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Serie A Match Week #13 Review & Match Week #14 Preview (Episode #34)
41 Plays4 months ago
In this week’s episode of Calcio Culture, Vos, Motts, and Logs bring you an in-depth look at the latest storylines from Serie A, European competitions, and the ever-evolving world of Italian football. The episode kicks off with some quick updates, including Javier Mascherano’s surprise appointment as Inter Miami manager and rumors of Alessandro Del Piero eyeing the FIGC presidency. Christian Pulisic makes headlines again, surpassing Eden Hazard’s Champions League goal tally. Plus, a special shoutout to IFTV, Destination Calcio and Classic Football Shirts.
The hosts then dive into a heated breakdown of Serie A Match Week 13. The dull 0-0 draw between Juventus and Milan left fans frustrated, with Fonseca’s conservative tactics and shocking post-match comments sparking debate. Lazio impressed with a dominant 3-0 win over Bologna, aided by Pobega’s reckless red card. Meanwhile, Inter demolished Verona 5-0, turning their defenders into goal-scoring machines under Inzaghi, raising the question of whether Verona is Serie A’s new punching bag. Atalanta’s gritty victory over Parma featured a shock return from Scalvini after an ACL injury, though Gasperini’s red card could hurt their chances in key upcoming matches. Elsewhere, Fiorentina earned an efficient win over Como, Roma suffered a another defeat against Napoli, and Lecce’s controversial victory over Venezia added to the drama.
Shifting gears, the hosts break down the latest European competition action. Milan scraped out a 3-2 win against Slovan Bratislava, while Inter’s machine-like dominance in Europe continued with a victory over RB Leipzig. Atalanta stole the show with a stunning 6-1 win led by Charles De Ketelaere. Previews for Europa and Conference League fixtures highlight Lazio, Roma, and Fiorentina as they prepare for key matchups in their campaigns.
Finally, the hosts look ahead to Match Week 14, previewing Inter’s trip to Fiorentina, Milan’s visit to Empoli, and Atalanta’s clash with Roma. The hosts then deliver their Culpi di Luna with bold predictions. Don’t miss the tactical analysis, fiery debates, and bold takes that make Calcio Culture the go-to podcast for Italian football fans. Join the conversation on X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @calcioculturefc for even more insights, banter, and Culpi picks!
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Transcript
00:00:06
Speaker
Buonanote, everybody. Welcome back to Calcho Culture. These days, we are flying high. I think everybody's in a good mood. As we're checking in here, it is Tuesday, November 26th. We had a lot of soccer this weekend, a lot of soccer this week. But as always, you got youre one of your hosts here, Vos, and I'm joined by both my co-hosts. We got Logs and Mott's on the horn. Been a couple of weeks for Mott's, but Mott's, how are you doing, buddy?
00:00:31
Speaker
We are back. We're doing great. we cut lot of i've done I've been very busy. Cut my hair. We are back to the short hair since I've last got on here. I had long hair. I still have the man bun. That's gone. And I wanted to let the Paisanos know I've been doing a lot of Black Friday shopping pre-Black Friday. So we're feeling good. We're getting a new wardrobe. where where You can't save money without spending money. And so we've been we've been saving money.
00:01:01
Speaker
by spending money. Yeah, well, you know, like you want a shirt and that shirt is pre Black Friday is 40 bucks and then it's 40% off. You have now saved the 40% off by spending it when it's cheaper.
00:01:18
Speaker
I think what Matz is trying to say is you got to spend money to make money. That's that's the goal here, Paisones. And spend money save money. You could be back with Bull House here. ah We got a great episode ready for you. Ton of footy, ton of footy, and a ton of great notes if you're about that life.
00:01:38
Speaker
Yeah, a ton of great things, but to bring you through what we're doing today, guys, we're talking match week number 13, which happened this past weekend. We got some European competitions, some Champions League games happen today, but we're going to be talking about those. We're going to talk about Europa League, Conference League, and then we're going to round it out talking about match week number 14, which is this coming weekend. But before all that, Lowe's has to lead us off with quick shots. But before we even get into quick shots, there's a massive announcement I have to make.
00:02:08
Speaker
and that's that we've hit ah kopi dionna we have officially hit but long oh na but ah on but where you'd be able to get the pie zone's money. Yeah, I was sweating out today. I felt loads of legs with something else, so I mean, both legs would have hit to be fair. But we hit plus 5.99, And took us 13 match weeks. I think this is a little bit that's of a snowball thing. We'll that we've hit one, and hit a Colby Deluna. then we're going to start hitting them more consistently. We have officially hit- We're hot. We have to get the monkey off our neck. Don't let the boys get hot. Don't let them get hot. Yeah, sure. Listen, if you think about it with using the couch show's serial logic,
00:02:49
Speaker
The season didn't start till the 10th game, so it only took us three games to hit a cold beat, right? So now, like, things are gonna go to back to normal, it's getting more predictable, and it it took us three games. We out here, dude. Yeah. Don't let us get hot. Don't let us get hot. I think it is getting a little bit easier.
00:03:10
Speaker
I have to say, like i the match for each end thing does have a little bit of pull now, because I looked at the, mind making my Colby pick this week, and there's a lot that I felt good about. And it was just kind of picking one that I felt good about. I hit a lot of serial events this weekend, I will say. I hit all of them. Didn't share a single one of them.
00:03:27
Speaker
I could tell you who didn't and I missed last episode and I just want to give both a nice little shout out. He did let everybody know that I was going to put $100 on Juventus like I always do. Obviously, I did it again. Obviously, they tied and lost it all. So we're going to try to no longer do the $100 bets because they are hurting the old wallet. Well, that was our first big announcement. And now we got actual court shots, which is Lowe's Department.
00:03:56
Speaker
Paisons, a couple quick shouts for you, very short segment this week, but we have a couple of quick hits. Number one, to the team that I am a season ticket holder of, and unfortunately the season's over, we could not be Atalanta, not Atalanta, I'm a full Paison these days. Atalanta, to Atalanta, yeah, and Bergamot. Yeah, since when? Yeah, I love it, I love Bergamot.
00:04:21
Speaker
ah But no, Intermianni didn't really sack. I guess they came to a ah mutual conclusion that Tata Martinez was not going to be the coach next year. So they went with the obvious answer and bringing in the next stalwart of Barcelona B team. Javier Mascherano will be taking the helm of Inter Miami next year. Obviously a Barcelona legend, another Argentinian legend, just for Lionel Messi to have a little retirement party for himself down in Miami. That will be interesting to me.
00:04:55
Speaker
When you said they decided, you mean like Jordi Alva, Massey Suarez, Busquets got in a room and decided to fire the coach and I are the new, not like the front officer or anything like that, right? No, literally, it was probably just Massey just telling, he was just like, hey guys, I'm going to probably tell everyone to fire this guy and Jordi Alva was like, yeah dude, whatever you want. And then the surgery was scheduled, I was like, yeah dude, come on, that's fine. So talk to Javier Mascherano in Very interesting for the MLS next year. Hopefully the, what do they call them? It's not the president's trophy. They call them something out there. In any case, hopefully they fucking win next year. They won, they had the most points of the season, a record. They beat New England Revolution. Hopefully next year they actually win the championship. Moving on. Another legend in, not in the making. He's kind of, he's already a legend.
00:05:48
Speaker
Ford on conclusion, I'm just not in your debate. Del Piero is the new president for the Italian Football Federation or the equivalent of the FITC. No, no, no, no. Terrible question. No, no, no. He's not the new president. He is considering being a candidate to then be voted on to get elected. I'm just like saying I did not read the notes for the quick shouts today. This was not mine. He is in the running.
00:06:18
Speaker
He's a candidate for the running for the president of the F.I.G.C. Apologies, paisins. I'm out here trying to spread fake news. But Del Piero confirmed a legend, not confirmed the president of the Italian football club just yet. That was there. anybody else i know there anybody else I don't think you should ever be allowed to introduce Del Piero on the show again. He's obviously a legend. ah He's very yet that I've met him before. So you mean working? I did. I was zoomed.
00:06:48
Speaker
The Del Piero. It was a Zoom where Del Piero couldn't see anybody that was in, there was 3,000 people there. Who was to say? Never a matter. You're on a zero with that one term. It's still my point. I'm going to re-emphasize what Matt said there. That entire delivery by you was terrible from start to finish. I can't believe you just questioned whether or not Del Piero is a legend. Yeah. was That's on me. that's how me it was It was a very bad bab presentation.
00:07:17
Speaker
He would. present and just for In terms of like him in this position, he is just a legend in and of himself. Everywhere he goes, he wins. Everywhere he's been, he's won. he right World Cup, Champions League, Sudetto. So I do think that he would be good for this position.
00:07:36
Speaker
any type of more modern approach to Italian international soccer. And just all the ah all of couch show is beneficial. And I think they'll be able to bring that. So hopefully he does win this and becomes that. But we'll see what happens.
00:07:53
Speaker
The other thing I like about this is Del Pero is really involved with the media. Like he's on CBS, I'm assuming he's on other stations around the world, but he's he's really plugged into what modern modernizing the game is about. In Italy as a whole has been largely behind the curve on that. So I think he is going to bring some more maybe modernism to how they want to play, but also modernism to how they're going to spread Calcio across the globe, which is what we're we're all here for. Even when it comes to youth development and maybe getting more of those 17, 18 year-olders in Syria, rather than having them play in Syria B and Syria G. So I agree with you both. I think he would do wonders for Calcio in terms of growing it in different
00:08:42
Speaker
nations in terms of growing it for younger players and just everything in between. Hopefully gets appointed. Hopefully gets officially voted in as I kind of just fork a a a little foreshadowing my me there. Logan's calling a shot. I am calling my shot. Well, Colby action, bet on that. What's the odds? Plus 200, the bound. Movie. Little fun fact for you guys today to for our last official quick show before the finale.
00:09:11
Speaker
Christian Pulisic, the hottest man alive on the base of this planet, has officially solidified himself as a higher goal scorer than a questionable legend, not not a full legend, but Eden Hazard has not scored more UCL goals than Christian Pulisic to this point, Christian with 11 and with 10. Now, when you think about Christian Pulisic, the thing that I want to say here is,
00:09:39
Speaker
You do not put him in the same conversation as Hazard, not in one bit. But he has now outscored him. he's probably He's probably got at least five more years. We'll call it three more seasons in UCL, depending on how AC does this season. I mean, that's that's pretty big numbers, of especially for an American. I mean, you'll love to see that.
00:10:01
Speaker
I don't want to caveat it with foreign American anymore. like Americans play for massive clubs now. It's just, are you good or are you not good at this point? And this is kind of a funny stat. I don't know. that like This is the stat he scored all an end hazard. But i will i what I will caveat this with is Ed and Hazard did not play a lot of games, like in Rare, period.
00:10:25
Speaker
i was gonna say i I don't know the numbers behind this, but I'm assuming he did not play all that many Champions League games. He very rarely played for a long time.
