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Serie A Sides Thrive in Europe, Juventus-Sassuolo and Verona-Roma Previews (Ep. 34)
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Transcript
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00:00:01
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Host Changes and Episode Overview
00:01:36
Speaker
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Seria Show. Now, I'm sure those regular listeners who tune in every week will have noticed that I'm not John. Unfortunately, he's suffering a bit, feeling a bit under the weather, so I am going to be presenting. And Nima, when the cat's away. The mice come out and play.
00:02:01
Speaker
We're hoping to not be tuned for you without John. We're going to be professional. Yeah, we are. Although it's really fun to hear. When John has these dad freak-outs, it's how badly we're misbehaving with some of the stuff we say, especially last time. Well, let's not mention Antonio Conte, otherwise. Okay, so, no.
Italian Teams in European Competitions
00:02:27
Speaker
So it was a very good week for Sarayasad in the Champions League and in Europa League indeed. They all won, every Italian team won except for Napoli who got a really good 1-1 draw with Liverpool. Now that was a result that I was really not expecting. I really didn't expect Napoli. I mean I watched the game and they played really, really well.
00:02:54
Speaker
you know, where did they pull that out of the bag from? I don't know, but they were excellent.
Lukaku's Performance and Partnership
00:03:00
Speaker
So, Nima, can you shed some light on how Inter played? I believe there is a bit of a dynamic duo going on up front. Oh, those two, Lautaro and Lukaku. What a display. And what a display by Lukaku. He was simply phenomenal. He was world-class. He reminded me of Adriano in his peak, the way he played. His movement, his strength, his speed, his technique.
00:03:25
Speaker
That assist outside of the boot left foot cross for Lautaro for the 3-1 goal He scored two goals that were that were disallowed both correctly But but but this the second goal that was disallowed Towards the end there when he did these overstep Oversteps and then bottom bottom of the bottom of the corner he buried in the bottom of the corner on the right hand corner It was just it was peak peak Adriano
00:03:52
Speaker
He was really, I mean, I honestly didn't know he could be this good. I've always seen him as kind of a striker, like a goal scorer, but I've never seen this side to his game before, this strength, this
00:04:09
Speaker
this technique, this vision, craft, all of it. He was absolutely phenomenal. It was without a doubt of his best performance in a Minto shirt. And him and Lautaro are just loving life together. They really have a bro man's going. After the game, I think Lautaro had bought the matching, like not Christmas jumpers, but just matching jumpers of a dog.
00:04:38
Speaker
of a dog barking. The promise is real between these two. They really get along well and they really like each other. I think that when he scored the third goal and they hand in hand run towards the fans holding each other. It's so cute. They're like best friends. It's really, really, really cute to see.
00:05:04
Speaker
And now it's, it's just everything is, you know, they're really clicking and they really understand how, how each other, how they want to play.
Inter Milan's Team Dynamics Under Conte
00:05:11
Speaker
We compliment each other perfectly. If it's not one, it's the other. And it makes them so, so it makes Intel so hard to defend against.
00:05:20
Speaker
It must be refreshing as well after the Icardi-Perissic sort of fall out and you know, all that kind of stuff to see teammates getting on with each other and actually that helping the play. Absolutely. I mean, those two couldn't stand each other towards the end there and the entire environment was toxic. So, but I mean, that just goes to show the clear out was needed. The revolution was needed. There's no doubt about that in defense of an
00:05:48
Speaker
Screaming for that for the past decade and they got it this past summer and it was needed you you have to do it at some point you have to put your foot down and move on when things aren't working and and things weren't working I mean Inte should have been you know should have finished top four far sooner last season than they actually did and so no this this this this new project under Conte it's it really is a team and
00:06:16
Speaker
They, the players, everyone on the bench, everyone on the pitch, everyone absolutely is getting on, everyone is respecting each other. There's a clear order chain of command who decides who does what, who, you know, everyone knows their place and everything is, that's why everything is so harmless. There's such harmony around Inter right now. It seems like an Inter of past
00:06:41
Speaker
on, if it was a virus, they've passed it on to Napoli with everything that's going on there, but they, you know, they pulled it out of the bag versus Liverpool and, you know, I'll be interested to see whether they can follow that up this weekend because they've put in two really great performances against Liverpool this season and in the league, they've really been awful. So for me, that's
00:07:07
Speaker
That's the acid test, whether they can carry forward that form they showed in midweek through to the weekend. But having said that, at the same time, Liverpool, they play, when you play Liverpool, there is space to attack. And usually in the Serie A, it's Napoli are the ones who are leading the attack. And here they got to play a little bit more traditional Italian in the sense that they got to
00:07:33
Speaker
they got to lay a little low and then attack the space encounter and for once they were clinical. I think they only had one shot on goal and they scored that. That's been the issue in the league is the fact that they've created so many chances but they just cannot seem to score more than once if even that.
