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Free Weekly Episode - Osimhen Show As Napoli Win Again, AC Milan & Lazio Suffer Shock Losses, Fagioli Saves Juve, & Much More (Ep. 270)
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From Victor Osimhen's show for Napoli, Rafael Leao stinker as AC Milan suffer shock defeat to Torino, Inter win as Curva Nord cause a scandal at San Siro to Nicolo Fagioli and rest of the kids saving Max Allegri's Juventus, and much more as Nima and Carlo break down all the talking points from another eventful Serie A weekend.
Every Monday episode of The Italian Football Podcast is free for all. To listen to all full episodes of The Italian Football Podcast, go to Patreon.com/TIFP to become a Patron for only $2.99 USD per month (excluding VAT).
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome to the Italian football podcast with John Solano, Carlo Garganese and Nima Tuvali.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to the Italian Football Podcast. I'm Kylo Garganese and for all our first time listeners, this is our free weekly episode which we do every Monday, reviewing the weekend, setting our action and all the big talking points in Italian football. If you want to support the Italian Football Podcast and receive all our content throughout the week, including our weekly Q&A episode,
00:00:49
Speaker
every Tuesday where we answer all your questions and also the weekly Thursday midweek review show plus interviews post match reaction and much much more then go to patreon.com slash TFP and you can become a subscriber for just $2.99 a month
00:01:06
Speaker
plus VAT. Okay, right. Let's get into our review then of the past weekend.
Napoli and Milan's Scudetto Race Impact
00:01:14
Speaker
A big, big weekend for Napoli who took a massive blow really in the race for the Scudetto. They're now six points clear after
00:01:26
Speaker
They won again and Milan had a huge, huge shock defeat to Torino. So there's plenty to talk about also with the chasing pack. So let's get straight to it.
00:01:38
Speaker
Alright, we'll start with the Sunday night game. Milan unbeaten in 2022 away from home in league football. The only team in Europe's big five leagues that hadn't lost away from home in their league. Actually, they hadn't lost away from home in league football since November 2021. So we're now in October the 31st today that we're recording. So almost a year that they've been unbeaten, but that unbeaten record has come to an end. A shock
00:02:08
Speaker
Massive shock. 2-1 defeat in Turin. 2-2 Torino. Nima, I mean, this comes as a huge, huge surprise, right? Well, not to me.
Ivan Juric's Tactical Mastery
00:02:19
Speaker
I mean, I did warn last week that this is not going to be an easy game. Torino away under Ivan Yurich is not an easy game away. Ivan Yurich's Hellas Verona is one of the few times Antonio Conte changed formation to adapt to playing a coach was against Ivan Yurich.
00:02:37
Speaker
He played a 3-4-2-1 to match Joric, because Ivan Joric is one of the best coaches in the Serie A tactically. He knows how to find weaknesses, he knows how to expose them, he's a disciple of Gasparini's high press, high intensity, and he's a pain in the butt to play against.
00:03:00
Speaker
They don't give you a second to breathe. And they're so well organized defensively as well. Look, this guy is too good to be at Torino. With all due respect to Torino, I love Torino, you know that. But this guy, he's too good. He should be fighting for titles. He should be in a club that's in the Champions League. I really believe that. I've been singing his praises for a few seasons. Now I'm completely convinced, just like I was back in 1718 about Simone and Zaghi.
00:03:27
Speaker
I want this guy to replace Simonian Zaghi when Simonian Zaghi leaves. That's how convinced I am. I think he's going up against Stefano Pioli, who is arguably one of the best coaches in the Serie A and has been for two and a half years consistently.
00:03:42
Speaker
And he just completely exposes all the weaknesses. Of course, you know, Milan, we've got to start with them.
Milan's Performance Issues
00:03:51
Speaker
They were poor. Let's not beat around the bush. This was a bad game by Milan. Absolutely. Rafael Liao. I think this was his worst performance for Milan in almost two years. I cannot remember the last time I've seen him so disinterested, poor, almost nervous, no bad concentration.
00:04:10
Speaker
just didn't look annoyed and grumpy and frustrated, negative body language. I mean, it could be because he's tired. I think this Milan side are tired because they played so much. But they just weren't mentally there as well. And I think that's something you have to be. You have to hit every mark when you play against Torino because they can make life really difficult for you.
00:04:32
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, they're defensively, I mean, I've, I've got a, I like Gabja. I'm not going to hide, but this was a horrible game by him. He was dreadful. He made two of the, I mean, he, he made so, I mean, both goals really were schoolboy errors. I mean, what do you reckon?
00:04:51
Speaker
Well, yeah, the first one he was it was a tricky one, the first one, because the way that Milan Mark kind of zonally and zonal marketing is always a difficult one when you who do you blame? Who do you blame? You know, put an individual blame on someone when you're marking zonally is, you know, you're always kind of collectively to blame a bit. But I think absolutely, you know, he was the one that should have should have
00:05:15
Speaker
should have picked Gigi up really or should have been the man closing that that cross down and the second one absolutely there's no doubt about it he was to blame I mean if you can't defend a goal kick straight from it and read the flight of it of the ball and then he got beaten by Pellegri with the header
00:05:31
Speaker
Absolutely. This is kind of what I was saying. The same with Tata Rosano. I thought Tata Rosano, the goalkeeper, liked Gabbier. Both of those two have been in really good form over the last few weeks. They've really stepped it up. We've been singing the praise of Pioli, how he's getting the best out of these kind of players that are playing above their levels. But at the end of the day,
00:05:56
Speaker
I'm not sure they're Milan level players, and I think that as well as they've been playing recently, eventually you regress to the mean.
00:06:07
Speaker
They both really cost Milan this game because apart from these chances, Serena didn't really have any other opportunities and so it came from errors from Milan really and I thought that Tutsi Rezaanu on both goals
00:06:23
Speaker
thought he was a bit slow getting across to the first one and the header from Gigi and the second one I think is positionally he was a little bit too far towards his near post and he gave too much of the of the far corner for Miranciuk to put it into him like even if you see
00:06:39
Speaker
I know he hit it quite early, but even if you see where the ball ended up, it wasn't like right in the side netting. It wasn't even really right in the corner. So I think that, yeah, Tatsuuzana, I think definitely you can look at him as well. I think if Mike Manion's playing, I think he definitely saves one of those two. But in general, yeah, I thought that
00:07:00
Speaker
pretty much the whole Milan team are bad individually and collectively, certainly. I thought probably maybe a little bit of tiredness there. They've had a lot of injuries in the last four weeks or six weeks and they haven't been able to rotate much during that time and eventually that catches up on you. Maybe not straight away, but the knock-on effect, you know,
00:07:20
Speaker
it does it does accumulate and I think that maybe that was why they were they lacked a little bit of freshness obviously they traveled to Zagreb as well during during the week the travel also plays its part but also I think they probably had half an eye on the the massive game they've got on coming up on Wednesday against Salzburg you know some players just didn't really seem focused Rafael Liao that was the worst 45 minutes that I've seen from him in the Milan show I mean he was
00:07:46
Speaker
everything that he touched. I mean he had the two big chances but the second one he just you know took his eye off the ball and he miskicked it. I mean that was virtually an open goal when Brahim Diaz put it across to him. But I would say though that I think that you know I've said it in the last last few weeks that
00:08:05
Speaker
Milan have been a little bit lucky in some of these recent Serie A games. You can say it's luck, or you can say it's just a sign of a winning team being able to win when not playing very well. But eventually, you can't keep getting away with that. And I think this result was coming from Milan. They were very, very lucky to win 2-1 at Verona. I think they deserve to lose that game.
00:08:26
Speaker
and they ended up winning it. But then even against Monza last week, I think the scoreline flattered them. If you look at the amount of chances, Monza had some big chances. Actually, if you look at the XG in that game, they actually had less XG than Monza in that game. They definitely, definitely didn't deserve to win by a scoreline of four to one. I think this was coming, this result.
Torino's Resurgence
00:08:51
Speaker
But again, you still have to praise Serena. They went through that bad run. Now they've got two really impressive wins in a row. They beat Udenez away. Now Milan. Three wins in a row in all competition. The ship has steadied the ship.
00:09:07
Speaker
and you know i think micha he showed the second go that you know he is a player of a lot of natural talent he doesn't show is too inconsistent to be a player playing for a bigger club and that's why you probably didn't make it out of answer but he is a player with lots and lots of talent he has got the ability to do this kind of stuff i just wish that he'd show it more consistently and the other player i'd like to sing like pelegly because obviously he became the
00:09:29
Speaker
Was it the youngest player or the second youngest player in Serie A to ever score? Correct me. Something like that. He was 16. I remember when he was 16. I remember. I remember. Yeah, it was on Totti. I remember the game Totti retired, wasn't it? Or I think it was his last game of his career, if I'm not mistaken. But he was 16 anyway. And then obviously his career completely fell away when he went to Monaco and he got all those injuries and he's still very, very young now. Was he 21? Is he now, I think?
