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Serie A Match Week #2 Review (Episode #12)
70 Plays8 months ago
Welcome back to Calcio Culture, where the never-ending football saga continues! In this episode, we’re diving into the stories from match week #2. Expect thrilling match reviews, surprising performances, and major news updates you won’t want to miss.
We kick things off with a few quick shouts from around the footballing globe::
- James Rodriguez is making headlines with his return to La Liga, joining Rayo Vallecano.
- Chelsea’s new 3rd kit is catching eyes with its sharp design.
- Milan Skriniar’s unexpected move to Saudi Arabia raises eyebrows.
- Chiesa’s potential transfer to Liverpool could be a game-changer.
- Serie A’s spending spree is impressive, though still trailing behind the Premier League.
Next, we review the latest Serie A matches:
- AC Milan 1-2 Parma: Pulisic scores for Milan, but Parma’s Cancellieri seals the win.
- Empoli 2-1 Roma: Goals from Gyasi, Colombo, and Shomurodov highlight Empoli’s victory.
- Bologna 0-3 Napoli: Conte’s squad delivers a dominant performance..
- Atalanta 1-2 Torino: Despite hitting the post on several occasions and missing a penalty, Atalanta falls to Torino with Retegui and Ilic shining.
We also touch on other notable scorelines:
- Juventus 3-0 Hellas Verona
- Lecce 0-2 Inter Milan
- Genoa 1-0 Monza
- Venezia 0-0 Fiorentina
- Como 1-1 Cagliari
- Lazio 1-2 Udinese
Finally, we pick our players of the week:
Join Vos, Motts and Logs as they continue to break down all the action, discuss standout performances, and look ahead to the next round of Serie A fixtures. Don’t forget to subscribe and share your thoughts with us!
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Transcript
Welcome Back Vos and Celebrations
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome back to Keltro Culture. This is Vos back from vacation and excited to get back into another episode. Today, we're going to be reviewing match week number two with the whole crew back together. Mats, Logs, we got two weeks in the books. How are we feeling? A couple games into the season here.
00:00:25
Speaker
Eyes on, it's great to be ah great to be two weeks in. Great couple of matches here from this past weekend. Great to be back with the three of us. Shout out, quick shout out. Ant for locking up his chick this weekend. Good do for you. And we have a good episode ready for you.
La Liga and Chelsea Updates: Love or Hate the Kits?
00:00:40
Speaker
We are fired up. Couldn't agree more, Logan. Shout out to Phoenix getting hitched. hope Hope it was a good wedding, Bose. I'm fired up. Just finished a fantasy football draft. Got Travis Kelsey in the fourth round. and Thought there was that was a lot of value there. I know this is a cultural podcast, so I won't tell you more about my team. But we're fired up, fired up, boys. Let's go, Paisanos. Yeah, Matz came onto the stream here really, really excited. So hopefully we get a new level out of him following his his fantasy football draft.
00:01:09
Speaker
But Loges, we got quick shouts. As always, you're kicking it off. you're You're going global once again.
James Rodriguez's La Liga Return: A Star's Journey
00:01:15
Speaker
What do you got for us? They call me the Jetsetter. I just can't stay in one spot. I love getting around the globe. I don't know what to tell you. But I don't i hope that this isn't i this isn't a trend for the full season, but I just can't stop talking about La Liga.
00:01:29
Speaker
Um, good shout from a a player that we saw ah out in Yale, Glendale, Arizona. First time seeing him live. Happy to see him getting back to the top five league, especially given the fact that he has some juice left in the paint. Thomas Rodriguez back to La Liga, staying in Madrid, but going to Rio by Ocono. Good for him. Happy to see him back in a top tier team.
Kit Design Reviews: Chelsea vs. AC Milan
00:01:55
Speaker
Second time, Ahams Rodriguez International Tournament launched a big move for him. Obviously not as big as the first move, but he does but he does well with Colombia and then he goes and moves to La Liga.
00:02:10
Speaker
He's one of my favorite players of all time. And I wish his career had gone a little bit differently than I had. Like he never really failed anywhere. Just like, it just moved on from him for some reason. Yeah, but he didn't do as well as he did anywhere that he does on Columbia. But you just like him because he's pretty. He's cute. He's very pretty. Very pretty. Another pretty item on the quick shouts list here. Chelsea's third kit.
00:02:38
Speaker
kind of space. All black kit with some random design malfunction on the Nike logo. It's got two Nike logos and it's vertical. I don't know why they decided on that. It looks cool though. I like it. It's got a little bit of pop of pink in there. I'm so excited to see that on the pitch as opposed to seeing AC Milan's shit fucking third kits this weekend.
Milan Skriniar's Saudi Move: A Wise Choice?
00:03:01
Speaker
I never want to see those again. I'm looking at these for the first time ever right now and they are, they are good.
00:03:08
Speaker
yeah convincing them i'll have to take a look but i second the uba the way kidss just disgusting te so hours too couple bag kidss in syria these days but getting back on the jet getting back on the pj we continue to go around the globe and we're going to saudi but not for any good reasons here I'm just highlighting the fall from grace that is Milan Scrinyar. This man forces his way out of Inter when Inter was still top of the table perennially, I mean really only two to three seasons ago if that goes to PSG.
00:03:46
Speaker
has nothing notable about his stint there and now is on his way to Saudi for a dog shit fee. you know This is one of those examples of why why break something when it's not broken? Why are you going to try to prove yourself even more when you're already on a top team and a top tiered league and then you you go up and you screw it all up?
00:04:08
Speaker
the grass is not always greener outside of it it's very very not green outside of italy as we've seen and on this one i i didn't love it when it happened and i i talk about this a lot with players When you leave where you are to go into a new situation, you have to also make sure that what you're going into is going to match what you're good at. Screnio was really good about playing in a back three. He's bad on the ball. Like everybody knew that. He's just a destroyer center back. That's really good at destroying people and on PSG.
Chiesa's Liverpool Link: Impact on Serie A?
00:04:41
Speaker
They have literally never used that. They want to be a ball dominant club that plays in her back for and has two ball handling defenseman. And they bought him and then immediately bought new players that are better on the ball than him. Like, why would you I? Well, feel like agents that are saying, OK, why? I'll tell you why, because money talks and I'm sure PSG threw him a bag and entered couldn't throw him a bag. Money talks. These guys, they don't they don't care about like glory or winning games or anything. I mean, I guess you could, you're going to do that PSG going there, but they'd rather just get their bank accounts up, which you can't fault them because I want to do that too. But that's probably why money talks. And that's why he's here to Saudi.
00:05:25
Speaker
In any case, get back in the jet with me. We're going to Liverpool. We're flying back. There's this poor flying around the world here. or not Why are we going to Liverpool? We were just in England in in Chelsea and now we're going back. Where is Chelsea in England? I don't know. but and london it's london London. You get my point though. We went from London to Saudi back to London, but we're going to Liverpool because Quesa is linked with Liverpool. They have inquired about him. Just another club that's linked with the Quesa saga. I have accepted that Quesa is not part of the Juventus squad. So it is going, it's tough for me to say goodbye, but if I had to say goodbye, I would love for him to go to Liverpool.
Serie A vs. Premier League: Financial Gaps
00:06:10
Speaker
because our boy friend of the pod pots big Liverpool fan fan I like to support Liverpool because of him you vape pool let's make it happen queso to Liverpool would be great although I know it makes him somewhat sad because people there are rumors that if queso comes solid leaves I think even if queso doesn't come most out the door going to Saudi getting an absolute bag he's won everything you can so yeah Kiesa the Liverpool looks very concrete, but so did the Barcelona one. We don't know what will happen. We'll see. I think about Barcelona transfers are ever concrete. Shout out Danny Elmo. So I think this is a good good move for Kiesa needs to get out of the situation that he's in. We talked about this a lot since the beginning of the pod, but would would be very happy for our fellow fans out there. Pots in particular shout out pots well behaved this weekend would be would it be great to see Kiesa in a better situation.
00:07:06
Speaker
This is like at the opposite of the screen yard move. And granted, I haven't washed a lot of slot ball. Aren't I slot to new Liverpool manager, but under like who they were recruiting as like a clock player. He's very similar to what most salah drums, we should just get the ball and run at you kind of chaotic, but very effective. So I'm assuming you will work in.
