89: Here We Go! (Full Matchday 1 Coverage)

Candreva the back post away from Kristen. Said oh my word! Antonio Candreva cannot stop scoring absolute wonder goals! Hello and welcome back to Serie A spotlight this is episode 89 and we are hosts Matt and Rick here to bring you guys our first episode for the 2023-2024 season.

It's so good to be back guys our goal of the week for the first round of Serie A was Candreva's second goal against Roma when brother Rich crossed the ball to Candreva who faked shot with his right and curled it in with his weaker left foot from the edge of the area absolutely magnificent. Yeah we thought his first goal was great but his second goal was actually even better. Follow us on your favorite podcast platforms and drop a rating be it Spotify,

Apple podcasts or Google podcasts kindly of course. Yeah five star rating with really help guys and remember to hit that follow button on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube your favorite social media platform. And as the last part of our begging if you want to be part of our Serie A spotlight community you can subscribe to our Patreon for $3.99 a month to be added to our WhatsApp group chat and get priority in our question segment.

We also have a Fanta cultural league that will be kicking off with our patrons and perhaps you can be included in that next year. There was a minute of silence if you watched say this week you would have realized that you spent 10 minutes of your life quietly sat there wondering who's gone who's died it was Carlo Mazzone the legendary footballer and manager Matt why don't

you take it away. Yep so in case you're wondering who this guy was he is the man who first made Totia regular player for Roma he is the man that made Pirlo a regista and even rejuvenated Bajo at Brescia in case that wasn't enough he also decided to bring Ascoli back into Serie A for the first time he was also a player as Jake was kind enough to mention at six foot three he stood as a tall physical center back he played for Roma Latina Spall Sienna and Ascoli where he became

quite a legend his managerial career stent from 1969 to 2006 where he represented Ascoli, Fiorentina, Cantanzaro, Bologna, Lecce, Pescara, Caliari, Roma, Napoli, Perugia, Brescia and Livorno he would be described as a manager that was in style quite similar to Ballardini,

Davide Nicola and Yacchini. Yes imagine those guys but like times a hundred another level you know he was the king of survival say managers and promotion sale blah managers he was the perfect hybrid and he was even looked up to a lot by a certain Pep Guardiola while he was representing Brescia there was actually one time where the curva of some team I couldn't

forget who the opponents were. Atalanta kept hurling abuse at Mazzone, Mazzone waited until Brescia got the winner in that game and he just ran up to the curva and gave them a mouthful back so you could see Pep Guardiola in his post match interview this week wearing a t-shirt with a cartoon depicting that moment beautiful stuff so yes guys Seyha is back in full swing over the weekend we saw Sarri picking his nose purely giving his team talk on the sideline of the run out of

the Lara Stadium because the ACs weren't working Mauro Summa repeatedly screaming USA after police searches debut goal Giannoglu taking out the referee a relatively unknown player celebrating a goal against Lazio with a flip leading into a golf swing Bellotti and the K. Tala are scoring in the opening match of the season despite not scoring in the entirety of the previous season Vincenzo Italiano aggressively removing a member of staff from his seat and Antonio Candreva turning into

prime Roberto Baggio against Roma. What a league we're back baby we're back with a bang bro we're fucking back and we actually watched matchday one with a patron of ours Allen and him and his lovely wife Sam were actually over at our house because they were having a little vacay in Malta seeing some of Sam's friends and lovely couple two of the very very great people they're actually quite fun as well they're great they're fucking good time with them absolutely drink loads of beer

and had a few Maltese delicacies and watched a bunch of culture so that was super fun. Cesco was over as well he stayed over to like two o'clock in the morning and it was fucking fun but it's such a great game. We played a game of FIFA he kept reminding us how long it had been since he played and then he beat me. It destroyed you and I beat him for it. Put him in this place. Yes but for all of you that are listening during your five minute commute in Malta

it's important that I let you know exactly what happened in this matchday. So here we go to start things off the champions of Serie A but face the champions of Serie A and despite Fosnone taking the lead Napoli prevailed through Victor Ossiman and won the game three goals to one. Milan fielded three of their new starters of their new players rather against Bologna and Milan did manage to get away with an away victory. Two goals to Nyl spectacular performance by the Rossoneri. Inter had a good

performance in beating not an easy side in Monza. Two goals to Nyl. Juve were absolutely electrifying in the Bianconeri. Derbjern got away with a three Nyl victory. Salernetana held Roma. Two goals to two away at the Olimpico thanks to a brace by Candreva. Let's just surprise the world as they got past Napoli with the score of two goals to one with the two goals coming towards the latter stages

of the match. Sossuolo Nyl at Alanta two CDK scoring in his first match four at Alanta. Genoa one Fiorentina four a fiery display by Fiorentina but a very disappointing start for Genoa over there. Empoli Nyl Verona one Verona also getting a late winner over there and Torino Nyl Kalliari Nyl. Let's take it away with Frossignone one Napoli three bro let's start off with this game. This game of course can be viewed as kind of a super cup final no like you know you have the winner of

the Champions League against the winner of the Europa League. It's the same thing winner of Serie B against the winner of Serie A of course Grosso is no longer the manager of Frossignone as discussed in our previous episodes Eusebio Di Francesco has taken over. Motonna. Exactly. Historically Frossignone have actually never beaten Napoli in Serie A and have conceded more goals to them than against any other team in the top flight. They've conceded 18 goals in five top flight games.

Rudy Garcia maintains his unbeaten six game record against Eusebio Di Francesco while Napoli remain to have never lost an opening match against newly promoted teams with 14 wins and four draws. Let's get into the lineups. Turati was in goal for Frossignone as they lined up with their four three three formation Mark Kizza. The new arrival from Sasuolo was the left back with Simone Romanuoli

and Montereyzi at the back while Ollano was the right back. Harui also arriving from Sasuolo was in the central midfield position alongside Matsitelli and Gelli while Caso was out on the left, Baez was out on the right and Cuni was up front. Cuni of course is the German Albanian youth product from Bayern Munich. Yes let's Marvin Cuni and get it on. Yes lots of Sasuolo on this team. Turati was also the young Sasuolo goalkeeper who featured a few seasons ago instead of Concilio

when he was out injured. I believe he's still owned by Sasuolo and is out on loan at Frossignone. Well and take a look at the manager as well Eusebio Di Francesco, quite a history with Sasuolo. You're right, you're absolutely right. This is basically mini Sasuolo. Meret was in goal for Rudy Garcia as Napoli as they also lined up with a four three three formation. Di Lorenzo the captain was the right back while Rahmani and Jesus were the center back partnership with Oliver out on

the left. Newcomer Caillust or Caillustel wait for someone to correct me on that one was a midfield alongside Lobotka and Zelinski. Poletano was out on the right, Raspidori out on the left with the formidable Victor Oziman up front. Caillust of course this was his debut after joining from Reims while Gvaratskalia was injured for this one and Anguisa did not start as he had just recovered from a muscle injury. Bravo. In the seventh minute Caillust attempted to clear the ball after a corner

but he kicked by us instead and the penalty was awarded. What a nightmare start for the new arrival to have a penalty given away in the seventh minute. Excuse my voice guys, I'm a little bit croaky, hopefully it sounds sexy and not the way I think it sounds. Haruhi converted the penalty sending Merritt the wrong way. This of course pissed Napoli off and in the 24th minute Poletano took the initiative after Napoli regrouped. He scored with a powerful left-footed shot from a rebound off of

Giacomo Raspidori's effort. Tirati could have done better on this one in my opinion. I think so too. I think so too. Shortly after Raspidori found the back of the net after a really cool maneuver but the goal was ruled out for offside. I'm a really big fan of these long and swinging crosses at the far post. Kind of what we saw Pulisic play to Reinders. It was the exact same move with Victor

Rosyman who's definitely going to get to it. He's got limbs for days. He put his leg where most people wouldn't even put their face and he flicked it back to Raspidori who scored but of course it was offside. It would have been a great assist. Guess who was offside in the maneuver? Shit who was it man? It was Kajus. Or Kajus to achieve me again. Or Kajus. Napoli dominated

after equalizing to be honest. In the 42nd minute Victor Rosyman started. He scored a blistering first time shot over Tirati after a strong run and passed by Giovanni D'Ilorre. So Moscow for usual Victor Rosyman means gold. In the 56th minute for Oceano as Jamie Baez came close with a long range free kick that smashed the woodwork and in the 79th minute it was all over for them as Oceano secured his brace by beating the offside trap and calmly finishing one on one.

The simplicity of this goal was amazing. You can see Rahmani playing a vertical pass to D'Ilorre. So who flicked on another vertical pass to Rosyman who found himself one on one and finished the car. This had three touches for one goal from defense to attack. It was crazy. One pass defense to midfield, one pass midfield to attack, one shot gold. Yeah and the same assistor and the same goal scorer in both goals. Giovanni D'Ilorre and two assists for Victor

Rosyman bagging two goals from those assists. What a leader. So the first thing I'm going to talk about bro over here is how Frasinone are clearly not afraid to play. In Serie A, B, they were the type of team that would dominate most games and dictate the tempo of each game and it looks like in Serie A they're going to try to do exactly that. The problem with doing that is that in Serie A the teams are much better and Frasinone on paper are probably the worst team

in the league. So what do you think of this tactic? So I can't hate on a team that obviously goes out there and showcases great confidence and brings the game to their opponents. I do think that a plan B should be in place for when actually they do get that goal or they do get that cushion. I was impressed by the fluidity of Frasinone. I really was and I wasn't expecting that. I heard other views calling this team very slow. I heard them saying that they can't defend but

to me Frasinone, this was a good debut for them this season. Getting that 1-0 against Napoli early on is not easy and I think after that, up until Napoli scored in the 24th, Frasinone were still attacking especially down that left flank where Caso was. I feel like Caso and Harui were doing a brilliant job down that left together and I think they were causing some problems for Napoli

early on. They were definitely linking up well bro. If you look at the statistics over here, bar the shots because that's where Frasinone struggled in reality to penetrate the defence when it came to everything else. They were pretty much almost on par. They had 48% ball possession. The pass success rate was the same dribbles, slightly fewer areas won. Napoli of course had more tackles and Frasinone were dispossessed more times as a result of that. A pretty good

debut for Frasinone and Seria this season. They didn't look terrible. I thought Napoli might blow them out of the water over here but they actually gave them a shock start and had to snap them out of it. Yeah, they did. We mustn't forget that despite us both having Frasinone very low down the table, they are the champions of Seria. Obviously this is a tough case study to take. Their first match of the season facing the champions. It's impossible to say, look, they

did well so we think this or they lost the game so we think that. I think they showed great potential in this match. They had a good showing and they seemed to play the way they wanted to play against Napoli which takes a lot of Cajones. If they take these Cajones against some lesser teams to Napoli then they could have some success. Simple as that. Yes, the question is should they even bother trying against these teams. But anyway, let's compare and contrast Rudy Garcia's system with

Spalletti's system. They both play a 4-3-3 but they're quite different. If you look at Spalletti's system it's more fluid. It's less direct. They play a lot of horizontal passes. On the other hand, when it comes to Rudy Garcia's system, lots of vertical passes counter attacking football, inverted wingers are very important and they give space for the full backs to bomb forward. We saw DeLorentz was important so over here he was super at this game. Often linking up with the midfield

and playing balls forward. That's mainly the difference. I noticed that Rudy Garcia doesn't mind conceding a little bit more possession and Spalletti did. I think it will, despite because a lot of people just look at a 4-3-3 and a 4-3-3 and say, hey, there's not going to be an adaptation period over here but the reality is that they're two completely different managers and the style of play is actually quite different. We didn't see. Now obviously Napoli missed some key pieces in

