Bellotti and suspended Brian Cristante all missed out, right? De Ball and Mantrini were rested. So Chris Smalling was captain. Obviously De Ball and then came on and scored that goal. Mourinho started his two-match ban because it was overturned against Juve. And then suddenly they're like, no, actually, you know what I mean? You need to sit these two
games out because what you did was wrong. And it prompted this whole what they call a paniola, the protest from the crowd. They were waving these white handkerchiefs. Roma as a club, they also had a media blackout in order to protest for this. Mourinho posted a photo of him handcuffed on social media. I prefer really not to speak. And they didn't speak. No one was able to speak
on social media. They did this whole blackout shit. On the other hand, then Sassuolo welcomed back their captain, Domenico Berardi from suspension and they were still without Muldur and Romagna. So big fucking whoop and obviously Sassuolo coming into this game had won four of their last six games. So a compromised Roma started in a 3-4-2-1 formation with Rui Patricio on goal and the back line of Kumbulla, motherfucker, Smalling and Ibanez. They had Spinazzola out on the left and
Zalevski out on the right and double pivot of Matich and Bove. They had Ensharawi out on the left. They had Wijnaldum out on the right and Abraham out front. So a very compromised Rom. I'm just looking at this lineup and it's a bit yeah it's not ideal. First Sassuolo on the other end. It's a 4-3-3 formation with Concilie in goal, a back line of Tollian, Ruan, Ferrari and Rogerio, a midfield three of Frattesi, Lopez and Henrique and the front three of Berardi,
Lauriente and Penamonti between them. So let's get into this. 13th minute, Lauriente opens the scoring. The Frenchman netted into an empty net after Patricio denied Penamonti's volley. Well to be honest Lauriente almost fucked that one but he fumbled it over the line. In the 18th minute, Lauriente made it two goals in five minutes for Armand and four goals in two games for himself as well. 2-0 for Sassuolo. It was Berardi who squared the ball to him from the byline after repeatedly
poking at the Giallorossi and Lauriente finished well. At a point Berardi fucking backheeled the ball between the legs of Zalewski. No Spinazzola. Of Spinazzola you're absolutely right and just having Berardi back for Sassuolo such a massive plus man. In the 25th minute, Roma pulled one back making it 2-1. It was a Spinazzola cross that was met with the volley of the Polish wingback Zalewski which was mishit into the ground but it bounced over a static concili making it 2-1. And then it
was the 45th minute right 47th minute because it was 45 plus 2 right. Berardi is down in the box because he's down in the box it wasn't a simulation or anything of the sort and Kumbulla just kicks him maliciously. It wasn't a fucking hard kick he didn't try to kick him but the fucking idiot kicked him. He kicked him while he was grounded. The ball was in Patricio's hand safe and sound it was 2-1 they were gonna head into half time down 2-1 to Sassuolo but he kicked him gave away a penalty
got sent off and Berardi stepped up scored the penalty and made it 3-1. Suddenly they're heading into the break 3-1 down and a man down so really really well done to Kumbulla especially after the goal he scored midweek to send Roma through in the Europa League really really well done to him
for absolutely fucking their chances in this match. Yeah finally he got a break man his Roma career really hasn't been going um smoothly and he scored in the Champions League and and it seemed to be going well not Champions League sorry the other one Europa League the other one and yes it seemed to be a turning point for him but then not even a week later and he's out here doing this I mean tell me you're Albanian without telling me you're Albanian am I right?
Tell me you're playing a Jose Mourinho team is maybe a more a friendlier one sure but yeah I do think that Mourinho's comments his social media antics his his interview antics you know I think that this does have an effect on such a young team man maybe maybe and and it could be the case when you look at your leader your leader needs to lead by example no but then maybe as a professional you should understand that this guy is there to fire you up and maybe you shouldn't
be kicking motherfuckers when you fired up but whatever 50th minute they come out after the break and god bless Roma because even with a man down they managed to get back into the game after Debala scored a fantastic goal that made one of our goals of the week it was El Sharawi who laid the ball off to Debala just outside the area who spectacularly curled the ball into the top corner on the first time strike making it 3-2 from the restart of that Berardi hit the crossbar
with a half volley that's how fucking dangerous Sassuolo are right now and then the 75th Laurente carried the ball forward well before unleashing the hungry mammoth that is Pinnamonti who dinked the ball over the oncoming Patricio making it 4-2 and then in the 96th minute very similar goal for Roma to be honest it was Smalling that charged forward carrying the ball with the ball at his feet technique zero but he's rushing up with the ball he then gives a decent ball to Wijnaldum but
he kind of chipped it too much to him and Wijnaldum and then dinked the ball well he lifted the ball over the oncoming Consigli to make it 4-3 so just a constellation and the game ends Roma 3 Sassuolo 4 so obviously there's a lot to talk about in this game a seven goal thriller end-to-end stuff Sassuolo looking incredibly dangerous Roma compromised and still putting up
a fight what did you make of this game before we get into it? Well it was so chaotic man I love it and I really like what Sassuolo have managed to to start doing again they're looking like that offensive unit that we were used to in the days of De Zerbi, no before him De Francesco and De Zerbi both set the foundation for this team of course and Alessio Dionisi is a good manager and I'm happy that they're sticking with them because finally it's sticking finally
they're getting Pena Monti working, Llorien Tez an amazing signing, incredible football player and now the Berardi is back as well they've got Lopez and Frattesi in the middle as well
it's all good for Sassuolo at the moment and they're climbing the table again. They are man they are and they're incredibly dangerous they look like they're going to score with every single attack that they have this mirrored the game that they had against Milan where they obviously won five goals to two with Traore, sorry Traore with Llorienta in the team and Berardi in the team
they are top three when it comes to wingers in the league. Probably yes, probably the best tell me like Juve individually obviously have Di Maria and Chiesa for example and there's Atala, Napoli of course but you know Napoli have Guevara and then the other side it's either Poletano or Chucky Lozano which I mean is not bad at all. It's better but yes they're definitely top five for sure I would even say third yes Berardi and Llorienta just give you something so amazing on the wings.