00:07:27
Speaker
I just, I'm ready to watch Kiesa on any team at this point. Like I'm sick of not seeing him play. He should be playing. I hope the saga comes to an end very soon. I'm very sick of talking about it as well. That, that's a good point because now you mentioned that I remember that Liverpool with Klopp, especially have been on Kiesa for like every summer. It's a rumor like Liverpool is going to get key. And now that he's available for super, super cheap, I can see it actually happening.
00:07:51
Speaker
But that is a good point. i havent We'll see how he fits in with the slot ball. But he's made for that Liverpool system with those wingers. I know i know we're goingnna we're going to give Matza his flowers and we're going to give him a lot of flowers throughout the season. But as an Italian national team player and as a Serie A serial player at some point for himself, horrible for the brand that he's putting Kiesa in this spot.
00:08:18
Speaker
You know, that that's I mean, granted, when you're managing any team, that shouldn't be your main focus. But I just got to say that this is a horrible move for the brand of Italian football to put your arguably best player from a national team perspective and toss them in the trash and let them rot until ah until he finds a new team. Terrible the way they're handling it. But I don't I would argue like, hey, it's not the worst thing in the world because obviously the prem because of their marketing and only because of their marketing, they have more eyeballs. It's not a better product. They just have better marketing.
00:08:47
Speaker
So more, more eyeballs will be on two very strong Italians if he moves there in Calipheoria and Guesa. And Tenali. Do not forget Tenali's coming back this week. Let's oh ah keep it it keep it on the Premier League here though. The marketing you just talked about at Mont. There was a little stat we saw today that we're all a little upset about.
00:09:14
Speaker
It's just, it is what it is at this point. We got to close the gap, but the gap is, it's so large that we're, we're not even close. And the stat that Vos is referring to is the transfer window, which is still not over. So this could increase for the prem. We could close the gap, maybe a little bit more on the Syria, but the prem has spent, I believe 2 billion. This transfer window so far in the Syria is in the 700 million at the second most spent.
00:09:42
Speaker
that is quite a oh my goodness only a gap although what's happened this window as opposed to the past couple at least that prem money's coming to the syria so at least we're going to see some fruit of that
00:10:01
Speaker
Hopefully that's a billion dollar gap. That's a insane. That's going to take a long time for that. It's more than one season to close that. Realistically, that's like a 10 year project to get there. Yeah. And they're, they're doing all the right things to get to that point. What do you mean? What are
Match Week Recap: Performances and Analysis
00:10:15
Speaker
you shaking out for? That's what the primarily did. It took them a very long time.
00:10:18
Speaker
not That's not 10 years. and I think it's close to it. i is I mean, obviously, the prem is going to keep getting bigger, but as youve as you've seen, I think this progression of Syria, and especially their partnership with Paramount, they've are in CBS, obviously, they've already caught up and they've already surpassed. I think they they would have been the fourth league on this list prior to three years ago. Now they're second, and it's and they're actually in second by the margin.
00:10:46
Speaker
Maybe they were three behind behind La Liga event before because of just because the Barcelona Madrid But that's a two-man league sometimes that ladies in there Syria it's the gap It's gonna take a longer to close the gap is basically what I want to say there Fair points. We'll see we'll keep a record We'll come back in ten years and tell you where who was right it was wrong, but speaking of things that were right and wrong Could be the Luna last week It's getting a little bit better. Shout out lots for at least hitting one of the legs. Hitting my leg and also letting the Paisanos know that one of the leg legs was an awful bet in your bet in Bologna. I said, take the opposite. So if they listened to me, they would have went 2-0.
00:11:33
Speaker
And what's also funny is I listened to the thought after and I hated the answer a lot of that and I was very vocal about it. So we're very divisive picks. I guess Motz was the only consensus good pick. So we'll expect it. We'll come back on Wednesday and we'll we'll hit more than one leg, we think.
00:11:50
Speaker
Correct. Yeah, no, with three and on um this on the next episode, when we ah come up with our picks, didn't want to keep the Paisano's updated. We went with Blakey's pick for the Paisano leg. It was inter the interlecher game over three and a half. Also did not hit. So look I was the only one to hit next week. I got a feeling that we're all going to hit and we're going to make our money back. All I have to say is.
00:12:19
Speaker
Vos had two out of the three results of that game and got and still got it wrong. So as much as you can hate on the AC Milan pick, you had a 66% chance of hitting it and you didn't. And it wasn't even Vos. I'll also, actually I'll save what I'm gonna save for the breakdown of the game.
00:12:37
Speaker
Now, all I gotta say, if you lose by one or if you lose by 50, you still lost and it doesn't really matter. But that wraps up quick shots. I had some, never some good ones today.
AC Milan's Defensive Woes and Parma's Strategy
00:12:45
Speaker
I liked it. When we quick break, when we get back, we're going into the match week reviews. There was a lot of interesting stuff this week.
00:12:55
Speaker
Back from the break, guys, to get into the brazil, my favorite Italian meat, the meat of the episode with the biggest headline game for me of the weekend in terms of storylines. You may disagree. EC Milan lost two to one at Parma. There was a lot to break down in this game.
00:13:12
Speaker
For me, they've actually agreed better, I guess, than they did against Torino and got a worse result in my mind. On the flip side of things, I thought Parma played very well. They clearly knew what they were trying to accomplish, and they did that one thing, which is counter-attacking very efficiently. They did one or two passes and progressed the ball from their defensive third all the way to the attacking third. Both goals came from it. They were threatening. They probably should have scored more.
00:13:38
Speaker
And it this should give them a little bit boost to go on. From an AC Milan perspective, we'll start with these lobes. What are your biggest takeaways? Because this was not a good game. I'm going to let Moz go first because I'm still simmering a little bit here. Before I get into the game, I thought I wanted to give this a shout out. Thought it was really funny. They had obviously was on CBS awesome televised event. They had the A team for CBS for that covers Syria, covering it with Poppy.
00:14:09
Speaker
Happy Cruella and who's the other one Marco Marco marco and slot time went on and he was like, where's where's the a team? Where's where's Kate? Where's Micah? Where's Terry Henry? Just absolutely under their life. What are they saying? He would not have said that about the couch. Oh culture bullets. He would not have he would never. He would he knew he he would know right off the bat where they team. So I thought that was funny. Just wanted to talk about that. My opinion is AC Milan had two bright spots of this game, and those and those are gonna be players, Pavlovic and Reinders. Everybody else on this team did awful. They played two games now, and I think four goals have been let up, and the four goals are carbon copy pictures of the same exact goal every single time. It's counter on the left side, blow by Calabria, who is a literal trash can,
00:15:07
Speaker
on the ground cross past the two center backs and Tio is not even near the back post playing defense is walking back and it's an easy goal on the back post tap in. They could have, Parma could have had a goal within 90 seconds that way. They scored twice with that way. Torino scored once that way.
00:15:27
Speaker
They got a lot of holes that then they need to fix. And it all, to me, points to your manager appointing Fronseca. He did a good job, I thought, in the beginning of the game, going back to a lot what worked last year in terms of Loftus, chief at the 10, who was at the right wing. But there was no real striker playing Okafor up at the nine. You could see he could not do it. And a lot of work that needs to be done for this Milan team. That was what I had talked about with Loz coming into this.
00:15:56
Speaker
For me, this all points to Fonseca because these players, like you go through this team, these are good players that played good last year. Some of them are world-class and he's getting nothing out of them.
00:16:08
Speaker
Tio and Liao don't look like they want to be there. Yeah, and with Liao, this is another thing we had talked about. They're getting in positions, and everybody, this is like the big takeaway. Oh, he's getting these chances to shoot, and he's missing the net. Rafael Liao has never been good at shooting, and he's getting in positions to take shots from like 20 yards, which for a lot of players, Tijani Reinders in that position is very good at that. Rafael Liao is terrible at that, so stop making him do that the one time.
00:16:36
Speaker
they got him in a position where he was 1v1 on the outside and he could make that little run and then a 1-2 and then slide it back across, which is what he is best at. I wouldn't even say he's best at scoring. The best thing he's doing is getting the ball into the box and then just slamming one across the face and goal.
00:16:51
Speaker
Being a man in the box, yeah. On the reverse side of things, to the defensive deficiencies that you were just referring to, Mons, this screams Fonseca. Like, this is such basic tactical setup. Like, you're losing the ball in the exact area you want to lose the ball, which is in the final third, either at the top of the 18 or on the sideline, like near the 18-yard box.