00:10:38
Speaker
ah in terms of like playing full seasons. So ah I don't really know where this falls on. This is really like pull a sichang your hat on you. to Good. Good. Good for him. 11 goals. That's good. Right. But I was going to echo what Bo said. Hazard is an enigma in that he was one of the best players we were watching when we were growing up. But like, if you look at his stats,
00:11:04
Speaker
They're actually not that good. They're like pretty mediocre. They're obviously good, but they're not like what you would expect a guy like hazards to be. So I don't think it's that crazy that he's passing it. It's great that he's got 11. He's going to get more. Very good. But.
00:11:21
Speaker
Hazard just like for some reason, he like doesn't have those stats, but he's won all he's won everything. So good for Christian. I hope he scores more, but Hazard's nothing impressive in terms of like the statistics because they're not really there. um But i'm I'm assuming more to come for Christian. I would say even more than five years, Loges. I don't know, how old is he?
00:11:42
Speaker
It's 26 now? Yeah, it's 26. Yeah, he's got to lose a couple of years. So shout out to him. Love that from an AC Milan player. It's a little bright spot that we have this season. Unfortunately, we'll get into that. But into the last quick shout, and this should be the longest shout you probably, you guys have probably ever heard. Shout out to our own Caucho Mats.
00:12:05
Speaker
Putting in that weekend work, he went out there, marketed the pod, he was at IFTVs, a vent at the soccer t-shirt shop in the Lower East Side ah for their watch along for you, they AC Milan. He spoke to a couple of the ITV guys, great pod. He got interviewed by a couple of newspaper writers. So um it's a great job, way to market. it How was that event?
00:12:30
Speaker
Appreciate the shout out, Logs. But yes, it was a fun event. I got there. I saw IFTV was promoting it and the the store is called Classic Football Shirts or something like that. And I saw that they were marketing it for a watch-along of UVA Milan. I was like, yeah, I can go to that. It's pretty close to my apartment. I live in the city. Why not?
00:12:50
Speaker
The door is open at 11. I'm a grinder showed up 1030 in the morning. First one there sitting out there ah looking through the windows. It was pretty packed house inside already. And um by the time 11 rolled around, there's probably 10 people.
00:13:08
Speaker
that were outside waiting before the doors opened with me. And then the doors opened at 11, I walked right in, IFTV was doing a promotion where if you walked up to Mike who's on their show and you said the word or the name Cassano to him, you would get a free jersey from IFTV. Or walked right up to him, I said Cassano, he said, oh wow, you get the jersey? I said, hey man, you can give the jersey to somebody else.
00:13:32
Speaker
You can give the jersey something else. All I want is for you guys to shout out Calcho Culture on your podcast, because I know you guys have a lot of listeners. He did do that. Unfortunately, we did not get a tag, but he did shout me out. He he did say my name with an accent. He said, Marino, which I thought was kind of funny. But he did give Calcho Culture a shout out, which we do appreciate. He also, nicely enough, said, I'll still give you the jersey and give you the shout out. ah So I am getting that as well.
00:14:00
Speaker
And then what Jersey go it's like their eye of TV Jersey. Oh Those are sick by the way. Yeah, it's like the white one And so then after that it was obviously an hour and a half to kill until the game So I was looking around at the jerseys. They had really sick Jersey at classic Jersey at Syria jerseys and They had Premier League jerseys, they had international jerseys, goalie jerseys, they had jackets, they had really anything you wanted. And then there was FIFA there. I almost played through it, but I was like, nah, let me mingle with people. And then there was a TV to watch the game and there was food. It was just an all in all pretty good event. I think it could have been done a little bit better. They had giveaways and stuff, but it was a good event overall. And I was sitting kind of just standing there on my own after I was done mingling and promoting Caledcho culture to everybody.
00:14:49
Speaker
And some um Syria worker just came up to me and was like, Hey man, can I interview you? And I was like, yeah, feel free. And so my interview ended up on destination couch show is the website.
00:15:03
Speaker
Just kind of told them that I've been a UVA fan for however long, since 2010, promoted cultural culture, and that I think Syria was the best league in the world and all that stuff. It was good. there was the The president of the Syrian North America was there. I met him, talked to him for a little bit.
00:15:25
Speaker
So it was just a cool event. I got my name out there. I got the cultural culture name out there. I would appreciate IFTV giving a shout out. It was all in all a success. And I'll probably stop in every now and then to that store just to try to continue to promote culture culture and do watch alongs and things like that.
00:15:43
Speaker
Mots are great spokesman for the pod and for sphere. Hopefully I can get some steam out of this because it was very nice that they did shout us out and that they shouted us out in the article. I was a little bit surprised, which is nice. so Good work. I wish I could like post the article somewhere. It's not like post like like they didn't post it on LinkedIn or not LinkedIn on Instagram. You have to go to the website to then post it. So it's just where it makes sense.
00:16:09
Speaker
But in terms of the YouTube shout out, I mean, they did they shouted us out at the end of their podcast, which at least they gave us a shout out. And I know that we've gotten, I think, seven subscribers so far from it. So, I mean, it's pretty good at considering I think that's the most we've ever gotten in like an hour, two hour span. So hopefully more to come. But.
00:16:29
Speaker
cultural culture is getting out there. We're doing what we can on our end to promote us, grow our community. Uh, and that was a fun event that I was able to kind of represent and get the name out there. Sweet. Well done mods. Really good job. And with that, we're going to take a quick break guys. And then we're going to get into match week 13.
00:16:50
Speaker
All right, guys, we're back from the break to talk match week 13. And I have to say and this was the first match week where it was a little bit more business as usual for most of the serial teams. I think you therere war were there any really surprising results. I'd probably say no.
00:17:07
Speaker
let My tray a little bit, yeah. Little knock time. Yeah, I was wrong. Apparently it wasn't surprising. like Yeah, but so the the alleged game of the weekend, we'll have to talk about that first. um You vent this at Milan on paper. This is going to be a heavyweight bout. It did not turn into that. This was nil, nil in worst game of the season, I would say so far. Period. they This was a very bad game. It was difficult to watch.
00:17:36
Speaker
There was probably nothing enjoyable about it. I found nothing enjoyable about it. This type of game, i me and Loges watched the second half together. I watched the first half with one of my roommates who likes soccer, doesn't love it, will watch it when i I'm there. And then two of my other friends, same thing. This type of game, to make them never want to do that, never want to watch a game 100% especially when it when do you hear the name Juventus and Milan in there that's not a game that you want like a lower lower or a new level soccer fan to start off on because they're just gonna get a bad taste of nothing back I fucking hate those two teams because it was terrible I I said this to Paolo yesterday my office shout out Paolo also an AC Milan fan straight out of Italy
00:18:28
Speaker
This is like your flagship game for Syria to try to grow the game globally. And for that to be the output is absolutely devastating. Not only from just from a fan standpoint, but if from our standpoint of trying to grow the game of Cal Show, absolutely devastating to have that be the product.
00:18:46
Speaker
What I will say is I said this was going to happen on the last set. I did say this was going to happen. I'm pretty sure the last time, the last time these two teams played, it was the same exact terrible game. And Locatelli scored from like 30 yards out because it got deflected from a Milan player. So this is like the second or third game in a row where it's just spent zero, zero Milan event is just terrible games.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah, terrible games, but I do think that it's worth talking about. And I think this is going to be more talking about the managers rather than what has occurred on the pitch because zero spot seven one XG combined actually is very bad. Obviously a really boring game. But to start with, and I was very upset when I saw this quote from Fonseca and saying that he was surprised that people are upset about the draw. And then when I'm saying this was the most boring game that he's been a part of this at the other thing.
00:19:46
Speaker
For me, just as a crazy statement. Let's not just brush. phrase Crazy statement. yeah right this man ju You need to be a little bit more vocal about that because that's an absolutely insane statement. You have control of your, not full control, but you can tell your players how you want them to go play this game. And if in the first half you're like, wow, that was really boring. Hey, I don't know. Why don't you light a fire on their asses? Maybe make some subs go more attacking and try to score a goal. He didn't do that at all.
00:20:15
Speaker
This is the exact point that I want to make in this, in that when he says, oh, we're I'm surprised that people are upset that we drew this game. His plan was to to draw this game and maybe score a goal. This was the best defensive performance I've seen for Milan this year by a lot. And they did nothing offensively. And we had talked about it, Logues. We thought this would be a game where we saw Milan's true identity.
00:20:37
Speaker
And I think we saw it today, this weekend, it was defend and then hopefully score on the counter. They didn't score on the counter, but they defended well and they were fine with Juventus having the ball. So my question to you is, is the Milan Boer getting exactly what they have signed up for with Fonseca? Because I said this at the beginning of the year.
00:20:57
Speaker
This is a guy when he was at Roma was okay not winning the big games and I don't and I could be wrong. But the way I see this now is the board is getting what they wanted and they're going to try to make a Champions League run and the league is second to that. Even Fonseca has kind of said that and saying we're more of a tournament team than a league team, which again is insane to me.
00:21:17
Speaker
Because if you're Milan, your goal every single year is winning the Scudetto and then winning a European competition and winning the Coca-Cola. Like you are a big enough club where gay won every year. That is what you should reach. I think monsters thinks that a Juventus every year. I mean, the, the, this whole thing is just, it's frustrating. It's con confusing because pretty.
00:21:41
Speaker
I mean, it's it's kind of like you say, but at the same time, okay, so he so they're not they're not willing to go after it and win the big games in Syria, so they're they're playing for a draw against UVA at home, which we we said it last week. like For AC, that needs to be a win. You're at home, it doesn't matter who you're playing. If you're AC Milan in Syria, you're at home, you should be playing to win that game.
00:22:06
Speaker
Right? But then this motherfucker comes out and says, okay, Real Madrid is not as good as Caliari. So to me, that that shows to me that when he's playing in the Champions League, he almost feels like he has nothing to lose. Right? He's going after, he's going to win those games, but he feels like he can win those games, and he's getting after it. Which he did exactly that. Like, he can win the big games, apparently, because he beat the best team in the world, Real Madrid, at their home, 3-1.
00:22:34
Speaker
So what are you doing, putzing around in Syria? And that goes to- And for a 0-0 draw against Juve, playing 3-3 draw against Caliari, and coming out and saying that Real Madrid's not that good and Caliari's a harder game. I don't understand what your tactic or what your approach to the regular season games are.
00:22:55
Speaker
I agree with you that the I don't understand his approach either. But the the reason why he had success against Madrid is because against Madrid you can play the way that both says that he wants to play or that he's setting his team up and sit back and counter or against Calgary when they're going to have 10 men behind the ball. You can't really do that.
00:23:15
Speaker
Now, why it didn't work against Juventus? I don't know. Juventus has a strong defense, but they did what kind of what they did against Madrid. Sit back and try to counter. But my thing is, is you have to have a plan B or a plan C when plan A is not necessarily getting it done, which he has shown in 13 games. He's got no plan B or C and the plan A switches every single game to the point where the players don't always know what exactly the plan A is.
