93: Lecce Are Third (Full Matchday 5 Coverage)

Hello and welcome back to SEA spotlight, this is episode 93 and we are hosts Matt and Jake. But guys, it's Monday, how come you guys are already recording an episode?

As you know, or maybe you don't know, and this is the first time you're hearing this, but there are midweek games that are taking place from tomorrow all the way up until Thursday, so that requires naturally quick reflexes from me and Jake considering that then the midweek matches and the next weekend matches are so close together, we had to put this episode together.

Still, not convinced on how we're going to tackle the next episode, but we'll make sure it's nice, easy and entertaining for all of you. Improvise, adapt, overcome. Yes, those are three company values, me and Jake. What a weekend, what a weekend, and I liked this one particularly because there weren't any of the kind of big dogs against each other, so it really was kind of a test for each of the seven sisters to see what they're made of.

Yeah, I think most of the matches that take place over the course of the 38th match season, you don't always face the top seven, you don't always face the top ten, sometimes you need to see how you fare against the scraps because it so often is the case where the best team is the one that's capable of beating the ones that are lesser than them, that are significantly lesser than them, beating the teams in the bottom three, beating the teams in the bottom ten.

So now we really start getting to see the character of these teams over a longer stretch of time, we're no longer judging them over one big game, but now we're starting to see an accumulation of matches. Yes, sir, I made 140 euros this week. You did, did you? You did, when you tell them how you could paint the entire scenario, I think it was quite an entertaining thing.

Yes, I woke up hazy on a Saturday morning and I opened bit365 on my phone to take a look at the menu and I decided, you know what, I'm going to make a slip, you know, I'm always trying to win these three bets, you know, over five shots, win or draw, you know, like well, both teams to get a yellow, you know, I try to get those bets, but I hope this was something a bit more crazy this time.

So I put a bet that Bologna Napoli would draw, that who else was there, that Quarantina would be to Deneze away from home, that Atalanta would beat Calieri and that Roma and Torino would draw and I put five euros and I saw that I could win 180 as a return. I was like, fuck it, let's do it, let's see, worst case I'll cash out halfway through. Everything was going flawlessly and then we got to the last game Roma, Torino, where I could have withdrawn for what was it, bro?

Before the game even started, you could have cashed out for around 485 as the game was progressing, that kept going up, it went up to the 50s, then it went up to the 60s. And I kept holding and the girls kept saying, hold, hold, hold, and you kept saying, hold, and I'm gonna go, okay, I'll hold. And then Lukaku scored and I had a bloody heart attack. Yes, it wasn't a heart attack, it was a meltdown. I'm so stupid! A seven year old kid that isn't getting mackeyed because of something like that.

Because it's always Lukaku that ruins something for me. Roman Jolia, perfect centre back in time. The perfect centre back from Aniloli, he was fine. Number 13, he was a lot good. The next Nesta. Yeah, one game against Lukaku and he's playing alongside a guy called Chazal. I'm obviously kidding, they're very good. They formed a formidable duo. Yes, basically and then Zapata scored, I cashed out immediately because I thought it was five minutes to go, 140.

Ah, no, it was the, there was a VAR check that was taking place. So I'm like, I'm like, I can't check out, I can't check out, I can't check out. I couldn't deal with it anymore, but yeah. That was that, bro. How did you do? Did you win on the Serie A spotlight fanta, by the way? I came draw on the Serie A spotlight fanta against the girls. I should have won, but Victor Ossimen missed a penalty and got me a two.

So quite unlucky, but I was a bit lucky that I got Pasalic's goal because Orsaleini didn't play and Pasalic chose my first sub. So that takes some skill to choose your first sub as well, so I'll give myself a little pat on the back, but I'll take a draw against the girls. They've got quite a team, man, I'm surprised they're just on one point and I find myself on four points. How did you do? You're lucky Vlove, which dropped the stinker. How did I do?

I did terribly, I had Shesney and Goal who got me a zero and I had Martin at the back from Genoa who got me a two point five, therefore I lost one. Oh my god, I hate when some motherfuckers only score one and they get away with a weird man. The Bianconeri bruisers are currently first with six points, so shout out to them, shout out to our boy Luca Nicolò Argento. Yes, shout out brother, shout out. But anyway, enough fathom about. Yes, what was our goal of the week? We heard it from the intro.

Our goal of the week was DiMarco, he scored an incredible goal, Empoli of course failed to clear corner effectively and DiMarco was lurking on the edge of the area where he likes to lurk and he curled in a rocket with the outside of his sweet, sweet left foot. Yes, some call that a trivela shot, but I don't know if it qualifies, I don't know if a trivela takes some additional kind of movement. We just call it the choirsma. Exactly, literally the choirsma should be called a trivela.

But yeah, that was our goal of the week. I think there were a few good nominations, nothing like last week, but there was Bonaventura scored a great goal. If you watched Man City against Inter and you saw Rodri's goal in the final, Bonaventura's goal was very similar to that. There I say a little bit better from further out, bit more of a curl on it, wasn't quite a Champions League final goal, but it sealed the victory for Fiorentino Verudinesa.

Leccese Oudon had quite a good goal, had it not been for the deflection, it could have been up there, but it took a slight deflection which was enough to ruin it for us. He still makes the cover of the episode, if we're... Yeah, correct. There was another goal I wanted to point out and that was... Because the king of making... Quite a, quite a, quite a, I love the way he started running from the halfway line, right?

There was a long ball played over the top for him, and I remember this guy's a centre back, he takes the ball down and finishes so calmly, he passes it, like guides it into the bottom corner. Very well. Amazing. I know the defending over Deneze was shambolic in that goal, but take nothing away from the centre back, who found himself in a goal scoring opportunity and he took it, and it wasn't an easy chance at all.

You see some striker score a goal like that and you take your hat off to them, and this time it was my Tinas Quarta, who's having quite a season, man, now that he's back, now that Seria Spotlight have summoned him.

Don't forget to follow us, guys, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube, we are absolutely everywhere posting content pretty much every other day about our FantaCulture, about funny moments, about statistics, so on, so forth, so make sure you're up to date on all the happenings of Seria through our content, and also drop us a rating wherever you're listening, create, Spotify, Google, Apple, no matter what, we're on 4.9 and we want to get that number up to a 5, so with your help we can do that.

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So I think before we get into each episode, I don't know why I always bring it up like should we do this, because we literally do it every episode, just gonna run down the happenings of this matchday, so we're gonna start things off by discussing Saswala's shock win against Juventus in the Muppay Stadium with the score of 4-2, a shit show by Juventus defensively and a masterclass by Berardi up front for Saswala, it was Empoli, Nyl, Inter 1 and Andrea Zoli's fucking fifth debut for...

His fourth, his fourth debut for Empoli, they actually looked a little bit better than they did in the past, you can't judge them over one game against a big team because the players are actually gonna be motivated, but we did see some of the movement that Andrea Zoli likes to promote over there, Bologna, Nyl, Napoli, Nyl, Victor, Ossiman missing a penalty, getting me the draw on Fanta, out of the victory, Torino 1, Roma 1, a late Duvan Zapata

goal, cancelling out Lukaku's earlier strike over there and winning Jake 120 Euro. Hey, why are we diminishing it, 130, 140, what was it, 130 I think? Well, you don't even know, brother. Yesterday was a blur, bro. I have no idea what happened, the last thing I saw was... We've been drinking, we've been smoking, we've been smoking! No, it's because of the emotions, bro. End of drinking, end of smoking, end of drinking!

130, 130, 130, sorry for that 10 Euro, if we get two patrons we can make up for it. Milan won Verona, Nyl Leao getting the early goal for Milan, who hung on pretty well in this new 343 formation, new again. Lazio 1, Monza, one Lazio again, just failing to get victories unless it's against Napoli, they do face Milan this week and so probably that will be three points for them considering how they're operating.

Udinese and Nyl Fiorintina, two great goals by Quarta, great goal by Bonaventura who scored and assisted in this game. Atalanta 2, Calieri, Nyl, Nous, Scamacca, no problem. End of victory for Atalanta over there. Lecce 1, Geno 1, Nyl, an early red card for Geno, a meant that they spent the entire game defending whilst Lecce were spending the entire game trying to grab a goal and they grabbed one towards the end thanks to Oudon.

Salernetana 1, Frosinone 1, Frosinone still looking ridiculously good in Serie A, so pleasantly surprised by this team, they did give up a 1-nil lead in this game in front of Salernetana's fans so it's a very intimidating environment, you don't blame them for giving up a lead away to Salernetana. Yeah and that Cabral guy was inspired, Joe Van Cabral, the first time I heard someone try to draw him on Fanta I was like Cabral left bro, he's not at Fiorintina anymore.

I was like no this is a Salernetana guy and he's wicked and he is wicked. And then they hit you with the don't you have a series of podcasts? You meant to know this stuff. He's got the touch of a fucking, pardon me, of a beast. His first touch was very good, bar that one opportunity where he could have got them the winner. Bar that one, that doesn't count. But I particularly admire his drive, his relentlessness.

And drive is met with technique, you get a Chiesa, you get a Zagnolo, you get Berardi and finally you get Jovan Cabral. Somewhere luckier than others. Yeah, exactly. Shall we jump right in? Let's jump right in and start things off with Sasuolo for Juve 2. So Sasuolo were coming off a 4-2 away loss against Frozano, leave it up to Sasuolo to lose a game 4-2 and then win the next one for 2, shout out to Santi who said that is the most Sasuolo thing ever on the Patreon group chat.

You know if you joined and you would have found it funny too and we could be laughing together potentially. Juve coming off a 3-1 home win against Lazio. Sasuolo have now achieved 3 wins in their last 5 Serie A matches against Juve. Juventus had Alexandro and Descilio out injured while Spogba is still banned for doping. Sasuolo's injured.

Sorry I was a bit slow there, we never used it, it would have been meaning to use it, that's Fred America is screaming scandal at the top of his lungs, hit us with it again bro. Yeah and while we're discussing the details you can play this. Paul Potba, Paul Doping, it's a brilliant song, the miracle is a great album by Queen I recommend you go listen. But not before you listen to Serie A spotlight, Sasuolo had Alvarez and Consigli out injured naturally meaning Cranio started once again.

Now when it comes to the lineups it was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Sasuolo with Cranio on goal and a backline of Vignia Tressol the early Cantolian with Henrique and Boloca playing as the midfielder with Laurion Te and Berardi on the flanks, Bayram just between them and Pinamonti up top. Pinamonti, Luca Tone, you decide. For Juventus a 3-5-2 formation with Vojcek Szczesny in goal, I think to be honest cause there might as well have been no one in goal.

A backline of Gatti Bremer and Danilo with McKenney out on the right, Costucci out on the left and Mitviltro of Miretti, Locatelli and Rabio with Kiesa and Vlavic up front together. Now things started off in the 12th minute terribly for Juvent very well for Sasuolo as Laurion Te opened the scoring, his knuckleball was aimed straight at Szczesny, he shot it from just outside the box.

Szczesny attempted to parry the ball but he kind of punched it into his own leg, took a couple ricochets off his own leg and ended up in the back of the net so a classic blunder where the ball is going straight to the keeper and the ball somehow manages to find its way into the back of the net.