00:17:15
Speaker
How is your team not set up to defend a counter attack when you are literally losing the ball in the safest part of the field? And then you lose it and all of a sudden and it's just Pavlovic and Tamori like 2v2 or 3v2 and this could have been a lot worse because they made some insane tackles backtracking. Pavlovic especially. Pavlovic made three slide tackles that were goal saving.
00:17:42
Speaker
I just, and you move through the team and it's so clear that nobody knows what they're supposed to be doing. And I don't think Fonseca knows yet what he wants of these players. but The other thing that is wild is as the eight's in the six, we'll call them the six is because that's what Fonseca preaches in like a pivot.
00:18:00
Speaker
I don't know what their job is because Eunice Musa was not a holding midfielder and Jhajadi Reinders wasn't a holding midfielder either and they were both getting forward but not really with any sense of where to actually go and then and on the reverse side of things then when you lose the ball there's that huge gap between the center backs and the midfielders. There are just endless issues and this is going to be the story until Fonseca can start getting something right because nothing's right right now.
00:18:27
Speaker
of the five dons out there that enjoy our content from YouTube. For the episode, you'll notice that I am not wearing an AC Milan jersey, and I will not be wearing an AC Milan jersey until I see any clear cut signs that this team has any idea what they're doing. and what jersey up you wearing this is a uventist jersey caoo and might be that What jersey are you wearing?
00:18:51
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Don't worry, Paisanos, you won't catch me wearing a fucking AC Milan jersey. You won't catch me wearing that. I love Ronnie. In any case, I'm just i'm extremely annoyed. Like, it's an annoyance that this team looks like we hired Fonseca two days ago, and he he's acting like he just picked up this squad and has no idea what's going on. this He's been hired since May.
00:19:18
Speaker
he's had his He's had multiple transfer targets come in, namely Pavlovic. He's brought in Salamakers and played him as much as he's wanted to, although didn't didn't see much of him out there last game. and um And I will give it to him, sure. One of our biggest names from the beginning of the window, which I don't know why it took nine years to get the deal done. Fofana is now coming in. He did have his debut during this game. It's just an annoyance that we're not ready.
00:19:47
Speaker
you had You had all summer. How could you not be prepared and have a game plan and go out and execute? A lot of this team and a lot of the core that we had last year is back and it shouldn't be a surprise about who you're going to start. Teo didn't start last week. Now he comes in and he looks like dog shit.
00:20:05
Speaker
We have Pavlovich and Tamori operating on islands. Thank God Pavlovich looked like primetime Tamori from our Scudetto winning season, making every slide tackle in the box, not getting any cards, not getting any fouls. That was beautiful stuff.
00:20:19
Speaker
And I just love, love, love that finally Davide Calabria is getting the attention he deserves and that he fucking sucks. He's so bad. Sucks, he sucks, he sucks. And it's also terrible that we have Emerson come in.
00:20:37
Speaker
and looking worse. He didn't look worse, but he didn't look great. He didn't then look worse, but I mean, there were some like bonehead moves out there that just you can't be having as a new transfer like that. Play the game safely if you're going to come into a new system like this. And at the same time, Alexis Salanakis, I think, is our best right back right now. He played left back and looked better than Emerson and Calabria did at right back, and he's never played there ever in his life.
00:21:03
Speaker
Well, people forget our best right back played for you today. So that's also a huge issue. a couple i get one like Why we like Kalulu leave in the state that we're in. And the last thing that I'll touch on here is, and again, I really do think that our midfield will come together. We will figure it out. We have a ton of talent there. Reinders is easily our best midfielder right now. Most consistent, most creative. And yes, Mavos, you are a hundred percent right. That long shot should belong to him and only him. Lay out has the most shots per game in Serie A right now.
00:21:32
Speaker
and he's taking them from 40 fucking yards away every single time. That's not going to work. Well, I think part of the the layout issue too is that from a tactical setup, I don't know what Teo is supposed to be doing, because why layout under Pioli, who we always shit on, what he did right at least was have Teo create chaos for layout to get on the ball 1v1. Right now,
00:22:00
Speaker
Teo just like runs around. like any he he And that's it. He just runs around. He looks disconnected. He looks disinterested. I'm not really sure what's going on there. I know I'm always one to hate on Peoli, but it was known that Teo loved Peoli.
00:22:17
Speaker
that's not feel me And probably part of the reason. here That's why I said, I was like, I don't know why you guys are so thrilled to move on from Pioli. All the players loved him. i I get he didn't have the tactics, but like in my opinion, you brought in a lesser manager for Pioli. So the players could look at it like we're taking a step back. Like Fronseca has done nothing in his career besides finish like middle of the table at best. So it's like he, I don't know if he's going to come up with some magical tactic that's going to turn this around.
00:22:46
Speaker
the players got to start buying into it. they like There's a lot of holes. I have no idea if he's got to do this. It was talked about before the season, and seeing how we have been playing, I would like to see the switch is go to one defensive midfielder, like a six, and then let the two eights play beyond him.
00:23:10
Speaker
Because right now, I would say lots of cheap, lots of cheap, with the use of Fafana, and I'm going to use, I'm going to coin this term right now as like a marauding destroyer where he can just kind of run around, kind of like Kasamiro did, a ramager. That's probably a good example. Just run around the field and kill guys. Like that's all we need Fafana to do.
00:23:31
Speaker
because right now there is no destroyer and that's why these counter attacks have been so deadly because everybody's just chasing back and if one person doesn't make it then they just have a tap-in in the net and as good as Mignon is he can do nothing with that so from it and yeah go ahead from just a tactical standpoint there needs to be a change because he could Maybe the players don't get what he's trying to do, but for me, it looks like he just set this team up incorrectly. And this might be masked, honestly, when we play a little bit better teams because of how his setup is actually designed to be like a counter-attacking team. And that's his actual team selection.
00:24:13
Speaker
And I compared this to the Manchester United situation because 10 hog is like, Oh, we're going to counter attack. We're going to be a counter attacking team. Well, when you play a team that's worse than you, you can't do that because they're fine not having the ball. So you have to have another way of playing and you're just feeding into them when you are just pouring guys forward aimlessly, when you're in possession for extended periods of time. So I don't know, but there needs to be a tactical shift in my mind. And I, I don't think it's the players right now, other than Calabria, he's terrible.
00:24:41
Speaker
I mean, it's Teo too, bro. Teo does not look interested at all. He's not playing an easy defense. Liao looked like he tried for two minutes, and in that two minutes that he tried, he did get an assist and burn out those defenders, but it's bad. It's not looking good for Milan with one point and two games. That's a tough, tough start. And also, you guys got Inter in like two games. Oh, you got Inter in two games. Where did he get written? Real. Real.
00:25:09
Speaker
And but just to round this out and just poke two more holes in this thing, and and this isn't necessarily Fonseca's fault. Two things that we're certainly missing, and it goes back to problems that we had last year. When Giroud wasn't playing, we didn't have a nine. Murata was now hurt for this game, was not playing. We have Jovic and we have Ogifor. Ogifor is not not a pure nine. He likes to play off the left for the most part. That's what he f played at Salzburg.
00:25:37
Speaker
So that's not his that's not where he's most comfortable and he certainly didn't look comfortable at all. Nor was he that was he present at all during this game. So if we have five days to get a nine another nine because we we we can't just trot out some random dude. yo I mean, yo, which is a nine, but.
00:25:54
Speaker
has been on this team now two years. He's failed at every other team that he's ever been on besides Frankfurt. we That can't be our backup plan going into three competitions this season. So that's the one thing on a nine. And to support that, Okafor had 21 touches. Mike Mignon had 46.
00:26:13
Speaker
Cause Mikey's a fucking dog, dude, that's why. Sounds like regular stats. But to flip it, to flip it, Parma, on the other hand, they look like a team. Their manager, Fabio Pacchia, he said he prefers a team with young players.
00:26:30
Speaker
that are hungry over veteran players that know the league because he said the young players will listen to what I'm asking them and what he's asking them to do is to play as a team and sacrifice as a team. Parma were defending with 10 men behind the ball at all times. When they had the chance to counter-attack, they had such amazing chemistry. It was four patents and they were four passes they were in your 18. Their two Romanian wingers were Oh my goodness. dens Dennis Mann and Mihailo were phenomenal. And even like when you look at these guys, these are they find they've like identified a talent for like nothing and you're supposed to be technically worse, but they were just hammering balls into Boney and into Somme who were like the striker in the camp. And they were just playing like one touch flicks. They looked like prime Barcelona Tiki Taka with those one touch flicks on the counterattacked. Even like Look at Benzema. They were falling.
