Are Inter the best team in Serie A? Plus Real v Juve leads midweek action

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0:30Hey, there's also Champions League Match Day 3 previews in this Totally Football Show.

0:44Monday 20th of October. Hi everyone and welcome to this Totally Football Show European edition. In the studio, James Hancotsel. Hello. Julian Laurence. Hello. And on the big screen, it's Seb Stafford-Blur. Hello, new LinkedIn friend. How are you? It's true. It's true. It's a new site that helps professional people connect. That's right. And also, Paul Luz. Here we are. Here we are. Back in the game. Indeed. After a long weekend away from international club football. Oh, yeah. Back with some big things to talk about. Big. I mean do you want to just go straight into a moment of the week? I don't know James which one of the nine goals scored in Serie A this weekend would you pick?

1:37I'd say the two that Como scored nine goals in nine games Nico Paz a player that only PSG can dream of ever signing because he'll be a Real Madrid player this time next year but yeah Nico Paz eight goal involvements in seven games Como's first win over Juve since 1952 1952 and Cesc in front of Arsene Wenger and Thierry David D and Thierry Henry Varane was there too showing you know what an Arsenal manager could be like you know in the future that as you said both Koma goals because the the pass goal was delicious but the the setup would look like a rehearsed routine for the first one it's called by Kempf yeah Mark Oliver Kempf Marco Cassetti remember him James I vaguely The Roma, Watford legend.

2:28He is on Cesc's staff. Okay. And he's in charge of set pieces. And so, but he was asked whether he, they watched Villarreal against Juve. And Villarreal, I think, had done quite a similar routine that had come off. Right. But yeah, Koma's so well executed, so well recruited this team, so well coached. Cesc, very different from his mentor, Arsene Wenger, who they had an hour in his office before the game, in Cesc's office, because Cesc actually wasn't on the sideline. He was banned for this game. Right. But you wouldn't say that Cesc is a chip off the old Wenger block. He's super intense. So intense he was delivering drive-bys at Igor Tudor after the game.

3:19Mr. Tudor. There'd been a little bit of pre-match. Yeah, but it was a little bit. So Cesc's contention is that in his pre-match press conference, Igor Tudor had said the Como coach. And maybe Igor Tudor just momentarily forgotten the name. No, that's rude. And Cesc decided to bring this up. He's like, ah, Mr. Tudor. I'm going to call him Mr. Tudor out of respect because the other day he called me the coach of Como. And Mr. Trudor, he's such a great coach, he's such a great team with so many great players. He says that we're an example to everyone and that I get to choose all the players we sign, but I don't.

4:03Someone must have told him something wrong there. It's like, okay, Cesc. Enjoy the moment, Cesc. But I mean, fair play to him. He is doing a fantastic job. Yeah, I mean, level on points with Juve, but head on, head to head. I was there for the first game of the season where they absolutely smashed Lazio 4-0. After the game, he does this thing where he fill-browns his players, but in a positive way, on the pitch, where he does a huddle, and then he delivers one of these motivational speeches, which is much more kind of, I would say, macho than your kind of Mikel sort of light bulb drawing a heart and that sort of thing.

4:42It's much more like we're winners because we hate losing, don't we? And that sort of stuff. clear eyes full hearts clear eyes full hearts can't lose particularly on on Lake Como well indeed indeed kind of stretching the definition of moment there but delicious delicious stuff yeah what about you Jules I mean you know Jim Bossan my moment of the weekend really was going to watch you and the sumo not you with the sumo but you presenting the sumo in London with my two boys it was incredible you did an incredible job the sumo were incredible much better than any football I watched and there was a lot of goals we had 40 goals in Ligue 1 in 9 games by the way how many in Serie A again?

5:24I forgot no you raised this but you decided to watch Sumo instead because you thought it was more entertaining than Ligue 1 no I didn't I taped everything and watched after but it was it was the best thing that we've seen this weekend really really oh there you go excellent well yeah it was a huge enjoyable week and huge being the word yeah quite so so yeah many thanks to the organisers for putting it all together and the Onsumo Kyokai. Well, my part was pretty negligible. No, it wasn't. No, no, but I was delighted to have been there to witness it all. So, and thanks very much for coming along.

5:59I would have loved to have been coming along. Someone got the tickets. You are too late. If you were there, then you know. Thanks. Me and Holikstein's tickets were, you know, sort of cruelly taken away, but yeah. Jimbo, did you get to use any of your Japanese? Of course I did. yeah watch it on Hayouken with a great accent it was perfect and that coming from Julien Laurent so so far anyway we've had Como and Sumo do you want to add in another moment of the week of a footballing nature yeah just the just the 40 goals scored in Ligue 1 more seriously more seriously more seriously we had a 6-2 we had 2-3-3 we had a 4-0 it was just really really what's happened to the defending in Ligue 1 is the question but But to be fair, more seriously, I think it's an interesting shift in a way.

6:51I mean, there's still some teams that are not very good, like Nantes, for example, who go easily beaten by Lille, even at home. But everybody else, even if Nantes were trying to play, for example, and score goals, they would struggle. But the others have signed the players for that, have the managers and the mentality, I think, a bit more for that. And yeah, the defending hasn't been great. at all. There's a lot of red cards which helps as we saw in the Marseille Le Havre game for example. But it was good and I guess to open the weekend with a PSG-Strasbourg game that played like that was very special too.

7:24So yeah, it was a very good weekend all around. Excellent. Paul Valuz? I mean I had plenty of moments of the week as well. I was really tempted to go the easy route and stick to Araujo's late winner in Barcelona but I have to go to Getafe after what we win last night. I don't know if you were able to watch the game but So, yeah, just the moment that Neom, Alan Neom, the right back came in. And 45 seconds after coming in, he was sent off without having touched the ball because of a tackle on Vinicius Junior. Yeah,

8:05it was pretty astonishing to see. And it ended up being the defining moment of the game because Getafe were holding Real Madrid. It was a nil-nil game in the 70-something minute. And yeah, just after the red card, which was followed with all the controversy and protest and everything, and even Bellingham and Bordalas, the Getafe manager, shoving themselves a little bit. Yeah, just straight after the red card, Mbappe scored the winner at Getafe, which is going to allow Real Madrid to get to the Clásico at the top of La Liga. Neom, I think that he became the sixth player in the history of La Liga to last less than one minute on the pitch.

8:43Paul, I'm surprised you didn't take 15 seconds before giving your moment of the week. That's good. What is James Orkowski referring to? We'll be discussing that very, very shortly and looking forward to your other moments of the week, Paul, in the course of today's show. Seb Stafford, Blor, you're up. James Richardson I'm going to go to Mainz against Bayer Leverkusen and Martin Terrier scoring Leverkusen's fourth goal so he arrived in Leverkusen for I think 20 million euros from Stad Rene in the summer of 2024 he's kind of part of the the post double winning rebuild supposed to strengthen that side of the team had terrible luck he broke his arm in the autumn and then in January of this year he suffered a ruptured Achilles which you know has the history of any player who suffered that injury knows it's complicated difficult injury to cure anyway made his comeback the weekend came on as a substitute only on the pitch for 11 minutes I think he touched the ball five times but he scored so a nice end to the story and he's 28 now and because that injury lasted for so long he sort of he missed out on the opportunity to play in Alonso's side with Wirtz, Jaka and that group of players but a new Leverkusen side is building under Casper Hillman and they haven't actually lost now.

