72: Plot Twist

Posh with a strike from distance! Oh my word! That is out of this world from Stefan Posh! Great feet there from Prahim Diaz, Rafael Liao on the move, he's in! Rafael Liao! This time he scores! Last season's MVP, reminding everyone just what a player he is! Hello and welcome to Serial Spotlight Season 2 Episode 32, I'm your host Jake and with me today in the absence of my brother and co-host Matt is my good friend and sus wall of an Luke Mintoff.

Hi guys, I think instead of saying episode 31 you should start saying it is episode 2 of me tanking your series. There we go, so this is episode 2 of Luke Mintoff tanking my podcast. Serial tanking. No bro, you've been great and the feedback has been good, people found you very funny. They found your certain takes a bit wild. They were a bit wild. The gutty take in particular was...

I'll stand by my gutty take, even though if you see the shot he had against Verona last game you'd be like, this guy's not scoring any goals. I don't know what it is about, centre backs getting the ball from outside the area and just shooting. I think they get the ball and since the fact that they don't really hold the ball for much longer than a few seconds usually, they get so fucking excited.

It's like a kid and you give him fucking... I don't know man, you tell him here, this is a fucking toy. You have immense power with this toy but don't overuse it and the first second you give it to him he overuses it. He just shoots it to Christ. And it's probably like, if we cross it they might counter, there's that whole thing I might cross a bad one. I think they get glorious to Benesda. There we go. Sometimes they go in.

Like our goal of the week, Posh's wonder strike against Odineza, what a goal that was. And bro, we had many good goals this week. We did. Some honourable mentions over here about Sergei Milyankovic's free kick, Salah Makhur's Maradona-esque goal, layout to be honest, both goals of layout were very good. It was actually on the same side where Maradona dribbled half the team and scored. There we go, exactly.

Shomoradov's chip was very nice and El Sharaoui's clean first time strike was also a very good goal. We won our bet this week, we're back to winning ways. We bet that Atalanta would be... Is that the second time you've won? No, practically I've not. I think we have about a 50% win rate, which isn't bad. That's okay, that's alright. I mean, bookies won't like you but it's fine. There we go, this is a guy who's worked in gaming by the way. Oh yes.

We bet that Atalanta would win and more than one goal would be scored in that game. Thankfully Darun opened the scoring in the first half because I feel like it would have been a different game if he hadn't done so. But that's a win, we bet 10 euro and we won 20. To keep up with our betting segment, please follow at, say, our spotlight on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, wherever you get anything. We're basically there. Except Facebook, we're not really on Facebook. Why Facebook?

Apparently the algorithm is good but no, I don't know, we're not on Facebook. I need to get us on Facebook. Maybe one day, season 3. There we go. Before we get into the action, we have Mintov actually opening up the action for us very soon. I'm going to take you through a quick rundown of the scores so you know exactly what happened this week. We had, of course, league leaders Napoli, the dominant Napoli side taking on Milan at the Stadio Maradona. They actually lost 4-0.

Inter played Fiorentina and lost 1-0. Their poor form continues. Lazio beat Mons two goals to nil. Perhaps the scoreline is a little bit flattering over there. Roma stumped Sampdoria 3-0. Sampdoria pressed the self-destruct button as they often do. Juventus won 1-0 against Verona, everyone would have expected that with Allegria at the helm. Cremona won Atalanta 3-0. Bologna 3-0. There was a spanking over there, I'm sure none of you saw that coming.

Sassuolo won Torino 1, that was a very close game over there. Empoli won Lecce nil, very big win for Empoli to end Dryspel, quite frankly. And Spezia won Salernitana, won the relegation 6-pointer that typically do end in draws. Before we get started on the action, I feel it's important to address that yesterday there was the semi-final game between Inter and Juventus in the Coppa Italia. That honestly if you missed the first 84 minutes of this game you didn't really miss much.

Quite a snoozefest to be honest, but typically as this fixture has suggested in the past, things got a little bit heated at the end. Quadrado scored in the 84th and then Lukaku scored the equalizing penalty in the 93rd minute, which then followed with scenes of violence. Lukaku got a second yellow card for his celebration, perhaps it was something that was said to the crowd who were racially abusing him.

Then the fans, the players, started fighting each other and throwing punches, Quadrado and Handanovic both got sent off. I think we've learned that Quadrado can really deck a guy if he wants. He really can, and you saw he... He's colab enough to... Yeah, there we go, five minutes in and Mintov has already passed a racist comment. But yeah, did you notice he hit Shesny before he actually hit Handanovic? Oh really? Yeah, so he absorbed a bit of the punch.

I'm telling you, this guy doesn't care, he just wants to punch people bro. That's it bro, he doesn't care. Whatever, you know, you're in my way, fuck you Joe I suppose. That's it bro, so yes, we look forward to the second leg over there. Tonight there is Fiorentina Cremonezza, what do you think bro, do you think that Cremonezza have a chance? I think they do. I think that they probably are coming to terms with the fact they may be getting relegated this season.

I think it's an all but foregone conclusion there. And I feel like bro, this is their last hurrah in the top flight. So I mean of course the Copa isn't top flight per se, but it's still against top flight teams. And I feel like if Fiorentina go in with this mentality that oh we're in good form, we can easily beat them, they may be wrongly mistaken. And I feel like so far what we've seen from Cremonezza and the Copa, they seem to be really up for these games.

So all it takes is one good chance for Cremonezza and they could shut up, set up shop and defend the lead. So you never know. Yes, Cremonezza are very tight and Fiorentina sometimes struggle to exploit teams with a low block. We'll see what happens over there. Personally, I would love to have a team in Serieba and in Europe. That would be pretty sick. It would be cool. Now, Mint, please take us through the first match of the matchday. I kind of forgot at the start.

We'll crack right on as they say. And we'll go on with Napoli Milan. Of course, as Jake mentioned before, the game ended with the score of 0-4. Milan scoring four away from home. You would not think that's going to happen at the Maradona Stadium. And some pointers to mention before we get started is that in the last 10 games between each other, Milan are actually at the upper hand with four wins, Ternopoli three and then three draws.

Actually a fun fact in case you didn't know, Ousmane has never scored against Milan. Most of the time he's been injured or not played. There we go. So how can Ousmane score when Poletano is constantly scoring against Milan? That guy loves a goal against Milan. He does love a goal against Milan. Since it's a solo day. That is the bit of time. But apart from the head-to-head, we have arguably Napoli with better form coming in with three wins and two losses.

Although, of course, two losses isn't great either. But as you know, with one win, two losses and two draws, which is arguably much worse, of course, especially the fact that they had such a shock defeat against Udinet just a game before. And one point I'd like to just briefly speak about is the fact that I believe the international break couldn't have come at a better time for you.

I think that the team really needed that to kind of reset and to readjust themselves, especially because there are such big fixtures coming up for Milan. Especially before the tactical swap, right? Before going back to a 4-2-3-1 slash 4-3-3, I think. Who knows? Maybe Napoli prepared the 3-5-2 formation to deal with. So that long spell out gives the time for Piollo to practice that 4-2-3 again.

So if you have one week, how much can you practice one formation to really drill it back to its proper days? In two weeks, you do have time. You do have a way to create a system again. So I really think that it really helped you. I mean, no, no, no. No credit taken away from Milan. They had a brilliant game. But I think that was definitely a blessing in disguise. Yes, agreed.

A couple of actual things to mention before we speak about the starting lineup was that Milan had a relatively strong squad. The main difference of note was Keira coming in for the injured Kalulu. Apart from that, everybody was fit for that game and it's smallest starting lineup we're seeing game on game in. On the other hand, Orsimen was of course injured for this game, as we have been alluding to, with Simeone coming in as a replacement up front.

But as well there, then you have pretty much a standard formation. So really and truly you're seeing the best players on each team, more or less, coming against each other. Although one thing worth mentioning, and something we also mentioned on the previous episode, is the fact that we argued about Kvara being the top against Orsimen being the top. There are arguments for both, it's up for debate as such.

One thing I will say, although I still believe Kvara is the top for Napoli, purely out of the fact that it's his first season, he has just shown everybody what a bowler he is, Napoli lost their hammer. In a hammer and an anvil formation they've definitely lost their hammer, and you can't not say he wasn't missing there. Definitely. I mean he brings a completely new dynamic to this team. And Simeone isn't even a bad striker, he's very deployable, he's a striker who scored 20 goals last season.

Exactly, and he has actually scored goals for the Napoli team, including in the reverse fixture against Milan. So it wasn't a terrible situation for them to be in, but they were still missing a punch. Yes, definitely. To go over the, actually one other thing before we speak about the formations is that, interesting fact, Orsimen has been injured 10 times since joining Napoli, and that is 18 weeks out for his team. So that starts to show he's a great player and all, but injuries do come with him.

Yes, and we actually have discussed this before about how the type of player that Orsimen is, he puts himself in certain situations where he's bound to get hurt. He puts his head where most players won't put their foot, you know. He's very crazy. He gets stuck in, bro, he's not afraid of a duel, and the wear and tear on him will be a lot by the end of his career, I think, because he's a very physical striker.

I'm sure, I'm sure. So basically to go over the starting lineups, we have Napoli fielding a 4-3-3 with Marengo, Di Lorenzo, Rahmani, Kim and Rui at the back four. We then have Anghi, Salah, Botka and Zeninski as the midfielders for this formation, and then we have Politano, Simeone and Guevara up front. On the opposing side we have Giroud as the main striker, we have Liao, Kroonich and Diaz as the attacking midfielders.

We then have Tonali and Benassir as holding midfielders, and then we have Hernandez, Tomori, Kier and Calabria in defence with Magic Mike, the one and only in the goal. There was always that amazing clip from your episode with Santi and Magic Mike. I know, sometimes I still think about it and it always makes... the reaction that Santi had, I was so organic.

We were first of all, we were blasted, I don't know how much fucking joints and alcohol we smoked and drank before that, but as soon as I said that, he just... I swear we had to pause the episode, I think 10 times, to make sure we could actually continue. At a point, I thought we had to cancel the episode. He couldn't. At a point, we would be continuing the episode, literally half an hour later, and he'd start laughing at us again. I'd be like, man, I can't continue with this.

Dude, 15 minutes into that episode and you're just giggling. At a point, you were both laughing for like 2 minutes straight. I was listening to that and I was like, oh my god. It was a mess. But it was amazing. Pure entertainment. So, okay, with that being said, we can basically go over the most important parts of the game. Before Milan started to take this game away from Napoli, Simeone had a great chance to make it 1-0.

Zalinski found himself in a really good pocket of space down the left flank. He then whipped a lovely cross in. Simeone took a first-time shot and it wasn't too bad, but who knows, if Wasserman is there, maybe it's a goal, maybe it's not. But of course, with football, you can't stay hypothesizing so often. But it was a good chance for Napoli, in any case. 1-0 did, of course, come out pretty quickly after that. In the 17th minute, Brian Diaz receives the ball from the middle of the pitch.

He manages to dribble past Lobotka and Mario E, opening enough space for himself to play the perfect through ball down the middle of Napoli's defense, finding Leao, who broke away from the defenders to score with a cool chip versus Mera 1-0. Lovely goal. You were very complimentary of this goal, I believe. But yeah, it was a lovely goal. It's just the assist and the finish were just both so flashy, you know, it's just so much fun to watch.

Very good. And speaking of flashy, 2-0 is just as flashy in the 26th minute. Leao, the scorer of the first goal, was then a major contributor in the second goal. He receives the ball from the fourth-yard mark, pushes forward, plays a lovely one to Juru. He then finds a brilliant ball to Benassir, out wide on the left-hand flank. He plays a swooping cross, Benassir, of course, targeting Juru. Kim finds a way to clear the ball away from Juru,

only as far as Diaz in the box. With some neat footwork, he manages to trash a shot against goal. It's heavily deflected, however, and it's 2-0. It goes off Kim, and definitely you can start to see that the game is moving into Milan's favor here. Definitely. 2-0 in 25 minutes was not what people were expecting. Absolutely not. No, no, definitely. We can then move on to 2-3-0. In the 59th minute, Tonali fights his way in the middle of the pitch against Lobotka and Aghissa.