00:10:02
Speaker
He's still really young and he's at least, I don't want to say he's suddenly starting to show himself, but he's the last three games he started to do, you know, be decisive. He scored two goals, one goal against in the Coppitalia, then one goal last week against Udenezer, and now we've got the assist
00:10:20
Speaker
and against the against Milan and he was a bit he was quite harmful I thought in this game he he put himself about he's quite physical considering how young he is and so you know that's that's good let's let's see if he can if he can keep this up because we know that Torino's problem is
00:10:36
Speaker
they're attacked. They don't score enough goals. If he can, you know, start to develop and that will be great for Tarunah, but also could be great for Italy as well. I'm so glad you said that. And he did score away against Roma, topped his last game 28th of May. And he became the third youngest goal scorer ever in the top flight after Amade and Gianni Rivera.
00:10:57
Speaker
He became the first player born in the 21st century to score in the Serie A. I'm glad you brought that up because I thought he was very good. I liked what I saw. He looked like everything you wished he would become when he was 16. My favourite striker is a striker that's an opportunist in the penalty area. The kind of striker that if he has half a chance, he goes for it.
00:11:23
Speaker
and he gets it on target, and Pellegri is that kind of a player. I really like what they've got there, and we know how good Juric is with young players. So, no, I'm really looking, I'm keeping an eye on him when I'm watching Torino, which I do every week, and if you aren't doing that, sort it out, because Torino is brilliant.
00:11:42
Speaker
But I got to say, on Mila's goal though, that goal shouldn't have stood. And again, it becomes about this issue about the VAR. What we have to remember is that the VAR can only ever recommend to the referee to have a second look. They can't force the referee. The final decision always rests with the referee. Now, we don't have the communication between the two, but my guess, my educated guess is that the referee saw the situation
00:12:10
Speaker
and deemed it subjectively, the subjective call, that he saw the situation, didn't think it was a foul. In that situation, VAR can't even recommend to look at it. Luckily, it didn't matter. But I think it's important to distinguish that. Which kind of says a little bit about Milan as well.
00:12:36
Speaker
They did create chances, but like I said, and like you said, I mean, in my opinion, it wasn't his worst performance, because I think in the beginning when he came to Milan, there were some real stinkers. But this was the worst performance since then, because he was not imbalanced mentally. He was just not his body. He just looked annoyed.
00:12:57
Speaker
Certainly in terms of finishing, he went back to the old Liao, the one that we used to criticise for being just the full final ball and the full final finish. And yeah, that was the old Liao coming back. But like I said, I think it's maybe a bit of tiredness, but also I think the focus on Wednesday. I expect to see Milan back to
00:13:19
Speaker
to their real selves on Wednesday. I'm sure. I'm sure we'll see a reaction. I'm sure we'll see a reaction from him. But just finally, Charles de Kettler, I just want to single him out as well, because there was some interesting quotes from Arigosaki, who I always think speaks a lot of sense when it comes to certainly with young players and the way that the game should be played. And he said of him, he's a confused boy. We have to be patient. He's afraid to play. He enters with the anxiety of having to demonstrate his value.
00:13:48
Speaker
And I think that's spot on. And we saw that again in this game that he just, yeah, he just mentally, he doesn't seem to be there. He seems too shy. He doesn't seem to get involved, doesn't seem to want the ball. He seems to, like I said, shy away from the ball. And that's the worst thing for a footballer when he doesn't want the ball, doesn't want to take
00:14:10
Speaker
doesn't want to show the personality and take command. It's becoming an issue now. It's starting to become a bit of a problem. What do Milan do with him? Do they just keep him out of the team for a while? I don't know because it seems that every time he comes on, it's just adding to the problem. He's just not offering anything at all in any sense.
00:14:33
Speaker
No, I agree with that. I think they need to give him the Tonali treatment that Tonali got in his first season.
00:14:47
Speaker
He needs, he's clearly, it's been such a big step going from Belgium to Serie A. I think they should, I don't think they should play him. I think they should rotate him in ever so slightly and just don't play him until he's ready. The World Cup might actually come in useful for him. It'll give him a chance to just train. I'm not sure if he'll be in the World Cup squad for Belgium. I don't think so, yeah. Me neither. Depends. But yeah, I think that could be a good thing for him. Absolutely.
00:15:14
Speaker
Okay, right, let's move on to Napoli then. Napoli make it lucky, or unlucky, number 13, we shall see. 13 wins in a row. They're now, because of Milan's loss, they're six points clear at the top of the table. Another crushing win. Four nil, four nil win. And the big question now becomes,
00:15:41
Speaker
are they now favorites to win the Scudetto? Still early days and very very early days 12 matches to go and you know as we've said recently they have had an easier start to the season than some of their rivals certainly the Milan although Milan lost the Torino who are like let's say they're not one of the seven sisters but you know they've put themselves in a fantastic position and they're just unstoppable right now they're just breaking record after record
00:16:09
Speaker
um if they I mean they already have a club record um already 13 these 13 wins in all competitions but if they were to beat Liverpool and field they'll become the first Italian team this century to win 14 games in a row they're unbeaten this season they haven't lost the game this season 17 unbeaten all competitions and this this is incredible they've now scored 50 goals
00:16:33
Speaker
50 goals this October. They scored 50. 50 goals already. That's absolutely insane. Insane. 50 by the end of October. 30 of them in Serie A in 12 matches, 20 in five in the Champions League. They're averaging four goals a game in the Champions League. And as I said last week, they've got 16 different scorers this season, which is just ridiculous. Some squads, back when we were growing up, some teams didn't even use 16 men.
00:17:02
Speaker
didn't even use 16 players for the entire season, didn't even play 16 players for the entire season, let alone have 16 different scorers. And they almost had 17 different scorers. When Zanoli came on for Patilorenzo in the second half, he almost scored towards the end. And that would, I was willing him on to Zugas, that would have been, that would have been 17 different scorers. So yeah, they just,
00:17:23
Speaker
What else is there to say? Well, there's nothing more to say. I mean, the insatiable appetite for goal scoring is just absolutely stunning. And it's not just in the Serie A, like you said, I mean, in the Champions League as well. It doesn't matter if it's Liverpool or Monza, it doesn't matter. They just go out there and they play their game.
00:17:44
Speaker
play their 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 between, you know, hybrid, you know, back interchange between those two. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't matter, because they'll just bring somebody on off the bench. If it's Simeone who's stepping in for Osseman, or if it's Raspadore playing as a false nine, I mean, it's Politano, Lozano, and the Schriecher, and then of course Osseman, who's now shared top goalscore on the Serie A,
00:18:08
Speaker
Finally, he's starting to show what you and me have been discussing and praising the talent that he has. He's starting to express that. No, no, no, no. Oseman doesn't score against big teams. Oh, OK. OK. Yeah, OK. Yeah, but I mean, it's it's not. Yeah, it's it's it's silly, isn't it? I mean, it's he is outstanding and he's starting to express that. And a hat trick on the weekend is first at Napoli.
00:18:34
Speaker
No, he's really doing this. Every single one of them has been outstanding. And Spaletti, you've got to give credit. He's rotating them really well and is still getting the results, which I think will only serve them further on the season. Because if you use so many different players and it doesn't impact or affect your results or how you play, that creates a very good competition in the squad.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's the exact point I was going to make. That is going to be huge for later in the season because so many games this season, I should have made a note, I should have gone through them really, but you guys listening can have a look yourself. Have a look at the number of games this season that Napoli have been two or three up by half time. The game's already over by half time and it's allowed Spoletti to just to take multiple players off in the early stages or the mid stages of the second half. And that's happened time and time again. I mean, like I said before, even happened against Liverpool.
00:19:29
Speaker
He was bringing players on at home to Liverpool in the 50-something minute against Liverpool, the vice European champions. It's insane, really. And they're also going to be, compared to other teams, going to have more players not playing at the World Cup than other teams. They don't have too many at the World Cup. Whereas you might stay on one hand, the World Cup
00:19:55
Speaker
is going to come at a bad time for Napoli because when you're in such incredible form, you just want things to continue. You don't want to break. Also having that time off might give up opponents to study time to study them and work out how to stop them, you know, work out their little movements and stuff. So that is bad, but also at the same time.