10:04They haven't lost under Hillman since he took over. Haven't lost since the opening day of the season. It's really interesting looking players there. So, you know, Terry is kind of like this older statesman now within that side and hopefully he can stay fit. But it was a nice moment to see. Didn't get the chance to work with Erickton Haag either. He did and what he, I mean, he might have had the opportunity to kind of to tour with Erickton Haag which I've heard it was an eventful old time down in South America. but he's on the pitch again. That's the same Bayer Leverkusen that's going to be facing Paris Saint-Germain.

10:36Yeah, I'm going to go to that game so I'm looking forward to that one. Yeah, right. Jules, have you blanked tickets to that as well? I could. Bayer Leverkusen against Paris Saint-Germain is one of the treats in store over the next couple of days or possibly from tonight. If you're listening to this on Tuesday it'd be hard to do so beforehand. Let's have a quick check. next up then on the key fixtures as we get into all the treats this Continental Week provides this is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson part of the Athletic FC podcast network Chamby C what's a game you're all looking forward to hey James probably the one you're going to is that right yeah Real Madrid Juventus woof nice yeah a lot of pressure on Igor Tudor going into this now they're winless in six games which you know after the start of the season that Juve had, quite spectacular with that 4-3 win in the Debit Italia.

11:32In some respects, I've written about this, it'll come out on Wednesday, but the last time Juventus went to the Bernabeu in 2018 was probably the last time Juventus were at the peak of their powers. And yeah, a few weeks later, they signed Cristiano Ronaldo and everything went wrong. So, you know, I mean, it should be interesting. I mean, I saw a few Madrid games at the Club World Cup when it was very early on. Xavi Alonso still figuring things out. So let's just see how that's progressed. You mentioned pressure for Tudor. This morning's Gazeta suggesting that he's got two games to save his job, one being the trip to Madrid, but the other, more crucially, being Lazio at the weekend.

12:13What do you make of Xavi Alonso's start and indeed Real Madrid's prospects in this one, Paul? I think that Madrid are quite in a better form than they've shown in the Club World Cup. You can spot some sort of progress into Xavi's ideas which is quite different to what they did last season with Ancelotti. This is a Real Madrid side that tries to high-press, tries to really lock the other team in the final third. I think that Real Madrid are, of course, the top favourites in that game. Although, in the only big game I'd say that they've had had this season, they just crumbled, which was against Atletico de Madrid.

12:46So this next week, because I think that they do Juventus, Barcelona, and then Liverpool, if I'm not wrong. Let's see how they do against Juventus. but I see Real Madrid as the main candidates. They have Mbappe in an amazing form. Vinicius was pretty good last night as well. So I don't see a reasonable reason why Real Madrid shouldn't be favourites for the game. Lloyd Kelly at the Bernabeu. Even Rugani played. I don't mind Daniel Rugani. But the reason why Rugani is playing is because Juventus is his best defender and arguably their best player. Gleison Bremer has been out for the last few games.

13:23He spent most of last season out with an ACL tear, come back, and was part of their really good start to the season and then has sort of struggled to stay fit since. But, you know, you just have to see if Kenan Yildiz, one of the brightest young talents in European football, had a great international break, you know, whether he tends to perform on the biggest stages. And I think Juventus need him to have a sort of night that Del Piero had back in 2008. But yeah, as you mentioned, James, Tudor given two games, apparently. I mean, that's very un-Juve-like because Juve, even though they've started doing this, they've always given managers an entire season before basically reviewing things.

14:09That ended when Max Allegri sort of fell out with Cristiano Giuntoli after the Coppa Italia final, obviously last year when they sacked Thiago Mota in March. but to Paul's point about Xabi Alonso evolving this Real Madrid team in the interim between the Club World Cup and today Igor Tudor just plays the same sort of way but can't decide which striker's going to score goals or if a striker's going to score goals with Duzan Vlajevic, Jonathan David and Lois Apenda as his options up front so yeah Juve haven't really been scoring goals since that 4-0 against Dortmund in their first Champions League game Haven't won a game since the match previous to that.

14:49It's a run of six without a victory. Wednesday night, they'll try their luck at the Bernabeu. The other Madrid side pole, Atletico, have got an interesting match. Their trip to the Emirates to take on Arsenal, who are off to a perfect start in the Champions League. Two wins, four goals scored, none whatsoever conceded. But then again, Atletico have looked quite exciting as well. Yep, I think that's the game that I was about to highlight, if I had faced the question. Basically, because I think that Atletico de Madrid, right now, we're in the best moment in the season. They won this weekend just one goal from Thiago Almada.

15:27But I think that they're playing better and better. Simeone has found a better defensive structure with Hanko as a left-back, with Marco Llorente, who's being impressive as a right-back. And in midfield, Pablo Barrios and Koke are bringing a lot of spine to this team. They have Alex Baena back now, which is a creative force in there. And then Julian Alvarez, of course, who is the big name, one of the hottest names in La Liga. The Barcelona interest on him looking to next summer is well-reported around in Spain. I don't know how Barcelona could afford that, but well, here we are again. They will find a way, Paul.

15:59Somehow it will be fine. Yeah, it's going to be fine, I'm sure. But no, I think that it's going to be like a massive game because I think that Atletico de Madrid, in a good form, is in a position to beat any sort of English team, in my opinion. So it's going to be a tough ask for Arsenal. And let's see how Atletico do with it. But I have big faith in them. Excellent. That's coming up on Tuesday. Seb, what about for you? Yeah, outside of Germany, I'm interested in Saint-Germain against Inter Milan because over the international break, Sebastian Pogginali moved to Monaco, won the title with Union Saint-Germain last year, which is their first Belgian title in 90 years, I think.

16:38And it's been replaced by David Hubert, who was at Leuven previously in Belgium and won his first game but it's such a talented team there's so many really interesting attacking players in there and I know they got thumped a little bit by Newcastle in the last round but they played pretty well for the 15 minutes before and after half time and yeah I thought the scoreline was pretty harsh so interested to see how that goes That game coming up on Tuesday what about for you Jules? Yeah I like the Bayer-Leverkusen-PhD that we mentioned already and staying with Pocognoli and Monaco, they would be at home to Spurs after facing City in match day two.

17:16So back-to-back English clubs and they did okay against City. Adi Hurt was there, well, more than okay, I guess. And this time it's a different opposition, different challenge for them. Again, when you arrive halfway through the season like Pocognoli, who's a good young manager, but still very young, a draw against Angers away in the first game of the weekend was not good or certainly not good enough. and this is straight in a much, much bigger game where they need to do something because they only have a point after two games right now in the Champions League which is not enough after they got spanked at Bruges in game week one.

17:49So it's a massive game for them. At least they are home which is good and as we saw yesterday with Spurs it's not all there yet for Frank and Tottenham. So I think Monaco will have a chance. It's just a shame they've got so many injuries but this should be a very interesting game because Monaco will have to win and Pocodiolli doesn't play not to win anywhere. Seb would know. He would be very intense. There would be like a high press and man marking everywhere and stuff like that. So it should be very interesting to watch. Jules, you keep saying that poor Pogba's going to be back. Is he back? Not yet.