He then manages to get the ball. He spins around both of them, and he plays a beautiful ball with the outside of his booth into a surging Leao. Leao receives the ball on the edge of the box. He still has a lot of work to do, however. He manages a cute dummy against Rahmani. He makes the crossfire look like he's ate way too many Snickers, and then smashes a brilliant shot into the top left-hand corner. 3-0. There we go. I mean, this goal was sensational, if you ask me.

I thought it was done. I didn't think there'd be any more goals after this. Same here. And I mean, were we proven wrong? Yes, we were. 4-0, 67th minute, probably the best goal of the night. We've just been discussing this, me and Jake, and I have to say that... Salim Akir! Salim Akir! Salim Akir! Allah indeed. It was a great goal. He gets the ball in the basically 30-yard area.

He manages to surge all the way forward. He starts dancing between midfielders and defenders alike, passing by five Napoli players. He gets into the box and then slides the ball in between Merez Legge's absolutely cheeky goal. This Belgian was on fire tonight. Amazing. Amazing. They asked them, Alexis, have you ever scored a goal like that in your career? He was like, no, only in training. I mean, can't blame the guy. But yeah, that's how the game ended. Absolutely dominant performance by Milan.

They were basically better than the Napoli in almost every department, you can say. I will pass a few compliments to Napoli. I'll just say that Kvara and Zalinski were probably the two players who showed up for this game. They played relatively well. They were the kind of only two players who showed some kind of fight and willingness to score. I mean, Zalinski had some chances for his own. He gave some good balls to have, for example, Simeone almost score himself.

Kvara was also a menace, although, I mean, you know, it was difficult for him to then finish the game on his own. So, I mean, you're not going to win a game against Milan with two players on the pitch. No, definitely not. And I think one of the main reasons that Napoli struggled so much this game was the fact that Lobotka did not have a great game at all. He didn't. He looked flat footed. Yeah. I think from the get go, Benassir was responsible for a man marking him.

It seemed like that from the get go. But then they seem to take it in turns. The Milan midfield were shifting around to actually mark Lobotka, but they managed to to really keep him quiet. They did. They really shot him down. And I feel like the fact that they didn't have to shut down Ossiman as well. It's really helped them to prioritize just Lobotka in this sense. Yeah. So, so yeah, definitely brilliant tactics by Piolli.

The brilliant performance by Milan. I mean, it's going to sound a bit boring the way I'm just complimenting them, but there is really no way to not in a sense. They just played much better. Honestly. And the fact that Milan are currently back with a very decent starting eleven, like pretty much everyone's available now, as you said earlier on. They might as well go back to the system that won them the league last season.

Now, there's no need to play this 3-5-2 when you're not in crisis. The 3-5-2 was a was a good switch because Milan were getting battered by everyone with four at the back with Tatarasano and goal and all those key players out. And it actually managed to help Milan go through to the next round in the Champions League as well. The three at the back. Absolutely. So it's still something that might. It's a trick that might remain up Piolli's sleeve now in the near future. For sure.

And I think that's something to keep in mind that it's always good to have other formations that your team is used to playing. Although I love the fact that, you know, you have a team and they play this formation through thick and thin. But the game has advanced to the times where we used to be kids. And, you know, back in the day, changing our formations was not so evident and normal, so to speak.

And I think nowadays to have additional formations to keep your opponents guessing, to keep them on their toes and also to adjust yourself during a game itself, I think makes makes your team just a more formidable force in any case, even if you're not a top team. Yeah. And in fact, not many teams in Italy actually change their formation up very often. Yes. You look at that like you look at Allegri tends to shift it a little bit.

It's always the same philosophy. Right. Yeah. But I think other than that, Mourinho kind of tends to play around. He does. But Inter. But then you look at exactly Enzaghi, Sarri, Spalletti. These guys tend to stick to their, therefore Italiano, Jurich, they stick to their formations. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. OK, bro. So did Milan impress you or did Napoli disappoint you? I want to say I want to say it's 50-50. I mean, Milan did impress me.

They did. They did. They certainly played better than I thought they were going to play, especially away from home. But I think Napoli, I think Napoli, I think Napoli. One thing I'll say for sure, I have a theory. Now, of course, you and all the Milan fans that listen to this podcast like Kurt and Sean are going to fucking laugh at me.

I really don't care. I'm going to say it anyway. I have a feeling that Napoli kind of feel they've already won the league and the quasi didn't take this game so seriously. And I'm going to say one other thing. I think they didn't want to exert themselves too much and risk any injuries for the Champions League. I'm not sure about that. But I'll say then they didn't even want to lose 4-0 either. No. Yeah, exactly.

So this complicates the Champions League draw a lot psychologically. I don't think it does. And especially if Ozymen doesn't recover in time for the first leg, you know, and they don't get the result. And even at the Maradona, Milan can say, yeah, we've smashed them 4-0 over there. It gives you that reason to believe, no? Yes, it does. But it's also it's also it's also counterintuitive. I mean, what I've seen so far when Napoli lose, they then go on a fucking win streak for a while.

And they come back and they come back punching. But they've never lost like this. They haven't. It's true. It looked it looked definitely abnormal. But every team is going to endure a loss like this. I want to see what happens next. I want to see the next game. And then we'll then we'll chat about this in the next episode. We'll see how Napoli react against I believe it is they're playing against Lecce.

And I feel like that's a good game for them to bounce back and recover that, you know, hitting the morale. And then this jump is league. So so let's see what happens. Let's see next let's see next game week. And then we'll have a chat about this and see what you think about it. Regarding your point about maybe Napoli not taking this fixture too seriously and the fact that they already think that they've won the league.

They've been playing their best 11 the whole season so far. They have not rested many players. Like they would have Champions League games midweek and still play Ozyman at the weekend. You know, they haven't really been been taking the league for granted at all. Another point to make is that they were clearly rattled. Napoli were rattled. You look at the halftime conversation between Maldini and Spalletti. Did you see what happened over there in the tunnel?

Spalletti was telling off Liao for something. I'm not sure if it was about his celebration or about some something like that. Maldini basically interrupted and said like, what are you complaining about? You've won the league. Like stop complaining basically. But yeah, they looked rattled. And for a team that has already won the league, I don't think they should have reacted the way they did. The fans were in disarray. I don't know. They fought each other.

The fans fought each other. So you had a part of it. You don't want to lose 4-0, bro. Yes, but it wasn't about that. It wasn't even about that. It all started because of the ticket prices of the Champions League. Apparently, Italian teams, so you look at Milan and Inter, the tickets are like 65 euro each. Brilliant. Very good. We should be living in Milan. Yeah, I wish. And Napoli's are 90 euro. So they're probably aware of their product.

And they live in the South. Exactly. Arguably an area where people are less finite. It's not even arguable. It's a fact. It's built in. The resurgiment of history. Yes, definitely. It's built in the South. Oh, that is... So that's why they were chanting, you know, De Laurentiis, Filio di puttana, or Va fanculo and all that shit. Okay. Okay. Yeah, not very happy with him. Not at all. But yes. Shall we move on to the next game, sir? Yes, we shall. Let's crack on then.

So, we have league standings very quickly. Napoli are first still with 71 points, whereas Milan have climbed up to third place with 51. Very, very good, bro. You covered that game pretty damn well, has to be said. That's pretty good. The next one we're going to be talking about is Inter nil Fiorentina 1. Inter and Fiorentina have actually drawn 55 of their 170 Serie A matches. There have been 70 wins for Inter and 45 for Fiorentina.

So, Inter are the historical favorites, as one might have assumed in this fixture. Yes. Inter were unbeaten in each of their previous 11 league games against Fiorentina, with 6 victories and 5 draws. They have defeated Inter in the top flight for the first time since April 2017. That was a 5-4 result at the Frankie Stadium. That was a crazy game, by the way. Vecino scored two goals for Fiorentina. Astori scored for Fiorentina, and Babacar scored for Fiorentina. I never heard of those guys.

May you rest in peace, brother. Yeah. For Inter, it was Parisian. So, Vecino scores two and then they buy him. What happens? That's it, right? When a player destroys you, you typically end up buying him. Perisic scored for Inter that game, and Mauro Acardi actually scored Hat-Trek that game. He was so good with them, I guess. He was a fucking brilliant player. Now, Fiorentina have won five on the bounce for the first time since their stint in 2018,

between February and April. Guess who the manager was? They won six in a row. Stefano Pioli, my friend. Oh, Mr. Knaiver. Old reliable. Irreliable. So, Inter deployed their 3-5-2 formation with Onana in goal, Bastogna, Cherubi and Darmian at the back, with Gossens on the left wing and Dampfries on the right wing. The midfield trident consisted of Mkhitaryan, Brozovich and Nico Barela, with Lukaku and Correa up front.

For Fiorentina, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Terracciano on goal, Biragi on the left, Dodo on the right, with Martinez Quarta and Igor at the back. Bonaventura Mandragora played the midfield double pivot, with Jonathan Icona on the right and Ricardo Sapunar on the left, with Cabral playing up front, with Castrovilli playing off his shoulders. Now, in the tenth minute, Lukaku... Okay, so, bro, you're gonna get a bit frustrated, I think, over here. Because you love Lukaku, no?

I do. I do love Lukaku. And the play-by-play and the match recap is almost a compilation of Lukaku errors. The game felt like a montage of Lukaku career errors. Like, he was awful, bro. He was awful. He was awful. And this is after he scored, by the way, four goals on international duty, including one hat-trick against Sweden. So, yes. Belgium. Against Sweden. So, yes. In the tenth minute, Lukaku was played a long ball over the top. He was through 1v1. He took a heavy touch.

He was slow. The defenders caught up and he lost the ball. In the twentieth minute... Now, here, I felt a bit bad for Lukaku, because Miki Dona, also known as Miki Tari... Oh, really? That's his new name? He took on the whole team. I don't know if you saw this. He knocked the ball past, like, two players. Sometimes this guy, man, just has these moments of... ...of bursts of acceleration. I have no idea, man, what's going on this guy.

He ended up one-on-one with the goalkeeper from a weird angle, from an awkward angle, and Lukaku was actually wide open in the middle. And had Miki Tari played him the ball, he would have just had to slot it home, and it would have been as simple as that. Instead, Miki Tari went for the shot. Lukaku screaming at him, like, pass, pass, pass.

The ball falls to Miki Tari again for a rebound, and this time he attempts a bicycle kick, trying to score again, instead of saying, okay, I've already shafted this guy once, let's not shaft him again. He shafted him twice in a row. So that was a bit of a selfish display from Miki Tari over there. In the 26th minute, Lukaku was also slow on a square pass just ahead of him, and fucked up a 1v1. He fumbled another 1v1 situation in the 29th.

He's trying so hard to get in behind, but the balls were just slightly too ahead of him as well. Ikwane missed an empty net shortly after that. This was a series of blunders for both teams, to be honest. Now halftime, in the 49th minute again, Lukaku missed an empty net, just like Ikwane had just done. He shot it wide after the ball was squared to him by Bostoni. I don't know why he took it with his left. He should have totally shot with his right over there.

That goes to highlight probably a confidence issue, and it's bizarre that a player who's just scored four goals for his country in one week actually has confidence issues. It goes to show that his club form right now isn't ideal. Now, in the 52nd minute, Biragi gave a corner. Cabral's header forced the save, and Bonaventura slotted in the rebound. That was the first goal and the only goal of the game, Jack Bonaventura doing his former club Milan a solid over there.

In the 58th minute, Barela hit the crossbar through a rebound of a Brazovic free kick that had struck the wall. In the 73rd minute, it was a big miss for Raul Bellanova. Great save by Terracciano, to be honest. He did well just to get his shot on. It was quite a hard shot to take. And throughout all of this, by the way, throughout the entire game, Cabral attempted two audacious bicycle kicks. Bro, talking point number one, enough chit chat. Nzaghi, dead man walking.

I would say it depends on next week. If we see a Toro display in the Champions League where they are losing to Benfica from the first round, then I think he is. I think he's on a lifeline right now. You know what's the weird thing? Everyone keeps saying this, but then you see Mazzari constantly saying he's the leader, he's the leader, he's the leader. It's Nzaghi, it's Nzaghi all the way. Marotta. Marotta, sorry. Mazzari is the old guy. The previous.