That gave Sasuolo the one lead, however and then just 9 minutes later to make it 1-1 for Juve, Vignia scored an own goal, it was Kiesa's in swinging cross to the far post that was meant for McKenney but instead it was Sasuolo's Vignia who got their first turning the ball into his own net on the slide. Making it 1-1 naturally. In the 37th minute Szczesny the Nitro Soli's point blank header getting down very well, he thought he made amends for his previous mistake.

In the 41st minute Berardi made a 2-1 for Sasuolo, Henrika carried the ball up the centre of the pitch very well before laying the ball off to Berardi, setting him up brilliantly for a trademark Berardi effort. Berardi hit the ball first time from just outside the area on his favoured left foot with the ball curling into the bottom corner on the Italian's 300th Serie A match. Congratulations Berardi.

However then in the 78th minute a very very gassed Kiesa got another equaliser for Juve making it 2-2. Kiesa beat Kranja at the near post following a slightly deflected strike from inside the box. Fajoli did well to find his teammate following a cleared cross earlier in this attack. In the 82nd minute however just 4 minutes later it was Pinamonti that got a goal back for Sasuolo making it 3-2.

Remember the Loriente shot that went through Szczesny, the first goal that I described, it was the exactly same shot but this time Szczesny didn't manage to catch it, he parried it directly to Pinamonti who headed in on the rebound. It sounds like I'm being harsh on Szczesny but he definitely could have caught that ball or at least don't parry it directly to the striker, he could have parried it clear. I learned that when I was a goalkeeper at 9 years of age.

This isn't disrespect to Szczesny but it's just proving that it is Szczesny's fault. Mati is not bullshitting there by the way he was a goalkeeper with most FC shout out. He was very good. I was very good but then I didn't go past 5-8 so it's quite naturally quite disappointed with that but I was top man, I won the penalty shootout. You were very good when it was your height. Yeah man, fuck it. Now the posts are a bit too tall for you bro. Yeah they are a little bit.

I've played some games and I was alright. It's good when you play with people that aren't that good man. Or to one. Or to one. In the 93rd minute Szczesny did very well to deny the Fred's bullet strike from close range tipping it onto the crossbar and in the 95th minute it just sealed the shit show for Juventus. There was a free kick for Juve to be taken just outside their own box close to the corner flag.

When they were chasing the game Szczesny stepped up to take this one as the defender started pushing forward. Szczesny attempted to play the ball to the centre back. Gatti a low dangerous ball in the middle of the pitch. Gatti who had only he could either have cleared the ball out for a throw in or played it back to Szczesny. He attempted to play it back to Szczesny.

He overcooked the posms, directed it and it ended up in his own net so it was the least productive one to I've ever seen between two players. It went down naturally as a Gatti on goal. I don't think Szczesny did a great job either in this case. Szczesny played the ball to Gatti who was not in space. He was being pressed quite frankly. The press was very effective by Soswald. Totally, nothing away from that. And Szczesny when he saw that Gatti was being pressed stayed wide. He pulled wide.

Exit 2 off for him an option so he can play it back to him. I think the priority over there in that situation should be get back on your line. Yeah 100%. You know the pass wasn't great. You see the players attacking your man. Get back and defend your goal. It's basic. It's do or die. And it almost seemed like he made zero effort even when the pass. There are other keepers in the world that had they been on their toes they could have gotten to that pass. You know what I mean?

And this obviously being overly critical after a very negative performance. Of course it's the audacity to just stand there and watch it rolling. Just stare at Gatti. Like it's almost like exactly. Like he took the opportunity to milk Gatti's embarrassment. Yeah. Instead of like this guy. Szczesny has just made two costly mistakes for Juve. And now he's in a situation where he might have contributed to a third.

And instead of running to get the ball off the line like granted they were already losing. And instead of running to try to stop the goal from happening he just watched his teammate disappoint the entire time. He's torturing him essentially. A youngster at the end of the day. Yeah. I didn't like that move one bit by Szczesny. Obviously after a negative performance you see Oana in the Champions League he went up to the journalists himself said I take full accountability for everything.

Stop blaming the team and blame me. He takes that responsibility and he's new to the team. Szczesny is a veteran between the sticks for Juve. He's been there for a fucking hot minute now man. And he's one of the senior players so he should lead by example. It's okay to have a stinker every now and then. Well it's not okay but it's understandable. And I feel like a young guy like Gatti should be guided at least by Szczesny.

Yes. So I encourage especially alright he's not that young Gatti's 25 but he's new to the top division. Yeah. He was a bricklayer a few years ago. I was playing in say whatever a few years back. Sorry. Yeah. Not to be overly harsh on Szczesny of course this game was not like him. He's usually very solid and I like the way he organizes the defence and he usually leads that defence to many a clean sheet victory. So I'm not going to be overly critical with him.

He does have to be careful however because his backup deputy goalkeeper is no joke. He's very competent and I would say that he has the most competition from a backup goalkeeper in the league when you look around like there's no backup goalkeeper better than Perrin. Sportiello is better than Perrin though. On par I would say. But that's just making an argument out of nothing. The thing I'm doing right now. Yeah. The thing is there is quite some distance between Manjane and Sportiello right.

Yeah, between Szczesny and Perrin when you're in Tini are quite divided. Yeah. And I think like we obviously see performances by Szczesny that completely counter this performance. However we have seen in history Szczesny make mistakes. Yes. The reason that he's not in my top three Serie A goalkeepers. The reason that Arsenal fans don't rate him. Exactly. You Google Szczesny Arsenal blunders and you've got yourself a 20 minute watch.

Now I want to evaluate whether this performance is a once in a while kind of thing something Juve shouldn't be concerned about or should it be a bit of a growing concern? Do you think it could be repeated behaviour or? I think this was a freak collapse with individual areas that are uncharacteristic of the players who commented them. Got the even prior to the mistake. I had never seen him play so badly. Yeah. I think the defence was very concerning in the game.

Honestly apart from Kierze, I can't point out who had a good game for you. That was a shambolic performance by Juve. Shambolic. From top to bottom. Like if you look at Szczesny and Goal had an absolute horror show. You've got Wlawicz up front, an absolute horror show. The things that Wlawicz is usually amazing at like finishing his execution, his killer instinct. He didn't have that at all. I can't point out he was in front of the goalkeeper. He rolled it out. The finish was so disappointing.

Yeah man. I think to be honest, and if you look at the mistakes that took place in the game, you see where Juve were most vulnerable and it was Saswala's press that played a massive, massive part. They have got the ideal starting 11 to play this press football.

They've got Berardi by Rami, Laurion Te Pina Monti, well the lesser being Pina Monti in this case, because Laurion Te by Rami and Berardi in this game were constantly, constantly pressing and putting pressure on that back three who got exposed. And they are three great defenders. We've got Danilo Bremer and Gatti. And to put four past those, it doesn't take a couple of random mistakes. But I genuinely think that it was Saswala's efforts that made Juve make these mistakes.

The shots from long distance by Laurion Te, he knew what he was doing in that case. And he knew about the weather conditions. He knew about the weather conditions. He was hitting the ball on a knuckleball from an angle when Cesney's view was blocked. It was a very smart performance by Saswala. That's it, street smart, very street smart. And I think the man to highlight from Saswala, so we spoke a little bit about Juve and where they struggled and why.

Now Saswala, apart from their press, I think how ridiculously good is Dominic Oberardi? Because sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy because every year it seems like he's the best right winger in the league. And I've been watching Serie A for what bro? Most of my life. And over the past three to five seasons, over the past five seasons, I was a solid starter on the right hand side for Saswala.

And every year, if I had to make a starting 11 of the best performers, I would have them on my right hand side. But when I bring him up to Milan fans, when I bring him up to other people, they call them a failed Juve player. They say he's not up to the standard of other Italian teams, and I can't quite understand where the fuck the criticism could come from, man, because his whole life he's been explosive, he's been tricky, he's been professional.

It's his performances for the national team on the big stage that have ruined his reputation and the fact that he never left Saswala. So many people, instead of romanticizing, and the fact that this guy's stuck with a minoclub and appreciating what this guy did is so rare nowadays in the game. They view it as Dominico Barardi is not capable of moving to a bigger team. He has a weak mentality. He's scared to take the next step.

And it's not true at all, because when the going gets tough for Saswala, it's not like he's being urged on by thousands of fans. I mean, Saswala only had fans recently. They've only started to get this far. This season we've started to see some guys out. Because the stadium is always empty, literally. Every game at the Muppet Stadium is home advantage for the away team. Literally. Yes, but since 2013 when he debuted for Saswala, he has been absolutely top tier, man.

He comes in a right wing position, bro. And he has this drive, he has this desire, he hates to lose, and you can see it when things don't go his way. His eyes start burning up, he gets pissed off, he gets heated, his cheeks go rosy. You know how it is. And that's what motivates him, and that should be enough.

And I have a feeling that no matter where this guy goes in his career, like let's say he goes to Juventus in January, like many people are saying, I think that he will become a man on this puted start. He won't have it any other way. He'll be the first to arrive and the last to leave until he becomes the starter. No, that's the thing. And he's captain material, Berardi. I think anywhere he goes, he'll carry that professionalism that he has. He absolutely terrorized Juve in this game.

I think we saw Juve exposed at the back, which is an area where they were so strong last year, until there was one game against Napoli where they had gotten demolished by around four goals, and then we started seeing holes in their game. This time it came up early. It would be interesting to see how they adapt and how they recover after that. They have gotten their first loss now. Saswolo looking good, man. They're looking decent.

It's good to see Pinamonte more and more on the... I think this is third match in a row where he scored Pinamonte, and this is what the guy needs. The guy, like, yes, this goal was lucky. It was a Chesney mistake, and he got the rebound. Yes, fucking right. Put him in a situation where his score is a rebound. He's the striker. He needs to score these, and those are the goals he needs to get, first and foremost.

And secondly, put a few goals on there, his belt, and we'll see how he starts performing after that. Footballers are very egocentric, so we'll see how he responds to scoring these goals. And he's just scored against Juve. So that's quite the morale boost. 100%. I want to point out Saswolo's kit. Very bright. Yeah, very bright. Very bright. I thought it was cool. I don't know if it was because he was bowling out, but he looks really cool. He did look cool. I like, I always like Saswolo's kit.

I really like dark green as a color. Yeah, of course, I agree. It's going to be banned, no soon. I believe so. I've heard this. I've always heard this from weird sources. But apparently the color green in this area isn't going to be allowed on kits anymore for the spectators and for the referees because camouflage. Fair enough. Fair enough. But they definitely won't have that problem with this Saswolo kit because it's one of the brightest kits I've seen. They're reacting, gay.

We could go ahead to your game now, brother. Okay, the next game we're going to be discussing is Empoli Nyl Inter 1. This match took place, of course, at the Stadiokar Loka Stelani and it was packed with action and featured a stunning wonder goal that you won't want to miss. Then Rewind weren't allowed to hear it. But seeing it's much better.