Absolutely man and what a plus it is having their captain back Berardi apart from him being an absolute menace is he is a great captain he's a leader he motivates everyone he leads by example
and then just above that he's a fucking goalscoring winger like. It mustn't be easy to stay at a team like Sassuolo for so long we often wonder why is it that Sassuolo show up in the big games and losing the small ones you know and a big part of that and we've discussed this quite often on the podcast is that they don't have a fan base you know you look at the stands there are no celebrations when Sassuolo get a last-minute goal there are no celebrations ever it's just the players celebrating
and like three guys in the stand yeah it's quite sad to watch and the fact that Berardi has managed to stay over there he's a real legend man for those few Sassuolo fans that exist because many people over there actually support other teams like Inter Milan, Juve whatever for those who support Sassuolo Berardi is a god yeah for 100% and I don't know why so many teams haven't snapped them up yet when you think of the lack of talent there is on the right wing around the world really how scarce
it is to have a good right winger and Domenico Berardi you know what I'm saying like Milan for example I've been complaining about their right wingers for a while now obviously there's that whole financial thing but like the Keiteleare cost 40 million and they had Brahim in that position so maybe if they allocated those resources towards getting Berardi on it would have been a good shout for them and still 28 years old Berardi feels like he's been around for ages I think to
be honest there Milan might be waiting for his fucking price tag to go down because of his age like or waiting for his contract to run out. Roma had to play the entirety of the second half with 10 men and down by two after Kumbulla did what he did which we already kind of went through but the man caused absolute havoc for no reason whatsoever if you're more in your like how do you react to
that as his manager? Yeah I mean you have to you have to let him know obviously obviously Kumbulla would be distraught after that right he'd be embarrassed he's gonna get a lot of backlash in the media I think Mourinho what you should do is tell him listen rush of blood to the head we've all been there competitive spirit you have to move on from this you have to move on like don't dwell on it when you're back you're back let's keep going yeah that's it yeah that would
be the right way to to go about it and thankfully he's not Rick Karsdorp so Mourinho might actually do that because by the way Mourinho's back to shitting on Karsdorp. Is he? Yes yes in the media he's using him as a scapegoat yet again which is almost becoming too much to be honest with you because this guy got exiled from the squad now Mourinho actually gave him a second chance as we predicted he would but he's shitting on him again so like at this point just don't play him if you
don't like what he has to offer don't play him. Exactly exactly that's a simple fact of the matter and it's funny because he initially started shitting on Karsdorp after their first game
against Oswalo. Oh really? Yeah he had said that one player's unprofessional attitude affected the entire team and it's funny because another player's unprofessional attitude fucked them in this game against Oswalo as well but he's back to shitting on Rick Karsdorp who defensively is way more sound than than Zalevski but it is good to see Zalevski getting his first goal for the club. Yeah for sure it's been a long time coming he's been playing very well the young
youngster. Yeah I'm dying to hear what Mourinho or any of the coaching staff have to say about this game but obviously they're not speaking because of the media blackout but I'm just dying to hear something I even went on Kiesadetotti and built up this game great page run by Roma fans absolutely brilliant articles you should give them a look and they too didn't seem to have much to say obviously they highlighted what what Kumballa did and how wrong that was the media
blackout and then the call on Mourinho to suddenly be suspended again after they let them be on the sideline for the Juve game what what what is with that like? I have no clue bro it's it's a really it's a really weird one I guess the appeal was given it was granted the ban was lifted and then
all of a sudden they they impose it again I'm not sure what that's all about. Yeah well neither neither do I it's quite a seria kind of kind of call to make Dionisi's reaction was to the penalty he couldn't watch he couldn't watch I don't know if you guys know but our girlfriends well my girlfriend I think yes I've never heard Sarah call Dionisi a cutie pie what she finds Dionisi really attractive yeah she calls him the sexy manager yeah the sexy manager
this is the sexy manager gonna be there this weekend like yes yeah he's there every weekend and she used to she used to call Mihailović the one with the swanky hat so no no first it was a week apart by the way one week she sees Mihailović on tv and she's like that's a stupid hat then we're okay a week later he's on tv again wearing the exact same hat and she's like what a swanky hat are you kidding me that was funny as well she's like well why is he wearing that stupid
hat under the key he's got cancer man and he's like oh he doesn't change her ways a week later he's like oh that's a swanky hat like of course it's swanky now yeah how rude feeling guilty yeah but but I mean there's there's not as in there was so much chaos in this game um so many good talking points for Saswal on how dangerous they are there's still that question about them defensively that they're still not that strong Roma on the other hand coming into this game
were very compromised and I think for how compromised they were and down to 10 men in the second half I think they did a good job I think they played well um I think for example Bove didn't have a brilliant match I think Matić didn't have a brilliant match either but they did the best they can do you've got one of them that's just starting his career and the other one that's finishing his career and there's absolutely no balance over there and on the other hand you've
got Fratesi Lopez and Henrique that just tore them apart in midfield and I do think that that's where Saswal won the game yes yes and that's where they win most games yeah um you look at them and if they had Torino's defense imagine Saswal with Torino's defense it'd be so good and or even Odineza's defense to be honest that's the only thing Saswal when it comes when you compare them to like Monza Odineza Bologna Torino even Fiorentina they've got a very good offensive line and midfield
probably better than all those guys yeah but when it comes to their defensive line it's absolutely rubbish yeah Pinamonti you got a goal over here big goal against against Roma and what do you do with with Pinamonti I would personally keep him on for another season and keep on starting him until he explodes because he's got it in him I think man yeah he does and he's finally settling in right um it takes a while to settle into a team with such a particular system especially
when you came from a team with a different system in M-point yeah um so yes definitely they should definitely stick to him yeah I agree it's not like Roma were the better team or anything in this game Sasuala had an xg of four goals whereas Roma had an xg of 1.78 goals there are 17 goal attempts by Roma to Sasuala's 19 goal attempts seven on target for Roma 10 on target for Sasuala yeah honorable work by Roma to try to actually get something out of this game they
almost manage yeah yeah and that's no easy feat against at home against Sasuala is more dangerous than away yeah Sasuala and we all know that Robin Hood yeah steal from the rich they give to the poor exactly Roma obviously missed out on quite an opportunity here to break into the top four but they are now down to fifth on 47 points um while Sasuala climbed to 13th on 33 points they're now level on points with Monza one behind Fiorentina and two behind Odinese how the turntable is man
how the turntables Juventus four Sampdoria two the previous encounter was a nil-nil draw Juventus have won their last eight Serie A home meetings against Sampdoria for the first time since their run between 1947 and 1953 my god for Juve it was a 3-5-1-1 formation with Perrin in goal Danilo Bonici and Bremer at the back Kostic on the left and De Cilio on the right with a midfield three of Rabio Baranecha and Fagioli um Miretti was the trecoartista with Vlaović up front for Sampdoria
it was a 3-4-1 formation with Turk in goal Turk where was JD? Scrubs reference for those baby all my life i will be that's king of queen oh my god so i'm just gonna let that sit thanks Gunther, Nuitink and Amione were at the back with Zanoli on the right, Augelo on the left, Harry Winx and Rincon were in the middle, Laris and Juricic were playing behind Gabiardini um no Superman that's the one that's the one yeah there we go in the 11th minute Kostic gave a corner
and found Bremer who made an amazing run the Brazilian towered over everyone and headed at home his third goal of the season in the 26th minute Miretti played a great out swinging ball into the area and Rabion Rabion Rabiot towered over everyone to head it home amazing aerial dominance over there that was Rabio's eighth goal of the season his best season to date of course it comes when his contract is expiring um so a little bit of a tricky situation for you should they renew
