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Serie A Match Week #12 Review (Episode #32)
50 Plays4 months ago
In this episode of Calcio Culture, Vos and Motts dive into the latest from Serie A and the Azzurri. They kick things off with Quick Shouts, touching on Lecce’s decision to fire Gatti and hire Giampaolo, Balotelli’s chaotic 10-minute appearance with two yellow cards, and Roma’s timely firing of Ivan Juric after just over 50 days at the helm. The guys also discuss the tight Serie A race, with just 2 points separating the top 6 teams, and highlight Italy’s top two goal scorers.
The hosts also take time to honor Serie A legends like Schevchenko, Spalletti, and De Rossi, before discussing the Culpi di Luna recap. The Paisans went 2 for 3 on their picks this week, with Vos the odd man out. They analyze the betting results from matches like Verona @ Fiorentina, Atalanta vs. Udinese, and Empoli Double Chance.
Vos and Motts review the weekend’s Serie A action, starting with Napoli's 1-1 draw at Inter. They discuss the dramatic moments from the match and what it means for both teams moving forward in the title race. They also break down the thrilling Fiorentina vs. Verona clash, where Fiorentina came out on top 3-1, and the 0-2 win for Juventus over Torino in the Turin Derby. In another exciting match, Milan and Cagliari played out a 3-3 draw, with Vos and Motts analyzing the key moments and what the result means for Milan’s ambitions this season.
Moving into the international break, the lads preview the Azzurri's upcoming international fixtures against Belgium on Thursday and France on Sunday in critical Euro 2024 qualifiers. Featuring a break down of Spaletti’s squad, including key players like Donnarumma (PSG), Bastoni (Inter), Barella (Inter), Locatelli (Juventus), Tonali (Newcastle) and Retegui (Atalanta).
They also discuss Italy’s tactical approach for these crucial matches and the squad's balance of experienced players and emerging stars. With Belgium and France both looming, there’s plenty at stake for the Azzurri as they fight for a spot at Euro 2024.
Join the conversation on X, Instagram, Tik Tok & YouTube @calcioculturefc!
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Transcript
00:00:06
Speaker
Hizanos, welcome back to Calco Culture. We really didn't take a break this week. You got Vos here. You got Matz here. We're talking match week 12. We're talking Azuri calls up for the Nations League.
00:00:21
Speaker
And that's about it. It's going to be a busy, packed episode. There was some big news, came out yesterday, right? Some really big news. So we're going to mention that. Ah, bemats. Take it over. We got quick shots. How are you doing? Well, first I got to let the Paisano's ask them how they're doing. How are my Paisano's doing? I'm doing well.
00:00:38
Speaker
We, ah you obviously know as the time of recording, it's Monday. You got to know by now that I love Mondays. Just attack them. Got the best way to approach a Monday is an attack, attack a Monday. Don't let the Monday beat you beat the Monday. But with that said, we'll get into the quick shouts now.
00:00:55
Speaker
ah First one, we ended up doing two YouTube lives. The first one was for the Juventus Torino game, only for the first half. Just wanted to kind of dip our toe in before we did the international one. ah And I would say both were decently successful. We're obviously new to the YouTube live game. So we will be improving as it goes on. But we do think all the Paisanos that did uh tune in it wasn't too many but that's okay uh and we do think the one we got one subscriber from it our goal was to get 20 we got one so we're at 99 so someone's got to be that 100 subscriber but let them know what we did get today Vos we got our 105 star review on Spotify so big milestone there
00:01:42
Speaker
Yes, I think it's our 26 episode 27 around there hundred five stars on Spotify. I love that Slowly climbing there. So continue to like subscribe Comment, we really appreciate it really helps the channel grow. Thanks so much But yeah more lives to come more posts to come more episodes to come so excited for that Yeah, definitely. As we told you guys last week, we're going to step up the marketing. We've got the YouTube lives already. and We're going to try to get some more stuff out on Twitter this week, Instagram. TikTok is going to be back. That was a big hit for a while. so Yes. We're going to have a little bit of that time. But with that, we do have some footy news to go through. Quick shouts. First one. Couple of guys inducted into the Syria ah Hall of Fame.
00:02:31
Speaker
definitely deserve to be there. Andre Shavchenko, Spalletti, and the recently sacked Daniela De Rossi. All good guys, definitely should be in there, no qualms. Agreed. I'm interested to know how this works though, because like normally, at least in the US, all the fame is like they have to be removed from the game for X amount of days in order to, although It's the same with coaches. Yeah, coaches can't be inducted until they're retired, right? Spelletti clearly is still coaching, right? I mean, like, he very much is coaching the national team. ah Daniel De Rossi just started his coaching career. I assume he's going to coach again, and he just got sacked around. Who knows? Might be the new manager. We don't know. But the own the one player and that was
00:03:24
Speaker
or the foreign player, Shavinchenko. He's been removed for a while, so that's good. He deserves it for sure. But yeah, I like- He's also a manager. That's the funny thing. Is he the manager of Serbia? No, no, no. He managed Ukraine, and then he was Genoa's manager a couple of years ago. So like he's also kind of in the mix still, which is funny. Yeah. I mean, that's just classic couch show right there. They just don't have their shit together, right?
00:03:48
Speaker
um But I mean these three like whether they're getting like if it's the US rules where it's like wait five years till after they're fully retired or not the US rules which it's clearly not these three were going to be in no matter what so I guess just put them in whenever you know I mean yeah fair enough they all deserve to be there that's a good point keep it a rolling now Couple managers got fired this weekend. We're going to talk about one in a little more more depth here in a little bit. But from Leche got he fired jump hollow in, which is a good hire from a Leche perspective. We were kind of in agreement. This is the worst team in the league.
00:04:26
Speaker
Yes, we've been fired. John Paul has got experience from Milan and I think Torino, if I'm not mistaken, I could be wrong. I definitely know Milan. So at least he's been at bigger clubs, kind of has seen good culture, knows how to win. I don't know if he's going to turn them around. I mean, Lecce are not that good, hopefully.
00:04:45
Speaker
Like, I still think for the rest of the season, whether they appointed him in the start of the season or not, he'd be battling relegation. I still think they will be. Hopefully he could just light a spark under them, maybe push for a better couple of results and maybe try to be that ah out ah by themselves sometimes not being relegation. But who knows? We'll see what happens.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, who knows? They did get a result this weekend, which we'll highlight here. But yeah, there's still they for me, they're still the worst in the league. I don't really see that changing. They're a really tough watch, pretty consistently for me. Agreed. And then we had a couple more stats we wanted to run through, just general Syria numbers game. Mats, you're the numbers guy here. Other stats of the day here. My favorite one, ah who I think we all could have saw coming, Baldatelli picked up his second yellow card on Thursday in the general match.
00:05:37
Speaker
That now makes him 10 minutes of playing time, maybe 12, around 10 to 12. No more than 15 minutes of playing time has Balotelli gotten since he's been on Genoa and he already has two yellow cards. And that's basically spot on about what you said about them bringing on Balotelli is exactly what he's going to do. He loves Aptics. That's it. Like he he has to make so much noise and he physically cannot help himself. He cannot.
00:06:06
Speaker
Would have been crazy though if you come off the bench in one of these games and scored like a winner But what's gonna happen is the the one game that he does do that people are gonna go crazy when they're not gonna realize it's already been Five six games into his career and he's got like seven yellow cards in one goal But he'll grab the headlines, which is what general will probably want, right? next up update on the top goal scorers of the league. We have two Italian top goal scorers. If you've been following the league at all, you definitely know one of them and that is Rotegi. He's flying high as always. And the second one has jumped up due to a great match week 12.
