7/3: Hakimi to Inter, Liverpool Win CL and Real Madrid in 1st Place, & More

Martino Puccio and Davis Mattek are here to breakdown all of the top matchups throughout European football as well as the top transfers that are taking place between some of the worlds best players and biggest teams

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:23):
here to serve you the fanatic. This is Sports Grade.
Get all the Grid. Hello everybody, and welcome back to
the Free Kick on the Sports Grid TV network. Martino
Puccio alongside me is Davis Maddock to break down all

(00:46):
the top matchups throughout Europe, best bets, biggest games and
transfer news. Now because everything's heating up, Davis, how is
your week of soccer again? Because it just hasn't stopped
at all. It's it never stops, seems like every day.
You know, we have big matches going on in La Liga,
we have the Buddhist League wrapped up now, big matches
going on in the Syria, and you know, of course

(01:09):
the f A Cup has just been it's just been crazy,
like it's it's hard to keep your mind wrapped around
like literally everything that's all taking place at the same time. Yeah,
I've been trying to slow down a little bit because
it's been very difficult, especially with England where they have
so many rounds left in this f A Cup and
it's still a lot of top teams facing off against
each other and just seeing how they rotate everybody. Like

(01:30):
I didn't even want to bother touching Manchester United after
they went a hundred twenty minutes against Norwich in the
Fake Cup. But yet again Bruno Fernandez comes through for
them to nothing. But obviously the biggest story and you
could argue all the sports at this point because there's
nothing really going on over here um to the magnitude.
But Liverpool finally won the Premier League, the first time
they've won the new modern day Premier League, which started

(01:52):
around the mid nineties. It is technically their nineteenth league
title in general and England first time since nineteen ninety Davis,
I don't know how old you are, but it's the
first time in my life that Liverpool has won a
league title. I mean, look, props to them. They absolutely
dominated this league all year round. Every time you still
look at the table, you think of, like, how amazing
it is that they're up around twenty points, especially seeing

(02:16):
how great City has been the past couple of years.
You could argue Cities the greatest domestic English team of
all time, considering all the trophies they've won and the
points they accumulated over the past couple of years. So, yeah,
what were your thoughts on them this season and and
how how great were they because I mean, despite you know,
early Champions League as that, they made it back to
back Champions League finals, so it's not like, um, it

(02:38):
wasn't much of a failure there. They could still hang
their heads high on that. Yeah, it's it's sort of
interesting with Liverpool because you look at their roster and
as you and I are talking, they're about to play
Manchester City and what's basically a charity match at at
this point, and you go, Okay, you know, Sala for
Mino and Montey are all, you know, super strong players.

(03:00):
Kind of a down year for Roberto Formino actually eight
goals and seven assists in thirty one league games. And
actually what's crazy is Salah was better last year when
he won the Golden Boots seventeen goals, seven assists this year.
I think what made them better this year is the
midfield was not they didn't produce goals, you know, the

(03:21):
way that some other team's midfields produced goals, but they
were just able to get so many healthy minutes from uh,
you know, from Georgina went out of them, from Jordan
Henderson and you know, Fabinio was obviously fantastic this year.
Milner was really good when they played him. And but
I actually think the and I don't know if people

(03:42):
will agree or disagree with this, Virgil van Dyke really
makes such a difference for them. I I really do
think that he is the best center you know, just
the best center back in football right now. He's able
to start their counterattacks really well. He commands their defense
and if you look at makes Liverpool historically great. Yeah.

(04:02):
I mean the offense is fantastic. They've scored seventy one
seventy goals this year, but that's actually less than Manchester City.
It's only ten more than Lester. They've only allowed twenty
one goals though, and those those goals allowed, I mean,
no one is even close, right, people are are ten
three of them at Watford too, So I mean it's

(04:23):
like you take out the worst possible game. They're under twenty,
Like it's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, go go look at
their their fixtures this year and go look at how
many teams they held to you know, stone cold zero goals,
and they held so many good teams to zero goals,
and I I really I think you have to credit
Van Dyke. And I also think you have to really

(04:43):
credit Jurgen Klops system for a ton of this because
it's all about he Actually it's kind of similar to
what Marino's teams used to do, not really anymore. You know,
we look at Marino teams now and it just seems
like they're not interested in creating on the attack at all.
But no team has ever been better at the transitional
stages of the game. So the transitions in between offensive defense,

(05:05):
the transition in between defense and offense. Then the Liverpool team,
I mean they are they are the second that the
ball is lost, they are already transitioning in a defense,
the second that it even looks like they might be
able to get an interception or hit on the break,
everyone is exactly where they need to be in their
transition roles on offense. And you know, It sounds so

(05:28):
cliche to say it, but this team really is greater
than the sum of its parts. Yeah, and that's true
because you could look at all all the stuff that
they've had to overcome in recent years in terms of,
you know, just struggling to get to the top. And
I and I've said this before, a lot of these
guys aren't exactly like youngsters in their prime right, they're
kind of in the middle of their prime. You know.