18:21We'll have to wait a little bit more. James, he had a little like hamstring niggle during the international break. Okay. So we'll wait another two weeks. Okay. Good selection of matches there. Other fixes which may be of interest include Newcastle taking on Benfica. Joseph Mourinho relishing his trip to the stadium that he calls Mr. Robson's home, apparently. Delighted to talk about that rather than his record with Benfica at the Champions League. He's only had one game, no? That's true. Yeah, the one at Chelsea. But yeah, so far back-to-back defeats for the Eagles. Mourinho, of course, spent five years assisting in various guises to Bobby Robson.

19:03also Chelsea Ajax Ajax in terrible form terrible form Johnny Heitinger yeah yeah Villarreal taking on Man City Eintracht Liverpool we'll touch on those matches in the course of today's show but a shout out to Thursday's Europa League clash Sean Dyche in Europa League action Klaxon assuming that that decision is confirmed to bring him to the city ground Nottingham Forest up against Porto yeah And our friend Francesco Farioli, who's doing a very good job over there with Porto. There you go. Very, very nice. All right, let's get on to La Liga.

19:48This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pierce, Oli Kaye and the very best football writers around. All right, Paul. Real Madrid leading Barcelona by two points. And next weekend, it's Real Madrid against Barcelona. Oof. This weekend, while Real Madrid were one of the winners against Getafe, Barcelona won by one goal as well. It was a 2-1 victory over bottom of the table, Genona. Now, James was mentioning starting 15 seconds late, and this was one of the many, well, all of the games, I think, this weekend in La Liga, which had a similar delay at the start, a delay that was intended in protest at the Liga's decision to move Barcelona's game with Villarreal to Miami on the 20th of December.

20:42Correct. That happened pretty much, well, not pretty much, in every game, even in the games that involved Barcelona and Villarreal. The opposition teams and the players decided to take this action to protest against the decision that the Liga has taken to bring a game out to Miami. I mean, basically all the players stood still for 15 seconds. And one of the biggest controversies around it is that La Liga didn't really fully broadcast all the footage when it happened. I think that in the Real Madrid game they showed it. But at the start of the game week, in the first game that was in Oviedo, Oviedo against Espanyol, they just didn't show it.

21:20They just showed the managers at the sidelines. So it was a bit of a tricky thing with La Liga that, in a way, I think that bolstered the point that the players wanted to make against that action. I see. Although, if you wanted to make a gesture, is 15 seconds not very much? I mean, I don't want to make kind of sweeping generalizations, but a 15-second delay in a football match, particularly one in Spain, is perhaps not that noticeable. I agree with that. I agree with that, boy. So in a way, I think that the players deep down and the captains, which were the group that assembled this sort of protest, they knew that they are not going to hurt this project, that this is going to happen.

21:56It was more like to give visibility to the lack of information that they've been given throughout all the process. They feel that La Liga have just moved in that direction without letting all the teams know and all the players know. And they just wanted to make that visible. They are sort of aware and the captains that they are not going to be able to stop it. But as long as the world knows that they are not in favour of it, I think that that was the main mission of that protest. Anyway, once it did get underway, and I'm curious, what's the reaction of the Spanish public, actually, to this decision?

22:27Yeah, no, all the fan bases and in all the stadiums, I think that they booed, in a way, like the decision that Tepas made to bring that game to the US. It was only possibly in Barcelona, or at least the games that I saw, that the fans were sort of like standing to their team. but the rest of the fan bases and the stadiums were protesting against the decision that the competition has taken. But again, the feeling around is that everyone knows that it's not basically going to hurt the project but in the end it's just letting everyone know and letting the world know that in general Spanish football do not really agree with that.

23:04And even Joan Laporta, like Barcelona had the general assembly on Sunday. They're a socio-owned club so they have the assembly once a year where all the socios vote and just lay out their concerns and everything. And a lot of socios asked about the game in Miami and just protested by the fact that they are taking the game out of the country. And Laporta said, look, I'm not really enthusiastic about bringing a game out of Spain and out of Barcelona, but we are basically doing it for money because we need this sort of income and we are going to get really benefited from that. So that's why we are doing it because our finances are not great and that's a good opportunity for us to make more money and to get more sponsors in the future.

23:45So basically, that honesty was coming from Laporte as well. Okay. When the match did get underway, what did we see? Oh, brilliant angle ball for the opening goal from Pedri and even better, perhaps, equaliser because you have Alex Witzel with that overhead kick and then another late goal, which you referenced there earlier on, Araujo in, what was it, the 93rd minute to win the game for Barcelona. And perhaps the best use of all was that Laminya Mal was back and very much doing Laminya Mal things. Yep, Laminya Mal was back. At the starting 11, he only played 60 minutes because right now the priority at Barcelona is just a safe player for a classical.

24:25They have an injury crisis up front. They have Lewandowski out. They have Rafinha out, Ferran Torres out. And basically, they didn't want to risk Laminya Mal and Pedri to have some sort of problems ahead of the next week. So they were both taken out at the 60th minute with Parse tied in the scoresheet. Parse didn't play a good game. They were quite poor, in my opinion. By halftime, Girona could have been winning by two or three goals easily. But they just missed their chances. And it was one of those games that you don't play well, but you win. Ronald Larrojo played nine minutes as a central forward.

25:00He then came in to be a central defender. He just sticked the big man up front. And let's see how it works. And it worked. basically, because it was in the injury time, in a move of Frenkie de Jong through the flanks, he crossed the ball and Ronaldo Araujo, dressed as Robert Lewandowski, he scored the goal, crossing the ball at the back of the net. Rony in profundity, Frenkie de Jong, saca el centro, el remate, goool! Araujo, goool! Goool! Hansi Flick was sent off as well, which was big news. I don't know if you saw the footage, what he was doing, what we call in Catalonia a butifarra, which is can I do the gesture in here?

25:41Please do. Not at us. Oh, you've done it at seven. The ombrellone. So in Catalonia, like a butifarra is a type of meat which has this sort of form. He was sent off and after being sent off... I'm just trying to think what the phrase is in English. It's a kind of classic up yours gesture So placing the one hand over the inside of your elbow and raising the forearm. Yes. David Healy used to do that as a goal celebration. When he was playing for Northern Ireland, he got sent off for it against Wales once. Well, I can imagine. Rightly smart. If I remember right now, I might have dreamt part of this, but I think he scored against Wales, kicked the corner flag, and then did that as a goal celebration.

26:26I think he got yellow for the corner flag, and then he yellowed for the celebration, then got sent off. Full combo. Sounds like the kind of dream you would have. If I've got that wrong, I don't want to hear about it from the internet. Let's just say it's true. Right. So Flick won't be there for the Clasico next weekend, but he's going to be tight between the two teams and both sides facing Champions League fixtures. As we mentioned, Juventus will be the opponents for Real Madrid. Barcelona are going to be at home to Olympiacos, and you're going along to that a little bit later on today as you listen to this listener, because it's Tuesday, the early game.

27:02Yeah, it's the early kickoff. Yeah, again, Barcelona need to win that game because they lost against PSG, so to try to amend that. But I don't have the feeling that Flick is going to risk many things in there because, as I was saying, the priority is the Classico. They have an injury play up front, so they are going to try to play it simple. I don't dismiss the fact that some La Masia players thrown in the starting line-up and just the hope is that they do, they just do the job with the people that they have available. Ahead of the Clasico this weekend, the two teams midgetly below Real Madrid and Barcelona had their little set two.