00:06:47
Speaker
And that's going to be Moisy Keene. I was watching, and I say this on the YouTube live, I was watching CVS on Saturday afternoon at what Thorentina played. And Mike Grella said, breaking news, you cannot score goals when you're sitting on the bench. You can score goals when you're playing game in and game out. On Juventus, Keene was obviously sitting on the bench, didn't score one goal last season. On Thorentina, he obviously starts every game and he's got 11 goals.
00:07:15
Speaker
ah in the season already. That, I'm not sure I have to check that. That probably equals the amount of goals you've scored in the last three years on Juventus under a life beat. Yeah, that's probably true. And the the thing about both of these guys is they're not just like converting a ton of penalties. They're playing very well, scoring goals from open play and just doing a lot of different things well.
00:07:40
Speaker
Which is why now, I mean, I saw today, Ritegi now linked to Arsenal. arsenal fifty I'm sure somebody's going to come in for Moise Eikin very soon. I didn't see Eikin linked to anybody, but I saw on Twitter that in his contract when he made the mu move, he's got a $52 million dollar release clause in his contract.
00:07:59
Speaker
Yeah, for me, it's still a little bit steep to trigger that for another club right now with his track record. But he just looks like a completely different player. as it Even at it at his best, and when he was maybe at PSG was probably when he's at his best, he wasn't even close to this good.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah. he And he's still complete right now. He's really complete. And like his second goal was a corner kick poachers poachers goal. Like he stuck his foot out there. If someone's head was there, he probably wouldve got a red card because he threw that shit so high up. But he just touched the the ah like just flick the ball into the back of the net. And then his third goal to get the hat trick was a punt from De Gea. He took the ball from the bottom of the semicircle into the 18 made a move and His finesse slash power shot is the best I've ever seen him have it this year. it He hits it so hard, but at the same time, so accurate. And and you can tell it's paying off with 11 goals. And and now Fiorentina are looking like geniuses buying him him for
00:09:03
Speaker
13 mil from Juventus and now a lot of Juventus fans are upset that we didn't keep him to have under Mata. But listen, I got to say this, would it be great to have him under Mata? Sure. Would he be replicating this exact form? I don't know, right? I think a lot of this is Paladino's fingerprints all over him right now.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's probably true. And granted, like under Allegri, there was only so much this guy could do. Like we saw with Dusan, Dusan is continuing to have his own issues. So it would be interesting if Mozakeen was there because I think he probably would have stolen some starts at this point. For sure. But yeah, this is going to be a great story to continue to watch. He's making Spiletti is going to have an interesting decision whether or not he's going to play both of them. Well, I think Spiletti came out and said it could be Kenan Rategi, but we'll see. But yeah, I mean, this is great for the national team, just having another nine playing well. Moving on, though, from the last stat of the day, which is my personal favorite stat of the day and why I love Kautja, why you love Kautja, why Logs debatably loves Kautja. I don't know if he actually does because he likes to skip so many episodes.
00:10:11
Speaker
But this is why this is the best league in the top five European leagues, best league in the world. You have two points separating first place in sixth place. And as I mentioned, we're now 10 games in so that you can basically tell that this is what's going to happen game in and game out. I think that's what we're going to get this season, which I love. Yeah, what's also funny is the bottom six also has two points separating them.
00:10:38
Speaker
it's dangerous and talk and It's dangerous at the bottom. It's very scary. And you'd think like at some point we'd check in on the table and be a little bit more open, but it's like, we're 12 games in now. Like if somebody had wanted to start building a lead, we would have hopefully seen it by now. Like if this was going to be a runaway, like I don't see a situation where anybody runs away with the title anymore. I told you that this there was this season was not going to be a runaway.
00:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, listen, once again, it is only 12 games. And could could somebody have built like a five, six, seven point gap by now? Yes, but no one's running away. 12 games in obviously, about two, two points is the lowest in all five leagues. I think the next lowest is like, or maybe five. So everything's up for grabs. And Not you really got to hope that with with how close it is I'm sure these Italian teams are also hoping everybody does go to the Champions League because you got to get that fit spot again with imagine like um You ventis get fifth place on I don't know 68 points, you know what I mean? Like that's very realistic on what could happen right now with how the season is playing out Yeah, what I think it's crazy is that
00:11:48
Speaker
Fiorentina, Lazio, Adelanta should all be looking at this table thinking there's no reason we can't win the Scudetto this year. Which is crazy that all three of them are going to be like thinking we're good enough to beat everybody.
00:12:06
Speaker
Well, it's just like an unheard of with this, like you can actually win the Scudetto. And also say, if you look at the gold differential, it's not like ah one, one of these teams is completely blowing it out. It's 10 to four or 16 to 10 between these six teams. called So it's six gold difference between every team. So.
00:12:28
Speaker
It's crazy. I mean, this is, I don't know when somebody's going to pull away. I'm not sure somebody will pull away. I don't think somebody will either. the whole sounds like I can see all of these teams on any given day pulling points off of each other too. So like those games when you are playing your top 16 are going to mean a lot this season.
00:12:47
Speaker
I'm looking at their all of these 16 is last five game form and there's seven games where haven't been one and that's what is that five times six 30 games so they're 23 23 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 20, 3, 5, and 2. That's insane. And it's crazy that the only two teams that haven't lost their previous five games are Atalanta. And the other team that lost one of them, Lazio has lost one of their last 11. So they've won 10 of their last 11. Calcho this year is incredible.
00:13:25
Speaker
And like we've had some big games that have been a little bit of sleepers, which sucks, but like all the other games are really good. Been great. And it's been a tight league and that's why cultural culture was created. That's why we're glad the Paisanos are coming on this ride. Uh, and we're, we can't wait to continue to recover this league and see what, how this, this season shakes out. But before we end this quick shouts, um,
00:13:50
Speaker
Was we checking the Colby first or? Yeah, we could check the Colby for a second. We'll go back. Yeah. And you can, you can talk Colby because I, I'm the only one that didn't hit this week. I'll talk Colby. I've now hit two legs in a row. So don't let me get hot. Do not let me get hot. My leg obviously was Verona Fiorentina over two and a half. Moisey King actually just hit that for me by himself. So I appreciate that Moisey King.
00:14:14
Speaker
So don't want to get hot here. We're starting to roll. We're going to get my 20% percentage up a little bit higher game in game out. Uh, Lowe's leg also hit, although he took a pussy pussy leg by doing a double chance. Cause he could have two results, but nonetheless, it did hit. He bet Emily double chance. And, um, obviously Emily drew. And so Lowe's and me went to an O and then you go ahead and talk about your leg.
00:14:41
Speaker
Atalanta minus one and a half at home against Unezay. I don't know how they didn't get it done. Listen, every time I bet on Atalanta, this happens. Every time I bet on Atalanta. One and a half is a tough bet, especially for the couch show. It's a tough bet to bet a team one and a half.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, but i I'm assuming Atlanta score three goals every game. That's a fair assumption, but not this time. Yeah, not this time, but low is low key starting to hit a lot of legs. Yeah, because he takes double chance every week if you look at it. Every time. Every time he comes on, he doesn't come on because he's never on an episode. He calls in before we start and he says, I want this team double chance or I want this team plus 0.5.
00:15:24
Speaker
So he's basically doing what we said we were not going to do. We might need to adjust the batting average to take into account odds on it. I don't know how we would do that. Yeah, that would be tough to do. But it'd be interesting. That's a cool P. There is one other. It's not even a quick show. but We just have to simply talk about.
00:15:43
Speaker
We talked about how the league's been great. A lot of the teams, almost all of them have been great, except for one. And that's AS s Roma. And this weekend, following the loss to Bologna, they have officially moved on from Ivan Urich.