00:07:54
Speaker
And then, you know, teams in the Serie A are cynical and they will hurt you. Yeah, they will come back too, I guess. You're right. Absolutely. Yeah, they are. No, I expect it to turn around now. I think these two draws against Milan and Liverpool, I mean, Napoli have a chance to win their Champions League group. They play gank at home.
00:08:16
Speaker
Uh, and Liverpool have a nightmarish, uh, away trip against the Salzburg who can, who literally have nothing to lose and everything to win with, with, uh, uh, with that Norwegian teenager who just scores for fun. Um, and they, and they attack you, they take it, you know, they take you to town, uh, Salzburg, especially at home. So I don't envy Liverpool there at all. I, I don't think Liverpool will win that game. I think they'll draw it at best, which leaves, uh, Napoli,
00:08:46
Speaker
wide open to just winning if they beat Genk they'll win that group and they will have won that group without having lost a single game which is also really impressive. And if they progress in the Champions League all this nonsense in the league and you know the fallout between De Laurentiis and Angelozzi it'll just be forgotten. Yeah all of it I mean nothing you know success and wins is the best way to get through a crisis no matter what that crisis is.
00:09:13
Speaker
And that's absolutely true.
Juventus and Inter's Serie A Rivalry
00:09:15
Speaker
I mean, if they were to win and they go into the Christmas break, having gone through to the Champions League and maybe won a couple of games in the Serie A, and they're within four or five points within that fourth place, they've got everything to play for in the second half of the season.
00:09:29
Speaker
Absolutely. So moving on to domestic matters, we've got Juve playing Sassuolo this weekend and Inter playing Spal. Now for me, I think there will be no change at the top after this weekend. I think that's a win for each side. What do you think, Nima? I couldn't agree more. It's Juve playing at home against Sassuolo. We know how it's going to look.
00:09:53
Speaker
if if you are you know if you don't come out of the blocks uh firing and if sasol is having a good day i'll probably score a goal and it'll be a little bit nervous and then we all know what's going to happen in the second half that douglas costa is going to come on or dibala is going to come on or naldo is going to come on or some other of the some other brilliant player they have on the bench that's that day is going to come on and they're going to win that game 2-1
00:10:17
Speaker
in the 92nd minute or something. Their bench is like a Mary Poppins bag, isn't it? It really is, isn't it? It's crazy. It's ridiculous. When you play Juve, you have to prepare for three games because they can play with a 4-3-3 with real wingers and windbacks. They can play with a 4-3-1-2, which they do
00:10:42
Speaker
you know you they can play a four four three one two they can play a four four two they can play a three man three five two all of a sudden like they can they can play so many different ways in one game and he in saree has made absolutely no secret that he utilizes this in a game you are so fluid in how they play it literally is a hundred and eighty degrees
00:11:07
Speaker
difference to when Allegri was there. In the sense that the fluidity of it. He was much more pragmatic and he was also very flexible in his coaching and tactics. But Allegri was never able to get this team to play with this fluidity, irrespective of the lineup. And that is something that Sarri has definitely changed.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. And it seems to me like they're starting to, they're starting to click now. I mean, they've had the results obviously, but we've never not really seen consistently good performances, but I think especially with the way he's got Diabala playing in particular and Bonucci has improved from last season too. There's a lot of players there that are really improving and I think from
00:12:00
Speaker
after the winter break onwards, we'll see more of that starry ball that we were, you know, everyone was hoping for. Absolutely. And also, let's not forget about the league is finally starting to find his feet and showing why why you invested so much money in him. I thought he was absolutely brilliant this past midweek years. I'd like to go and and he's starting to find his feet. He's starting to find the balance. There was always going to be teething problems with a young player in a new league.
00:12:30
Speaker
But he's really finding himself now and he's really starting to show glimpses of why Juventus paid that much money for him.
00:12:37
Speaker
And that is, you know, that was just to be expected. And it was unfortunate in a way of how he had to be thrust into the starting lineup with the injury to Keilini. So, you know, you've got to give him a bit of slack for the fact that he was put straight into the first team sooner than expected. And it's now really, I mean, there was one tackle in particular at the end of the match against Athletico that
00:13:06
Speaker
you know, I just thought, wow, that was, you know, the kind of delete that, you know, he was living up to his reputation in a way.