00:23:52
Speaker
So he's just not organized at all. But I think the difference in the way that you're looking at it, plan A for him, and i this is what I think plan A is, plan A is win or draw. So that's why we don't see the change. Like there was no change in this game because like I honestly think this was the best defensive performance of the season so far.
00:24:13
Speaker
I thought everybody was good enough and did enough to get a tie, but sure he was okay with this. I think this was, like that that quote, I was surprised people were upset with the draw, says that you went into this game okay with the draw. Like doubt that was that was an objective that you had on the board. Which I don't think Like, yes, sure. Milan had a great defensive game. Juventus had no strikers. They were playing six guys in the midfield in four defenders. Like, there was nobody up top, so it wasn't that hard to stop them. Also, you got to remember, Juventus had, what, 15 players in this game? So, I'm sure Mata was like, hey, we're in the San Siro. We're very banged up. We have no strikers.
00:25:00
Speaker
Let's get a tie like motto motto should have been like, we want the tie. Fonseca was like, if mod is going to play for the tie, let's play for the tie too. They both. I mean, even I've never seen a team.
00:25:12
Speaker
And like the, I mean, yeah, they had that last chance with Tio's on the header at the 92nd or 93rd. None of the teams were going for it at the end. They were both just, we're good with this. But Fermafund, Fonseca is 12, they have valid. Like to that point, it always brings it more so back to the players. Cause okay, so, so screw it. Fonseca, Fonseca wants a draw.
00:25:40
Speaker
I wouldn't expect Teo in layout and I mean Pulisic only had 20 minutes in this game, which is also Murnboggling. But like every other player on the field should be in this game thinking like, we're at home. We need to win this game. I don't give a shit what the manager is saying. That's not how that's not how it works. Like you have to listen to your manager also. You don't play the field though.
00:26:01
Speaker
Mander's not on the field. At the end of the day, the Mander's not on the field, so hey i'm not goingnna take I'm not going to take the entire blame and give it to Fonseca, even though as much as I want to. If you are if you are playing this game and you are AC Milan, you need to be wanting to win this game no matter who you are. Yep. But even how we we go back to the poolstitch thing. Poolstitch not playing was a tactical adjustment.
00:26:24
Speaker
He wanted to give—so Eunice Musa played as the right man in this game, and that was specifically done to give Emerson Royale more coverage. The plan was very clearly, let's not concede goals, when you take literally maybe the best player in the league off the field, which doesn't make any sense. not so I understand from the
00:26:54
Speaker
but i do agree with you why how are you taking the hottest man on the planet off the field again youve been the big the like other side of the knife of that would be weston mckinney played just as many minutes for the we s national team and he started and played seventy five eighty minutes for youndus and he plays and arguably a much tougher, not tougher position, but much more, you need to run up and down the pitch for both the national team and Juventus, where Polisic is just, hey, go play offense. this i guess what this is and you're right You're right. This is leading me into my next question is, and i I haven't thought about it because I just have accepted that his job isn't in danger, but I was listening to some other shows today and they were talking about that how they people had thought that this was maybe a game. If he lost, he would get sacked. And i did I haven't had that impression in a long time.
00:27:45
Speaker
For what he went through at the beginning of the season, I see this as he is here, no matter what till the end of the season. And it's kind of weird because realistically how Milan have performed this year is bad, right? They're in seventh, but they're kind of in that that other group of teams. That's kind of out of the mix, out of the hunt for the most part. So do you guys think he is in danger at his at the helm? And is there a point where we will get there maybe?
00:28:17
Speaker
I mean, let's let's not forget, he was one game, he was maybe six minutes away from being sacked. It's not like he wasn't going to get sacked if we didn't get a result out of Inter at the Sanziro.
00:28:31
Speaker
So that kind of changed the trajectory a lot. That's a good point. Considering the fact that we went from inter and then into the net where we went 4-0, and then we kind of, we started having results in the Champions League barring Liverpool, but no one had any expectations against Liverpool. So at the same time, we were still just a couple of minutes away from Fonseca playing golf.
00:28:54
Speaker
Right? So I don't think that i and I've never felt comfortable if I'm Fonseca this entire season. Maybe the most I would have felt comfortable is after Rael, but then you follow up Rael with the Cagliari game. So and the see it's like, what where do you stand? I have no idea. I don't know what the conversations are behind the scenes.
00:29:14
Speaker
I don't know what their board meanings are like. I have no idea what the conversations with Ibra go like, but for me, if I'm Fonseca, no. I'm not comfortable at all in the fact that he came out with this kind of comment from this kind of a caliber of a game. It's just, there's definitely a disconnect in expectations and I can't imagine that the board of Ace aa Milan is thinking in the same page as, oh, we'll just take a draw at home against Yuba.
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely. I mean, I think they're a similar a similar is on three different pages. The board slot on the border on one page on second on his own page and then the players are on their own their own page as well. No one is on the same page at all for on second. I think I listen, if it was me, you see what happens when you fire coaches in the middle of the season, like nothing good usually ever comes to it, just usually you more chaos. However.
00:30:09
Speaker
with When you have a personality like Zlatan in your front office, he can he's the type of guy where it's just like, I'm going to fire you because I can. And so you're done. And so I think that it can get to that point just because of the the front office of Milan.
00:30:28
Speaker
But I don't i wouldn't if if I was Milan, but I don't i think that, listen, you guys gotta remember too, like he looked, and I know it was preseason, Milan looked unstoppable in the preseason, scoring four goals every single game, not letting up a be goal. And then the season hits and all of a sudden it's way different. So I don't know what the disconnect is. He's not playing the same style at all that he was doing the preseason.
00:30:53
Speaker
He's not every single game, it's a different Milan team. And and I think that some of the board members like Zlatan buying Emerson Royale, like they didn't do a good enough job building up the team. They didn't do a good enough job. this I said it from the start, firing purely this Fonseca wasn't the answer. So this is kind of what you should be expecting. And then the players don't know what the hell Fonseca wants them to do. So they're all on different pages and they all need to get on the same page. I don't know how that's going to happen.
00:31:20
Speaker
Do I think he can get fired? Yes, because Zlatan, would I fire him? No. The other thing I just want to say is, like, the last couple of games, everyone, you know, and I think we even talked about it, but someone on Twitter, I think his name is Matt Santagello, great guy, love his commentary on Twitter. I love what he said today, and it just has more to do with the UCL game today, but... This man, Fonseca, needs to stop getting his flowers for Benji Layao. Layao's your best fucking player.
00:31:50
Speaker
On paper. I mean, barring Prusicic's performances this season, Leo's your best player. Stop giving this guy credit for benching your best player. Because obviously when he comes in and he's motivated and you put and you put him in the right spots, he's going to do well and he's going to he's going to produce. So let's let's stop giving this guy credit for fucking around with the lineup as much as he has and trying to make something that isn't. AC Milan has done that that has been successful last free season in the Pioli by simply putting the players in their best positions.
00:32:19
Speaker
So all you would need, your baseline is being a manager who knows how to play the best players in their best positions. And you haven't been able to do that. So where where is the where is the praise and where is the, oh, Fonseca is doing an okay job coming from, I'm not entirely sure. I think from the wins that he's delivered and and that he beat Inter, that he beat Madrid, ah and that's it.
00:32:46
Speaker
I mean, I genuinely think that this is the board. The board wants to win the Champions League and they don't care about anything else. Because at this point in time, Fonseca, I wouldn't say Fonseca is a better coach than Pioli. He's a better tournament coach than Pioli, yes. Because he fails. But i let me just interrupt real quick. ah Apparently. Yes, they beat Madrid, but let's not pretend that before that win of Madrid that they were having a good Champions League. They lost to Leverakustin and lost to Liverpool.
00:33:15
Speaker
Um, he, and that was, as saving yeah, that was earlier on in the season and Fonseca did figure out a few things, but like, listen, they don't, I don't think, yeah, they can play their, their identity that they like in terms of sitting back and countering more in the champions because they're going up against maybe better caliber teams, but the champions is not a walk in the park. That's not something that they can be like, we're just going to focus on the champions. He can go win that like, that's not going to happen.
00:33:42
Speaker
And we we barely made it to the semis that are Pioli. We shouldn't have even been in the semis from Pioli. We beat Napoli 1-0 on aggregate in the season that they won the Scudetto. So it's like we like, that's a horrible benchmark if that's what the boar's going after. there Yeah. And let's move on to Juve, but one question, yes or no answer. If Milan make it deeper on the Champions League,
00:34:04
Speaker
But finish outside of a European spot. It's very, uh... Does Funziker get sacked? Oh, yes. I thought you'd keep him. If we if we don't if we don't make a European spot... No, not even a European spot. I think if we don't make it, at least Europa.
00:34:20
Speaker
Next season he's out. I don't and i said one word answer because we got to move on. There's another huge team that played in this game who are kind of in a very similar situation in the Bianco Neri but we are talking about them in a very very different way and I think that is warranted. I i would struggle to find people that disagree with that.
00:34:41
Speaker
But we do have to look at Tiyoga Manta a little bit in not being able to correct what has been going wrong. We can continue to point to the defense. Still no losses in the league, which is a major achievement.
00:34:52
Speaker
But it's been so much of this useless possession in defending with the ball, almost like in Italiano team, when they're playing poorly, is kind of what I would compare this to, right? They have the ball a lot, but they don't really win. They don't really create. And we can say, oh, Dusan Vlhavic was out, but this was happening when they also had Dusan Vlhavic. So where were you on Matz and Matz? Because i i I would be surprised if you're like, he's Hadzi, because I'm certain not, but there's nowhere near to happen that haven't been made.
00:35:23
Speaker
Yeah, he's nowhere near the hot seat. He obviously has a specific style. He's very cautious in his approach, in his fine withdraws. If you go look at Bologna's team last year, they had oh my goodness, so many draws. At the end of the day, you are getting the point.
00:35:39
Speaker
But I do want to take a step back and obviously I listen to the IFTV podcast there so I'm going to give them a little shout out because they gave us a shout out. And they made a good point. They need our shot. I don't know if this is necessarily on Mata. It is on Mata because he's got to do more to put the players in the right position to create.
00:35:55
Speaker
Little bits on Juntoly, because the way he built this team was, hey, let me just go get midfielder after midfielder after midfielder after midfielder and not have another striker in case Dusan goes in those slumps that we know that he goes in on. Or or even if Dusan gets injured, like, yeah, we had Milik, but Milik got injured during the Euros. And so you knew that he was going to be injured. And then you went, I i was okay with the selling of Moise Kien when it happened because he had such a bad year last year. But you should have gotten a secondary number nine because you know that Doosan is a very streaky player and can go seven or eight games without scoring a goal. And Mada has nothing to turn to besides putting Weyer there or put Weston McKinney and Koop Miners there like he did
00:36:42
Speaker
yet on Saturday, which obviously did not work. He could try yield is there, but he's very undersized for that and not his position. So he's nothing to turn to. So when you and then to top that off for this game specifically, he only had, like I mentioned, 14, 15 players. So he fully went into this game like we can get the draw if we just defend like we have been doing. Let's not ah over over ah step anywhere and and leave ourselves open.