But yes, now this is a great segue into this next thing I wanted to tell you. I wanted to tell you this earlier, but I saved it for the podcast. Former Lazio player Marco Parola. Remember Parola? He's a pundit nowadays. He said in an interview, he was asked, what is Nzaghi's weakness as a manager? And he said it's his ability to man-manage his team, his ability to handle his players. In what way?

Now, he leaves the leadership aspect of management to certain players in the team, prolific players, perhaps let's say Handanovic, Barela, the likes of a cherubi maybe, the likes of these elder or established players. Parola contrasted this with Allegri's managerial style, where no matter what happens at Juventus, Allegri is the manager. He's the guy in charge. He makes the rules. Everything goes as he says, essentially.

Now, this is coming from a player who actually spent many years playing for Nzaghi. So what do you make of this? This, of course, can manifest itself on the pitch if there's conflict between players. If you have a player leading the team and he fights another player, that's on the pitch conflict. The manager can't really do anything about it. He's like, guys, I'm fine. Exactly. And we know how weird Nzaghi is with his substitutions.

Yeah, yeah. Well, it does seem to be the case because I don't feel like he's the... It's hard to say. I wouldn't say he's a bad-man manager either. But clearly, it seems like some players get neglected or there's a lack of real authority there. Sometimes it feels that players on the pitch do what they want to do. Mkhitaryan, in that situation, playing for Kante, Mkhitaryan passes that. Yeah. Or he gets fucking reeled.

Again, it's a different system. It's all about the strikes of the score kind of thing. So it's hard to say, man. It's really difficult to say. I feel like he definitely isn't in the best situation in Zaghi-wise. But then the question is... Well, actually, I was going to say, then the question is, who do you sign? Actually, lately, there are a number of managers who have just become very interesting prospects. Yes. There's the biomeanant guy as well, Nagelsmann.

Bro, there's Kante Friedman. There's Kante, exactly. Does he want to come back to Inter? Maybe. I don't know. Simeone is available, but he's the highest paid manager in the world. I think he would take a pay cut then. Most likely. I think he wants to manage Inter. I'd love to see Simeone at fucking... I want to see him at Serie A. Yes. I would love to see him. I'd love to see him at Inter, because I feel like he would make a team, which is so interesting to watch, attacking-wise.

And counter-attacking-wise, you mean? At least, yeah. When they attack, they attack seriously, and they attack deadly as well. At the B. That would be so... I would love to see him at Serie A. That's true. Inter would become a team that hits you with their cheeky, pinky-up-the-stinky. I feel like they're the best team to be that cunt team as well. I'd like to be even more, I think. But anyway, bros, it's safe to say that for Inter... The situation went to become worst.

Maybe we'll be here a few times more, if Kante comes back. Bro, Lukaku's next move. Now we know he's not staying at Inter, we know most likely he won't be staying at Chelsea. Where should this guy go? So it's confirmed he's not staying at Inter? I mean, I don't think they afford him, quite frankly. And even if they do, I don't know if they want him. I think they do want him, actually.

I think they actually do want him because of the fact that you have to keep in mind that, barring one player, which is Martin, they're not spoiled for choice up front. And I don't think you want to be shifting out three strikers. Correa, I think, leaves. Maybe. He's contract-bound though. I think there's a good chance he leaves. Zekko, okay, he might stay, but now we can safely say he is definitely aging. And now it is being seen.

He can still score, he can still play well, but I think it's limited now. But I think with the financial situation at Inter and the fact that they're not even guaranteed Champions League next season... Are you sure? They sell Scrinio and they're off to a few more players. They may get Lukaku. They're in a state of disarray with their owners. Everyone's up for sale. If the right price comes for any of their players, they'll sell them. And this has been publicly discussed.

No, I'm sure. I believe you. What as well, in the case he doesn't say... Like, I wouldn't be surprised if they let Lukaku go back and they bring in someone like Nzala, for example. Because that's the kind of trend they've been doing, you know? They sell Hakimi, they bring in, for example, Down Freeze. They've brought in Bellanova from Cali. They do it with Aslani from Empoli. To be fair with you, I feel like there are quite a few options this season that look...

That Inter can get a player on the cheap, so to speak. So, you know, I could just imagine that there's Nzala, there's going to be... There's Nzala, there's Dia, Beto as well. These are all really strong or rather strong hot prospects this season. They've all played very well. They've all scored a plethora of goals. And they all look keen to find a new team or to find the next stage in their career as well. And I think Inter could be a brilliant place for that. Yes, bro, most definitely.

There's a point I wanted to... Not a point, sorry, there's a funny little fact I wanted to share with you about... A sexy pastry shop in Naples. I want to tell you this during the Napoli game. There's a sexy pastry shop in Naples. A sexy pastry shop? Yeah, apparently. Why is it sexy? What makes it sexy? I'm not sure, but I do know one thing about them. And they're selling Ozymen-themed treats called Pizell Ozymen. So you get Ozymen's cock? You get Ozymen's penis, dude.

Oh my god, so girls all buy it? And if I had girls, dude, it's all the dudes in Naples buying this Pizell Ozymen. So everyone's just buying... You just see men eating Ozymen's cock? Basically. Out in public? Yes. How would you feel if you were Ozymen and you just see a bunch of... Oh, I'd be over the moon. I'd be so flattered. I mean, typically, you know... You see these Italian men with their hot wives and they're just going at your dick, dude. There we go, dude.

You see? What more do you want in life? Yummy, yummy in my tummy, dude. No, before we move on, it's only natural to praise Fiorentina at the moment. I think that they have fantastic squad depth. They have built a nice little unit over here. Shout out to Rocco Commissar, who has always displayed a lot of... Passion. Passion, yes, for football. And he's so involved with this team as well, if only more people were like that. True. And Italiano did not have a great start after the two-man series.

There were questions if he's going to stay. They were like 14th or something at the point. Yeah, but now they're on the up. The trajectory is positive and looking at the midfield depth, the offensive depth... The defense is the only thing that I think could do with... could use more depth. Yeah, I agree with you there. But, wow, like wingers, they've got like six options.

We discuss this often as well, you know, they've got the likes of Breccolo, you've got the likes of Econ, Saponara, Sotil, Kwame, Nico Gonzales. They've got everyone, basically. Everyone on the dog over there. We're also looking at some nice midfield depth with Castrovilli really coming into form right now. You've got Bonaventura, you've got Castrovilli, you've got Amrabat, you've got Mandragora, who's playing amazingly.

Honestly, a really nice team to watch right now, very fun contenders for a double this season. Potentially, yes. With the Coppa Italia and the Conference League. So, yes, let's keep an eye on Fiorentina and hopefully they can keep this up. Now, I still haven't opened the league table. Those of you who are regular listeners will know that I do struggle with this. I have just Googled league table without writing which league I am looking for.

Any league, can you indicate us about the Premier League, please? I saw that Chelsea are very low, 12th. Ah, they're doing very well this season. But, yes, Fiorentina are currently in 9th with 40 points. That's five wins in a row for them. Hot form. While Inter are 4th with 50 points. They have four losses in five games. God damn, that ain't good, Daniel. Not looking good at all. It isn't. But you know what's looking good? Lazio looking good. There we go, bro. There we bloody go.

Lazio, and we're gonna move on to the next game. It's Monza-Lazio, Lazio away from home. And they still managed to sneak away with a 2-0 win. To come in and speak about the form of both teams, we have Lazio with two wins, one draw and two losses. Whereas Monza have one win, two draws and two losses. I wanted to check about the heads between these two clubs, but they've only fared against each other three times. So I was like, okay.

And basically it's two wins for Lazio and one win, one draw back in 2006 in a cup game. Oh yeah, there we go. I mean, this is Monza's first season in Serie A, so they are literally making history every single game. They are. But yeah, what we can basically say from their form in the last five games was that it's similar form, nothing to write home about.

Of course, Lazio with a bit better form than Monza, but equal in terms of form, of course, not equal in terms of quality of players on the pitch. However, what we can state is the fact that, again, both teams were fielding relatively their strongest squad. Monza had Ravella coming into the starting lineup for the first seven five games. And basically we have Indre Demo-Brestil with Felipe Anderson coming in the middle of the strike force up front. Other than that, we have standard teams here.

What I wanted to say was the fact that the statistics for this game between Monza and Lazio were very weird, actually. I'm going to go over a few of them. For example, we have Monza with the most ball position in this game week compared with Lazio in tenth. So we have Monza with 34 minutes and 23 seconds with Lazio with 27 minutes. We have Monza with the number one top pass success rate with 90% to Lazio in third, including with another couple of teams with 87%.

Lazio with the most distance covered in the whole game week with 17 kilometers compared to Monza with 107. We then have Monza with 14th ranking with most attempts to Lazio 18th. And then this keeps on going forward, back and forth. But basically Monza is ahead of statistics in most of it, in top scoring chances, in top key passes, and then Lazio had a bit more dribbles than Monza. But that's simply because of Zaccarni and how good he is.

So when you look at the statistics, Monza actually played relatively well in this game. And I think they may feel a little bit hard done by not getting a result here. I think, honestly speaking, I think Lazio got a bit lucky in this game. I don't think it was one of their better games, but that's football and sometimes it's the way it is.

But one thing to be said was even though Lazio stats don't look particularly horny, and without their main talisman up front, which is immobile, they have to readjust. And they have still been clinical. Yes, no, definitely. So yeah, to go over some of the chances and goals of the game, we have the first goal coming in the 13th minute from Zaccarni, a surgeon, charging down the left flank, dribbling past a static Marlon, who unleashes a terrible cross, I have to say, into the box.

It goes nowhere. It's looking like it's hitting towards Philippe Anderson. And then you find Nicola Ravella with probably the worst sliding block I've ever seen all season. He basically touches the ball. It falls perfectly to Pedro, who then slides the ball into the back of the net, and it's 1-0. Unlucky there. It was super unlucky. I mean, you replay that scenario a hundred times. It doesn't happen that often again.

Simply because of the fact that Ravella totally mistimes this challenge and it goes perfectly into a surging Pedro. The first half was super exciting. I think it was one of the most interesting first halves of all the game week. There were chances for both sides. Zaccarni coming close with the shots from the left-hand flank. Luis Alberto with one of his classic out-of-the-box shots, which almost... The curlers, right? The curlers. Sensi with a brilliant header hitting the side netting.

Petania coming super close against Providel in the box from a corner. Or I think it was a cross, actually. Sorry. Really entertaining half. Both sides really wanted to score again. They looked very equal, actually. And then I feel that Monge started the second half really well as well. However, as the scoreline states, it didn't end up being 2-0. In the 56-minute SMS told everyone, I'm taking this free kick out and 25 yards out.

And no wonder why he curled a bloody beautiful shot up the top left-hand corner. DiGiorgio had no chances. What a goal. It was a lovely goal. It's my second goal of the week, if you ask me, if Posh didn't score that goal. But yeah, you know, Lachia managed to grab another win. So you have to keep that in mind, especially without their talisman. So, you know, credit where it's due. Yes. One interesting thing to note is how aggressively Monza started the second half.

You look between the 47th minute and the 55th minute. There were four yellow cards for their players. So you can tell Palladino. They really wanted a strong start. And then one minute after those four cards, that's when Sergei Milyankovitch Savvish scored. And that was pivotal. I think the timing of both goals, both Lachia goals, was massive.

That's why I wanted to say he was a little bit lucky because I think if it remained 1-0, I really believe Monza could have gotten a draw here because they played relatively well. They really did. It was one of their better performances of the season as a whole. And they didn't even have Pestina, who was out suspended, I believe.

So, yeah, he has been, although not showing in the goals department so much, he's been still one of those players who has been a catalyst for bringing the ball up front and winning the ball and bringing... Basically, he's been that channel between the defense and the attacking midfield. One thing I'd also like to say, unless you have something to point out... No, no, it's okay. I wanted to say that I think Provdere wanted the game. He made some really good saves.