(05:50):
Virgil van Dyke, he was at Southampton before this, he
was playing for Celtic. He wasn't always at a top
club right at the beginning of his career. Mossala had
some not issues, but he had some trials and tribulations
where it didn't work out at Chelsea, when to Italy,
came back to England again and he's thriving there and again.
It's just this timing thing that worked out for them

(06:11):
and everyone's fully bought in and it's so rare to
see someone not work out for them, whereas we see
what like Manchester City, as great as they are, they've
had a lot of guys that just simply don't work out,
like Consello that they bought for over fifty million pounds.
He's having trouble getting used to their system and getting
assimilated with the team, whereas Liverpool you see guys jump

(06:31):
in and they're thriving. Right, you could argue to an
extent Navvy Kate that might be the only kind of
guy who who hasn't been thriving to to the level
of his potential like you would expect. But at the
end of the day, it's just everyone is Bay is
playing the best football of their career and and it
can't even be disputed, right, I mean Van Dyke now,

(06:52):
I mean you could argue that there was someone close
to him, Sergio Ramo schoola Belie. He's heading shoulders above
everyone else at his position, and he's really this modern
day center back that's able to do so much. He
could take your free kick spots, you can score you
the goals. He's as physical as they come, you know.
Six four. It's really transitioning to where we're not used
to so many great athletes playing this sport, that we're

(07:14):
having great athletes playing this sport that are really good
at the sport as well. Right, Like it's it's it's
getting used to it because we're really not accustomed to
it because we see the Chavies of the world dominating
the game. It's not even a great athlete. But now
we're getting the Virgil van Dyke types um that they're
seemingly just gonna be taking over the game. Um. And yeah,
credit to clop To. This wasn't some overnight project that

(07:37):
they did that. They got it turned around in one year, right.
It took him to you know, qualify for Europa League.
They got to the Europa League final, then they were
making in the Champions League. They get to the Champions
League Final. They lost both of those Europa and the
Champions League final. Then they get back to the Champions
League final after after pulling off one of the greatest
upsets in history. And you're just like, that's a hard

(07:58):
team to beat because there's so mentally tough and and
when a team is mentally tough on top of the
fact that they're probably the most talented team in the
world when you go by a position, I mean even
the fullbacks. We don't even mention their fullbacks. Yet it's
the best fullback duo in the world probably since Barcelona
with with Pep guardiolas team. I mean, it's just that good,

(08:18):
and they're young, and and you know what, I don't
really see them slowing down. I won't even get mad
at you today. If we're right in the middle of
the beginning of July, you're putting down Liverpool to win
the League next year because it's totally plausible. And and
you know what, at the end of the day, their
only real threat for me, based off of everything I've seen,
because Chelsea still has some stuff to figure out, is

(08:39):
really just Manchester City Again. I still don't see how
the teams taking that leap for next season. I think
it's gonna be the year after when you finally see
Chelsea full frontal. I think Chelsea will kind of be
like in that two to three spot, you know, taking
a little bit step further than they did this year. Yeah. Uh.
And I think you make a great point about the
fullbacks because so much of what they do is actually

(09:01):
related to their fullbacks. Trent Alexander Arnold is a huge
part of their offense, you know, takes all of their
set pieces, of which they are you know, one of
the best teams in terms of turning set pieces into
goals or goal scoring opportunities, you know, and and we say,
you know, kind of the one week spot of them
as a team is Trent Alexander Arnold's defensive abilities and

(09:21):
the reason why he's able to play so far up
the pitch and be such a huge part of their
offense is because Virgil Van Dyke plays right sided center
back and he's so good at stopping the counter attacks,
at getting in the way. You know, we're we remember those, uh,
if we want to go back to pre pre pandemic,
pre covid that that Tottenham Spurs game where it seemed

(09:41):
like Liverpool was finally going to lose a game. So
Musa Susoko gets Trent Alexander Arnold out a position basically
has a two on one against Virgil van Dyke and
Van Dyke saves it. Right there's there's a two on one.
Seems like, you know, this was a time when Spurs
were surging, Manchester City was surging, and it would have
been a big d for Liverpool to lose a game.

(10:02):
Virgil Van Dyke saves that game by causing Musas Sosoko
to put that shot above the bar, stopping the two
on one, you know, counter attack, And I mean, I
literally don't even know if you can put a dollar
value on what Virgil van Dyke is able to do
for Liverpool. I think what Messi does for Barcelona offensively
is basically what Van Dyke has done for Liverpool defensively,

(10:23):
and that is that is very very high praise. No
that is and I totally agree with that, because after
they splashed all that cash in that January window, which obviously,
as we know or if people are in that familiar
with the transfer windows, a lot of the big moves
go down in summertime. You don't really see stuff go
down in January. They knew they needed something like that
because they felt they were on the cusp of it,
and it absolutely paid off. And then again, you could

(10:45):
even argue, if you just get past Van Dyke, which
is hard enough in the first place, you gotta go
against Allison who's arguably the best keeper in the world too.
So it's just everywhere you look, from top to bottom
on this team, it's just absolutely unbelievable. But let's talk
really quick about a pull of transfers. Let's go with
their direct rivals, Manchester City, right Liroy Sane's gone, He's
off to Bayern. Munich million is a rumored price, He's

(11:08):
already there to go sign the contract obviously didn't work out.
He had the torn a c l so he missed
most of this year. He is personally my favorite player
outside of Milan. He's just so talented and I think
he could play on any team in the world. That's
how good he really is. And I think Byron sees
that it well as well. They've got an amazing price
for him. Manchester City takes a big hit at the

(11:28):
top of their lineup, especially with Aguero and his injury now,
so that's going to affect Champions League gods and especially
some of the f A cuff stuff going down. Look,
Davis is a great get for Byron. This just really
adds to everything that they're doing. Just when you think
there's like this little window that Byron might be taken
a step back and the dortness of the world they're
gonna move forward, they come out and pull off a