00:16:00
Speaker
Gut reaction, right decision, wrong decision? My opinion is that this was a good decision because Yurich is not the guy that's going to take them to the next level. I've said that from the start. He was never the right appointment. ah if you If he was going to be the right appointment, at the the only thing he would have done was have Roma finish as good as they did last year, nothing better. If that, that was his seal, which Roma, bending the $100 million dollars that they did in the summertime, obviously their goal is to do better than they were during last season, right? Which the Rossi didn't have long enough time to try to do that. And not ah not not that I think they give Yurich enough time to do that either, but he was never gonna be the guy to to make that next step.
00:16:53
Speaker
so It's terrible because they're in such shambles. I have two managers already out the door before we're even 15 matches into the season. But it's the right move because now hopefully you can get that guy that can make you take that next step.
00:17:09
Speaker
Yeah, but so this is the the other thing that makes this difficult. And it started with the Yurich appointment because they fired Yurich and it's like, okay, who do we bring in? Like there's nobody really around. So that's kind of how they got to Yurich. Like he'll just get us through the season. So now you fired Yurich in these meetings.
00:17:29
Speaker
Are you hiring for the rest of the season? Are you hiring a long-term guy? Because in my opinion, nobody they would be hiring right now is a guy that's a long-term guy, who they're linked to. Mancini, who's the most likely, I think it is right now. I think so. Mancini, I saw reports that they reached out to him. There's Mancini, Lampard, Ruby Garcia, Allegri, and a couple other minor names.
00:17:56
Speaker
i I don't really have confidence in any of them as a long-term solution here. And that's where I'm really worried about it. And when I would go with Allegri out of that group, honestly, because you're, if you bring in a new manager now, what is your objective for the rest of the season in the league? Like at best.
00:18:19
Speaker
like conference league probably at this point. like Are they that far back? There are only five points behind Milan and Bologna, but there Milan and Bologna have a game in hand. Yeah, there are 11 points off of a European spot. Granted, we don't know if we're going to get the bonus spot yet. So there are 11 points off of conference league as of now, right? That is a lot to make up.
00:18:41
Speaker
And especially when you've been really bad. So when you're hiring somebody, your decision needs to be not only hiring for an objective this season, but then you also need to tick the box for, are they going to be here and next season? And they that is a very difficult place to be hiring somebody.
00:18:58
Speaker
you're not you hit the nail on the head there. It's also, if you can't give them a ton of money, because you already have two guys on payroll, especially De Rossi's contract was for three years, like you just extended him to then fire him. So whoever you bring in has to be kind of a cheaper option, right? I i still think De Rossi is actually the best option because I also think he would do it. And then number two, if he fails miserably again, then it's you didn't fail out him then you fire at the end of the season and it's really not a big deal. If he does well, you ride him out longer. and I think you could spin it the way that you could spin it, because it it will look terrible, no matt like bringing him back.
00:19:41
Speaker
But the way you could spin in is I forgot the lady's name that fired him, but she's gone. She was the the one that didn't want him around. She's the reason why De Rossi was fired, right? And we're bringing him back because he's loved by the players, he's loved by the fans, and he actually was a pretty good coach when we had it.
00:20:00
Speaker
Right. However, there's another side to it that DeRosi won one game in the, in, out of the last, his last 15 games. So it's also, that's like, that is technically a fireable offense. I don't think he was given enough time with all the new people that were coming in.
00:20:17
Speaker
But like if another manager does that, it wouldn't be as crazy to fire that man, right? But I think that bringing in Mancini or Leggo, like a Leggo is going to want a lot of money. Mancini's been removed from club football for the last almost six years. He just got fired from the Saudi international team, right?
00:20:37
Speaker
um A leg great like we saw what he did with the event is last year. It's just defense, defense, defense, like that's not going to make Roma get them to where they need to be. So they're in a really, really tough spot. And I really did like your take where, listen, it will look terrible if you, if you reap a point the rosy, like it'll look awful.
00:20:59
Speaker
But at least, at the very least, you could then get rid of him in the summer. And then when other managers contracts are up or been sacked, you can reevaluate and then try to get the long-term guy. Or maybe De Rossi does what he did exactly what he did last year, somehow rejuvenates the squad and they go on a crazy run.
00:21:19
Speaker
This is just a terrible situation for the club to be in. Because three managers, not 15 games in the season, screams we're going to finish the season with five managers. like yeah Also, therere are they are five points off relegation.
00:21:36
Speaker
And so I think they're too good to get relegated, realistically. So that's another thing before I move on, is I wanted to talk about this. At this point, we now have to ship some of this to the players, like Mourinho said it, De Rossi didn't ever say it, but Mourinho said it and Yurch said it.
00:21:53
Speaker
the players have no mentality. they don't They don't give a shit. There's no desire. They're just out there and then they're out there. So you got to somehow develop these players to have desire and mentality. But at this point, it's not just it's on everybody. It's on front office for not knowing yeah what your project is and who you want to get to build that project.
00:22:15
Speaker
It's on the managers for not motivating the players enough or putting the players in positions to succeed. And then it's on the players for not just having the balls and the green cut and the desire to actually go try to win a game. Yeah, butll we'll see. I think once we know who's going to get hired, it's going to be a good indication of Have they got their shit together at all at this club? Because I genuinely think Mancini will not make it to the end of the season if they hire him. I just don't know what he's going to do different. Like, you know, he's an old school manager, but like not as good defensively as Allegri and not overly creative.
00:22:59
Speaker
I don't know. i don't know me there He's just been out of it for too long. i just this just this This could get so much scarier than it already is. yes actually He's been coming from the international level. It's much more just like, let me continue all this forum that all my players have been in over the season and I'll just kind of sprinkle in where I can. Club level, it's very much like you have a lot more on your plate to figure out.
00:23:23
Speaker
yeah it yeah we'll see they they made it seem like they were gonna announce who was coming in today but it didn't happen so i expect this in the next day or two yeah i mean the other thing depending on how long this takes How did you not already have this lined up like if you guys knew it was going to be this close? Yeah, that's a good point not having it lined up. But I will say at least that it is the international break. So if they appoint tomorrow or Wednesday, they have like 10 days to kind of be with the squad. Not that I think it will do a whole lot, but it will do something.
00:23:59
Speaker
So listen, to sum it up, Roma's in an awful situation, but firing Yurich, although it doesn't look great, I don't think puts them in any worse of a situation because for them to take the next step that they so want that they wanted to and show that they wanted to, Yurich is not the guy. So at least they moved on from the guy that wasn't going to get in there, but we don't we still don't think that they're about to hire the guy that is. Yeah, that's the tough fire. That's the tough fire. And we're going to see, we'll be on here to talk about it.
00:24:29
Speaker
as soon as we know who's coming in. But to move on, we're going to go to the match reviews for match week 12. Probably the most anticipated game of the season so far happened. Napoli visited Inter. That's the one we went YouTube live for this. And this is really where we got to start because this was an interesting game for 45 minutes. And then it was a terrible game for 45 minutes.
00:24:52
Speaker
First half was a great game, right? We, I mean, it's pretty much one as somewhat like we predicted, Inter's going to have the ball, Napoli was going to sit back and defend. However, we did think that when we were watching Napoli didn't really sit back, they did defend, but they allowed Inter to have the ball in Inter's half, not really so much in their own half, which made it a lot harder for Inter to move the ball down into Napoli's half and create chances and score goals, right? And though Napoli ended up scoring the first goal, but due to the kind of that counter press in pushing higher up to field and having interplay the ball in their half, it led to a corner kick, which then was flicked on by Rachmani for McTominay to score, who just keeps on proving that he's been one of the best summer signings because he is in a ton of goal scoring chances.