00:20:13
Speaker
you know Napoli don't have many players at the World Cup and that will help them later on in the season when you know fatigue and you know everything starts to accumulate but I think that really what we want to focus on the most with Napoli because even in this game they did concede some big chances that in the first half anyway Sassuola will kick themselves because
00:20:36
Speaker
Piena Monti showed why he's not going to, like you've always said, he's not going to be a top player because he has his level and maybe he's not even at this level. Maybe he's not even at this level, to be honest with you. He hasn't even shown he's at Sasolo level so far, still early days. They had two huge, huge one-on-one chances in the first half and they blew them. But if you look at Napoli's attack, I mean,
00:21:04
Speaker
all those goals, but the attacking options they have, and they're all producing, it doesn't matter who they play in attack, they all produce, the Aussie men, eight goals and one assists. Clara, eight goals and eight assists, incredible. I mean, no one doubts about who's been the best player in Serie A this season. Simeone, six goals. Raspedori, five goals, two assists. Politano, four goals, three assists.
00:21:28
Speaker
Lozano is the least productive of all of them, but he still has three goals and an assist. I mean, there's so many goals and so much creativity from all of those six, and even Zelinski's, I think he's got four goals this season. Mario Luis is an absolute assist machine. After Cavada, he's got the most assists for Napoli. He's got five assists. He got another one at the weekend. I mean, he has improved. Like we were saying about Spelletti, the way that he improves players, but he even improves Mario Ruiz, who's 31 years old. Look how he has come on.
00:21:58
Speaker
under Spelletti so you know they're just the goals in this team you know is if somebody goes on a bad run of form someone else can come in or someone's having a bad game someone can come in and do it for them and that that's what makes them so unstoppable but anyway what I wanted to what I wanted us to debate here
00:22:18
Speaker
is, because I think that more than anyone else in this game, it was the Kavada Ossiman show. Ossiman got the hat trick, Kavada got a goal and two assists, the two assists, the two assists for the first two goals of Ossiman. Is there a better duo in Italy right now than Kavada, Scalia and Ossiman?
00:22:40
Speaker
I don't think there's anyone who even comes close. It's not even close. Lula was supposed to be the Brazilian president.
00:22:56
Speaker
They were supposed to be. The Lula duo, Lukaku Lautaro was supposed to be going into this. You would have bet your mortgage on that they would have been the best duo, given what we've seen in the past. But Lukaku's barely played. He's played less than Iballa. We're going to discuss that a little bit later in the show.
00:23:15
Speaker
But I don't think it's not even close. Those two are just something else. No one else comes near them. The thing is that they can do everything. They're both very good in the air. They're pretty ambidextrous. They can shoot and score with both.
00:23:33
Speaker
with both feet. Technically, they're incredibly, I mean, you've seen, they can dribble, they can do their man. Osseman, they're both physically strong. I mean, it's like, what do you do with them? You just can't, you have to be tight on them or prevent them from, or prevent Osseman from even getting the ball. But the problem is that when he drops deep and then Krita puts up, you know, pushes up. I mean, it's just, they are scoring for fun. They're really enjoying themselves.
00:24:01
Speaker
And I don't think anyone, I mean, I would go so far as to say, well, they're not just the best do in Italy, but they're definitely they're top three in Europe in terms of attacking duos. Yeah. Not just they're by far the best do in Italy. I would go so far as to say, well, who's who's even better? Who's the better duo in all of Europe?
00:24:20
Speaker
No, absolutely. I mean, you know, it's difficult to find a duo because I mean, Messi and Mbappe and Neymar have been absolutely ridiculous. They've been fantastic. They've been ridiculous. But like, who do you pick as the duo? It's kind of like a trio, isn't it? You wouldn't say, you know, Messi and Mbappe, the two of them, because it's like, well, you can't leave Neymar out of that. So it's difficult. And then I'm thinking Man City with all the goals that they score, Haaland. But who else would you pick to go with Haaland? I mean, I'm not sure you would.
00:24:50
Speaker
maybe but maybe i mean but that's the thing though yeah has he been that i don't know i don't think he's been that productive this season foden uh i'm not sure uh you know so i don't really know i don't know who else you could you could go for i mean martinelli gabriel jesus jesus or maybe they've been really great but i don't know i don't know there's no one that you would take as an actual doer but then you could say the same about osseman and carlotte skaley in the sense that osseman missed so much of this dappily run
00:25:19
Speaker
and you know and Napoli still did that all without him but he's just come in and I think added an extra he adds the extra dimension I think to Napoli that especially when it will come like if they really want to try and go deep say in the Champions League for example and beat some of the bigger big teams in Europe and a Champions League double header then that's when someone like having Ossimian in or out of the team
00:25:44
Speaker
will make the difference, I think. He adds the extra dimension to their team. They're just unbelievable, the link-up for those first two goals. They really are almost unplayable and they're just so relentless as well. Ossemani is just, can you imagine playing against him? He's just a
00:26:06
Speaker
He's just, to borrow your phrase, just a pain in the butt to play with. He's just on you all the time, hassling you, harassing you, pressing you. And that's when he hasn't got the ball, you know? It's brilliant, fantastic. No, he is. And I think we can't, like, as no Nap, we have lots of Napoli fans who are patrons and listen to the show. And I know they, you know, you Neapolitans, because you are, your family is from Naples or from Campania. And I know you guys are really,
00:26:33
Speaker
uh like what is it called superstitious but you have to get used to it you you you ask good at your favorites now you can't play like this and break records and then try to hide away from the fact that your your favorites to win the title i mean you just can't i'm sorry it comes with the territory own it you are the favorites to win the title doesn't mean that you're now but it doesn't mean that you're going to win the title but if you know it's it's uh
00:26:56
Speaker
you are favorites to win the title because no other team it's not just that you're scoring it's not just that you're winning it's that they're playing so well as well you know let's have a look shall we let's see who are the odds of the favorites with the bookmakers and let's see let's see who are the the favorites Napoli are the favorites to win the show I mean if they are
00:27:14
Speaker
they have to be because I know and I know what people are going to say but last season but when did Napoli play this well last season when they were on a run and last season they had more points than at this point but at not not not once not once did I last season say that Napoli were favorites to win the score because they didn't they didn't look like a team that was favorites to win the score
00:27:36
Speaker
They didn't play like this season they are. I mean just go and watch last season compared to this season. It's a completely different Napoli. And like you said, the depth. 45 Napoli, AC Milan 7-2, Inter 9-2, Roma 14-1, Atalanta 16-2 and Juventus are 6th favourites at 22-1.
00:27:56
Speaker
Yeah, but look, we have to be honest, though, as well. They do have depth in attack and in midfield, but defensively, I do think that is their Achilles heel. I think Juan Jesus, I like Ostigard, but I don't think he's still at that highest level. He's a good player. I really rate him. I do not rate Juan Jesus. I have had front row seats to that train crash. I've watched that dog eat grass for five years.
00:28:21
Speaker
and not not his biggest fan but still and they are weak defensively there are there are areas that you can hurt Napoli defensively and I think that's where they're um that's their Achilles heel quote unquote and not Luciano Spalletti as some people claimed ridiculously on social media
00:28:38
Speaker
uh uh last week that Spalletti is is it's not police killisil uh which is a ludicrous thing to say um either he's not he's far from it it's it's their defense but it's um no it's uh they are they are i mean they are just insatiable in in going like you said they finish games off before the first half it's most of the time which is just ridiculous
00:29:02
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Right. Inter then. Inter have their own brilliant run going on at the moment. Not as brilliant as Napoli's, but it's getting there. They dominated Sampdoria 3-0 win. They now have four wins in a row. Last seven games since that, well, including and since that famous, that win against Barcelona. Six wins, one draw in their last seven. Can they make a Scletto challenge?
00:29:29
Speaker
Well, theoretically, yes. But I mean, in order for them to be within, you know, I mean, their Scudetto credentials, in my opinion, are going to be decided this coming week or the next 10 days, because I think if Inter can be playing Juva away, Atalanta away and Bologna at home in between that before the World Cup break. And to be honest, when you're eight points behind Napoli, you ideally need to win all those games and hope that Napoli lose four points to halve that deficit before you host
00:29:58
Speaker
Napoli at the San Siro in the first game back after the World Cup in January. So, you know, I think we'll just have to stick a pin in that for the time being. But what is important, and as I keep saying time and time again, for me, the most important thing is that Simon Inzaghi has shown he's passed an exam, as Italians like to say.
00:30:20
Speaker
He's passed the exam. He's shown that he can handle a difficult period at a big club. I mean, the month of October started with an undeserved defeat against Roma. But since then, six wins, one draw. And it should have been seven wins because the draw came against Barcelona away in a game that Inter should have won and were better.
00:30:41
Speaker
So it's been really, really good. So they they're in excellent form. But of course, they've got injury problems. Lukaku Brozovic, but you know, he might be back. But Lukaku injury is real, really is a big worry. It's because of concern. Yeah, it is. Let's talk about Lukaku then. So he's picked up a muscular injury. I'm not sure if it's a thigh injury. It's a thigh injury. Right. It's a thigh injury. He just came back from a hamstring injury, but now it's a thigh injury.