Inter have maintained their perfect record of five victories out of five games while Andrea Zoli made his fourth debut for Empoli who look much better already since they replaced Zanetti with the veteran. But however they are still searching for their first league goal. They haven't scored a single goal yet in five games. Devastating stuff for them and anyone who took their players on fantasy football. Simone and Zaghi made five changes from Inter's midweek 1-1 draw at Real Sociedad.

This time he lined up with Jan Summer in goal, Bastoni at Cherubi and Pavard at the back, of course, is a 3-5-2 as usual, goes without saying. Federico DiMarco was out on the left, Mikita, Insha'Allah, Noglu and Fratese were in the middle with Darmeyhan out on the right. The forward partnership of Thuram and Lautaro Martinez. For Empoli it was a 4-3-1 formation over here with Andrea Zoli swapping out the double pivot.

Berisha was in goal, Abouayhi was the ride back with Ismaili Loperto and Pazzella playing alongside him. And Marin Ranocchian Malle with midfield three with Baldan Ziantan Biagi playing behind Steven Spendi. In the early stages it was all Inter and their dominance almost paid off when Matteo Darmeyhan said there was miraculously cleared of the line by Empoli's Ismaili. Empoli however gradually found their footing in the match but they struggled to attack and it was quite evident to be honest.

Inter's formidable five-man midfield orchestrated by the great manager Simone Insaghi. They proved to be a formidable force. Thuram had the ball in the back of the net in the first half of their great ball by Chalanoglu but it was ruled out for offside and towards the end of the first half Berisha emerged as a hero with his fantastic reflex saves that denied Inter going into the break.

By the time the break actually did arrive Inter managed 65% ball possession and 13 shots four of them were on target while Empoli barely ventured into the final third with just three attempts all off target. The second half saw Steven Spendi coming close to breaking the deadlock. You might wonder who the hell is Steven Spendi? Now I did some googling. The commentator who really knows how to pronounce the eight stuff was calling him Spendi. Spendi? But I prefer Spendi. I like Spendi. Spendi.

It's fun to say. But that commentator does know how to pronounce everyone's names. He's 20 years old, he's 5'11", he was born in Italy and he started this career at Crescena. He actually represented the Albanian national team at 19, 20 and 21 level. Has he ever scored? He scored a couple of goals for Crescena and 31 games he scored 12. He's currently on loan at Empoli. We'll see what he can do over here. But anyway, where the hell was I?

Ah yes, so the second half saw Empoli, Steven Spendi coming close to breaking the deadlock but it was Inter who ultimately took the lead. Federico DeMarco etched his name into the mash's history with a sensational first time volley from outside the box with the outside of his foot finding the top corner of the net and leaving Empoli fans gobsmacked.

And then his celebration of course rubbed salts in all the wounds and a kind of just pouts his lower lip and opens his, how do you even explain what he does? He opens his palms up in the air and goes like... Shrugs, shrugs. So yeah, so what? What did I just did that? And the final 20 minutes Inter introduced fresh faces as usual solidifying their lead and shutting out Empoli completely.

This defeat marked a historic low for Empoli as they have become the first Italian team in Serie A history ever to lose five consecutive games without scoring. Furthermore, contrasting this greatly, Inter extended their impressive record as beside Empoli has suffered the most defeats against in the league. I think this was a match made in hell for Empoli when they can't get a single victory. They play against a team that can't drop a single fucking point.

They can't score a goal, they're playing against a team that only conceded one goal to Rafael Leao and Derby della Madonina and they scored five that game. So they conceded one for every five goals that they're scoring. Yeah, I mean, the match went pretty much how anyone would expect it to, right? An Inter victory to Nill. I think what I noticed in this game at least is firstly the depth of this Inter team.

I think in the every season, I look at their squad list and I say, oh, okay, they haven't gotten that much depth. But the amount of players they have that are capable of playing this system is ridiculous. Now in this case, he had Frattese and he wasn't starting instead of Miquitario, but he was starting instead of Barella over there and he had a great game, Frattese. He had a great game in Derby. He had great games for Italy as well.

This Inter team who afforded to make some changes, bringing Pavard on so on and so forth, I wouldn't say they struggled against Empoli, but Empoli gave them a game. The Empoli, what they did was they made it hard for Inter to score. That's all they did. Yes. I mean, we all know Andrea Zolli, right?

He tries to play his own game and I feel like he's implementing his philosophy slowly, slowly over here without overhauling everything and causing a massive disaster in the dressing room quite frankly. Let's play with what we know and slowly, slowly start to get the philosophy going. I mean, you absolutely nailed it, bro. This was a tough test for them. New manager, sure. But your first test is a team that doesn't concede. A team that doesn't lose quite frankly. So far this season at least.

And I always struggle to pre-small teams when they have a good game against a bigger team, because it's what you expect. You'd expect the players to get better when they're playing Inter rather than Genoa. You know what I mean with no disrespect to a beautiful team like Genoa. But you see it all the time. Andrea Zolli's first match, he's absolutely transforming the team.

Sure, maybe in a couple of days, but right now you had 11 young men who got to play against the Champions League finalists of next season. So of course they're going to run their legs out. It's not a direct sign that Andrea Zolli came in and suddenly all these players are motivated again. We need to see over a longer period of time. Of course, yes. I mean, they were very brave to start the Zanetti.

I feel like I'm sure it was a difficult decision because they have had their good moments with the manager, but they had to do it before the spell of games where they can actually get some points out of it before Zanetti proves to them that he really can't do it and it's too late. So this is a sample of us in time to turn the season around. And how? It's only match day five for f*** sake. Arnautovic out for a month. And that basically leaves Inter with more fit number nine than Milan.

Who don't have an injury number nine? This is what we mean, of course, when we talk about Inter's depth. Arnautovic got injured this game. How many number nine they have left? Like pure number nine is Theron and Martinez. Theron, Martinez. And then they have Sanchez who's a hybrid. They have two, right? Milan have Giroud who's 37. Obviously, hate saying that, but it has to be said.

And Jovic who was brought in on deadline day and hasn't quite drilled with the team yet and isn't quite ready to start. So you know, sometimes I look at the center team and I just think they're running a very smart way from Maratas and not for the ownership's end because the ownership's investment and the financial situation leaves a lot to be desired. Exactly, they try to make them worse and that's the end. But Maratas working with his directors against him and he's doing God's work quite well.

And we see this time and time again. The last two summers, at least everyone saying Inter don't have any spending power. Okay, but if there's a player on a free first, they've got bigger pull than a lot of the Italian teams, especially at the moment, even the fact that Turam and Fratese joined them over Milan, for example, and over Roma and over all these other teams. But they're also very smart with the acquisitions. They think system first and then they think player profile.

And it seems like they're only capable of assigning players that really fit the system. You see Turam off their five games. How good does he fucking do for them? You see Fratese coming on and starting to be implemented. How fucking good does he look? Pavard looked good in this game as well. Cialanoglu, when it comes to this new register role, who is he? Cialanoglu or Brozovic? You know what I mean? He's even got his own song now. Literally, it's like they have Brozovic back.

Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. I wanted to point out as well, bro. Turam had the exact same attempt that let this goal against Milan. He was going just over the bar. It was about to do it again one week later. But yeah, that concludes this game. Basically Inter continue to dominate Empoli. Do look better, but so far no cigar, no goals and no points for Empoli as Inter sit top of the table alone. No cigar for me. I don't know if you guys have noticed.

You haven't been hearing lighters going off in our episodes in the last two episodes. It's because we're recording in my bedroom because the sound quality is better over here. And obviously there's no smoking in my room. Yes, and I'm pretty sure Matthew gave me asthma from smoking cigars and mattress. Big baby, Jake also smokes a couple of cigars during these episodes. Bologna, Nile, Napoli, Nile is the next game we're going to be covering. This game took place just yesterday.

Bologna are coming off a nil-nil draw to Verona, while Napoli are coming off a 2-2 draw to Genoa and a 2-1 away win in the Champions League against Braga at midweek. Bologna are in fact the team against which Napoli have scored the most goals in Serie A, where they have 194 goals in 129 matches. Napoli have also won 49 of the previous 128 fixtures, with Bologna winning 41 times and 38 draws also. Bologna had Saumauro injured, while Napoli had Gullini, Hezos and Rahmani out for this game.

For the formations, Bologna played a 4-2-3-1 formation with Skorupski in goal and a backline of Christiansen, Lukumi, Beukema and Posh. They had Froyler and Abyssir as a double pivot, with Carlsen out on the left, and Doi out on the right, and Ferguson playing behind Xerxes.

For Napoli it was a 4-3-3 formation with Merettingol and a backline of De Lorenzo, Ostegard, Natan and Oliveira, that Anguissa Lobotkan-Zielinski in the middle, with Raspadori out on the right, Kvaratskeli out on the left, and Viktor Ossimen up front. Just 5 minutes in, Ossimen hit the post from a tight angle following a good through ball by Raspadori. Knock knock knock.

However, after that Napoli seemed to struggle to penetrate this very tight defensive shape that Bologna were maintaining throughout the match. In fact Napoli got their best opportunity in the 72nd minute of the match after they finally got awarded a penalty.

It was a little bit harsh, but Califiori gave this one away as he handled the ball whilst he was going to ground, not too well versed on the rules of handball, considering that they change every two years and they just add 50 exceptions every single time. I'm guessing this wasn't one of the exceptions, albeit it might look harsh, the ball was handled in the area and the penalty was awarded to Napoli.

Now Ossimen stepped up and despite sending Skorupski the wrong way, he failed to hit the target with his shot narrowly straining wide and now their penalty missed for Napoli, they had Raspadori against Osvalo and now they have Viktor Ossimen, their leading talisman against Bologna.

Ossimen originally was never their penalty taker to begin with, he was never their first option from the penalty stop, which is weird because he's a proper bomber, 20 goal a season striker, but usually they take everything. But there's Zielinski who's very talented from Svoderspoletano, who's probably their best penalty taker. He can't hit them.

Yeah, but when you've got someone that scores that many goals up front and is constantly on form, then you give the ball to him personally, there's Gavara as well who's missed a few. He could have probably used his penalty to get his name on the score sheet finally.

In the 75th minute, Zerkszeg did well to keep the ball at his feet in the box of the opposition following multiple attempts to take the ball off him, but his shot was straight at Maret, however I decided to write this point out because he showed great technique through all of that classic Zerkszeg, showing great technique and then not scoring too many goals for the time being, naturally.

Now let's start off by discussing Ossimen's penalty miss because obviously Napoli struggled to penetrate Bologna because it was Thiago Mottasait putting on a defensive masterclass against Napoli, pressing when they need to press and really playing with the slow block which constantly denied Raspadori's runs and Zielinski's runs, Gavara's runs and someone was always on Ossimen, at least one player. Finally they got the opportunity from the spot.

Ossimen stepped up and he did send the keeper the wrong way but he failed to hit the target. How much of a blow is that for Napoli moving forward this season? Drawing to Bologna in general.

Going to Bologna more than that but it's Gavara is struggling, he hasn't scored since March and now Ossimen just missed the penalties and they have a new manager and they're not looking as direct naturally because it's Ossimen's style but they're not looking as effective as they did last year, they're looking worse and their two top performers are currently in a slump. Yes and their two top performers have protested the manager's decisions openly.