(11:50):
move like this. Sanny goes back to Germany where he's
a national team player. For what do you think of
this move? How does it affect City? I mean, how
how great? Like Buyer's just a bigger threat now, It's
just insane, right, and you know Sawny was extremely good
for Manchester City last year in both the Champions League
and the League ten goals, tennessis in under nineteen hundred

(12:11):
minutes in the League only twenty one starts and then
in four appearances four starts in the Champions League four goals,
four assists for him the year before that eighteen in
the League twenty seven starts, ten goals, fifteen assists. Like,
this is a guy who was playing at the very
top level of professional football, and you know, really through
no fault of his own, he kind of like he

(12:33):
kind of been replaced by riad Marez. And I think
that Bernardo Silva and ried Mares are very much Pep
Guardiola style players, whereas Sawny kind of had to be
fit into the system. You know, he's more of a
put your head down and cross shoot from twenty yards out,
you know, run around and make stuff happen. So I
think it was kind of an unnatural marriage. And you know,
I'm sure Sawny liked playing for Pep. I'm sure Pep

(12:55):
enjoyed playing, you enjoyed coaching Sny, but Mares and Silva
are really his isle of player, and you know, he
was Leo Rissana was great for Shalko when he played
in the Buddhist Lega before, and I think he's gonna
make you know, a great fit heading back there. Yeah, absolutely,
And you know what, just thinking about the left side
of Bayern Munich is just absolutely terrifying with Alfonso Davies

(13:16):
and whatever else they decide to add over there. But um,
when we come back, we're gonna be talking about one
more massive transfer news and it came out of Germany,
a player heading to Italy involved with Spain. We'll explain
more about all the moving parts more when we come back.
Here on the free kick sports grid dot com, Betting
insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers

(13:37):
the most important topics in sports wagering, real time odds,
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than get on the grid sports grid dot Com. All right, everybody,
welcome back to the freak Thick here on the sports
grid TV network. Martino Buccio, Davis Maddock here chatting about
all the top news and matches across football in Europe's

(13:59):
top leagues. We're gonna get into some MLS stuff later
into the show because that is returning for the tournament
next week. Davis. Hakimi is off to enter and this
is not I'm not saying it's highway robbery, but it
certainly feels like it in today's market when he get
him for forty million euros. No buy back class from Madrid.
I understand why Madrid did this to raise funds. They're

(14:21):
comfortable with carvel Hall, but this would have been one
of the more clear upgrades that they could have made.
This was by far the best right back that's on
the market. You could argue he's maybe the best right
back in the world behind Trent Alexander Arnold Um, depending
on who you talk to. He's headed over to enter
Antonio Conte's team, who definitely is in dire need of
a right wing back. Um, even though Victor Moses has

(14:42):
been playing very well, you don't want to move forward
if you want to win titles and trophies with Victor
Moses as you're starting right back. No disrespect to him whatsoever,
but Achmi is off to enter and I don't think
they could have made a better purchase. They're gonna be
getting Tonali and Hakimi for around eighty million euros. So
the Yeah, the the interesting thing about Hakeini is I

(15:04):
think he would be like so, I think he would
be a really bad fit in the Premier League and
is a very good fit for the German Bundesliga because
he really is not a defensive player at all. If
you watch the role that if you watch the role
that he played in for Dortmund, it's very similar to actually,
you know, it's kind of similar to what Trent Alexander
Arnold did, where he really was kind of a a

(15:26):
winger and his main job was to cycle the ball,
you know, up from the defense into the forwards, cross
the toon, didn't have any role on set pieces the
way that Alexander Arnold did. But he is he's more
of an offensive player than a defensive player, and that
should be a good fit for Inter specifically. Not every
team in the series does the three five two, but

(15:48):
a lot of teams use the three five two in
Italy and the you know that one of the wing
backs will be a more defensive player, So you would
hope that Inter you know, would have a more like
maybe maybe a you know, a pressing midfielder would play
on the left side, as opposed to even a peer
left back, because you don't even want someone who thinks
their primary job is to cross, because theoretically the ball

(16:12):
should be on the right side of the field. The
Ton actually, you know what, it's kind of similar to
what Arsenal does, but on the opposite side where they
play um uh Socca as the left back, but in
possession he's basically a left winger and the right back
just pretty much stays back the entire time. I could
see that being a very good fit and enter, Yeah,

(16:33):
especially with Antonio Conte like this, this is such a
perfect fit. This is literally what they needed. And the
fact that you could just imagine him linking up with
some of these guys like Leftro Martinez and Lucaku on
the right side, I mean, it's just it helps so much.
And the game in Italy is really not a fast
paced game either, and we've seen a lot of guys
who were just strictly speed wise thriving there. Gerard de LuFeO,

(16:57):
who was a former Everton player. He now play the
bottom of the Premier League for Watford, but he came
into the league and he was just taking over a
game simply because he was just so much faster and
it's such a slower paced, tactical based league. Now that
you have arguably the best manager in the league getting
the best right back on the market. I mean, this

(17:18):
is exactly what you're looking for when you're trying to
see some potential future changing in Seria in terms of
a team trying to fight for this title, right, And
I really do think this helps a lot, because there's
gonna be certain games where Victor Moses isn't gonna step
up against uh Annopoly of the world or a Atalanta

(17:38):
of the world, but he'll step up against a Brescia,
right because Brescia is awful, so you can depend on
him for there. But if you want to win the title,
you're gonna need a guy like Haiki need to win
it because he's proven in the Champions League, He's proven
it against top teams like Bayern Munich and all the
other really solid teams in the in the Bundesliga. Now
you just get that and and things that are just