00:31:11
Speaker
Right. And he's obviously going to be out of the midweek game against against Bayern. And I'm assuming if it's a muscle injury, he's definitely going to be out of the events this game as well. Oh, without a doubt. He's missing that. So I can give you this is his World Cup over.
00:31:26
Speaker
Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because a good friend friend of the show and a friend of mine, a French journalist who works for France football and and keep Tim up, you know, he spoke with Lukaku's entourage and we published this on Semperinta. And and basically I'm going to read the quote, which he which he said and says, according to Lukaku's people, this is not a relapse or a new injury, but we are talking about residual pain.
00:31:52
Speaker
from the previous injury, so there's no new tear. And this is quite common with muscle injuries where the scars are usually significant. To be precise, as for his World Cup hopes, he says, to be precise, the objective remains to play again with Inter before the World Cup, because it would be very complicated for a player of his profile to do well in Qatar without having gained a minimum of rhythm.
00:32:15
Speaker
But on the interside, we're waiting for the next medical test without being super optimistic. So that tells me that he's frustrated. It's quite obvious that Inzaghi is the one who's been trying to prevent him from coming back to action and give him time. It's a concern. It is a big concern. Because again, already this season, he's played less than Dibala.
00:32:45
Speaker
Paolo Di Bala, who everyone talks about as being injury played and injury prone. Romelu Lukaku has played less football than Paolo Di Bala. And that's a problem. That is a big, big problem for him, because they really need him. I think it's definitely there. Definitely questions need to be asked whether this is the Lukaku that we're going to get now.
00:33:03
Speaker
in as he gets older he's 29 now going to be 30 this season you know same with the same with Pogba who we're gonna we're gonna come to in a bit you know this this is before joining Chelsea I mean I remember saying when during the first spell how uh first spell at Inter how Lukaku just never used to get injured and how that is massive
00:33:27
Speaker
weapon for a team that's fighting for the title, that you've got a top class striker and he's as good as Lukaku is slash was and yet never ever misses a game. I mean, that is just that's absolutely huge. He missed 28 games in eight years before before joining Chelsea, which is which is incredible. I mean, that's just over three games, three and a three and a half games a season.
00:33:56
Speaker
that he's missing. Eight seasons. Eight seasons. I mean, during his time at Inter, he missed eight games in two years in his first spell at Inter. And that just shows you how fit he was. And I don't think you can put it just down to Pintus, because like I said, this was happening before Inter as well. He just didn't get any injuries. And when he did, they were just
00:34:20
Speaker
He was back in one or two games. Since he's returned to Inter, the game against Bayern Munich will be the 20th game that he's missed, sorry, since he joined Chelsea. The game against Bayern Munich will be the 20th game that he's missed in the last year alone, since last October. 20 games. He's almost reached that level, that number of 28 games in eight years already, just over a year alone.
00:34:49
Speaker
Yeah, that is a cause for concern. That is a big cause for concern. And I remember you bringing this up a few weeks ago and I was a little bit, no, let's wait and see. But now, yes, because Inter can't continue like this. Inter cannot go throughout the rest of the season and have their highest paid player be injured all the time. And in January, I would bring, because there's no money, I'd bring Martin Satryano in. Is he ready?
00:35:15
Speaker
doesn't matter. I mean, this is the situation Inter are in, they can't afford to. I mean, I've already said on the Q&A pod, that's for patrons only on Tuesdays, when I was asked this question, who would I replace Lukaku with? I think Marcos Turan, that's the player Inter wanted. And he got injured, he was on his way to Inter and he was injured, he'd be injured himself, otherwise he would have joined Inter instead of Correa, which would have made me, which would have made everyone happy.
00:35:39
Speaker
But no, he injured himself. He ended up staying. Inter went after Correa, who's been a, you know, he had a good goal, a world-class goal this weekend, but he's been largely a flop. But yeah, for me, if Inter have to try, have to rekindle their interest in Marcus Taram in January, it's as simple as that, and try to bring him in. Similar to what maybe Juventus did with Zacharia a few years ago.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, that went well. No, no, I'm talking about in the sense that his contract was expiring. Yeah, yeah, I get it. But I mean, look, but I don't think Gladbach is going to let him go because he's doing incredible numbers in the Bundesliga and he's a complete machine. And I think he's interested as well.
00:36:15
Speaker
Well, of course, and that's going to be really difficult. I mean, why would Bayern go after Harry Kane when they can have Markus Toram? I mean, younger, of course, Harry Kane is a bigger player today and a world-class player, a bigger experience, etc. But that's not how Bayern work. Why would they do that when they can get Toram, who's ripping the Bundesliga apart and can give them what they want?
00:36:38
Speaker
So, Inter need to make a move on, because they have to get him. I mean, they interneed Marcus Taram badly, because next summer, Jeko's contract expires. Lukaku, we don't know about how he is physically.
00:36:55
Speaker
And they only have lauta lauta and they don't own him. It's just a dry loan or a paid loan and they only have lauta and Correa under contract. So it's it's it's a serious, you know, this is a this is a cause for concern. Okay. Well, what is also a cause of concern is this whole
00:37:13
Speaker
absolute madness with the, and I know you feel very, very strongly about this, situation with intersultras. So I would like you to just explain to everyone first what happened, but the fact that intersultras, they staged a walkout during half time against Sam Dorian. What was early in the second half? I mean, what happened was
00:37:35
Speaker
that during the 3-0 win against Antoria, around the 50th minute, the leaders of inter-support group, Curvanor, they ordered everyone standing in the north stand of the miazza to vacate this stand immediately.
00:37:55
Speaker
And this was, and the reason for this was to pay tribute to a former, to an ultra, to a former ultra boss or one of their, who was one of their, in their circles, a legendary leader, Vittorio Boyaki, who had been shot to death in Milan in what police described as an ambush earlier that night.
00:38:14
Speaker
He was 69 years old, and he's been described in the Italian media as a historic head of the Ultras. According to various reports in Italy, he spent 26 years in prison for drug trafficking, theft and kidnapping.
00:38:31
Speaker
Um, and they, and in order to honor, honor him, the, the current ultra bosses, they vacated the stadium en masse forcing everyone to leave hurling insults, punches, kicks, and, and threatening threats of violence to everyone, including women and children. Um, and we're forcibly removed from the seats during, during this tribute to this man. I don't, I don't even, I mean, yeah.
00:38:59
Speaker
I don't know where to start with that. First of all, what's the idea behind commemorating someone by clearing out the stadium, regardless of the whole innocent fans that have got nothing to do with him, unrelated fans that have got nothing to do with this guy? Why would you clear out the stadium? How does that
00:39:22
Speaker
This is their way, I mean, I don't know, their honours, their honour culture is, it's an honour culture thing that they have. And I am absolutely the last person to ask about this, because I have no interest whatsoever in what these Cretans do say and think. So I'm not interested in them at all, because I think that they are
00:39:46
Speaker
what's wrong. They embody what is wrong with Italian football. They get free travel, free tickets. Everyone knows, free access. Everybody knows. I mean, I'm just looking, I've just Googled the person's name that was shot dead. And the first picture that comes up is him and Lukaku smiling together. Well, this is what I mean. Like, this is what I mean. That they, they, they,
00:40:10
Speaker
Everybody in Italy knows how things work in all of the Corvas in Italy. From North to South, it's basically a no-go zone. It's lawlessness. It's drug trades. It's bootleg alcohol sold openly. At one point, this guy Vittorio Boyocchi was earning, according to
00:40:36
Speaker
Italian media, 80,000 euros a month from his activities. It's everything that's wrong with Italian football. It just summarises it. The fact that they think that they have a special right
00:40:55
Speaker
I think that they think that they own the club, basically. They are the club because they travel. And they kind of do in terms of control, in terms of power and control, because they're almost, they are almost untouchable. Well, because this started in the 1980s and it's like in the sense their power, their unchecked power started in the 80s.
00:41:16
Speaker
And since then, they can do whatever they want, the police don't prosecute, the police don't do it. They worship the old English fan culture, that predates that, that goes back to the 60s, 70s. Very violent, right wing, fascist fan culture in England.
00:41:35
Speaker
You know that you would get like the right wingers and bmp and this is who they are. I mean this is who they are and this it's just and the thing that drives me genuinely I don't know whether to laugh or cry are these you know mental midgets who say things like well you know the ultras provide the flag waving and the songs and the chance as if
00:41:59
Speaker
Song, songs and chants and flag waving are in any shape or form correlated to criminal behaviour. I'm pretty sure you can have the atmosphere that German football stadiums have without the criminal elements. I mean, this is so stupid when people say stuff like this.