00:25:42
Speaker
And then, it however, when Napoli did score, I did say on the live that Inter's now going to step on the gas and try to get that equalized before the half. And that did end up coming in the 43rd minute from a absolute wonder shot from Hakan. Moret did get his whole hand on it, so might probably could have been, should have been saved, but Hakan's got the technique and the power. So it was definitely a tough save and great goal.
00:26:08
Speaker
The other notable thing is that Khan did miss a penalty. So this very well could have been two to one. That penalty we also thought was kind of soft a little bit. It could have gone either way, but I mean, that's what happens in stereo. But regardless what happens, it's one to one. Nobody really, Kontay doesn't get any more points on the table really and extend his lead. Inter on the other hand, they probably felt they needed to win. And this was a win for Kontay in my mind, right? Like maintains your lead at the top of the table.
00:26:36
Speaker
played one of the best teams in the league away from home. You get your draw. In his mind, it's a win. But I do want to start with Nzangi, because Inter also played a lot differently than we had seen them play so far this year. We had really been on Nzangi for playing like this deep, lying, counter-attacking team, even regardless of who the competition was. And against now, the Napoli team that we know want to sit deep, want to counter you hard, he then played much more expansive Galcho, which I didn't really expect.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yeah, but I would say like they were, it was exp expensive, but it wasn't, they weren't to me going to try to push for that win really. There wasn't even at the end of the game, like they weren't, they didn't have those, those final chances that usually a team gets when one team is playing for a tie and one team is playing for a win, which I didn't love, especially because of the amount of players that were rested against Arsenal for this game, right?
00:27:30
Speaker
They were arrested for them to be energized and ready to go attack and take the game to Napoli. And I don't think that they really did that. I do think that Kante, what he implemented, that high press made it much harder for them to go and take this game over and in and kind of be on the front foot and attack.
00:27:48
Speaker
So I was expecting they definitely were more progressive in that they were not sitting in their low shell and they had the ball a lot, but they didn't go take the ball and try to get try to create chances or even cross it. You kept saying there's they're not putting the ball in the box enough. They weren't creating anything when they had the ball. They were just kind of fine with having possession. So I i didn't I thought that there needed to be more like kind of attack mindset from them in this game.
00:28:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think what we did, and honestly, the second half, I'm kind of going to throw out, but what the second half kind of felt like to me was that everybody threw their punches in the first half. And then they're like, you know what, nothing happened. We're tied still. Let's just, if we, they get to it, let's pack it in. That seems like what both teams are okay with doing. So it's more so just talking about the first half. Yeah. First, I mean, well, to your point about the progressive football, I mean, we multiple, a chirby had that shot in the box.
00:28:44
Speaker
Like we were on the live being like, oh, where is Bastoni right now? And obviously playing left wing. So it was definitely the Insagi ball in terms of fluidity, fluid, fluidity, fluidness, but not in terms of their typical, oh, we're going to go score three goals. Execution. There's more lack of X. And I think partially a lack of drive and mentality, which is what we pointed to before. And that's what I was crying out for, like get it to DeMarco to cross in. DeMarco didn't really cross it in at all. Dumfries does basically not exist then.
00:29:13
Speaker
yeah the good The good news, I think, for Inter now is this was the first time I think a Cherby, Nastoni, Hakan, and Varela have all played together in a long time. And it did make a massive difference because Hakan and Varela When they're both on the field, it allows them to be so much more fluid. And Zelensky doesn't really understand that role yet. So like when Hakan can drop in, and also Hakan's passing range is just ridiculous. Like every game he shows it, he just picks up the pace of the game at will by just taking a ball that cuts out half the team. it's in i don't Nobody on the field can do it. It's ridiculous.
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, Akan's a beast. Unfortunately, he missed that PK. Now he's 19 for 20 for his career at Inter, but I will say to your point. first time, not the first time, but very good by Inter to not have that mental lapse that they normally have in the 80th to allow a goal that they've done so many times. So we're starting to see that mentality for Inter last a full 90 minutes, three games in a row now, or even four games since that Juventus 4-4 essentially, right? They beat Empoli 3-0, Venezia 1-0, Arsenal 1-0, and then Inter Napoli 1-1.
00:30:29
Speaker
So there wasn't any of those lapses like the Juventus game. So that's what Inter have been struggling with. So it was good that that didn't come up. So now maybe Inzagi can take the Arsenal and the Napoli game parlay them into a win streak or a no loss streak like he did so well last season with this squad.
00:30:48
Speaker
I got one more question for you on enter because another thing that I was saying a lot while we were watching this game was Marcus Taram. When he got the ball, he was slowing down. He wasn't attacking space. He wasn't attacking players. He wasn't making runs in behind. I'm a little bit worried about him because part of his role was being like the second guy and being like, Oh, I'm in the under the shadow of Lataro. I would say a little bit. And.
00:31:14
Speaker
I think what made him come out of that was he just worked so hard and was so direct. And then in this game, he had so many opportunities. And it's not only in this game, in the last couple of games, he's really slowed down his production. Do you think he's kind of got like big man syndrome? Like, hey, um I've been the best guy in the league to start the season. I can kind of be cute and pretty and not just be like my ruthless finishing, my ruthless running that got me here. Because that's what it that's what it seemed like a little bit to me.
00:31:41
Speaker
I don't know if he's got big man tension yet, maybe a little bit. I just, I mean, a lot of games, probably tired. Uh, I don't know if that's specifically because like, doesn't have the attitude for it anymore. It might be that I really don't know, but I do agree. Like, especially there was twice when they had him on, they could have had him on the counter and it would have been like a three on three. And instead of Taram going and driving him and putting him on their back heels, he just let Napoli kind of recover and get the numbers. So I don't know if it's the big man, uh, kind of a syndrome, but he's definitely working less hard.
00:32:16
Speaker
But I will have to see if that continues right because that that was the case for this game for sure But he could definitely go and have two or three against Verona next game. I will also say his partner in crime Latara Martinez had I would say two chances that last season Latara Martinez scores And so, you know, Lutaro did get his goal against Emily, which I know they were on a red, but like sometimes strikers just need that, right? They just need to see the ball go in the net in order for them to like
00:32:49
Speaker
of kickstart their season. He hasn't been able to do that yet, even when he does score. So I mean, there's one that it was a great ball from Dumpries on the left hand side. And Lutaro, for whatever reason, didn't hit it on the one time, let it go across his body. But then the touch went straight into the defender. So Lutaro needs to do better because if Inter, if Lutaro keeps this form up, Inter's going to finish not, they're not winning this free death though.
00:33:15
Speaker
Yeah, they need goal contributions. I mean, tiam since Taram has slowed down, the problem is nobody's picked up the pace. And he was really like dragging. He probably draw dragged this team to where they are more so than the team. yes So it's going to be interesting now. If nobody like somebody has to pick it up and start scoring, this is their best team, I would say, in terms of having everybody healthy the that they've had in a while, I would say. And I think Akon makes a big difference there. Flipping it over to the Napoli side of things,
00:33:45
Speaker
Antonio Conte, like you said, had a little bit of a trick up his sleeve and suddenly deployed to this high press, which we really did not expect. And even more than that, when they did break the press, he really wasn't willing to sit all that deep. They were kind of in a mid block the whole game.
00:34:01
Speaker
which I think tripped up Inter a lot. For sure. i made It just made Inter have to possess it a lot more in their half than in Napoli's half, which were to their favor. And Napoli typically lose the possession stats of the possession game pretty significantly, like 60-40, typically. And this one was 53-47. Like, Napoli lost the possession game to Empel.