27:39It was third v fourth, Villarreal against Real Betis. Yellow Submarine went 2-0 up and then Anthony happened. Antonio de Triana, the big name in the south of Spain. He hadn't scored in La Liga yet since he rejoined this summer and yeah, he delivered a special performance. Real Betis got a really good result because I don't think that many teams are going to be able to get points from Villarreal this season. And yeah, Real Betis, I think that they are showing that they're in top form, possibly two of the teams that are more exciting to watch right now in La Liga, both Villarreal and Betis. And I think that Betis have the deep in that squad and the moment of form in many players just to keep doing at the Europa League in a really good rate and just to give problems to anyone in La Liga.

28:25So, yeah, two teams to take a close look at. You don't think many teams are going to take points away from La Ceramica this season. That's interesting because who's up there on Tuesday night? Man City. Man City. Man City, who've actually won none of their last five Champions League away fixtures. Ay, ay, ay. Of course, the most recent one being that 2-2 draw away at Monaco, which saw Adi Huta fired for not beating Aguari at his side. Kind of, yeah. Yeah. Wow. I mean, they need somebody else to score than Erling Haaland, Manchester City. Do they, though? So they've scored 17 goals in the league, 11 for him, 2 on goals, and then I think 3 players with 1.

29:06And then in Champions League, I think they score 4 goals, 3 for him, and 1 for somebody else. So if he doesn't score, basically they don't score, which is a problem, especially against a team as good as Villarreal at home, especially because of the way I suppose they were more disappointing. But at home, they're a much better team. But as James correctly observed, Haaland does score. True. But still, the day doesn't. Well, not enough. Yeah. It'd be a problem. Yeah. What do you think, Paul? Are the Real going to add to their woes on the road? I think that they can. They have the prospect. I don't think that City are playing at the top of their game.

29:41I think that City still need to improve overall. A bit too box-to-box, in my opinion, for Pep style. I've not chosen the way that we were used to watch Pep's teams. What I meant is that basically Villarreal have that many options that they can basically change their whole starting lineup without having too many problems because they have that deep of a squad. And that can give Man City a problem. Plus, it's a Villarreal team managed by Marcelino, who I think is a manager really good suited to play these sort of teams. He has this 4-4-2 system really well assembled to face ball possession-oriented sides.

30:18And I think that, yeah, they are a perfect threat for this Mancini team. And no Rodri again for City. Yeah, exactly. Marcelino has now become the longest-serving manager ever for the yellow submarine. And kind of looks like he's from the 50s, no? Yeah, yeah. To his thing. Yeah. Yeah, when he was in Marseille, not that he had a long time there, but yeah, that was what people were saying. Oh, yeah? Nice. In a nice way. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, he's old school. His football is a bit... The 4-4-2 is very old school anyway, too, that he played. I think that he was the main character of one of the biggest runs I've seen in press conferences.

30:51When his Villarreal side in 2016 played Liverpool in the semifinals of the Europa League, Klopp was like full-on after him. He said that... Because I think that Marcelino said something like, I don't want to behave like Klopp in the touchline. And Klopp went like, I don't want to be like Marcelino one single minute of my lifetime. So I was like, wow, jeez. puts Cesc and Igor in there. Yeah, exactly. All right, you want that kind of passion. Paul, thank you so much. What a splendid round-up. Next up, let's move on to Ligue 1.

31:32This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network.

31:45Legalisation! Jules, James, Ligue 1. What's this? Sumo. No, I was going with PSG. Another draw. Another draw, yeah. And now Marseille at the top of the table. Yeah, very much so. They beat La Havre 6-2. That's the kind of scoreline that PSG are meant to be having, but instead they drew it home to Strasbourg. Yeah, it was a really, really good game. And we expected this kind of game. PSG still with a lot of players missing. so pretty much the B team or even the C team if you want on the pitch and Strasbourg without Emmanuel Emeka so not full strength but pretty much a full strength apart from that and they're just a great team Strasbourg very young against the youngest in Europe I think less than 21 years average Liam Rosinho doing an incredible job and they were 3-1 up and as often with them because of their youth I think they ended up dropping points when they probably should have won yeah it happens so often doesn't it They've had injury time heartbreak against Monaco and Marseille.

32:44As you mentioned, 3-1 up against the champions after 49 minutes, but ending up only taking a point away. The goalkeeper had a fair amount to do with that, do you think? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it gave away the penalty that Gonzalo Ramos scored. I mean, Lucas Chevalier was not great in the PSG goal either, again. So the Donnarumma, Chevalier, why, etc. debate is back on the table. we saw a very good Joaquin Panichelli who's the Argentine striker that Strasbourg went to get in the Spanish second division at Mirandes where he scored a lot of goals last season his dad used to be a player really interesting story because his dad was signed by River and got an injury literally in pre-season of that season where he signed that ended his career at 27 became a writer a very good successful writer and his son now kind of followed in his footsteps as a very good player I thought you were going to say writer well maybe he does write as well we don't know that but 23 great star of his team he's scored 7 goals in 8 league games so far I think for Strasbourg causing panic Ellie amongst opposing you couldn't write it so he got the equaliser after PSG had actually taken the lead the assist here by one of two duets pleasingly

34:05on the field because both the Duet brothers were out there. Yeah, that's right. Gela and Desiree, obviously. Which is not the first time they faced each other, obviously, since they both left Rennes, one for PSG, one for Strasbourg. But it's always a bit special. And Desiree put on his social media before the game a photo of them when they were both at the Rennes Academy when they were like, I don't know, seven and nine or something. And how 10 years later or so they're now facing each other in Ligue 1 and potentially at some point because Gela chose to play for Ivory Coast potentially facing each other at some point in a World Cup maybe in the summer Wow what a thing that would be be like the Boatengs exactly yeah anywho it all finished with a late equaliser from Sene Maéoulu yeah again another really good performance okay so a point one rather than two dropped would you say Jules?

35:00yeah again Roussaint-Riquet didn't seem that disappointed to be fair yeah they're not top of the table anymore because Marseille, we've got seven teams in four points from the top to seventh, which is very exciting. But until Dembele is back, which he will be back for the Bayer Leverkusen, he's in the squad for the Leverkusen, and Fabian Rees and Joy Neves, Vitinha was not playing, neither were the two fullbacks, certainly from the start, no Paco either. So yeah, once everybody comes back, you expect kind of order to come back. But for now, they're being tested pretty much every weekend. Yeah, and just one win in their past four matches.

35:35their next game is the clash away to Bayer Leverkusen Seb you're going to be there what kind of team are they going to be facing? It's really hard to know at the moment because there's so many young players in there and they've been re-built in such a such a comprehensive way that it feels like every performance is slightly different also like the personality of the team has changed so if you think about the leaders that have left Jacka, Tarr, Rodecki every week you're seeing a side that is kind of growing to its definition and Kasper Holman was asked last week about when are you going to challenge for a trophy?

36:07When are we going to see the re-accent of Bayer Leverkusen? And he basically said, well, we don't really think like that. We're just trying to become as competitive as possible, as quickly as possible. The one thing I would say is that defensively, it's still a little bit of a mess because Tarr was not just a big leader in the dressing room, but the focal point of the defence, Brodesky was the captain. New goalkeeper Mark Fleckens has some pretty tricky moments. Gerald Quantster is a really inexperienced player who's very talented but is still learning the game and some of those things are still showing and so whilst i've certainly seen enough of labakus in this season to think that they'll be a problem for an understrength psg at home suddenly honest parkour is someone to really look for he's a really exciting player yeah they look fragile still so let's see i mean even against mines jimbo they ended up conceding three times a game that was won had to be won three times in the end really because they kept letting Mainz back into the match so let's see but I'm excited I mean there's enough interesting parts of that Leverkusen team to be engaged in what they're going to do next but I'm not quite sure how far along they are.