(17:58):
gonna go so much smoother for them, and it makes
this project a lot more legitimate because now he had
offers from other big clubs. Apparently he's accepting offers for
teams like this that, you know, it changes everything because
when teams like ter wh who are kind of like
on the downturn, same thing with Liverpool they were kind
of poor around the same time, there weren't those weren't
two major options for top players in the market to

(18:20):
go to, right, those were two less options. So instead
you're going to Manchester Cities and and the same thing
with recruiting in college basketball, where the one and done
kids are just going to Kentucky the Dukes of the
world every single year, right, because there's so much roster
turnover now, they're just they have so many more options
and they're all viable projects. Like, there's nothing wrong with
going to ter now opposed to some of these other teams. Right,

(18:43):
you could argue, like they're historically great. I mean they're
the last Italian team to win a Champions League. They
have a bunch of history. I mean, there's nothing wrong
with it, and it's a good, respectable league to right,
you could argue is the third best league in the world.
Depends on who you talk to. So I I really
think it's a fascinating move for them. But I mean,
again I'm a little confused by Real Madrid. But I

(19:04):
think there's something up their sleeve that they're gonna try
and pull off, and I think it it has something
to do with him Bob Ay to raise funds for him.
But that's for another day. But Davis, sticking back to
La Liga, Barcelona had let it go. Was the biggest
match of the week. There's no debate about it. It
was a great match. We saw. We saw a retaken
penalty kick for Saul who bagged two of them. Jana

(19:27):
Carrasco was amazing. We saw own goals by Diego Costa.
Messi scores his seven dred goal of his career. That
has to do with all competitions, including international Playwood Argentina
as well. Real Madrid go ahead clear on points by
one point. There will be playing a little bit after
we are recording this, so we'll see what happens there.
Huge point for Atletico Madrid, huge draw for Barcelona, who

(19:49):
didn't look that poor in this match considering the opponent
that they played. But again, this is what we were
talking about, the schedule for Barcelona in the long run,
for your futures, bets, it just doesn't bode well for them,
and now you're you're just really looking at them like
it is one point. We'll see what Real Madrid do.
But this can start slipping away a lot faster than

(20:09):
you think. It can start slipping away super fast. And
I just I find it interesting that things are are
so close at the top here between Madrid and Barcelona
that I mean that draw was so so massive for
Real Madrid, you know, because they have they have you know,
a nice little run in coming up for them, you know,
basically games or we should expect things to not be competitive.

(20:31):
They play katafe. I mean, Bill Boo is fine. You know,
I don't think they're a great team or anything. Deep
Ortivo Alvez, Granada, Billa reyal like and is like these
are these are all teams that we feel, you know,
they're probably like they're gonna be, They're gonna be minus
one fifty favorites are better in all of those games.
And they have Kareem Benzema right now, I mean just

(20:52):
in the form of absolute life. Oh, I mean he
is he is absolutely just raking over the coals hot
fire right now. And you know it does it doesn't
even seem to matter that Gareth bale in Senadan and
Zadan are not on us speaking terms. They play Venisius Jr.
Or they play Rodrigo. And you know when when when
h Luca modred doesn't feel like playing, they have you know,

(21:15):
Francisco vel Verde. They have Tony Cruz. They have Casimiro,
who is, for my money, probably the best defensive midfielder
in the world. I mean, I I gotta say, I
think Madrid ends up. I think that draw shifted things.
I think Madrid wins the league. Yeah, and you know
what the great thing about Madrid is too a lot
of the time with the with the Barcelona match, they
didn't even put in Grid. They're putting in Greaseman. With

(21:36):
like the last seven minutes for for Real Madrid, they're
subbing their guys because they're up by a decent margin,
so they're getting extra rest. Like Sergio Ramos, the amount
of goals he's scoring, he's just absurd. He's getting free
kicks to um and they're just resting him. He gets
like a solid twenty thirty minutes of rest. Like that's
so invaluable to what they're doing. And that's what we

(21:56):
were discussing. When you're putting down futures bets is like
just look at the depth on top of just you know,
the starting eleven that they put out there, when you
have the ability to just rest guys like that, and
you're taking advantage of the teams that you should be beaten,
like Barcelona drawing against Sevia. Like Sevilla is good. They
might make the Champions League considering the way things are
going to be playing out for them. Barcelona is just

(22:19):
not doing that and they're kind of relying on an
Sufati to carry things. They're kind of relying on Suarez
and it's still just messy FC. Like it's just he's
creating everything, he's getting fouled all the time, he's scoring
Panenkas for his seven hundredth career goal. It's just everyone
is really week by week, game by game, everyone is
is looking at it and they're saying, like, what is

(22:41):
Barcelona gonna do once he's gone? Because it's really it's
really a topic of conversation now because you start to
get worried about it and I can't help but think
about it's just Lebron and the Cavaliers. It's the same thing.
It's yeah, there's talent on the roster, it's an aging roster,
kind of like the last time when he was on
the Calves. You just have a feeling it's all gonna

(23:03):
come apart the second he's gone. He just turned thirty three,
Like k's I know, we talked about it every week,
but this is a massive deal, like because now you're
kind of just looking at like the tide is turning
just for real Madrid to like take the league almost
every single year. And that's not something ridiculous or outlandish
to say because at a certain point, like it's just