00:37:09
Speaker
But there are some games where when you go up against the lower level teams, you got to go get that win. And what they do, which Mata needs to kind of get them away from is when they're about to start transitioning into their offense, Locatelli or some midfielder is just so okay with stopping the whole transition.
00:37:28
Speaker
And then we go and we just pass it in, like you said, that wasted possession. That is what Mada needs to stop and and needs to tell his players when we're in transition and when we're starting to attack, go, do not slow down and keep the ball just to keep the ball. So i don't he's not in the hot seat. There's some kinks he needs to work out like that one. The second one I would say would be we don't need to possess the ball in our own 18. Sometimes you just kick it forward to have higher possession.
00:37:55
Speaker
Those are the small kinks, but I think it's a little bit on those and then a little bit on Jun to lead, not getting a second striker, which hopefully we get in January. I don't know who that would be, but this was a tougher game because of all the injuries. So he did what he had to do. We haven't lost the game. You, you see the identity that Moda and Juventus want to play with. You see how it's going to take some time. It's a brand new team that we talked about. You see where it's going, which is why I don't think he's anywhere near the hot seat. And we're also only four points off of first.
00:38:25
Speaker
And to your to i sort of to the striker situation too, it is unfortunate that Nico Gonzalez got hurt because I think he probably would have fit that like Xerxes a false sign role actually pretty well. And we'll see if they, if they do end up replacing him. And then one other player that I thought was just an interesting point is I think Yildiz showed his immaturity a lot in this game.
00:38:48
Speaker
because he's really, really good at beating people one-on-one, but his last decision, whether it be a shot or a cross, just isn't polished yet. And they they are relying on him a lot, and they give him the ball a lot, but he's not quite there. or he's going to like We saw it in the Inter Milan game, where he's capable of, but he's not he's not a pool sitch yet. He's not a layout yet. He's not a covered Scalia where he he is He needs a high volume of opportunities to convert one. And I think that is just immaturity and lugs. You can jump in because I know you had a couple of things. No, just a couple of points. i mean
00:39:23
Speaker
Commenting on our our discussion from last week, I didn't see it out of them, out of UA this week that they had the confidence to be like, we're we're simply just the better team. I mean, clearly that was just by you by design and and and how they approached this game. And obviously the injuries are are certainly a ah big part of that, but wish I had seen a little bit more confidence from, ah you know, just on a player by player basis.
00:39:45
Speaker
Now, before I make the point that I want to make, I'm going to argue it. You put in so much money over the summer, you would like to see your team do a lot better. You would like to see a big improvement. You bring in a huge coaching name like Shiyaga Mata and you and you want to see improvement, which you know we have. I mean, Mats just said it. They have an identity. It's a very clear identity and a very clear way of playing. It's a very clear style of playing. So what I'm going to say here is we are now, we're going to call it exactly a third of the way through the season.
00:40:16
Speaker
If you were to average this out to the end, which obviously they're probably going to get a loss here or there, but they probably should have more wins than they do right now, you're at 75 points and your goal differential is north of 40. Last year you were at 75, you dropped a bunch of games at the end and your goal differential was 14.
00:40:33
Speaker
So at the end of the day, when you take a step back and you think about where Yubei is in the season, this really isn't isn't even in close to dire straits. And especially given the fact that you have teams like Atalanta and Lazio, if you weren't in TINA, far outpouring expectations that we had from last season going into this. I have zero problems with Tio Gamata at this point.
00:40:55
Speaker
also from china I think Jun to Lee and the board are being or have a vision, right? Like, I think everybody at Juventus is on like we talk about it like perfect example, convert to Milan, like there's nobody on the same page. Everybody at UVA sees this as a long term project, I think that in like how they recruited in clearly Tiago Mata and Jun to Lee do have a relationship. When we go back to the Cala Fiore versus Kube Miner's decision.
00:41:22
Speaker
Everybody knows this is a long-term project, and the way things are going, they're going to be back in Europe. I don't know how well they're going to perform in the Champions League this year. I am a little bit worried about them, but that's just more experience for a million young players that they have. They're already plagued by injury now. I think it's safe to say that. They literally lost. Premer was maybe their best player, was definitely the best defender in the league before he got injured, and that's such a major loss. You literally don't have a structure now. like And in these are things that if it was a more poorly run club, I would be concerned. But with what we're seeing out of Tiago Monte, what we're seeing out of the board, this is a project that next, I don't think it's this year where they can compete for the Scudetto. I'm going to say it. i They're not going to close the gap, I don't think. But next year, they might win it. like that That's how big of a jump I think there is going to be by the end of this season.
00:42:16
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And I think we all said that going into the season is that there's going to be growing pains, which we're obviously seeing on the pitch. But the fact that they're so good defensively without Bremer, Cabal just towards ACL as well. But no matter who Monop plugs and plays,
00:42:33
Speaker
they still get clean sheets. They have 10 clean sheets in 13 games. That is insane. So they just need to learn how to kind of attack and score, which will come. And look, to your point, I do agree with the amount of money you spen they spent. You would a like to see them turn draws into wins?
00:42:52
Speaker
But a lot of that money is currently injured. ah Douglas Louise has been injured for the last three games. Nico Gonzalez has been injured since the Leipzig. Obviously, Wlawich missed last game. We all just went down. um So we have a ton of injuries all over the pitch. And Mater being in the way that he sets up his team and so secured defensively, he's being able to snag some points in maybe games where like, we probably should have lost this game with how we had 14 or 15 players and when which at through 0-0. And then we have the Champions League game tomorrow. so um And we got another 14 guys. So I wouldn't be surprised if we try to draw 0-0 to that game as well because we just don't have the bodies right now
00:43:40
Speaker
because of the injury. So I think Mon is doing a good job of putting out fires when it's needed, but there's obviously things that he can improve on, which is good because the worst, I'm not the worst thing in the world, but you don't want him to be, oh my goodness, so good year one. And then it's from there, it's just downhill. You know you can't repeat that that magic. I think Vogue says that probably the most out of all of us. and It's that's really true in this situation.
00:44:03
Speaker
you wouldn't want you to be ahead of their schedule right now. I think there they're pretty on point and even almost behind because of the injuries. So to have them being have them honestly doing any better than right now would be a way ahead of schedule. So I think they're in a great spot. And again, like I said, no problems with Mocha.
00:44:19
Speaker
Yeah, before we move on here, because we have a lot of other games, Matz, one question that you wanted to discuss just briefly maybe is, is Tiago Matz a playing two defensively? Because I actually don't think so. I just think it is- Yeah, I think we've talked about it enough. And I think I kind of answered it when I said it, that he set it up his team this way because of the fact that They only had 14, 15 guys. He knew I have to go get a draw. I just think, like I said, what he does wrong is that when we're about to start transitioning, he's fine with having the team slow it down. And he's also fine with Juventus possessing it so far in but in their own half when
00:44:55
Speaker
that's not the best area to possess it because I thought at the beginning of the game Milan were doing a great job pressing and Juventus had to try to get out of their own box which is like the worst case scenario but so I think he needs to stop that and make them when they're in transition to start to drive the ball and no one no one drives the ball besides the man that you have lower that we're going to talk on just briefly before we move on and that's Taram to round one player of the match last game because he would get the ball at our 18 and instead of passing it to the center back, he would turn, beat his man and drive it to half field and what's it called, move it forward. So that's what they need to work on. It's just driving the ball, moving it forward, stop passing it back and waiting.
00:45:36
Speaker
Yeah, I think on Tarama, I do want to talk about him for just a minute because he is like the least sexy player, I think, that they use in terms of like what his skill set is. Like everybody else, he's talked about Beans, Kuviners, Yildis, and Les Toussaint, but Nico Gonzal and Toussaint are like very pretty players in how they play.
00:45:54
Speaker
Kevin Taram is a guy that just like, does things really well, but not like flashy about it. And I just think it would do a lot more for you, right? If the he's clearly like, chained up in what he's supposed to be doing. He is almost, it's not quite a pivot because when Locatelli is playing, he's like in the middle kind of as like, yeah he's a regista really, by himself. And Taram is kind of pinned to the left side of the field. That's what happened to this game specifically.
00:46:22
Speaker
And it's supposed to kind of cover ground and... just take up an area and not really be a progressive outlet or anything. But the couple of times where he picked up the ball in transition, he then drives it 40 yards on a dribble because of how big he is. And he can hold he can be absorbed, oppressed, and then explode out of it. And they don't really have anybody else that can do that. So I'd like to see that be a progression in how Matza plays. I don't know if we're going to see it. um It is very different from a lot of other players that he has and how they have been playing. But that's just something that I had pulled out of this game and I think we all have seen out of Taram.
00:46:56
Speaker
Trump's beast. He's modestly untouchable, so he's he's going nowhere. You should play every game. I love input. Keep it a rolling. A lot of other games that happened. This was only one. Claudio Ranieri's Roma made their debut in Naples against si Napoli. Went well. 1-0 loss. They probably should have lost by more. Gaviria Scalia missed a sitter in the first minute.
00:47:18
Speaker
um They had Napoli in a lot of chances and they probably should have scored more. The goal that did come was classic Roma from what we've seen this year. Terrible defending, Angelino, terrible defending, Indica, horrible defending. And then Mats Hummels literally pulled out of a challenge basically. He could have stopped across and I don't know why he did this. He just like pulled this leg away and Lukaku had a tap in.
00:47:42
Speaker
So for Roma, things were a little bit better and they didn't get blown out. But I think the issues that were there are still the exact same issues. And it's lack of desire and the defensive third. And then up top, they actually get out of their chances. And once again, Dovahk misses his chance, Baldansi in this game.
00:48:02
Speaker
who I'm not going to hammer on because he doesn't play every game. Missed a really good chance. The dope one was really bad. He had a free header in the six yard box, hit the crossbar. That's unacceptable. I mean, I don't think we even need to talk about rumble war, right? Like it was a four, four, two. That's the new thing. They went to a back four, four, four, two, four, four, one, one kind of thing, but nothing new. And I, I guess I'm not surprised. I'm really not.
00:48:29
Speaker
Yeah, to me it's just as like like I've been saying all year with Roma, none of their players look like they gave a shit besides Dabala, but now Dabala is like somewhat injured and can't really play that much. And that's kind of Ben Dabala's M.O. his whole entire career. So that's like kind of what you knew you you were getting when you were getting him, is that he's going to be injured.
00:48:50
Speaker
But you just need Pellegrini. Where is Pellegrini? Where is Mancini? Where is, in terms of the leadership of the team, where on earth are those guys? I've said it week in and week out. It's a one-zero game. Like, go go get that other goal. Tie it up one-to-one. More of the same for Roma.
00:49:08
Speaker
I don't have much to say about this game. I mean, you I would love to say that I wish I i ah expected more at Roma, but at the same time, it's it's it's just, it's kind of a sad situation. Roma, actually, it's, like I said last week, go ahead, Mats. We were dead wrong, all three of us on Roma.