00:34:25
Speaker
Like that shows you how Napoli typically want to play games. This game in the second half, they actually won the possession 54 or 46. So it it was very much Kante saying, hey, we're not going to sit back like they think we are. We're going to press them when they're on the ball and make them Like every single time, Inter had a corner kick or a free kick that was cleared out the first time by Napoli. They then pressed so hard that Inter had to go all the way back to Jan Summer and then recreate a chance. That took ah took time off the clock and made them move the ball. It just made them not have consistent chances. And that's why Inter's XG was only one point.
00:35:07
Speaker
Uh, well, like 1.55 and they had a PK in that 1.55. So it was a really great game by content, great um defensive game by content. And that's what he does with one game a week. He knows he analyzes how to best set his team up and he sets his team up that way and executes it to perfection every time.
00:35:27
Speaker
Yeah. if you The way they put, they were just unwilling to lose this game realistically. And I think a guy that actually, who hasn't played a ton over recent weeks, came off the bench and played amazing was LeBotka. And he came in and in the 60th minute, I think he helped them possess the ball a lot more and kind of chill the game. Cause that's pretty much what they did. They were just killing the game, keep going, yeah sending into back. And then when they got the ball, you have to come get it off of us. Like we're not going to take any risks in the box. It was literally commanding people around the field and outer.
00:35:57
Speaker
Hold the barge. That was it. He killed it all. Yeah. And content rational peace real and then you you saw also at the end of the game, I think it was 70th or so minute. Conte was every single time the ball went out of bounds or I was a foul. You just saw Conte had his hands up just screaming to his players like, I spat, I spat, wait, slow down, like stop. Like just let's drag this game out where it's where we have the result we want in the San Sierra one to one.
00:36:27
Speaker
flow it down, possess the ball, do not force anything and stay in position and that's exactly what they did. ah and that It was perfect because they they started the game, high press, got their first goal and then allowed to allow them to be off the ball doing their normal kind of higher press than normal. But it was just perfect perfectly executed and it happened because they were able to get the first goal.
00:36:56
Speaker
Following this game, who do you think is better right now, and who do you think has a better shot at winning the league? but Between Napoli and Inter? I think, I mean, this it's so tough, right? Yeah. Because, I mean, I think Sorrentina, Atalanta, Lazio, and Juventus all have the same exact chance to win the league then so when the league as Inter and Napoli. Correct.
00:37:21
Speaker
It is so hard to differentiate who's the best out of everybody up there. right yes at At the end of the day, there is one of these six teams that only plays once a week and that is Napoli. like That's a good point. Whether it be the conference league or not, they're playing twice a week and then they lose in the conference league the other day. Yeah. And they want to get deep in that league, right? So so later on in the season when they're playing quarterfinals, semi-finals, he's going to have to play his best players, Paladino, obviously. Same thing with Lazio, right? So they're all in other competitions besides Napoli. So it's going to really, really be come down to the wire. And I honestly, I don't have an answer for you. I have no idea.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, that's dumb. I can't even tell you who's the best in the league right now. Like, for me, I actually think Napoli are playing worse than they played for like that... I would tell you right now, the hottest three teams are Atalanta, Fiorentina, Lazio. Yeah, that's a hard pill too. It's crazy to think about. But yeah, that wraps up this game. This was an opportunity for both of these teams to make a big statement. And they really just played out of draw. And they're both okay with it.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I and that's what I was kind of shocking to me about intro I do think Napoli like I said did a great job at the end of the game killing it up I didn't see it from into was like we got to go get this game now get three points We got to take this game and become number one because we're at home I didn't see it at all in the end in fact from the 88th minute the 93 Third, Napoli had the ball and were just passing it around Inter. And then I think it was in going and accidentally pass it out of bounds. So Inter had the ball back, but they weren't able to get anywhere close to scoring. Because typically what you normally see is like a team like Napoli, that's a way, kind of sit deep, keep sitting deeper and deeper and deeper into their shell, holding on to the game while the team enters home wanting to hunt for the three points.
00:39:19
Speaker
yeah keeps pushing up and pushing and pushing up. That was not the case at all. And that's why Napoli were able to get away with this with the 1-1 draw. Win for Conte. That's the takeaway for me. Conte won the game. Moving on, some other games that happened this weekend. um We mentioned earlier, Bologna went to Rome and beat Roma 3-2, which led to the event Jurec Sacking. On the other side of things, big result for Italiano. Like you just won a shootout, which we don't really expect from him. And Bologna now, three out of the last five haven't lost any out of their last five. Things are starting to move in the right direction. For a team that's pretty weak compared to what we're after,
00:39:57
Speaker
and I would say they still don't even have the best player in Lewis Ferguson, although I don't know exactly what the injury is, and though I did get stretchered off, which I totally forgot about.
00:40:09
Speaker
but no yeah you're right italiano's starting to figure this thing out They're not flying as high as Paladino and Florentina, obviously. But listen, sin they have a game in hand. They're at 18 points that they and they they do have to play Milan. So that can be a walk in the park. But you can maybe let's assume they tie that. You're at 19 points. You're only five off of six place. You're right there. And that that goes to show like all those draws that they were getting does have significant meaning because they were still tallying up points. And now that they're starting to get some wins and three points,
00:40:39
Speaker
it's starting to show and that's why they're in eighth in the table which isn't it's a respectable spot right now right and i think there's more upside to come depending on those injuries but i want to flip it to roma really quick and i know we already talked about it a little bit but i want to go talk about it because this game if you watched it Two of their, so Bologna scored four goals in this game and one of them was called back due to her handball. But the guy's hand was on his hip and in my opinion, it should not have been a handball because he was literally on his hip and it was in like a natural position.
00:41:15
Speaker
So Bologna squared four goals and three of those goals, but one of them that was called back. So two of them were lucky deflections that just went Bologna's way. Okay. So for the Roma players, it's kind of frustrating because you're like, we can't buy a break. Like we're, we're getting these deflections that are going in the back of the net. Like we're, we're tip, we're tipping the ball and there's still, we're blocking it and it still ends up in the back and up.
00:41:39
Speaker
However, it was two to one at the point when when Bologna scored their third goal that got called back for a handball. You need to take that call that went in your favor and grab all of the momentum. you are You have the better players than Bologna.
00:41:57
Speaker
at every position you are better than them. You got some momentum by the AR giving you the momentum. You now need to get together as it grew and go get the next goal. And what happened? Bologna got the next goal by some of the worst defending I've ever seen in my entire life. Mancini was playing In center mid, there was no center back on the right-hand side of the pitch and Bologna just passed it around El Shirowe and was an easy goal. It was the worst defending I've ever seen. There was no fight and I kept saying that there's no mentality. That was strictly on the players I thought this game.
00:42:35
Speaker
I mean, what I've seen from the players all this season is it started poor. And when things got tough, everybody continued to get worse. And that's kind of like how it's going. The defending was really good at the beginning of the season. We're like, here's their bright spot. um Mancini's playing well. And Dica's playing well. They're going to be OK defensively. They lose a game. Defending slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly just keeps getting worse and worse and worse. And now it's like like you're saying, like basic defending. Nobody's doing well.
00:43:02
Speaker
50-50 balls near and around the box. No effort to try to win them. And it's just piling on. They don't have a player and they don't have somebody in the organization that's willing to take the reins. and all They do. They should. They should. I feel like that's... Hummels was just in the Champions League final. he's but He at least can lead these guys. Yeah, but he's not even playing. But play him. Why is he not playing? Like play him. I mean, for Pete, I don't know how it's not one of Mancini or Pellegrini, or Tristante even. And he's been telling- I think those three, like those three, we need to stop kind of looking at as high caliber players because year in and year out, this is normally they're better than this, right? But
00:43:49
Speaker
Roma have never finished the top four in how long, like, most of them have been their pillars for how long. It kind of goes back to the, for me, although these players did much better for their team Napoli, the Koolabale, Insigny, and who was their other third player that was one of their pillars.