37:11I think this is a game for loads of goals and to be worth watching because of the way the two teams are playing I think you could easily finish like 3-3-4-3 to somebody. All right both teams shipped three at the weekend. Yeah exactly. Be interesting to see how that one pans out. All right top of the table then in Liga by one point I must say who've now had five straight wins they've got a Champions League fixture of their own but they set themselves up for that nicely with the 6-2 against Lavra the first four goals coming courtesy of Mason Greenwood yeah incredible performance from him I mean it was 1-1 until Luav got a red card after 30 minutes or so and then there was only going to be one winner at the Velo Drone Marseille we're not going to let that go ok there's one penalty there's a tap in but one goal is quite special and when he's in that kind of form or where he wants to be because he can be a bit nonchalant sometimes.

38:02He's so electric, so good, so hard to defend against and they find, I think, the right system that fits him in this team. They've got a good midfield. They've got a lot of options for De Zerbi to rotate so everybody's not too tired for the league game at the weekend and the Champions League in midweek. They recruited really well with Mehdi Benatia and Pablo Longoria in the summer. So they, yeah, it's a really good time for them. The first four, Marseille goes. I should say because it was Lava who took the lead with a lovely goal and their last goal as well which was 5-2 a beauty from who's that?

38:34Abdoulaye Torre yeah that's right that's right and they knew also that Lyon had lost earlier in that day on Saturday which was a bit surprising they went away to Nice and they lost despite 70 % of the ball 3.4 xg 29 shots in total 7 on target when Nice only had 4 shots on target and scored 3 goals with an xg of 0.6 so one of those games for Paolo Fontica but Marte knew XG of 0.6 and they scored three goals. Yeah. And Lyon had 3.4 XG and only scored two. Madness. But then Marseille knew that now that Lyon had lost as well and PSG dropped points the night before on Friday, it was for them to win to go top of the table, which I think added a lot of like super motivation and incentive to do so.

39:16Presumably part of the missing XG for Lyon was the missed penalty by Ainsley Maitland-Nars. Yeah. And I don't know why he took it. I mean, I don't know if he's a good, I didn't look at all his stats as the penalty taker but if you had asked me Lyon had a penalty who would have taken it? I don't think I would have gone for Maitland-Nyes straight away but hey yeah that was part of the reason why they didn't win that game where really they should you know it's a game they were very very frustrated to not have at least got a point from it. Okay. Lyon currently lying fifth in league three points off the top Marseille where Greenwood is the first Fonichien player to score four goals in a competitive match since Jean-Pierre Papin Oui in 1991 Correct Yes Yeah There we go Marcel goal machines particularly at home at least four goals in seven of the last eight official matches at the Stade Velodrome And I think two of those were with 11 against 10 I think Right Yeah Okay They play Sporting on Tuesday Sporting to validate the great win against Ajax and even the good performance we saw against Real Madrid even if they lost that game in Game Week 1 They're away at like Yeah sporting yeah okay having thumped Ajax 4-0 last time out yeah in the Champions League very good in Ligue 1 Jules one point clear what do you think yeah I mean I mean again there's every after the game this is October 15th or whatever it was not May 15th and he's he's right there's so many more games to be played but it's good for them to be in that position compared to a crisis mode that we saw when he had to take them to Rome for five days or to Copenhagen or Stockholm wherever they went to gel that team together because they were not performing like he wanted so they're in a really good place and for now it's perfect they take that they will have a tougher game they go to Lens for example next weekend who are in fourth place now I'm back after a really good win at the weekend and this would be tricky away at the start ball out so it's going to be really really fun because even PSG being underwhelming right now because of all the injuries they have and not really hitting form is great for the rest of the league we've got I think Lyon Strasbourg coming out the following weekend so we've got really good games because it's so tight at the top very nice yeah next weekend is Brest against Paris Saint-Germain Lens-Marseille which is as you just say and then Lyon Strasbourg yeah so and just to finish we had a great Brittany derby between Lorient and Brest on Sunday that finished 3-3 with two goals in the last five minutes 86 and 89 to make it 3-3 it was it was really good fun very good very good Marseille at Sporting on Wednesday Monaco hosting Spurs we chatted about that no Eric Dier or Dier Dier Dier Dier for that game Eric Eric yeah they have so many injuries it's a shame for them yeah alright remind me who plays in Europa League what do they have Strasbourg and Lille and Young no just because I forgot it I thought you were going to mention all the French clubs in Europe this week let's do it sorry I thought you had them no James strikes me as exactly the kind of person who would have that there yeah me too I thought it was one of your windows but clearly not no no it used to be but Lyon Basel

42:36Lyon against Basel and Lyon facing Basel are they yeah that's right at least we go to Celta Vigo oh yeah and Lyon are home to Thessaloniki okay OK, nice. Some Thursday night action for you there. Next up, let's touch on some of other leagues.

42:58You're listening to the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. Now with you four times a week. Keep up to date with us on Insta and enjoy seeing glorious Technicolor on YouTube at the Totally Show. Eric DeVizzi, nine rounds in, 81 matches played, still yet to have a single goalless game. Oh. In the Netherlands. No perfect matches in the Netherlands. No. That's the first time they've ever got to this stage of an Eredivisie season without a goalless game. The 81st and most recent match to be played was a 7-0 victory indeed for leaders Feyenoord against rock-bottom Heracles. Robin van Persie Feyenoord.

43:36Indeed. Yeah, look at that. Look at that. Cesc, we mentioned already, Van Persie. You know? Ayase Ueda, who scored the winner for Japan against Brazil last Tuesday, got a first-half hat-trick in that 7-0 win. Feyenoord now three points clear of Piers Vey, with Izet Alkmaar in third spot. And Ajax, who will be facing the world champions Chelsea this week, currently lying nine points off the lead. They've only had one win in four. And in the Champions League, no points, no goals scored, and six conceded. Yikes. and Johnny Heitinger under pressure already under pressure massively yeah Chelsea by contrast three straight wins in all competitions having seen a forest at the weekend in other news Graham Potter is the new Sweden manager well done going back to where you all started Sweden obviously yeah Ostersund starting a journey that took him to Swansea Brighton Chelsea and West Ham Sweden a team with some issues issues, got good players.

44:44Very good players, yeah. Very good players. But they've only picked up one point from their four World Cup qualifying matches so far and only scored twice in those four games. A bottom of their group fired their manager, hence Graham Potter's advent on their bench. But thanks to the excellent notion of pitching in people to World Cup playoffs from other competitions, their Nations League record means that they are extremely likely. I have a funny feeling they're extremely likely you know that like in the past like in 2018 oh my goodness the Giampiero Ventura San Siro experience oh my word yeah we'll have to see I mean Rino Gattuso the other day said look if I don't qualify this team to the World Cup I'll leave Italy really?