00:49:29
Speaker
Unfortunately, I mean, maybe come next season, we'll be right. We just wear a season off. If they're in the Serie A? No, no, I don't. Yeah, I don't see it. I'd ever pan next year either. I know only that, but I was going to say, you know, based on what we spoke about last week, Vos, I think it says more about Napoli. Did they maybe not take this game as seriously as they should have? You know, it wasn't as clinical as you were just saying. So to me, again, this is going to be my MO going forward on Roma.
00:49:59
Speaker
I don't really care what happens with them. I think it's more of a discussion about the other team. And I don't think Napoli showed their there true colors again coming off of a game that they, they're coming off of a break that they really should have won maybe for nothing. or i won This is going to be the point that I wanted to make in how we had now we evaluate Napoli games. I think it needs to be a little bit different from these other teams because Antonio Conte is going to win more games, one nothing or two nothing, where they just get the job done and because that's how he that's how he's okay with that, right? Like they probably should have scored more, but at the end of the day, they only conceded two chances. And that's usually enough to get them across the line. So the more we see these one-nothing wins, two-nothing wins, we could say, oh, they should have won by more. But Antonio Conte doesn't really want to win by more, like he'll take it, but he's only he's showing up to win a one-nothing game, right? Like, I was also surprised that they
00:50:54
Speaker
Dominated possession now, but I think this is the first yeah they played he's in Natalie right one possession and I mean I don't know if that was just cuz Roma didn't want it because Napoli let emply have more possession Napoli has let every single team they played have more possession than them and then for some reason They destroyed Roma on the possession um yeah i don't know well this This game, I mean both I don't disagree with you that Kuntai has his own style of what he expects the gaming game out and But they i mean they had 14 shots, right? like that's That's a lot for an Napoli game. It's not like they were trying to score more goals. No, I i agree. They had over 60% possession. I don't think that this was a game where Conte was like, oh, let's just go out and win 1-0. This was certainly a game that they were like, let's go dominate. We're at home. They did. Let's come up with some breaking. Sometimes you're just not clinical.
00:51:45
Speaker
what I mean, dude, 14 shots, yeah, only two were on target. But you had 14 shots to 6, 63 possession to 36, corner kicks 8 to 2. Like, where did they not dominate besides the final score line? But sometimes the the ball doesn't just go in the back of the net.
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I guess I i actually just guess I'm in a big argue myself this this episode, but I was going to say, all right, well, this isn't going to work against another team, but this is not this is not how they're going to play against a different team. They're going to sit back and just counter like they have another game. So I'm going to show myself up and I move on.
00:52:23
Speaker
I think and it is an interesting point because the the difference between this and some other games you saw maybe at the beginning of the year and in preseason is when they did have the ball, they didn't know what to do with it. And in this game, they just gave so much service into Lukaku that it just caused so many issues. And that's kind of what we see with Atalanta, which is was Rategi. Give him the ball, give him the ball, give him the ball, give him the ball. And now he's just scoring a million goals because he gets like a hundred chances a game.
00:52:49
Speaker
And in this game, they didn't quite convert them. But this this shows maybe there's another recipe and how Napoli can get results. I don't know if you see it. You're saying that actually reminded me. I think I saw a stat on Twitter. I forgot the exact number of crosses Napoli had. But I think i think it was 18 crosses for Napoli and one for Roma. Yeah, they destroyed them. I mean, what do we do what are we talking about here, Roma? You can't get more than one cross. This is what Claudio Ronieri does, though. like He wants to be a very counter-attacking team. That's what Leicester City was when they won the We said he might be like a stabilizing the ship kind of guy because he is not going to try to be expensive. He's not going to try to hold the ball like we saw with De Rossi and Yurich. He's just going to sit deep and like, let's just try to get some results, which is I think what they need. But other than that, there isn't too much to talk about here so we can move it on.
00:53:40
Speaker
Other games that happened, Inter went to Hellas Verona, beat the piss out of them, 5-0. At this point, Hellas Verona might be the new punching bag for the season. We said it was kind of Leche, at times it was Venezia. Might be Verona now. They've been very bad in a lot of games.
00:53:56
Speaker
Yeah they've been bad, but this is a classic in Zoggy Calcho that we haven't always seen at an inter every single week. And how you know that is in the first half alone, two of their center backs, DeVry and Bisic scored a goal, they were both Stryker asked number nine goals. DeVry was it like a Littaro Martinez one-time finish. Bissex was a fucking insane like turn, shield the guy and then ah like sliding kick goal. And then Bastoni got an assist to Taram. So all three of Ender's center backs were in the attack at all times like they always are. And Taram is just continuing to do Marcus Taram things.
00:54:40
Speaker
Uh, and he is really, really turning it on the season. And who knows if he keeps this up, he might be a hundred mill, a hundred and $10 million dollar price tag on his head. I mean, the biggest thing for me, this game was no DeMarco, not even as a sub, no dumb friece, not even not Actually, you know, his littario didn't get rid of it.
00:55:07
Speaker
Lutaro, no, no claim. So dude, Correa, I was was just going to say, Correa had a game, you had a fucking game. I mean, love to see that from Correa, especially being shipped off last season, probably a little bit of a chip on his shoulder there. But again, I mean, love to see that inter can come into a game like this, playing against a very much lesser opponent.
00:55:27
Speaker
play maybe we'll call it the B lineup obviously a couple of starters here and there you can't really you can't it's almost impossible to slide out your entire starting lineup but promising for them going forward especially playing in how many competitions that they will be playing in that they can swap out guys like this against the bottom five team and uh and still have success five nothing is nothing to bet to bat an eye at i mean usually this is a two nothing game or You know, three, one, whatever, maybe, but five, nothing is a big statement, even against a bad team, especially with not, you know, three, four of your non-starters, not playing a single minute. Yeah. We had Dollar John and Zaghi for that earlier in the year too. So happy to see it. Happy to see them get the result. Moving on though, two of my favorite teams this year, Adelanta went to Parma. Adelanta did what they've been doing all year, conceded some goals, but scored more goals in the opposition. Adelanta won this one three to one. There were some interesting notes mods that you had here from this game.
00:56:20
Speaker
Yeah, well, the first one would be insane, insane ah comeback from Skalvini. Played this game, got subbed on five months ago towards ACL. I will be the first to say it. I don't love that from Skalvini and Adalanta pushing him back that quickly. there I mean, I think I said it earlier in the podcast.
00:56:43
Speaker
or earlier in this on this ah one of the episodes that I think players should go to the USA to rehab because it happens so much often. The doctors are so used to seeing it. I don't think anyone in the USA has done in five months. I don't know what Italy has up their sleeve, why they think they can have him five months. It also would hurt the national team. But I will say.
00:57:03
Speaker
Adelaine to do need a center back like that is clearly what they're missing and I think that that's why they're trying to force him on and then real quick before that before I let you go those Gasparini got a red card and will miss the next game next two games against Roma and Milan Which I do think could play a factor that is a big gap that they're gonna have to fill with their manager missing yeah i'm gonna straight i didn't see was this script yeah Yeah, I'm going to disagree on both points, because number on on the scale of anything, I agree in that he shouldn't be playing yet, but at the same time, Adalanta's defense over the last couple of games has gotten very good, and they've been very good defensively in Europe especially, and chrisoon and that's directly correlated to Kasunu now playing every game, and he and B and the center-center back every game.
00:57:50
Speaker
And then they're roaching in at the left center back, whether it be gym city, Kalashniak, who's actually been very good out there. So yes, Skalvini is the best. all There would be the best out of everybody here, but I don't know why you are rushing him back in when the defense has been very good over the last couple of weeks. And you are one of the best teams in Europe defensively. It's very odd you've been good enough. like You don't need to throw this guy in here.
00:58:17
Speaker
give him the time off. The defense has been better but this at Atlanta we're talking about like this they go on streaks words they're gonna have good defensive games and then they're gonna go on a streak where they let two goals in a game like that's what they were doing in the beginning of the season so I think that they know that and they're like we need to get him back in but you are right they are informed defensively right now they have only allowed one goal in Europe that ever since their slow start they've been allowing one or clean sheets so you're right and that it's trending in the right direction but I think we all know from from watching
00:58:57
Speaker
ah Cal Joe for the years that we have. They are very streaky. They're like, they can- That is true. That is true. But I, at this point, I think they're in one of those hot streets and I would say they're the best team in the league right now, in my opinion. Yeah. Well, I mean, Florentina, Latzio, or Atalanta, yeah. I think they're better than both. I do. could be I really like both of those teams.
00:59:21
Speaker
Well, see you also don't think that Gasparini being off the pitch is going to really matter much for against Roman Milan? Yeah, I don't. i that That was the other piece that we need to discuss. He's been there so long, and everybody that's around him has been there so long, and most of this team has been there long enough where they're just going to go out there and do their thing, whether or not Gasparini's there. I'm not really worried about it.
00:59:44
Speaker
Are you? You are? I don't know. I don't know if most of their team has been there for that long, but I think that the most important people are able to step in and be like, listen to you guys. I mean, Daroon might as well be assisting Coach on the field at this point, so I just think, listen to him. I'm so disagree with that. The takes and experience guide to read a game, be able to make the right subject at the right time, to not throw too many guys forward, to say the right things to the specific players that, I mean, Gasparini does it obviously for a reason.
01:00:12
Speaker
He's the head coach for a reason when you sub and not head coach. He's not head coach for a reason. So you never know. Something could go wrong. I mean, and I would say like, obviously Roman Milano are in little ruts, but they are big teams still. Like those aren't walking the parks with the, with the caliber players that they have on the pitch. For sure. Well, I would also just say specifically for those two games.
01:00:32
Speaker
Roma brand new coach, Rene, or you might be making huge adjustments going into the next game. And then Milan, you have no idea what you're getting game in and game out. So you could prepare all week long for something, and then come game day, it's a completely different play style. So I would just be cautious if I'm at Atlanta to just think that this is, like Mats just said, a walk in the park. Because both these teams can be absolutely different from what you're game planning for. Other side of this game was Parma for me.
01:01:01
Speaker
You're newly promoted team. Atalanta is maybe the best team in the league right now. I'm not reading anything into this. like they They're a hard team to play against. Yeah, Atalanta is a tough team to beat. The one thing I'll say and then we'll move on is I don't understand why Parma was home and Atalanta was wearing yellow. ah didn it makes I thought for a second like Parma was yellow. and so I was just weird who was there.
01:01:26
Speaker
It was a it was a weird kick combo. I agree. All right. Good plug, Mons. I agree. Calurary. Well, Calurary went to Genoa to play Patrick Vieira's new team. This game was a 2-2 draw. Very on brand for Calurary.