00:27:24
Speaker
They were balling. This is Parma's now second game against a pretty pretty good team in the Serie A. Their first one was against Florence or Fiorentina. And once again, their only goal that they led up was a ah crazy good free kick. They are very compact. They're going to play compact. They're going to play on the counter. And with their two Romanian wingers, they're going to be very very a very tough team to beat, especially when they're home. I love how Parma looks early on in this season.
00:27:52
Speaker
um And then just to top it off, Dennis Mann already has two goals this season. He's he's firing on all cylinders. This is going to be a tough, tough team to beat for any team or any club that rolls in here. They probably should have scored more, too. That's the other piece of this. They had a lot. We we said it before. Pablo Vincen to Maury actually like saved maybe four goals, essentially.
00:28:13
Speaker
Well, they're playing. They played a back four by themselves. So I would play really fucking well. I would even say tomorrow, like kind of was at Pavlovich himself saved a ton. pat Like Pavlovich played the full 90 minutes, obviously, and was keeping up with the the substitutes of Parma. Saved three goals was was everywhere, everywhere. Great signing there. Yeah. the The last thing I do want to point out here was.
00:28:38
Speaker
The second goal, assist from a sub, goal from a sub. That's talking about like knowing your players and knowing how to come in. And the guy that did assisted as a player, I really liked. So I just want to give him a quick shout out in Pontus Amquist, who was on Leche last year. I really liked him and I.
00:28:53
Speaker
think that's a really good guy to have because he's got Syria experience. He's another one of these guys that can come in. And then most of all, he fits this system so well. He's just a speedy winger that's really good on the ball. And that's exactly what we saw. Like he just sprinted it forward, played it across goal. So the everything they're doing here, I love getting players to fit into the system and just rolling on from there. Milan, we're going to keep, Milan is going to be on here every week until we see something that says they're not going to be dog shit.
00:29:22
Speaker
Well, and until Calabria gets fired and sent to Sirichi. Sirichi. He's also also the captain. Oh god. We're done with Milan.
Roma's Tactical Trials and Player Dynamics
00:29:31
Speaker
Moving on to maybe another dumpster fire right now. Yeah. Empoli beat Roma in Rome 2-1.
00:29:40
Speaker
For the first time in the last year, she's going on with this Roma team. We need more B Roma at Roma. We were all so hot on them. i yeah like you if It's not like there's like anything new. like It's just basically the same team from last year with a couple of better players in it.
00:29:57
Speaker
But you had a lot to say about this game. What the hell is going on? I'll tell you what the the problem is right now and we did we did talk about it a little bit on how De Rossi was going to handle it is Tactically, they they don't know how to set up because the bala and sule are both very similar players and they want to play off the right They started sule on the left sule looked terrible on the left. you He only can go left That's his problem. So you If you put him on the left, he can only cross it. And then he tries to, he goes, his goal is to score rather than cross. So he tries to score after he beats his man. And it's easy to guard your, your near post that way. He then they moved him over to the right-hand side, but then that is what the problem, that is when the issue started happening for Roma. They overloaded the right-hand side so much. There was only one player on the left and that was and Angel Angelino.
00:30:54
Speaker
or how do you pronounce that? And yeah, that's right. And he only knew and he only know and he looked fine. But their problem is they have six to seven guys so congested on the right hand side. And it's so easy to overrun them in the midfield. They're throwing everybody forward. And that leaves them open to counter attacks. They were constantly getting counter attack four on three, five on three. And Emily should have easily had three nothing in the first half. They hit the crossbar and then they miss another sitter.
00:31:23
Speaker
They they created nothing they it was just strictly right-hand side and They could not create anything at all. Then the second half they made some changes They went to a back three and they subbed him the pole in Zalewski loose on the left. Once again, the left was so open because of Literally eight guys were on the right-hand side. So the Zalewski looked good But in the second half sulei tried to force it even more it was trying to dribble pass every single player couldn't get by one And this even goes back to de bala's days on ube It's like tactically where do you put de bala because he doesn't want to be in the middle He doesn't he wants to be more on the right, but he's better in the middle Pellegrini looks I couldn't I didn't even see pellegrini anywhere paredes paredes
00:32:06
Speaker
played, I think, 15 seconds of the worst soccer I've ever seen in my life. Gave the ball up. He gave the ball out of nowhere. And then all of a sudden he he got back and just literally kicked a guy in the box to give up PK. It was insane. The second that happened, DeRosa yanked him.
00:32:23
Speaker
It was awful. Baldansi came in, changed nothing. More guys on the right hand side of the field. Although I did think Baldansi brought in some good energy, made some good plays. It was six guys on the right. It was so bad. You need to figure out the balance of this team because it's it's only on the right and it's only offensive guys. So they have a lot of work to do.
00:32:43
Speaker
My take on this game, I do want to i want to give props to Empoli. I thought they played a very, very great game, um especially for the town level that they had. And in like Mats said, it could have easily been 3-0 in the first half. um Colombo missed the sitter, they hit the crossbar. Gyasi missed a sitter on a beautiful cross off the left side, coming back post. But I think it really pointed to the fact that this defense was sleeping.
00:33:08
Speaker
ah the entire first half, sleeping. And so that really, that I'm just gonna chalk up to. Emily played really well first half. Roma just, they weren't, they weren't awake. They, they were hungover. They needed to get going. Second half, what really stood out to me is And I don't know if this was a decision that Dybala made on his own, but he took every single chance to shoot around the 18. And unlike Liao, this guy can shoot, and he was extremely dangerous from those positions. He didn't net one, but he was the only guy for Roma that was getting anything even remotely close to the net. And that brings me to Dovbic. He you played 94 minutes.
00:33:56
Speaker
0.67 xg and 75% of that xg that expected goal number came in the 94th minute. So this man was completely absent.
00:34:09
Speaker
the entire game and the reason that you can really see that is because shiurruda she were rough whatever the guy' names guy sure um came in in the seventy seventh minute and had fifty seven point fifty seven x g netted a go off of bal donszi cross and had two more shots on target so yes man and they played They put him in and they played him as second striker off the left. So he was in a lot of space. Like that is when, when he subbed, when De Rossi brought him in, that finally gave their team some balance, meaning they have at least three players on the left and rather than everybody on the right. So he was in the right area because Dobik was shading to the right. Everybody was off the right. So it was good balance, but yeah, Dobik is awful.
00:34:53
Speaker
at least terrible start. i Hold on. I don't want to say he's awful. Again, you don't score as many goals as he did last year in La Liga because you're bad. and He still had 92% passing accuracy, so he's definitely... He also had 18 touches, so I mean... Yeah, I didn't mean to say awful. He's just starting slow. But did you see he had an on-the-ground cross. He's in the six-yard line. He had a tap in. He tries to back-heel it, and it goes an inch from his foot. An inch from his foot. It was so bad. and Well, so kill killer instinct, clearly not there. um But again, the biggest problem being that unbalanced and therere their defense was nonexistent. A lot of this team that i got to the conference league final and won it, got to the Europa League final and lost it is very much the same.
00:35:42
Speaker
Part of the issue is that there's nobody to play the service into Dovahbik, and he's like a, a sort you need to service him kind of guy. Like he's not your, like with Tammy Abraham, like if you play him to be a receive the ball link up play, Romelu Lukaku, he can run in behind, ruthless finisher was at least right when they had him.
00:36:02
Speaker
What are you using Dovbik for right now? Probably to get him service, and nobody is the guy that is out there to do that. I guess in a way, Zaliski off the left is, but it doesn't seem tactically that that's what Darossi would want him to do, and would be kind of a cut-in guy with Anilino overlapping. And when that happens then, the only guy who's really going to be crossing it in the system is your left back. And that's it. So why are you playing Dovbik then? Play somebody else.
00:36:31
Speaker
You got to play. I mean, just I agree. I fully agree that you have to work. but plan But then you need to make a tactical shift. And this was my concern with Darasi. No real experience. You're getting new kind of players now and you need to do something different tactically to get the best out of them. On the Mateus Sulay point, I've actually always been a fan of using left-footed wingers off the left side, right off the right side, vice versa.