45:34yeah okay going to exile I mean I must say there's a lot of confidence around on the Italian national team at the moment. What a record they've had since he came in. Well, they've won every game. They've scored, what's it, 16 goals in four games. All the strikers are scoring. Moise Ken, Pio Esposito, Matteo Rotteghi. And it just goes to, as Donna Ruman was saying of the international break, it just goes to show what fine margin this is because they lost that game to Norway and Oslo. It's the only time they've dropped points. That wasn't a fine margin, I must admit. No, that was 2-0. And they play them again next month, right?

46:09but yes but the goal difference is such that even if Italy were to win against Norway in Rome Norway unless they lose other games or draw other games that they are going to go through but yeah it's one of those things where look a lot of people will point the finger and say ah look the national team they suck they're going out again but they've only dropped points in one game so far yeah it's a tough tough time to be getting Norway in your qualifying it is that guy Harland if Harland didn't score Yeah, who else gets cool? Well, another Scando team potentially then could be in their future because it has that kind of feeling of destiny about it.

46:50But anyway, Sweden, who've given Graham Potter a contract just for the last two qualifying games, and then his contract apparently will be extended to cover playoffs and next summer's tournament should the team get there. Huh. Alrighty, next up, Bundesliga. This is the Totally Football Show with James Richardson. So, Seb, Bayern Dortmund this weekend with the big questions. Were this Dortmund side as good as their fine start suggested? And could they be the ones to stop all conquering Bayern in their tracks? What were the answers? Don't know and obviously no. So I think heading into this, obviously the reaction is kind of focused on Niko Kovac's approach, which seemed to be quite negative in the German media.

47:36game started with pretty decent Bayern performance even though Serge Gnabry was out of the side I think that was the thing that Dortmund were grasping at in the beginning because a lot of the attacking chemistry in that front four is about continuity so Diaz, Kane Gnabry and Michael Lise had started five or six games heading into that Gnabry dropped out with injury in comes Niklas Jackson and he didn't play especially well but he didn't get in the way and in the first half of an hour it did look a little bit like Bayern we're just going to run through Dortmund Diaz had a very good chance Alise hit the post Schlotterbeck made a really really good block from Alise midway through the first half Kane scored from the header 1-0 and Dortmund didn't actually have a shot of any sort in that first half but then some of that criticism is a little bit misplaced because I think if you look at the two sides the problem with creating your kind of your headlining fixture and branding it as the classica is you create the perception of two equal sides which these are not right and the person i was sitting with in the press box said to me halfway through like after the second half after caramidi amy had really i mean a wonderful chance to equalize goal gaping he just ticked his own fit and and fell over and he said to me yeah that's that's why he doesn't play for bayern munich and also that's kind of a theme right you have these dortmund players who are a little bit brittle form wise who you can't really trust on the big occasions.

49:03Talented players, but also players you know, right? You know, if the Saragiris C header in the second half falls to Kane, it's a goal. If that Adeyemi chance falls to Alise, it's a goal. And Dortmund just have these little errors that Bayern are really well placed to exploit. And there was obviously no better emblem of that than the Joe Bellingham moment right at the end where I feel sorry for him. He got caught under his own crossbar, his feet were in a mess, and Alise slides in and deflects in. and even though Dortmund then pull a goal back through Huling Brandt, it's just what you expect to see and it's the difference between these sides is so pronounced in terms of their talent and their budget that a game like that can happen.

49:43It can end a Bristol Dortmund unbeaten run in the Bundesliga which stretches back to March and everyone just moves on or should just move on and think well it's just what it is. It's just about the disparity between the two and it's a good game an engaging game Bayern I mean are we going to talk about the Kane performance are you going to ask yes many questions I am let me ask you I mean we'll nod to the fact that Bayern have played 11-1-11 with a total aggregate score of 40 goals to nine Kane with 12 of those the one against Dortmund was his 400th professional goal but the only two teams to stop Harry Kane scoring this season were?

50:24Two teams? Anybody? Augsburg, one of them. Augsburg is one of them. The other one begins with an A as well. Andorra. Andorra. Thank you, James Horncastle. Here's an Octostat, aside from Bayern Munich, his own club, so we can just take them out out of the picture because he scores all the goals for them. Yeah. Only two Bundesliga sides, Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern Leverkusen, have managed to score more goals as a team than Kane has on his own. Madness. His corner finds Harry Kane! Yes, who else? 1-0 for the Bayern in the 22nd minute. It's almost got to the point now where the goals are beside the point because it's such an established virtue of Kane's game.

51:10You just expect it. Ditto the playmaking Jimbo. The creativity and also the areas from which he's creating. There was a moment in the first half where he held off Gerasi, pivoted around the other player, cut the lines of the ball that just put Conrad Lima running through with such ease and there's such a vision and it doesn't really matter where he's on the pitch. He seems kind of impervious to the risks of having to play in those areas. Now, interestingly, Kicker, their website, they have a team of the week every weekend and it's not in that sense of, hey, let's just find a group of goal scorers and bung them in any formation.

51:48It's taken quite seriously. we've had seven match days and Kane has made that five times so far but Monday was the first time he's been included as a midfielder which is not just kind of oh let's fit him in and it doesn't matter and as we see elsewhere you know a lot of the British media and that kind of describes his impact because at times he was almost playing as a sixth he made a massive defensive contribution his work rate is phenomenal so according to the official Bundesliga stats he has run the 25th furthest distance cumulatively in the bundesliga this season now he's played all seven games so that helps but he's ahead of players like rocco wright's blaback midfielder josef kimmick midfielder angelo stiller stuttgart midfielder he's ahead of conrad limer who midfielder but he's currently being played as a sort of very dynamic fullback and i think that just sort of that shows you what he's doing and how much of it he's doing and and sort of as he gets older he's by no means one of those static forwards whose legs are preserved by being just stuck on the penalty spot.

52:50We knew that, but perhaps we didn't appreciate just kind of the extent of it. No, it's quite a remarkable season that he's having as the World Feed commentator blurted out through the second half. How many Harry Canes are out there, which sums it up nicely. Too many anyway for their opponents this weekend. Next weekend, they're up against bottom of the table, Gladbach. and then their next visitors at the Allianz Arena are Bayer Leverkusen, which should be interesting. Eintracht Frankfurt, who've had some funny times themselves this season, not least in the Champions League, where they were at the wrong end of that spanking from Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid a few weeks back, this midweek are hosting Liverpool.

53:31Eintracht Frankfurt this weekend had a 2-2 draw at Freiburg. They're lying in seventh spot. Liverpool are in a spot of bother. What do you think, Seb? worried about the Eintracht defense Jimbo haven't kept a clean sheet all season I think they actually may have done in one of the early rounds of the DFB Pokal but in the Bundesliga or Champions League obviously you mentioned the 5-1 defeat to Atatico in their first game they beat Galatasaray 5-1 so you kind of had a glimpse of the attacking power and the quality of Doan and Januzun and Burkhardt Nathaniel Brown actually played as a winger at Freiburg at the weekend but the same old story right they went one down built a 2-1 lead, conceded a late equaliser to Vince Griffo, there are too many mistakes.

54:14There are just too many mistakes. They're brilliant when the mood is right. When you examine them, when you hold them to the fire a little bit, there isn't the quality and the reassuring quality that you need in defence to survive against a team like Liverpool, even given, I hate to say struggles because it's a bit melodramatic, but their recent form. Well, particularly at the back, Seb, and you mentioned that the firepower that Frankfurt can bring to bear on a fixture. That'd be a concern. I think what interests me is exactly that. So we know how attractive they can be and how ambitious they can be and how pretty some of their attacking football can be.