(23:24):
not working out. When Anton Griesman, a guy that you
thought that just come into the lineup and work out.
I mean he hasn't scored in eight games, Davis that
I mean everyone, everyone they buy just turns into nothing
they buy Philippe Continua remember remember us Man den Belly
remember him? Remember when they spent fifty million dollars worse
hamstrings than jose reis Man. It's it's horrible, yeah, I mean,

(23:46):
look at the guys who lead them in minutes peak
a thirty three, Messy thirty three, Griesman twenty nine, Bousquets
thirty one. Then you get some youth in Deyong and
long Lay Sergio Roberto Jordi, albat One Pianos transferred three. Yeah,
I mean they're they're getting older, right, Arthur young Brazilian playmaker.
You think that he can kind of be trained to

(24:07):
take over that that any hasta role in the midfield
that left sided creative player, and they they switched him
to Maryland Pianoch, who I am pretty sure is over
the age of thirty at this point. He's thirty currently
and he has declined at such a rapid pace. It
is very alarming. But I know, from what I understand
from the books wise, Barcelona actually cleared a lot in

(24:29):
terms of that state. Ten million dollars, you do, but
it's like, who cares about money when you have Messy
right now and you have a finite amount of years
that you're not gonna be like it's you're not gonna
be competing for the Champions League every year like this,
Like they don't understand before and after Messy, it wasn't
like this before Ronald Dino showed up. This wasn't the

(24:52):
Barcelona that we know it. It was really Real Madrid
dominating that league and winning everything. It wasn't Barcelona. Barcela
Leona was tossed into this conversation because of Leo Messi
and once he's gone like that, that that takes a
big damper. They'll be okay because financially there's still one
of the bigger clubs in the world. They'll be able
to spend money. But director wise, if none of that

(25:14):
stuff is changing, I don't see anything else changing for Barcelona.
So for me, I'm really out on them in the
long run, not just this year. Um f A Cup
action was back. We have to talk about this real
quick before we head out. Manchester United going into overtime
a hundred and twenty minutes they advanced Arsenal advance over Sheffield.
I know we both didn't want to watch that. We

(25:34):
didn't watch that. Arsenal ended up winning, hooray for them.
Sheffield has been dreadful as well, so I'm not really
missing much out on there. Chelsea still looked really good.
Have your thoughts changed that much? Is it's still Manchester
City for you or you still think it's the top
three dogs with United, Chelsea and City Because for me,
I think my money might be going with City because

(25:55):
City wants to take homotrophy at least in a somewhat
lost season. You know, I got admit this United team
is growing on me, right, So Bruno is Bruno is
awesome that the pog Bruno midfield interplay with you know,
either mctomin a or matag you know, staying in the
hole behind them to to make you know, basically you

(26:16):
have to play Pogba with a guy who's more or
less a third center back to just give him because
what his best position was not the way that Marino
was playing him as the pure number ten. His best
position was where he was played, you know, where he
plays for the French national team and where he played
for Juventus, where you know his job is to cycle
the ball from defense to offense and to shoot long shots.

(26:39):
You know, you don't want him always providing that final pass.
You want him providing the past before the past. Yeah,
we'll get into some of that more when we're back
here on the free kick sports grid dot com. Betting
insights and entertainment at your fingertips as our team covers
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(27:01):
get on the grid sports grid dot Com. Alright, everybody,
welcome back into the free Kicking on the Sports GRITV network,
Martino Buccio, Davis Mannick alongside you, talking all things football,
but we're gonna get into well, not football football, I
mean European football. Not to get confused because Davis as

(27:23):
is Patrick Moons Jersey on so I don't want to
cause a bit of confusing here if you're tuning in.
But we're talking soccer obviously, and Davis, there's a couple
of big matchups in Italy this weekend involving the teams
from Rome. First, we'll get into Latsio. Milan Immobile and
Caiso are both out. These are two huge losses for them.
They kept pace winning midweek, only still four points behind

(27:45):
U A. But this is where the depth issue comes in.
For Latsio. We know how great Emobile has been twenty
nine goals this season. I don't care how many penalties
he's taken. If you convert your penalties, you deserve the credit.
For Giano, Ronaldo has the same percentage of penalties uh
compared to his goal scored. So I mean they're both
they've both been so clinical from the spot. But I

(28:05):
want to talk a little bit DFS before we get
into some of the odds here? Where are you leaning
towards other options with Latsio. We know they have a
lot of creative players with Luis Alberto Korea and Milinkovic
Savage or those three main guys that you're going to
be looking towards to fill in while Immobile is sitting
out in this match. The interesting thing about what Lotsio
can do when Immobile A doesn't play is they can

(28:28):
actually play Louis Alberto is kind of like a a
false nine style player, and then you know what what
they can do from there is they can play Serge
Linkovic Savage in Louis Alberto spot, which is actually something
that I I love when they do that because I
I'm a big big Serge molencol Its savage guy. I'm
actually so surprised. I'm so surprised he stuck around for

(28:49):
lots of this season, you know, didn't end up playing.
He seems like a perfect player for you know, Manchester United,
Manchester City. He would be incredible. Loo is very shrewd.
He's commanding like a hundred fifty million years, so yeah,
very very smart. You know, I think, uh, I think
he I mean when he sells, he should be he
should set the he should reset the world record for

(29:10):
most expensive player, because when he when he goes to
the ep L, he is going to be you know,
like very similar to what Bruno Fernandez is doing for United,
where he is you know, he's driving the ball of
the field, he's scoring all these bangers. You know, he
just he just looks he just looks incredible up there.
And uh but but like I think that this title
chase for lot CEO, I mean they don't want to

(29:32):
miss Chiro at all, because yeah, I think it's interesting
what they can do with Alberto at false nine and
and SMS playing up higher. But then that means, you know,
they're playing guys who you know, Daniel Danilo Cataldi has
to play big minutes. They have to ask for ninety
minutes out of Marco Parolo. They gotta play young guys
like um, like Andres Anderson, like Debian Anderson, who is

(29:54):
you know one of their combination defender midfielder guys Lucas
Leva has to play big minutes. And you know that's
not what you want in the middle of a title chase.
You want you want to play You're eleven guys. You
you don't want guys subbing in. Yeah, and that that's
really been the main issue and point of emphasis for
kind of staying away from them in the futures markets
is that it's going to be difficult playing every few days.