00:36:54
Speaker
because it makes it a lot harder to defend as the outside back because you do have to give them, you have to protect that crossing space. And for a lot of players, I mean, I always say Leroy Sanne. Leroy Sanne in Manchester City, the best he's ever been in his career, was playing off the left and was not scoring a lot of goals. It was a creative force. Mateus Soleil could be that, but you have to tactically allow him to be that.
00:37:17
Speaker
But he's also never played in that position. So he's got to learn it as well. And he just could he he was not excelling there. And you can see he wanted to go to the right. And when they when they shifted him over, I was expecting the ball or Pellegrini even to take the left flank. Pellegrini didn't. He stayed in the middle. The ball stayed middle. Right. It was Paredes and Christante both wanted to be above them on the right. And then Mancini was there on the right. It was it was an overload on the right. Nobody on the left.
00:37:43
Speaker
It was awful. There was no balance. it was They were getting overran in the midfield. It was terrible. They were getting overran, and then I think, well, and part of that being that Pellegrini was, and again, non-existent in this game. and And we talked about it at Nauseam at the beginning of the season. mean You need Pellegrini to be informed for this team to be any good. It doesn't matter that you have Diabala. It doesn't matter that you have Soule. You need Pellegrini to be more of a field general. And I think if you do have him informed and have him playing at 100%,
00:38:17
Speaker
He's able to mix and match those guys and put them in the right spots and give them the right opportunities. But this man seemed like he had never played soccer before. I mean, he was falling all over the place. He was tripping over in the box. I went next to nobody. Paredes played him a beautiful ball in and he did absolutely nothing with it. He fell over. it He seems a little bit out of form here. i'm not That's fine. We're two games in. I'm not going to throw this Roma team in the trash. but there seems to be a huge, huge problem between De Rossi and that the three-headed dragon that looks like a bunch of sheep right now.
00:38:52
Speaker
Yes, we're two games in, but Roma have UVA at UVA next game. And then they play Genoa who Genoa has tied into. They've looked pretty solid. There's no walk in the park. If you do not get one point at UVA and then don't win against Genoa, that's four games. Oh my goodness. You're, you're starting so extremely poor.
00:39:17
Speaker
Make diamonds Roma has came back from the spot before the last season. They didn't win their first two games either so they have done it but not They're not getting easy like these were their easy games to start the season to win and and start off hot You know what? I mean now it's coming uve in general like like you got to bounce back now It's just worrying what to rosy because not much has changed from last year like you have more or less the same group plus sule and dope it obviously but I Just everything is kind of wrong. But Lefé didn't even play this game. He came off the bench and like sixty fifth he gotubed in He was throwing everybody for it at that point. There's just no balance. They really got to figure out the balance to this team. They were they all wanted to play ah offense. Nobody wanted to play defense. And everyone wanted to play on the right. it It reminded me a lot of England national team with no balance. But they just they don't have the same players of the England national team, obviously.
00:40:15
Speaker
Yeah. Look at the, the heat map or the average position. I have to get a chance. Cause it's like kind of nauseating to look at. It's actually, there was so much space on the left. There was so much space on the left. I could have been playing on the left and I would have gotten by people. Yeah. It's not good.
00:40:31
Speaker
Let's do legs. You know are are actually in the same position for all the pod or the Spotify and Apple music podcast listeners. Non YouTube. Logan just put the phone up to the the camera and they're like, i like I've been preaching. There's like eight guys on the right hand side and two on the left. It looks like Angelino has a disease. No, they get me to fuck away from the flip side of things, though. And believe we were very out on them coming into the season collectively.
00:41:00
Speaker
win and a draw can't do much better than that to start the season, especially when one of your opponents is Roma. And it shouted a lot. All of so Bakken getting a start for Emily at the Stadio olympico sticking it to him.
00:41:16
Speaker
Well, I want to, I want to hear someone give a shout to my boy Lorenzo Colombo, a little AC Milan action. That's that one. He was the best player from AC Milan this week. Guy had an assist and a penalty, beautiful penalty today. You said I'd loan him. You wanted to. I said we should keep him. I just got done saying we needed a nine. This man set up the first goal and he and hammered home a penalty. Wasn't great PK.
00:41:38
Speaker
Great PK. Great PK. It looked very, very calm, very competent out there. Looked like a real nine. We've seen it in preseason for the last three or three seasons, I would say. So it's not like AC doesn't know what this is. It's gotten down the holster. Happy to see him pull a performance out like this again, especially against the top five team and what well we thought the top five teams Syria was. Some shouts to my boy, Lorenzo. He had a good game. However, and I know I just absolutely shat on Roma's life and they deservingly so.
00:42:07
Speaker
I didn't think Emily played all that well the only thing that I thought they did well was counter-attack very well but like I just absolutely like I said shat on Roma and this game could have easily been 2-2 and also if Paredes doesn't give up that stupid ass PK he just defends like a normal human being it's probably a one-to-one draw they They had a lot of chances. They have to finish those chances. I think Roma really just gave them the game by playing so overly attacking and unbalanced. So I didn't love what I saw from Emily. Great win though. They got the result at the end of the day. That's all that matters. I mean, i i I'll point this out and you're right. ma smart and ble Well, Emily's first half was phenomenal. They obviously tear off in the second half. XG, first half, Emily, 1.89 to Roma's 0.33.
00:42:56
Speaker
I, and they only had 20, Emily had 29, 25% possession and 1.89 XG. That's the same thing would happen with Roma week one against Kalyari. They, they just, there's no, to generate chances even with all these guys getting phoned. And that is always, yeah that's what sets apart great managers.
00:43:19
Speaker
Grade managers create a system to score goals. Guys that coach lower level teams defend well and can counter-attack. That's what great guys do. Yeah, correct. And Roma, Roma having the ball almost plays better into their opponent's hand because eventually those guys will all shade to the right and have an extreme overload and it'll be easy to counter.
00:43:42
Speaker
What side of the field did Romo play on Mounts? Right. It was insane. yeah There was no left winger. It was crazy.
Napoli's Victory and Star Performances
00:43:49
Speaker
Well, flipping it over to one side of the winger and his team, Napoli. Finally a result. Finally a performance we can point to for Bologna. I think this Italiano team is going to take a little bit of time to get where he wants it to be.
00:44:05
Speaker
But Polonia lost at Napoli three to nothing. Gio Di Lorenzo, Kavada Skellia, and Gio Simeone. All netted one. Moths, this is your team. Antonio, he's your guy. Whoa, don't put that on yet. I respect the paisan. My team is Yubei. This is my gumar. I respect the paisan. Your pick, your pick, your pick for the year. That's what I meant.
00:44:26
Speaker
like yeah yeah So I mean, what is your one this was overdue and we had kind of expected it and then things weren't going right. Is this ship getting in the right direction or kind of a fluke? How do you feel? Let me tell you something. This game was night and day better than ah the game against House Verona. And I'll tell you why. It's an easy answer. Number one, Kavada didn't leave in the first half. He played the full 90 minutes.
00:44:52
Speaker
Also, Cavada's a dad, you know what that means? Motivated to get even more money. you know when when A lot of times when dudes become fathers, they just start hitting their form, whether that's in basketball, football, soccer. So watch out for Cavada now that he's a new dad. Secondly, probably the most important thing, guess who is back in the lineup? Bongiorno. Guess who absolutely shut down the right side of the field? bo I mean, there was if yeah they were going on the right side of the field, Bongiorno was just going to win the ball.
00:45:20
Speaker
He, and I thought that from Kante playing Bonjorno at the left center back was super fucking smart. Cause he's normally playing in the center center back at Torino, but that's an easier spot to like defend. So it's like, let's put Bonjorno at left center back, give him more of the responsibilities and throw Rachmani in at center center back, who was a very capable defender. So it takes some stress off him. That was very, very smart by Kante. They are weak.
00:45:47
Speaker
On the right-hand side with DiLorenzo, I do think and Doyne was fucking killing him. However, DiLorenzo does add that added factor of going up and attacking as he showed with s scoring a goal. So I think if Napoli is slightly weak on the left-hand side, nobody's going to get by the right-hand side with Bongiorno. He absolutely balled out. And then what really played into their hands, which is what I said, which is why I told the Paisano's do not take Bose's bet.