54:51I think what's going to be intriguing is this Liverpool game as a little bit of a litmus test as to where some of these individuals are. Because obviously, because of Frankfurt's record in the market and because of how good they become at producing excellent players players who are desired by Premier League teams the moment someone shows some form be like right that guy's 100 million euros next summer next summer and I don't think that's necessarily the case but for someone like Ozzurne for instance he's the great example right how can he survive against in the sub the lines between a more physical defense and a more physical midfield how's kind of what is still quite a a fragile quality of his and how's that going to stand up?

55:32How is he going to be able to express himself? Do I think Eintracht can beat Liverpool? No, not at the moment, even at Valstallium, but I think there's kind of, there's a lot to learn, not to be too kind of five conclusions we've drawn from this, but that's the interesting bit for me, I think. Okay, excellent. Well, it should be a good game. Seb, thank you so much for that. Next up, we're off to Serie A.

56:00This is the Totally Football Show, part of the Athletic FC podcast network. The Athletic is the only place you can read articles by Daniel Taylor, Amy Lawrence, Phil Hay, James Pearce, Oli Kaye and the very best football writers around. Oh boy, just the four teams in one point at the top of the Serie A table, Mr Horncastle. Now Milan leading the way on 16 points with Inter, Napoli and Roma level just behind them. Milan, who beat Fiorentina 2-1 on Sunday night after going a goal down 10 minutes later. Though Rafa Liao scored his first goal in the league at San Siro for almost a year and a half.

56:39Yeah, and he was getting a lot of criticism over the international break because if you remember, one of the other many nil-nils in Serie A this season was the one between Milan and Juve. and he had the chance to win the game late on remember he came on and there's that viral clip of Allegri just as Leal's basically getting stripped off and Allegri turns to him and goes don't piss me off Rafa he had that chance missed it and ever since then people have been bringing up the statistic that you just brought up about nearly 18 months without a goal at San Siro and you had Christian Vieri on DAZN during the pre-match and he was very critical he was like Like, you know, this guy's gone 513 days without scoring a goal at San Siro.

57:27Like, I would not have been able to sleep for a single night of those 513 days. He had Luca Toni next to him. He's like, Luca, you and I, if we went a game without scoring, you know, they would be out there protesting, whistling us, putting out banners saying, you know, sell these guys. And I don't know whether Leal was watching whilst he was in the dressing room. but yeah Leal did score twice as Milan came back from behind scored the scandalous penalty that won the game because this was the other trend of Serie A Jules obsessed with not many goals being scored but in the other game on Saturday Roma against Inter Gaspe looked at his strikers Artem Dovbeck Evan Ferguson was like nah don't fancy either of them went strikerless Max Allegri sort of did the same with Milan he was like Santi Jimenez no we tried to swap him for Dobrik on the final day of the season nah not having him either and so played Leal as a striker which isn't his position but Santi did come on won this penalty which was not given on the pitch and then there's been a lot of debate as to whether the VAR should have got involved and whether it was a clear and obvious error or not Was it a gift from Santi?

58:43An early gift and Leal put it away which is something Christian Pulisic didn't do in the Juventus Milan game Pulisic was injured and that was one of the stories of this Milan win was that even though Fiorentina came into this game in absolutely terrible form Milan had been reduced by the international break to their bare bones Pulisic had got injured Adrian Rabiot had got injured Loftus-Cic Loftus-Cic Estupinian Estupinian if you looked at their bench you know there are four or five players on there that most people would not have heard of. And yet they won. They took advantage of the other results of the weekend, which will get to Napoli losing, Roma losing, Juventus losing, and went top of the table.

59:28There you go. By the way, Paul was telling us about the furore in Spain over the Miami Vidéal-Barcelona clash. Has the game between Milan and Coma, which is going to be played in Czechsnotes Perth in Western Australia in February next year? Yeah, February 7th. Right. Depending on your time zone. Might be 8th, 7th, 8th. So far away. Right. Has that excited a similar level of disapproval in Italy? The main criticism has been coming from the players, particularly the French players. Yeah, Rabiot and... Rabiot and Meillon. Because Rabiot, like within minutes of touching down in France, gave interviews to Le Figaro and others.

1:00:10and he was like, I think this is absurd, you know, traveling for 24 hours. For a derby, essentially. Yeah, for a derby against a really good Como team. And I think the main thrust of criticism about the game is because of Milan starting the season so well, being top of the table at the moment, people are already projecting, throwing forward to Febriand, like what happens if they're in a title race? And they go all that way. You know, there might be some injuries that come from the travel and that sort of thing. And also, just the travel alone is two full days. You're on a plane. Right. But they don't have Europe, so I guess that's a lot of travel that they won't be having this season.

1:00:54But not just the fact to take it outside of Italy, which is a questionable thing, not to have it as a... Was it a Milan home game or a come home? It's a Milan home game. Milan home game. Oh, that's right, because San Siro is busy for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Yeah. But there are other grounds nearby available. Why are they in Western Australia? Well, because money. It's closer than Eastern Australia. I've literally seen that given as a reason. Okay. I mean, money, because... But are there no other countries available? I mean, even the Middle East where they're offered. Yeah, but would you...

1:01:26Look, we don't want to go on a sliding scale of morality here, but would you rather they be playing this game in Riyadh or in Doha? No, point taken, but it's not like no city teams will be playing in Riyadh. Yeah, there'll be the Super Cup in January. So they're already doing... It's a saturated market, James. Yeah, right. The Saudis can only take so much of Serie A. Right, so next stop Western Australia. No, but I think... Look, I imagine they would have liked to have gone to the US. Right. But La Liga are sort of beating them to it. I imagine there's an element of... But that game's in December.

1:02:01Yes, but I imagine there's an element of we want to be different. Boy. You know, everyone goes to America. Right. You know, only us go to Australia, Western Australia. Yeah, and Perth. Which I'm sure is an amazing place. A strong community of Italian immigrants, right? So there's a very strong community. So 12 million baseline fee, which doesn't sound like too much really, but it excludes sort of ticketing, sponsorship, commercial activation. So there is some belief that they can get that figure up towards 30 million for that one game, which, you know, Jules has mentioned the Italian-Australian community.

1:02:42You've got Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister at the moment. You've got lots of people in Western Australian Parliament who are Italian-Australian. And as you know, James, because you followed AC Milan in preseason, where did they play? In Western Australia. Yeah, I think the second time in three years. Wow. the owner of Perth Glory I think is also the owner of Catania is that right but I mean to your point James yeah they have seized this opportunity which of San Siro not being available for use in February because of the Winter Olympics so they've been like you know our hands are tied you know what can we do what can we do we have to go to Perth what can we do James come on well top of the table right now and only a point clear though Roma, Inter and Napoli as we've heard Juve were beaten by Como Roma were defeated by Inter who will be taking on Napoli next weekend.

1:03:41Napoli who themselves slipped up at the hands of Torino. A lovely full page to the Torino earner Urbano Cairo saying I urge the team to do better after their recent results and look. So that was good. Anyway this was a A 1-0 win for Torino against Napoli Saturday tea time with Giovanni Simeone scoring the only goal of the game against his parent club. A high-scoring fixture this one in Serie A. Yes, of course. Napoli now lost two of their last three Serie A matches. Ay-yi, ay-yi, ay-yi. James? Yeah, I mean, they were another team like Milan to have a long casualty list after the international break.