00:42:18
Speaker
And I'm glad that, you know, this has really caused an uproar in Italy and the Italian minister for sport is spoken very vocally about it. And I hope they do something about this because make no mistake about it. These people are not popular in Italy. They are not. Most people despise them. I would say an overwhelming majority despise them. But because nobody does anything that the authorities don't the clubs and the authorities don't do enough to to rein these people in that people are scared of them.
00:42:47
Speaker
I mean, it's absolutely bizarre. Can you imagine if this were to happen in a Premier League game, where in the 50th minute, suddenly the North stand is emptied by a bunch of thugs? I mean, are we serious? Kicking and screaming? In England, they're only empty in England when Man United are 4-0 down in the Derby.
00:43:08
Speaker
That's the only time they ever see. But you know what I mean, though, it's absolutely bizarre. And it's disgusting because it's a perfect microcosm of everything that is wrong with Italian football. And the sooner
00:43:24
Speaker
ticketing as well, the way that they control the ticketing, the merchandise, which obviously doesn't help in everything commercially. But I remember trying to get a ticket for the Champions League final in 2017. I wish I hadn't actually.
00:43:40
Speaker
I had to pay over a grand for a grand as a thousand thousand pounds. I had to pay over a thousand pounds to get a ticket for that Champions League. And I had to go through through an ultra. I'm actually an Juventus. That's Juventus who are playing in the Champions League final. Like just to understand how big of a serious problem this is.
00:43:58
Speaker
And obviously, I had contacts, and I had contacts, and the only way I could get a ticket was through the ultras, through like the head ultras, one of the heads actually.
00:44:13
Speaker
You know, so, you know, to go I wish I hadn't now. Waste of 1000 pounds. But you know, it's that kind of I mean, they've obviously and that's actually one of the areas I do actually sympathize with Andrea and the alien in in the way that, you know, he tried to combat tried, he's tried to combat it. And but he's a difficult one that because how would you do? How do you go? How do you go about it? You know, he can't even this is the thing he needs you can't fight alone.
00:44:40
Speaker
No, exactly, but you need the police, you need the state to go in there, and to, you know, society, Italian society has to take a stand against these people. It's as simple as that, because it's complete lawlessness. They do what they want, how they want, when they want, however they want, and nobody can say anything because if they do, they'll kill you. I mean, they're domestic terrorists, let's be honest.
00:45:03
Speaker
And something needs to be done because this is an absolute joke and it embarrasses Italy on a global stage. And I don't know how many people I've spoken to down there, friends, family, colleagues of all ages who all are just completely fed up with this, completely fed up with it and say that we're tired, but nothing's going to change because the police don't do anything about it.
00:45:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Right. Let's move on to Juventus now. And Juventus, the kids say say Allegri, Juventus is Juventus is youngsters. When would we ever win the irony in that in that statement? I mean, it's just
00:45:41
Speaker
I mean, Juventus, the name is about youth, isn't it? Because it derives from youth. And it is. Well, yes, but it's also known as the old lady. So, you know, yeah, well, yeah, no, but it's it's just I mean, Miretti, Sule, Elling Junior, Fagioli, they have Cambiaso and Ravella out on loan. This, this, I mean, they've got Chiesa who's, you know, he's Italian, he's young by Italian standards.
00:46:09
Speaker
But look, Juva has something interesting. I don't know how gathy he is, but he's not too old, is he? 24. I mean, listen, I think that we saw in the closing stages of the game against Pemfica midweek that basically Legri gave up on the game.
00:46:28
Speaker
Took off lower bitch and he's you know, he started resting players and he just threw on the youngsters and They did I mean well and almost almost got a draw out of that game healing Julia came on basically got to assist Sule couldn't should have got the equalizer You know, so
00:46:48
Speaker
The Juventus, you know, they do have some interest in youngsters, but, you know, in order for them to develop, they need the right coach. Allegri obviously isn't the right coach, but in this game, I mean, Fagioli, come on, he's barely been given a chance this season. He's got a fantastic goal, a brilliant, brilliant goal. Top goal of the weekend, let's say. And one of the, you know, one of the best goals of the season so far, it really was a quality, you know, almost a Del Piero like kind of curler, wasn't it? The way that it,
00:47:15
Speaker
or a bad Joe like curler into the top corner. It was such a beautiful moment. It was one of the goals of the season, if you ask me. Yeah. And he meant so much. He meant so much for him as well. Ilung Jr. OK, he got the assist. I mean, I wouldn't say it was that much of an assist, but now he come on.
00:47:34
Speaker
He came on and made the difference, along with Fadjoli. It was an assist similar to what, because Acherebe got an assist for Correa's goal. He passed him just outside his own box and then Correa runs for 65 yards and scores a screamer, but he's still an assist. I remember Harry Kane once got an assist for Tottenham when Son went on this runway, beat about five players and scored, and Kane got the assist for it.
00:48:03
Speaker
But you know, the way I look at it now is that Juventus just play the kids now, you know, Miretti, Fagioli, Soule, who I'm not sure about. I mean, I like him. I think he's got a lot of technical quality. I'm not sure if he's got the pace. That's the thing. But, you know, he's young and he definitely has the technical qualities and he's definitely comfortable on the ball.
00:48:20
Speaker
I'm just not sure whether he's quick enough.
00:48:37
Speaker
Why not bring him back in January? I just think you're better off playing with these players than the seniors. And the reason for that is simple. We know that the seniors aren't good enough. Under Allegri anyway, we know that the seniors aren't good enough. What is the point of every week playing the players that have been failing for 15 months now? Alexandro.
00:48:56
Speaker
you know mckenny uh you know even ravio to an extent i know he's gone through a good run of form um you know these kind of players moisture moisture keen i know he's still young but you know we we've tried these players and played these plays so much we know that they're not they haven't been getting the results so why not just play the youngsters at least they're you know
00:49:15
Speaker
at least they bring a little bit more of the unknown. And if they don't end up being good enough, well, what's the big deal? You can always sell them. You can fail with the seniors or you can fail, or you can maybe fail. And also the thing is, the thing is failing at U of A as a 19, 20 year old, whilst getting experience at U of A, that still raises your market value. You can still cash in on that.
00:49:36
Speaker
Yeah. And so for me, it's just a no brainer for you. And I hope that Allegri decides to to stop being so so stubborn and pick weird fights. But I mean, again, I don't think he's. I don't think he's going to stay at you, but I really the more I see of this, I really think that they will try to discuss with him and see if they can come up with some sort of payment scheme to get rid of him and try to bring someone else in during the World Cup because
00:50:05
Speaker
It's not what I don't think he's going to make me laugh. Can I just you know, just sound like this. This will make you laugh. The fact that Allegri actually criticized Fajoli for being out of position when he when he did you see that he was he criticized Fajoli for being out of position when he scored his when he scored his goal. So basically Fajoli went against Allegri's orders. He's not helping. I understand why he said it, but he's not helping his case, is he?
00:50:33
Speaker
I mean, that's just the point, isn't it? I mean, you know, he wouldn't have scored that goal if he hadn't, you know, and I think that that's, I think that's kind of what these youngsters will bring until they get it, hopefully won't get it coached out of them by Allegri, is that they bring this kind of unknown and this kind of unpredictability.
00:50:53
Speaker
You know, that's one thing we've seen from them in these last two games, actually, including in those last 20 minutes against Ben Vigga is that Juventus were suddenly again in those last 20 minutes, because maybe you can say maybe Ben Vigga took their foot off the gas. They thought they had the game one, but still, you know, they were there was they were unpredictable Juventus. They were moving around positions. You know, when you watch Napoli play, you know, and Spelletti said that there's no such thing as formations and positions anymore. It's all about
00:51:19
Speaker
just move attacking the spaces moving into the spaces and you see that with Napoli that their players just move around all over the place when they're in attacking phases anyway and to you know to a lesser extent Juventus with these kids that they were because they played with freedom and the joy of youth you know they weren't rigid and you know
00:51:39
Speaker
Look, that's true, but at the same time, what Juventus fans like yourself have to understand is if you play the kids, you might not even make it to Europe this season. I'm not talking Champions League, I'm talking Europa League or Conference League. And if you're okay with that and play kids, fine. That's all I'm saying.
00:51:55
Speaker
Yeah, no, I see that there is a dilemma there. My only point is that Juventus are failing. If Allegri is going to stay and he just keeps playing the same seniors that he's been playing for the last 15 months, Juventus are not going to get in the top four either. Well, I mean, we've seen just look at the run that they've been on and the performances and the results and the metrics show that.
00:52:17
Speaker
What is the point of just playing the same people that are just failing game after game? There's no going to be no progress doing that. This is the thing but here's the thing though Because if you look at the table um, not probably have five points clear about alanta But latzio ninta have 24 and uva have 22 and fourth and fifth latzio ninta on the same point so uva are thereabouts so my point is simply that
00:52:41
Speaker
you know, if you're okay with not being in Europe at all next season, and you're willing to gamble that, and you're prepared to take that gamble, then yes, by all means play the kids. I'm not saying play the entire under-19 team. I'm saying that some of these guys are better than the senior players, that you should play them. Who would you rather have in midfield, Makeni or Moretti?