00:44:07
Speaker
I mean, I would say like Mertens or Amshin. Yeah, exactly. But then those two players left and look what happened in Napoli. They won the Scudetto, right? Not saying that I think that Roma need to let go of Mancini, Pellegrini and Cristante, but maybe it's time to realize like, hey, these aren't the players that are going to get us to where we need to be.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah. And what's tough is Dybala has the heart, but he's not like a rally the troops kind of guy. Yeah. He's also, that was also another thing I was watching the game and Yurj said Dybala is not in the lineup and Dybala got pissed off about that and told the press that the medical team cleared me to play. So Yurj just totally didn't add him in the lineup when he was available to play. So just,
00:44:54
Speaker
turmoil, turmoil, turmoil in Roma. And it's also, you build a team around a guy like Dabala, the issue with Dabala is he doesn't play every game. So when he is not there, you have a big hole to fill. But I will say this, I'll give one guy flowers. He's a veteran of the squad. He's a veteran of the league. El Shirowe has been a great player for Roma this year. He scored most of their goals. He creates most of their chances.
00:45:19
Speaker
He was trying to do some of the defensive work for Manchini, although not as he's not a defender. But what, like, Al Sharawe, he's a's at the end of his road, right? Like, he's not going to be a guy that's going to lead you for the next 10 years. Who should be doing this is Sulei. That's why they paid for Sulei. Sulei's doing nothing, although I think he's getting better and better at every game. He's still doing nothing. Dovbik doing nothing. Like, that the players that they've brought in to do stuff are doing nothing. I think, uh,
00:45:47
Speaker
Kune's doing something, right? He's doing better in the midfield for them, but all these players are doing nothing for them. Yep. He keeps talking about it. It's at some point, we thought it's going to get better. Maybe it's not. I don't, maybe it's not going to get better. Maybe this is how good they are. They got a long road. I'll say that a very long road.
00:46:05
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to be talking about the next manager as soon as we hear about that. But to keep it rolling, Komo went to Genoa, tied this game one-to-one. I think Genoa are probably feeling bad about this one. i they This is one you should win at home, if you're Genoa, I think. For Komo, draw away from home.
00:46:23
Speaker
I think you take it at this point. They haven't been playing particularly well last five games, three losses. They haven't won a game in a while. So for them, this is a good result. You're staying out of the relegation zone, pulling points early. general ah Yeah. That's, but that's everybody down there.
00:46:38
Speaker
Yeah. Another one, Emply went to Leche, tied that game one-to-one. Good result for Leche, I'd say. They really needed this. But Emply is going to be comfortable with these kind of results oh all year long, realistically. They're probably sad that they conceded because they were up 1-0 at one point. And if you're Emply and how good, you've been defensively.
00:46:58
Speaker
You got to close this one out again. You do. I'm looking at the table right now. You're only five points above 17th, which is the one spot out of relegation. And we've been talking about how good of a season Emily has. You get these three points and you're at 17. You're looking large in ninth, right? Like, that's a big difference. Yeah, it is. I would have liked to see them get that one done. Sam. They didn't. um For Leche,
00:47:24
Speaker
big result, I guess. I still... Not that big a result, just one point. It has more of an effect on Emply not than Leche getting it. Yeah, that's true. I agree. One team that did get a very big result was Parma going to Venezia.
00:47:44
Speaker
Our place to play, we've been saying it all year, Venezia, it is hard to win games in Venezia. And honestly, from a Venezia perspective, they've dropped more points at home than they should have. Because it doesn't actually do them justice because they've played so, so good at home every tire and they just can't get rid of salt. They always concede the late goal. They look good.
00:48:06
Speaker
But it's a big game for Parma. These were two teams that got promoted this year. You just took it to one of the teams that you got promoted with. Massive. Yeah. And listen, if you're Parma, Karma is very hard to beat at home. So the most, as many points as you can get away from home is Grady. Last five games for Parma now, only one loss, three draws and a win. So they're starting to figure out how to not get red cards and get at least a point in games and sometimes three.
00:48:34
Speaker
Yeah. And if you look at it, some of the teams are above, they're above Verona, Callery, Genoa, Monza are like, these are Serie A, like proven clubs now. And you're making a big statement. If you continue to roll, they're not quite out of relegation yet. They're three points off. So, I mean, they've got some work to do still, but if everybody kind of down here, I still think they look the best. Yeah. Great. Good support, man.
00:48:58
Speaker
I'm going on to the, literally the hardest place to play. If you ask a particular coach, a lot of fun. Seca this past week went around Madrid, beat them, this shot here. You said calorie are harder to play than round and trade or what happens. The wild go to calorie cannot get it done.
00:49:18
Speaker
three to definitely call this They lose the shootout in Sardinia, they tie it, not good enough for Milan. There was a couple of things that did happen in this game that I want to point out. Milan's defending is dog shit, and very simply. And number two, if you don't show up to play calorie, they're going to bring it to you. But in all seriousness, great result for calorie. I don't think we need to talk too much about them. They scored a fucking sick volley to level this game.
00:49:47
Speaker
But one it goes that one of the goals of the season probably. Yeah, and I love this Calliura team. I hope they stay up. There's a ton of exciting players. That dude scored twice. Zappa, he had two goals. Yeah, that's why he's better. And then, um yeah, Calliura has made that stadium kind of a fortress to share. It's been very difficult to go there. And I'm happy that they got this result. From a muon side of things, you cannot concede three goals against Calliura.
00:50:13
Speaker
You cannot. you can Also, they they conceded when they put on, they put they went to more of a defensive lineup. They took out Polisic, they took out Liao, they took out Evanson Royale, ah subd on ah ta may they on they subbed on I'm forgetting who who who they subbed on, but they went defensive and they let in a goal. So that's off. Number one. Number two, here's a question. Do you think if Fronseca did not say, like, did he get in the boy's heads that it's tougher to play at Calgary than Madrid? Like, if he doesn't say that, do you think they win the game? No, because this is honestly, this is exactly what I've been saying about Fronseca all year. like
00:51:00
Speaker
He even said it, that they're bad, that they're a better tournament team than they are a league team. And it's because the way Fonseca wants to play is counter-attacking. But he's not good enough at it to be like Antonio Conte, where it's we defend really well, but we counter you really hard and really well. And these are the kind of games we're going to get get all season long against teams that we say are quote unquote, worse than Milan. I fully expect this. eat like yeah It's not a surprise to me at all.
00:51:30
Speaker
um I know this I was I was shocked at this three to three, especially when you watch the game Milan destroyed how you're in the first half Reinders had by the assist of the season with that little like launch I didn't know how to explain it but and then Liao was Liao ball this game we I was starting to find his form two games in a row, which is great.
00:51:53
Speaker
Pulisic obviously did what he does. He had an assist basically off of a Tammy goal. I don't know. Calatro scores as ah as an assist, but it was a good shot and Tammy followed it up. And then for some reason, all you got to do is get the ball on the left-hand side.
00:52:08
Speaker
and attack Milan and cross it and Tio Hernandez will not be marking his man on the back post. ah The late goal, I don't necessarily know if it was his fault, but the second, the first Zappo goal was totally Tio's fault, not Marquis his man. And so there's just a clear way that if you want to beat Milan, this is how you do it. You allow them to have possession and then you counter going on the left, you cross it in and Tio will not be guarding his man.
00:52:36
Speaker
i mean And just to continue to talk about me while I'm here, it's stuff like that where I i still am not sure that Fonseca is the right coach because this has been the problem every single game.