00:13:15
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And he was and he's been and he's been improving slowly, but surely for every game now. And now he's just he's really, really fine. He's really finding his feet. He's finding he knows how to play. He knows when to fall. He's he's finding, you know, he's adapted to the team and how they want to play. And now you've I mean, that's why I said before, you know, on the spot that, you know, you've are struggling, but they're winning.
00:13:42
Speaker
So after Christmas when things are really falling into place, this club, these guys are going to mop the floor with everyone because, you know, think of how good it looks if they win when they don't play well and then just think of it when they actually play well and things click. Now they only have to get Ronaldo into this system.
00:14:01
Speaker
And just think of, you know, we all know what that means when he's, when he's informed, he scores ridiculous amounts of goals. Yeah. I mean, you know, I think, I think Inter are going to keep matching them for results. I think Conte knows how to win in Serie A. I think
00:14:17
Speaker
You know, they face Spal this weekend, Spal are not what they were. They've dropped quite a bit since having two good seasons in Serie A. This third season, they're starting to struggle. So can you see a scenario, Nima, where the head-to-head results between Juve and Inter may be decisive if Inter continue to match Juve round for round?
00:14:42
Speaker
I think I think I think you're absolutely right. I was actually thinking about that the other day that I think that's that's where this is going to be decided. It's going to be their head to heads that's going to decide this. And I think we saw in the first head to head that you are better than. And and at least then they were. So if they continue winning and drawing when they win each other, when the other draws and when when the other wins,
00:15:09
Speaker
this is going to go down to the wire and it's going to be decided by when they meet each other, when they play each other. Yeah, I agree. So I've picked out a couple of fixtures that are interesting to me.
Emerging Talent: Dejan Kulusevski
00:15:21
Speaker
One of them is Parma Milan. Now Parma are actually on the quiet doing really quite well. And they have this Wunderkid, the Swedish Wunderkid that Nima, you might know a little bit more about. Kulosevsky, am I saying that right?
00:15:40
Speaker
He's so strange with him because he's from Stockholm. He's born in Stockholm. He started playing for Abramopojkana, who is basically the Swedish version of Ajax in terms of youth development. They are absolutely phenomenal. They're the best in the country, the best in Scandinavia by a mile.
00:16:02
Speaker
in developing talent and teaching football to kids. When you see a Bromo Poique in a team play, no matter if they're 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, they play football in a way that no other kids at that age do. They train the children really, really well and he's, since the day he started playing Konosefsky, he's been
00:16:29
Speaker
the best player in every single team he's played in. And I mean that from year to year until last year when he was at Atalanta Primavera, when they won the Scodetto, until this year, his first season as a professional at first team football, like senior football, and he's the best player at Palma and he's had three score, three goals and five assists.
00:16:52
Speaker
We don't know what his best position is. He says he likes to play centrally as a trécoartista, maybe. But the thing with him is we don't know what his best position is because he never stops running. He works in all of those three positions behind the striker. And as a winger, as a number 10, as a winger on the other side, he has a good shot with both feet.
00:17:15
Speaker
He has intelligence, his tactical, you know, he thinks football really intelligently. But above all, the kid never stops running. His lungs are made of steel or something. It's just insane. I think after Brozovic, I mean, I never thought any because that's just impossible. You know, Brozovic is not human. But but but he he actually matches Brozovic in terms of distance covered for games. It's ridiculous.
00:17:42
Speaker
Yeah, it is nice. He's really, really good. And to me, and he's got a he's very focused and very, he's got a good head on his shoulders. He's not he doesn't let things be phase and he he knows he's at the you know, that this is the just the beginning of his career. He's not, you know, he's not being
00:18:00
Speaker
blown away by it. He's very determined. He knows what he wants. He knows where he wants to go in his career. He knows what his aims are. He wants to win and become as good as he possibly can get. And this trajectory that he's on is, you know, who thought that Zlatan Ibrahimovic
00:18:22
Speaker
replacement, you know, replacement to slap on him, which was like, it's like, no, he's he's absolutely amazing. People are really starting to take notice now as well. I keep seeing a lot of people mentioning Twitter and, you know, I think he's really starting to get that attention from some of these super performances. Oh, yeah. And if he stays, I mean, and if he stays healthy and doesn't get injured, he's definitely going to the Euros with Sweden.