00:46:14
Speaker
Italiano, 60% possession, Kante just wants to counter-attack. Kavada, Politano, and their wingbacks, I can't remember which ones, but they were firing on the flanks on the counter-attacks, creating absolutely a ton of dangerous opportunities. And you saw that with Kavada getting an assist and a goal. So it played into into their hands. and i mean I'll just single out Kavata here. He fucking balled. I mean, he met like four or five guys. He got an assist. He got a goal. He got a hockey assist, which for all the hockey fans that don't know is the past leading to an assist. He absolutely balled. Bonjourno looked like prime Van Dyke in this game. Honestly, it was it was insane. I didn't you obviously we didn't see him playing in this position last year with Torino.
00:47:02
Speaker
But Kante, having the confidence in him to move him out there and then also participate ah offensively as a left footed left center back, creates another dimension out there that's very difficult to deal with.
00:47:14
Speaker
It is a different team with Bongiorno. I will say that. One game a week. One game a week. And not to mention their Mercado is starting to shape up. Guess who came in for a minute, got an assist and took on a player and beat his man, David Neres. Look at that. They're getting two midfielders coming in. Lukaku's coming in. Uh-oh. Kante's got one game a week.
00:47:35
Speaker
remains to be seen, I'm not going to be that hot on there. But I'm really happy for you, Monza. David Nerez, the saving grace of Napoli has come in. It's not the saving grace. It's just added depth. Kante knows the guys that will work. You act like I'm in it. Never mind. The storyline is clearly Bonjour here. Guevara did exactly what we've known him to do. I think if he gets hot, which that would be the craziest thing for Napoli here. If he gets hot,
00:48:04
Speaker
Monza's gonna look really good, but two things I will say not terribly important for their performance, but really good finish by Di Lorenzo for for a center backslash right back. and Really, really good finish, I thought. And and my boy Gio Simioni's off the mark. waiting to be seen if it's If his little trickling starts a waterfall of goals for the next two months, um I'd love to see it.
00:48:28
Speaker
that was the shit house of a goal he just he barely got that one to cross line but and i want to find it rewind from de la renzo's goal yes great touch great finish that pass that cavata made I think maybe five players in this league can make that pass. For all the people that didn't watch it, basically they were counter-attacking on the right-hand side and Kavada shaded into like right above the 18-yard line and just chipped it over. The entire defense perfectly fell on DiLorenzo's foot and he one touched it and then hammered it home with the left foot. It was a very, very nice pass for all you TikTok people that follow. I will throw that on a clip. You guys can see it. It was very, very nice.
00:49:10
Speaker
The, the biggest difference between this team and AC Milan right now is how this team is set up is their base is so secure with Labatka and Angisa in front that like their job is so clear, right? Like you get the bowl and you don't do anything done with it. And then you break up counterattacks and that's all you have to do.
00:49:31
Speaker
And then every, it's very much like, are they going to score or not? And when they're firing, as we see, they do. And it's very much on Kavada Skelly had to really be the the guy that's getting that done. A lot, a lot of weight on Kavada on offense for sure. But again, when they have their full team and bots is what you're saying, like on one game a week, everybody should be able to play. The base is just a secure piece. They're going to be hard to score against and that's, they will get them far. I just am not, I'm still.
00:50:00
Speaker
I'm still not sure what Lukaku we are going to get. And if we get bad Lukaku, that's very bad. And if they are stuck with Raspidori, that's also very bad at this point. Raspidori had a better game too, but we'll see. But flipping it to Bologna and Italiano, in my opinion, it was a lot more of the same from Italiano.
00:50:21
Speaker
all the ball, but no clinical forward play. They had 60% possession, but only 0.36 XG, unable to really work the ball in dangerous areas. No one, in my opinion, looked dangerous for them, besides in Doin. He was their one bright spot. He was murdering Di Lorenzo on the on the left-hand side. It looked like flashbacks from Nico Williams and the Euros.
00:50:46
Speaker
And also enjoying this has a great work rate as well was was getting back breaking up some counter attacks But it was just like I said more of this the same from an Italiano team playing good soccer Possess it keep the ball, but no finishing or or lethal things in a final third Yeah, I think a piece of this to Santiago Castro, their number nine was very bad for me. He didn't hold the ball. He didn't link up. He didn't really make good decisions when he did have the ball.
Bologna's Possession Problem and Torino's Tactics
00:51:14
Speaker
And that's a little bit worrying because I'm not sure they have somebody that it seems like they were planning on like, okay, this is going to be our guy that's going to get us moving.
00:51:23
Speaker
And an Italiano team, they already, generally Italiano teams have trouble scoring. So when you don't have that guy, that's your, this guy's going to bang in the goals. It is a little bit worrying. Agreed. Moving on to the last breakdown match of the day. And that's going to be Adalanta Torino. I thought that.
00:51:45
Speaker
Interesting to see at least Adelanta's lineup again with no Lookmen and no Koop miners, but was a pretty similar lineup from the the last last week's game. However, the result very, very different than last week. Last week, they obviously won 4-0. This week, I lost to Torino 1-2. Bose, I know you had a good amount of things that you wanted to say on this game.
00:52:08
Speaker
Yeah, for me, it's, it's, with Torino, we're still looking at this Torino team. They are dangerous. Even without Villanova, that is a very dangerous team. And again, it's a manager, clear identity, what he wants to do. And it seems like it's a system that's built to play against really good teams. And then they haven't really played anybody bad yet, or will say air quotes bad. and It seems like they're also set up to win those games, right?
00:52:34
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, so this is what Tomino does in terms of being compact. They always know how to defend. But I think what's a little bit different this year is they they want to go attack more. They want to possess it. And Che Adams and Zapata complement each other very, very well. And then you add in Illich as the little cam. those That front three, I know it's not a left right right left-wing, right-wing striker, but it's still a front three, is very, very dangerous. And they all complement each other very well.
00:53:02
Speaker
Yeah, and DuVon has hit a good level here. I don't know if he's going to be able to sustain this for the whole season because he's a little bit older now, but he he looks like out of Atlanta today. It's like this is very, very, this is a scary guy to play against right now. Like this as a center back, DuVon is terrible to deal with. He's big. He's fast. He's direct. He's all over you all the time. That just sucks to play against.
00:53:26
Speaker
Von right now is almost at a level where you need to have a shadow the entire game. It's almost getting to that point. I would just like to point out that Logs has a circle of nines now that had a wonderful week of performances. We had Columbo score a goal, Gio scored a goal, Shay Adams now scores a goal. My boyfriend's from South Miami, Shay Adams. We did say watch out for him.
00:53:49
Speaker
So the circle of nines is looking really good. And then I don't know, maybe I should be the scout for AC because we don't got any, but, but this, this Torino team makes Matti said it exactly is formidable off the ball. And they want to get forward when they do have the ball. They have a perfect setup. They have great wing backs. I know they got rid of Belanova, but they obviously felt comfortable doing so giving it to another Serie A team.
00:54:11
Speaker
and to the team that they played. Obviously, Belenova didn't get in there, but they they have a great system that they just want to ping balls in from the outside, let DuVin get on them, let Shay Adams work around it. This team is definitely a little scary. This is not an automatic three points. They never they and are not typically that way, but a team that's looking ah very strong nonetheless.
00:54:33
Speaker
A little weird. I love the classic three, five, two, like it's just like a no frills three, five, two, like the artifact on Torino. The one thing that I'd say maybe they're Achilles healers that they need to work on is ah happened against Milan. Obviously in Atlanta was a late peak. They had got a late PK. This game could have been two, two. They need to see these games out. They're in winning positions and they dropped the win against Milan and they almost ended again against Atlanta.
00:54:59
Speaker
Well, SMS's brother back there, Milovich Savage, who's 6'8", I had no idea he's actually a giant. He's humongous. 9.2 match rating. He played great, yeah. That's nuts. That was going to be my point here. like Yes, very good result for Torino, but at the same time, Adelana had over 3 XG and hit the post three times and also missed the penalty.
00:55:27
Speaker
So like it's not really alarm bells for me with Adelanta at all in this game. It's more in case of what we know they're bad at, which is center backs being 1v1, is why that's how what hurt them. And that's what the two goals. It was just idiotic defending, which is always like when Adelanta looked at the Gasparini system. Yeah. yeah yeah On the positive side, Rotegi scored again, and it was a very well-taken header. like This guy is... rolling right now, which I'm very happy about. CDK missed the header. It was like a pretty good chance. The list goes on. From an Atlanta perspective, continue to do what you're doing. Like in theyre in most games, you will win this. You're going to outpace them. It didn't happen today.