1:04:18You know, it was unexpected that Scott McTominay and Rasmus Hoyland wouldn't play in this game. even going into the match there was the expectation that they would be in the starting 11, all of a sudden they're in the stands, they're not even on the bench, apparently McTominay had had quite a nasty cut to his ankle from a challenge which needed stitches and Hoyland came back with a sort of muscle fatigue from scoring another goal in the international break and they were already without their first choice centre-back partners, Rachmani and Buongiorno, Buongiorno I think came on later, Labocca arguably the most important playmaker.

1:04:56And, you know, I mean, Hoyland is there to cover for Lukaku. So in that respect, yes, disappointing result. Milan won despite their injuries. Napoli didn't. But again, you know, Jules keeps bringing up the lack of goals. 99. But if he was to look at the XG in some of these games. That's very true. I give you that. You would see that Napoli created more than two unexpected goals. Torino did as well. and even in the Roma Inter game which was decided by an early goal by Anjoan Bonny Paris Born and Bread Paris Born and Bread great goal by the way very good player Roma almost created two unexpected goals but Jan Sommer who threw those goals in against Juventus in the defeat to Debut d 'Italia Sommer in the second half for Inter was very good all right Napoli then with some injury concerns ahead of their midweek clash with PSV in that Champions League.

1:05:53And then, as mentioned the following weekend, they host Inter at the Maradona. Inter, who went to the Stadio Olimpico Saturday evening and beat Roma 1-0. Bonny now with three goals and three assists in his first seven appearances for the Netaturi. Were they expecting that kind of impact from him? So he was arguably one of the best young players in the league last year. He played for Parma, which is where Christian Kivu was caretaker before getting the Inter job. So Kivu knows him very well. This is one of the big differences, I would say, between Inter last season and this season. I wouldn't stress them too much because Inzaghi took Inter towards almost winning a treble, ended up empty-handed.

1:06:39So it wasn't like everything that Inzaghi did was bad last year. But one of the things that didn't help him was the fact that the guys playing behind Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Turam, the other centre forwards your Arnautovic's your Turemi's never scored and your Bonny do and your Pio Esposito do as well Pio scored in the international break for Italy his first goal for the senior national team lots of headlines you know sort of Pio esiste sort of a riff on God exists nice and so a lot of people thought Pio would start in this game instead Bonny did and Bonny Bonny scored and you know Inter were very good for the first half and the last game I went to was that Juventus Milan 0-0 before the international break and the thing that stayed with me the most was Igor Tudor after that game not talking about Milan not talking about Juventus but going Inter are clearly better than everybody else clearly better than everybody else and they've won six in a row now

1:07:46Bonni looks around and loses a moment. In the line of Vilar. The assistant's not up. Bonni, open the game. You can look at their fixtures and say, yeah, apart from this Roma game, you'd expect them to win the games that they've won. But Kivu just very, very chill, very relaxed. Very nice. Who have they got in the Champions League midweek? They are taking on Union San Giroir, who were beaten 4-0 Bayern Newcastle last time out, of course. And then the trip down to Naples to take on Napoli. Roma, by contrast with Kivu's scoring options at Inter, have really struggled to find goals. And we're all looking forward to Gasparini really unlocking the likes of Artem Dovbig and Evan Ferguson.

1:08:31But so far, just one goal between them. Yeah, I mean, Ferguson started the season really well, played against Bologna, did everything but score and could have scored in that game. Which is kind of the point. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if they had Haaland.

1:08:48I think it'd be different. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, to Jules' point about the lack of goals in Serie A, I think one of the things that does sum up this season in the league is we've come to expect Gasparini to unlock these strikers. You know, invariably, you give him a striker, he'll make them top scorer in the league. That's not happened so far. when they've been winning games and they have won, what, four of their six games. It's been by a goal to nil. It's been very tight. And then the other thing is Atalanta. You know, we've expected Atalanta to score 100 goals a season. And they too, even though they've been creating, so they're another team this weekend against Lazio.

1:09:32They play out on nil-nil, but they hit the post. Provadel, the goalkeeper for Lazio, is the best player on the pitch. Saves a shot from Luckman. And they've been struggling to score as well, even though if you look at their sort of XG numbers, you'd be like, actually, that team should have scored four or five goals more than they have done so far this season. Okay. Above Atalanta, above Juventus, above even Como currently, are Bologna, who are just outside the top four. They had a victory away at Cagliari on Sunday, 2-0. Of course, Riccardo Orselini was one of the scorers. Top scorer in the league at the moment.

1:10:07Five goals. Knocking on that door. Yeah, and I think one of the players who Rino Gattuso has looked to with the national team, because Gattuso, okay, they've played Estonia twice and Israel twice, but Rino's been really aggressive and bullish with their starting lineups in playing essentially 4-2-4. So two strikers, Kenan Ritteghi or Pio Esposito, and two out-and-out wingers, of which one has been Orselini. But yeah, Orselini, a real talisman for Bologna, who have snuck into that top five. A lot of people I don't think have been paying much attention to them. But that win at the weekend, big for them.

1:10:44We have been talking about Como. Como have had some big results. Yeah, that one against Lazio I mentioned on the opening day, this one against Juve. But Bologna are ahead of them. And, yeah, just testament to the job Vincenzo Italiano continues to do. Okay. They've got the Appennine derby next weekend when they take on Fiorentina where Stefano Pioli is in a world of pain. Yeah. Steffi, he obviously went back to San Siro at the weekend for this game against Milan as Fiorentina's coach. And so he got to hear the crowd at San Siro sing his song, you know, Pioli's on fire. The fire's gone out, James.

1:11:24Pioli's been fired is more likely to be there. Well, so Fiorentina's still winless. Worst start to the league since 1978. But the sporting director, Daniele Prade, he came out and he said, you know, if there's anyone who should be sacked, if there's anyone who should be resigning, it's me. Kick this butt. I want you to do me a favour. Exactly. Kick this butt. He's like, the owner gave me 90 million to spend this summer. 90 million. And so they were like, okay, Daniela, are you going to resign? He's like, well, we'll have a talk about that tomorrow. But yeah, so it might be that Steffi gets another game.

1:12:05but Prade who is the sporting director who Fiorentina fans have the biggest problem with Pioli is in this job because the last guy, Raffaele Palladino he basically fell out with Prade and said I don't want to work for Fiorentina anymore and they had a really good season last year, they got to Conference League semifinals I think they finished sixth, it was their highest league points total for more than a decade I think and Palladino is currently in London learning English so maybe if he hadn't fallen out with Prade Fiorantino wouldn't be in a position like they're in at the moment Crikey Alright excellent also Lazio Juve coming up on Sunday evening as you mentioned before but another rip-roaring weekend of Serie A in Storben Can't wait I watch every weekend for Neil Nils Right Except for this last weekend of course Seb thank you so much for staying with us Thanks Jimbo We're going to sign off there for the Totally Football Show European Edition which returns next week.

1:13:06For now, alongside Seb, it's thanks to Jules, to James, to Paul earlier on, to producer Lucy and you, listener. Hope you have a splendid week and enjoy those midweek games for now from all of us here. It's goodbye.

1:13:34We're also at The Totally Football Show on Insta and at The Totally Show on YouTube. The Totally Football Show is an Athletic Media Company production.