Anguissa and Kvaratskjelja that added a lot of fluidity to this team. It's hard to say how different Rudy Garcia's system is from Spalletti in this match because two players are totally different. I do think that Rudy Garcia does sit back a little bit more and allow his opponents to have the ball a little bit more. I think that Spalletti used to go out there and dominate possession and attack, attack, attack, attack, attack with high pressure up the field. It was

nice to see the Napoli team defending and changing shape and transitioning off the ball. I don't know yet if they have improved or gotten worse but we'll wait and see. For me, Napoli's best signings were keeping Viktor Ozimen and keeping Zelensky. Of course, there was a 140 million euro offer from Al Hilal for Ozimen that was rejected by Napoli as he looks to renew his contract with 150 million release close apparently. While Zelensky rejected a 35 million euro move to Al

Ahli as well. Keeping those two as amazing, they played incredibly in the first game and we expect nothing less of them. I think that our interest should be thanking Mrs Zelensky for that. Yes, she had a big part to play. I won a little in Italy. But to me, if I were De Laurentis now, I know I might say something a little bit absurd but I would even think about not letting Viktor Ozimen go for 200 million because he is literally, I mean, you look at him and the second the ball is

in and around his area, around the area, he's dangerous. We said that to Rat, he could have done better in the first goal, which he could have because the shot was quite central, right? But it was a powerful direct strike by Viktor Ozimen. No, that was the first goal. Sorry, Paletano, you're right. To be honest, Ozimen's first goal that made it to one was quite central also. It was a really awkward angle. Yeah, man. Yeah, and shades of that Sa Swalla game last season

where he caught Concilie of guard as well. Viktor Ozimen in the final third is just absolutely unplayable. Different time. Best in the league. Honestly, man, I think he put Ozimen on city and he looked better than Holland. And you might call me crazy for thinking that. You might call me reactionary, but it's not. Ozimen is an incredible athlete. The type of worker that doesn't give up, doesn't slow down, doesn't stop fighting. He's got an eye for goal. He's fucking

hungry. You know, I think he is up there with the top three best strikers in the world. I agree. Top three best strikers in the world. Absolutely. I think it's him and Holland are the top two. I think Holland number one and Ozimen number two. Simple as. Simple as. Kajus, of course, bro, we spoke about him a little bit. He was too eager. Of course, he gave away a penalty. He was in an offside position. He got a yellow card, very close

tackle, then he was subbed off. However, his quality is clear and Garcia is very happy that his boy can play in all the midfield positions. Yeah, I mean, Kajus brother, Kajus, your first mistake is out of the way. Yes. Fear nothing now. Yes, look at Lewis Maximiliano. I mean, not a great case study to talk. Maybe Sanjo Tonali is a good case study to take. You know what I mean? Yeah, so that is it. No need to look at the table for now. Frosinone won

Napoli three. Yes, sir. And the second game we're going to be covering is Bologna Nyl Milan two now coming into this game. Milan hadn't lost 26 of their last 27 matches against Bologna and Serie A, winning 19 and drawing seven. Milan are also now unbeaten in each of their last 18 away matches against Bologna and Serie A, winning 13 and drawing five. The Rossoneri entered the season with nine new signings and started three of them in this match with a change of tactics to 4-3-3

from the 4-2-3-1. However, Moussa, one of the new signings, was suspended due to a ban carried over from Valencia and Ben Nasser is carrying a rather long-term injury, leaving them both out of the squad. Thiago Motta had to do without Moussa Barrow and Adama Sao Mauro in this match, while Ricardo Arsolini was not 100% fit, so he started the game from the bench. This was also Bologna's first match since selling Marko Arnavotovic to Inter. Now for the lineups, it was a 4-1-3-2

formation for Bologna. At least we think it was because Motta is Motta. Skorupski in goal and the back four of Lico Giannis, Lukimi, Biu Chima and Posh Butcher, that one didn't I? Yeah, that was Leima. Were those all like 6-6-10 or something? Bukhema, I think Bukhema suits him. Abesher in the register role with Ferguson, Dominguez and Indoe playing in the middle with Mouro and Xerxes up front. For Milan, it was a 4-3-3 formation with Mike Manjane in goal and a back line of Calabria,

Ciao, Tomori and Theo. It was a new look, midfield three of Ruben Loftus, Czik, Kronich and Reinders, but Pulisic out on the right, Leal out on the left, and the experienced Olivier Giroud up front. Now in the opening 19 seconds of the match and of Bologna's Serie A campaign, Lico Giannis carried the ball forward down the left flank and unleashed a long-range bullet which rattled the frame of Manjane's crossbar. He had Mike beaten and was an absolute electrifying

start for Bologna. Jake was sat next to me going ahhhhhhhhh as soon as that happened. However, Milan slowly grew into the game, they didn't panic and in spite of that, in the 11th minute, Pulisic's inch-perfect long ball was squared off the line by Reinders and into the

part of Giroud who opened Milan's account for the season. Two new players combining in very impressive fashion and the veteran and old reliable Olivier Giroud finishes it off, what a move by Milan, what a ball by Pulisic, what a cutback by Reinders and a good finish by Giroud. Super well-worked Leal, what a goal, absolutely man. Bologna continued to threaten, however, as Ferguson's volley from just inside the area flashed into the side netting with many Bologna

fans thinking it was in, but when Milan went forward, they caused havoc. This time, Pulisic and Giroud exchanged a slick one-two before the American unleashed an accurate long-range strike into the corner with an outstretched Skorupski having no chance of denying him a debut goal, a flying start for Captain America and for Milan. Moments later,

and that was Mauro Sumo of course reacting to the Pulisic goal. Unreal man, unreal. Moments later, it was the familiar Pulisic-Giroud combination that almost devastated Bologna once more as Pulisic's cross found a sweet left-footed volley by Olivier, but this time Skorupski got there with a one-handed save. In the 60th minute, Zerchse and Abesher cut through Milan's defense, but some solid backtracking by Tijani Reinders was enough to cause Abesher to scuff his shot

with a comfortable save by Mike Manjane. Skorupski took Theo out with a brilliant hard but timely defensive tackle after Leal's ball was slightly overcooked. Leal gave away a dangerous free kick which was skied by Lico Giannis moments later and also Lini had penalty appeals after being taken down by Tomori, who else? In the 89th minute, Leal almost made it three after skillfully dismantling two Bologna defenders before hitting the far post with a low strike, very unlucky,

from the Portuguese, who had quite a tough time adapting to this match. Now it was either one of these Leal off days or it was the fact that in this 4-3-3 it does seem like he's playing slightly closer to gold, man. He did have a bit of a rough one, but mostly because he was trying the audacious

more often than not, right? Yeah, trying to stand out maybe. Exactly, perhaps he was trying to stand out to show everyone like, look I'm the main guy over here, but it's good to see that Leal, during one of his more frustrating games, was still extremely deadly and still got very close to scoring. At one point he was, I think he had beaten the goalkeeper and the defenders hand stopped it from going in. The sliding defender, I'm pretty sure the ball rolled over his hand. Oh yeah, I mean,

yeah, but it didn't really change any direction completely. It's true, but he got so close to scoring on a frustrating day at the office. Not to mention he gave me a bloody heart attack at the end of the game when he kicked the ball up into the air after the final whistle and pulled up with cramps. Fucking Pulisic went down in the opening five minutes and we both stood up. I went,

it's done! It's done! It happened! It happened! But thankfully not because Pulisic was absolutely, so I want to cover Milan a little bit and then we can go into Bologna because I genuinely think Mia had a great performance here. Don't think Bologna were fucking bad either, man. I think it was two great teams that went up against each other, but Pulisic looked like Milan's star player in this game. They grabbed a spectacular goal and got the pre-assist, assist with a beautiful ball

to Reinders. His dribbling was absolutely on point throughout the entire game and he looked incredibly direct whenever he was in possession of the ball. What did you make of Pulisic's debut, man? It was amazing. Much better than I thought it would be during pre-season. He didn't look this good, but he was motivated. He worked hard. He was selfless and I was very impressed. One of the most impressive performers for me was Giroux. Giroux surrounded by quality players

looks like a different player. You get the most out of him. This is what you need. This is what Salah Macker, Junior, Messias, Brahim Diaz struggled to understand the type of flick-ons and how Giroux wants to play it. With Pulisic and Loftus Schrieg, Reinders, these guys seem to understand this playstyle. I was going to say there's a clear familiarity between at least Pulisic and Giroux who combined twice in great fashion. It seems like Giroux knows where Pulisic is going and

Pulisic knows what's coming after he plays the ball to Giroux. I think Giroux looked excellent in combining with his new and old teammates. I feel like they were playing off him very well. He linked up play with his back towards goal when he was dropping back in the build-up, providing these flick-ons and quick transitions. I think he looked so comfortable. To me, he looks like the ideal starting number nine for Milan. Still early days, naturally,

it was the first match. He was hungry, Pulisic had a great match and probably made Giroux look quite good as well over there. It's a lot of time to go, but Giroux did look very comfortable with his teammates. If you had to play Giroux once every two weeks, once every three weeks, you would get an incredible striker. The problem is when you start burning him to the ground, playing him

twice a week, playing him more often than not. Milan have recently been linked to Taremi again, and I really hope that happens because stylistically, he's quite similar and he's very good at build-up. He's a 20-goal-a-season striker, granted this with Porto, but very good numbers regardless. He can only score where you're playing. I think it would be a fantastic addition, thanks to that non-use spot that opened up because of the new English rule off the screen.

Absolutely. I think Taremi would be a very similar kind of striker to Giroux in that sense, that Okafor is very different, like we spoke about earlier. He's a more explosive, quick kind of player, so it's good to get that familiarity that he would know how to play with Taremi before he's even arrived. But that's enough about Pulisic, it's enough about Giroux. Let's talk to Gianni, baby. Let's talk about Gianni Reinders. 100% pass accuracy, 28 completed passes, and they weren't

always safe, but rather quite offensive. He covered the most ground in this match, and he looked energetic as fuck for 90 minutes. It's no wonder he played 50 matches for AZ last season. Super. I can't put it into words how pleased I am with how this guy's just come in and adapted. I didn't think it would be the case at all coming in from AZ. I thought the jump would be too big, but this guy once again looks so motivated, and he looks the most ready out of all the new arrivals,

even in pre-season, everything. From what I've seen, he's the most impressive so far. Oh man, he looked very, very comfortable. He looked like he was at home. I think Ruben looked very good as well. I think to Gianni had a lot more liberty in going forward, which allowed him to link up with his new teammates very well. Oh man, I just want to see more of this guy. I want to see more of Pulisic, and I want to see more of Reinders, and I want to see more of Loftus

Treak. I think they all had an excellent display. We also saw Choucou-Aza and Dockoffer feature, but at a point where Milan didn't see much of the ball. At that point, I feel Milan took their foot off the gas and didn't risk getting any unnecessary injuries. I think it was a very fluid performance by Milan as well. The only point of criticism I would have is that Calabria

and Teo seemed to lack options when building from the back flanks. Yes, that's a good observation, and sometimes I felt like they were a little bit too casual with possession, particularly when passing between the center back. I think Kronich, there were two instances where Kronich was dispossessed because of passes that shouldn't have been played to begin with. At a point, Tomori went down on the left, and he too struggled to find a pass, and he was dispossessed, and they

almost scored it when they all gave away that dangerous free kick. Tomori recently disabled comments on Instagram. He's been getting a bit of abuse. I don't think it's fair personally, but you always need someone to sing an outro right? Even after a dream start like this, the fans will always find someone to pick on. Thick, you're an animal, baby. You're an animal.