00:56:08
Speaker
They probably should have drawn, but again, I have only good things to say about Torino. I think that's more the story of this game rather than an Atlanta perspective, because a lot, there's not a lot that's going to change. Villanova is going to come in and he's going to be great, but you can continue and expect to see the same thing from them going forward, really.
00:56:26
Speaker
and i'll and one And once those two midfielders come in and and really start getting into the mix there, and you can you can put Pasalich a little bit far further forward. He's not typically a holding midfielder, I would say. But you have some artists coming in and Billy Gilmour, once those guys, or is Billy Gilmour going to Napoli? Oh, Napoli, Billy. You mentioned Balanova. Yeah, once those midfielders come in, they start gelling. I mean, that's that's going to be a huge, huge advancement for this team.
00:56:54
Speaker
Yeah, I'll put my hand up on Rotegi. I was one to say it's going to take a couple games for him to learn the system. Absolutely not. app Just firing on all cylinders. Great for Rotegi. We did see a little bit of somersage, I think. as Just like Logan said, as he sticks with the system, he'll continue to grow. He will ball out in the system. We saw Zagnolo a little bit. Didn't love what I saw from Zagnolo, if I'm being honest.
00:57:18
Speaker
um But that's all right. I think that Zanyala, I don't think Zanyala will have a bad season per se. And then Belanova is just going to allow a lot of electricity on the right hand side of the right wing back, which I wanted to point out real quick is that's going to be a very big spot for competition. Zavacosta, I think is one of their best players and they just bought Belanova for that same spot. He had a great game. This game had an assist, could have had a goal last game. I think that's going to be great competition for Belanova and Zavacosta.
00:57:48
Speaker
what i was is also ancient what i'm What I am really excited about with Belanova is this is the first, and this is is a little bit different of a comparison because Gasparini created this guy. Robin Gozen's under Gasparini was like the the only wingback that you can look back on and be like,
00:58:06
Speaker
This guy was a absolute star. he had it He had problems after he left with injuries and whatnot, which sometimes happens. But Belanova is a star in his own right. that is This is not like the hardest wingback system to play in, I guess, is a good way of putting it. And putting a star player in there, I'm very excited about. Because Robin Gozen's there was literally one of the best wingbacks in the world. And I think Belanova
Juventus and Inter Milan: Season Expectations
00:58:30
Speaker
can get to that point very quickly.
00:58:33
Speaker
Robin Gozins was it so good, if we can just touch on that. Was his was it a Euros or World Cup for Germany that he app was he he was their best player? Yeah. He only played like two or three games and got hurt. and Yeah. Well, he yeah he got bought by Inter and then he sucked.
00:58:50
Speaker
He was terrible. He stopped drinking that. No knees. No, but he also stopped drinking that. The water over there in, um, Bergamot. But that wraps up our our full match reviews of the match week number two. We did want to take you through the other score lines because there was some, ah some notable events that we didn't want to get too far into. I wanted to start with one of the games that happened today. Juventus still rolling.
00:59:17
Speaker
beat Hellas Verona at Verona, three to nothing matches. What are your takes here? Love it. I mean, I am so excited to watch UVA now. And last year I would be so upset to watch UVA. Some quick stat just wanting to rattle off here. Six goals, two games, five different goal scorers only allowed one shot on target. The difference with Tiago Mata is that there is so much balance. Like you have defenders, you have midfielders staying back.
00:59:46
Speaker
that you have guys attacking complete fluidity all around the pitch. And he's also playing the young guys there. They're a great shade of experience and youngsters. It's beautiful to watch you. They might end up winning the league. My my they looked you awesome today. ah The most consistent team through the first two games. What I will call to be undefeated.
01:00:10
Speaker
top of the table. Certainly. The only thing I will caution against is these young players, once they get into a big spotlight game, I want to see them hold up. I'm not saying they won't, but I do need to see them play a top tier team. They've now played Como and Verona. And i would I would like to just see them play ah a more ball dominant team going forward. Agreed. But are they going to need to? Because we have higher level players to play those leagues that those games that we haven't, we barely even featured so far, which is crazy.
01:00:41
Speaker
Maybe skin that is absolutely pumped for this, for this season of, you and I might, if we do another season standings after the Mercado closes, I very well might just have them as one. Interesting. Another Titan here, inter Inter Milan. Getting back to business as usual, they beat Leche to nothing. Wasn't as convincing as one would expect, but seems to be the ships going back in the right direction now.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah, there I would say um attacking wise, they weren't back to business. It was only one nothing. Taram got her PK and I know Inter gets all the the calls. So I'm going to, I'll keep Inter accountable here. That was 100% of PK. Taram literally got football tackled. It was crazy.
01:01:28
Speaker
But um what I will say is what is back to business, what was looking like it was in mid-season form was their defense, Bastonia, Chirby, and Pavard were unbeatable. They were an absolute wall back there. Yeah, but i I would say Pavard looked really good as somebody who doesn't love Pavard. But the one thing that I found to be so true from this game and something that we we highlighted pre-season the addition of Teremi on the back of Arnadovich and vice versa, whoever whoever they decide to start. Or if they don't, even if both come off the bench like they did and like they usually do, Lutaro didn't even see the pitch this game.
01:02:09
Speaker
They love that archetype of a giant ball, able to hold the ball, decent on the ball, but just a massive nine in the air. And the way that those wing backs play is it just fits so perfectly into that system. Darmion, if he's not playing the dumb freeze role at the back post scoring goals, he's out wide tossing balls in. And obviously we all know how DeMarco works. He plays some of the best balls in Syria. And so again, they're they're back to the way and you know the whole Jeko Shout out there. They have two of them now and it's definitely going to be really annoying to play against for the rest of the league. Genoa beat Monza 1-0. Good to see those guys keep it rolling. They tied into her last week so great start to the season. i'm Not quite as surprised. This is a team we thought would be decently well. um Good to see Pinamonti knocking one in. He was a player on Cessuolo that I think we all like.
01:03:01
Speaker
Just kind of like a Skamaka. I didn't even know he went to Genoa. That's sick. I loved Piedmont and Sass. It's kind of like a Skamaka clone, I would say, that made the right decision. He's a clone. He stayed in Italy rather than leaving, so that's an interesting guy to follow.
01:03:16
Speaker
Fiorentina, TIE, Venezia, nil, nil. Things aren't going great in Fiorentina right now for Venezia. They're they're still bad, but this is a good result for them. Still bad. Fiorentina, tough, tough. Yeah, Fiorentina has been tougher for Fiorentina. Two newly promoted teams, two TIEs. You expect
Lazio and Weekly Player Highlights
01:03:36
Speaker
to get at least one, if not both wins. Paladino starting slow, but I think he'll right the ship eventually over there.
01:03:43
Speaker
The other game that happened today, Como played at Caliari, Caliari one to one. Como, I'm very worried about still because the way they played against Juventus is how they should have played today. And they they were scared, I think, of losing. So they they've kind of allowed the game to be like this counter attacking chaos and played into Caliari's hands a lot. And I thought this you had looks.
01:04:10
Speaker
I caught the second half of this game and I was just i was very happy to see how aggressive they they were. maybe Again, that first half might have been a bit slow, but they brought on a lot of their new guys that they just got this past week. I thought they looked good. I thought they looked energetic. This team, I'm still behind them. I still find that i still think that they can stay up. They've had the good bones there. Sergio Roberto came in and played a bit. He looked good in an old head there.
01:04:37
Speaker
These are the games that they need to get points out of. Cali are not very strong. One point out of it. Sure. Just keep rolling. Keep rocking and rolling. All you need to do is be better than three teams, and I think they can do it. Per point to wrap up the games of match week two. I saved one for last because Matz loves this team. Lazio hate them. At Uden as a two to one. I hate them.
01:05:05
Speaker
10 men who didn't essay yeah, this is what I'm talking about fucking Everyone was so high on Lazio winning three nothing against or three to one against Venezia Lazio are a bunch of frauds They're not going to be good. They're gonna finish middle of the table. The Tito is an idiot. It's gonna be more of the same here Lazio suck But i she and another, another team went in a draw. We weren't very hot on them. Great start to the season there. I had them pretty high my season and rankings, although Somerset's left and they are playing well. Good for them. Yeah. So like to see that, but that wraps up match week number two, we're going to take a quick break and we get back. We're going to give you our players of the week and a little Mercado update.
01:05:48
Speaker
We're back from the break guys to give you our players of the week here. We're going to let low ticket off because he has just been, uh, I can't stop talking about him. I love him. Lorenzo Colombo, my player of the week goal and an assist for emply taking that team pass Roma. I wish he was back in Milan.