him his demands must be quite high at the moment with the season he's had um or should they take into consideration the fact that for three years prior to this one he was quite mediocre yeah in the 31st minute Sampdoria started their comeback as Laris shot was blocked and the ball fell into the path of Augelo who scored with his weaker foot um you know Sampdoria are done by the way because of the way the players celebrate meaningless goals like Augelo scored the goal to make it to one and
he took off to the corner flag to celebrate like go pick the ball up bro you know you're about to get relegated go get the ball and try to score again and to be fair he celebrated they got the ball back one minute later Napoli loanee Alessandro Zanoli terrorized right hand side and squared it to Djuricic who scored first time a great goal over there and suddenly it's 2-2 half time second half starts and in the 64th minute Rabio controlled the ball with his arm and volleyed it
home he didn't celebrate because he knew it had hit his arm but apparently the Allianz stadium only has one camera angle on that part of the pitch and this is actually a fact it's not a joke i'm not being funny there's one camera angle available and that's one of the reasons why for example um Condreva wasn't seen in that offside position when Salernitana scored that goal earlier on the season um i don't even know what to say this is one of the most modern
stadiums in italy how does it have only one camera angle yeah i was gonna say how convenient for you of all teams it's actually worked easy but it actually put them in the ass before as well yeah um fucking shambolic to be honest with you yeah one camera bro i could lend them a lot of like 200 euro if they want like there we go to get a canon camera and put it somewhere like jesus christ yeah just put an iphone later on Augelo dropped quadrado on the box quadrado the
slippery little cockroach he is managed to win a penalty Dusan Vlaović sent the keeper the wrong way but hit the bar shortly after that quadrado struck the crossbar and then the 93rd minute Vlaović's header hit the crossbar again and Sule headed in his first goal ever for Juventus at the age of 18 years old a great moment for him and a massive victory for Juventus no longer one nil victories and they're scoring goals nowadays and they are as well as a yeah exactly as a result of
that they're also conceding keep in mind that alongside Lazio they were the team with the best defense this year it almost seemed like no one was ever going to score against Juve they went on a run of like seven matches without conceding a goal or six matches i think it was that was obviously before they conceded so many in one game i believe that was against Napoli yeah um but but yeah it's they are playing a more attractive brand of football under Max Allegri
bless him because he's gotten a lot of shit for his very pragmatic approach to every single game his very boring approach um but you know they they are playing an attractive brand of football and at the moment you are one of the teams that i'm enjoying to watch the most yes and and that's not a thing that's often said um you look at the individuals available they're all capable of changing the game Chiesa, Vlaović, Di Maria for example these guys can create something out of
nothing even Rabiot the form he's in yeah so that's nice to see but then you see the way that they lined up in this game and and there was Barineccia, Miretti and Fagioli all starting and and you know Fagioli got an assist Miretti got an assist so they've got young talent as well they do and they've got a bright future ahead of them they do Mancini has praised them in fact um and he didn't comment about the the Milan situation where they didn't feel the single Italian Italian it's
the opposite situation at Juve right now yeah um Sampdoria had previously previously scored 11 goals all season long but managed to put two past Juventus in two minutes the last time Juve conceded two in two minutes was against Chievo in 2011 when Fernando Rebenj and Naro Sardo managed to secure a precious point for Chievo with goals in the 68th and 69th minute yeah so it had been a while since Juve got split open like that and I do think a big factor of that is the dusty Bonucci at the
back I think Bonucci is done and I I don't think that um he has much longer left at Juve no absolutely not and I think Juve will um be quick to the market to find another centre back at the moment obviously Bremer, Danilo and Sandro have served them very well they've got a young Gatti as well that's dying to prove himself and has already had a couple of good performances more than a couple actually um but I think they will be in in the in the market to sign one obviously if they don't
have a transfer ban or anything of the sort and you just know they're gonna look for a young Italian
centre back yes bro is Pogba done? He's out for another month and in the past three seasons he's missed like 140 something games or something yeah it's it's too much right it's too much for a player who's on the wages that Pogba's on that's way too much yeah that's what I always say that that modern football um with the way it's working if you have a couple of good seasons now obviously Pogba had more than a couple of good seasons but the Premier League and other leagues are paying
so much to these players that should they go through a bad run of form you could consider their career over because no one's willing to spend so much money on them unless they take a pay cut unless they take a pay cut which most of them wouldn't be willing to take because keep in mind that these people just want to live comfortable lives so you look at Gareth Bale who retired so young you look at Eden Hazard that'll probably follow suit soon um you look at a bunch of players
that are in that situation right now Pogba he's so his his body isn't there yeah he's 29 years old he's 29 years old he's always been riddled with injuries now it's worse than it's ever been they're piling on each other he also has somewhat of an attitude problem which got him um he he was only involved he could have only been involved in three games this season twice as a substitute one of them in one of the games he appeared for 15 minutes and in the other one he didn't appear
and then the other one he couldn't get called up because he showed up late to a team meeting something of the sort and so he's not helping himself either but to answer your question of is Pogba finished I think at the top level he might be yeah um he's on 8.8 million pounds per year playing for Juve net that's 170 000 pounds a week um he's 29 years old again his contract expires in 2026 that's the thing right you are gonna find it tough to sell him so he's he's gonna
have to um recover slowly yeah and it's kind of his his fault as well because he tried to rush his recovery to make it in time for the world cup and that bit him in the ass because he's been relapsing ever since yeah he avoided surgery and then he got injured again and and he was forced to have the surgery um so he could have won himself a couple of months there potentially you know and it wouldn't just be him obviously the medical staff would have tried to make him
have the surgery but clearly they didn't try hard enough yeah um he wanted to play in the world cup you can't really enforce a player with a dream like that um Vlaović his poor run of form we've defended we defended about two or three weeks ago we said that it's it's not that bad but he he still has yet to score and now once again people are talking about it's Stankovic for example after the match had a chat with Vlaović he told him not to give up and to keep his head
down and keep working because the goals will come are you concerned about Vlaović? I'm not concerned about Vlaović the goals will come yes he's going through a tough time where his shooting boots aren't on but we know what kind of player he is we know how talented he is he's still a young guy he's got an entire career ahead of him i don't think Juve are gonna lose faith in him because they do know how great he is i definitely don't think he was a one or two season wonder because
he's got that ability in him um yeah he's going through a tough time i think the fact that we've spoken about the system that he plays in doesn't allow him to get many goals because they don't really play with a target man and they've even played without a striker before Juve that doesn't help Vlaović and then you'd at least hope that the chances that he gets like for example from the spot where he's been so deadly before that will score the chances he gets but it's
played with his confidence but he will be back he will be back and he'll be one of the best strikers in the league again in a heartbeat sure i agree um Zanoli bro the fullback of Sampdoria is currently on loan from Naples he's 21 years old he's a libra fun fact i just googled his age on wikipedia and it told me he's a libra so whoever cares about that type of stuff there you go do you think that he can be a vice di Lorenzo no because he's a libra no had he been a Sagittarius
exactly um yeah he could be he could be a vice for him and even you know he could with the rotation that Napoli play with you know occasionally bringing in players who still fit the system well under Spalletti he could really be a good refined right back and he has di Lorenzo to learn a lot from so he'll be in great hands at Naples and i think he's he'll be dying to go back yeah um just a fun little fact before we move on no one has created more chances than Di Maria and Seah this