01:01:42
Speaker
better result for Genoa. I think, I think, it I think they'll take the draw here for the first game. Calliore has been a pretty tricky team for almost every team elite to play against. So I think this is a good result. And though I think something to pull out of from this, ah from a Calliore perspective is that they're actually scoring more goals than I had anticipated. They're in a lot of games and they've been in a couple of shootouts where they've either gotten a draw on it or gotten a win in it. And I did not expect that this entire season occurred.
01:02:09
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say, just really quick, I mean, I think it's also a promising sign from the Genoa side that Viera comes in and Viera will score at least two, but I mean, more than one goal. um Because typically, I think Genoa's had a tough time scoring goals this season, especially with the guys that have left the team. So I'm good for Viera to come in and be like, all right, this is how we're gonna, this is how we're gonna put goals away, even against a mid-table team like Caliari. Logs, you can read the next one, because this is two of your favorite teams. I go Mar in the little lads of the league.
01:02:38
Speaker
2-0 Fiorentina, a good win for Fiorentina, Yasin Adly, the boy who loves Florence now, and Moise Keene, who just need to get out of the spotlight, both putting goals away. I really don't think Koma played that bad in this game. I really don't. Fiorentina probably could have scored a couple more goals, which is something to be said. I don't think, from my perspective,
01:03:05
Speaker
It's a little bit more of the same from Fiorentina. We expected him to win this game. those We talked about it last week. It clearly changed your mind on this game. You made it your Colby pick. Great value plus 130. I mean, that was, that was, you thought it was going to happen, but I just want to keep talking about one guy and one guy in particular, Nico Paz.
01:03:25
Speaker
If there's a bright spot in the league about, about young talent on teams that people are not paying attention to, Nico Paz is a young talent that people need to pay attention to. I mean, just that, I mean, he's, how old is he? 18, 17, 18, 19, whatever it is, still teenager. That turn in the middle of the field, colleague two guys getting on him, that was clean. This guy is a talent, great pickup by Cuomo to get, to get a guy that is up and coming and and can can grow him.
01:03:55
Speaker
But more the same from Fiorentina. Love to see you from Guaviola. And I hope that I really do hope they keep this ah this trend going. I'll say one thing really quick from Fiorentina. They've impressed me. I knew Palladino was always good, right? He took a monza side that probably should have been relegated and kept them up two years in a row and not only kept them up, but like have them finish middle of the table and have them playing great soccer for the calibers that they had. So really just an all around great coach Florentina got a very good, but it was a very good move by them. And they're obviously fine on all cylinders, one of the hottest teams in the league. People forget
01:04:33
Speaker
Gudmundsson is not playing. They still have one guy who is a proven goal scorer in this league, was on the Serie A team of the year last year, ready to come back, imagine what happens when he comes back. like They could just get even better. They got an intern next week in Rome, or in in Florence, obviously, not in Rome, in Florence, that if they can go get three points there,
01:05:01
Speaker
Fiorentina is going to be a scary team this season. i I feel good about Fiorentina in that game. And to your point, Logan, about how Colmo played in this. I thought Colmo played really well. They probably should have scored one. David De Gea made a really good save. And Adley's goal definitely should have been saved, although they did create a number of other chances. And I think they deserve to win.
01:05:23
Speaker
But they have way less of the ball in this game, and they were comfortable in that. And what I really like about that is you are you can win in different ways. They played extremely counter-attacking in this game. In other games, we've seen them play more expansive, possessive team. And that is really exciting. And for Paladino to already be doing that with this team is pretty insane. What we see, what other teams are struggled with, and maybe these other high-caliber managers,
01:05:51
Speaker
it's when he when he has the ball it's potent offense and then without the ball it's organized defense and fluid counter-tracking that Fonseca wants to do and he can't do it at Milan and Mata is struggling to do it at Juventus and he he's doing both of those things against every team that they are playing and it's amazing to watch and I think what is a little bit different about Fiorentina when we compare them to a lot of other teams and why this works is In every position, they have a guy that's capable of scoring and it's really weird because it's Gozins as the left back and Dodo as the right back who are both really good defensively but also so effective in the final third. And then in the midfield, it's Beltran right now instead of Gudmundsson who was originally a striker when he got there. Now he's playing as a 10. Yassine Adly is playing.
01:06:37
Speaker
We got Bove playing who's like, who I roll. It was like I get into the box last guy and then finish a move off. We're Jonathan Acone. We have Moise Keen. Like you go through the team, it's everybody is dangerous when they have the ball. And not a lot of teams can say that to this degree. And I think that is another reason why they're having so much success in David De Gea. And this new era of himself is massive for them. He has stolen a couple of games and you need that to make big runs in the league.
01:07:06
Speaker
Yeah, don't I don't think it should be understated how they're able to adapt to their play style game to game, especially given the fact that when you look at this roster and you look at the even the starting lineup, how many players were there last year starting in this game? Three?
01:07:23
Speaker
Maybe four. yeah We talked about consistency being the name of the game at the beginning of the season. Fiorentina has no consistency season over season, but they're playing phenomenally. And the fact that Palladino is able to get this this squad to be a ball-nominate team, be possession-heavy, one game.
01:07:43
Speaker
and then be able to play on the counter and and just sit back and play defense while the other team fucks around with it and not be antsy about it, to be hosed and be ready to be on the counter and not just like dive in and try to get the ball back immediately. I mean that can, again, that just can't be understated and and flowers to balladino for that. I mean this team is just playing on another level.
01:08:06
Speaker
Keeping it a rolling. Back to Torin. Monza played Torino, played it to a 1-1 stalemate. Torino is in trouble right now. They've really fallen off a cliff since the Duvan Zapata entry. We kind of knew it was coming. And it is continuing to go. For Monza away from home, these are the kind of results you need to just kind of drag out if you're going to stay out. They're still in trouble down there. They're 19th place on nine points. So it's still danger. Not looking great yet, right?
01:08:35
Speaker
The way to? No way, no. Keeping it rolling. Bologna went to Lazio. Lazio won this one 3-0. I didn't expect it 3-0 when what I need to caveat this with is all three of Lazio's goals came after a red card and it was one of the worst red cards I've ever seen. Dormasso for Vega picked up a yellow card. Then five minutes later pressing in the opponent's box, Bly tackled Ravella, or no, it was Gonduzi, just straight through his back. Like, it was, he had no chance of winning the ball. I don't know why he did it. It was one of the worst red cards ever. So for Lazio,
01:09:13
Speaker
another ah game where they just get the job done. I don't think Bologna can really take much out of this, but Lazio is rolling. And I do want to take the one second to just say, I literally think the three best teams in the league right now are Lazio, Fiorentina, Atalanta. And I think they can all beat each other. And I think they can all beat the rest of the table, which is insane to me. Yeah. And then, you know, you can't forget like inter still inter, Juve haven't lost the game this season.
01:09:42
Speaker
And then there's Napoli right with Conde, one game of the week. So it's, it's, it's an amazing top six, which weren't for a great season, but just another team that I, I'll put my hand up. I was dead wrong on. They had a terrible, in my opinion, off season with Latito not doing anything, but he got one thing right. And that was the manager. This guy is a very good coach.
01:10:06
Speaker
Very good. children This is a very good team. Yeah. Yeah. They're very good. Well, is he on anything or we got to really rolling, right? Yeah, we'll keep it rolling. Udenese went to Empoli one-to-one tie. I would have liked Empoli to go and win this one. They couldn't quite do it. They did have a one-nothing lead. I thought with a one-nothing lead, this game was over. Like, Empoli at home, no way they concede to Udenese. For Udenese, they needed something. They have been very bad since the beginning of the season, so this is a good one for them. But Empoli, I think, you need to kind of have a a reality check of where they are, and maybe we needed this as well.
01:10:43
Speaker
They had kind of transitioned to a more expansive team trying to go get games. Maybe it's time to be a little bit more defensive again. My only take from this game is I think the lock of the season, it used to be an happily minus one and a half during the Scudetto. Those thought it was maybe minus one and a half out of line to the season, which is still to be seen. I really do think that the lock of the season every single week, week in and week out is Emply Double Chance. So for the Bizon's out there on the books, Emply Double Chance, look for it.
01:11:12
Speaker
Good one. And then Loeg's least favorite game of the week, Leche at Venezia, devastating defeat for Venezia. I have to say, and I am officially done defending them. I have been defending them week in and week out, saying they're a tarred team to play at home. They just lost to Leche at home and they are no longer a defensible team and they are going to get relegated. and Well, so to your first point, obviously this was Logan's least, like, please do not watch game, although it ended up being a much better game to watch than Yves Milan. And where I do agree with you that it's starting to get hard to defend Venezia, because I think I've been on the same side as you defending Venezia, because they do play good soccer, and they are tough to beat at home.
01:11:56
Speaker
They they got very, very unlucky that they lost this game. They dominated. They had they had like 16 total shots, six shots on target. The 16, I don't know how they didn't get more on target. Like 12 of them were in the 18 yard line. They definitely deserved a point. Very frustrating for them that they didn't. But yeah, it's getting hard to defend them. And I mean, let's say let's say still going to get relegated. So I didn't actually watch this game.
01:12:25
Speaker
because I said I wasn't, but I was also way too nervous to watch it given the Colby implications. But I'm just checking the stats now. Oh, Venezia fucked them. Venezia had 2.73 XG. I know, that's what I did. They're actually not. They're just a master. Ridiculous.
01:12:40
Speaker
Falcone on Leche had the game, of the player that gave it an 8.2 rating. 2.73xG is off the charts. that' not To not score zero goals. a figure that is fake clue that works That is horrendous finishing to have zero goals on 273xG. But this is what happened last time they went down. They were, they were, when they went down, I think it was three two two or three years ago now.
01:13:06
Speaker
They like played very well. They just never got results. And I don't know why. And it's starting to look like it's going to be that again, but that wraps up match week 13. Again, we had European competitions this week. We had some games today. We have a couple more tomorrow and then throughout the rest of the week. So the games that happened today, we had champions league, log set up and some issues with some betting today, which.
01:13:28
Speaker
We can talk about it a little bit. But from a Serie A perspective, the games that happened, Milan went to, I'm going to botch this, Sloven, Bodislava. They won this game three to two. Not overly convincing. They were up one nothing. They then conceded. Then they scored two, were up three to one, then conceded again.
01:13:50
Speaker
So at the end of the day, you get the result, but against a lower team that a lot of people aren't going to recognize, you would like to see a more convincing victory. But again, what we've seen from Fonseca is against the lower level teams, you're not going to do as well. At least they got the win, right? Yeah.
01:14:06
Speaker
They got the other three points. What I will say about this game is, I think the first goal, yeah, you know, you can't be giving that up. It was three minutes after pull, so you put in the first one. Can't be having that. Before I go to the next point, it's these Eastern year the eastern European teams. you If you go there, you're going to have a bad time. like they're just It's just simply a hard place to play no matter where you go. Fans are crazy. We'll give them that. But a slot of a second goal is an absolute fucking banger.