You see when Ossimen was taken off he had two fingers up and not in a way to say up yours. He was basically saying I could have played up top with Simeone, I could have played alongside Simeone for the end while we were looking for a goal, why are you taking me out? Gavara as well seemed to be questioning his decisions, it's not looking good for Rudy Garcia so far, there are definitely some growing pains.

He's got all the pressure in the world and that's the difference between Spalletti's time and Garcia's time. Spalletti didn't have much pressure, he was a dark horse for the Scudetto. Now Rudy Garcia has a lot of pressure and now these players have proven themselves so they have a bit of leverage over him, the fans prefer the players for the manager because who the fuck is this manager, he didn't win us the league. It's going to be very tough and I wonder what's going to happen with Napoli.

It's going to be a real test of character for Garcia over here, five matches in, not quite off to the flyer that they were off to last season and some players are already turning against him maybe a little bit and maybe soon we'll start seeing it from the fans but we hope that they'll be able to turn it around. Now there were limited goal scoring opportunities in this match so there aren't too many moments essentially to highlight.

It was more Napoli playing the ball around and Bologna really sitting back and denying them. I think Bologna, now that I made the point recently that this is their first full season on their motto and last season towards the beginning they were really struggling under Mahilovic whose health conditions at the time obviously were all over the place and that did lead to his unfortunate passing and then Mota came in and he managed to revitalise kind of the spirit of this team.

He figured out which best players to play, he figured out his system, he figured out the identity of this team. And now we're seeing them at the beginning of the season having some real tests. They've had some tough opening fixtures, they played Juve, they played Milan and now they played Napoli. How are you seeing them perform and get stuff to tell when they play against all these top teams? I mean they've played up to the level of every opponent that they've faced.

I've been impressed with them. With each passing year they get better and better. Especially under Thiago, Mota and we have discussed in our first few episodes doing this that Bologna had a lot of talent and Mahilovic was holding them back at the time. That proved to be true because they've brought in a manager with clear coaching ideas, young, modern, charismatic, brave, a leader, a silent leader. He's not the type to start shouting at the players and playing the authoritarian.

He's an approachable figure. And they've got a few nice pieces now. Chris and Carl on the left. They're doing pretty well. Chris, Christian, and Carlson. I really like the addition of Endoya. I mentioned that every episode I think this season so far he's been superb. Okay, I'm all good as well. Xerxes is developing nicely. Show me Xerxes in three years time. I think he's going to be superb. Yeah man, I just want to see him be able to have more of a poacher up there.

He's already improved, his numbers are already going up. Remember it's matchday five. He has a full season ahead of them with the coaches full trust. What I believe at least. So yeah, it seems like Bologna are getting better and Napoli are getting worse if we're summing it all up. But it'll be good to see how Bologna continue to evolve and hopefully we'll see them have an easier run sometime soon. And let's see what happens with Napoli.

I mean a couple of their players on a slump screaming at the manager as they leave the pitch and it's another game where they didn't manage to get a full three points and this time they didn't even manage a single goal despite us hitting the post and failing to score from the penalty spot. And there was a rebound there by Guevara. He should have got the rebound as well. But he did. It's here one season one there bro. We talked about this last episode I believe.

This changed your mind at all but what's your stance on it? My opinion can't change after one match. I still think that it is the state of mind he needs to get to in order to replicate those performances. If he is not able to unlock that state of mind again then he will never be as good as he was that one season.

Because literally from matchday one to matchday 38 last season he stepped on the pitch and looked flawless, looked ridiculous, looked like prime George best in every single match that they play. He rocked it in the Champions League. He exposed defenders like Trent Alexander-Arnold that before that were hailed by the likes of Kaffu and he was the one to expose him defensively. He needs to get that confidence back.

Until he gets that confidence back he's going to be considered a one season one there but it took him one season to prove to us that he was good for a season. Let it not be five matches in the next season that teaches us that he's not that good. Well put. Also Occhio, Salah Mackers made his debut for Bologna. Yes of course you bring him on against Napoli. You have to. So let's go to the next one. Torino one, Roma one.

Torino hosted Roma and Duvan Zapata netted his first goal for Torino to secure a valuable point against Guigello Rossi. The hosts remained undefeated on their home turf this season and will dissect all the key moments and talking points from this exciting game. He makes excited because this is the game that won him his bet. Yes this is my favorite game of the week.

For Torino it was a 3-4-1 formation with Vanya Milinkovic-Savic in goal, Shurs Bonjorno and Ricardo Rodriguez were at the back with Bellanova, Tameze, Ilec and Lazaro as the former fielders, Demba Sek and Dredon Jesh were playing behind Duvan Zapata.

For Roma it was their 3-4-2-1 formation with Rui Patricio and goal in Dica, Lorente and Mancini at the back, Spinazola on the left, Christensen out on the right, Paredes and Cristante in the middle with Elsharawi and Dabala playing off the very broad shoulders of Romelu Lukaku. Torino entered this match following a spectacular 7-0 victory over Empoli and an Europa League victory against Serif Tiraspol.

On the other hand, Roma hadn't scored in a way league goal since their last meeting with Torino in April. The hosts aim to avoid a repeat of the previous one lost to Roma. The action kicked off early, with Torino carving out the first chance in the fifth minute when Lazaro delivered an inviting cross that Duvan Zapata attacked only to be denied by the quick reflexes of Rui Patricio. Roma responded swiftly with Lukaku firing a long-ranged effort wide after being set up by Paolo Dabala.

Now I don't know about you guys but to me it wasn't that close and if Roma made the fast. However, the first… It was the bar, I think. No, no, it was Lukaku. That's right. It was the same line. No, but it really was a bro, it looked like… No, no, I'm saying the fans over here. Oh my god, because I'm shot like… Exactly. I thought you were talking about my innate bias.

So yes, the first half turned into a KGF air, both teams struggled to break the deadlock, the score remained goalless at halftime and the second half kicked off. Demba sec narrowly missed the target with a low shot while Cristante struck the post at the opposite end and he was so close over there. He kind of hit the ball as he was falling down and the ball was bouncing, just hit the post, confusion could have sworn Roma were going to score at that point.

In the 68th minute Lukaku swiveled in the box and found the back of the net, registering his third goal in as many games for Roma. Torino conceded their first homely goal of the season, however the response was swift as Zapata on loan from Atalanta, not at home, from close range after a juicy, perfect delivery from Ivan Ilyich. Yes, a beautiful cross. And the scenes were spectacular, all better way to get your first goal.

And you can see like, you almost couldn't tell who scored, because everyone celebrated and who scored. That was nice to watch. And yeah, ultimately neither team could secure a win on the match and did 1-1. Torino sit in 9th, Roma are 3 points behind in 13th at the moment. Now, let's talk about Duvan Zapata. This was his first goal for Torino. Do you think this will kind of revive the sleeping beast that has been Duvan Zapata over the years?

The best thing that could have happened to Duvan when looking to restart his career in Italy is he joins a club like Torino and he gets off the mark instantly. And that's what he's done. I think he had one full 90 minutes before this game, or at least one performance before this game, and he got them an important goal. It was a good goal, it was a header. In that situation Zapata is very, very strong and he'll be confident from that. His teammates will be confident in him.

So if he is going to turn it around, he's taken the first step over there. Yeah, fantastic honestly. I couldn't help but think to myself that he was past it, right? That he was past his best. But it turns out maybe it was confidence because how old is Duvan Zapata for example? I think he's like 32 years old. A striker of his skill set at 32 should not be anywhere near finished. No. He's big, he's strong, he's powerful and he can play in the box. You can feed him in the box, no problem.

And he's quite good with his back towards goal as well and the link up plays well. He can be quite deployable. I completely agree with you, Bro Torino is the perfect environment. He's the perfect coach to develop Zapata and to try to revive his career over there. And Sanabria would be good help when he comes back as well. He should be back, he actually featured, thank fucking Christ, in my other one, in my other Fanta, which I hate addressing the other one.

Here we are on the podcast and we're talking about your other Fanta, Kajka. I have Scamaka injured, I have Caprari injured. This is what I hear all day. I had Sanabria injured and there was someone else injured, bro. Fuck knows man, but someone else injured, so I had one and a half strikers. But thankfully he got me a six, which is all I needed to win. From one striker to the next, let's talk Lukaku now, bro. Lukaku continues to find the back of the net for Roma.

Can he maintain the scoring streak? Do you think that we can have a goal scorer who almost hits 20 goals a season like Abraham had done on the Mourinho? I'm not incredibly confident to say yes, he's going to get 20 goals, but he is definitely going to get goals for Roma. I think if he could stay fit, he's looking good. I think him and the Bala up top, whether it's playing with them up top or he has two guys like the Bala and the Sharawi flanking him, that's what he needs.

That is what he needs because two reasons. One, he's good in the air, not only headers, but even if it's an aerial opportunity, he'll get it. And he's super strong when it comes to having his back towards goal. When he has his back towards goal, he's got players like the Bala and the Sharawi that can hit the ball the way they do. Then it's only going to expose another great part to Lukaku's game.

So I think system wise, and even by having Mourinho as his manager and being in this system with this fan base, I think Lukaku can have a really, really good season. They can hit 15 goals, definitely. You remember him explaining to Jamie Carragher how easy it is for him to turn on defenders and to beat them. And he had his back against them and he just turned and he absolutely destroyed them and demonstrated that. That's done if you haven't seen it guys, it's on YouTube.

He does that to perfection, this game against professional defenders. He has his back facing them, like his back's facing them. He turns and he's just one on one with the goalkeeper. There's nothing anyone can do about it because no one can dispossess this guy, no one can match him physically. There is one guy that had great success doing that. Who was it? Who was it? Dad, this game? Yes. Of course, it was Bonjourno. Bonjourno, a masterclass on how to deal with Lukaku.

The amount of physical pressure he was putting on him was second to none. He was constantly up his ass and barging him. Barge is like, you're not going to go to ground, you're a fucking big boy. He was nailing him. And then towards the end, you could see it was the same technique that he had been trying while game. Lukaku, which is what Jake was saying on the turn. And you could see Bonjourno trying and trying and trying, but the last one was Lukaku's.

There was nothing he could do to deny that one, but up until that moment, Bonjourno really, really had Lukaku's number. Yeah, but it's a shame that he managed to turn him the way he did. But yeah, my concept about feeling that Morinio is stubborn at times, I feel like at one point he was playing. No way, bro. I feel Morinio is at times stubborn. Yes, man. The fuck off. But even with his fucking style, man, like, I get it, he's a proud guy.

I get it, he's a little difficult person, maybe slightly narcissistic. But he had found this perfect balance between a three at the back formation and a mixture of like direct and short vertical horizontal passes, you know, he had figured everything out. There was this perfect balance between attacking fluidly and defending and being pragmatic. Now he's got Lukaku, he's got Dabala, he's got all these guys and he's playing long ball again. Why do you go long ball against Torino?

He played into your hands. I feel like this was a tactical masterclass by your age, if anyone. I think so. Who had a team who was worse in every single position. I don't know. I can't help but think, bro, for three years at a club, this is his third year and Roma still haven't been in the top four and they have still been so tough to watch as a football team.