season with 25 um he's even with Jeremy Boga okay interesting that's an interesting little stat over there deserved victory for Juventus Sampdoria tried and fought but it was not enough Juve's dominance in set pieces and in the air proved to be absolutely devastating for them yeah yeah sorry about this yes i have the actual quote here actually from Stankovic i forgot i prepared this and i can i can quote it here i spoke to Dusan in the locker room like i was his father and
he was my son it's not a good moment for him but he can't give up he's a born bomber he'll break his duck you know better than me that when it happens he'll even start scoring with his shoulder so yes fair enough fair enough um i tend to agree with Stankovic over there same here a good person perhaps not having the best season ever he's statistically Sampdoria's worst ever coach now Juventus have climbed to seventh with 38 points they're edging closer and closer to that
top four spot as they're only 10 points away right now while Sampdoria sit dead lost with 12 points and haven't won a game in ages yeah we forgot to address the Champions League oh yes Milan advanced after drawing nil nil to Spurs Mike pulled off a great save towards the end to keep Milan in the game and they advanced and yesterday Porto Inter also ended draw in Portugal and Onana also pulled off some great saves and at a point in the space of five seconds Porto hit the crossbar twice yeah
man crazy scenes towards the end man they got so close Porto at the end but Inter held it together and actually went through Dumfries cleared the ball off the line yeah so he gives away a penalty and say yeah he's hated clears the ball off the line the Champions League he's loved like exactly Inter fans don't know how to feel about him yeah now Napoli are winning 3-0 against Frankfurt um so yeah Frankfurt fans are going to feel a bit stupid for what they've done but yeah we could
move on to Bologna nil Lazio nil the previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Bologna along with a 1-0 victory in the Coppa Italia these teams were both in good general form but also fresh from surprise defeats Bologna to Torino and Lazio and the Conference League to AZ Alkmaar Arnautovic, Orsolini, Dominguez and Immobile were out injured and Adam Maricich was suspended it was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Motta's men with Skorupski in goal and the back line of Cambiasso,
Lukumi, Sao Mauro and Posch a double pivot of Schouten and Moura in the middle with Kiria Coppola out on the left, Arbisher out on the right with Ferguson down the middle in the Jack Wartister role and Moussa Barrow up front so again we're looking at quite a compromised team for Lazio it was a 4-3-3 formation with Providel in goal and the back line of Lazari, Ciasale, Romagnoli and Hisai and a midfield three of Milinkovic, Savic, Vecino and Luis Alberto
and a front three of Pedro, Zakani and Anderson down the middle. So although it was a 0-0 draw doesn't mean there wasn't any action whatsoever guys but most of the action did come from Bologna actually who did look like they were going to get away with a victory over here in the 28th minute Luis Ferguson hit the post with a header after a good cross by Kiria Coppola in the 33rd minute Providel denied Barrow a great goal by getting down well with a strong hand at his near post
and then the 34th minute Lazio got close Skorupski produced a massive double save after denying Alberto clean through on goal before stopping an Anderson follow-up and then in the second half Kiria Coppola's shot dragged just wide and Moussa Barrow nearly scored from a direct corner and also with a long range shot which flashed just wide moments later it was a great great performance by Moussa Barrow. Yes he played really well in the absence of Arnautovic and Morsolini he proved to
be quite the driving force up front and he was unlucky not to get anything this game. Yeah absolutely and we've criticized him as a striker but his work ethic was absolutely there he held the ball up really well towards the end of the game he was defending very well as well he got that pivotal block at a point as well I forgot exactly who he denied but it was absolutely brilliant and he seemed happy and maybe it's more things to come we haven't seen much of him this
season but with this compromise side we'll definitely be seeing more of him. Yeah. He's trying to hold an eye on and he looks really funny. Yeah I'm trying not to show you that I'm bored of what you're saying. There was a comical moment in the final minutes as referee Fabio Maresca rushed over to stop Philipp Anderson's arc he met with Gary Medel and he slipped and accidentally crashed into both of them. I haven't seen that. It's hilarious bro. You have to find it.
Yeah we could make this a little snippet as well you're welcome guys. I feel like overall in this game so Bologna were the most dangerous side but they failed to score past a very tight knit Lazio defense in fact you look at most of the attempts they came from distance with the exception of Ferguson's header that hit the post Barrow tried one from distance and he tried one from a fucking corner and just a lot of these shots did happen from distance even Barrow when
Providel dropped down to get a good save with a strong hand that was also kind of from quite a tight angle it's really tough to penetrate Lazio no matter how much of a good game you're having man. Yeah it's true and Lazio they do struggle away from home but there's still a unit you know
yeah defensively they're still sound. Trasale and Romanioli are quite difficult to get through and Providel and goal isn't really a joke and then you look at the midfielder you have Savage and Vecino who are extremely physical you have the tricky little Luis Alberto it's a tough team to penetrate. Yeah I think off the ball they're one they're among the best in the league Lazio.
They did however fail to assert themselves in this match they did lack intensity but they remain defensively sound as we're saying which obviously resulted in this nil-nil stalemate. Our listener and friend Mathias asked if we think that Baldanzi would fare well at Lazio.
Baldanzi I'm not exactly sure that as such an offensive track artist he fits their system exactly but should they wish to amp it up and go more attacking in a game it'd be great to bring off the bench but I don't know if he'd fit directly in the system maybe I'd see him even playing as one of the wingers maybe replacing for example Pedro if Pedro's injured I think he could
play in those areas I see him fitting in more there than the midfield. Okay I can see him fitting in the if it's like a 4-3-3 with an advanced midfielder you know what I mean so let's say for example when Luis Alberto's out or he can be an understudy to Luis Alberto for example you play with Milenkovic, Savic and Vecino as the double pivot and you have Baldanzi in the hole over there in
the pocket I think he can do really well there. I don't think I don't think Lazio fancy playing that way though I think they like having those three as a unit alongside each other without
having one of them straying offensively too much they like a balanced midfield I feel. It's true but that third midfielder the Luis Alberto midfielder in the system the Zilinski back in Saris time at Napoli he tend they tend to be tricky players who have a lot of flair and creativity going forward and Baldanzi does suit that and Baldanzi's at the age where he can be
molded into anything. Yeah that's true. So it could work out yes I still don't think he's ready for a leap of that caliber yet I think it'd be better for him to stay at a team like Napoli really fight for his starting spot and cement himself into that team as he's done and develop slowly without any pressure and then eventually when he's got a bit more experience and then he can take the leap to a top team. That for sure if he were to go to Lazio he'd be more of like an experimental
substitute when they need to find a goal and they want to be more offensive. I find it interesting that in that midfield like when Luis Alberto wasn't playing Cataldi was playing so that goes to show how he I feel like at Lazio he really doesn't like having such an offensive outlet but times can change teams can change and maybe he'll be a good little coup for them. Skorupski obviously had that mad double save I feel like that's his trademark those those double saves he pulls off a
couple he's such a good keeper I rate him so highly man Skorupski. He's cat-like and it's a shame that he exists at the same time that Szczesny exists because he could be Poland's number one goalkeeper but it looks like you know Szczesny is 32, Skorupski is 31. I don't think Skorupski will ever play for Poland to be honest. Dragovski on the other hand is probably the future of the Polish national team at 25 years old. But Skorupski has been around he was at Roma. That I did not know
I was surprised to find that out man. Yeah from 2013 to 2018 he only had six appearances he was their backup goalkeeper then he was sent out on loan to Empoli where he played in that team with Caputo and Traor and all those guys who played a very attractive brand of football he had 66 appearances there and has been at Bologna since 2018 now and doing very well and has cemented himself getting over 160 caps for them. Yeah I think he's one of the best keepers in Serie A
man I really really rate him. Lazio sit in third on 49 points one behind Inter, Whitefield 49 points one behind Inter, while Bologna are in ninth on 36 points just two points behind Juvent 7th and one point behind Torino in eighth. The next game we're going to be covering is Cremoneze nil Fiorentina 2. The reverse fixture was a 3-2 victory for Fiorentina. I remember the drama at the end with the Rado mistake. Yeah. Cremoneze have... Match day one. Match day one there we go.