01:14:36
Speaker
To be fair, on the counter, should we have been better prepared? Sure. To more, we had pretty good positioning. It just so happened that this goal was literally the best shot maybe I've maybe have ever seen. I have an Eastern European team of this level. So in my mind, 3-1 was the score. but I don't know why. I mean, I do actually take that back. I know why, Lay, I was not starting this game. It's against somebody you should be beating 9-0, but we got the dub, we got the three points. Let's ride out of the momentum if there is any. I don't know.
01:15:06
Speaker
keep it a rolling. Inter Milan hosted RB Leipzig who were a very tricky game earlier in the season against Juventus. They won this one one to nothing and what I do want to talk about here is Inter Milan in the Champions League and Inter Milan in Here they are, have been completely different teams. Inter is the number one team in Europe right now when you look at Champions League standings, plus seven goal differential in all the games that they have been have been playing. And I don't think they conceded a goal yet, actually, now that I'm talking about it. I think they conceded one. Right. Atlanta was the one that didn't. And now they they conceded a goal.
01:15:44
Speaker
Yeah, so that I mean, that is a, that's what we haven't seen in this area. We've seen them be lackadaisical, not close out games. And in Europe, for the most part, we've seen nil, nil draws against the really important teams, one nothing win, two nothing win. They blew the socks off with somebody at home, like it was a random team. But in Zagi,
01:16:04
Speaker
You can make it We haven't been convinced by them a lot, but they are getting better, and in Europe, they're you can't knock anything they've been doing. um Also, stat correction, you were correct. I was wrong. They have not conceded a goal in the Champions League at 0-7 goals before. But yeah, I mean, listen.
01:16:21
Speaker
Enter, the only reason why i Enter are not on top of the table right now is because for some reason we don't understand why they have multiple lapses in concentration in the 80th minute to allow them to drop points in tie games.
01:16:37
Speaker
first any the Maybe Inzagi is really drilling into his players. like this This year is our year to win the Champions League. They have the lineup to do it. They have the depth to do it. And now they're they are never losing the concentration. They're not scoring as many goals as they were last year. But they're being that stout defensive team that they were last year because people forget last year they had the best defense in the top five um top five European leagues. They didn't allowed like 20 goals total.
01:17:04
Speaker
um And so we're seeing that, and yeah, they can easily go and win this champ. Not easily, obviously, because it's a tough tournament, but they have the talent to win the Champions League this year, for sure. Keep it rolling to another team. Second best defensive record of the Champions League. Had not conceded a goal until today, and that's in Atalanta. They went to young boys and won the game six to one. And Mats, you pulled out CDK in this one. Yeah, this was your guys' his old boy. This was the CDK show.
01:17:32
Speaker
There were five goals at halftime and CDK had a foot in every single goal he scored to himself. He got three assists. You guys sacked Maldini last year because you spent too much or he spent too much money on him. Who knows, you know, sometimes a player just needs a little bit longer than a year to get adjusted to the culture, the system, things like that. Because he is, he balled last year. He's playing better this year. I mean, I get it. It was young boys, but he's playing well this year. He's gotten multiple goals, multiple assists. Him and Lookman are flying high as they're those two up front. And then Rotegi's just knocking in. If you cross it to Rotegi, he buries it every fucking time. It's just put a ball into Rotegi.
01:18:17
Speaker
Adelina to look good. there's They can score, give it to Lookman, he can beat a guy one-on-one. Give it to Belanova, he can cross into Rotegi. CDK can snipe it with his left foot. He can cross it to Rotegi. They can score any which way they want. This Adelina team, as you mentioned, vo they are starting to defend. And they have the like the individual quality that a lot of teams lack. Per se, they have it in CDK, Lookman and Rotegi up top.
01:18:45
Speaker
Not even talking about Samarzic too, who's like kind of a role-player still. and Can we stop on CDK for a second? Just to ah mr reminisce. CDK, um for as an AC Milan player, played in two positions. One, he played at the cam, which kind of didn't really exist. We didn't really know what a cam was supposed to do. It was very much free roam. You kind of had to make your own position out of it. Wasn't wasn't made for a player coming in from the Belgian league.
01:19:18
Speaker
Still really young, 19, 20 years old. Kind of like a big bird style player, like ah like a baby deer. not Not the position. Then he was playing on the right side, which is, I think, where his best spot is. But for a right mid, right wing under Pioli, you might as well have not been on the pitch.
01:19:39
Speaker
On top of that was playing next to Brian Diaz, who apparently for Real is the fucking next coming of Jesus, but for AC Milan was absolute kind of garbage. So Mats, you are 100% right. When you put him in a goddamn system where he's allowed to flourish and he has the right players around him, this guy is an absolute talent. He's 6'4". He's got great ball skills. He's an absolute sniper from outside the box. I do not know how we fucked it up, but I'm glad that somebody picked him up and was able to turn him into a talent. But I didn't even say... Like, yeah, sure. He didn't have the best season on Milan, but he showed flashes of what he has the potential to do. So what you need to do as an front office, as a coaching staff, is you need to be able to see that and say, okay, this is what we got. This is who we invested in. How can we put him in the best position? How can we build around him? How can we make this team or help him? How can we help him succeed? And Milan did not do that.
01:20:41
Speaker
at all. yeah but even You're 100% correct. we in We can talk about this another time, but we never should have sacked Maldini. I was never for sacking Maldini. I thought that was a horrible decision, but it ended up happening. That was his downfall. The CDK had a shit season. I don't think the rest of Milan had a great season, but that's that's just how the the cookie crumbles. I would say that regardless of even if if you even if they knew that CDK was going to be this good,
01:21:09
Speaker
If you look at it with who they wanted to bring in as the manager and who the manager was when they did get him, which we can say like, oh, he was there. buth There wasn't a place in the team for CDK under Peole and how he wanted to play, and there isn't a place for CDK in the team without Fonseca wants to play, very simply. CDK's best position is very clearly as a second striker, which vote we're seeing in Atlanta, where he can kind of play on the farthest line of the defense, but has freedom still. With a cam under him to be, it it is weird. He is definitely a luxury player,
01:21:45
Speaker
And you need a team that he fits so I don't think that the sale was wrong because even if you had him right now Like what would you do with him? Like yes It was at the end of the day at the end of the day the sale is wrong because if Adelaine to sell him their son from 50 That's true. That's the prices really he's not but he's not 50 mil playing for AC Milan. He's not no. he's here Yeah, that's true. That's true But also, we do have to take into account, and I've said it before, you're kind of seeing a little bit with Juventus and Koop miners, Gasparini just knows how to make a player good. It's his system, they're so attacking in a Gasparini system, like you're going to just have the statistics, because he's like, we are going to score goals, like we're going to always push, push, push, push, rather than have wasted possession. Now, I think that Koop miners is still figuring out he looks great, but
01:22:36
Speaker
Like, obviously, last year, Coop Miners were had probably four goals on Atlanta by now. So it is the Gasparini system. It is. It definitely is. The other kid Champions League game, Champions League game, it's happening to tomorrow, probably, when you guys are listening to this. Juventus is going to Aston Villa. I'm really scared for Juventus. And this one, I think they're going to get their shit kicked in, honestly.
01:22:57
Speaker
I think we'll play for a tie. We also, the fix is in. We got stuck in Birmingham due to ah passports. We were stuck in the airport, the Juventus players, for extra long bullshit. um But yeah, they they submitted the squad list. 14 guys were back to pre-COVID substitutes, only have three subs.
01:23:18
Speaker
I could pretty much guarantee that Mata's going to set up his players the exact same way he did against Milan and just say, let's go get a tie. And Villa has the offensive firepower a little bit more than Milan and probably will score a goal. And I don't think Juventus will be able to do that because we don't have a striker. Douglas Luis fit or no? He's not playing no.
01:23:43
Speaker
tough
01:23:50
Speaker
He's so out of form that even if he was available, I wouldn't play him in this game because of what it could do to his psychological well-being. Like if he goes back to Villa and plays bad and Juventus lose, he might be dead as a player for Juventus.
01:24:12
Speaker
Listen, he's going back to Villa in January. He's not. I just got done saying it was CDK. Sometimes players need little... I agree. not I agree. It's not just plug, it's not just, let me go take a guy from England, put him in Italy.
01:24:28
Speaker
move his home, then has to make new friends, he's a new coffee shop, i new girlfriend and little things like that. Yes, we brought his girlfriend, but still, like it's little things like that that like a a human being needs to get accustomed to. And then you have the other aspect of it of the soccer where it's like, all right, I have to now learn a new system, new position, blah, blah, blah.
01:24:49
Speaker
so Listen, he should go nowhere. I know Urantis has a plethora of midfielders, because Juntly bought every single one that was on the market. um But he should go nowhere, give him some time, he will be fine. I agree. The other game going on, Leo is going to Bologna. There's another one where Bologna is not going to win, in my opinion. Leo is very good, and Bologna has been terrible in Europe. And on top of that, they are still without their two best players. And Indoy,
01:25:20
Speaker
and Ferguson. yeah Grover and Jonathan David will overtake them. Yeah, that's gonna be too much. The other game's going on this week. No idea where this team is from. Ludogorets, I think it's pronounced. They're going to Rome to play Lazio. I'm gonna continue to back Lazio to win pretty much every game they play. I don't think there's anybody they can't beat. And Roma is going to London to play Tottenham Hotspur in... No, this is not the Paki Derby. I thought it might be. But Tottenham is in very good form and they are going to beat shit out of Roma.
01:25:51
Speaker
That's it. That's it. The other one in the conference league, we have Fiorentina playing another team from Cyprus. They're hosting Paphos. And again, Fiorentina is going to rotate the squad and they're still going to win this one. And again, who the fuck are these teams in this conference league? Every single time it's a team I've never heard of.
01:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Fiorentina should, right now, it's be looking to win. Chelsea vs Fiorentina final. If it's not that, I don't know, has there's a major debacle between one of those two teams. Fiorentina is better than Chelsea. That's gonna be a great that's me a great final. No, it's gonna be a great final. I also think Fiorentina, not to talk about this overly,
01:26:34
Speaker
Fiorentina should think they're gonna win the Scudetto, right? Like, they're do ever they're good enough, and I think the same should be said about Lazio and Adelanta. They should be thinking every day where he can win the Scudetto.
01:26:47
Speaker
and it's a lot yeahs is a marathon it's a lot I mean, if you get three points at Inter, I think so. I think, like, obviously their goal from the start of the season was top four, probably. And now that they're in the horse race, I think it's like, listen, guys, let's look around us. Look where we are. Look where everybody else is. There's no reason why we can't be there at the end, right?
01:27:08
Speaker
So I think that Paladino, his mindset should be telling his guys, like, let's go win it. But hey, if Fiorentina do stumble, like we have seen in the past, I don't think that it's going to be like, oh my goodness, Fiorentina are, they're still overachieving, right? If they if they stumble and they go to sixth or fifths. So, but I agree. It's a perfect transition because we this wraps up Europe, brings us to match week 14, which we do want to talk about in the big game to highlight. This is going to be an awesome game.