I don't know, man, maybe he's not cut out for Roma or maybe Morinio's methods are a little bit outdated, like you're saying, going for the long ball in this game. Is that really the best call? Would the best managers in the world take this approach against a team like Torino away from home? There is no right and wrong way of playing football, right, as boring as it is to say.

Of course, the great managers at the moment, the top managers don't want to view the game in the same way that Morinio views the game very differently, right? You look at Pep's philosophy and Deserby, who's getting a lot of praise and clop and Zidane, all these guys. They don't have the same philosophy as Morinio, of course. Morinio's philosophy is still useful. Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's outdated.

I just think that it is the kind of philosophy, it's an underdog philosophy that you can't implement in a top club anymore. And in fact, I think Morinio's better suited nowadays for teams like Roma, who aren't quite there, but you need to go there wins smart and kind of pragmatically win. And the business needs, so to say, and the business needs to get wins. Yeah, exactly. That's it. He's good at reinstalling that and where he shines most over there is a knockout competition.

In fact, he took this Roma side, who haven't been that impressive at all and have been operating on a budget for the past few seasons. He took them to two European finals in three years. Yeah, two years and two years. Back to back. Conference league final he won it. Europa League final he lost it and he probably should have won it. No, I don't know about you though. I'm a supporter of the Italian league.

I'm the supporter of pretty much all the Italian teams when it comes to European competitions. But I obviously have my favorite team in Italy and as soon as they appoint a coach, my number one goal as a Serie A fan is that the team gets themselves in the top four. Now, I don't know if that's different for me because I'm a Milan fan and Milan were away from top four for so long. But what I want to do is show that my team is the best within their league.

That is the number one priority and just as a fan, seeing the way Morinio operates and putting all his eggs in the European trophy basket. And I don't know if it's his decisions or whatever that are making Roma struggle so much in Italy, but clearly their focus is elsewhere. It's on the European competition. I don't know how I feel about that, man, because even now it's another season without Champions League for Roma. And they're third Morinio season.

They're still not playing Champions League, man. Now, it's still early. They could get Champions League this season for all I know. But when I watch them, I don't get the feeling like this is a Champions League team. No, no. And the competition in Italy is obviously increasing, right? And it's becoming tougher and tougher and tougher. We'll see. I have a feeling that this might be a make or break season for Morinio. Either he brings home a trophy or he's down. Yeah, frankly. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. I think it's a great match, man. And it's so difficult for them to bring a trophy right now. I mean, you know. And the way they've played hasn't been inspiring, but they can actually turn it around. Season is early and they've made some smart signings. The way that we're talking about Morinio and Roma, this kind of hot and cold thing, is the same thing that Morinio is doing. By the way, he's like, hi, you know, I'm really happy right now. What's his name? Mattic betrays me.

He leaves. We don't bring some guy off the street. We bring in Paredes and Renato Sanchez, right? One week later, he's like, I look at the players I'm dealing with. You think if Renato Sanchez was good, he'd be here. He'd be at PSUG. That's what he said, is seriously. So yeah, hot and cold with Morinio. That's 100%. Yes. You're up. Milan one, Verona nil is the next game we're going to be covering. Milan were coming off a devastating 5-1 loss to Inter in the day with El Amado Nina.

As Verona were coming off a nil-nil draw at home to Bologna. Now Milan essentially have Verona's number. They've won each of their last five league matches against Helas Verona. Milan had Benassar, Caldara, Calhulu and Mike Manian out injured. Now when it comes to Manian situations, several Italian media representatives or whatever, including Daniel Elongo claim Manian suffered a flexor injury in his left thigh, although the Amarai scandal did not highlight any legion.

Manian's condition was being monitored. Now he is back training ahead of the Caliari game, but not sure Milan will be in a rush to reintroduce him considering his injury history. Verona had Braff, Doig Onri and Hrustich out injured. Now for Milan, they lined up in a 343 formation. They had Tomorri Kier and Tchau at the back, with Sportiello between the sticks. They had Florenzi as a left wing back and Musa as a right wing back, with Krunic and Reinders forming the double pivot.

Leao out on the left, Pulisic out on the right and Giroud up front. Oh what the hell? Yep, it was, obviously as you're seeing, no Teo Hernandez, no Calabria. It was quite shocking to see this line up. 342-1 for Helas Verona with Montepo and Gole, and the backline of Maniani, Heian and Davidovic. They had Farani out on the right with Terra Cian out on the left and a midfield two of Fodorunso and Hongla, with a front three of Duda, Ngonj and Lazovic.

Now in the eighth minute Milan opened the scoring through Rafael Leao. It was Fodorunso's risky pass on the halfway line, which was intercepted by Pulisic, who lost the ball to Heian but wanted back to keep the attack alive. The ball fell to Giroud, who played Leao through and as you can imagine, the Portuguese outpaced Verona defenders and finished into the bottom corner.

In the 20th minute, Sportiello denied a Fodorunso close range header in great fashion, and then later on in the match, Radic Krunic went down injured for Milan and he did have to come off. Now, he did have some medical examinations done on him this morning, Monday morning, which according to cultureamericato.com have highlighted a legion to the right hamstring.

Now, one day's report also details that Milan will reevaluate his situation in 10 days time, but the early indications are that Krunic will be ruled out for the next three matches for Milan against Calieri, Lazio and Dortmund in the Champions League.

The international break will follow shortly afterwards, but I doubt Krunic will be anywhere over there, he'll probably still be recovering until he'll probably be fit for the return match which is Milan-Uwe in San Siro, but a massive loss for Milan at a part where you pointed out Calabria is also injured for Milan. The list is just starting to grow and purely already showed us that he's willing to adapt to that and adapt to that he did starting at 3-4-3 in this match.

What was your initial reaction to that seeing the 3-4-3? Last season when Milan were getting smashed in the league by Sausvalo, Inter, Lazio, everyone was just smashing Milan to the next. Milan swapped to a 3 at the back, made it through in the Champions League and managed to maintain and hold in the league a little bit to stall until some players return.

I'm not a big fan of it and I don't think it gives you the best of Leal for example who needs space to operate, who's good when he drifts out wide and has a lot of space to run, 3 at the back formations and to be quite crammed and if you're playing Leal up top in a front too he would have to drift out wide for him to be effective in my opinion.

And I thought it was useful to be honest, I thought it was executed quite well and I thought that Milan beat a tough Verona side were quite stubborn when it came to going down. And terrible conditions during the match as well which just made it difficult for everyone.

The game was delayed by 30 minutes and it featured the referee walking around with the club captains Faroni and Leal, bouncing the ball in different areas of the pitch until it finally bounced and they were like okay we're good to go 30 minutes see you out there in other leagues maybe this game wouldn't have gone on but Milan did manage to get an early goal in the 80 minutes and they managed to naturally defend until the very end. A 3-4-3 formation is very good in the defensive phase man.

Milan were very organised defensively with 3 at the back. However one thing that rubs me slightly the wrong way about the change of formation is I don't know if it is because when Piori started playing this 4-3-3 with his new midfielder so on and so forth I was like fucking right this is it like this is Milan's new identity and Piori swore by it like this new 4-3-3 with the new players who have Milan have. Milan lost 5-1 to Winter and it's instantly to the 3-4-3 and now is that a reaction?

You want to see from the manager because of a bad game and because of injuries or is it a lack of faith in the system that he's created in the 4-3-3? I don't mind that he goes against his ideal principles and adapts for certain games and I feel like that's what good managers do. It's just shocking that he never seems to do it against Winter Piori.

I feel like this was not the logical thing to do against Salah's Varona but it was the logical thing to do after public unification because that's what it was in the center. Public unification and then a very frustrating nil nil in the Champions League against New Castle where Milan deserved to win. When it came to if you believe that the team that dominates and that builds the most play and holds the ball and creates the most chances deserves to win in that case Milan deserved to win.

But yeah, I feel like Piori avoided the disaster against Varona. I feel like he prioritized the defence while making sure there was a way to find the goal, Milan got the goal and then after that killed the game. What did you make of Moussa out on the right? I thought he was brilliant. He was good man. He was really good. And Florenti on the left? Budget DeMarco from Wish. I do like his attitude Florenti.

Just after all those injuries I don't have too much faith in him tracking back effectively and running the full length of the pitch up and down and up and down. I don't feel like his deliveries are that good to be honest. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but I'm not a big fan of Florenti. Okay, well, thankfully for you, Milan also have a certain Teo Hernandez that didn't start in this game, who is very, very strong in that 343 formation.

So we'll see if this is something that Milan are going to repeat and when they're going to repeat it and how they're going to repeat it. Milan play Caliari this week and then their following game after that is against Lazio. And then it's a Champions League game, not sure if it's PSG. Yes it is PSG after that. So we'll see how often he's going to utilize that 343 formation. But he's definitely going to play with three midfielders any time soon considering that Khrunich is now injured.

How would you like to see Milan moving forward with this 343 or would it be with three midfielders and if so, who would you start? So my ideal is a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. I like those formations. My ideal is 11. So of course it's Manjan, Teo Hernandez, Tamor, Uchaw, Calabria. Fully fit or right now? Right now. Reinders, Loftus, Csric and Moussa. Okay, interesting. Reinders, Loftus, Csric, Moussa. Is that enough balance? Yeah I think so. I think it's the best Milan could do.

Meleao on the left, Poulisic on the right and Giroud up front is what I want to see. So Noyassin, Adli as the number six. Look I mean, try it. That's what is being rumoured now. Try it, sure. I can't help but feel like we need a little bit of physicality in the midfield. You play, okay, let's say you play Adli and you play Reinders and you play Loftus Csric. Loftus Csric is the only one there who can win a 50-50. That's true.

I also am curious to see the early kind of rumour was that Poulisic was going to play as a 10 and Csric was going to play on the right. If Milan shift to a 4-2-3-1 now, maybe if they really want to take an offensive stance in one of the matches, that is an option. Poulisic as the number 10, Csric on the right, Leão on the left, Reinders Loftus Csric behind them. With all those injuries that does not sound like a bad start in 11. Yeah, that's all. And Ocufor hasn't even mentioned it.

And Ocufor every time he comes on, Mamma Mia man, those feet how they move. They're ridiculous. He's good with holding the player. Yeah, I don't think there's too much to add about Milan on that front. It's tough to really make any significant points about Milan after this was their first time in the 3-4-3 this season. And there are a lot of uncertainties on who is going to be available and who isn't going to be available for Milan in the next few matches.

So over there, I really encourage you to sit down and see what comes next. That's what we'll be doing as well. For Verona, they were a tough opponent for Milan to score against. I think they did a lot right up until that defensive error which led to Girou playing Leão through and Leão getting the goal. I don't know if Verona are going to be as bad as they were last year. No, that's all. They're looking better now. They are better. They're much better. I like their defence.

Their defence is my favourite part of the team. They've got Davidovic, Hien and Manjani who provide a very good... How interesting last year. Like I was saying that is my least favourite part of Verona but now they're performing. Hien has been good for a while. Davidovic has this season he's looking better. He can distribute well. And Manjani is just Manjani. He gets the job done. He's not going to do anything spectacular. He's 27 years old. He sees his name around.