Cremoneze have failed to beat Fiorentina in 12 Serie A meetings and another fun little fact over here is among the players in Europe's top five leagues in 2022-2023 only Kane and Mbolo have scored more headed goals than Jovic. What? I know it feels like every goal Jovic scores is a header and he's not even that big is he? No. You look at Kane he scored seven headers Mbolo six and Jovic five this is in all competitions of course that makes sense because in Serie A it wouldn't be
possible. Now Cremoneze lined up with their 5-3-2 formation classic Davide Ballardini ball over here with Karnecek in goal Valeri out on the left and Sir Nicola on the right. The defensive three were Vasquez, Bianchetti and Ferrari. Benassi, Galdamez and Pickel played in the middle with Dezers and Saju up front. For Fiorentina it was a 4-2-3-1 formation Sirigu was in goal for this one. Dodo on the right Biragi on the left with Martinez Quartan Milinkovic at the back.
Amrabat and Mandragora played in the midfield with Jonathan Ikwane on the right wing. Ricardo Sopanar on the left wing. Barak as the trecoartista and Cabral up front. Now Dezers almost flicked in a looping header in the first minute and went just over the bar over there was a good chance for Cremoneze they would have made their lives a living hell had that gone in they would have
wasted the entire game basically. In the 27th minute there was some good link-up play and some nice Cremoneza ball watching that led to Mandragora driving in his first goal since matchday one against Cremoneze. My god. He was inspired Mandragora this game played a really good game. Very good game. In the 50th minute there was once again some amazing link-up play from Fiorentina as they one-twoed their way into the box leading to Mandragora squaring it to Cabral who converted.
The only Aussie man has scored more than Cabral in Serie A in 2023. Oh what? I know bro these stats like what the fuck. Jesus Christ. Where are they coming from? Fuck. In the 79th minute Cremoneze had an opportunity to get back into the game when Ocarieca was played through but Serigou had an
amazing one-on-one save on Ocarieca over there. Now this game was pretty much a solid display from Fiorentina and they they won it because they were more lethal because to be fair when you look at the statistics of this game when you watch this game it was quite even quite an even affair. However you have players like Dessers you have Cioffani who was brought on as a solution you have Ocarieca these guys all had opportunities to score this game but they did not. Their defense
was terrible on the first goal everyone ball watching. Cremoneze deserved this loss and Fiorentina deserved their third victory in a row. Yeah I mean Cremoneze obviously they do look like an improved side but playing against Fiorentina at the moment is hell for anyone they're on such good form and they even they keep changing things around obviously notorious for their rotation especially in the wing department. They had Mandragora in this game they had Cabral in
this game and they opted for Riccone and Saponara on the wings. I mean it was a solid display by them but like you're saying Cremoneze are really not up to the task. Stats are quite even but Cremoneze just when they were attacking they really didn't look like they were posing any threat really. Dessers' looping header for example was very very fucking weak by him and they don't have difference makers they don't have someone that can finish a chance or provide the chance so it was
quite straightforward I would say for Fiorentina. Yes it was quite straightforward. I'm always impressed bro. Saponara okay we always talk about him but he's never talked about anywhere else right and you look at this guy and you look at nowadays okay they've got Ikone they've got Kwame they've got Sotil they've got Nico Gonzales and now they've brought in Brekalo right? Yeah. Those are five wingers. Six with Saponara yet in the league Saponara starts more often than not
nowadays. You know why? Because of his fucking massive brain bro that's why he's a genius right and he understands Italiano's system. Italiano respects him because of his high footballing IQ. Vlaović nicknamed him il professor del culture when he was at Fiorentina a professor of football.
There's a reason for that yes sometimes it's not only about your your work rate your physicality sometimes it's simply about your ability to see the space and play someone into the space your ability to play a touch a one pass move you know it's simply get the ball and release immediately release into the space and Saponara is like god at doing that granted he doesn't have many minutes in his legs in fact he took him off in the 46th minute over there and they did look more
direct without them however the creativity did dip but yeah so it's it's crazy to see Saponara starting so consistently with so much competition in that department and and i think Saponara might have a better time on the pitch when Cabral is starting rather than Jović because he provides so much more movement up front that Saponara could really really find him even with his height um yeah i think i think he'd simply have a better time with him on the pitch
definitely bro um Cabral and Jović are both scoring nowadays aren't they um we we said recently you have to kind of start one of them now you have to give one of them consistent game time yeah but that he seems to be doing the opposite right now at Alianna just playing in 50-50 and suddenly they've both started scoring so good on you with Alianna you figured it out yeah he's absolutely figured it out and he's getting the best out of both of them at the moment and you
know what i think he's getting the best out of everyone in this team right now and before it was a bit of an identity crisis for Fiorentina they lacked creativity um they lacked someone that can score the goals for them and now they're a creative unit that score goals you know what i mean so things have really changed for them and yeah they'll break into the top 10 you know what i mean sometimes maybe good sometimes maybe shit but they're very good now they're very good the past
three four games wow and there is something psychological over here and i don't know how much players actually care about this stuff and if the stuff is actually talked about in the dressing room but you look at for example Fiorentina this match they they've fixed their goal difference their goal difference at a zero i wonder if they they look at this and say okay this is a fresh start it's only up from here let's not go into the negative now absolutely i mean especially for
their defense i mean they don't want to be conceding all of those goals and it's a great sign because before they were conceding and not scoring and now they're scoring and they're not conceding so it's like okay guys this needs to be a fucking 10 by the end of the season and there will be a bit of a target on that front i'm quite sure there will be yeah torino have the same thing by the way they this match they they've reset their goal their goal difference they've hit zero
very interesting um yes not much else to say about this game let's go into their standings so Fiorentina are 11th with 34 points while Cremona are 19th with 12 points the next game we're going to be covering is Lecce nil torino to the previous encounter was a one nil victory for torino lecce starting their 4-3-3 formation with Falcone and goal and the back line of Gallo, Umtiti, Basquirotto and Gendre they had the midfield three of Gonzales, Huilman,
Dunblin with Di Francesca out on the left, Stefetta out on the right and Assan Sissé up front Torino played their 3-4-2-1 formation with Vania and goal and the back line of Gavarillon, Schuurs and Bongiorno they had Sango out on the right and Ricardo Rodriguez out on the left once again with Linetti and Illich in the midfield they had Miranchuk out on the right Radonjic out on the left and Sanabria up front so the 19th minute Sango opened the scoring a nicely worked set piece
routine meant that Miranchuk had acres of space to deliver a perfect cross from a central area which made its way past the lecture defense and slotted him by Sango on the half volley just four minutes later Sanabria made it too it was Radonjic who did all of the work however he turned into a footballer again as he carried the ball forward on the wing from his own half flooring Basquirotto in the process before squaring it to Sanabria from the byline who slotted it in to make it 2-0