(30:14):
Guys are gonna pick up suspensions injuries, and we saw
that now, and there's still a couple more guys that
could be caution to getting a yellow card and you
know what, that impacts the game after that too. So
now for this matchup, right, they're the favorites in this
I do think they should be the favorites. They played
Milan earlier this season. I know it was a different team,

(30:35):
but at the end of the day, that was the
first time they beat them in Milan for the first
time in nearly thirty years. So again, it's just this
whole attitude and and you know, resiliency of the squad
that they're able to just overcome so much all the time.
It's like the Fiorentina game, the game midweek, uh, And
it's just they didn't come back against South Atlanta. I

(30:57):
understand they blew the two nothing lead there, but that
could aspire them out of control and they could have
fallen out of this race. But they didn't. They're still
in it right now plus one thirty five money line favorites.
I'm not feeling particularly strong about them grabbing the full
three points because Milan has been playing although I mean
yesterday I don't even want to talk about they registered
thirty five shots and only score two goals against Ball,

(31:19):
one of them being in own goal. That was hilarious
right there. They're catching him in a good spot. They
got an extra day of rest, their defense is very sound.
There's not many threats coming from them. Look, I think
I think it's really safe for one of the best
plus money line favorites in Latsio this weekend because I mean,
I'm not seeing many reasons to go against them based

(31:40):
off of everything I understand the subs with Emobile getting
moved in there. I mean, plus, how how can we
not think that their favorites for this game against a
see Milan, you know, like, how can how can we
how can we not want to bet on them? No?
I mean, look, there there's some people I personally think
of draws in play. I know they play. I know
Milan played poorly, but they've been stepping up against some

(32:00):
of the better teams in the league, like you, they
didn't lose against in the two games they played in
the cup match, then they beat Roma to nothing. It's
and again they like, you can't rely on them. So
even then, if you like you're not, I'm not nowhere
here we saying go pick Milan for the upset, I
don't see that. I think at worse it might be
a draw for Latio, but I would take them there. Um,

(32:23):
in terms of both teams to score, I could leave
no and that's a plus one and wait and honestly,
lat Sal's defense is very sound and they could play
this defensively and just try and go on the counter attack.
They get rewarded more penalties than any other team in
the league, and I know that has to do with
immobile as sometimes, but that really is just a testament
to their patients and getting the best opportunities possible in

(32:45):
the final third. So for me, I think it's lot
seal all the way. I'm not sure they're going to
cover though in the three way push it's a minus
one at plus three seventy. I don't see them winning
to nothing. I think that's a little bit too much
to ask, considering of who they're missing in this game. Now,
if they had one of Caso or Mobili, I'd say,
go right ahead, that's something you should jump on. But
for me, I would kind of stay away from that.

(33:07):
I'm not sure how you feel about all this stuff.
And the over under two and a half goals to
over two and a half minus one and fourth, that's
something I could see it to one win for lat too,
and you could. You could maybe even say that, you know,
the right way to bet on this game would be,
you know, instead of betting if you think that lots
He was able to get a result here, you know,
just double down on them to win the league as

(33:28):
because you know Euventus, look, man, they the forum is
just not there for for Euventus. I know they've been
grinding out these results, but I just I just don't
feel good about the performances that they have been putting
out on very tough schedule. Yeah, you know, they play Torino,
who I do not think is a walkover team at all.
They play a rivalry there. Yeah, they play at Atlanta,

(33:51):
who you know right now as we are talking beating
up on Napoli. Uh, they have a game coming up
against Latsio, So I think you know right now a
good that instead of betting on the game, might just
be if you think they get a result, plays a
little bit more down on lots of the futures. Yeah,
I think it would be the time to do that.
I know people are still off on hu A a
little bit. I mean that Ronaldo goal was absolutely unbelievable

(34:14):
against General, and then Diabola has just been their best
player by far. I don't think that it's just like
even a conversation. I know, Delict has really rounded into
form since he got used to the league coming over
from I X, and he's just gonna be like, I mean, listen,
right now, we can talk about some futures for for
Euros Davis like Stephen Defry, Virgil Van Dyke, Im Mattiahs,

(34:35):
Delict all for the Netherlands. I mean, who really wants
to face that defense in a knockout tournament? I know
I don't want to. That team can beat anybody, and
it's funny because it's the Dutch. The Dutch are not
known for defense. They're known for attacking style football. So
that's just something to put on the barn burner for
later on. But yeah, look, I mean, you just gotta

(34:56):
roll with Latsio here play it's safe, so we'll move
on over to the other. A big match with Roma
Monopoly in this one, I thought Nopoly could have done
no right in this matchup against South Atlanta. They've been
playing a lot better than want Copy Italia. Roma looked
terrible if a team I would have to pick in
the money line here, and look, there's no shame in
Innopoly losing two at Alanta in this everyone seemingly doing that.