He's like that type of player. But they do have a few useful tools over here and they have some weapons of the benchers where you can see they brought on for example Jury, Trubonatsoli and Saponara. Those are offensive weapons. They can adapt to their opponents. Don't you think Saponara should be starting for this team though? I mean with him it's always a question of fitness. Fitness mental state of mind. But yes I do certainly think the Saponara should be.

Instead of fucking Duda as a left winger. Duda has been very good. He's been good but he's not Saponara as a left winger in his number one position. But anyway that's enough from me for this game bro. We jump to the next. The next game we're going to be covering. This was a little bit abrupt so I need to speak slowly. Lazio 1. Monza 1. This game took place at the Stadio Olympics. Of course Lazio were home. We saw a resilient Monza come back from behind to score.

To secure a 1-1 draw against Lazio. The starting lineup for Lazio was a 4-3-3 formation as usual. Providelling goal. Legend. Mariusz Iszpatric, Romaniole and Hisai. The back with Gwendozzi, Cataldi and Luis Alberto in the middle. His axon was on the right. Zakanny was on the left and Ciro Mubile was the lone striker. Monza starting 11 featured a 3-4-2-1 formation with DiggraGorio in goal. Caboani, Mari and Itzo at the back with Kea Coppolis out on the left.

Shuri out on the right, Gallardini and Pesina in the middle with Lorenzo Colombo up front with Dani Mota and Andrea Colpani playing off his shoulders. Now on a Serie A season marked by struggles, Lazio were eager to turn their fortunes around as they faced against a very tricky Monza side. Within the first 15 minutes they got off to a promising start when Ciro Mubile converted a penalty thanks to a fantastic run by Mattia Zakanny who was fouled in the box.

Monza however refused to back down and could have equalised immediately if not for an offside flag denying Dani Mota's goal. The visitors continued to press with Patrick Truyam missing a goal and an opportunity to level the score. Nine minutes before halftime, Monza's persistence paid off as Roberto Gallardini tapped home from close range to bring the match level. Lazio failed to heed the warning signs and Monza capitalised on well-worked play to find the back of the net.

Recognising their struggles, Lazio made halftime substitutions. They introduced Luca Pellegrini, Matteo Vesino and Felipe Anderson to add more firepower early in the second half. They came closer, regaining the lead when Ciro Mubile narrowly missed a bouncing volley that struck the post.

Monza too however had their chances but the assistance flag denied Andrea Carboni after his attempt to follow the Van Profidel's initial save as the match progressed neither side managed to find the decisive goal and attended a one-on-one draw. So Bro, Lazio's struggles in the league continue. Do you think that this is a game they should be winning? I mean if you look at where Lazio want to be which is better than they were last season it's sort of a good result for them at all.

If you see the way that the games have gone for them before this you'll see that they have taken a significant step back. They've only managed one victory in their opening five matches. It was a victory against Napoli which really tells you something about where these two teams are so far this season.

But when you look at the accumulation of times they haven't been able to get three points and the need for them to get three points you only look at the ones again and think this is a very disappointing result for them. I can't help but feel that Imobile is worsening. I feel like we've said this in the last few episodes as well. He's not quite ticking with his teammates as ideally as he should be and I feel like the time of Castellanios might be looming.

I feel like we might be seeing more of Tati Castellanios up front with Imobile. He keeps performing like this. Granted he had the post, he scored his penalty, he did what he had to do but sometimes he has to offer a little bit more and I feel like Imobile's passing can be a little bit wayward especially in the final three. Last season we saw the best football lotio we're playing was with a false nine with Philipp Andersen up top. Pedro on the right, Zacani on the left.

That's how they had most of their success last season. Now they've got some new pieces. They've got Tati Castellanios, they've got Isaacson. So they have a bit more room to play around and explore over there. They've hung on to players like Pedro that they can also utilise. They brought on in fact in this match. But that striker issue is one that if it persists it could be a proper problem for lotio.

I think the solution is as simple as popping Philipp Andersen up top and switch the play style to one that is more similar to what they played in last season when they had that approach. I loved the way they played with Philipp Andersen as a false nine to be honest. Of course they had growing pains over here with Gwendozian. Isaacson starting two new arrivals. Yeah, Monsarno joke. They're a very tricky team to play against.

They have some talent in there and Galliardini actually managed to get his first goal for them off the mark. He's been playing quite well for them, Brok. He's been playing very well and it's not just the goal that is making me say that, but they lost Ravella last season and Ravella was and they also lost Sensi.

Those were those two players that added this sense of fluidity in the midfield and it helped them be that very offensive team and the team that managed to turn the fence into attack in a number of seconds. They also had Carlos Augusto that was very good at that, but obviously he's put aside in a conversation like this.

Galliardini came in and he is offering Monsar more experience, more pressure-resisted football and he's added that fluidity back and having Pesina to his side to have more of that attacking output and more of that forward passing, I think is a good balance to have in the centre of the pitch for Monsarno. Galliardini getting a goal is naturally going to take things to the next level for him. He is going to be one of them. He'll probably be a bit of an unsung hero this season for them.

Yeah, most likely. How interesting. Ravel actually came in for Lazio in the 76 minutes and that was a gold-elect loading, but it never came. I can't help but feel that he's a little bit of a liability for Lazio as well at times, especially when it comes to playing against wingers who tend to expose his lack of pace quite frankly. Trujillo had his number all game. Trujillo was just knocking it past them and beating him pretty much every time. They could do better in that area.

Hissai and Marusic chose the right back and the left back leaves quite a lot to be desired. Loti et al could definitely invest in that team. There's a team here. They just need a few pieces. Yeah, look, it's 2023 and their options in the wingback department are still Hissai, Marusic and Lazari. And we've been saying that they needed new wingback slots just in Sway before we started the podcast. They should bring back Rado. They should bring back Rado.

Rado's have Luca Pellegrini that featured off the bench. I don't think he was at 100%, but he's a good little left back. Definitely an upgrade from Hissai and even if they want to pop him center back, he's quite powerful over there as well. So the spoils were shared over here. It was pretty much equal in possession. One's a slighting, edging it ever so slightly.

There's actually outshot Lazio 16-8, four of those being on target where Lazio only had one shot on target, which goes to show how much they are actually struggling. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, agreed. The next game we're going to be covering is Udineze nil Fiorentina 2. Now Udineze were coming off a nil nil away draw to Caliari, who has Fiorentina were coming off an impressive 3-2 win against Atalanta and Champions League draw away to Genk with the score of 2-2.

Going into this game, Udineze had won three of their last five matches against Fiorentina. However, they did have injuries. They had Davis injured. They had Delefeu, Ebosse, Ezebue, Cabacele, Masina, Padelli and Vivaldo out of this starting 11th. Yeah, vice Fiorentina had Castrovilli, Gonzalez, Mina and Pierrozi out of this game. Udineze, it's not all just because they're shit, but they do have a significant list of injuries here.

There's a 3-5-2 formation for them, Sylvesterie in goal and a backline of Christensen, Bizol and Perez. A lot of Christensen's. Yeah, quite a few. From one season to the next, we have Quinn Tappel in Christensen's, Christian's, Christovic's and it is the year of Chris. It's the year of fucking Chris. Samar out on the left, Ebosele out on the right, I thought he was injured. No, that's the other 3 that sound exactly like him.

Samar, Zycz, Wallace and Payero were in the midfield with Tuvan and Luka up front. It was a 4-2-3-1 formation for Fiorentina with Terra Ciano on goal and a backline of Dodo, Martinez, Ranieri and Biraghi. They had Lopez and Mandragora as the midfield too with Brecola out on the right, Cuame out on the left and Bonaventura playing behind in Zola. Naturally, when I say Lopez, it's Maxi Lopez making Maxi Lopez. Maxime Lopez. Jesus Christ, I'm all for you.

Maxi Lopez is one of our former lover and father. Exactly, apologies. I apologize, I call these arch nemesis and it's Maxime Lopez who joined from Saasvalo making his first start for the club actually. Now it was a quick start for Odineze in this match but there were two great saves by Terra Ciano, especially the one on Samaricic in the opening moments. Moments later and then Kamara sprinted down the wing in the 20th minute, breaking past Fiorentina's defensive line.

He squared the ball to Luka for a sweaty goal but Terra Ciano got into position well and blocked the finish. However, Luka could have done much better. There's a lot of strikers that when a sweaty opportunity comes, they just say all I need to do is get it on target. A good striker finishes well. Luka just went to hit the target at Terra Ciano being a professional goalkeeper and a very talented one, managed to get back in position well and deny him great save by him nonetheless.

Lorenzo Luka. Robbisch? No, not at all. I think he's so intelligent, I think he's so good at all that play and I think that he's got a bright future. He just needs to work on his finishing and his confidence quite frankly needs to get going. He's only 33 years old, he's massive but he moves very, very intelligently. It's kind of like, you know how you know you have a player when you look at Xerxes, you know his mold, you know what his final form can be.

Luka's final form can be so good, it can be so unique man, he can be that type of striker that knocks the ball down, close ball control, Chicky can still beat his man even though he's like 6'6". He is good and if you look at the way Odineza play, he's actually the one who drifts out wide, feeding the ball to Fouvan who's been extremely wasteful more often than not. Granted Luka missed that empty goal post situation but it was at a bit of a tight angle for him.

He did it again in the 64th minute, missed another sweaty opportunity, this time he had decided as he tried to use his favourite right foot following a square ball by Ebo Sele on the counter attack. That screams a lack of confidence. He definitely needs some proof his finishing and his confidence, he has the attributes and traits to be a very unique striker, you're absolutely right over there, he's not a bad footballer, he's actually very good with the ball at his feet for someone of his size.

You go look up Luka's goals, you'll see some headers with him being 6'8", but you will see a bunch of goals where he finishes well, so hopefully we manage to get that version of him. But in the 32nd minute it was Fiorentina that opened the scoring through Martínez Cuarta, Bonaventura played a lifted long ranged pass from his own half to play through Martínez Cuarta who made the most out of a massive defensive hole by Odinera by attacking the area of the ball.

The ball was accurate by Bonaventura and Cuarta did expertly well to bring the ball down and finish calmly and coolly past Sylvesterie as striker's goal for the centre back who's been on fine form.

Later on Luka missed that second opportunity that I already described and then the 93rd minute Bonaventura turned from provider to goal scorer as Fiorentina countered Odinese, the ball found Jack Bonaventura outside the area who expertly and powerfully curled the ball into the bottom-near corner, very similar goal to Rodri's in the Champions League final as I said in the introduction to this episode.

So good win for Fiorentina to nil away to Odinese, I think one thing that shouldn't be taken for granted is the fact that Fiorentina kept a clean sheet in this match. Now a lot of it was Terraciano had five crucial saves in this match, he had five very very good saves, he's a great goalkeeper. He had a double save at a point on Lovrich and Ebocele and naturally as well the 9th Luka and that opportunity in the night.

On Samard Zittre as well which was a pop-out goal from significant distance but it was also Fiorentina's defensive resilience, they had 16 clearances, 14 interceptions, 25 successful tackles and they also controlled possession quite a bit, they had 53% off ball possession and they were successful in 67% of the aerial duels against a tough Odinese team.