He kept the game 1-0 back in the first half. And it could have changed everything, to be honest with you. And he was a main catalyst for that game. Alongside Zakhani, who I gave to be the man of the match, he had a brilliant display again. He was dribbling players like it's nobody's business, being a huge nuisance down the left-hand flank. He almost scored on his own, I mean, on his own attempts, twice. And he was basically the main catalyst for the first goal as well.

And actually, in importance that he covered more than half his team's dribbles, top dribbles this game week. So you can see how pivoted he's been. The fact that there's no immobile there, he has really shunned. Shunned, right? Yeah. Shunned brilliantly. Which is actually... To shine. Shunned. Shunned. Oh my god. Shunned. Shunned how? Anyway, we'll pretend that it didn't happen. And you guys can tell me how to actually pronounce the word shine in the past tense. We'll pretend we're not bilingual.

Yes, I definitely am not. I speak the English. But anyways, what I want to say, and we can end with this, it's really nice to see Sensi not injured the whole season actually playing football. I know, actually getting continuity. It's nice. It's really nice to see him. I'm always happy when I see him on the pitch. He's an extra small player. And the fact that he can actually play football and show he's half-decent at it again when he's not bloody injured all the time.

It's nice. I just wanted to make a point. Had he not been so interrupted by injuries, I would say he's up there with the likes of Ben Acer and Lobotka, man. He could have been. He could really have been. I feel like he should have hit the gym a bit more. Maybe. Strengthen those legs. Strengthen that whole body, bro. Did you read the lineups, by the way? Oh, I did not, sorry. You did not? Shall we go through it quickly? I mean, who are you cares?

Yeah. I mean, you know, lots of one, pish-pash-posh. Let's just keep on going. I'm new, guys. I'm sorry. I just got to keep drinking my wine. Actually, you're doing very, very well, bro. I want to point out the importance of, or not the importance rather, how impressive Masheen has been in the middle. He's been great. I really like this guy. And a few times I watched Monza and Serieba last season. He always stood out as one of their best players.

And it was always the case that with Monza going to Serieba and Berlusconi being the owner with Gagliani as his right-hand man, there would be no room for a player who's a Serieba talent. You know what I mean? Yeah. So in fact, Sensi, Rovella, Pessina, these guys were brought in. And I thought that Masheen wouldn't see the light of day. It's nice seeing him still feature in the starting 11 every now and then. And he's played a fair bit as well.

And I feel he's good against these teams where you need a bit of physicality as well. He's a good player, a good little player. Okay, bro, shall we move on to the next one? Yes, sir. Standing, standing, standing. Standing, standing. We have Lazo in second place with 55 points, whereas we have Monza in 13th with 34. There we go. The next game we're going to be covering is Roma 3 Sampdoria 0. My boys who saved my fantasy week.

There we go. Roma had lost three of their previous four league games coming into this game. Roma risked suffering three consecutive Serie A defeats for the first time since July 2020. Sampdoria on the other hand missed out on the opportunity to win two matches in a row in Serie A for the first time since November 2021. Okay, so they've been quite, quite sh** lately. Poor bro.

Sampdoria drew their previous away match against Roma in Serie A and could have remained unbeaten in two league games in a row at the Olympico Stadium against Milan, against Roma for the first time since 2006. That was two draws under Walter Novellino. But of course that was not the case. Sampdoria fought and they fought hard, but it was not enough.

For Roma it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Rui Patricio in goal, Spinatzol on the left and Zalevski on the right with Laurent and Smolling at the back. Laurent, another one of Mourinho's revelations over here alongside Zalevski and Solbacen, for example. Matich and Wijnaldum formed the midfield too with El Sharaoui on the left, Debal on the right, and Pellegrini playing behind Tammy Abraham. For Sampdoria it was Ravalja stepping in for the injured Audero.

Zanoli on the right, Di Napoli-Loni, Augel on the left, Tottamione and Mourinho at the back. Leris Rincon and Harry Winks were the midfield three with Quissans and Juricic playing off the shoulders of Gabbi Addini. Now, Samp actually started the game well and the first shot of the match came through them in the 20th minute through Quissans, so you can tell what kind of match this was. This must have been really interesting.

We're looking over here at Stankovic against Mourinho, the pupil meets the master, essentially. Stankovic actually played for Mourinho during the treble winning season. Ravalja pulled off a few great saves to keep Sampdoria into the game going into the second half.

They entered the second half, 0-0, and it really seemed that Sampdoria were up for the task and up to actually get something out of this game, but in the 52nd minute another one of Sampdoria's lapses in concentration occurs and they shoot themselves in the foot yet again. I'm surprised they're not out of bullets and their feet are still in place. But yes, Mourinho this time... They're shooting their toes, like one by one. Exactly, they're shooting their toes off one by one.

Literally, there were ten, right? I mean, the fact that you had to question how many toes you had is really doubting... Are you a cyborg? There we go, bro. So yes, Mourinho in the 52nd minute, because a stupid yellow card was sent off. How many times have we seen Sampdoria throw games like this? I have lost count. Sorry, he has the second yellow, did I say the third? You said the first yellow. The first yellow, the second yellow. So the floodgates have been opened in the 52nd minute.

And the orcs came in. Exactly, here come the orcs. In the 57th minute there was a Matuic cross. Wijnaldum bounced ahead and over the goalkeeper and that's 1-0. In the 88th minute, the Balas scored the penalty. And then the 93rd minute, Elisarawi slotted in a Solbakken pass into the bottom corner. And this was an amazing goal over here by Elisarawi. And a great assist for Solbakken. And that's pretty much a game over for them.

And now, at the end of the game, there were a few racist chants towards... Again? I can't believe it. And it's for a completely different race this time. Really? White guys? Yeah, white guys. Towards the racist chants were towards Stankovic. You can imagine what they got. Crap on toast. And Mourinho actually silenced the crowd. And the ban was only... The fine was only a 5,000 euro fine. And the court actually said that Mourinho intervening actually saved them some money over there. Oh, shit.

Look at Mourinho go. Good job, Mourinho over there. How can you not love this guy, man? Stankovic said he's proud of his roots and he should be proud. He's had a fantastic career. He's a great person. Everyone loves him. Great guy. Great guy. I love him. It was such a joy to watch it. The goals he scored. Those middle of the field shots from a ridiculous way out. Scoring them like the balls made of a fucking feather. He was super. It's insane.

Yes, he was a super player, but unfortunately as a coach, statistically, he's the worst in some of the rest of history. Now I think that's harsh. It's very harsh because what team is he working with here? Yeah. You know? The team is in Shambles. He picked up a team which was already in Shambles, so it's not like the team was decent in any case. It's just... It's a team of...

If you look at the team individually, it's a good team, but if you place it together, it's like you're trying to create a cake, a beautiful cheesecake. And you know what you get, man? You get a fucking pie. If you fucking get a minced pie, it's like, oh, you want dessert? Oh, here's a dessert. Oh, what is it? Oh, it's cheesecake. Oh, it looks lovely. I love the cream on top. You slice it open and you fucking see meat coming out. You're like, sorry, but this is savory. Oh, sorry. My bad.

There we go. And in fact, yes, if you look at the individuals on this team, they're either up and coming players on the rise looking to impress, but they don't have enough experience to actually make a difference. Or else veteran players who are past their best and quite frankly still hanging on to top flight football. You look at Rincon. You look at Rincon, exactly. What I want to make point of is this... Gapjodini. Gapjodini. You know what's funny?

You always see Sassuolo sell half the team, so half the time they're just making money. But then they sell the older parts of their players and you go, why? And they always flop, man. I feel like they know when to sell the shitty players. Dude, I was so upset. But they also sell their best players. I'm not going to say anything. But when they let go of Caputo, I was so... He's shocked. I was shocked as well. It made so much sense. He's a different player, man. He's a different player nowadays.

They probably saw it's not worth keeping. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have minded to keep him. But he's just not as good. He was serviceable. He gave them everything he could. Time to move on. Cutthroat, no? Next, moving on. Professional, executive decision. Let's go to the next one. Yes, bro. Regarding talking points, this was an important win for Roma. Mourinho has recently praised Bellotti's mentality, saying that... My boy.

The way he recovered from his injury and returned early and gave everything was super admirable. It's safe to say that Abraham is no longer his pupilla, no, he's no longer his little baby. I mean, I feel like the ball is his little baby now. I mean, physically and metaphorically as well. I feel like you can't keep praising Abraham's when he's just not scoring goals. Yeah, that's it. You know? I mean, you can like him only once. You can like what kind of player he is. He's not a bad player.

I mean, Chelsea have molded a pretty decent player, but he's a striker and he's not scoring, man. That's it. And I mean, Bellotti's not scoring as well. But what I'll say is, Bellotti has his fire in him. Sometimes Tammy looks like he's just got his cock out half the time. And he's just trying to put his pants back in. Today I feel gay. No, but seriously, jokes aside, he looks a little bit half-assed, even though he's technically very good. I think it's just his physique that gives off that.

You think so? He's so big. Yeah, of course he's big, but there's just something sometimes is just missing in this guy. I don't know whether it may be the team, maybe like Romance. I feel like he looks isolated a lot, to be honest. Maybe the team isn't good for him as such. I think one of the main things that has bothered me about Abraham, and this is something I've noticed particularly because I've been keeping a very close...

You know when you take a player on fantasy football and you just watch them? You just watch the fuck out of them. You deal as obsessed. Tammy Abraham, for his size, isn't as good as he could be in the air. Yeah, that's true. I think he should, honestly, he should be so dominant. He's lanky, bro. That's it. He's too lanky. But then you put some weight on him and then you end up struggling in different departments. You won't be able to display his technique as much.

He's so good with the ball at his feet right now. But his technique isn't scoring him goals, man. But the hold-up play is good. You can be chunky and still have a good hold-up play. Yeah, yeah, you can. I mean, if I'm going to speak about the... But not in the same way, huh? Sure, man, but if I'm going to speak about... Let's just go personally here.

If I'm going to speak about my football attributes, which there aren't many of, the one good one I would feel like is that I can hold the ball pretty well. I'm fucking 5'8", okay? And I weigh 71 kilos, so... That's fat for 5'8". That's pretty fat for a 5'5'' of a guy. But, you know, you don't have to have, like, insane technique to be good at holding up the ball. So I feel like, yeah, I definitely agree with you.

I think he does need to put on a bit of muscle to be able to out-muscle players, man. With that fucking height and a bit more muscle, you're going to be making fucking defenders look like... Yeah, unmarkable. On set pieces and Moriniya set pieces. Good luck, man. Good luck to 18. Good luck. You've got fucking Roger Arbanias, Mancini and Abraham looking at you like a jacked Abraham. And then you've got Matich at the back, hiding his Jack Daniels before a Champions League game.

Have you ever seen that photo? I've never seen it. This is a photo of Matich. I don't know whether it's after the game. That's a true joke, dude. No, I don't know whether it's after the game or before. He's like cheering. I think it was De Gea in a team photo at Manchester United, and you see a fucking Jack Daniels at the bottom. Before the game. I think it's after, but you can see his intentions, man. He laughs his Jack. There we go. There we go. No problem. No problem.

But he's on the Jack of all trades. Oh! All right. So, yes, let's go to the league standings. Roma are currently in fifth with 50 points, while Sampdoria are down in 19th with 15 points. However, they do have 10 games remaining, and Sampdoria's fixtures in the next four games will give us a clear idea. Seven. That's really seven. Seven games. The next game. But the next four, the winnable ones. No, the next four, like bottom.

Then they have, okay, then they have Fiorentina, they have Torino, which are still winnable though. Okay. Yes, they definitely can. I mean, they're way harder though. But I think direct encounters in the next four games, they're looking, they're playing their relegation candidates. The next four games decide their season. Exactly. That's it. The next four games will know if they're going up or down. This is like the last four games of the season for them. And now, exactly, it's up to them now.

So now we'll see. And to be honest, they had been better, but now we'll see. Yeah, man. But, you know, another 3-0 loss is going to affect you. Yeah. It's going to affect you. Off we go. Off we go to the next game. To the Wizard of Oz. Oh, to the next game. So in the next game, we have Juventus 1, Verona 0. A standard Allegri game, like we like to say. Nothing fancy, so to speak. And we'll just go over a bit of the form, head to heads, and all these things in between.