(35:18):
I think I would take Nopoly easily in this one.
And I think i'd go over two and a half
goals as well. Yeah, I think over to and a
half for sure, because you know, the strength of Roma
is their ability to generate goals. The strength of Napoli
is their ability to generate goals. You know, no one
looks at Napole and is like, wow, what what a
stout defensive team. No one is able to score on them.

(35:38):
You know, both of these teams want to get there
through generating goals. I mean, look at the way that
Roma lines up defensively. They basically play a guy who
can't move at left back in Alexander Kolorov, who you know,
he basically just kind of hangs out by the halfway
line and then when he thinks he's going to be
able to get across in he moves up about fifteen
yards to launch across into Ed and Jacko's forehead. And

(35:59):
then you know they're common nation of right backs, which
is you know, gonna yeah, they you know, they play
Bruno Perez there, who is who is basically a winger
right they like really has no interest in uh, you know,
has no interest in defending at all. Basically all the
guys they play at right back are you know, straight
up attacking style right backs. You know, they they have

(36:20):
Um Davids Apa Costa who does the same thing, Alessandro
Florenzi not on the team anymore, but basically do the
same thing, Spinezola, same thing. So it's weird they play
a back four but the full back to play like
they're in a back five. Yeah, totally. And you know
what the funny thing about that is, if you wanted
to go parlay single game parlay with Napoli the game

(36:41):
total over two and a half goals Napoli moneyline, what
gives you a plus two all five. It's just stuff
like that that I love. It's just I feel so
confident in about the way these defenses are playing, in
the way they're generating their chances that if you lose,
if if Milan can score two goals on Roman, I
can only imagine what Napoli is keeping doing right. And
then on top of like just Roma being awful, I

(37:04):
think they were overachieving for most of the season in
terms of all the teams that were up top near
the table, I think it was clearly Roma that was
overachieving in this and Napoli is clearly the big underachiever.
They're completely motivated and looked different. Barring that out Atalanta
game that's going on at the moment, they look great.
And you know what, I don't see how I wouldn't
take Roman in this, and I would jump on it

(37:25):
as soon as possible. I wouldn't even be too concerned
about the lineups being released at a certain time. So
for me, I would probably roll with something like that.
Plus two oh five again, like that's great value that
you can get and it's nothing ridiculous. Hell, even if
you just wanted to go over um three and a
half goals, if you wanted to, you know, get a
little pepper in your set. Plus four thirty nine. I

(37:45):
mean three one game, not that crazy, you know, I mean,
but I would probably stick to the safer um over
two and a half to get a plus two oh five.
Is there anything else you kind of like in this
matchup result in both to score? Do you like both
teams to score? Potentially? What about what do we got
on the Fandel sports book? What do we have for

(38:05):
both teams to score and a draw? I think that
that would be that would be the one that I
would best. Okay, both teams to score and a draw
will get you a plus three nineteen. I like that
A lot that is, Um, that's pretty solid. I could
I could see a draw coming up in this. I
just I don't know. There's something about roma that I
just don't love. But yeah, I like if if you
think of draws and play, go for it, like I mean,

(38:27):
why not? It's and and look you get odds like that,
You're not really asking for a lot, right, You just
need two things to happen and you cash out at
plus three nineteen. I think it's definitely plausible. Um, yeah,
so I love stuff like that, And this is what
the Fandel Sports Book offers. Um, you just gotta play
around with it a lot, right, It's just a couple
of options within a game. If you like heavy matchups
and favorites um in certain other certain areas, that's that's

(38:50):
a place you can go to as well. Any other
strategies that you've been using lately, real quick um that
you like to do for the same game, parlays or
just kind of something like this. So you know, one
of the things that I think you and I have
talked about before is just take advantage of when the
line seem to be favoring the home team a little
bit too much, like when you think that the away

(39:12):
team is a little bit better of a team, because
you know, there really is no home field advantage in
these games. Now, there's no fans, you know, we have
of course, we have bar taking place in all of
these games. So I just I don't really see an
opportunity for home field advantage to take place. And some
games are you know, still being priced, uh like the
like home field advantage exists. Yeah, So we'll get into

(39:34):
some more of that when we come back here on
the freelore sports grid dot Com. Betting Insights and Entertainment
at your fingertips seven as our team covers the most
important topics in sports wagering, real time odds, predictive betting models,
expert picks, and more want the edge than get on
the grid sports grid dot Com. Hello everybody, and welcome

(39:56):
back into the final segment of the day for the
pre kid Martino Buccier Day hismanic alongside me Davis. There's
another bunch of I mean, there's so many great top
matchups throughout Europe each weekend, each weekday, not really that
many that we love in the Premier League, So we're
just gonna be sticking to a lot of legal around
things out here. Real Madrid take on Athletic Bilbao. Listen,

(40:16):
Real Madrid again. We talked about them. We love how
much they're rolling. They have. They have a pretty viable,
respected opponent midweek against Katafa right after we are recording this.
So Real Madrid is gonna enter this game against Bilbao
minus one seventy five favorites. Again, this is like one
of the things I love that I've been doing with
him parlay since the leagues come back. Anytime I could

(40:36):
see a price on a heavy favorite like a Real Madrid,
that's a very deep team. I'm gonna put them in
a money line parlay, or or parlay in which I
have over two and a half goals. Or for example,
you like both teams to score in Napoli and Roma, right,
so you put yes for that on top of Real
Madrid money line. That's a quick plus one fifty one
parlay to two game parlay. Not much to ask for,