brilliant work by Radonjic redemption song just after the 30 minute mark an edgy scrap took place on the touchline between the players and staff of the two clubs leading referee Juan Lucas Saki to show red cards coaching staff from both clubs and a number of bookings and that was probably the most exciting part of this game lecture did seem to settle into the game a little bit more towards the end in fact they ended up having 13 goal attempts most of those coming in the second half
but yeah Torino to be honest quite a comfortable victory for them good reaction by Radonjic I know he wasn't criticized for his ability to dribble or his ability to attack but rather his football brain and his defensive abilities but still nonetheless very good to see him capable of doing that he ran to the byline exactly Rafa that there you go there you go I'm like which Rafa are you talking to right now but yeah it makes it makes perfect sense I mean it's
so effective right when you've got that blistering pace and you look at Radonjic for example physically and all that he's nothing compared to Leo but you know he ran to the byline he knocked it past his man and he absolutely destroyed them and what redemption for him and I'm sure Juric is ecstatic from that reaction yeah he would be he would be let's say for a team that scores so many set pieces so many set pieces you know they score set pieces and they really
can't defend them in fact they're the team in the league that have conceded most from set pieces and you look at Umtiti, Basquerota you think that that won't be the case yeah but maybe it's the way they're set up yeah sometimes that happens yeah I think so they have taken a bit of a dip here let's say they have and they might be in trouble bro because they're on 27 points um I don't know they you know you don't need to panic yet but but if Veroan actually do go on a run and this
form continues for Letria then they might be in trouble yes yeah look you start dropping points and you're in trouble when you're mid table yeah and everyone steps it up in the second half of the season typically Letria and Empoli are on 27 and 28 points they are eight and nine points from from the drop that is not safe and they've both lost three in a row exactly so so yeah we'll we'll see what happens there and then you look at for example the likes of Spezia who seem to pick
it up a bit with two two draws in the victory in the last game Salernitana also two draws in the victory um Veroana have slumped a little bit now they're drawing they were on a good run yeah they haven't won in four games now they've got an injury crisis yeah in their hands Veroana um they they were on such a good run of form and they just got smacked by that I think they will be back though yeah Cremonezza have won one game all season some day have won two games all season so
those guys might be down and out unless a miracle happens so it's simply Veroana, Spezia, Salernitana, Letria, Empoli who's going down looks to be Veroana right now but you never know in football the tide can shift so quickly yeah let's see I said Veroana will be back one thing I want to say is that they are running out of time so they do need to be careful and they do need to pick it up soon they need to be careful you know they've got a bunch of injuries but yeah we'll see what
they can do we're still yet to discuss them in this match today Torino had a good game however a good first half they seemed to chill out and step back a bit in the second half which was probably the smart thing to do sure Letria looked like you know maybe they were going to do something they grew into the game but they weren't because Torino are an absolute unit defensively I'll tell you what Ricardo Rodriguez is putting in good performances on the left hand side he's a defensive
left winger sorry left wing back and when you have Radonejic playing on the left wing he strays so wide this is why Leao Hernandez doesn't exactly work in a 3-4-3 or a 3-4-2-1 because you've got two offensive ones so um Leao needs to come more central in order to allow Teo to run out to the byline and to make those overlap runs over here what you see with the balance of Radonejic and Rodriguez is Rodriguez is a left wing back but he stays back more you hardly ever see him pass the
halfway line yeah and then Radonejic strays very wide which is then when Illich comes into support and Miranchuk comes into support and Sanabria comes into support so the balance that they have over there works really well for them with with Ricardo Rodriguez as a left wing back obviously not to mention Singo on the other side sorry to interrupt you but Singo on the other side is the complete opposite of Ricardo Rodriguez so it offers the team some balance over there exactly and then
in fact on that side you see Sango attacking and attacking and then you see Miranchuk coming in central yeah that's that that is a very well balanced system that they have going on and the way that they defend as a team and attack as a team is something that every single team in the league apart from Napoli should look at and learn something from because they are fantastic they're a fantastic team at the moment yeah this was an expert display getting two goals in 23 minutes
and then just defending and not conceding is great absolutely that fight was extremely entertaining bro who do you think would win Vanja or Basquerotta oh good question bro okay I think if it's striking if it's striking Vanja wins because he's got the reach yes and I feel like he can head kick yeah I feel like he can fucking head kick um but Basquerotta will have the capability of taking it to the ground and he's still big but he's a smaller guy with a better
center of gravity and I think if he pins him down Vanja might have a hard time getting up there we go but his long limbs and his expertise in Jiu-Jitsu I don't know I'm just fucking talking here but I think his long limbs can allow him to do something even when he's on his back or something yeah so if Basquerotta takes it to the ground it's his if not Milinkovic has the reach advantage exactly so then to be honest it's true be honest oh but one Basquerotta punch and he's out huh oh bro you know
how you can't let him he could get him with a body shot to the liver man yeah I feel like it'd have a good upper cut people vomit right instantly when they get struck and delivered or something yeah it's happened but yes that that that is my favorite analysis we we've ever done I think um I was gonna say something else about Torino I feel but it's probably not that important if I can't remember it hey yeah I mean it's probably you're probably gonna regret not remembering it
but let's be real so what you can mention it next week yeah that's fair I mean Torino now sit in eighth place like you said they're on the gold difference of zero they're on 37 points just one behind their local rivals in Juve Lecce on the other hand in 15th place on 27 points and we can now start saying eight points from the drop yes sir the next game we're going to be discussing is this the last one or is it the penultimate penultimate the penultimate game we're going to
be covering is Empoli nil Udinese one the previous fixture was a one-one draw and the previous five say meetings between Empoli and Udinese averaged 3.8 goals per game so these are typically high scoring affairs so this was a rare one over here Christ Empoli had won three of their previous home matches against Udinese oh okay yeah so Empoli actually had the upper hand historically now Empoli lined up with their 4-3-1-2 formation with Perrizan in goal this was the week of weird
goalkeepers where is everyone Perrizan Perrizan Turk Sirigu you know it's like all the second goalkeepers featured Handanovic so Parisi was out on the left Stojanovic out on the right with Luperto and Ismaili as a center-back duo with Bandonele Limard and Akhba Akhpro as the midfield three Akhba Akhpro ever impressive by the way yes man Baldanzi was sat in the pocket with Satriano and Caputo up front Silvestri was in goal for Udinese and their 3-5-2 formation with
Rodrigo Baccao Biol and Perez at the back Ezebui on the right fuck that guy's name Udoge on the left Lovrich Wallace and Pereira were in the middle with Beto and success up front now the first half was just a series of me going go because both teams got so close to scoring particularly Baccao and Caputo so it was like every every time I hate it when you do that because he drinks everything man it's like like it's a cross you know what I mean
I love it fuck you I love that I was like get your attention so the goal came in the 54th minute when Sandy Lovrich gave a corner and Rodrigo Baccao headed it in how many headers has Baccao scored man he's such a beast in the air and that was enough for Udinese as their goal in the 54th minute basically is what they held on to you look at what they did in the 77th minute and this is cheek yeah between the 77th minute and the 87th minute Udinese made four