Keep it up, big dick, thick. No. Sometimes it's frustrating to watch Milan when they have the lead or when they're getting trashed because some players can just become lone wolves, no lone rangers, solo raiders. We look at Teo Hernandez, for example, sometimes again, when Teo clocks 30 kilometers an hour, he goes blind. Yes, yes, yes, yes. But he's allowed. He's allowed. He's allowed. Teo's allowed to do that. I enjoyed him for most of the game. Of course,

Teo, I thought he was brilliant. I thought he was super street smart, very mature performance, but it comes to the point where it's like the 70th minute and he starts charging and he has clear options to pass down. He keeps going. I can't tell you about Philipistov. Same goes with Lea, right? Yeah, and I think like he goes down a little bit easy. The referee knows that he went down because of the speed he was moving at or because he's simulating and sometimes it's super

frustrating when he just loses the ball like that. And all of a sudden there's a gaping hole down the left back road. I did enjoy how lenient the referee was by the way. Oh yeah, man, he let play flow. There was a penalty shout at a point that I think in hindsight for Bologna, the one of tomorrow. I think it could have been given. I think a lot of referees would have given it, but yeah, very lenient referee and at least he was consistent in his decisions. Now, Bologna,

yes, it's not like Milan were facing a team that were not up to the task. Bologna looked very organized. They were fluid and they pressed Milan very well when the Rossoneri tried to build the ball back from tried to build the ball. My God, tried to build play up from the back. Amazing. In fact, Milan weren't doing much of that, but Milan were rather dispossessing and attacking. They tried to build the ball up from the back, but more often than not, Zerg Zay

was pressing to oblivion and so were the midfielders. And I feel like they gave Milan a really tough time particularly before Milan found that first goal. Yeah, totally. Particularly from this Bologna side, I was impressed with Indoya, the new arrival. I thought he was super. Beo Kemma looks very good, but Jirou made his life a living hell by just releasing the second he got the ball. He couldn't mark him. I think Zerg Zay is a player with great potential,

great potential, but he just doesn't have the confidence to shoot when he should shoot. He will always try to clear the defender every time, even if he has time before he'll wait for the defender to come, try to clear him and then shoot afterwards. It doesn't make much sense. A player with a huge ceiling, he is only 22 years old, so hopefully he will improve his decision making because he can't

become a top footballer. He scored a crazy goal in preseason as well. Yeah, I think the season he'll get more minutes with Arnautovic out on Lesbologna make a last Hail Mary signing and should Orsolini repeat last year's form, they can form quite a dangerous partnership and the Vindoya, because Vindoya looked dangerous throughout the entire game and he was drifting left, drifting right and whoever was drifting was giving Calabria out of time, who was giving Teo out of

time. If we see him play out on the left with Orsolini out on the right and Zerg Zay up front with Ferguson behind them, Zerg Zay has no excuse not to score and I think he should be a bit more selfish because he's a very self-displayed and he's always looking for that passman. Yes, it's an issue of confidence with him. For me, another player who stood out when you look at the great chances created by Bologna this game, Posh was at the end of both of them. Oh yeah. One clear

header and I forgot the other one but I remember noticing that was Posh as well. A great goal scoring right back if you are a fantasy football player, Posh should be on your team. Yeah, and Moro shouldn't because he barely touches the ball and he's annoying. He frustrates me and not the way he plays or anything or not the way he dives and stays on the ground, it does all that but

Moro just bugs me man. Can you explain it? I can't, he bugs me. It's something in the way he breaks his face when he complains to the referee, the way his face kind of turns into a... like it's the dimples that he gets and the complaining nature of him. The movement of the mouth. Yeah, he is a bit of a baby. That's Moro for you. Exactly and that was Bologna Niel Milan 2 for you. Yes, without ACs working in the Bologna stadium. Exactly, yep,

forgot the point that one. So purely I had to give this fucking team talk on the sideline actually. It's fucking mad. But anyway, moving on to the other side of Milan, we have Inter 2, Monza, Niel. Inter have finally managed to beat Monza who along with Juventus were the only team that Inter failed to win a single match against last season where they came 2-2 and lost 1-0

at the San Siro stadium thanks to a Caldera goal. Considering the top five European leagues, no newly promoted team collected more points than Monza last season, 52 points for them, the same as Fulham. Among the teams that have debuted and say on the era of the three points for a win since 1995, basically only Keavo in 2001, 2002 with 54 points have done better in their first division, the first season in the division. So very good start by Monza of course over there.

Inter have won their opening SEA game for the fifth season in a row, last time drawing such a run between 1993 and 1997. So it's five opening game victories in a row. Now let's get into the starting 11. For Simone and Zaghi it was usual 3-5-2, it's been the same Inter for a while now. We have Summer in goal for his debut, Bastoni, De Vrij and Darmian at the back with Di Marco out on the left and Don Fries on the right, midfield 3 of Mikita, Insha'la Noglu and Barela

with Newboy, Thuram up front alongside Lautaro Martinez. For Monza it was a 3-5-2 formation as well with Di Gregorio on goal, D'Ambrosio and Mari and Calderola at the back with Churi out on the right, Kerya Coppolis out on the left, Pesina, Gallardini and Colpani in the middle, of course Gallardini playing against his former team over here, Caprari and Maric played up front. Who the hell is Maric you might be asking? Well Maric has been owned by Monza since 2020 and

has played 22 games for them and scored 2 goals. He was out on loan at Crotone where he played 36 games and scored 11 goals, however this game he didn't really get much of a feel for the ball at all. But anyway, let's get into the play. Also, sorry to jump in but a crazy amount of Xs over here, D'Ambrosio, Gallardini, two former Inter players, Di Gregorio facing their former team. There was naturally Frattesi for Inter, there's Carlos Augusto for Inter as well, a fantastic amount of Xs.

X on the beach baby. Inter got the ball rolling in the eighth minute, a clever first touch chip by Barella, broke down free from Gallardini and Pesina down the right, down free square, the Tlautarro who broke free from the three, Monza center backs Calderola was particularly isolated over here before Laotaro smashed it into the back of the net, 1-0, their captain starting and leading

the charge. A lot of breaking free after the Maric, 1-2. Now, Monza had the opportunity to score after Summer spilled a true Yacross right in front of him, K. A couple of steed up his shot and attempted to smack it in only for it to be blocked by a flying Hakan Chalanoglu. Hakan Chalanoglu also flew into the referee shortly after knocking him to the ground, he was just flying all over the place. There's also inches from Saudi by the way for Chalanoglu. Oh, he'd like that. He would.

Fucking money hungry. Neutral in the 76th minute, just nine minutes after coming on, Arnautovic received the ball on the left, he did a few stepovers and knocked the ball forward before delivering a perfect low driven cross, a cross goal and perfectly into the part of Laotaro Martinez who once again slides in and guides the ball into the back of the net, already celebrated passionately by fisting the air as Laotaro ran to him and embraced him and that was pretty much quite a

comfortable tunnel victory for Inter as Monza didn't really trouble them that much. No, it didn't seem like they were playing the Monza that Milan faced in preseason. That seemed like a much tougher

Monza to play against. I think it was a bit of an off day for them if I'm being honest. Now, naturally Inter got off to quite a quick start getting a goal in the eighth, which would have impacted Monza quite a bit, but it's also worth noting that Monza have lost, for example Carlos Augusto, who was a key factor for them in the past so they could be a slightly weaker side to decide that they were last season. Yes, Kea Coppola is okay, but he's no Carlos Augusto. Carlos Augusto

is fantastic. I'm not going to blame their loss entirely on the loss of their left back, but I do think that they were set back after Inter's opener. Yes, because they're losing an offensive tool and a defensive tool as well. The first goal came from Carlos Augusto's side and Barela managed to clear both players who were meant to be covering that position with a simple chip. By the way, Barela was fucking world class sometimes. Yeah, he was excellent. I think Inter's midfield

was very, very dominant in this game. I think they had Monza's number all day. I think the only performance that I was impressed by Monza was the debut of Gallia Idini. Gallia Idini was good. He looked comfortable. He looked very comfortable. Maybe this is what he needed to get his career back on track, a new environment, right? And the key role. I don't know if it's because he was playing against Inter, an ex-team, who he was motivated to play well, but we'll see if he continues to

play well throughout the entirety of the season. I was impressed as always by DiMarco, who is the other option instead of Carlos Augusto. They played the same position, which is such a shame, because they both deserve to be started. DiMarco was highly involved as always. He worked hard and found himself in good positions to shoot. He was inaccurate this game, but once he shakes off the rust, he'll probably have an even better season than the last one. Oh yeah, man. And he got pretty

close at a point as well. His shot flashed just wide on Gregorio's far post as well. From the new signings, we saw that Thuram can drive, can carry the ball for long stretches. However, he doesn't strike me as a player who's a target man or a reference point. I think that would be Lautaro and he will be more like a support striker. Thuram. Yeah, that's what I think. And that's what I think Inter might lose a bit of what they had in the past few seasons. I think Lautaro is

strongest when he's playing alongside a target man. Yes, I agree. You could tell when Arnautovic came on, for example, that worked in an instant. It worked instantly, found his name on the score sheet, both the strikers combining. I think it will take a lot of work for Thuram and Martínez to learn to play together, especially when Inter play out wide quite a lot. It is important to have that target man, but still a lot of time. Thuram can find his feet. He's still young as well,

so he has seasons to showcase what he has in his pocket. And to be honest, it's exciting to have him in the league. Yes, Arnautovic can stay healthy. He'll be very, very useful for Inter, particularly in Serie A, because he is not only is he capable of playing the number nine road, the target man, he's very intelligent out of the box and can play brilliantly in the link up players. For sure, man. Yes. Bisseck was the one new Inter signing who I wasn't too

sure about. He came on and got twisted by Thuram, who was one of the positives as well for Monsa. Of course, Inter didn't really have much time. He came on in a moment where Monsa were really trying to score. He came on in the 84th minute, he got spun and that's pretty much it. Yeah, yeah. Young guy as well, 22 years old, Bisseck. So again, a lot of time to prove himself.