We can say that for a fact that it's an interesting fact and stat. Since the Monza game, OK, that Monza got all those strippers and had a load of fun and their coach. Yeah. You have been criminally underrated. Yes. And at how consistent they've been. You know why? In 15 games, they've lost twice, they've drawn twice, and won 11 times. Oh my God. Don't tell me that's not fucking league-winning form almost. Honestly, honestly. And you know what I'm saying? This is in second place.

Sure. I mean, I'm just saying and just speaking in metaphors here. Of course, not 11 better. I'll apologize to Steve almost. And I will say that you are the second best team in the league. You know... I apologize to Steve. I think he's right. I feel, although what I will say is... Since the beginning of 2023, right? Maybe we're talking about... Sure. But what I will say is a fact. And Steve is our friend by the way. He's a Juventus fan. He's a Juventus fan.

You can listen to him on the Juventus special. And what I'll say is that... Lots of you are with the team that they have. I think that they're exceeding expectations and they're definitely the second best team. But Juventus form? Definitely the second best. Yeah. Definitely. And now you can't argue against it. No, because at the end of the day, you look at Milan's last game and they make a point, you know, to be up there.

But at the end of the day, since the restart, there haven't been many teams. There hasn't been a single team apart from Napoli who's been as good as Juventus. Yeah, that's true. So yeah, they've been super and they've been doing it with young players. Yes. And they're bringing in these young players. Exactly. So atypical to Allegri's reputation. True. And to continue basically with the last five games for each team, Juventus have registered four wins and a draw.

Whereas Verona have registered two draws and three losses. The last time Verona won was back in the middle of February. So you can imagine this loss after loss after loss for almost two and a half months. Yeah. I wonder what happened just before February. They saw the fucking Illich, their last remaining playmaker. Good point, man. Good bloody point. So yeah, you know, it's looking dire for Verona. But anyways, this fixture as a head to head fixture is pretty one sided.

Not totally, but pretty one sided. You were winning six, whereas there are two draws and two wins for Verona. What I will say before we go into the starting lineups and to some players who had different different call ups as to as to others is that had you were not been deducted those points, they would firstly be in second with 59 points, four wins away from Napoli. That is not impossible to chase, by the way. Oh my God. Four wins with 10 games remaining. And they have to play Napoli.

And they have to play Napoli. Keep that in mind. Yeah, we have to see, of course, if the appeal is lifted, if the appeal is granted. I don't think it's gonna happen. I think it will. I would like to see it happen because I frankly feel it's unfair. If they are getting penalized, Atalanta have to get penalized, Intap have to get penalized, and even Napoli. All these T33 teams have had Shadi or Shady, sorry, transfers. They've all had them, especially Atalanta and Inter, especially.

Yes. You know, and why is the Uber the only one getting the... Because it was so obvious. OK, sure. It doesn't matter. Still happening as well. The only one, the only team. I don't like when the when political punishment is imposed on a team and their season. I think it needs to be separate. It does. Maybe at most give them a transfer ban, you know, but points... Start at next season. Point deductions is fucking weird, dude. Start at next season.

Yeah. And let's say they do give Juve these 15 points back. The loss against Monza might have not happened had Juve not had the demoralization of having 15 points deducted and having to face Monza there. Fair enough. But anyways, it's a point of contention. We'll see what happens at the end of the season. Some things to mention that Baranchea came in for Juve in the starting lineup. A man who's only had 190 minutes this season and Millec came in for Juventus after two months out, by the way.

Verona fielded their most basically standard squad with Valorzo coming in in the starting eleven. So for the formations we have Juve with their 3-5-2, we have Cesne and Goal, we have Gatti, Bremer and Danilo as the back three, we have Quadrard on the right, Fagioli, Baranchea and Locatelli in the middle, with Deschilio on the left. That was quite a surprise as well. Deschilio on the left. Then we had Kienel, Millec up front, whereas we had Gaiac and Lasagna up front for Verona.

We had Duda as an attacking midfielder. We had Diapoli, Valorzo, Tamez and Faraone in the midfielding lineup. And then we had Cekarini, Maniani and Dajdowicz as defenders with Montepo in goal. As for the characteristics of the game, we had Verona starting actually very well. We had chances for Diapoli and Duda both coming very close to scoring. Duda had a great shot on goal, which Cesne saving relatively comfortably. We had Diapoli with a lovely volley in the middle of the box.

It just scraped past the post. That could have been a beautiful goal, another goal of the week for our honorable mentions. Along with the other seven. Yes. For the most part, actually, I'd say that Verona was the better side. You've had some good displays, but the weird thing was that you've had those good displays in set pieces. They came close from free kicks, they came close with set pieces, but in the actual game itself, it looked like Verona was more hungry for it.

But it could be maybe Uwe was soaking up pressure. They do like to do that. They like to tire out the team and then go for the kill later on. And they got the job done while resting players, right? That is true. And they did go for the kill, 1-0 in the 55th minute. After a cagey start again in the second half, we finally see Locatelli. It was nice to see him having a great game this game week. He received the ball way up the pitch without many players to choose from, by the way.

He only had one real choice. It was Moise Akin, who was very loosely marked inside the box. Very cool finish, bottom left-hand corner. Verona then had a number of other chances to score. Lazani almost was a 1-1 with Cezny, which Cezny managed to clear in the last second. There was another shot by Verona, where they almost scored. But Cezny was basically up for this task and managed to keep it 1-0. Keane has been really good, considering he hasn't had that many games to show himself.

And I feel like he's really done well in this season for Juventus. And I think that it's nice to see because he was so poor last season. And it's nice to see him scoring again. And I like to see it. At the end of the day, he's 23 years old. No, he's an Italian guy who robs certain members of the fans the wrong way. And it is nice to see him scoring because it is clear that he's a talented player. And apart from the talent, he has always shown, in my opinion, great industry.

He's a hard worker. He's a hard worker on the pitch. He doesn't have that lazy bullshit about him. He doesn't have that attitude, that arrogant boy. He's always willing to run. He's always willing to work. He's always willing to press. And yes, shout out Moiskeen. Shout out Moiskeen. You're very moist. Quadroda had a great game, by the way, as well. It's funny, every player I've criticized yesterday has basically had the game of their... Just you wait for the upcoming games, bro.

Just you wait. Apparently everyone's going to become a top. Everyone, you said, flopped for a score, pretty much. Honestly, it's been absolutely redonkulous. But anyway, congrats to Quadroda because I like the guy. So it's good for him to have a great game again. You've had very middling stats, by the way, in this game. They had 13th and most distance covered with 109 kilometers. They were eighth in top passes completed, 10th in top key passes, ninth in top scoring chances.

You know, very middling stats. Are you even back to the best playing this, like, containing football and then just going for the kill in that really particular moment? This is what Allegri knows, and this is a very effective way to rack up points for Allegri and to remain competitive on every front, quite frankly. They're taking part in three competitions right now. They arrested quite a few players over here. They thrive on set pieces because of how well drilled they are.

Over here, you look at the 1-0 win over Verona, who are going to come out biting. You play against Verona, they're fighting for their life. They're a rat in a corner. Good luck getting a rat in a corner. You look at the fact that they started Gatti, Decilio, Berenicea, again, 35-year-old Quadroda on the wing, their best striker on the bench. Teenager, Fajoli in the middle, you know. They get the fact that you get three points and a clean sheet with this formation is a massive win.

Granted, the manner in which they do it is unappealing. It's unappealing. It's risky because defending a one lead for pretty much, for half an hour, right? They had half an hour. 40 minutes. Yeah, there we go. 40 minutes. Because it's 55 minutes and you have 35, which is still 19, and you always have like five minutes, so pretty much 40. There we go. Mr. Steve, you're fucking liberal. You're not going to comment. Did you like Mr. Steve? I did not like Mr. Steve. Mr. Steve was our match teacher.

I used to go to private lessons with Mr. Steve. Really? And I used to hate it so fucking much because... Why? I'm not Verona, I don't like everyone else. I don't know, because my mother hated me, I guess. She basically made me go there because it was close to where we used to live. And he always used to... I think he basically used to... Quas, I flirt with my mom. I'll call mommy if you're not good in class today. And I'll be like, bro, I'm not even saying anything.

I just don't give a fuck about maths. I'll call mommy, Luke. I'll call my mommy. You want her number? She's single, by the way. Yeah, you're not going to study? I'm not going to fuck your mom. Fuck her, I mean, whatever, bro. Whatever floats your boat. There we go. This podcast is taking a few weird turns. It must be the wine. No, it must be the... I mean, we're almost done from La Torre Primivito. There we go, dude. I need to put on the game. One second. You little monkey.

Okay, we're back. We've got the game on, which is starting in five minutes. We've peed. We're good to go. Now, the next game we are going to be covering is Cremonaese 1-Atalanta 3. Atalanta are the team against which Cremonaese have drawn the most Serie A games, seven out of 12, with four victories for Atalanta and one victory for Cremonaese. Cremonaese were unbeaten in their last six meetings with Atalanta in Serie A. Holy moly, what the hell?

They had one win and five draws since a 2-1 defeat in September 1991. Dude. They've been absent from the league in a while, and these stats are always fun, because they sound so sensational. They do, and they are the absolute opposite of sensational. Yes. Superfactual and logical. Now, Cremonaese under Davide Ballardini have been playing a 3-5-2 formation in most games.

This time it featured Karne Seky in goal with Lacosvili, I always struggle with this guy, Bianchetti and Aiwou at the back, Valeri on the left with Piquel playing on the right, Benassi Meite and Castagnetti were the midfield three. Cioffani, the veteran striker, was partnered up with, well, by Italian standards, a youngster, 23-year-old Tzajou.

For Atalanta, it was their 3-4-2-1 formation with Juan Musso in goal, Toloi Palomino and Scalvini at the back with Zappacosta on the right and Ruggeri on the left. Ederson and De Roon formed the midfield double pivot with Pasaleccia Muriel playing behind Duvan Zapata. Now, the first goal actually came in the 44th minute when Zapata's cross was deflected and fell into the pot of Martin De Roon who slotted it in, his second goal in his last two games. Has he ever scored before that?

He has scored but never two in a row, I think, for Atalanta. I don't think he's ever expected that to happen. Yeah, probably not, and it came at a good time for our bet on this goal. It sure did. Now, in the 56th minute, Toloi handled the ball, there was a penalty, 37-year-old Shafani stepped up to take it. He has done so a couple of times this season, and he converted by going down the middle. In the 73rd minute, the Goon squad, no, Gasparini brought on a couple of names.

He took out the Colombians, you know, he's like, fuck it, guy's off, ciao. He brought on Hoyland, he brought on Luckmann, he brought on Jeremy Baga, and that's when they shifted gear. They went out of third gear to fourth to fifth, there we go. In the 73rd minute, there was a long ball to Hoyland, exactly where he likes it, right in front of him. He charged down the right-hand square, the two Jeremy Baga who converted, and suddenly it's 2-1.

So, Jules Sky had a good opportunity after some slickling up play from Cremonaize shortly after that. In the 89th minute, Hoyland actually missed an open goal after De Roon's perfect cross. De Roon's in really good form right now. Valeri had an attempt in the 90th minute that just went wide. It's crazy how sometimes you have these profiles in the team that no matter where they play, they get in situations to make the difference. Valeri is one of those guys.

Valeri plays as a fullback, but he often finds himself in positions to make the difference for Cremonaize. In the 92nd minute, Baga nicked the ball off your Cremonaize top, Piquel, and he drove. He played it to Ederson who laid it off to Lukman who scored. My boy. Your boy Lukman. Now bro, this is something that's often been discussed. Atalanta only have one competition to play in. Yes. Do you think that they are contenders for that top four spot? They are not. They are not.

With the form that they're in, which is super streaky, and the fact that there's Inter Roma and arguably Juventus all between them and behind them, they're just too streaky to get that. They're just way too streaky to... You know what? It could happen now. At Inter, come on and don't lose the game until the end of the season. That could happen with Atalanta too, playing once a week. Not with their team, man. Not when you're heavily reliant on two strikers. You know?