So Odinese really haven't hit the ground running yet but they're a tough opponent for anyone and I feel like Fiorentina managed a very clean victory over here so I think we must highlight their defence. Yeah and their defence is not only solid but turns out the prolific goal scores as well because they have Lucas Martinez part of the scored two league goals, you have Ranieri the other centre but who scored two goals in the European fixed German week. So yeah, jacks of all trades over there.

100% man. Fiorentina only had two shots on target and they both resulted in goals, on the other hand Odinese had 20 shots with eight on target. So again Odinese were all over Fiorentina in this match who put in a very professional performance however, how do you rate Odinese at the moment? Because it's been a tough start for them but I think in this game we did manage to see them bringing the game to their opponents more. So Odinese have had an absolute nightmare so far, so I think this season.

They were about to lose some hard stitch, they weren't sure if he was leaving, everyone was sure he was going to enter and then it fell through and he joined late on in pre-season. Pereira didn't renew his contract, no one wanted to sign him apparently and he ended up renewing after the pre-season was over so the two best players who joined after the pre-season was over. They've got a new striker in Leucan, Fouvan who arrived halfway through the season last year so loads of new faces here.

Their full backs are new apart from Ebocelli who was there last year but wasn't a main feature. So the only staples in this team are Sylvester G, Wallace and Neumann Pears. It's pretty much a new team over here, I look at it on my contract, I recognise it like.

And I do feel like they will get better and they will become harder units to score against especially that's what I feel with Odinese, they'll become tougher to score against, tougher to break down as time passes and I feel like they'll start forcing a few draws. Do I think that these guys are potential relegation candidates? No, not at all. I don't think so, I think they've got far too much quality in their team. This is, we always have a conversation about that.

I'm not even sure it's about the quality as it is just the solidity of the team. You know what I mean? The fact that it's quite a well-oiled system when it gets going. We've seen what Sotil can do with the 352 formation and I feel like once he gets to know his personnel a bit more, he gets them up to par when it comes to fitness, I feel like there'll be a unit and once Luka gets a bit more comfortable in his role, I feel like he can cause some problems.

Well they definitely need to gel more and we do need to give them some more time to gel. It's just concerning seeing the way they started last season versus the way they started this season. It has really shown a significant decline in Odinese. I'm not a massive fan of how the club is run at all but if they are one thing then it's an absolute pain in the ass to play against. I think Fiorentina have had a very strong start this season. I think two seasons ago they had a brilliant season.

Last season three finals but they started off very very slow and now this season I think it's time to prove what they can do in the league, in Serie A how far can they go. Can they get Euro up a league just from overperforming in the league? Could they cement themselves as one of the seven sisters in the league? They're definitely the dis trajectory heading into that direction. Yeah, it's between them and Atalanta for that last spot and both teams have their ups and downs. Yeah, 100%.

But that's enough from me about this game so we could move on to yours. The next game I've got is Atalanta, the other seven sister, to Kaljari Nill, Atalanta secured a 2-0 victory over the struggling Kaljari side making it five successive home victories for the first time since May 2021. For Atalanta it was a 3-4-3 formation with Juan Musson, Goulsc, Calvini, Jim City and Colastinac at the back. Zappa Costa was out on the right. Rue Gery was out on the left, still displacing Bucke at the moment.

Ederson and Martin de Rune were in the middle with tuned Coupe miners out on the right, Lukman on the left and Decay Talare up front. At least this is the formation that I can see in front of me. Of course that front retake it with a pinch of salt. I believe Coupe miners in reality was playing in a pocket behind Lukman and Decay Talare. 100%. I think it's a 3-4-1-2 formation. For Kaljari it was a 3-5-2 formation with Radunovic at the back, Oberth Dossena and Chatzidiacos at the back.

Nandes was out on the right, Adzi was out on the left, Deola, Makumbu and Sulemana were in the middle. Zito Lvoomba was up front with Eldor Shumurdov. The game began with a risky pass from Martin de Rune inside the first 30 seconds setting off an early tone. At the Mola Lukmans cross caused chaos in Kaljari's box and Charles Decay Talare's effort forced to save from former Atalanta goalkeeper Boris Radunovic.

Kaljari, despite their lowly position in the standings, had the best moments in their performance overall. One of the best opportunities saw Zito Lvoomba, who else, sending in an inviting cross that was headed wide by Eldor Shumurdov, a chance that would have given them the lead. And the Mola Lukmans was a constant threat for Atalanta, striking the crossbar with some brilliant fans after receiving an excellent pass from Tiu and Koopminers.

In the same move Davide Zappacoste hid the outside of the left hand post, Atalanta eventually broke the deadlock in the 30th minute when Koopminers released Decay Talare, who squared it for Lukmans to prod home from close range. As the second half began, Kaljari made a positive start, but clear cut chances were scarce for both teams.

Atalanta made substitutions, including Emil Holm and Mario Pasalic, and it was Pasalic who sealed the victory, steering it off the post from a Luis Muriel, precise through ball. Kaljari came closer, due to the deficit when Geitano Ostriano struck the bar with a close range shot late in the game, but that was it in the end. Kaljari, bro, what's your stance on Kaljari right now? Cause this was quite convincing by Atalanta, wasn't it?

Yeah, it was a great performance by Atalanta, I think they were simply a bit too good for Kaljari. Look, when it comes to what I think of Kaljari right now, they look like a team that just got promoted, is how they look right now, which is exactly what they are. They are not easy to play against, they're quite unorthodox and they're capable of getting points.

What they do have that I'm very pleased by is quite a strong team with Lovumbo and Shumoradov up front and then players like Petania and Oristiano on the bench. Nathan Nandes as well as Veil. Nathan Nandes out on the right, of course they have Viola on the bench and they have Augello that can play as a left wing back, that isn't getting as many minutes as I thought he would be.

No, I think they're a good team, I just think they have their limitations and I think they'll grow into the season and they'll get a little bit better, I don't think we've seen their final form yet. Yeah, for sure, they're that type of team that can sit back, absorb and then hit you on the break, right? They have that Lovumbo that is a counter attacking weapon. They are another one that you bring up every year. Oh every episode, man, Shumoradov, Lovumbo and Nandes can counter attack very well.

I'm also intrigued by Sulemana, I'm not sure if it's positive yet or negative so far, I think it's more towards negative but the way he plays football intrigues me. He has a very unorthodox way of… Not even moving, it's the way, yes, I guess moving, it's the way he shimmies with the ball, he stutters every time he gets it. It's like he's constantly mini-fainting. I'm going to get you. Look at that.

Very interesting but I think overall he leaves quite a bit to be desired other than his little movement. But Atalanta's solid as ever, they don't let their injuries get to them. Apparently Skamaka and El Bilal Ture injured up front for them Zapata gone and they've got a washed up Muriel on the bench who came on and got an assist. Decay Talaria flopped from Ilan last season who's been revitalised.

Look him in a Premier League flop who's been carrying them on his shoulders over there, Coop Miners, a guy no one had ever heard of. What the… Unless you're an AZ fan. How I love Atalanta. They're amazing. You've got people like Mourinho who if they get an injury prone player or a flop he's like you think he'll be here if he was good and then it's Atalanta signing places and Gazprins like trust me, they're good. Believe me, they're good, you'll see how good they are. And that's the difference.

It's a factory. Yeah, exactly. A factory of talent. Decay Talaria I'm very positively impressed by in the sense that he's playing as a striker in this case he was playing alongside Adam Ola-Lukman and he just went in and he's fitting their system very well and it's his nifty footwork and his intelligent movement that is catching my eye and also his vision. He's quite smart. He knows what's going on around him.

And he's also obviously surrounded by intelligent players that know where to be and when to be there. But the fact that like you said, Scamacca injured, El Bilal Touré injured, Mouriel on the bench and they lost to Fanzapata. No worries, Lukman Decay Talaria. You know what I mean? We're not fazed by this. Lukman Decay Talaria. It's true. It's absolutely astonishing to be honest and they keep managing to do this. For Atalanta it's five successive home victories. It's an impressive run for them.

For Caliari they still have not found their first victory. Will it come? I believe it will and I believe it will come sooner rather than later. Yeah. I just hope they don't become that team that's just a pain in the ass. You know what I mean? But they can't get any points because it's always hard to wave goodbye to those.

The next game we're going to be covering is the penultimate game and it's Lecce 1 Genoa Nill, Lecce were coming off a 1-1 draw away to Monza, whereas Genoa were coming off a 2-2 home draw to Napoli. Coming into this game, Lecce had only won one of their last 14 Serie A matches against Genoa, now two in 15. Lecce had Banda out injured alongside Castriot de Armaquo as Basquerotto was suspended for this match, whereas Genoa still had Messias injured alongside Voliacco.

Or Voliacco as I say in every episode. It was a 4-3-3 formation for Lecce with Falcone and Goul and the back line of Gallo, Tuba, Pongracic and Gendry. They had Raffia, Ramadani and Kaba in the middle with Srefetza, Kristovic and Iamgvist up front. Sorry you could hear me get giggly but Tuba literally means an idiot in the multi. This is the best way to call someone an idiot in multi.

It was a 4-4-2 formation here for Genoa with Martinez in goal and a back line of the Winter, Bonny, Dragosin and Martin, that's Sabelli, Stuttman, Baddell and Frendrup in the midfield with Retegui and Albert Gudminsen up front. In the 20th minute, Kristovic almost opened the scoring when his header flashed just over the crossbar following Agallo cross and the 36th minute, Martin got sent off for his second yellow after a tripping Almecvist down the wing.

In the 61st minute, Kristovic almost backed himself an overhead kick after setting it up well for himself but the ball flashed just wide. There I say he set it up for himself and himself only. But yeah, obviously just really trying to get a winning goal over here following the red card in the 36th minute by Genoa. Finally in the 83rd minute it happened for them. Oudon unleashed a powerful strike from distance, they had been shooting from distance for an entire second half.

He unleashed a powerful strike from distance which took a deflection off of Frendrup before heading into the near corner. It could have been a contender for goal of the week had it not been for the deflection. Lecce are third. That's it. That's it. Lecce are third. Full stop. They are one of two teams that are undefeated this season. It is them and Inter. So massive congratulations to Lecce and Roberto da Versa.

They have secured their third consecutive home win in Serie A and they are currently in third place and let me tell you what, it might just be a great start but what a start it is and they look like a proper fucking football team. They look really really strong Lecce. They do and they're building off the foundation of last season. Everyone thought that they had just sold their best pieces and they were ready for the drop.

I can't help but feel that we didn't see the best of Genoa of course because of Aaron Martin's ridiculously early double yellow. We got the yellow on the ninth and then double yellow on the 36th. I do think Genoa could have actually given them a tough time this game and Lecce did actually struggle to crack open this Genoa side even though they had 10 minutes, took a long range strike from Udin after quite a lot of poking and trying and trying and trying.

Genoa saw the team, didn't really get a good sample of them from this game but Lecce as always man, wow they just look so street smart and so ready to do the right thing. If there's something that needs to be done, okay there's a red card, we need to attack them, we need to dominate, we need to push, they'll do it. If it's like okay they're much better than us, we need to hold back, we need to contain them, we get them on the break, they do it to perfection.