Yes, Fratese didn't get much time either. He came on quite late. Carlos Augusta looked quite sharp and comfortable when he came on eventually and Summer didn't really have much to do either. Kia Coppolis came in from Bologna and played pretty well. Yeah, he had a decent showing. I mean, again, it's tough to judge any of these Monsa players after I lost where Inter were so comfortable

beating them. I think the team was off and therefore it's hard to point out any players, but I do think Kia Coppolis looked decent down that left and he has a decent amount of experience playing that role. So definitely Monsa had two shots on target through Gallerini and Danimotta. Of Inter's 22 shots, three were on target. This overall was a cautious game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And I think after they got that opening goal, they took their foot off the gas a little

bit, played the ball around and then naturally they found their opportunity later on. Yes, Inter prove that they have depth, Inter prove that they have quality, Inter prove that they're capable of getting three points. It's Inter two Monsa nil. Yes, sir. The next game we're going to be covering is Odines and nil Juventus 3, what an impressive play it was for the debut of the Bianconeri this season. Now coming into this match, Juventus hadn't lost in 14 of their last 15 matches against

Odines and Seria, where they won 12 and drew two. Juventus have won their last seven season openers, while Sudeneza have now lost their last three, including last season, where after that they had quite a miraculous start. Juve had Mois Keane and De Shilio out injured and Leonardo Bonucci frozen out pending transfer, while Spockba was on the bench but did not feature after he

was injured throughout their US tour. Odines missed quite a few guys in De La Feupe, Fundi, Ebosse, Ezeboe and Mazina, with Samargec on the bench after his move to Inter sensationally collapsed this week. As for the lineups, it was a 3-5-2 formation for Odines, with Silvestri in goal and a backline of Cabacele, Bischol and Niu in Paris, Camar out on the left and Ebosse out on the right, with midfield three of Sandilovic, Wallace and Zaraga, with Thubvan

and Beto up front. These guys are the new Cremonese, bro. Bro, their team looks nothing like it did last year. Oh, they've weakened. The loss of Pereira as well. Wow, they look like a much weakened side. They've got to keep Samargec. Yeah, and in fact I have a point about that, because when Samargec came on he was the only player that looked good for Odines. What's his name? Satil said he can't wait for the transfer season to close, because it's been a

it's been a pain in his, you know what? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean we swear on the spot, because that's what that's a direct quote. Ah, okay. Okay. For you, Vert was also a 3-5-2 formation. Welcome to Serie A. Cesney in goal, a backline of Danilo Bremer and Sandro, new signing Wea out on the right and the returnie from Lone Cambiasso out on the left. Midfield three of Maretti, Locatelli and Rabio with Chiesa and Vlaovic, both fit and both starting.

In the second minute, well it only took two minutes for Odines to teach the rest of the 18 teams what happens when you give the ball away in a dangerous area against Juventus. As Vlaovic won the ball and played it to Chiesa, the Italian slotted the ball into the bottom corner in classic Chiesa fashion from just outside the area, leaving Silvestri rooted to the spot. Celebrations were

very passionate. This team has a chip on their shoulder. Definitely. In the 19th minute, Alexandros attempted cross was stopped inside the box by the trailing hand behind Festi Ebocelli's back, a bit harsh, because his hands were behind his back in trying to avoid the contact, but the contact was there nonetheless. So penalty awarded. Duzan Vlaovic stepped up and slotted it into the bottom corner, cleanly sending Silvestri the wrong way. The front two once again

are fit and firing. In the 48th minute, in additional time of the first half, Chiesa did well to sprint past his man and backheal the ball to come Biazzo, who delivered a great cross to Rabio, who headed in, with Silvestri coming out to collect, but missing the ball entirely, making the Frenchman's job much easier. In the second half, Juve took their foot off the gas under Denezer, where granted a tough attempt at getting forward successfully against Juventus,

to absolutely no avail. The only chances seemed to come when Samaritzec entered the pitch and tried a long range effort as well as provided a wonderful cross to Sandilovic, who headed just wide. Well, actually, significantly wide. Towards the end of the match, Chesnipoldov a solid double save off a Paris header and a Lukka follow-up. Absolute domination, Juventus killed the game within the first 45 minutes, and after that, in classic Juve fashion, they let Odenes play their

game. They brought men back. Very smart play by Juventus and very effective play by them, man. And they did both perfectly. It's a tale of two halves. In the first half, Juventus blitzed Denezer. They blew them out of the water. And you see that first goal, it came so early on in the second minute. And you see Chesnipoldov running towards the curve and you see him screaming. And he's showing the number one on his finger, like one. Like that's my first one. That's my fucking first

one. And Vlov, which is running behind the man spectators over there, said that Vlov, which was saying, don't stop. They were fired up. They wanted to win. And then in the second half, contrast to the blitzkrieg of a first half, zero shots yet on target. Yeah, zero shots on target. But one shot off target by choice. By choice. Let them have it. No problem. We've done our job. And man, oh man, just give me a Chiesa injury free season in this game. We saw shades of a zero

2020 in this performance. He can be pivotal for Juve, who haven't had a star man in their side since the Italian tour, his ACL at the Olympic in 2022. And before that, it was Cristiano Ronaldo. So it's good to see them have that player that could really turn things around for them. Yes, that star player, man. We have many redemption seasons for players this year. We saw Bellotti at Roma, Chiesa at Juve. You know, these guys haven't been fully fit in a while. And Chiesa said,

like, it's time to go Bellotti as well. It's time to get firing. It's time to show the world what you're doing. It's too young. Can be also had a great season opener after returning from loan and actually staying at the club. I feel like he looked so good. He linked up well with Chiesa in the offensive third. He covered the ground tracking back well, and even got himself a great assistant to Robbio following a great move by Chiesa. A very clean performance by him.

Where I had a decent display to showing that the two wing backs are very fitting for this 352 system. Yes, very exciting. They've got a lot of pace out wide. Can be also if I lighted him on the podcast before at Bologna, very promising talent out on the left. He might be able to displace Costage now because this begs the question. Costage, what a brilliant season as a winger and as a wingback last year and was one of you best top players. I believe you had him as your top

after six months, I think. Now, when it was rumored that clubs like Forest and Wolfsburg are keen for his signature and that you were willing to listen, I thought it was BS straight up. I thought it was bullshit. But the fact that can be also started this game might be. Yes, yes, yes. These are very telling signs. It doesn't confirm anything because everything can fall through and they'll just start playing Costage again. But even seeing, for example,

Salah Anitana with D on the bench. Why the hell would Salah Anitana have D on the bench? You know what I mean? They're trying to maybe protect him to cash him in. Exactly. You never know. Exactly. Now, before I conclude the Uwe side of things, it wouldn't be a Uwe performance if Alegr didn't have some criticism. Now, it was hard to point out any criticism

after this performance, but Alegr managed. His victim was Kenan Yildiz, who played nine minutes of football for Juventus in the match after the Turkish under 21 international replaced Duzan Vlahovic in the 85th minute. There are high hopes for the Germany-born Bayern Munich youth product following his performances for Uwe Sprimmavera squad last season, following his transfer to the Bianconeri in 2022. After the game, Alegr criticized the youngster and the old criticism has made

headlines. He's got to get his hair cut tomorrow because he touched his hair about 100 times. Aside from that, he is allowed with a lot of quality. Yildiz did not need to be told twice and showed on social media that he had been to the hairdresser for Atrim and he got one of those

kinds of crew cuts and lived the top a bit longer. It's not the first time Alegr has complained about the hairstyles of his young players as he had similar advice for Mathias Soule last season as well, but just a hilarious conversation between the two, a hilarious interaction rather, him actually getting his hair cut the day later, made it obvious that Alegr wasn't joking about it. Yeah, you could tell he was annoyed. He should go for the hairstyle Alegr had when he was his age.

The mushroom. It was a cool look. It's dying out, for some reason. I think Uwe looked great in this game and very fluid. Nothing new to add to what we've already said. I think when it comes to Deneze, they looked flat. They looked error prone and they were struggling with moving the ball with any fluidity and creativity. It was far from their best performance. Could this be another inconsistent season for them or rather would it be a much weaker season where they'll

have a bit of Hellas Varona syndrome? Could be, bro. I think they're much worse than they were last season. Last season they started out with a bang. Remember, they were incredible. They were blowing big teams out of the water. It might be a completely opposite season where they grow into it, but the way they look at the moment, they look deflated. Their transfer market wasn't really inspiring. I don't know much about the players on their team. To be honest, I'm looking over here

and I'm like, are these different Pokemon evolution? Kebacela, did he evolve from Ebocell? Like, what's going on over here? Zalaga sounds like a legend card on FIFA. So there's Kamara with a K on the left, but then there's a Kamara with a C on the bench. There's Ake and the next one on the bench, there's Abankwan. Like, who the hell are these people? Bro, I have no idea. I have no idea. I am a bit concerned for Deneze. I know it's only the opening game. They lost the

opening game of last season against Milan, Rebeccau inevitably scored. I believe it was a 4-2 or a 3-1, I believe it was a 4-2. But yeah, I did not like the way Deneze looked at all. And yeah, that's kind of the end of the rundown for me. In Wachoku is also on the bench. Jesus. But yes, that concludes it, right? Yep, so that was Deneze nil Juve 3. Now we're going to move on to Roma, 2 Salernitana, 2 Salernitana,

second ever draw to Roma. Roma have recorded 6 wins against Salernitana, 2 draws and 1 defeat in, say, Salernitana had never drawn in their first, say, game of the season prior to this. After winning against Lazio in 1947, they suffered 3 defeats, including 2 against Roma in 1998 and in 2022. For the first time in 18 years, Roma legend and 1982 World Cup winner Bruno Conti was in the Roma dugout. Now you're wondering why the hell is a figure, an icon,

in the Roma dugout? Well, that's because of course, Mourinho was serving yet another ban and his assistant Salvatore Fuati followed suit by insulting the referee, so he was also bad. So they had no coach for this, for this, he has brought an allegiant to coach. So you're saying Jose Mario dos Santos Mourinho Felix was suspended from last season? Jesus, his name, I never knew his name. Can you repeat that? Jose Mario dos Santos Mourinho Felix.

Holy shit. Also, Souza as Paolo Manuel Carvalho de Souza. Damn, these are some fertile names. No, those lineups, of course, you're going to notice a lack of muttage who betrayed Mourinho apparently and joined Oran. Mourinho was very delighted by the replacement. He said, I'm happy that they didn't bring some guys off the street as they brought in Renato Sanchez and Paredes, who are two well-known names. Debala was also suspended, Tammy was injured. There are links

to Greenwood and Duván Zapata, of course, still, let's go into the 11th. Controversial. Roma lined up with a 3-1-4-2 formation with Rui Patricio on goal, Lorente Smolling and Mancini at the back with Cristante playing in the pocket. Spinazola was out on the left, Newboy Christensen was out on the right, while Newboy Aua was in the middle along with the fan favorite Bove. El Charawi and Bellotti were the striking partnership for this one. You see how

versatile El Charawi is, man. Left wing back, left winger, striker. There we go. What a player. Now, Olcóa was in goal for Salernitán under 3-4-2-1 formation with Lovato, Gion Bernfazio as the three centre-backed trees. Mazzocchi was out on the right, brother-ish was out on the left, with Cullibali and Giulia Maggiore in the middle. Castano San Canje were playing behind Bote, who shouldn't be a striker. No, no, no. Día was on the bench, Stewart was on the bench,

and they've just brought in a new striker. I can't quite remember his name right now, but... Was it Stewart big? Wow. Thanks. But yeah, Día on the bench, fueling transfer speculation. In the sixth minute, Brian Cristante whipped in a sensational ball to Andrea Bellotti, who controlled the ball with his right and volleyed posto, Stewart with his left, and celebrated wildly before the goal was ruled out for offside by Ató. If he was a shoe size

smaller, he would have scored that. Literally. Literally. Al Gallo. Only 10 minutes later, Andrea Bellotti scored by comfortably beating Fazio to a high ball and easily rounding Norbert Gionber before placing the ball into the back of the net under Ató. Too easy and terrible defending by the Salernitana veteran defenders over here. Fazio looked like he couldn't be bothered to enter the 50-50 with Gallo, and Gionber just looked so disappointed by what Fazio had just

done that he didn't bother attacking him. No, the polar opposite end of the spectrum, Bellotti, was just on it. Rabbit dog. Rabbit rooster. 476 days since Bellotti's last league goal. He didn't score a single goal in the league last time. Shortly after Mancini failed to score off a rebound after a save after a corner from right in front of goal, he was very unlucky. Didn't really have much time to think about it. The ball kind of came to him. He moved his leg

instinctively and skied it. In the 36th minute, Antonio Canjeva began his... how am I going to put this diplomatically? His abuse, let's see. Antonio Canjeva began his abuse. He scored a stunning strike. He beat Chris Smalling and fired into the roof of the net. Now, Antonio Canjeva isn't the type of player to beat you by dribbling you nowadays, especially. Chris Smalling is the type of player who isn't going to get dribbled, but he did it somehow. Antonio Canjeva

managed to get around to the right foot, the ball into the roof of the net. On the 49th minute, this was our goal of the week. Of course, brother, which crossed the ball to Canjeva. Canjeva faked the first time shot onto his left and with his weaker foot, curled it in magnificently past Rui Patricio giving Salernitana the lead. Crazy, crazy scenes. Now, this is where I get confused, bro. Because let's say you're Souza over here. Okay, you're the manager of Salernitana. You have

a 2-1 lead and it's a 66th minute. What kind of substitution do you make? Like, if you want to bring on Dia, your best striker, who are you going to take out? I mean, in this case, I would take out Botheim. Yes, right? You take out an offensive player. Yeah. He took out Mazzocchi. He took out Mazzocchi. Yes. He took out Mazzocchi, which is weird and brought in Dia. A weird tactical change where you bring out the defender and bring on a striker. Of course, Roma piled the pressure, right?