Coupe Miners have stopped scoring. They have scored two in a row. But in the past, you'd get goals from Hattabour or Malle, or you'd get a random Toloi goal. These have all disappeared. Their high scoring has all disappeared. It's pragmatic nowadays, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I don't think they'll make it. I think it would be a miracle to get that top four. The ball is in their court. Sure. Or on their pitch. They have to play a few direct competitors coming up.

They have to play the likes of Roma, they have to play the likes of Inter, and the likes of Juventus. Exactly. They've got a few games in choice. With knowing that now, where they have to play literally the people around them. And Fiorentina as well. You know what? I die on a spike. That happens. So if anyone wants to be dead, they can wish for Atalanta to be dead. Cool. Please send over your artwork. But yes, okay. So Atalanta, for you, the dream is dead. I don't know.

The goals in their court, they have gone on runs before. I feel like this season they do look a little bit streaky. But, I don't know. They have certain players who can really make the difference in any game. But I don't know if their system nowadays is good enough to compete with the likes of Juventus. Quite frankly, even Fiorentina, looking very good. Roma as well. Moreno against Gasparini. Does Gasparini have what it takes to actually best Moreno on a direct encounter? I'm not quite sure.

I think Moreno has two sheets more to let that happen. Bro, Gasparini's impact substitutions, right? This is something he likes to do. He likes to leave his best players on the bench and bring them on the second half starts. Lukman, Hoylan and Bogawa on the bench. Muriel and Zapata, who have barely scored the season. They have barely done anything this season. They started the game.

Do you think that his idea, the whole philosophy behind this, is for Muriel and Zapata to tire out the team, to do the legwork, and then eventually you bring in the good guys and they just destroy the smarts, man? I really genuinely feel like he wants... I think he has such a respect for his two old guard. And he's starting to give them chances. And I think that next game, he's going to... Lukman and Hoylan will be back in the starting line-up. I don't know about respect for his old guard.

You're looking at a guy who's so cutthroat when it comes to letting people go, no? You're looking at Papu Gomez, Iličić, and all this shit. He just lets them go. Iličić was just basically a weird. He doesn't want to play football anymore. Gomez had a fight with him. And Zapata and Muriel don't fight with him. They just pass their best, essentially. And I feel like he wants to try... I feel like he maybe believes that they still have it, but they're just not scoring. Yeah, that could be the case.

And that's most likely the case. Personally, they look like two shells of the players they've been. You know what, man? I feel that they've been struggling with a team like Cremona. I swear to God, man. They would struggle with a team like that. They would struggle to be the main man up there. They don't look good. If you look at the way they play, compared to other players in smaller teams, they look...

But then, with Zapata, I tend to agree nowadays, especially he's no longer the formidable force he used to be. But Muriel has that IQ. I feel like if you put him on a Cremona team, he could... He'll grab a few goals, sure, man. Not only the goals. I feel like he would be the main offensive outlet, at least for a maximum of 60 minutes, yes, because he's kind of unhealthy. For an athlete's standard, of course.

He's way healthier than me and Mintov over here, for example, who have what, three months left? At most. But yes, that seems to be the case. He saves his best for a loss. And Hoyland came on and he absolutely changed the game immediately. Cremona is a bro. Done, dead, bye. Dead and bye. I said this a little bit ago. They're done. I think that they accepted their day over. And if they're done, then Ballardini's out, right? Because Ballardini tends to take over these projects short term, right?

He'll probably be sacked, if not by the end of the season. He'll be sacked by June. Then halfway through the next season. That's what happens with Ballardini. If so, who do you think would be an interesting managerial profile for Cremona to take on, considering their Serie A experience now? There we go. Why not? Pirlo could come back after having such a torrid time at the event. He could come back and now have a brilliant attempt to close his way back into league football.

Di Francesco could also be a very interesting person to come back and try to recover a team who has been out of sorts. I think even Shevchenko might be a good place for him. I don't think he's a good manager, in my honest opinion. I don't know. He's still young. He did okay with the Ukraine squad. I get that international football is different. Very different, man. I would bank on Di Francesco, to be honest. I think Pirlo's overqualified, which is funny because he totally isn't.

But on paper he is. On paper he is, sure. He wouldn't go to Cremona. I think it would be a great move for him. Maybe Zaghi? Yes, another Serie A bad team for him. Pippa, right? Pippa, of course. Not his brother, poor guy. Everyone hates him. Le Mone! Le Mone and Zaghi, dude. Okay, cool. So let's conclude this. Who would you be? I think Di Francesco and Shevchenko written as the main candidates. We're not too far off. I think Di Francesco would be a good shot.

I think he needs to revitalize his career a little bit over here. Because he had a great start, very promising manager. He did bits with Roma, he did bits with Sassuolo, but then he dipped. Aggressively. I think the game changed. The game changed a lot and I don't think he adapted very well. Okay. I think he got figured out personally. Because with Roma we saw two sides. We saw a side that went almost all the way into Champions League. Gotti could be interesting.

Yes, that's not so bad one, Gotti actually. But again, say manager, no? Yes, yes, true. It's weird, I don't see him going to say it. But anyway, Cremonezza sit in 20th with 13 points. While Atalanta currently sit in 6th with 48 points. Just two points off of that sweet, sweet 4th spot. Greed. And shall we move on to the next game, sir? Yes, please. I believe it is Bologna-Udinezza. And that score ended in a very emphatic 3-0 win for Bologna.

You would not have believed that a week ago had not been the international break. Where Udinese were absolutely bowling against Milan. But that is football for you. So if we can check the form of these two teams, we have Bologna with two wins, two draws and one loss. Whereas Udinese have two wins, two draws and one loss. Absolutely as equal as you can get. And so yeah, this could have been a more fair encounter than this. Arguably you could say that Udinese had a slight edge.

Especially had it not been the international break. Because they had just trumped Milan in such a way where it just looked like morale was increasingly high. But that is the way it is. There was an international break and I believe that that did put out some steam for Udinese. And it gave Bologna time, the master coach that he likes to believe himself, Mr. Mata, to create the perfect plan. And boy did he do that.

But I will say that there were many things in his favor which definitely helped his master plan for succeeding. We had standard teams here for both sides. The only interesting changes of note was Bardi coming in for the injured Skorupski. And then we had Mr. Tova coming in for the most successful player in Serie A, Isaac Success. Cheap bro, cheap joke. I'm sorry but I love cheap jokes.

So as formations have it, we have Bologna 4-2-3-1, we have Bardi in goal, we have Posh, Suo Amaro, Lusumi, Kyriakopoulos as defenders, we have Schotten and Mora as deep-lying midfielders, we have Abishear, we have Mr. Ferguson and we have Barrow as the attacking midfielders, and then we have Sansone up in front, the guy who never aged apparently, and he's still playing football. He's 31 years old but he looks 23. He looks like he's 23. Honestly, give me your genetics.

We have Silvestri in goal on the opposite side, we have Ziggler, Bijol and Ehud Zouabi. Close enough. I tried my best there. Sorry for these acts. Good luck with the midfielders. Okay, we'll try it. We have Udoji and we have Pereira, Lovric, Samardich and Ebosele. I fucking nailed it. You little bastard, okay? And then we have Beto and Thauvin up front. Some points to note, we've mentioned most of them.

All I'll say is that it looks like Bologna have seemed to find the perfect starting 11 and formation. It took some tampering. It did take some tampering and I believe that although there's lots of critique towards Mota, he has gelled a good side here so far. Agreed totally. And I think it's nice to see because people give him a lot of shit, but so far it's working. Yes. And you know for a team like Bologna with such history, it's nice to see them playing well.

So, Thauvin, Mota burst into the scene with his obscure, wild, bizarre. Wasn't he the guy who had like four attackers or something? It was the weird formation, something mad. I don't even remember what the hell it was. But he's honestly walking the walk right now. He is walking the walk. He always seems smirking on the pitch, you know. It's like he knows. I want to punch him sometimes. No, unbelievable. How can I punch a guy who's fucking smarter than me? I have to fucking bow down essentially.

But anyway, we'll go into the match highlights. We have 1-0 coming in the third minute, by the way, where Posh gets the ball in the middle of the pitch, basically 35 yards out or around about that far out. And he decides to, you know what, score the goal of the season, by the way. He thunders a shot all the way from there and it screams into the goal absolutely unstoppable. And apparently enough scoring against Udinese, this guy.

That's his second goal in two games. No, sorry, two goals in two games. Do you know that he's the highest scoring defender in Europe's top five leagues? Holy balls. Stefan Posh. He's quite posh, huh? He's quite posh. He is quite posh. And hot little talent. He is a hot little talent. Well done, Bologna, for signing that boy up. Hot little talent. He's 25 years old. But still, that's a good player anyway. He's pretty young. Okay, 25. Yeah. Mind you, this is Italy you're talking about.

We'll be able to shine at 35. Exactly. I mean, he's 19. Exactly. He is. Which is basically cat's ears but in reverse. Exactly. We can still make it in Italy, bro. Holy shit. We'll go watch Kerman and see if they can play. I'll be like, please. Please, I've got some major talent. I can hold the ball up better than Abraham's. Anyways, 2-0, 12th minute. Mora gets the ball outside the box, some like 20 yards out. He starts dancing like he's some Argentina samba dancer.

He finds himself some beautiful space, a pocket of space. He then smashes the ball with his left foot. And it's a brilliant shot. Bottom left corner. So rest three again. Pretty much no chance in saving that one. Then Udine have three brilliant chances to grab a goal back by Beto and Samardzic alike. However, none of them managed to get that all-encompassing goal. And then it's basically a done deal. 3-0 in the 49th minute.

The visitors were once again punished for a slow start in the second half after a very stoppy defending. They give Mora lots of space in the box, then allowed Barrow to come in surging from outside the box. He then picks up the ball from Mora and scores a very deserved goal. His first goal in 15 games, mind you. Very, very important goal for Mora. He's been really wanting one for Barrow. He's been really wanting one of those for a while.

Honestly, Barrow is one of those players who shows up like three times a season. And it's always towards the second, the latter part of the season. He does, yeah. He does like a random goal here and there. And when he's on, he looks really good. I wish that there was a better team he was on that could really mold him. But then would he be molded or would he be phased out? I think honestly at the moment this is the perfect environment for him. Absolutely, no, no.

Absolutely. I would like to see how he would be at a different team learning from different players. The problem is if Mota leaves, because I feel like right now there's a certain core of players at Bologna who finally have the appropriate guidance, because let's be real, no disrespect to the late Mihailović, of course, but his time there was more of a respectful thing. It was more of a, we owe you for your service. Yeah, kind of. We're not going to thank you.

Great manager, but of course, at the end of the day, he's a plateau. Yeah, definitely. But you look at the likes of Moussa Barrow, you know, you look at Ferguson, hot little talent. You look at Schouten, hot little talent. You look at Arbishek, hot little talent. Posz, hot little talent. Guess what? They're all talented players and they all come from different parts of the world. And this Bologna side has always been fun and it's always been quite modern actually.

And a very, very nice, interesting little project. Absolutely agree. A few extra points before we can head off to the next game. Bologna could have definitely made this five or six, by the way. They had several attempts on goal, even after they've scored three. Sonso de Mista won one after a great save by Silvestri. Domingo shot wide just above the goal from about 25 yards out. Bologna absolutely dominated this game. There's not much to say as such in a way.

You know what's the funniest thing though? They've been dominating games much more than when they have Arnautovic. Well, to be fair, it is a new coach. Sure. Agreed. We can definitely agree that there is a difference, even when the game plan is going to change. But they do look more coherent as a unit. It tended to look like Arnautovic was their saving grace. He is there to grab those goals to kill a team. And he did. He definitely did have those games where he just killed a team.

But I just think that they're a better team without him at the moment. Maybe. Mota's system does require your striker to press a lot, right? Arnautovic is not opposed to high press. He's a very industrious player. Very aggressive. So I think he could still be serviceable. I think it's an ethical problem. I mean, clearly. Yes. He seems to have matured. He seems to be a leader in this team. He hasn't really had the problems since he joined Bologna at all.

The last controversial thing we've seen Arnautovic do was that celebration when he scored for Austria in the Euros way back when. Yeah, yeah. And then there was Alaba trying to shut him up and all that. Yeah, he didn't want to shut up. It was basically because of Yappen. Yappen. Yappen away. You know, one of the things as a Sassuolo fan, it hurts. But it's really nice to see the resurgence of Kyriakopoulos. I really like this player. I think he was misused as a Sassuolo.