00:53:07
Speaker
without a doubt. I'd rather give Moretti a chance. But to be fair, I understand that. For Joly, he scores an absolute one to go like that. But you have to also... Just five minutes again. You have to also win. But again, he also comes down to the manager as well. For Spalletti, he was the manager. I'm sure a lot of these youngsters would be playing. They would soon be improving.
00:53:27
Speaker
but under allegory it comes down to the manager as well. If there is one thing that we can say about the last few years with the Juventus is that they have at least started to develop some youngsters and now the Juventus has been disastrously run
00:53:44
Speaker
in the last years. But they have produced some young, you know, the youth team has started to do better. I mean, they've got the semi-finals of the UEFA Youth League, the under-19's last season. They were knocked out on penalties in the semis by Benfica. And they got through their group this season, actually knocked out Benfica of the groups as well. And, you know, they've been developing and producing some of these players like the ones, you know, we've just been talking about in, you know, in the last year or two.
00:54:12
Speaker
And, you know, so I think that, you know, maybe okay, the under 23 side, I mean, that is a debate, it's still in city achieve, they haven't even managed to get up to city a B, they finished eighth last season, they've only won three of the first 10 city achieve games. So I think there is debate over how well that how successful that has been. But in terms of the actual youth development, they are, they are doing a lot, lot better. And it's just now
00:54:34
Speaker
whether they can the pathway to the first team it's that's the big question now okay we have to speak about Paul Pogba here because he has suffered another injury in training just as he was coming back from his previous uh injury uh surgery he's suffered a thigh injury that is expected to keep him out for at least 10 days that means that he's probably almost certainly not going to play
00:55:02
Speaker
for Juventus until the World Cup. We'll have to wait and see just how serious it is and whether he can go to the World Cup. I think that it's very, very much at risk that he will go to the World Cup because
00:55:18
Speaker
the World Cup squads are announced on November the 13th. If you're Didier Deschamps, do you take Paul Pogba to the World Cup when he's not played this season? He's not actually played competitively because of that injury that he got at the end of last season with Man United since April the 19th. So you're looking at seven months without playing competitive football. The only football
00:55:43
Speaker
match of any kind that he's played was 45 minutes in a friendly for Juventus in the summer against Guadalajara, played 45 minutes in their first friendly, then he got injured the next day in training. And then, of course, you know, that was his name, wasn't it? He tore the meniscus in his knee during the preseason training in the US. And they tried ridiculously tried this conservative therapy, didn't know that to try and see if that he could play carry on playing that.
00:56:12
Speaker
inevitably as everybody knew we didn't work eventually had to go under the knife had surgery and he was just on his way back and he was aiming to play. This weekend actually the aim was either the inter game or or next week so that you would get some minutes.
00:56:31
Speaker
before Deschamps names his World Cup squad. And now he's had yet another setback. And this injury crisis for Pogba is a huge, huge worry as we were discussing with Pogba. But he's 29 Pogba, just like Lukaku is.
00:56:53
Speaker
30 during this season just like Lukaku and you look at his recent injury record and you do have to ask the question you know are we seeing witnessing the end of Pogba's top level career? Is his top level career over? I'm not saying it is he's obviously an incredibly gifted player but
00:57:12
Speaker
The number of injuries that Pogba has had over the last three years in particular, this is the 10th, 10th different injury that Pogba has had in three years. He's now, as we're speaking right now, he's missed 101 games during that time. 101 matches, that's just for club, that's just for his club by the way, that's not even included in an international team. Over 100 games he's missed through injury in the last three years.
00:57:40
Speaker
I mean, what do you think, Nimr? I mean, have we seen the end of Pogba as a top player?
00:57:49
Speaker
I think his physical status the last two, three years would suggest that, wouldn't it? I don't think his ability, that there's been a decline in his ability, I think given the kind of player he is, I think he's got the style that he could probably go, he could play for well into his 30s if he wasn't so injured.
00:58:13
Speaker
But having said that, I do think that given the injuries, which we can't discard as, you know, what they are, I think maybe, yes, I think it's it's his body can't take it anymore. I'm glad we've proven wrong because I think when he's fit and in the right midfield used in the right way, I think he's one of his fantastic player. I really do.
00:58:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's a big, big shame. It's a big, big shame, but it's also the reason why, you know, and I hate to do another, I told you so, but this is why. No, you don't, you love it. Well, this is why I said during the summer, when you've been assigned them on a free transfer, you know, don't, why are all the eventless fans, we're not all, there's quite a lot that were against it, but why are so many people jumping up and down and getting excited about, about signing a player that's missed over, I think it was around about 75 games.
00:59:09
Speaker
through injury in two and a half years at the time. It's just basic logic. You don't miss that number of games and that number of injuries repetitively unless there's something clearly wrong and it's not right. Juventus got him on a free transfer, but they also paid him big, big wages.
00:59:30
Speaker
and you know he was signed to be the player that took them to the next level in midfield and by signing him instead of somebody else they now have to make do without that midfielder that they needed. So obviously I hope that he comes back in 2023 and he becomes the player that Juventus need and he gets back to his best and he's fit and everything but
00:59:54
Speaker
You know, three years of just constant injury after injury, there's obviously something not right with his body and he's breaking down and maybe it is his age. You know, he's not that old, but he started quite young. You know, he was already a superstar.
01:00:09
Speaker
by the age of 21, wasn't he? And so, you know, it's, it is very, very concerning. But just as concerning as I think Pog was at the wrong club, he wants to sort out his injury situation, because Juventus' injury crisis right now is becoming, it's becoming an absolute joke. I mean, you just go on there, just go on social media, go onto Facebook, onto Twitter, just see all the memes and the jokes that are going round. I mean, I don't know how, by the way, the Juventus,
01:00:39
Speaker
Juventus' medical team and there hasn't been a massive purge of them with a number of injuries because that is the common denominator throughout all of this. Juventus go into this PSG game in midweek without 14 first team players.
01:00:54
Speaker
14. I mean, can you actually believe that 14? It's insane. And no, it's bizarre. The repeated muscular injuries, the muscular injuries as well as the big one, there's been so many muscular injuries, which has to be put down to the medical team when you get in that many muscular injuries, in my opinion.
01:01:12
Speaker
You know, there's some injuries that can just be unlucky, you know, contact injuries. You can't do anything about contact injuries. You know, even sometimes if you twist your ankle or twist your knee, sometimes you can't do anything about those. Those injuries can just happen. Obviously, some players are more physically prone, injury prone, you know, but to get repeated muscular injuries and also when you look at the lack of conditioning,
01:01:36
Speaker
that Juventus team has had and how they're completely incapable of maintaining any kind of intensity for more than 20 or 30 minutes in a game and how many times they've completely fallen away in matches physically in the second half. I think it all comes down to the same thing and that is the Juventus medical team is completely failing. You don't have 14 first team players out and then the next
01:02:03
Speaker
next most amount of injuries in Serie A is six with Roma, six. So they're absolutely way out in front with the number of injuries you've entered. Let's move on to Lazio. So Lazio had a shock defeat to Saleni Tana. I mean, what the hell happened there, Nima?
01:02:26
Speaker
No, it was one of those games where Vasino had two sitters. If he scores at least one of these, I think Lazio will go on and win it.
01:02:39
Speaker
The momentum of the game changed completely after Candreeva scored in one of the most beautiful goals, I think, of the round. I mean, it was a wonderful weekend for glorious goals. We saw two world-class goals in Inter's win against Sampdoria, Bastoni's pass to Barela, which was a carbon copy of his pass to Barela against Juve in the Scoreta winning season. I remember that when some people were saying that was a miss hit pass.
01:03:05
Speaker
Keeps hitting, misheating those, doesn't he? As for Lazio, yeah, and also Correa's 65-yard run, and then Fagioli's dream goal, but Candreva's goal was, I mean, that control,
01:03:20
Speaker
the first touch control in the lob was just absolutely stunning. And that really changed the complexion of the game. And Lazio started looking frustrated, started looking annoyed, and just didn't, you know, mentally kind of collapsed a little bit, which we've seen them do a few times a season against Midiuland, especially away when they were, I think they lost 5-1 or 5-0.
01:03:44
Speaker
in the Europa League. They do have these kind of mental collapses once in a while. And no, but I mean, you know, he didn't, Sarri didn't start Sergei Milinkovitsavich. He started Luis Alberto, played a wonderful assist for Zakanyi's opening goal. But then he brought Sergei Milinkovitsavich off.