76th minute, we snap shot hit the post after Renato Sanchez set him up. Roma were pushing hard for an equalizer and in the 81st minute, they got it as Andrea Bellotti completely unmarked in the area, rises to a header and heads it home from Leonardo Paredes corner equalizing for Roma. Despite the continued efforts, Roma failed to find a winning goal and Bellotti had a good chance at the end to get that done as well. Because he's had a hat trick with Galo today. Yes, yes. And even like,

he literally had a hat trick, but one of them was the salaud, you know? So this season, bro, is it the rooster's return, the revenge of the rooster, the gonads of Galo, whatever we're going to call it. Has it come back season? What is it? I think we're quick to forget just how good this guy actually is because he had, you know, his struggles with injuries a lot towards the latter stages of his career at Torino. And then last season, he failed to hit the ground running at Roma,

didn't even score a single goal and had his opportunities to do so. But you know how things are with football, sometimes it's a mental thing, sometimes it's a fitness thing. I think the fact that he bagged two and even three, one of them was offside in his first match in a game where Roma struggled, where they drew to Salernitana and Bellotti was the focal point of that, that will fuel him with confidence. And confidence with his technique and with his industry can be

a very, very dangerous thing. He can be very much a hustling striker that Morinio was after. And the type of player, a manager would love, a leader, a hard worker, just a key figure in the locker room as well. We forget that towards the later stages of his career at Torino, he was also setting up goals. From playing long balls, releasing players one on one, of course. Torino, there was a season where they just escaped relegation, I was going to say

Revelation, or they just escaped relegation. And he was it for them. He was everything for them. He was everywhere. He was like Diego Fuerlan in that 2010 World Cup. Now look at this dude, Salernitana didn't deserve to be in this game at all. If you look at the XUG, if you look at the way they played, if you look at the chances, created Roma were actually

all over them, right? It's all thanks to the timeless Candrava, season after season after season, be it at Lazio, be it at Inter, be it at Sampdoria, be it at Salernitana, he does it year after year, wildly underrated. In this game, to put things into perspective, Roma had an XUG of 1.9, right? Yeah. Salernitana had an XUG of 0.14. My god. 0.14 and Candrava scored two. Well, it was two goals out of nothing, man. Out of nothing. He earned this point for Salernitana himself. This was

Candrava's point. Yeah. Ages like fine wine, this guy. Like fine wine. I believe that his technique, technique, not his physicality, his pace and whatever, with him becoming a slower player, his technique has improved. Yes. I agree. I thought he used to come across as quite clumsy back in the day. Yeah, exactly. He was more of a physical, okay, he was always technical. He had a little power to his game. Exactly. But and up and down, and up and down, that's right,

man. I remember him at Inter very, very clearly. He scored the goal in front of my fucking face at the San Siro, bro. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I was living in Scotland at that time. I did that. He depressed me. Yeah. But now it's like he's matured with his age, and he's really kind of, he's playing to his strengths and he's playing to his age. Yes, totally. Roma's midfield seems to have improved as well. Six players capable of starting. You've got Sanchez, Paredes, Bov,

Aouar, Cristante and Pellegrini. For me, Aouar was super impressive out of the lot. He was the main focal point for the link-up play, nothing too flashy, nothing too crazy, but a very tidy player. And I think he'll be great for Roma going forward. I think Aouar was great. I think Brian Cristante was even better. Oh yeah. I think Brian Cristante was excellent. A lot of people think of him as a CDM slash center back that's just tall and strong and he's rough

and reckless. But his passing in this game, certain passes that he gave those for, was the initial goal of Bellotti. Mamma Mia. Didn't think he had it in him. Mamma Mia, what a born. Cristante looked brilliant in this game. Very good. He was another fan, coach's favorite. Yeah. Salinitan, of course, I have a note over here about the lapses in concentration and defense, but I think it might be even deeper than that. Their defenders are on the older side. I'm not a big fan of Fasio,

particularly Gionber's. Okay. Yeah. I think they needed to reinvest their defense. I think so too. What you see in their defense is a lot of Serie A experience, which is a plus for them. But what you also see is that they're not great. Fasio is past it. I think Gionber is decent, but he needs to have some decent defenders around him for him to live up to his potential. And I feel like I've been waiting for Lovato to step up for a long, long time now. Still 23 years old, but step up.

It's like waiting for your dog to come back from the farm, you know? Or to lose, to come back. To lose. To lose. To lose. To lose as a child with Kat, guys. She ran away. Yeah. Found out she didn't run away like four years ago. Yeah. She died. So, Christensen, bro, was Roma's new fullback coming in from Leeds. He lost possession and nine times out of the 27 touches that he had and completed 72% of his pauses. He didn't make any massive mistakes, but it was quite a bad start,

to be honest. It's a good thing that his, his alternatives are Karsdorp and Shelik, who aren't really more in his favorite players in the world, but they'll be licking their lips, looking at this performance as there still might be hope for them. Yeah, we've seen Zalewski play at right back as

well last season a couple of times and I always liked him. I always liked Zalewski. Not to say Christensen's a bad player, he's finding his feet over there, but Morinio is typically very impatient with his players and I feel like Zalewski in the long run might be an important player for Roma. I always liked him at right back. Yeah, and your girlfriend likes him too, huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the best looking Italian player I've ever seen. Like he's Polish. You fucking idiot.

Like who's that one with the baby face that had an interview while sat on the floor? Sat on the floor without, without any shoes on. She has a foot fetish. Yeah, clearly. Yes, so that was Roma too, Salernitana too. What's that? Let's say two, Lazio one. Let's fucking go.

The biggest upset of the first matchday of the season. Lecce are one of only two teams, along with Torino, against which Lazio failed to win a match in the last Serie A season, losing two-one away from home and drawing two-two in the reverse fixture at the Olimpico. Lecce are now unbeaten against Lazio in their last four matches with three victories and one

draw. One draw. Why did I say one row, man? One draw. Before this match, Lazio had won their last four opening matches of the Serie A seasons, which was a record streak for the Bianco Celesti, but now that's gone. Maurizio Sarri stuck with his old guard to start the new season, starting with just one new signing in Daetrii Kamada, replacing the now Alhel Alplayer,

Sergei Milinkovic Savic. Meanwhile, new Lecce coach Roberto Davversa had Antonio Gallo struggling with an ankle injury following their Coppa Italia match last week, and therefore he started off the bench. When it comes to the line-ups, there was a 4-3-3 formation for Lecce, Falcone engoled with a backline of Dorgu, Basquerotto, Pongracic and Gendry, Amitfi three of Gonzalez, Ramadani and Rafia, and a front three of Banda, Strefetza and Almequist. Strefetza starting in a false

nine role at his mighty five foot three. A 4-3-3 formation is what Sarri opted for. What? Yes, it was Profidel Engol and a back four of Lazari, Patrick, Romaniole and Marusic. They started new boy Kamada and Amitfi alongside Cataldi and Luis Alberto, with Anderson out on the right, Zacani out on the left and Ciro Immobilé starting up front. What's that first game of the season

for Lazio and Immobilé scores? Yes, the Lazio legend opens his and Lazio's account for the new season, sliding in after a brilliant vertical ball with the outstep of Luis Alberto's right boot. He actually tied the Luis Muriel's record over here between 2015 and 2021 when it comes to match day one goals in a row season after season. I didn't know Muriel's score. Like I was aware that that's why I said, ah, what a mobile scoring on the first match, but Muriel really is particularly

surprising to me because Luis Muriel has never been known to be a phenomenal athlete. You know what I mean? Like his physical condition has never been fantastic. So you'd think match day one after preseason, it's still be out of it. Like notice we discussed Monza without even mentioning Petania. Why do you think that is? Probably because he's like four kilos over. From the summer. I would have thought it's the same thing with Muriel, but then Muriel had that touch, that

technique that I forgot that was just brilliant. But nice to see Immobilé tying his record over there. For sure, man. It well, he deserves it because he's always in peak condition unless he's injured. In the 43rd minute Immobilé played a great pass to Lazio who had the opportunity to square to Zuck Ganni, but the Italian went for goal and was denied by Falco and really should

have passed the ball there. In the 53rd minute Immobilé played an identical brilliant pass this time to Philippe Anderson, whose finish flashed wide should have scored and could have even squared it. Lazio, Lazio, Lazio. What are you doing? In the 81st minute, some clever play by Lazio ended in Immobilé's close range strike being saved onto the crossbar by the foot of Falco and an absolutely spectacular save. We will be seeing more of these saves by Falco throughout the season because he

is a great goalkeeper and Lecce concede a lot of shots. So we will be seeing that combination quite a bit. Combination. 85th minute goal, Lecce Almecvist. The Swedish winger started and ended this attack by scoring naturally. He cut inside and played a lovely crossfield pass to Gallo who had just come on. He held the ball well and returned the ball to Almecvist who controlled the ball just outside

the area and half-vollied it into the bottom corner. The showcase of skill was not enough for the Swede as he was also keen on showing Seria viewers his unique backflip which you could see in this episode artwork. If you haven't seen it, look it up on YouTube because it's a spectacular celebration. What an introduction. It goes into a golf swing. He does a weird flipping in golf swings. A mix of

Oba Febbi Martens and Craig Bellamy over here. It's beautiful. One minute later as the momentum favored Lecce, Gallo once again got forward to Whippenacross which was miscontrolled by the son of Eusebio de Francesco Federico de Francesco. But through some fortune and shitty defending by Lazio, the Italian managed to readjust himself and have a swing at goal with the ball finding itself in the bottom corner. He sues in celebration as the Dalmare erupts in ecstasy and Lecce

get a shock victory in the first match of the season against last year's second place team. We both have Lecce to get relegated this season. They might still get relegated but we see teams that typically get relegated. Really struggling to find their first victory. Lecce out here getting their first victory against Lazio in a matter of two minutes. Title contender. That's crazy. I was impressed by Lecce. I thought that Pongratio did a great job partnering up with Bascarotta at the

back. I thought that the midfield worked well and I was particularly impressed with the front three. So dynamic and fluid. I wonder if it was because no one really knew what they could do or what they were capable of. I suspect that as the more games they play in the league, the more managers are going to have a case study and the more they're going to be able to find them out. You look at Banda, Strefetza and Gvist. They were so dynamic, so fluid and it's completely different without