01:27:36
Speaker
is inter in Florence at Fiorentina. So this is kind of the crux of this conversation right now is now it's Fiorentina the real deal, right? Like this is really that tennis, especially at home where you maybe have a little bit of an edge to go and get the win.
01:27:54
Speaker
That's going to be the most interesting aspect for me personally is to see how Paladino and Fiorentina approach this game at home. I think normally a Fiorentina squad would probably say a draw against one of those big four clubs of or three Inter Roma and or Inter Juventus in Milan.
01:28:13
Speaker
would be a success for their season normally. However, the way that they're playing now, they've won like seven in a row, six in a row. They beat teams up. Inter sometimes have a la lapse of concentration like we talked about. There's no reason why Paladino's not like, let's go get this win. And if we do win,
01:28:34
Speaker
look where we are now. We're now second, depending on how Napoli does, we could be first in the Scudetto race. And it also goes a long way to send a message like this. Hey, this isn't us beating up on this lowered level teams as the smaller teams. We are here to play the big teams. So it'd be really interesting to see how they approach it if they do kind of what they did against Como, sit back and counter attack. But it would just be interesting to see how Paladino, if he goes for a draw or if he's going for all three points.
01:29:04
Speaker
Well, just to show like how close this game is, Inter Milan, eight wins, four draws, one loss, 17 goal differential, 28 points. Fiorentina, eight wins, four draws, one loss, 17 goal differential, 28 points. Exactly the same. hey this This game is extremely fascinating to me because you look at the wing backs, even though the Fiorentinas play wing backs per se, but Gozins and Dodo, the way that they're playing, kind of neutralize, I think, the interest of the best players at this point.
01:29:37
Speaker
I mean, obviously, DeMarco and Dumfries are phenomenal, but I really do think that the way that Gozums and Dodo are playing, that's kind of like an even matchup, right? Then you look at Moise Keene, who is fucking in form out of his mind. I'm very interested to see where he ends up picking his spots in terms of being a lone striker against a three-back. ah I don't know what his plan is or where he decides to end up. This is going to be a problem for Fiorentino's midfield.
01:30:05
Speaker
Yasi and Adley is not made to play against Inter's midfield. I don't think that Kalpani is going to slot in and be able to overwhelm anybody from a defensive standpoint on Inter's side. So I do think that where the breakdown here is going to be is going to be Florence's midfield, the Argentina's midfield.
01:30:25
Speaker
But they are playing in Florence. And so they're playing it's a noon game for us, which means it's six o'clock in Florence. That's going to be a sunset match. The La Viola is going to be fucking firing. Like the people are going to begin after it. This is going to be a fun, fun game. But I really do think it comes down to the midfield and seeing how much how um how informed this team is going to continue on form and not just on talent level versus Inter, who has the talent and maybe not the form right now. Yeah, but at the same time, Fiorentina have already beat Milan this year. They beat Lazio this year. well They've beaten a lot of good teams. like right like They've already shown that they can go get these games, and they're playing now better than they have in any game.
01:31:12
Speaker
And i I just feel good about them to go and get this done, especially what we with what we've seen from Inter in the league with the inconsistencies. And Fiorentina are maybe the most dangerous offense right now outside of Atlanta, even.
01:31:28
Speaker
and interim point to conceding. I just think the biggest difference is that three-back for Kean. Obviously Kean is their top goal scorer and I think that this is a two-back is very different than a three-back when you're when it obviously as you're the striker. So I do think that that's going to be the biggest difference in terms of Florence, true he said Florence, Fiorentina trying to score goals. it It could easily be a nil, nil draw. I wouldn't be surprised. Do you guys think Inzaki parks the bus or no?
01:31:55
Speaker
No, not necessarily, but I think that Fiorentina has been playing so well in the defensive end as well as, I mean, don't be wrong, they're scoring a fuck ton of goals, but they're not giving up a ton, right? So they they could easily shut down Lutaro and Taram, although I I mean, when I'm saying that out loud, that's a tall order. doesn't grow to slowly tired on It'll definitely be a heavyweight matchup with, because we've seen both these teams can win both ways, right? Inter can sit in a shell and counter attack, or they can possess and win, and same with Florentina. So it's really going to be who kind of flinches first and how do each team set up.
01:32:37
Speaker
Interesting one for Anzagi, too, because he's not hot seat, but quite question marks around how long he can be, or if he is a great coach in Paladino now. Next guy kind of thing, right? So a lot of storylines there. Keep it rolling. Verona going to Sardinia to play Kaliorate. This is one I love to see Kaliorate get a win. Continue to extend that that lead out of the relegation zone. I don't feel good about Verona getting points in this one.
01:33:04
Speaker
No comments, great. Monza are going to the lake to play Como. This is when Como absolutely have to win. Let's go little lads by the lake. Get three points. Let's go little lads, mate. This is 18 versus 19. So like win here is really, really important for both of these teams. And I don't think Monza can get it done. So Como, it would be a massive one to kind of bring you out of there, probably.
01:33:31
Speaker
Keep it rolling. Empoli is going to Milan. This is another one. I don't really see Milan getting it done here. Empoli are going to sit in that shell and I have not seen from Fonseca that he can figure out that puzzle. This is going to be a draw. Draw, draw, draw. Yeah, draw all the way. and Draw, draw. Not immediately. So cry to the Milan fans over there. No, I'm no longer. I don't loop myself in there. I remember that.
01:33:55
Speaker
Venezia going to Bologna. I still like the way Bologna I've been playing, i.e. in Venezia, I am no longer defending, so Bologna's gonna win that one. Should be a good game, though. Maybe Castro can get a goal, keep rolling. Genoa going to Udenese. Another difficult task for Vieira here in the second game. I do think Udenese is a team they can go and get a few against. so so I think this is actually gonna be a really good game. I think it's probably gonna be like a two to one or two, two kind of thing. So that should be an interesting one. Lazio going to Parma, always a difficult game at Parma. I still think with how good Lazio have been, they'll edge this one, but Parma is always, always a scary goal threat. And you have to be aware of that. This one, another difficult one for Peroni. He's met every challenge though, so far. This would be a great game. If you're around, watch this game, good two counterattacking teams, both high scoring. This would be a fun one to watch.
01:34:49
Speaker
3-1 Lazio. Yeah, 3-1 Lazio. In Turin, we got Napoli going to Torino. Torino are not good. They really split the script. Yeah, this is Napoli. This is a Napoli extend the lead kind of game, unfortunately. Juventus going to Leche. Leche apparently good. Juventus apparently bad. So maybe Leche win this one.
01:35:12
Speaker
you but Leche beat Verona with Venizia. Leche is rolling, dude. Leche is rolling. I might start defending them next. Yvonne just haven't lost a game of this season. They're not going to start to Leche. They might draw, but they're nothing not going to lose.
01:35:30
Speaker
It's the first game you're gonna not bet $100. I told the Paisano's were I mean this this would be a hundred dollars to win 45 bucks and so then I'll hit that one and then the other and and then I'm lose the next one so then I'm down it doesn't make sense I gotta to stop. Alrighty, Matz has got to stop and then one game two heavyweight teams we didn't highlight this one because it's Atalanta at Roma. So it's in Roma. Is it two heavyweight teams? That is exactly. That's the question. Is it two heavyweight teams? We're talking, we've been talking about Roma being like this marquee matchup everybody's got to play against. And I think now we're finally walking that back, which is this is a team that the new top six or top seven of this season is going to bully for the most part. And I don't see this going another way. Atalanta are going to beat their beat their shit in.
01:36:24
Speaker
It I am waiting for the day of Roma to turn the season to turn their season around and so that way this would be too heavyweight a too heavyweight matchup, but till then We won't be highlighting it because we've talked about we'd be in a dead horse with this wad and Nothing has changed every single week. So till then Roma have to fight relegation and That's the thing with Roman. We've been fighting results by being like, oh, no, but they're the talent. they they They're the roster and they're the manager. But we've been just fighting results. The results suck. They state. We're not going to talk about them anymore. Yeah. And that brings that wraps up match week 14, which does bring us to our last and favorite segment. It's been a long episode. Again, we're on one a week right now, so we got to get straight into it.
01:37:16
Speaker
cor pluna So the unfortunate thing on Hotwin is we can only go downhill from here. We hit all three legs last week. Mats is getting hot now. Not on the UVA bets, but he's getting hot elsewhere. I hit three in a row on over-unders.
01:37:37
Speaker
All right, and then you can leave it off here because I'm assuming you've got an over. Three in a row on over under, so we're keeping with the hot hand. ah I'm just going to say, quick, Lazio at Parma, I think it goes over two and a half. Lazio seemed to score three goals every single game that they play. Parma seemed to score at least one to two. Nice counter-attacking team. So I think it goes over. I think right now it's minus 152 is that line right, Bose? Yeah.
01:38:05
Speaker
So three in a row, looking to make it four in a row, turning my Colby season around. on If heard, yes sir. I have, and I was going to pull a Vos, I tried to be odd, they're a lot right now, so somebody knows something about this game, so I'm not going to go draw, Milana, Emily. A little lads of the late Moneyline plus World 5 is going to get it done this week.
01:38:29
Speaker
They looked good. They looked talented. They looked comfortable. They looked like they needed to get a rune. I think they do. They're at home. Monza's garbage. Denny Malbini kind of sucks still. Still not. I said I was. Still not really on him. Little lads get it done. Plus 105. Money line.
01:38:48
Speaker
I like that one a lot. That's a really good one. And then mine, I have my maybe favorite team at Atlanta, Moneyline at Roma, ton of value there, plus 125. Again, I don't think everybody is adjusting for Roma is just bad this year yet.
01:39:03
Speaker
And I think that's why we're getting value. Last week I had some value and people not recognizing that Fiora and K9 is just good. So now we're gonna roll it into people not recognizing Roma is bad. But that brings the full Kulpi to plus 664. Another fat one, and I do like all three legs again. You guys know what to do with the Kulpi. You bet it singly, you bet it parlayed, and you make some fucking dough.
01:39:30
Speaker
Two in a row, baby. Two in a row. Two in a row. We're going back. We're going back to back. That wraps it up for us, guys. We're going to be back here on Monday to talk what happened to match week 14. We're going to be talking match week 15. You know how it goes. We've been all over the map, mounted to meeting people in New York. If you ever about just yell at them, say something funny to them, tell them about U of A, about 100. Don't know what you're going to say to them. Say anything to them. We want you to get involved, being part of the community. Log's working. Everybody follow us.
01:39:58
Speaker
Isons, for those of you in America, Happy Days Giving. Enjoy the holiday. Say hi to the family when you're around the table. Tell them where to find Caucho Culture. Tell them where to get involved. You can find us on X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, at Caucho Culture FC, and where you're listening right now, Apple Pods and Spotify. Big Boi Mots, welcome back. Take us away.
01:40:27
Speaker
Paisanos, if you're still with us, you guys are the truest fans because this is a the Calcho culture's longest episode ever. So we appreciate you guys listening. ah Do not be a gakuts and forza Calcho.