00:52:49
Speaker
the entire year, including in the Champions League, because that's where the Real Madrid goal school came from. That was PK. emlo I know but how what happened. They need attacking Emerson. And you haven't changed anything to solve this. You have options. You can play Tamoria right back, because the way Emerson plays, he doesn't go that high. You can easily just play him. You have other things. You have ways to experiment, cover that area.
00:53:13
Speaker
and were He took Kirsten Pulisic and brought him in as the attacking midfielder, so played him in some of the field. And I thought he was extremely ineffective there. Why are you taking your best player, arguably best player in the league right now, out of his position where he's been the most effective player on the field to get Chuck Wesay on the team?
00:53:33
Speaker
You have other guys on the bench that can comment. Chocoise has not been great in any of the games he's played. Leave pool is such where he's been doing fine. I don't get that one. And then number three, and I don't know if this is Fonseca or the players.
00:53:45
Speaker
But I said this when we were watching the game. It's something that I noticed in the last couple of weeks. Milan don't defend to stop opportunities. They defend the opportunities that get created. And that's a big part of their issue. Like, they wait for something to happen and then they react to it. They don't try to stop the cross. They don't try to stop the creative pass or from making a pass. They react to the opportunity that arises. And that's why these things are happening.
00:54:11
Speaker
not proactive. Yeah, precisely. also I mean, if you look at where the all three of their goals were, it's literally on Tio San. They're all right next to each other. So I agree that he's got to switch something up, but what he switches up is incorrect. He switches up the up top when he needs to switch up the defense. I did see a little thing on Twitter that he might bench Tio against Juventus next game.
00:54:34
Speaker
But we'll see I mean it's tough when when Tio is the one that's fucking up because It's Tio and he's gonna be a problem if you bench him just like Liao was a problem So it makes it tough on him, but that's what your job is. You got to make those tough decisions Yeah, and other shout out in this game Komata made his um full Sirian play well Yeah, he did play well wasn't overly effective but played well moving on to Turin mounts and Teren baby, we, we won the Derby, Delano, uh, 19 straight, I believe that is for Juventus, uh, to not lose. We haven't won 19 straight. We haven't lost 19 in a row. Game was two nothing. It was pretty mediocre. Uh, not going to lie.
00:55:17
Speaker
We scored the first goal, Wayah, on a combiasso on an absolute darting run from Oberhafffield. If you're a Torino defender, you got to step in front there. Nobody even challenged him. Shot the ball, Wayah was in the right place, right time, which... I'll hand it to Tim Wei. I'll be, it was a rebound goal and I think he scored. That was the second rebound goal. Goal is a goal to be a ah good attacker. You got to be in the right place at the right time. He now has four goals. That was more than he had all of last season. He went out and said to the press, I like playing attacking. It suits me more. Last year I was playing a wing back. This year I'm playing a winger. Wei has been playing well. Great to see him and finding his form.
00:55:57
Speaker
Second and goal scored for U.A. Yeah. And then second half, kind of more of the same pretty boring game. Juventus kind of dominated possession, but we subbed on the wonder kid, the little man, Consei Sao, who, as I mentioned, just creates opportunity after opportunity after opportunity.
00:56:17
Speaker
And he, well, if you, if you have him one-on-one, he will get by the guy every single time. Put him in great cross and Keenan Yildes scored a diving header to seal the game late to nothing on elang Alessandro Del Piero's 50th birthday. Keenan Yildes, his heir, number 10, scored a goal. Great tribute to Alessandro Del Piero. Great finish by Yildes. Not a fantastic game by Juventus by any means, but overall got the job done. That's what you need. You got three points.
00:56:46
Speaker
I think what helped is Torino played really bad, um reaching out her. That's the other notable thing. And they just couldn't, they they couldn't even string in any real passes. They were just bad. They didn't really play well. They had a couple of good moments, but overall Torino's kind of sliding back to what they have been in previous previous years and not continue to take that step forward. And and in goes back to when I said last episode, they're starting to feel that Zapata missing because they have, they've had one goal in the last four games.
00:57:16
Speaker
Yeah, I'm moving on to another team that's kind of been sliding. Udenize, they went to Bergamo to play in at Atlanta, lost this game two to one. And for Udenize, that's four losses out of the last five after they're one of the hottest teams to start the year. And I guess this is kind of reverting to the mean, right? Because nothing not much has changed since the last couple of years. And they've kind of been a mediocre team.
00:57:38
Speaker
I think it's just reverting back to that. Florian and Dalvin have been overachieving for a little bit that really helped them. And i I still just, I don't know. I think this is just what they are. We're seeing more of that. yeah I mean, they're definitely going to be a middle table team. I think nine for Udyr-Nestes were very respectful at this point. They are basically well off of relegation, but they're also obviously well off first place. I will say they got kind of unlucky on their own, but that own goal.
00:58:06
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, this is what you kind of expected where Uden Essay to be. Atalanta flying high. So this is gonna always be a tough game for them. Belanova I thought played fantastic for Atalanta today or the other day. um But this could have very easily been 1-1 if they didn't have that unlucky own goal. So I didn't think they played awful. But this is right where I projected them to be, you projected them to be. And this is probably where they're gonna be for the remainder of the season.
00:58:30
Speaker
Yeah, true. And for Adelanta, we mentioned it earlier, probably the hottest team in the league, if not, like they're tied for the hottest team in the league. When Mario Posselich got on the score sheet this game, he was well overdue. He had created a lot of opportunities, just couldn't net one. So he got a second of the season in this one. Did you see that goal? That goal was, if you look at that goal from where it started,
00:58:53
Speaker
I think at almost every single Atalanta player touched it and they went across to their defense. They went from left center back to center center back to right center back back to the goalie, back to center center back to their center mid to their right wing back to their striker to their right wing back to who scored it again? Pasalich. Pasalich. It was it was Gasparini ball to a tee. It was beautiful to watch his poetry in motion.
00:59:19
Speaker
I think what's helped to them is they've kind of gotten defense situations sorted out. Yeah. And he has played very well last couple of games. Kasuno, we've been talking about how good he is. And then Jim City as has been just serviceable all season. It really wasn't the issue. But they've kind of figured everything out and they're they're really dangerous. You are so right, dude. Their last one, two, three, including Champions League. Eight games they've allowed.
00:59:45
Speaker
three goals. And they're one of two teams to not have conceded a Golden Champions League still. Yeah, they're being into Milan. Yep. So yeah, you're spot on with them figuring out the defense.
00:59:57
Speaker
Gasparini's a scary man. This is probably the best Atalanta team that we've seen since they made that championship. I think they've had better players before, but this is like, they're starting to figure it out and just play well together. Yeah, not so hard, Sichka. Full time. Keeping it rolling, another team we're loving right now. Probably hottest team in the league as well. Fiorentina hosted Verona, just got it done. We talked about it. Moiseki and Hatrick, three to one. For Verona, eh.
01:00:26
Speaker
You're not as good as Fiorentina. You're a ton of it bad. Don't really have anything good to say. This is a moist, keen shell, three-nothing, paladino, firing on all cylinders good for Fiorentina.
01:00:37
Speaker
Yeah. And then to round it out on Monza, Lazio paid a visit and they did what they've been doing all year. They won this game one to nothing. Zaccagni scored a great, great vintage Zaccagni goal, cutting in off the left, netting it right side. And we've seen it all season. Lazio is a really hard team to score against at this point. And if they get the lead against these lower level teams, they're going to win.
01:01:01
Speaker
I don't know necessarily ah that Latzio is a hard team to score against. I think they found some sauce against that Juventus game when they went down on man and realized, hey, we can actually be a hard team to score against. And now that we know that we can win these games one nothing, whereas before they were just trying to outscore and now they're starting to be a hard team to score against.