Cicero Colombo. They were switching positions, laying it off each other, playing super well. Absolutely man. What you see over here is a Banda that in this match he played better than he did in any game of last season because Banda barely featured last season. But he had flashes. He showed that he can get his ass shaking and drop a ball. But this match in particular, I believe he had a very strong performance over here. I think that Ankhvist on the other side

is an animal. I think he's very good. It's such a good goal. It's such as the backflip. The Danish League. Yeah, it's unknown, right? I believe he played in Sweden. He's barely known in Sweden and in Denmark. Barely known. I know because it was Mathias and Alan that were discussing him on the group chat. Some serious ball knowledge between those two. It's such a pleasure to have them as our patrons. But yeah, a fairly unknown player. Also Dorgo at left back. So athletic. Very,

very athletic. He was in replacing Gallo because of Gallo's injury. He too is not well known. He's an 18 year old from Denmark. Ankhvist is a 24 year old from Sweden and apparently they're both not very well known in those respective leagues. But I was saying Ankhvist on the right, Banda on the left, Strefetsa in the middle really holding back and orchestrating where that attack is going to go was brilliant because you see the midfield three of Gonzalez, Ramadani and Rafia that I don't know

because it was against Lazio or there's the way lecture are going to line up. They were all quite conservative. They stayed back quite a bit. And Strefetsa was really dropping deep and you could see Banda and Ankhvist just calling for the ball and looking for the ball and running in at Lazio's defense. Just terrorizing. Yeah. And I feel like that's not even what Letcher did well. I think Letcher, what they did well was remaining within a goal for the majority of this match through

tactical discipline, a deep defensive line and efficient selective pressing. They weren't just sitting back to oblivion or pressing to oblivion. That balance was very mature. It was there. They've been there. They've done it. They did a great job in Serie A last year. So let's not forget that when we're so quick to judge them. I'm going to give a shout out to Gallo because we praised Dorogu who started ahead of him because of his injury. But Gallo came on and he was involved with both

goals very directly. He was brilliant. Lazio, what about the MG? So, wasteful, first of all. Second of all, they didn't play badly. I thought they ticked, particularly in the first half before Letcher completely dominated the second half, by the way. I think that if you look at the substitutions that Letcher made early in the second half, they... Okay, so Lazio started off with Kamada, right? Yeah. And I thought he was kind of lost, to be honest. Match day one, fair enough,

he lost. Then they brought on Isaacson, who doesn't really give you many guarantees. He's a new guy again. And Mattias Vecino came in instead of Philippe Anderson. Those were Lazio's substitutions. Then there was a triple whammy by Letcher. They brought in guys that they know what they're going to do. They brought in Blin, Gallo, and Cabo. Cabo's the only new one over there. And I feel like Letcher beat them through familiarity. And I feel like Letcher, as you mentioned perfectly,

they were patient. They waited for their moment and they got it. And the second they scored, Lazio were so shell shocked that they managed to score again. You look at the amount of times the ball bounced in front of Patrick and Roman, you are without them clearing it, allowing Di Francesco to fire it. What the fuck was that? They had the best defense in the league last year. They were surely shocked. They didn't expect that goal. They didn't expect it at all. They're probably

still getting yelled at by Providell. And it bit them in the ass. It's a shame to see Lazio losing after you think, okay, maybe this year they can actually take a step up, maybe losing Sir Gamelink of his self, which doesn't mean that all hope is lost for them. But then at the same time, there's nothing I love more than watching a minnow team beating a top 17. Completely man. And Letcher being on three points after facing Lazio on their

first match is massive. I feel like Letcher knew that Lazio would be shell shocked, which is why they attacked and just whipped that wall in the way that they did. Good to see Di Francesco getting on the score sheet. Yeah, brilliant win by Letcher. Disappointing start for Lazio. They struggled. They were wasteful with the few opportunities that were created, a bit of selfishness. No players really stood out, but I think Chiro did a good job carrying the ball forward from midfield and

playing the wingers in. And Lewis Alberto has involved us ever. Yeah, Lewis Alberto. The only thing really making the team tick in this match. It's still early and I'm sure we'll get to see Sari Boll in full flow soon. Especially once the void of Sergey is filled in through more game time for Camada. But for now, Lazio zero points following their opening match against Letcher. Sasuolo, Nill Atalanta two coming into this game. Sasuolo had won both Seiya matches

against Atalanta at the Mappe Stadium on their Alessio Dionisi. Before that, they had won only one of their first eight home games against Atalanta and say with three draws and four losses. And the five campaigns when Sasuolo started the Seiya season at home, they have never lost with three draws and two wins so far. While Atalanta are the team with the most defeats in the first match of the season in Seiya with 27, they have now won each of their last six opening matches

in the top flight. So they're getting over that curse. So let's take a look at the lineups for Sasuolo. It was Kwon Silje and Goulender for two, three, one formation with Vinja out on the left arriving from Roma. He was on loan at Bernmeth last season. Toljan was out on the right with Viti and Erlich at the back. Erlich. Why do I say Erlich? I don't know man. Erlich. Maxim Lopez and Henrique formed the midfield double pivot while the extremely talented Lauriiente was out on the left. The

not so talented Defrel was out on the right. Bayrami was playing behind Pinamonte. For Atalanta, it was Mussso and Goldberg, Jim City's Calvini and Colassenac at the back. Colassenac, you recognize him from his arsenal. Or Colassenac. There we go. There we go. Edith again. Zappacosta was out on the right, Rugggeri was out on the left with Pasalic, Koukminers and the Rune in the middle with Duvan Zappata and Lukman playing up front. You mean Koukminers? Koukminers. Zappata, heavily

linked to Roma. Gasperini doesn't give a fuck. He'll start the matter. You think Gasperini reads the news like Gasperini doesn't give a fuck, bro. Yeah, he doesn't. The Sasvolo center, Bagviti is on loan from Nice and this was his debut for Sasvolo. They've got an option to buy on him. No Barardi for Sasvolo as he's trying to force a move to Juventus. But Sasvolo, like, ah, you waited too long, you're not gonna get him now. And they're still negotiating and they're trying. We'll see

what happens. He didn't even feature Barardi at all. You see, he's trying to force his way out. This wasn't a tactical decision or it wasn't a decision by the club to not play him. He decided not to play. You know what's to be exciting to see him elsewhere. Yes, I must say. And if he goes to Juventus and they're playing Italy, they play once a week, Juve. Juve play once a week. Yep,

can you imagine with that depth? But anyway, play by play in the first four minutes, Lauriente, who scored versus Atalanta last season, forced Musson to a good save and Koukminers had their shot cleared off the line by early. This was the first four minutes, crazy start. It was Maxime Lopez, his turn to clear the ball off the line in the 44th minute as it was going to be an own goal and he headed off the line. 20 seconds into the second half, Lauriente rattled the frame of the goal with

a long range dipping strike. And in the 48th minute, it started. Giorgio played a perfect pass to Charles de Catellari, who was right in front of goal, but headed it to the ground. This moment could have been seen as a warm up as the pair connected in a similar fashion for the first goal. In the 63rd minute, CDK struck the crossbar after Skamaka slipped in the ball, passed three players. Skamaka was a little surrounded by bodies over here and he still

managed to get the ball through to CDK, who first timed it into the crossbar. And you can see Skamaka clearly pissed off saying like, I would have nailed that. The 83rd minute, CDK eventually got his goal. It was a powerful header that broke the deadlock after Rook Jerry's cross. The header looked to have been saved by Constantine, but the ball had indeed crossed the line. And it was confusion had the ball gone in. No one even noticed. And the Catellari wasn't even sure, in fact,

didn't even celebrate that much. But it seemed like he was cursed prior to this goal. Like everything just goes wrong for this day. I enjoyed watching him score a lot. Same here. I think a lot of release. Yeah, I don't even think a lot of it was the uncertainty of whether it had crossed the line or not, because technology instantly indicated that it was passed the line. I think it was more

this means nothing. I need to continue to prove myself. You know what I mean? And that is the perfect reaction from Charles, who looked very involved in this game and hopefully you could see more of that. Yeah, hopefully. In the 92nd minute, Adopo, the new boy from Roma, played the ball to Zortea, the player who has joined who we've we've seen him at Saasvall in Salernitana before. Yes. He smacked it into the bottom corner from a distance. This is a gold del lex. In fact,

he took it easy with the celebration. He put his arms up. Classic gold del lex. Talking points, bro. Atalanta are absolutely incredible. Their striker, their starters immediately settle in. Right. You see Colasinac looks like he's been playing there for years, right? He's come up, I should have gotten assist Zortea had a long range goal of the three seasons out on loan at Cremonies, Esal, in Intananza, Suolo. Adopo arriving from Torino never really looked

impressive over there. Got an assist CDK didn't score a single goal last season. He scored in his first game for them. Crazy the way this club. Yeah, it must be a joy playing for this team, but because it's you follow instructions, you follow the system, you're surrounded by very knowledgeable players. You're surrounded by players like the home, Cope Miners, Pasalic,

Scalvini, who's literally as intelligent as one of those. So a lot of people to learn from, a very experienced manager in Jampiero Gasperini, who's been at the team for a decade. So he knows what he wants from these guys and these guys know what he wants from them. Exactly. And to be honest, Suolo, they did play to Atalanta's level. They had 49% board possession. They had more passes than the same pass succession rate. The difference was the quality and rate of

chances. Atalanta had five shots on target to Suolo's three, but they were of a different level. Atalanta can really pile the pressure. I think that it was a decent defensive display by Suolo. I think where they've always really struggled defensively. This was a bit of a breath of fresh air. There are some new faces at the back as well. So Dionysio might have listened to us and invested in that part. And I mean, Atalanta opened the scoring in the 83rd. They took their

time. They were struggling. Yes, it was a KGF fair prior to that. One of the best performers, one of the man of the match for me, Cope Miners. I saw a poster and the Atalanta stands RoboCoop. And it was him. RoboCoop. But epic. It's true. It describes him perfectly because the guy is almost bionic the way he plays. The things he sees, the way he operates. So good. So good. How long did his scores? He's inevitable a hat trick this season. Match day seven.