substitutions right the first one the first one in the 77th okay second one in the 81st third one in the 86th fourth one in the 87th right they're just killing yeah the tempo they're killing Empoli's momentum they're just killing off the game hanging on to that one nil victory in the cheapest most blatant way possible and they took home all three points they absolutely needed a victory over here they they've been struggling recently Empoli are not on a great run of form at
all they got that one nil lead you know Sotil does what he has to do he does what he has to do and that to me is sure it's cheap but it's low-key a bit genius as well it's intelligent I mean you look at you need to win you need the three points and the Udinese have been criticized recently for not getting the job done or for relying on their great form at the beginning of the season so this is this is what you need to do to get them back to winning ways and that Caputo miss will come back
to haunt Empoli as I was a massive miss with an empty net and Beto had a lovely bicycle kick at one point yes he did yes he did that's better than Girouds better than Girouds yeah for me it was literally just between these substitutions that the Dinesse were making you see Baldanzi driving and trying to create something he was the the driving force for Empoli over here but it wasn't enough unfortunately for them yeah I think Baldanzi Marin and Akprak Pro are the ones that really
whilst Empoli have been going through this rut they've been the ones that have been standing out for me the most those three it would be interesting to see where they'll be next season particularly Baldanzi and Marin because I know Akprak Pro just took the step down yes from Lazio yeah exactly and Marin and Baldanzi are probably looking to step up again obviously Marin relegated with Caliari moves to Empoli and he's still only just 26 years old and Baldanzi is
19 years old so bright future ahead for him and Marin could be he could be good in a team that plays with a three in the midfield even if he's on rotation like for example him at Seattle at Seymour in Atlatio for example yes in that um Cataldi role right exactly exactly exactly true bro very true um if you look at the table right now of course we've just discussed Empoli are in 14th with 28 points and Udinese's first victory in seven games means that they are in
10th with 35 goals 35 points well they do have 34 goals close enough Jesus yeah old enough to party you know their their plus four and their goal difference that's funny considering how they've been recently it's just that that's that's the intergame literally at the beginning of the season that's so funny oh look at them there he is bully you guys will never know what we just spoke about so the next and final game we're going to be covering is Verona won Monza won
the previous encounter was a 2-0 victory for Monza. Hellas were still stuck in the bottom three after the goal is draw with Spezia and went into this game without Kevin Lasagna terrible um Isaac Hien Miguel Veloso Aydin Hrstic Milan Juric Sulemana Cekarini Thomas Onri and January signing Cyril Nganj so Verona very very compromised at the moment. Cyril Nganj! I think there was a bit of a gap but that's fine. I know bro I need to be smoother with the sound.
We could literally hear you tapping probably the NS1 will remove that now shout out to NS1
if you want to deplete your background noise. Monza weren't faring much better missing Danny Molta Nicolo Rovella and Marlon however thank god Ranocchia was back in the squad for Verona it was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Monty Pau back in goal on the back line of Coppola Magnani and Davidovic who's back after surprise he didn't tear his ACL trying to catch up to all those wingers over the past couple of match days and Lazovic was back to playing as a left wing back
and Faroni was the right wing back with Duda and Tamez in the middle Verdi played as the left winger Calon as the right winger and Gaich up front for Monza it was also a 3-4-2-1 formation with Di Gregorio on goal and the back line of Itzomari and Caldirola Birindelli was out on the right with Carlos Augusto out on the left on the double pivot of Pesina and Sensi I love those two together man
I really really like those two. Curi as the right winger, Caprari as the left winger and Petania up front I don't know why bro Pesina and Sensi just give me gavipedri vibes you know what I mean very very budget like they're worlds apart but they just give me that vibe like. Bro on the same week that Milan didn't feel the single Italian player in their starting lineup here you have Berlusconi's team and I think am I right in saying 10 of these guys are Italian?
Di Gregorio yes, Itzoias, Mari is not Italian, Augusto is not Italian, Ah yes you're right, Turia Italian, Pablo Mari Spanish and Augusto is Brazilian no? Yes so wow nine. Well done huh that's um I'm not surprised with this whole Forza Italia party back
in the day prioritizing Italy for the Italians so you see that in his Monza team now. In the 51st minute so before we go to the 51st minute Monza seemed to be the better team in this game but Verona a compromised Verona a lot of compromised teams at the moment I felt myself saying the word compromised a lot. In fact I think in 68 or 69 episodes I've never heard you say the word compromised. I think I heard it. I like it. I think I've been reading guys.
I've been learning words so this podcast is just going to a whole different level. Can you start now subtly including a really like weird or obscure word every episode and say it like three times
if I pick up on it? Absolutely yes I will. So Verona were doing well to hang on but Monza you know how they are they're dangerous they're poking and prodding however then the 51st prodding yeah however then the 51st it was Verona who took the lead somewhat against the run of play it was due to a strike that was charged down at the trickle shade into the pot of Simone Verdi who blasted it into the roof of the net from 12 yards Adolfo Gait should have made it 2-0 only to
scuff the finish into the arms of Di Gregorio and that proved costly as Monza equalized moments later it was a good passing move right to left as Carlos Augusto pulled back from the byline for Stefano Sensi to tap in from six yards Caprari had the ball in the net to put Monza 2-1 up on the hour mark but it was disallowed as Petania was offside by millimeters in the build-up. Caprari had refused
to celebrate against his former club which is always nice to see. So Monza were the better team however Verona had prevailed yes good word no it is a good thank you but Verona had prevailed they got that one goal they'll be very very disappointed to have conceded so shortly after opening the scoring man yes man that's literally a lapse in concentration there's nothing else to explain it you know they must have got excited you know Simone Verdi action man himself as I like to
call him because he always looks like he's on a mission he gives me Tom Cruise vibes it's true he's Tom Cruise as fuck yeah he's always fucking you know he's got that hairstyle that extremely serious look he's kind of short so he's fucking running as fast as he can always like he'll score a goal he'll just keep running like you know and then he'll knee slide epically he's like I'll never forget that game scored a free kick with his left hand with his right man with Bologna
man he'll forever be remembered for like I I love a good Italian journeyman yeah he's a journeyman Destro's a journeyman um Bazzini was a journeyman back in the day he was a great one Caprari was a fucking journeyman and the half oh there's so many we should make a starting 11 of journeymen bro that would be fine that's a cool one we'll do it we'll do it what defines a journeyman how many clubs does he need to be at shall we say like five yeah five italian five italian clubs five
italian top that's fun top 20 clubs in Serie A Serie A teams um Matri Matri could be another journeyman Boreal loz of journeyman Boreal loz of journeyman striking options are crazy Jesus
literally literally we'll do it we'll do it that's exciting. Veron are currently in the most important part of their season right they were previously decreasing that gap with Spezia between 18th and 17th and it looked like they were gonna make serious moves over there however they've now been incredibly compromised with injuries and they are playing the most important part of their season battered with injuries battered they'll be glad to have players like Lazovic still in the team