01:04:06
Speaker
No, he is. But but then he but then he brings on, brings Alberto off and brings Sega Milinkovic on and he gets booked. The reason he didn't play him is because he didn't want him to get booked to Mr. Romdabi. So he brings him on, they lose the game and he's booked and he misses. That was ridiculous.
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, but we're talking about the refereeing decision. That was the worst refereeing decision of the round. That was absolutely ridiculous. I mean, I'm sorry, but, you know, okay, yellow cards, they can't be overturned and you can't use VAR for yellow cards. But, you know, you see a decision like that and that is such a big decision for the Rome Derby because that's going to have a huge impact on the outcome of the Derby. My issue is,
01:04:47
Speaker
The way I look at that situation is, at first when I saw it in live, I thought, that's a strange call by the referee. But then you see the replay, and you can understand why he gives the yellow card. But regardless, had Seragon Milinkovitsavich not been suspended for the Rome Derby, no one would be talking about that yellow card, because it wouldn't have mattered.
01:05:10
Speaker
But I do agree. So so that's so it's one side or the other side. But I do agree with you personally. I don't think that's a booking. I really don't think so. But but when you see on the replay and how he hits him, you can you can argue, you can see why the referee thinks that. But I mean, I don't know. I still think it was a it was a bad decision. And to me, she should be because I mean, you have to take you have to take intent. I mean, he's got he's not he's not going after him.
01:05:38
Speaker
He's not trying to injure him, he's trying to go after the ball and he's kind of got the ball there. I mean, it's a mistake, but I don't know, I think a yellow card is a bit harsh. I would have given a free kick for Salah Mitana, sure, but not a yellow card. I thought that was a little bit too much. But again, I mean, I put this on Sarri. Why did you even bring him on then, you know? Because you've got no points and you've lost Milinkovic Savage for the derby.
01:06:02
Speaker
No, no. And this is kind of why I think that you can't, you can't rest players to stop them from getting suspended. You just have to just play them. Play them from the start, full stop and done. You know, dead rubber game. Or if you're going to, or if you're going to, exactly.
01:06:20
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. Or if you're going to start, or if you're going to rest, then then, you know, just, okay, fine, we lost this game. Don't, you know, the drone Derby's a bit more against than Salah. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no halfway house. Yeah.
01:06:35
Speaker
No, but you have to, we have to pay tribute to Davide Mikala, who's, I mean, the walk has been done with this Salerni Tana since taking over about, well, it's not even been a year, is it? Or it's just thereabouts, you know, from, from shoot, you know, the great escape to throwing shoes on the sidelines, the, you know, it's just, I, they're such a, they really are a lovely team to watch. And especially, like, they're such an, they're such a fun team to watch, just with all the madness going about them. And also,
01:07:04
Speaker
especially at home. They have such amazing fans. So now I really have a soft spot for Sala Emitana. No, they've got some good play. They've got some good plays as well. Mazzocchi is having a fantastic season and obviously Candreva, who I've always said, I think he's been really
01:07:22
Speaker
criminally disrespected and underrated during his career. I've always thought he's an excellent player. I know Inter fans, there's a bit of a love-hate relationship there with him, but I've always thought he's an excellent player. Well, that's your fans as well.
01:07:35
Speaker
Yeah. And then Boulaide, Boulaide Diaz having an excellent season. He scored again as well. He's been one of the signings of the season so far from, from, from Villa Real. He's been fantastic. He's got five goals now instead of one of the top scorers in the, in the entire league. So yeah, we'll understand. We'll quickly go through the rest of Serie A just before we finish off with a, with the Champions League preview. So Emily nil, Atalanta two, Atalanta second in the table, and they will play this weekend. They play against, um, league leaders.
01:08:05
Speaker
Napoli will do a proper preview of that on Thursday's show because that is going to be a fascinating game. But they were excellent in this game, totally deserved to win. They missed a penalty as well. Lukman, you were saying about great goals this weekend in Serie A. He's got a wonderful solo goal. He's really having an excellent season. He's got four goals in his last five games now, Lukman has. And he's really, really doing well, a very, very modern player.
01:08:30
Speaker
and really good in tight spaces, flexible, good final ball, good awareness. He's doing great, really kind of fits into Gasparini's type of football perfectly, the whole kind of, you know, pass and move and he's doing great.
01:08:47
Speaker
Clemonez and Niel, Udinese, Niel, Alvini, just about, I think, is going to survive again. He got some, yeah, bought a little bit of time with that. Udinese, he's starting to slow down now, aren't they, after their really, really strong start. They're now, I think they're level with Juventus now, I think, so they're starting to move down the table. And then Fiorentina got a late winner from Arthur Cabral and they beat Spezia 2-1.
01:09:14
Speaker
and Spezia I think were unbeaten at home before before that game this season so that was a that was a big big win for Fiorentina because they've been in terrible form in Celia in recent weeks okay let's move on to the Champions League preview now so it's match day six final match day of the group stage we have Liverpool Napoli on Tuesday by Munich Inter as well on Tuesday and then on Wednesday Milan Salzberg and Juventus PSG now
01:09:44
Speaker
Liverpool Napoli, first of all, so Napoli already through, they just need, they need to avoid defeat by more than three goals in order to finish top. And they got 100% record, 15 points. Liverpool got 12 points, four wins. And Liverpool need to win by four clear goals to go through. It's at Anfield, so anything's possible. We know there's not a tougher place to go in Europe on dual-die European nights than Anfield when you've got that crowd behind them.
01:10:13
Speaker
So it's going to be it's going to be another big test of Napoli to see to see where they're at mentally and it poses a dilemma to them and to Spelletti do they play their strongest team do they rest players they've got Atalanta we have a whole week's rest you know it's a difficult one difficult to know what they do in this game how strong they go who they play or does it even matter who they play I don't know but
01:10:35
Speaker
I don't think I don't think I mean it's we're talking about not losing 4-0 and I don't think that I mean Liverpool are through Napoli are through obviously for want to win the group but it's not a knockout stage game where you know Liverpool against Barcelona do you know what I mean I don't think it really matters that much obviously you'd rather win the group but I don't think Klopp is gonna like go gung-ho and and like come on you know fire up his team to like as if they're playing the Champions League final or a semi-final or something like that
01:11:05
Speaker
I think he's got bigger fish to fry right now, but, but Liverpool, but I don't know. I just have a feeling this game is going to end in a draw. Yeah, Liverpool, Liverpool are in, are in, well, relatively are in a crisis right now. They lost at home to Leeds at the weekend and they just don't, yeah, they don't seem to be the same team this season. They lost to, they've lost two Premier League games in a row. They lost to Nottingham Forest away. I mean, what the hell is going on there?
01:11:34
Speaker
But then, you know, they beat Manchester City though, just like two weeks ago. They beat Manchester City at home. So it's very, very strange to know what you're going to get from Liverpool. In fact, they've beaten Manchester City twice this season. They've beaten them in the start of the season as well, in the Charity Shield game as well.
01:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's going to be good. It's always good watching Napoli. Bayern Munich, I mean, there's absolutely nothing to play for in this game. It's a dead run. And already Bayern coaches said he's going to rotate heavily. I'm pretty sure they're going to do the same. There's nothing to play for. Bayern have already won the group. No, it's going to be a friendly. It's a glorified friendly is what it is.
01:12:20
Speaker
I'll predict the 2-2 in this game. I think there's going to be goals. Yeah, something like that. Juventus PSG. Now, Juventus basically need to equal or better the result of the macabre high flat in order to go into the Europa League.
01:12:36
Speaker
They're playing PSG. I mean, yeah. Well, here's the thing, though. Benfica, actually, hang on a minute, because Benfica can win the group and Benfica will be going after. Yeah. So they're going to go after the group. Yeah, exactly. That's my point. So it's it's going to lose the game, obviously. But I'm just saying they need to they need to better the result of
01:13:02
Speaker
of uh of macarby or or equally in terms of goals conceded this is what it's come to you know they've got they've got a bit of an advantage of macarby over so hopefully this is what it's come to with inventors let's just try and lose by less goals than macarby
01:13:20
Speaker
It's funny because I joked with some of my friends on Saturday afternoon when Sasualo were getting hammered by Napoli. I go, this is a great result for Juventus. It means that they keep their five four point lead over Sasualo in ninth. It's a great result for you. This is kind of how we've lowered our expectations now.
01:13:41
Speaker
Right. Okay. And the big one, obviously, the big one, obviously, is Milan, Milan, Salzburg. Milan, Salzburg. They need a draw. Milan need a draw against Salzburg. Minimum draw. Minimum draw. It's not an easy game because Salzburg have been competitive in all their games in this group, including against Chelsea. They drew away at Chelsea 1-0. And to be honest, it could have gone either way, the game last week against Chelsea, which they lost 2-1. And obviously, they drew 1-0 with Milan in the first game.