Match day seven. Okay. And that is pretty much it for this game. So Suolo, Nell Atalanta. Two. The next game we're going to be covering is Genoa one, Fiorentina four. It was the conference league and Coppa Italia runners up versus the Serie B runners up. The Griffone were back in Serie A after winning promotion on their coach Alberto Gelardino. Genoa signed Matteo Retegui,

Junior Messias and Ruslan Malinovsky among others. But only Retegui started this match as Messias got himself injured in Milan's preseason and Malinovsky was still in the process of signing. Kevin Strutman and Stefano Savelli set out to Bands. Lavio-Alahat Christian Cuame suspended Antonin Barrac and Gaetano Castravilli injured plus new signing Lucas Beltran on the bench but gave a surprise debut to Italy under 19 talent Michael Cagliode. Amrabat was an unused

substitute following links away from the club. It was a 3-5-2 formation for Genoa with Martinez in goal and a backline of Dragosin, Bani and Beraschi. It was Martin on the left and Hefti on the right with Amitfiltri of Thorsby, Baddell and Frendrup with Goodman since starting alongside Newboy Retegui up front. It was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Fiorentina with Terraciano in goal and a

backline of Cagliode, Melenkovich, Ranieri and Biraghi. Arto and Mandragora were in the double pivot with Nico Gonzalez out on the right, Brecola out on the left and Jack Bonaventura playing behind Newboy in Zola. It only took four minutes for Fiorentina to open the scoring following in Zola's pass to the wide area. Biraghi took the ball to the inside following a touch past Beraschi, then Bani before smashing the ball into the top near corner. Good luck

Genoa and good luck Parisi. Biraghi enjoyed that, he even waddled away in celebration in Conor McGregor fashion. He did the Billy Strutt. Was that what they call it? Yeah, the billionaire Strutt. The wanker. I mean, Biraghi is a wanker. But Biraghi scores big dick goals and celebrates with a big dick, you know what I mean? Yeah, brother. He just has a fucking huge dick. In the other news,

Biraghi's colossal cock. In the 11th minute Bonaventura made the two Gonzalez's long range strike was pushed onto the post by Martinez and into the path of Bonaventura, who slotted it on the rebound three days before his 34th birthday. Happy birthday, birthday boy. Happy birthday, birthday boy. In the 23rd minute, Badels shot on the bounce skimmed just wide of Terra Canos

far post. It was a close call, one of the few for Genoa. In the 39th minute, set piece specialist Biraghi did not disappoint from the corner as he pinged it perfectly to the head of Nico Gonzalez in the center of the box, who headed into the bottom corner, the new number 10 delivers. In the 55th minute, Mandragora got his name on the score sheet, but it was all Bonaventura. The veteran Italian playmaker fainted a shot and chipped the ball in perfectly to Mandragora from a central

area, who guided his header past Martinez. What a ball by Bonaventura and not to take anything away from Mandragora because it was a composed header from the Genoa youth product. What a brilliant assist that was. Gorgeous man. Amazing man. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. His vision. Swagger, the finesse. And the fact that it was literally in the swing of a fake shot and then he just looks away and chips it through perfect. Go look at it guys. Three minutes later, it was Biraghi who

brought one back for Genoa, making it 4-1. The defender composed himself well in front of Goal, as he controlled the ball well, took it a touch past Biraghi and finished cleanly past Taraciano. Yes, this came from Frendrup, who headed the ball into the box from outside the area. Now, great display by Fiorentina. I thought they looked fluid. I thought they looked comfortable. I thought they looked dynamic. Arter and Mandragora seemed to play well together, but I'd be very keen to

see what they can do against a bigger side playing in that double pivot. I don't think Genoa showed up at all for this game. I think the season started too soon for Genoa. I think they would have liked to have Malinovsky and Messias over there. Yeah, and Fiorentina were just too ready. They're a team that have been growing. They're a team who have made smart signings to replace the important players that have been afloat in their team with Vincenzo Italiano, one of the hottest Italian managers

in the game. He saw the opportunity to blow a new coming team with a new coming manager out of the water. Yeah, and I think for Genoa, the area they struggle in is defensively. What's the area that Fiorentina excel in? The offense. So it was a match made in hell. It was a match up from Satan for their first, for their opening Serie A fixture of the season. I can't be too critical of them, because again, they're finding their feet. I still think that Fiorentina showed very good signs,

despite the fact that Genoa were weaker opponents. I think so Biragi, Bonaventura, and Niko were each involved in two goals. That's a great sign. That's a great sign. They each had fantastic performances, and those are three big boys for them. I thought, like I said earlier, Arter and Bandraga seemed to fare well in controlling the tempo of the game. I was very impressed by Cuyode, the right back who showcased pace, strength, intelligence, technique, and

attitude. At the tender age of 19. At the tender age of 19 is a great prospect, and from what it seems, a great asset to the starting 11 and not just a prospect. Yes, a good cover for Dodo. Yeah, and I also thought that Insola's physicality up top was an asset to Fiorentina and this game, and his competition Beltran, has still got a lot of time to prove himself. So some healthy

competition. Not to mention Jovic. But I really like them with a big boy up front. I feel like Insola, that physicality, because think about it, their team isn't like, all right, they're all motherfuckers, the Fiorentina players. They are motherfuckers. No Niko Gonzalez, Biragi, players like that. They're just Melenkovic sons of bitches to play against. I think Roma take the cake for that. Yes, absolutely. But Fiorentina, have a few of those players.

Insola and then isn't a motherfucker, but he's a big strong guy up front. You know what I mean? And they don't have much of that. The only two kind of big players they have are Melenkovic and Insola. So it adds a bit of an aerial threat for them, despite the fact that Niko Gonzalez is quite an aerial threat. And I think much like Milan utilized Giroud last season in there for 2-3-1 and even in the title winning season, I think they might use Insola in a very

similar manner to that. Yes, with more mobility, of course. And Insola is very capable of holding a play and even turning and charging. So we've seen that with Spetsi and I'm sure Italiano can do wonders with this guy. For sure. And he's got a brilliant selection of strikers to utilize in between Insola, Beltran, Jovic. And then he's got all that versatility out on the wings as well.

Yeah, I think this Fiorentina will have a good season, not because of this performance, but because this performance proved that what we were saying earlier about their very successful transfer market wasn't a bullshit. They had a very good summer and I do reckon that they would have a good season. But that's pretty much it for this game. Yeah, Geno on the other hand, of course, need time to settle and they need their arrivals to come in as well. They will at least

have Messias and Juslan Madinowski very soon. The last game I will be covering, so the penultimate game of the matchday, is Empoli Nyl Verona 1. And Empoli and Helas Verona's have drawn each of their previous three Serie A matches. This is potentially an early relegation six-pointer over here. Helas Verona have never conceded more than one goal against Empoli in Serie A, nine goals and 12 matches. Empoli have never drawn their opening game to, say, a season four wins and 11 defeats,

including a 1-0 defeat versus Spetia last season. Two tough pills to swallow for Empoli as they have been eliminated from the Coppa Italia after a 2-1 loss to Cittadella and now they have lost to a relegation. Right, sorry, a hiccup. You've omitted. Let's go with the lineups. For Empoli, it was the 4-2-3-1 formation with Capri Langol, formerly with Bari, bought by Napoli and loaned out to Empoli. Yes. Oh, God, Cacaccia, he's back, bro. Yes, Liby. Liby. Liby is a liberatory Cacaccia.

Liberatory Cacaccia was out on the left. Mebuah, he was out on the right with Luperto and Ismaili at the back for Empoli. Gracia and Marin were the double pivots with Emmanuel Giasi out on the left, Cacaccia, Larry on the right, Baldanzi playing behind Caputo. I point out two things, really cool seeing Empoli play with Wingers with Giasi and Cacaccia, Larry and also naturally Cacaccia coming

in because of Parisi leaving to Fiorentina. So for Verona, Marco Baroni's Verona, it was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Montepo in goal, Coppola Maniani and Davidovic at the back with Terra Ciano on the right, Doig on the left, Duda and Hongla in the middle with Engange and Imbula playing behind Folo Rusno. Folo Runso. Folo Runso. Now, who the hell? Who the hell is Folo Runso? Folo Runso is owned by Napoli and has been out on loan since he joined them in 2019, having never actually debuted

for last season's champions. He has been sent out on loan to Barri, Regina, Port Danone and now Helas Verona. He had his highest ever goal scoring season last year with Barri and Seria best scoring eight goals in 27 games. Conchilleri arrived at Empoli from Lazio on loan with option to buy for 12 million. Lazio have a buyback clause of 20 million. A player who's usually very good, well not usually very good, a player who has flashes of good moments to be honest. I think it can be a

useful winger, kind of or Solini type moment. Yeah. Yeah. And the seventh minute, Kakachi gave a quick throw in to Marin who took a touch and thundered the ball from outside the area, forcing a fingertip save by Montepo onto the crossbar. Absolutely crazy. Marin, Marin, Marin. Yeah. 41st minute, Grussi controlled a loose ball in midfield and played the ball to Baldanzio, picked out Jossi, perfectly Jossi had plenty of time. The ex-Spezia player had so much time to think about it to

tee up his shot well, but instead he leaned back. The thing that every coach tells you not to do at the age of five, he leaned back, he shot centrally and he failed to hit the target from right in front of the keeper. He picked up where he left off at Spezia, terrible miss, poor technique. Yeah. Horrible moment, horrible start to his Empoli. Manuel Jossi. That's a miss of the week for sure.

In the 75th minute, Empoli goalkeeper Caprile, miss handled the corner and spilled the ball, clumsily the ball fell to Bonazzoli and you can just see everyone go, oh God, not him. Because Bonazzoli is not the person that you want to lose the ball to in the box because he springs to life in these moments and he sprung to life, he turned and on the turn he shot the ball and scored on his debut as he did his trademark machine gun celebration as he ran off to celebrate

with the fans. Yep. Great passion over there. That's an early, very important victory for Veron and Empoli once again losing out in the first match of the season. Last season they had lost to Spezia. So here they are once again losing out to relegation contender in the first match of the season. Clumsy start, clumsy start completely getting knocked out of the Coppa Italia losing the

first game to a team that they should be beating to be honest. It was an action packed game at least, it was fun to watch, it featured an attempt from Miles Out forcing Montepoint to a reflex save that involved Marin hitting the crossbar goal keeping Blunder that left to a debut goal, a trademark Saponara curler that just missed the target, remember that? We interrupted, Alan was talking. We put it on the big TV when Saponara came on, it was dual screening. And Jossia of

course squandering a goal and opportunity pure entertainment. Yeah, these games give you entertainment. They don't give you much technique, much skill and so on so forth, but they're never shy of their efforts. I was particularly impressed by Davidovic, no one had more touches than him, this game 78 touches. He has played in midfield before in his career, which explains why he's so capable on the ball. His balls over the top to Jürich to knock down to Bonazzoli could be

super useful this season. I really like Jürich up front, I really like Davidovic at the back. It's an easy way of setting something up. Long ball to Jürich, he'll win it in the air and knock down, goal. When I watched Milan against Verona at San Siro last game of the season, last season, Monty Paul's goal kicks were the easiest thing in the world because simply straight to Jürich and that's where Verona were having most of their success. Exactly, just hoofed the ball to Slathan

from Wish. I think they have some decent options here on the bench Verona this season because okay, they've got in Gonjumbu, Land, follow, follow, follow, follow up front and then on the bench, Bonazzoli, Saponara and Jürich. All great players to bring on when they need a goal and perhaps they could even consider starting with two up top men. Yeah, they actually have more depth, they improved a little bit. It was hard to get worse to be honest with last season.

One more thing I want to talk about, say, Empoli had a few good sequences but they couldn't finish off their moves. I feel like Caputo was isolated from most of the game and the runners in behind failed to convert and draw in particular. Okay, so that was that. Empoli, Nil Verona won. I think it's also worth mentioning that Lazovic wasn't in the team and neither was Farahani. Yes, Fianreling transfer speculation. Yes, the final game we're going to be covering is Torino,

Nil, Kalyari, Nil. Kalyari now haven't lost in eight of their last nine matches against Torino in Serie A. Coming into this game, Kalyari had won both of their last two away games against Torino. The Granata were missing them by Sek and Gigi with Nemanja Radonjic and David Zima not at 100% either but both featuring as substitutes. The Sardinians returned to the top flight after a last gap promotion playoff with well against Bari and coach Claudio Ranieri will be forced to do

without Lapadoula, Rog and Mancozu for several months. There was a change of system to triad the back for this game. New signings Shomorra the Vandyankto featured off the bench. It was a 3-4-2-1 formation for Torino with Vandyanko and the backline of Rodriguez, Bonjorno and Schurz, Foy Vodá out on the left and Raul Bellanova new signing out on the right with Richie and Illich in the middle, Karamo on the left, Vlasic on the right and Toni Sanabria up top.