He was definitely more of an aggressive player than a defending player. But I feel like he's a Sassuolo. Yes, he was. No, no, no. Just as in general, he's a more attacking player than he is defensive. Agreed. In a team which need defenders. That's spot on because Sassuolo, you look at their full backs, bro, they don't really. They don't. They don't really insert themselves. They can't anyway. You can't insert yourself when you have Laurent Honté and you have Berardi on the other flank.

What was that you're going to do? You just basically soak up space for... And when you have Ferrari and fucking Aihon at the back, you can't. No, Aihon's gone. Tresoldi, no. Tresoldi. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, you know, Rouen. Rouen. Rouen Tresoldi. Yes, I think Sassuolo do leave. Like the attack with six, no? The midfielders and the attack. So you can't have two full backs as well pushing up.

So basically I'm just very happy to see that guy and I feel you'll see another goal from him till the end of the season. Yeah. I'm basically very happy for the guy. I think he's a good player and I feel like he's definitely got chances to stay in the league. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Shall we move on to the next one? Absolutely, sir. So the next game we are going to be covering is Sassuolo. You are a Sassuolo, bro. You're a baby.

My boys. One Torino, one. Now, Sassuolo have won four of their 20 matches against Torino in Serie A. There have been eight draws and eight losses against Torino. The reverse fixture was a Sassuolo victory actually. Sassuolo could have won consecutive games against Torino for the first time ever in the top flight but missed out on that opportunity. Only three teams. You'd love this stat, bro. Listen very carefully. Okay, listen. Understand.

Only three teams. Napoli, Juventus and Lazio have won more points than Sassuolo in 2023. 21 points. In this calendar year, Sassuolo have also scored 21 goals. Only fewer than Napoli, Atalanta and Juventus. How can you not love these guys, man? Honestly. How can you not love this team? Honestly. They start from having the best kit in the league and they're followed by having the best wingers in the league.

A kit that, by the way, will be illegal soon. It will be banned because the color green is no longer going to be allowed in the coming years. That's fucking shit. It's shit, yes. And it's ridiculous and whoever made that rule, we have to speak. To be fair, for the observer purposes, like it doesn't make sense to have the same color as the pitch on your t-shirt. So change the pitch color. Change the... That's it. Blue football pitchers.

Blue or black football pitchers, OK? There we go. And white balls. That's very racist, Csaka. So Sassuolo lined up with their 4-3-3 formation with Consigli in goal, Tullian as the right back, Rogério as the left back, just as it's been for the past 28 years. Ferrari and Rouen were the center back duo. The midfield three consisted of Henrique, Lopez and Fratesi, a very mobile midfield three. A lovely midfield three.

Loriente was on the left, Berardi was on the right and Penamonti was playing up front. For Torino, it was Vanja Mlinkovic-Savage, the titan in the goal. At the back yard, Bon giorno, Schürr and Gravillon, with Singo on the right, Ricardo Rodriguez on the left, Samuele Ricci and Linetti in the middle, with Sanabria up front, with Vlasic and Radonjic playing off his shoulders. Now in the 30th minute, Radonjic found himself in a good position and smashed the ball into the crossbar.

Perhaps he should have done better, he should have definitely done better in that situation, come to think of it. And the 30th-50th minute, Berardi had a cross shot converted by your flop of the season, Penamonti, scoring against Zeranov play, Quadrado, by the way, your other flop of the season, scored in the semifinal against Inter yesterday and proceeded to dance in a very cheeky and naughty way and then punched the player in the face. Yes, as people do in this sport.

In the 65th minute, Tony Sanabria scored. It was a fantastic diving header from the Paraguayan after a Valentino Lazaro cross man, Tony Sanabria. No matter who Torino have, no matter what their situation is, you can count on Tony Sanabria to get you a handful of goals in a season. In the 75th minute, Radonjic missed another good opportunity, failing to hit the target. Credit to you, he was your flop, bro. For me, this game, Torino were the better team, thoughts?

First half, they were. I feel it's a game of two halves, so Swola definitely. So Swola bust the game till about the middle of the second half and then it was all Torino. So I would say Torino were the better of the two. I feel like Torino came out in the second half more hungry. I feel like Sasuolo do Sasuolo things and they always end up conceding a goal when the pressure is at its most.

And in the end, even though they had a good game, they were lucky to come up with one point because Torino had a number of chances to score. But then again, Lorientet scored when it was offside. The same thing happens for Vlasic when it was offside. So it's a catch 22 kind of thing. Yeah, Torino maybe edges at the end because towards the end of the game, they had more chances and more clinical chances. So maybe they did. They were the better of the two. But I would still say it was pretty even.

Were you satisfied with Pena Monti's display this game? I think he looked better than usual. And I like I told you, I must listen. He must listen to the podcast because I've been shooting on him for quite a while. And I'm just glad I want to be proven wrong, especially with him, because they brought in Pena Monti to be the new player to keep them up high in the league. And it's good to see him managing to OK, the goal wasn't one goal, but it's the goals you need.

Those shitty goals you need to score when they when your team has to finish a shot off. And these are the goals the likes of Petania wish they were getting. Of course. And I mean, no offense to Pena Monti, but these are the kinds of goals he's used to scoring as well as scoring Berardi-esque goals or Lorientet-esque goals. I don't think I've ever seen a Pena Monti goal where I said, wow.

But that's the kind of player he is. You know, you're a guy, you're an Inzaghi, you know, you just get those shots, you just get those goals where you just need to finish them off. Hey, Inzaghi's had a few bangers. Of course. I mean, a different quality of player. But you know, what is Inzaghi known for? For being offside and scoring with his ear. So essentially in today's day and age, Inzaghi would have like four goals.

Yeah. I'm just triggering you. I'm just triggering you. Come on. Come on. Come on. Sometimes it may be good. If I speak, I am in big trouble. Am I in big trouble? You're in big trouble. If I speak, I'm in big trouble, but I know you're in big trouble. OK, now moving on. Who has the better project? Sasuolo or Torino? Torino. As painful as it may be. Because you cannot sell half your team every season and then expect to have a good project. I'm sorry, but who have Torino retained?

Well, apart from Bellotti, who have the lost OKM Premier, sure. Mirancuk? No, sorry, they've brought in Mirancuk. Oh my God. But you know, they still kept players. They've still kept, you know, Shingo, Linetti and, you know, they still have some players from the old guards. Voipa does well. So there are some players who have been there. I mean, I think it would be really interesting to see how they end this season, how they end and how they start to reinforce next season.

And I think maybe something to speak with your brother to answer that question. I feel like right now it's Torino who have been with the better project, especially with the players they're bringing in. They seem to be wanting to spend more on better quality players. But it could be that Sasuolo now want to change, you know, because they're now known as the selling club. And do they maybe maybe maybe do they want to still be that kind of team anymore?

Could be. It could still be the case. But, you know, let's wait in the summer and then we'll decide. But so far, I think it's history, you know. You've spoken about Sasuolo being run like a business. Torino seemed to have more greater aspirations and ambitions. The fact that they've brought on one of Italy's hottest talents in some way, Ricci, it was quite a statement in itself as a signing. Yeah. Now all we need to do is see Juric, obviously remain. That's very important for them.

Same thing with Sasuolo. Striker is invited right now. Bring in someone. Bring in someone to play ahead of Vlasic and Radonjic or Mirancuk and Vlasic, whatever. And honestly, this team will transform with a proper number nine up there, a consistent number nine. Sanabria can remain. He's great off the bench. He's super serviceable. Oh my God. Torino would be amazing. They have some money. I believe they could buy him.

Yeah, maybe. Maybe they aren't bad on the books, I think. I think. I mean, they shouldn't be. I don't know the fuck have they bought. You know, they sold Bremer and they bought. They have it. They have it by big money signing. So, yeah. Okay. So let's go to the next game. I might as well actually. Let me quickly read out where they stand right now. Torino stand in tenth with 38 points. While Sasuolo sit in twelfth with 37 points. Bro, you're up. Am I up? I'd like to hope so.

I am up for the last and most encompassing game of the week. I actually have one more after this one. Oh shit, yes, that's true. The penultimate game. So the penultimate game. Indeed, indeed. We have Empoli 1-0 Lecce, as they like to say in the land of England. We have some stats as usual for this game. We have Empoli coming in with 4 losses and 1 draw. Whereas we have Lecce coming in with 4 losses and 1 win. Of course, again, we can say this is pretty even, Steven. Shout out to Steve Collero.

And we've got two teams who have been desperate for a goal, desperate for a win, sorry. And especially because that will definitely help them to solidify their place for next season. Of the two sides, we have Empoli faring better than Lecce in these encounters. In the last games, we have Empoli with 5 wins to Lecce's 3 and then 6 draws for the two sides. We also have a few changes to the squad. We have Vicario who is still missing and instead we have Perizan coming in for his replacement.

We also have Umtiti out in exchange for Tuia. And then we have Piccoli back in the squad after a long stint out. Pretty nice to see, especially as he's barely had any game time. And last but not least, we have your flop of the season, Petzella, who came in for Lecce. He had actually a very good game, by the way. One guy was listening to the podcast who wasn't my flop. So yeah, we have two teams in the next season. My guess is good for Empoli. Fucking Caputo.

I think I'm a joke, honestly. I think my life's a joke at this point. But anyways, as they like to say, prove me wrong, baby. And they all did. They all have your number. They love my number. You know, my number is... Say it. I'd rather not. Actually, they started calling me, bro, I listened to the podcast. And you know, I was really offended. I was offended at the Colombian statement you made. Cabral, by the way, scored. We missed it. Oh, did he? Yes. The 20th minute.

Ferrantina are currently leading 1-0 against Cremona, in the semifinal of the Copa Italia. Holy balls. One other thing to mention, this game was delayed, by the way. There was a delay in the game. There was a short circuit in the dressing room. So I can imagine a scenario where young teenager, well, young adult coming teenager, Balduncy, was pouring his espresso before the game, and he poured the water all over the fucking electronics, and he just basically short circuited the whole stadium.

And basically everyone said, you know what? Please wait, we've got a cappuccino disaster which needs fixing. And the game got delayed by one hour. Had the fire actually started. A fire didn't start because of the electronics. I'm imagining it's the electronics. I was miserable. I was ready to watch the first half and then go to a five-a-side. And I didn't get to watch the first half. Poor you. How was your five-a-side? Oh, it was terrible. Oh, it was terrible. Don't worry. I played so badly.

Oh, did you? Oh my God. And I don't usually play this badly. What thing was it? I smoked a fat joint before. Yeah. I mean, that's not usually the best thing to do. So get this. I was sat waiting for this game to start. And I smoked a joint just in preparation. I was like, all right, there's two hours till my five-a-side. I'll watch the first half of this, relax, unwind, and I'll go. I'll be perfectly fine. The game was delayed. I spent two hours just sat there waiting. I shit.

Okay. And then I went to my five-a-side, it kind of faded and I was fucking terrible. So basically my breathing was fucked. So basically I don't recommend it. No matter what happened, if the game was on, you would have still been very high. No, yes. Yes. It would have been a shit five-a-side regardless, but at least I would have enjoyed the first part of the game. You didn't miss much, by the way. No. So in the first half, in the first 30 minutes to be exact, there were a few cagey moments.

Some wingers from both sides were looking relatively full of sprites, as they say. We had Parisi and we had Stefietza and Baldanzi as well, all looking sharp for their teams in the first half an hour. Both defenses looking very solid and composed. Parisi was winning many fouls for his squad. He looked really up for this game. Essentially there were not many chances apart from these little factors in the first half. In the second half, again, same thing, very cagey, very hard fought.

I'll say even though there were not many chances, the game was still interesting. It was one of those games where it's still 0-0, but the way that the teams are both fighting, it was end to end. It wasn't like shooting and targets. Because there are talented players in the middle for each team. Yeah, there are. You look at Hulman against Marr and that's already exciting enough. Akpah, Akpro and Baldanzi, for Empoli, they're great players. Gonzales and Blin, they're good.