00:18:53
Speaker
and I think he could actually do something. Yeah, that would be exciting. Together with Mathias Swan Barry, who plays for Bologna, they also have a youngster, a 20-year-old, who's been in Bologna for a year and a half and is really, really good. Now, this new Swedish generation, this next generation of Swedish players, they're so young and they're so damn good. Aleksandar Isakethryal Sociedad, Robin Kwys on at Mainz,
00:19:18
Speaker
there's a there's a you know you obviously have Lindelof in Manchester United you have uh no this this crop of this crop of Swedish players that that that won the European under 21s a few years ago and younger are a real interesting generation. Well Palmer is certainly enjoying uh cool sevsky at the moment um what do you think do you think Palmer can get a result against Milan because I I think yeah I think that Milan are slowly improving under Pioli but
AC Milan and Roma's Progress
00:19:48
Speaker
I just don't see that it's enough. I don't see that they're improving quickly enough. Well, the thing is, Parma, if I'm not mistaken, the game is away at the Estadio and the Ottardini in Parma. That kind of speaks a little bit to Milan, because then Parma will be the ones to attack in.
00:20:07
Speaker
and try to control the game which gives Milan a chance to counter-attack and I think they really have the players that are good enough to hurt Parma. I think if this was played at the San Siro it would be much more complicated for Milan.
00:20:21
Speaker
from Milan. But no, I think that absolutely. I mean, Jervinho Koulousevski in our column was obviously not there. But Andreas Cornelius, who scores for fun when he when he's having a good day, he just bangs them in strong, strong, big physical number nine, who powers homes shots, like really powers them, thumps them.
00:20:46
Speaker
and I think Milan need to watch out, they really do. But I'm thinking 2-2 draw here. Yeah, I'll definitely bank on a draw because Pioli is the draw specialist after all. True, he is. But Milan have to start winning, but having said that, it's starting to look really good, the midfield especially, Ben Nacer and Krunic.
00:21:09
Speaker
and Pakyatar, that midfield trio is really... Yeah, agreed, agreed. I don't think they'll progress, but jury's still out at the moment. So the last game to discuss is a bit of a defence versus attack, because we have Hellos Verona, who've surprised everybody with how well they're doing this year, and they played Fiorentina last weekend.
00:21:35
Speaker
And they won by a goal to nil. And the way they defended was absolutely excellent. That Djuric has really got them well organized. And then we've got them playing Roma, who are a really attacking side. They won three nil in Europe. And I'm interested to see how this one plays out. Yeah, I agree. This is really going to be exciting because yes, Roma have a great attack, but they also have a good defense.
00:22:03
Speaker
They found the balance in the team that they were lacking in the beginning of the season and Mancini and Smalling have been sensational.
00:22:12
Speaker
And then you have the midfield with the Avará slowly coming back in Véretu. No, it's looking really, really good for Roma. However, Helas are a very difficult thing to break down, as you said. And I don't see them being destroyed by Roma, but I do think that Roma can do this. I do expect Roma to win this because I think
00:22:34
Speaker
They don't, Roma now are looking like the, you know, it's finally clicking for them and they're looking even better than I first expected. I had them third. I had them fourth this season. I think they can, they're going to go for that third spot because they, they look really, really balanced. It's a balanced squad. They're playing a football that suits them, but they're balanced defensively and offensively. They, they, they all have, everyone has found their roles a little bit. Jeko is becoming a leader.
00:23:03
Speaker
a true leader of that squad even though he's not he's not officially the captain he's really leading them and leading by example and it's really that's really cool to see. Yeah I agree, Jeko's not a player that I've enjoyed watching in the past but this season he's really different he's really much more involved in the build-up play and like you say he's becoming a leader there and I really did not expect that at all.
00:23:32
Speaker
No, neither did I. I honestly didn't see it. But it was clear that, you know, he didn't want to leave Roma. He wanted to stay there. But they weren't, you know...
00:23:42
Speaker
with Inter lurking and I think he would have preferred to stay at Roma because he really enjoys it there, he likes the life there and he likes the club and he's really enjoying himself there and I think that after with all the rumours of him going to Inter after all that surfaced and him getting booed I think he kind of understood that in order to win the fans back he had to show more than just score goals, he had to show that he cared
00:24:07
Speaker
And he's really done that. He's really, really done that. Roma are a joy to watch. They really are. And the sooner these players come back from injury and Roma have a full squat, the more interesting it's going to get. Yeah, they could be scarily good, I think. Yeah, I think so as well.
Episode Conclusion and Host Reflection
00:24:24
Speaker
Well, I think that's it for our preview show. Thanks very much for listening. And I hope that we did a good job without our normal host, John. See you next week. Bye bye.
00:24:38
Speaker
you