It was a 3-4-3 formation for Claudio Ranieri's men with Radonjic in goal and center back Trident of Goldenega, Dosena and Aubart, Zappa out on the right, Atzi out on the left and Makambu and Sulemana playing as the midfield too, Nandes out on the right, Lovumbo out on the left and Oristano up front. In the third minute, Radonjic did extremely well to get down and deny a close

range Sanabria volley following an accurate corner kick. In the 15th minute, Oristano played a ball down the flank to Nandes who managed to beat Bonjorno who lost his footing, Nandes cut the ball inside and attempted a brilliant curling strike into the top corner but Vandyankovic-Savic produced a breathtaking save, tipping the ball wide as he fully extended himself, go watch it guys, he's such a specimen this Vandyankovic-Savic that save, it was damn well near impossible,

there's not much more Nandes could have done with that strike. He struck it perfectly. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, like to me maybe Mike Manjan might have not saved that, just strengths and strengths in different areas. Super, super save and to be honest with two fantastic goal keeping this place here. Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely. Two minutes later, Shurs headed just wide after a good corner kick by Richie, he should have done better, he was

unmarked but the ball came at him quite unexpectedly. Obert had a great loss, the challenge to deny Radonnić broke through the defence with his pace after coming on, Pavoletti and Jankto both had chances but neither got the job done and in the 91st minute Radonnić released an insanely powerful strike from distance but Radonnić did well to put his body behind the ball and using his chest to

keep the powerful strike out. I mean, yeah, I was hoping for Enes Elametti, Senio Pavoletti, yeah, same here but unfortunately, like you said, it was two great goal keeping performances and I think both teams, well, Torino would have hoped to get off with a victory, however Kalyari were set up very well, I feel like Kalyari had a very good and mature display over here. Like I said, much like Lecce, Kalyari did well to defend effectively and stay in the game,

even giving Torino some frights towards latter stages of the match. Yeah, for sure, bro. I was surprised by Kalyari, they had a very thin squad with their injuries but they played up to par. Ranieri's men getting a very valuable point. I think Torino seemed to struggle to find any clear cut shots and they seemed uncomfortable adapting to Kalyari's setup. Now, Kalyari are quite unorthodox, they are quite unorthodox, they are on an orthodox side and they have Ranieri who

is the tinker man naturally. They usually play a 4-4-2, I mean who the hell plays a 4-4-2 nowadays so it's quite a rigid formation and it can be very tough to break down, particularly when you're a team that struggles to score goals like Torino and Tony Sanabria has been the second option but they're saving grace for season after season now and it's just wild that they, like, okay, it's not because he doesn't deserve a starting role but it's just how can you settle for someone who's been

playing second fiddle for so long and not by a competitive striker to compete with them? You know what I mean? Like why is Pelé Gris the second option for them up front? I have absolutely no answer for that. I know for a fact that it's not because of Yurich, I don't think it's Yurich's decision to have that setup but the owners. Yes. But because they've brought in players, they brought in Bellanova, they brought in Richela's season, what's stopping them from buying a fucking

striker? They lost Bellotti. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's very interesting but I feel like this is a very, very difficult case study because in order to predict how their seasons are gonna go and what the teams look like because Torino just looked slightly uncomfortable and had no clear cut chances. Kaliari were set up to stop Torino and to defend and then get them on the counter in that 3-4-3 formation. I think it's tough to tell you guys what we expect out of these so I don't want to

go into too much more information about these sides. We'll wait and see what happens in the next fixtures. On to the question segment, baby. Welcome back to our question segment, guys. Of course, patrons will be getting priority for the questions to become a Patreon. Sorry, I keep fucking that up. The link is in our bio. You can find it on Instagram, Twitter, wherever. So the first question comes from Patreon Mattias. It's not a question, it's actually a

hot take. He says, Lecture is gonna be good for the first third of the season then the other teams are gonna figure them out and they will still get relegated. Kind of similar to what happened to them last season minus the relegation part. They had a very, very strong start. They were very strong from set pieces and then kind of once people got over that, they got over the strefetza movement,

they got over the physicality of Basquerotta and Umtiti. They kind of got figured out and they were being blown out of the water, not blown out of the water because they barely conceded more than two goals in any match, but they were losing out quite a bit and we do both have them getting relegated this season. Yes, we do. I think with a greater sample size, people will figure out how to cut the supply. We'll see. Hopefully they can prove us all wrong

because they're a lovely thing to watch. Yeah, they're a lovely team and they managed to do what they did against lots of interesting second place last year. So we could very much be wrong over here still early days. Oh boy, Alan. Hello. Hello. As top three performers from the new signings, obviously reactionary and too early, but fun. If you have any good examples for bottom three, it's fun too, but it might be difficult. I do have top three on bottom three. Okay. I've got top three

performers. I've got Pulisic. I've got Alhamdkvist. Yes. Does Kambiaz account? Well, yes, I guess. Returning from alone. Sure, I'll put Kambiaz. I'm going to agree with you in the Pulisic Alhamdkvist and I'm going to say to Johnny Reinders. I know it sounds biased, but definitely Reinders. Yeah, they had such a spectacular performance. 100% past succession, the most distance covered and kept on going for the full 90 minutes. Amazing.

Bottom three of the matchday, Caprilek, Causté and Kamada for me. I didn't prefer a bottom three. Sorry, Alan. There you go, Alan. He's let you down. Okay, let's go. Kiaran Bray. Wait, you know what I'm going to do with right now though, because what the hell am I? I would say Kamada, the K-Telare might be the positive ones as well. Kamada didn't have a great game. Caprilek as well, I agree. And the last one, to be fair, I think you're in the nail on the head,

I can't not say Ka Yusuke. I cannot say Ka Prilek. Kamada is the one that can be replaced, but he just didn't. He stood out like a sore thumb for Lazio because they play Sari's system and they all know each other and he was the only new boy in the starting 11. So it has to be those, I agree. Yes, Kiaran Brady says rank each team's goalkeeper in different tiers, S, A, B, C, D and F tiers. Ah, like the TikTok filter thing. Yeah, exactly. So I think since we are quite pressed for time,

what we should do is look at the tier, say who we said and not discuss. Yes, rapid fire. So S, I have one guy in S, one in S. Yes, same. Okay. A, I've got Cesney, Providell, Summer and Meret. I've got two, Cesney and Summer. Okay. Summer, obviously, there's a lot more to see. Okay. B, I've got Terraciano, Vania, D Grigorio, Skorupski, Rui, Ochoa and Falcone, all in B. B, I have Meret, Providell, Skorupski, Vania and D Grigorio.

C, I've got Kranio, Musso, Radunovic, Montepo and Silvestri. C, I have Patricio, Musso, Terraciano, Ochoa, Falcone and Montepo. I see what you do, Patricio, respect. D, I've got Capri, Latterati and Martinez. D, I've got Silvestri, Radunovic and Kranio. Okay, okay, fair enough. I feel like discussing, but we'll have to see for another day, bro. Dennis says, Tiani Reigns.

Wait, wait, F, bro. I don't have F. You don't have F? I don't have F. I put Martinez, Terraciano and Capri, the newly promoted ones, which obviously there's a lot to see from them, but my case study is limited, so those are mine. I particularly, I disagree with you with Radunovic. I think Radunovic is quite good. I would put him at C. Yes, but we saw him in Serie A, but last year, so I didn't want to overestimate. Fair enough,

fair enough. Dennis says, Tiani Reinders will make people forget that Tonali existed. I think quality-wise he can, and that's definitely what he means, but we can't forget our fucking little baby boy, you know what I mean? Tonali won the league with Milan, right? And there's a pivotal point, Sandro, Sandro Merita. Exactly. People won't be forgetting about Tonali anytime soon, especially even if it's not for his performance, it's for the fact that he funded

this incredible mark on it. Yes, yes. So, yes, but I do think Reinders will come very good. Yes, I think what it means is that Reinders will probably do better for Milan, and if he wins the trophies, then yes. Exactly, yes. If he goes on to win fucking lots of silver, people will fuck Tonali. Exactly. He also said CDK 25 combined goals and assists at Atalanta. Like, are you talking about this season, combined goals and assists? No. No, not 25, definitely not. He also says Zanio

was the most handsome Italian player. You're wrong. Okay, who do you think it is? Italian, just Italian. Giorginio. Giorginio. Handsome fuck like. We asked the girls, and they told us that they're all clapped. He said Zalewski. Fucking hell. Who have they say? Giorginio, they mentioned Pellegrini. I don't know. I think like they typically rave about Barella as well. Tall guy with light eyes. There's Meret as well.

Meret is a good looking guy. Saponara is the best for sure. Saponara is the best looking out of the lot, definitely. Okay. Milan underscore 0793 says or asks who will be challenging for the title this season? The whole episode, last episode. Yove Milan Inter Napoli. Yove Milan Napoli. Okay, no inter. Ah, wait, no. Yove Milan Napoli sounds right. Yove Milan Napoli. Inter

court. Don't get me wrong. I'm just. I remember that I had them in fifth. Andrea says as an Inter fan, I hate to say this, but it looks like our not which will be a better signing than Thuram. Short term. I agree with you. I mean, yes, he's probably right in the sense that like Zeko was a magnificent signing and you would have never guessed it. I think stylistically, an out of which fits more. Thuram is a bit more of an investment, got him in on a free and he needs to get used to

the system. Exactly. Tom Doran, Inter are cooking with their business right now. That's a sick name. Tom Doran. Tom Doran. Tom Doran. Tommy D. Tommy D baby. In a place to be. Inter are cooking with their business. They're moving well. It's a shame that they didn't manage to get the Samaritan deal through for a petty amount of commission, essentially. And I feel like they have been a little bit rigid with their negotiation saying that Inter don't participate in auctions.

For example, letting Skamakka go to Atlanta. I think that would be a fantastic signing. Yes, definitely. But Inter are at the moment a bunch of bro keys. Yes. It's literally the case. I think when it comes to a team that is limited with their funds, making it work in the past three, Mercati, Inter are the team that have done that. Yeah, definitely. Agreed. So that's it guys. Thank you very much for listening. As always, drop us a follow, drop us a DM comment on the Spotify

comment section. That's always fun for us to see. You know, we'll get a little email that tells us someone has commented on your Spotify and then we get to see it and get to approve it. It's a fun little thing for us. Yeah. Drop us a DM. We like to talk about football. Talk to us

about football. Just a couple of dudes. You know what I mean? Like say, yeah, you know, yeah. And then you might teach that we've got some fucking monster brains in the group chat on the series, the series, but like patron group chat that are teaching us so much about football. Mattias, Allen, Santi, Tonna, Andy, as well, Theo, all of them, bro, all even Chesco, all the absolute taco that honestly all their bone colleges, chem, the bone only to the mint

off as well. Yes, all of them. Jamie as well. What? Jamie is a patron. Jamie green. Of course. Of course. Yes. Hey, Jamie. This is the headby joining our Fanta culture. But yes, thank you very much. Guys, we'll be at the same place at the same time next week, matchday two. Every week is going to be so fun, bro. We'll see you all next week, guys.