Roberto de Versa right now has put together a team that is fluid, that's adaptable, that's brave, that's talented, amazing work by de Versa. 100% man and I think they, what Lecce did is they started very strong in this game. As they did this season but in this game, they really took the game to Genoa in the opening 30 minutes.

Now they were the best team in the opening 30 minutes and the amount of pressure they were putting on Genoa, one of their players ended up getting a W yellow card in the opening 35 minutes of the match. Following that some might say the game might be a bit more difficult after that because okay Genoa are gonna go down by one man, sure but every single one of their men is gonna try to make sure that Genoa get a point and that Genoa aren't gonna concede a single goal.

So they defended, defended, defended and if you do that against a top team, the top team might struggle to score.

The fact that Lecce still, it's not that Lecce struggled to find a goal even though even though Genoa went down to 10 men but it's the fact that Lecce still managed to find a goal when Genoa were piling all those men back and Genoa, they were resilient still despite being a man down, it's not like they were just defending, they also created some goal scoring opportunities despite being a man down.

They managed eight shots albeit one of them only on target but they had a lot of counter attacking prowess with Goodman's and especially man, Goodman's in so good. And Christovic man continues to impress me because he continues to force attempts that I didn't think were part of his skill set. So every week he shows me something new and every week I'm like damn he's even better than I thought. Like the question is when will this end, you know, when will I be like okay that's his limit.

I'm 23 years old and he's looking good. He is looking good man, he looks like a dangerous man in that box. He does. Genoa made some tactical adjustments at half time switching to a three man defence. So that was another adjustment that they made to their game. Let's later on when they couldn't find a goal, Daversa introduced Dorgo and Udon and they altered the formation to a 4-2-3-1.

Alamkivist continued to be a threat throughout that period and let's press Genoa deep into their own half for the majority of the game. I mean I think that describes the game perfectly and I think we're happy to move on to the next one now. Is this the last one? Yes, it's the last one. Salernetana won, Frazzinone won. The last one is a banger, quite frankly. A thrilling encounter between two teams who are tougher than most people think. Let's just jump straight to the lineups for Salernetana.

It was a 3-4-2-1 formation with Guillermo Ochoa and goal Matteo Lovato, Norbert Ghiomber and Lorenzo Pirola at the back. Don't know why I'm saying full names, gonna go back to surnames only. Matsuki was out on the right, Brotherage out on the left with Martegania Maggiore in the middle, Castanoss and Canjeva playing behind Jovan Cabral. Frazzinone was their 4-3-3 formation. Fun fact they have an average age of 24.6 years which I believe is one of the youngest starting 11s of this matchday.

Tarati, the ever impressive Tarati, was in goal with Marquitza out on the left, Ollono out on the right and Romaniole and Ocuali in the middle. Resciani made his debut with Berencea and Mazzatelli playing alongside him, Caso was out on the left, Zule out on the right and Wally the Kedira up front. This was one of those Friday night and I'm feeling alright kind of games huh? Oh yeah man I love these games on a Friday night.

The end of the week of work you get home, you put on some bottom tier series of football, that shit slaps if it's different. Yes Salernetana were determined to bounce back from two consecutive defeats as they faced off against a formidable Fossinonaside who were unbeaten in their last 11 away matches. The passionate home crowd at the Stadiorecci eagerly awaited their response from their team as they got it with some scintillating attacking play.

Salernetana's new acquisition Augustin Martagani orchestrated their attacks and their early efforts came close to bearing fruit when Jovan Cabral struck the crossbar from a tight angle. This marked Cabral's third successive match in which he hit the woodwork. The guy tries and tries and tries and gets close and close and close but finally he got his goal later on this game however. But this Martagani guy looks very good as well, he looks interesting, very nifty with the ball.

However it was the Serie A bell champions Fossinone who stand the home crowd scoring against the run of place. Simone Romaniolli rose above everyone else in the box to redirect to Cardo Marquizzas excellent delivery into the net market so it also had a great start. Momentum shifted after the goal with Giuseppe Casuz disallowed the goal for offside and the brilliant save by Ochoa Denaencadira's close range header.

If you are one of the Ochoa deniers, one of the Ochoa haters to say that his reflexes have actually plummeted, check out this save. Watch him every now and then. Apparently he's not that famous in Mexico. What the hell? It was Aden's wife told us. Ah and I heard it again recently. Apparently he's not very liked in Mexico, I think he deserves a statue over there. I wouldn't take the portion that we've heard it from as an example.

But here you get a good idea man, once I was speaking to a Swiss student that we had at work and he mentioned something about it. Football came up in conversation and back then Milan had Ricardo Rodriguez and I mentioned him and he was like, ah Ricardo Rodriguez, he's a piece of shit. I'm like what really? And ever since then I've always asked those people about Ricardo Rodriguez, not many like him. I don't know why. Okay. Very interesting. Maybe it's the same thing with Ochoa.

So many World Cups for Mexico and had so many heroic performances. I think the Mexicans are crazy about football. It's the equivalent of like a Brazilian or a Palette never rated me. Exactly. Micromepsut, who? Who man? Only two goals against Manchester United, shout out Mike. Tempers flared towards the end of the first half, setting up the save for a fiery second half.

Salernitana led by manager Paolo Sousa came out aggressively and found an equalizer as Cabral capitalized on Antonio Canjeva's corner to sweep the ball past Stefano Turatti in the Frostinone goal. A good goal over there, well deserved for Jován Cabral. You can see how much it meant to him. He went absolutely mental.

Despite Salernitana's intent in the closing minutes, they couldn't complete their comeback and will now look to end the streak of conceding first when they face bottom place, simply in their next fixture. Let's hope Empoli don't score before Salernitana or they're definitely doomed. Frostinone on the other hand will be content with a point having extended their unbeaten run to four games with their only loss of the season coming against training champions Napoli.

Yeah, I thought they were going to get away with a victory over here man. But the thing is after they scored they just keep playing their football don't they Frostinone? They like that. They like the quick passing around. They like attacking. They like dragging players upfield. And that did help Salernitana get back into the game. I don't feel like they dropped back. It's a weird thing because they'll be dominating the game by playing this fluid offensive brand of football.

And then they're like if we change anything after we score it might impact us negatively. So they keep using the same technique to dominate the game. But when Salernitana are a goal down and you've given them an inch of space they smell blood, especially with players like Kandreva who are so experienced who have incredible accuracy and direct style of play. And they've got brother Rich and Madzuki down the flank. Players like Castanoss and Cabral.

So it's tough to play that style and maintain a one-lead against Salernitana. Yeah definitely. Salernitana actually had six shots on target over here. He looked at Tarrati. He had five saves. What a game he had man. Tarrati. What a game. Other than that when it comes to the possession stats of the game, very even. It felt like there was some underlying resentment from these teams towards each other. It felt like a derby.

This game I don't know if it's because they're both kind of relegation candidates or it's because they have a history in the lower leagues. But they absolutely seemed to despise each other. It's true we did have a very rough feel about this game. It felt like there wasn't one single mother fucker on the pitch that didn't give their 100% in this game. It was one of those man. It was like a Serie A bird playoff final. But I must say I made a point in the first half.

Frazzinone looked like the Serie A team and Salernitana looked like the Serie A bird team. But things changed obviously after Salernitana had their team talk and managed to get a goal. Frazzinone managed to acquire a few talented players this season. Like Bre Sianini from Milan, Berence, Anzule from Juve, Marquitsa from Sassuolo.

These are the signings you make if you want to survive and say you need players who know the league, the environment, players who understand the way certain teams operate. Again, we go back to that Venetius side. We always talk about too many foreign players. Then this isn't like a right wing run because they don't have the experience needed to survive.

Exactly. But I think Frazzinone, look man, I can't help but say that they are the best out of the newly promoted team and with the way they're playing football, I don't see them being relegation candidates. Can they get figured out? They can absolutely get figured out. But if they get figured out in January, they would have accumulated enough points until then. What the MPOLI have done the past two seasons, think of what Lecce did last season, think of what Odinese did last season as well.

We could be seeing something similar with Frazzinone. Even Salih and Netana did the reverse. They did the reverse thing. They didn't win a single game in the first half of the season and they won, they got a few points in the second part. Exactly. Yes, we'll see. It might be enough. But basically what I'm understanding bro, if I'm getting the thread correct me or if I'm wrong is... Look at us, we put Lecce and Frazzinone in our bottom two or at least I put them both in mine.

One of them are third and the other ones are eighth. No, that's really good. No, that's only five days in. Our reaction, I know. It's just, you know, we have a podcast and we're gonna talk about it. That's kind of a comment made by Matt. Welcome back to our question segment where you can drop your questions on our TikTok, our Twitter or our Instagram and we'll be responding to them. You can even drop them off in the YouTube comment section or in the Spotify comments as well.

Wherever guys, we see everything. We see everything. Steve, our friend Steve Collero says, imagine having a gutty and a tech in your Fanta this week. Gutty and tech. The tech is Vojtec. Ah. Yeah. Yeah. I had, I had Shesney and Martin with the red card. So zero on the 2.5. Two men got me a 2.5 and they meant to average the six. Steve, you know what's worse than having them on Fanta? Having them in your team. Jokes, jokes. They're both good. They both had a shit show, man.

I'm also going to read out a comment sent to us by David about Berardi. He says, boys, can I just say how good is Berardi? Truly. He's a freak. Create space, the right option and the perfect weight of pass. And I do mean every time. Just huge IQ, strong on the ball, acceleration and lethal when he gets a look at goal. Is there a better player in his position in Italy? This lad could play anywhere on earth. I watched Saswolo versus Juvent. He just battered them on his own.

I'm not sure it was legal. I was frankly in a massive state of arousal the whole time. Magic, hopeful as well. That's just a door your work. What a legend. I love David. He has the best messages. If your messages aren't anything like David's, we're going to like you as much as we like David. The kind of messages are so entertaining, man. And we just entertain it, obviously. Sitting down watching football and we hit them back. Of course. I love how eloquently he phrases everything.

It's beautiful. Amen. No, I agree with David wholeheartedly. Can he play for any team in the universe or whatever? Maybe not. But in Italy he's definitely the best right winger. And actually there are some other players that can play on the right wing like Chiesa so on and so forth. But as a consistent right winger, Berardi's been the best for the past three, four years, I would say. Yeah, yeah. He's definitely been top tier for a while in Italy. And we discussed this earlier on. He's super.

He could be the star man of a top team in Italy. That's how good he is. He could be the star man of Juve. He could be the star man of Inter, of Milan, of everyone. Maybe okay granted, he won't do it on the international stage, but in mobile. He didn't do it on the international stage. He was useful. He was for lots. He was a legend. He was leaving those scores of the league. Our next question comes from Francois. Who's better, the Versa's lecture or Pep's Barça or Saki's Milan?

I think it's an obvious one. Yes. The Versa's lecture. First, Saki's Milan. Second, Guardiola's Barça third. Exactly. There we go. And the last question we're going to read out quickly is do you have to wash your mouth with soap after saying things like Milan or is blue and Juve is a beautiful club. Thank you, Lena, our patron. Yes, we do. We do every single time. Milan is titted with I. But yes, thank you very much, guys, for joining us for yet another episode. I will see you very, very soon.