01:01:25
Speaker
They haven't been all season, but in this little four game win streak, they've figured out, OK, we can defend and hit on the counter when needed because this obviously like they weren't. Ball dominant, destroying Monza like we've seen them do and to other teams like Como ah in general in the past, right?
01:01:45
Speaker
But that's good for Latio, because they they can now see, we can win two ways. We can go put four on your head if we need to, or we can go on a leg with Corto Musso 1-0 games. Yeah, it I mean, the sky's the limit for them this year. We've been talking about it. um let's just And they're continuing to show it weekend and week out. In Europe, they're doing the same thing. They should be Porto. So just impressive across the board for Lazio, really. But that wraps up match week 12. The other thing we did want to touch on, because we got an international break coming up,
01:02:16
Speaker
is the adoring. They're playing Belgium on Thursday and then they got France on Sunday, two big games for the nation's league. But we just want to went through the go through the team that's been called up again. Not a lot of new things that we have to report on Spoletti. They've been good. It's more so. I think Spoletti is trying to figure out who are the couple guys that might make this team that are kind of like the fringe players is the way I kind of call it.
01:02:38
Speaker
So I just want to break you guys to the team. Goalkeeper situation, nothing new. Donnaromo, Vincario, and then Spoletti's old boy from Naples. Got to call off Alex Murat. I think he deserves it. He's been really good all year. Although, Loeg said he was bad. I don't know why he said that. I don't think that's true.
01:02:55
Speaker
I'm in the defender group, again, not not much new here, but Bastoni, Bonjorno, no Califiora, I will note, Inter, Kambiasso, Komuzo from Fiorentina, G. Lorenzo, his son, Federico DiMarco, Federico Gotti, I think this is his first call up. I'm expecting to see him play. Oh, you always call that before?
01:03:18
Speaker
And then another call-up debut, Savona from Juventus and then Udogi. Two guys are really de deserved for me on UVA, Savona and Gatti. I expect to see both of them play, to be honest with you. Yeah, and that's great too because these guys are both right-footed center-vacs. We know that.
01:03:35
Speaker
it Italy has left footed center backs, a plethora of them. So good. Gotti can obviously play center center or right center back. And Savona can play right center back or even right wing back if needed. Once again, Italy's wing backs are just getting deeper and deeper. I feel like every single international break, we take two more that are different and none are good. So good for Italy.
01:03:59
Speaker
Moving on to the midfield group, Varello rejoins the squad following his hit his injury, Forteze gets his call up again, Pizzilli gets called up again, I was a little bit surprised with that one. On, Nicola Ravella from Lazio got called up, Tonali, and then the last minute ad, Samuel Ricci got hurt, and Sveletti replaced him with somebody that I did not expect, I thought he'd been blacklisted from the squad.
01:04:23
Speaker
Yeah, and that person is Manuel Locatelli. It did seem like he was going to be blacklisted, but, listen, Locatelli's had two very, very good games in a row. I think he's had a lot of good games this season, but the last two in particular, he's been very, very good. He's been pulling the strings. He's been the the ah pace setter. He's been making the top clock pick for Juventus. And I think Spelletti saw that and said, let's give him a chance. Here's what I'll say. And I know you're very big on Ravella, on Lazio.
01:04:51
Speaker
Ravela and Pacilli, I don't think are Euro and World Cup caibber caliber players. So what is your thought process? what's your What do you think Splette's reasoning is for taking these two?
01:05:08
Speaker
i'm Pit silly I don't think he's there yet that I agree with I think that's a long-term kind of rotator can can play like that Barella kind of Covers a ton of ground. That's that's kind of the guy I see him as and they don't really have a lot of bench players that do that I think could silly offers a little bit more defensively than for Tezi. So I think that's that's the pit silly one on Ravela I do think he's good enough to make the World Cup squad and play a lot. I think he's really good. I think he's better than Locatelli still. He's not better than Locatelli either.
01:05:43
Speaker
he nothing choli either Virgoli, I think is better than both of them. That I agree with. i I'm still not sold. I'm not sold on Locatelli. I think Ravella plays the deep-line playmaker role much better than Locatelli does. I don't think that at all. Ravella pushes the pace. Ravella has a better passing range, I think, than Locatelli. I think midfield for the World Cup should be Barella, Fertesi, if Ricci's healthy, or if all these guys are healthy. Barella, Fertesi, Ricci, Locatelli, Fagioli, Tonali.
01:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, I probably agree. That's a really good midfield. Yeah, no, the midfield is not the problem. its the attack? Well, going to attack, not his first call up, but one of his, uh, he's been starting to get called up more and more due to his form at Fiorentina. That's Moise Keene. And we're re we are seeing a potential partnership that could work in Moise Keene. And obviously Ratecki is called up because he's the hottest man in Italy right now. And then you have Raspadori who seems to get called up every time. He seems to be like Spelletti's nephew. Yeah, I agree with that. Always getting the call up. And then Maldini sure promised last time, I like taking him again. He offers something slightly different than Kean and Rotegi, and I think has a higher ceiling than Raspidori.
01:07:03
Speaker
i I hate the Raspidori team. yeah like The problem is like there's not a ton of guys to replace him with. I would honestly like to see Kopani get into the team because I think he is ceiling as much higher than Raspidori.
01:07:20
Speaker
Well, you hear what's crazy. I don't mean to cut you off. This is what's crazy about this is that we have one player who cannot integrate into his new team, who is probably the most skilled player for Italy. And it's just like what is going on there? Is he going like?
01:07:36
Speaker
There's so many questions because at some point it's going to be like he hasn't played in this new system, especially this is a new 3-5-2 system. like He's got to learn some of the intricates and and the way how to play in the new system. What's going to happen? like what are What is going on over there? I was talking about Tiesa? Yes. He's not playing. He doesn't play soccer. That's why he can't play on this team. He hasn't played in months. Apparently he's not going to practice.
01:08:04
Speaker
Like, what is going on? he He was, he is by far our best attacking player. I don't, not anymore. Now it's for Techie. Jesus. And Moise Aqui. Like, Kiyo said, I'm not even, he's an afterthought at this point. right He's not for me. He's got to be in this squad. every For the World Cup, dude, think about that. We have Kean playing how he's playing. We're teggy. And we got Kiesa finding some of his old form with an another fourth guy. It could be whoever. Then with that midfield and our solid defense, dude, that is a very, very good squad.
01:08:38
Speaker
Yeah, and even without Kiesa, I really like his team. We need Kiesa. No, we don't. I i like Daniel Maldini. I like Kulpani. Kiesa offers that speed that none of these guys really offer. Keen kind of offers it, but not like Kiesa. Moza Keen is pretty fucking fast. Yeah, but like he's a different type. He's like a more of a powerful fast. Yeah, that that's true. He's more of a nine. I get it. I get your point.
01:09:02
Speaker
But that wraps us up, guys. Like we said on last week's episode, we're not going to be recording on Wednesdays for the time being. So next time we talk, we'll be talking on Monday. We'll be doing previews. We'll be talking what happened with the Nations League. And hopefully we'll be talking the rolling new coach, too. Is the international break done after that week? Yeah, we come back in two weeks to. So we have one episode, though. Yeah, we have one episode in between actually 13th. We forgot what to give the Paisano's then.
01:09:32
Speaker
You know, with that, we're done. I mean, I thought lots was going to start a soft dish ah look at my vet. Yeah. Great episode. Thank you guys for coming along for this ride. Subscribe on YouTube at couch or culture FC Spotify. Please give us five stars after music. Please give us five stars. Comment, like, love you. Don't be a gaggle. It's for the couch.