Tamiz but otherwise man Jesus Christ you're looking around and there's none of their familiar faces yeah and you look at the fact that you've had to force Lazovic out wide again simply because of injuries and he's been the best of heart and soul when it comes to him and then gonj so before they had um the two wingers in in Lazovic and in gonj and they had whoever i think guych was playing anyway up front and now in gonj is injured um Lazovic has been shifted to a left wing back roll
Simone Verdi came in and Yaya Kalon came in and they're decent players um Yaya Kalon is very quick but i don't think he has much more than that yeah very active he's always in good positions but his final touch is just off um and Verdi is Verdi Verdi is a vibe but he's inconsistent exactly and i think as well Lazovic playing out wide has something to do with Doig's dip in form he's dipped slightly yes he was he was on a really good run of form it's a shame to see but i think i think he'll be
back there's there's still some time left yeah um Verona play Sampdoria next which is what's going to be a very important game for them they can't get three points over there then they're in serious trouble and i think with the form that well not the form Sampdoria are on but with how hungry Sampdoria are they just put two again they just put two past you Verdi it's not going to be an easy game at all
relegation dogfight um apparently Hien is still going to be out and N'Gonj is still going to be out and it's interesting because N'Gonj had a sprained ankle and he's still out that's crazy it was against Spezia that he got the sprained ankle not Dismagli the one before he must have sprained the fuck out he must have sprained the living shit out so they're gonna have Henri and Juric back i don't know okay um because Gaj is a decent solution but he's still quite young isn't he
and he doesn't quite have that killer instinct no he's not clinical not yet but you can tell that there are there are glimpses right the Gaj yeah um Adolfo by the way nice name i don't know why it's out of fashion but yes he's 24 years old he's asserting himself into the league we've seen him before of course at Benevento and so it's nice to see him there again he just needs to that killer instinct you know he needs to yeah develop that i mean experience experience experience experience
that's the only thing that's going to get him there but i think with with Thomas Henri up front or Juric quite frankly you know Juric i believe has um the most aerial duels won and then i mean he's 6'6 from yeah yeah yeah i mean him him and Kim Jae Min i believe were the two with the most i believe were the two with the most aerial duels won and dude you pop that guy up front and you've got Lazovic you've got very sure you have um Doig hopefully out on the left available um you can
actually service him a bit and why not yeah yeah i mean i think at this point um who in in your
ideal world out of these three strikers in Gaj, Juric and Henri who would you start for? Juric yes yes i'd say the same i think Henri um has the highest ceiling well yes Henri is the most decorated of the lot exactly i think Henri is good he just has his attitude problems yeah um but i think Juric man i think i think outside Juric as well i love me a good target man yeah same man um shift the focus to Monza a bit let's go talking plenty about Verona um Monza's form is very
interesting i'm just gonna go through their last eight games so they drew one one to Sassuolo then they beat Mont then they beat Juve 2-0 and then they drew 2-2 to Sampdoria and then they beat Bologna away 1-0 and then they lost to Milan 1-0 and then they lost 3-0 to Salernetana then they beat Empoli 2-1 then they drew 1-1 to Verona so it's like guys are we winning are we losing what are we doing here you know what i mean they're they're surviving and they're they're trying to
push for that mid-table finish because imagine this team was built after being promoted they just got promoted and suddenly they have this this kind of like um cult hero all-star team you know what i mean where they picked different pieces from from random say items and built together this this really lovely unit can you imagine if they finish 10th for example the pull power they'll have i think they can they can say you know we've got a project now we're aiming to hit Europe you
know we're aiming for Europe come come join us yeah you know we've done it before Berlusconi and Gagliani have taken teams to the top before come join our project we can give you some money yeah we've got a bit yeah um so as long as they they survive i think next year they just improve drastically for sure i think they're here to stay months i think they've they've done a great job and in their decision making and adapting to how their season went they started off terribly
and obviously with all the new players together and they showed faith in their manager and their caretaker manager and that that proved to be key for them aside from that they've really done a good job when it comes to getting their players to gel together and they they they are they're not getting relegated no and next season they're just going to be better and better man and i'm excited Monza is a lovely city as well and a lot of people would be attracted to it as a sport culture Monza
being obviously as i mentioned before one of the most famous f1 tracks in history it's the the fastest track alongside Silverstone if i'm not mistaken what makes a track fast um so a lot of straights so there aren't many tight corners and when there are corners a lot of them are are long curves rather than tight was Monza the one that you can't really overtake no that's Monaco okay Monaco and Azerbaijan are very difficult to to overtake in okay but yeah there there goes
we're talking about so many sports there we go bro actually but so much about UFC you're right yeah and now f1 next snooker let's go not much to add guys Monza sit in 12th on 33 points level on points which I swallow as Verona and 18 highway to the danger zone on 19 points five points from safety and Spezia do not like they do not look like they're gonna give up points for fun over here definitely not and they'll be inspired after this victory and with that madman up front hey man that's
something that those other guys don't have absolutely and and simply she is doing a fantastic job getting they're getting just just fucking telling his players to lay their balls out on the table and that's what he's got them doing man they're playing with their balls out and that's it and that's it and when your balls are out you scare the opponent exactly when your balls are out you play baby that's it that is it and that's it so thank you very much guys we've been say our
spotlight thank you for listening don't forget the weirdest ending we've ever had out throw ever by a landslide finished in good time it's 11 30 nice put together the post all that yeah relax yeah relax so remember to follow us guys at say our spotlight on instagram tiktok youtube everywhere drop us a rating i've been putting polls under the spotify episode i'm a bit of a boomer so my terminology might not be there but you can go and you can you can vote you can
leave us a little comment you know yeah we'll pose yeah so we have um so there there is seria this weekend um of course this is thanks um obviously there is seria this weekend um there's the derby della capitale there are a bunch of big games and we're obviously going to be thrilled to be bringing you that episode um after that we are looking to do some specials for the international break um but i am afraid guys me and jake recording together is about to get a little bit more
complicated because between the 27th of march to the 27th of april i'm off to australia um to visit some family over there and obviously with the time zone difference and all of that it's going to be difficult for me and jake to facilitate recording together we are going to try find a workaround um for it i'm going to be working while i'm in australia so it's going to get even more complicated but we'll find a way and if i'm not there it'll be luke mintoff if luke mintoff isn't
there it'll be santi so we're still going to be bringing you guys good content um and you'll still be hearing from me yes i might even go solo guys and bless you with an episode myself please don't i tried that once man oh my god it was awful it's it's tough i tried it once as well when you were vomiting into a bucket man it was tough there is no one there to fill in the blanks bro the gaps you make a joke and you just have to go in again see that is why lao taro martinez needs
someone next to him because they fill in the gaps exactly there we go there we go i'm big rom and you lao taro exactly to be honest that's uh that's good it's not a stretch yeah thank you very much guys for listening we've been seria spotlight we love you all and have a great weekend let's Play