01:14:11
Speaker
No one should expect this game to be an easy game for Milan. It won't be.
01:14:18
Speaker
I'm confident that they'll show a reaction. I think they had half an eye on this game. Pioli's rested some of their big guns quite a bit. I mean, Giroud only played a little bit at the end against Torino. Liao got half the match off. Tonali didn't play the last 25 minutes or so. Benese only came on, didn't he, in the second half.
01:14:42
Speaker
Kiara as well. He has been resting up quite a lot of his players and I think that hopefully they have to win. If they don't go through then it's a huge failure for Milan in terms of their project of improving season by season. Let's finish off with Bad Gio and Prem Face of the Week. I've got two Bad Gios.
01:15:11
Speaker
Yeah, I've got two bad jokes. I was going to put one of them into the pren phase. So my first one is Deserbe. He's finally got his first win for Brighton beating
01:15:22
Speaker
beating Hot Potter for Chelsea, 4-1, the former Brighton manager. So yeah, that's my budget of the week. He's been unlucky really. He's had a really tough start in terms of fixtures and also some of the results just not going his way, drawing a little bit. He's done well in the big games. He's doing exactly what he did with Sassuola.
01:15:46
Speaker
Performing well against the big teams drew and feel free or should have won that game Beats Chelsea for one at home, but then gets bad results against some of the smaller teams So it's a strange one which is a my my bad job. My my my bad Joe is former Napoli inter and Bologna and also Montza play defender Massimo Tarantino who
01:16:09
Speaker
is the key he's the current i think he's the current technical director at spa at joe takupina's spa but why i think he's the but the budget of the week is because during the supermarket stabbing the problem are you at the arsenal player.
01:16:25
Speaker
in a Milan supermarket was stabbed by a mentally ill person, grabbed a knife in a supermarket and just started attacking everyone there. But Tarantino and another person disarmed and held the attacker until the police arrived. So for me, he sees my bad jaw over the week. But also, I mean, as we've already mentioned,
01:16:51
Speaker
Fagioli, Candreva, Lukman, Correa, Bastoni to Barela, these goals in the Serie A are one more beautiful than the other.
01:17:00
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Also Banjo. Yeah. Guy along with all that. And obviously, best wishes to everyone from that. And yeah, thank God that, I mean, obviously we had one fatality, which is awful, but thank God that Pablo Marie was all right. Yeah. And if it wasn't for Tarantino, he was a left back, wasn't he, Massimo Tarantino? I think so. He was a left back. I remember him from Championship Manager. Yeah, I remember Bologna. Yeah.
01:17:26
Speaker
Paramati!
01:17:47
Speaker
No, Padamati wasn't Inter. No, not Inter. Oh yeah, I'm thinking of Bologna because Tarantino played it Bologna,
Padamati's Juventus Experience
01:17:54
Speaker
didn't he? Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was thinking of Bologna. Yeah. No, Padamati, I wish Padamati was an Inter player because he was at Juve and he was blooming awful at Juve.
Jamie Weir and Social Media Conflict
01:18:03
Speaker
OK, Prem Face, Prem Face of the Week. Right. I just want to say, to start with, that Nimr forced me to pick this one. I didn't want to mention this guy ever again.
01:18:17
Speaker
He's just weird. He's just pretty much as his name suggests. His name's Jamie Weir, but I call him Jamie Weird, because that's exactly what he is. And he's the golf correspondent of Sky Sports. I think that's his role. I mean, I don't watch golf. I don't like the sport. I think it's...
01:18:36
Speaker
It's in a posh, elitist sport. I don't like it at all. I think that's what he does. This guy, he's a Tottenham fan. Happens to be a Tottenham fan. The guy is just literally obsessed with me. He just tweets and sub-tweets about me, non-stop this year. Must have done it about 15 times this year. All to do with, everybody knows about it, that the Kulesevsky, Benton Kua,
01:19:05
Speaker
tweet that I put out in January and he just keeps tweeting about me and I just thought yesterday I just thought I've had enough of this now I'm gonna call him out so I called him out and I just called him a weirdo basically and he got a bit upset about it and yeah just started yeah just just very strange very very strange person
01:19:25
Speaker
And I think this beef that you have, I think this beef that Spurs fans have with you, which is mainly Koulousevski's fault, because again, the fact that he paid a social media manager, even tagged the guy who did the video as if like, bro, take your credits, take your bow, you know, for that hype video, for finishing fourth, is one of the most bizarre situations that has ever happened.
01:19:54
Speaker
Oh, my dear. Oh, my dear. It's the loser mentality, isn't it? Yeah. Oh, we finished four. Oh, you were wrong. Wow. Look at us. Benton Curry scored a 93rd minute header against Bournemouth. A 93rd minute goal off a corner. See, see, Carlo, you were wrong. I mean, it's just hilarious. Like every single time one of those two scores a goal. In fact, I think there's only got one goal this season anyway. But every time one of them scores or does anything, you know, that's a sideways part. I get I get about a billion Tottenham fans all messaging me.
01:20:24
Speaker
saying oh see they're great you know and they keep demanding apologies and it like it winds them up the fact that I mean it's like I know again I'm not I don't mean to I've got lots of friends that Tottenham fans I'm not you know but there is definitely within that family to be honest
01:20:41
Speaker
that they're definitely within that fan base. And I love, you know, I've got, I love, you know, I, in fact, I actually, you know, even though people know that asked them were my, my English team growing up, you know, I actually do have a bit of a soft spot for Tottenham, because obviously Antonio Conte is there, there's a bit of an Italian connection there. You know, Glenn Hodel was one of my, one of my idols growing up as a player, absolutely worshipped him as my favourite English player of all time, Glenn Hodel, absolute genius of a player.
01:21:06
Speaker
I love that Tottenham team. They had a great team in the 80s when they had him and they had our dealers and Ricky Villa, they had the two Argentines there. And, you know, they played great football, European football in a time when everyone in England, every English team just played long ball. And, you know, I have a lot of soft spots for them, but, you know, there is... I love the fan base.
01:21:30
Speaker
Yeah, I was gonna say sorry. Yeah, just once said we're in that fan base There is a massive inferiority complex within the Tottenham fan base because they haven't won anything They haven't won anything for
Tottenham's Legacy and Fan Reactions
01:21:39
Speaker
so long. They haven't won a league title for over 60 years that you know for them they get so offended just with an opinion and They get they get so, you know, they get so excited over something that really isn't a big deal and you finished fourth Let's go and celebrate finishing fourth or you know
01:22:01
Speaker
Let's just go and get all get excited about it. I mean, well, no, that's just loser mentality. If that's the, if that's what your standards are, you're getting excited over finishing fourth and Benson Coor having a good game, not a very good game, just a good game. Then, you know, that's just, you're just a loser really.
01:22:18
Speaker
So I think they want Antonio. No, but I think what Antonio Conte did last season was fantastic to get them into fourth playing, you know, championship players quality is outstanding. And I think it is it is an achievement. I think what he did, the cool stuff. And you know what I think? I think I've always thought that cool stuff ski and content match made in heaven. Right. So it's. Yeah, well, he wants to play. He was conceived, conceived in a lab to play for Antonio content. And I believe that I fully believe that.
01:22:48
Speaker
But the thing is, I think that this notion, the thing that I find so fascinating, almost like a, I almost study it, like I sit with a pen and paper and watch this happen. It's like, it's so fascinating to me that one tweet can turn, like one tweet jokingly saying, oh, Paratici is a genius. Because at the end of the day, Benton Korn and Koulousepski were fringe players at Juve. Juve got paid 70 million euros. With that money, they bought Blauwitsch.
01:23:15
Speaker
And it was a good move for Benton court and Koulousevski. So everybody won on that deal. And it's like, that's what I took away from your tweet. And obviously a bit tongue in cheek saying, oh, fantastic deal to get paid for two fringe players. But the fact that this hurt Koulousevski first so much that he had a social media manager do a video about it. And that every time Benton court scores a goal or Koulousevski scores a goal and they haven't won a title, this becomes like, ha ha, there you see Carlo. I find that absolutely fascinating.
01:23:45
Speaker
and incredibly entertaining to watch from afar. I just think it's hilarious. I'm sorry, but it's absolute. What a shit show. Yeah, well, I just turned my mute on that. I'm not surprised that you find it funny.
Podcast Closing and Future Content
01:23:57
Speaker
You live for stuff like that. OK, that's all we have time for. It's funny as hell.
01:24:03
Speaker
Yeah, it is. That's all we have time for today. We will be back on Tuesday for our Q&A episode Thursday for our review show. Also, you can you can catch us on YouTube as well. And just type in the search function Italian football podcast, excuse me. And you will, yeah, you'll find us on there as well. Okay, we will see you again on Tuesday. Until then, ciao ciao.
01:24:33
Speaker
you