01:06:08
Speaker
fair that was that we no longer expected he must have busted already there geez yeah yeah um i i wrote a talk to and i'm ninety times as every smoke so oxag you bar you already got what you yeah blew my road exactly he blew his load My player of the week is going to be in no bias here. Locatelli wanted to shout him out because he had a rough season under Allegri. This is going to be a kind of do or die season for Locatelli. If he doesn't play well, he's probably getting shipped. Mata has a lot of faith in him playing in a bunch of different positions. And I've never seen Locatelli play as good of a game as he did today under Mata for Juve, just to get into some of what's up, Blokes.
01:06:53
Speaker
I was just going to say I agree with you but with everything you said, but he's still on the list. that's okay john's I'm not going to get into it right now, but be careful. You don't want to find yourself on the list. Don't pick might be on that list too.
01:07:08
Speaker
We'll see. But I just wanted to let you guys know on how good of a game Locatelli actually played. um He played the full 90, 119 touches, 89 passes completed, 88 passes accuracy, nine passes in the final third, three out of four ground rules, one in one of those led to a goal, six recoveries of the ball, five clearances, two out of two aerial duels was really playing in that. If you want to call it Pirlo Raj, we roll very, very well.
01:07:36
Speaker
and him and Fajoli kind of complimented each other. One would go up, one would stay back, one would go, like very good double pivots essentially. So shout out Locatelli, thought it was a great game, hopefully more to come from him.
01:07:49
Speaker
I'm still not sold on Locatelli in that system. I think there's other guys that might be able to do a little bit more than him. And I'm again, good, good game. I'll give him that, but he's still one for me to watch. I think he's the first guy off the team when it, when it gets to that. So it'll be interesting. I thought beans played well today too, actually.
01:08:09
Speaker
um For me, my player of the week, kicking it over to Parma, I got Woyo Kulibali. He was the right back. i This is my second time watching him. I watched him in the Copa Italia a couple weeks ago.
Juventus and Napoli Transfer Talks
01:08:21
Speaker
And this is a player I really like. He's very exciting. He's kind of a modern attacking fullback. And in this game against Milan, he played very well defensively against Rafael Liao, who's a very hard guy to play against.
01:08:33
Speaker
and also contributed on the offensive end, was participating in a lot of counter-attacks, has a lot of skills. He had a one, he it wasn't even like a Maradona. He had a one like, I don't even know what it's called. He had like this crazy turn in the defensive third that took out like three Milan players and then took it 70 yards down the pitch. it It was ridiculous. So he's a player to watch and I, go ahead. Tamara doesn't have 88 pace in FIFA. He's scoring that goal.
01:09:02
Speaker
Yeah, it was crazy. So he's one for me that I'm, I'm pulling out. He's only 25. I could see this being a guy that somebody maybe scoops up as not necessarily your number one starter, but as somebody you think you can get a lot out of, you should, you would start very similar. I can tell you that much.
01:09:18
Speaker
Definitely respect to Yuvo's picking a right back and especially two games watching him and see him like that and good for him I mean you typically you' are not good I mean Belanova does it as a right-wing back But you're typically not going to pick out a right back to be like wow that guy really blew me away I'm so shouts to Koolabale great week for him Kombiasso players of the week Kombiasso is a whole nother story this week, but good for good for Kombiasso
01:09:45
Speaker
We'll save that for another time because we got to get to our Mercato update before the end of the episode. Starting in Rome. Logs. You're excited. and Keeping the dragon intact. Even though it looked like dog shit. Dybala. Staying in Syria. He wants the glory. He's here for his legacy. We talked about it last episode. We thought he was Gonzo. He is not. He is staying in the capital A. Happy for him. Happy for Roma. Hopefully you right the ship right the they can get the train back on track here.
01:10:19
Speaker
I don't know if it's him or his wife saying we're staying might be staying. Yeah, I don't even care. Yeah. You've raised Mercado is continuing on. This has been quite the summer for them. A couple of new ones to get done before the end of the window here months, two more.
01:10:34
Speaker
Yeah, man, we've had, Juventus has had a crazy couple of weeks. Every day is something new. And I'll even go as far as to say this, if you may bring in Sancho and coupe miners off of what they've already done, I would put this past athletic O Madrid's window, pass at Atlanta's window.
01:10:51
Speaker
could be one of the best windows in the history of transfer windows ever. But the two players that they brought in, since we've last recorded, Nico Gonzalez from Fiorentina, all the Florence fans are pissed because they say, oh, that's Yubei's training ground. But then they're they're happily- It is. throw But then they'll happily accept Arthur. They'll happily accept Coastish. They'll happily accept Keen. And it's like, oh, we now have some great players because we bought players from Yubei. Then they get all mad when Yubei are trying to give them more money to recruit more younger players.
01:11:20
Speaker
Doesn't make any sense. And then another great buy. Really like this guy. Can say so out of Porto scored in the Euros for Portugal is a fantastic dribbler. Actually is the second best dribbler in the five European leagues, only behind our boy Cavada Scaria. But he had he tends to dribble too much. so I'm hoping Monica can kind of coach him out. But you pair those two. If you get coop minors, if you get Jaden Sancho with everyone you've based done. Oh, my God.
01:11:49
Speaker
Why do until he's cooking chef and chef and months do you think I mean obviously cousin Sal is going to be more of a a depth option here and gonna come off the bench for for the most part would you say he plays like yield is as a as a dribbling player or do you think he can play in a different spot they can they can I think you' play together Yeah, no, thank you. He's going to play in that right mid right wing, hold that width spot and have Kambia. So kind of come in um off of him into like the 10 area or other midfielders. He's going to hold the width. He's going to play in that that Tim way a role, I think, just more offensively, what way I did in the first game.
01:12:25
Speaker
Yeah, he's a better. What I what I will say about with this ball to team is he wants guys that are secure on the ball and conscious. I was more that than way is and even key. So which we can talk about case endlessly. The Niko Gonzalez is an interesting one. I thought they were going to kind of pull out of this on the back of Bangla playing so good because I would expect Niko to kind of take that same space as Bongo.
01:12:48
Speaker
Well, Nico also plays more off the right camp at the left, but I was reading today and I don't hate this at all. They could see Mona deploying him as a false nine when Dusan needs rest in like a similar zerk say role, which I think Nico would do very well at. I think he, the only party would struggle at is he's not as.
01:13:07
Speaker
big and strong as Xerxe or as you need to be as a striker, but he definitely has the the ball ah skills to play a false nine and do those flicks that Xerxe was so good at and excelled at. Why is every team that Mott supports just having an absolute time right now? Napoli, Juve, Napoli getting deals done these days, what happened with Lukaku?
01:13:31
Speaker
Done deal, although way, way too much money on Lukaku. 30 mil, that can go up to 45. That's absurd. Obviously, I think that's way too much, but I do want them to get this deal done because Kante wants him, and Kante, when he gets the players he wants, you know what happens. I'm so great by them. We talked about their Mercado a little bit ah earlier, so I won't touch on it, but just wanted to do one more talk or update. Victor Oseman.
01:13:59
Speaker
Saudi coming in last minute and they need money to fund these players that are coming in bidding 65 mil and they sound like they're going to accept it. And it's up to Aussie man. If he wants to go there rather than playing in Europe, which would be crazy. Cause they've been asking for 130 mil this whole summer. And now they're like, I would take half.
Closing Remarks: Social Media and Next Show Preview
01:14:19
Speaker
ah be crazy that would be a travesty ah victor goes to saudi but on the lukau piece really quick i don't think thirty is really that bad especially ah ah only forty five i know i know i think forty five is way too much but i'm saying thirtyy's normal
01:14:39
Speaker
that'd be ah agreed It would be, but with that guys, we are done for the day. When we tune in on Wednesday, it'll be a preview of match week number three. blos tre Where can the newly found Paisano's find us?
01:15:05
Speaker
Whether you're new, old, from the beginning, just starting, you can find us on all the socials. Find us on Twitter. Matz is alive on Twitter. Interact with him, get him going. We're on Instagram, we're on TikTok, we're on YouTube, at Couchill Culture FC, and we are also on all your favorite streaming sources, Spotify and Apple Pods. And with that, Matz, take us away.
01:15:33
Speaker
Paisanos, don't be a Gaguts, and borza, coucho, culture.