Yeah, so it was a fairly entertaining game, no matter the result, no matter how the game was panning out. But in the 62nd minute, Parisi, once again, the star of the game, was super deadly up front, dribbling his way into the penalty box. And then Heuland with a very late challenge, a bit of a clumsy challenge. Hulman. Oh right, sorry, Hulman, sorry. Heuland's busy missing open nets for Atalanta. Oh, that's correct. That's a 30-place on two teams, I apologize.

And yeah, a bit of a clumsy challenge, if you ask me. Gave away a foul. Parisi wasn't going to do anything in that situation. He was surrounded by players, but it is what it is. Penalty given, none other than Chicho Caputo, the man who has bought a place in Empoli, the man who has signed a contract with Empoli that if they stay up, he will sign a two-year contract extension with the Empoli side, stepped up and scored emphatically. There we go.

Second goal this season, brilliant goal from the penalty spot. I mean... Second stick? I mean, that's probably the only goal he's going to score. Did he drink this time? No, he didn't drink any beer this time. I mean, I think that's the reason why he actually was... Probably, actually this game Caputo looked... He could actually run. I was seeing him running today. I don't know what the hell happened. I think he also listened to the podcast. I think he got a bit offended. So, kudos to you.

He's a 35-year-old player nowadays. Okay, and I play handball with a bunch of 35-year-olds, and they can run more than him. Yeah, and do they play in the top division? No. Who do they play with? They play with nobodies. And where are these nobodies based? In Malta. And what's the population of Malta? 500,000. And where are you going with this point? My point is this guy is still... But you guys are playing in top flight and it's... Sure, man, but this is... So what?

It's because you're fucking playing in top flight. Does it mean he runs? No, but he runs, dude. He fucking runs, dude. He runs. Caputo runs. Caputo has not been running in those few games. That's what I'm going to say. Well, for a 35-year-old, he fucking runs, dude. I sure fucking hope so. Fucking hell. All right. Anyways, he is the game winner. The game ended 1-0.

My only point, to be honest, and I think this is the only defining factor of this game, let your car not think to win a game if you don't register a shot on target. That's as simple as it is. It's my only point. And it's the only point worth mentioning as such, because this was a tight affair against an equal level side. So if you're playing a team on your same level and you can't register a shot on target, I'm not pretending to score a goal, a shot on target, then you can't expect to win.

None of the starters had a shot. None of them. Not even off target. None of them. You look at the only one was Streffetza, who had three shots. Two of them were blocked. One was off target. And the only one which was towards goal was... I was going to say something terrible, but it was pretty wild. Okay. Yeah, it was wild. Definitely. We have our listener and fellow Serie A enthusiast, Roma fan and Empoli admirer, Matthias Krussel. He sent us Krussel. I'm sorry if I have butchered your surname.

I'm not sure if it's Krussel. Krussel or Krussel. Yes, he said it was a hard fought and cautious battle between two teams on very bad form. Very good point over there. Both teams longed for a win, but obviously dreaded yet another loss more. Even though none of the teams really fear relegation at this point, both Lecce and Empoli lined up for the back and three rather central midfielders.

Few chances came through action from the strikers rather the attacking midfielders of Baldanzi and Streffetza had the most opportunities outside the box through free kicks and long shots. It was noteworthy that the next team chooses to replace Akpa Akpro with Fazzini when the former got injured. Fazzini had to move up the ranks or had moved up the ranks rather seemingly above Haas and Henderson at this point. Fazzini looked good and fared up well physically in scrappy midfield battles.

And that's a fair point. Fazzini actually looked pretty good this game. And the fact that yes, he brought them on over Henderson and Haas who have been more consistent, the more regular names in the squad. It's quite an impressive feat for Fazzini, 20 years old. Matthias, thank you very much. We really appreciate your little, your lengthy rather, your lengthy analysis of the games. Honestly, it does open our eyes to certain perspectives that we wouldn't have even noticed prior to this.

Shall we go into their league standings, brother? We should, actually. Not my biological brother, of course. Oh, I was getting excited for a second. But okay, if you want to do me like that, fair enough. We have Lecce in 16th with 27 points, whereas Empoli climb up to 14th with 30 points. Yes, the next game we're going to be covering is Spezia 1, Saller Nittana 1.

This could be seen as a relegation six-pointer over here if Verona and Sampdoria and Cremonezza weren't so wildly inconsistent, or rather wildly consistent at dropping points. Yeah, so it's quite consistent, actually. Yes, for Spezia, Leonardo Semplici's Spezia, it was a 4-3-3 formation with Dronkovski in goal, Nikolao as the left back, Amjana as the right back, with Caldara and Ampadu as the centre-back partnership.

Kovalenko, Ekdal and Borabja were the midfield three, with Jazi on the left, Verde on the right, and Shumardov up front. For Saller Nittana, it was Ochoa in goal with Danilulic, Gyomber and Pirola at the back, Sambia was on the right, Broderic was on the left, with Kulibaly and Villena as the midfield two, and Andre Evandia played behind the not so formidable nowadays Piontek.

Now, KG, KG, KG first half, and the first actual goal came in the 43rd minute, and this was when Kulibaly's forward pass to Villena was turned into the net by Spezia's man, Mattia Caldara, who must have had enough of playing at the top flight at this point. I think he's done. He's gone all into his own net. I don't think he's gone fuck. You know what, I'm done. Fuck you guys, I'm going home. It was an impressive finish into his own net. It was, I couldn't square that.

At the end of the first half, Piontek rattled across the bar with Edda. He's so unlucky, this guy, he works so hard, but he just can't get his numbers up. Seventieth minute, Pirola's error, so Shumardov cleamed through on Galdi, Uzbekistani and your flop of the season, shipped out to Ochoa to salvage an important point for Seller Nittana. Did you say them as well? No, no, I didn't. I said Kovalenko. Oh, fuck me. In the 77th minute, Daniel Maldini's free kick rattled across the bar.

In the 82nd minute, Agudelo slipped the ball through to Egdal, who hit the post. You can see Susa towards the end of the game, furious with the Seller Nittana side, who looked like they were going to basically throw the game at the end. But fortunately for them, Spezia could not capitalize on those two massive opportunities they had at the end. Seller Nittana have stretched around, beaten around to five, but Spezia probably deserved this one.

Susa was visibly furious that he seems to perform as late into the game. Agreed. So regarding Piontek's misfortune, is this his current level? Oh, man, it's so hard to say, because I actually really like the guy still. Yeah, sure. But you know, he just, you know what? He's had so many other opportunities now in Serie A. I'd have to say it is. Yes, I mean, I can't keep giving him excuses.

At the moment, it's his level. You know, at the time when he was scoring every game for Genoa, Genoa wasn't his level. But now this is his level, right? I mean, it's not only the fact that, okay, as a striker, granted, your numbers should be better than Piontek's right now. Yes. And that's pretty much the difference maker when it comes to who he should be playing with, because performance-wise, as we've discussed, he's there, Piontek. He presses, he works, he puts himself in good opportunity.

He's a bad player, don't get me wrong. I just don't, should he be a striker anymore? That's a good question, man. What do you mean? Do you think he should change position? Maybe drop back a little bit more. Maybe he should be a supporting striker or, I don't know, man, it's weird. I just don't think he has that clinical finishing in him anymore. But I don't think he's a bad player.

He seems to not have it in him anymore, but I think at this point, it might be worth trying to rediscover that, then shifting his position, you know, how old is Piontek nowadays? 26, 27. Yeah, it's too late to fucking... Oh, come on. I wasn't going to put him as a winger. He's not fast enough to be behind the striker. He's not technical enough to be behind the striker.

I think he's either going to be a striker or a center back, and you're not going to put Piontek as your center back, you know what I mean? No, he's 27 years old nowadays, Piontek, yes. I think what he needs to do is find his goal-scoring boots. Maybe it's harder at Salernitana than it's ever been for him in his career, but to be honest with you, this guy was scoring goals for fun, like Genoa, where he had no business scoring goals for fun. Yeah.

All right. Slow start to the game, but they go juicy at the end. These lowly sides always start slow when they face each other, bro. Do you think that they're just very, very paranoid and cautious to not drop points? I would agree with that. That seems like quite a fair assessment of how these sides tend to fair in these games. The Empoli game saw the same situation. It was almost a draw, one penalty between them. Fair enough.

I mean, saying it can be said, although they're not the same thing, even Salernitana, the Sassuolo and Torino game, when there's an equal team against each other, which aren't the top guns, they tend to be really cagey and afraid to be the first ones to concede, because they know that the other team isn't going to flop unless you're Sassuolo, and you know you're going to concede. So yeah, I think you made a really good point, and I don't really have anything to counter that.

I agree with you, actually. Fair enough. Yeah, so that game ended 1-1. I'm sure that both be satisfied with that, considering how bad the bottom three have been. And the fact that the bottom three have been so poor actually gives these teams a lot of breathing space. Oh, for sure. They must be so happy. They must be so happy. They must love Stankovic. Oh yeah, they must be paying him for... They must be sending him a hamper after the end of the season, like,

Congrats! Thank you! Here's some chocolate to ease the pain. There we go, bro. He seems like he likes the chocolate, Mr. Stankovic. Stankovic for sure, with that cheeky smile and the big belly. He has a bit of a big belly, yeah. Shall we read out the standings? Yes. For Spezia, they currently stand in 17th with 25 points, while Salernitana sit in 15th with 28 points. Guys, thank you very much for tuning in if you've made it this far. Thank you, guys. We have been your hosts, Jake and...

Myself, Luke. Mintov, please. Mintov, sorry. I don't have a first name, so my name is Mintov. I find it so funny when people who are Maltese are like, This Mintov guy is all jokes. Anyone says that, that thing they'd be talking about, you know. Dom Mintov. Dom Mintov. The one and only, not this fucking... This beta male. There was a Mintov way back when, guys. He was the real Alpha. He was the real Sigma. He must be... I'm like a Charlie at this point.

How is he related to you, bro? Is he related to his, right? He's related to me. He's my great-uncle. My grandfather's brother. There we go. Yes. You think he'd be proud? Of me? Hmm. I don't think so. I'm proud of you, bro. Oh, man. Don't make me blush, no. I love you. I love you, too, bro. You did very well this podcast. Thank you very much for filling in. I'm glad to be filling in. It's a pleasure. Do you have a message for Matthew? We haven't even talked, spoken to him since he's been away.

Is he okay? Is he alive? He's alright. He's doing well. He swam with sharks. He had a panic attack. Not because of the sharks, but because of the breathing of the oxygen tank. Okay. He had a bit of a panic attack over there. Fuck. Is there something you want to say to Matthew? Um... Go fuck yourself. All jokes aside... I hope you're enjoying Australia, brother. Um... Keep swimming with the sharks. Next time open the tank, please. So I can keep doing this podcast with... He's not in a tank.

He's not in a tank. Oh, he's just free. He's just free. Apparently if you don't get too close, then you'll be fine. Next time, just bring a knife and slit your wrist a bit. Oh, my God. So I can keep doing this podcast. And yeah, I'm glad to be doing this podcast a bit dark towards the end. No, jokes aside for the second time. Enjoy Australia, brother. Have the best time. Um... Try not to be scared by spiders because I certainly would be. And yeah. Crocodile Danny, mate. There we go.

Bro, if you've made it this far in the episode, Matt, do send us... um... Luchon Chupetsodemarida on WhatsApp and we'll know that you listened. Thank you. The same goes for anyone, by the way. Feel free to send us Luchon Chupetsodemarida. And then we know if you listen to the end of the podcast. So if Jake ever told me to do that, he knows that I would not listen to the podcast. I'd never get a message from him. Bro, the podcast was great.

I'm like, you didn't text me Luchon Chupetsodemarida, so you definitely didn't listen. Thank you very much, guys. Follow us on our socials at SerialSpotlight. Anywhere you get your podcasts as well. Please leave a five-star review, even though this might have not been a five-star episode, perhaps. We want to get two and a half. La Torre Prima Viva. This is a good wine for five euros. For five euros, man. We should have got a few more. Yes, sir. So thank you very much, guys.

We have been your host, Jake and Mint. Bye-bye.