(40:57):
definitely feasible, um to have happened. Um. It's just stuff
like that again, Davis, that we've been talking about that
you could just easily hit. Yeah. I love doing big
money line parlays because obviously, you know, people don't enjoy
you know, if you're if you're making a bet, you
want to get double your money back, right, Like, It's
not that fun to bet fifty bucks and get thirty

(41:18):
five bucks back. So I think a great thing to
do is if you if you like a game, you know,
if you like Manchester City to win, if you like
Real Madrid to win, you like United to win. Um.
And we just have so many games going on right now,
so it's not like you have to wait until the
next day or wait a couple of hours like we have.
We have so many games going on at the we
have so many games going on at the same time.
It's it's easy to find games going on at the

(41:39):
exact same time that we that we like that we
think that the parlays makes sense. Yeah, totally. I mean
I was doing that yesterday. I mean listen, I thought
Chelsea and Milan could both take care of business against
West Tom West Hammon Small Um on top of the
winter and that was like a plus one nine parlay
for me. I mean, it didn't work out, but again,

(42:00):
and I'm still taking that every single day of the
week if it's offered to me, simply because like you
should take stuff like that when you're seeing heavy favorites.
And I know sometimes it's difficult when you see um
games like that that you're really not that um confident
on because of the short rest and all that stuff.
But at the end of the day, when you're looking
at certain teams that are facing other you know, I

(42:23):
mean Real Madrid has to be down on Billoo, right,
you think Lotsio is going to beat Milan, so you've
got to do that, like Latsio and Real Madrid two
team Barlight doing Yeah, yeah, I'm in on that. I
love I love all these Partlight's for sure. I like,
I don't. I don't get it. I know people are
a little scared sometimes because of the draw factor. I
don't think people should be that worried about draws that often, Like, like,

(42:47):
it's just not it's not something that you should be
worried about because they do have to happen a good
amount of the time. But you've gotta remember, at the
end of the day, we're getting deeper into these condensed
season is right now, and a lot of the teams
that aren't as deep are gonna be tiring out a
lot faster than the teams I have death. So when
you when you're betting on the teams I have more depth,

(43:09):
your your luck is gonna go towards you. So that's
kind of the way I look at it. I don't
know if you disagree with that philosophy. I just think
I just think that's just the way it works out,
because at the end of the day, you're asking guys
to play an extreme summer heat that they're not used
to playing three to four days a week with a
lot of these bottom table teams that never happens like
they're not doing that. They're they're usually playing once a week.

(43:33):
It's only the teams towards the top of the table
from Europa League up that are playing the three to
four days a week. And even then you get this
long break that you had that three months or so.
Like it all factors in, it's just you have to
at some point take it into consideration. So I think
you make a great point. Another point is, you know,
the later that we get into the season, the points

(43:54):
become more important for both teams, So both the surviving
teams and both the teams up to at the top
of the table, and the teams become more and more
incentivized to pursue strategies that are a little bit higher
variants in terms of being possible for wins, but leaving
them more open at the back, leaving them open for losses.
So as the teams become more incentivized to win, the

(44:16):
draw lines are going to be less and less accurate.
And it's you know, it's going to be more and
more profitable to be betting on wins and losses as
opposed to draws, even over unders two right, because if
teams are pushing to win games, um, they're gonna be
higher up the field, which means their back end is
more exposed, meaning there's going to be more opportunities for
goals to be scored. And and it's just stuff like

(44:38):
that that slowly adds up. Um, it's kind of been difficult.
I'm not gonna lie. I was way hotter on the
Bundesliga than everything else. Um, by far, I think it
was above on my on my plays and that. With this,
I'm struggling a little bit, but I'm slowly getting the
hang of it. And again, like again, just another example
that we're talking about what stuff we'd like, not belie

(45:00):
lat Ceo Real Madrid, money line parlay right to take
a guess on what this is coming out to. Uh,
let's say like plus one fifty plus six seventy six.
There we go, that's there we go. Get that's ridiculous.
I went the other day. It was so close because

(45:22):
Athletic go drew. I had I let it go insert
and then I believe I forget what the other match was.
Oh no, no, it was. Yeah, it was Latsio Huve
and I let it go Madrid win. That was a
plus like four nine, and it was it was close
to coming out because I let it go was a
big time underdog and that they were like around like
plus three twenty or something like that. But again we're

(45:43):
looking at favorites that are minus one sebody five plus
one thirty five plus one ten. Again, it's just to me,
it's just amazing that you can get stuff like this,
and I know the odds of it don't work out,
but again, at the end of the day, it's all
about what you're risking. Sometimes with Vanduel, there's not a
minimum that they're saying, hey, you have to at least
put twenty bucks down for this, Like, you get the

(46:05):
great option of putting down ten dollars if you want to, Like,
there's nothing wrong with that. You're not going to be
spending as much on ten dollars just considered. It's the
money that you're not spending on gas at the current
moment because you're not driving anywhere because we're in the
middle of the pandemic. So you might as well just
put it on these three heavy favorites to win. Um,
any other matchups are something that you like this weekend,

(46:25):
is the Barcelona Villa Real matchup enticing to you at all?
Or you're just sticking away from Barsta because I'm kind
of slowly going away from it other than maybe I'll
take Messy to score a goal at a certain point,
But that's really it for me. Man I think, um,
I think that game in particular is really interesting because
they play such different styles, right. Ville Real just play super,

(46:47):
super defensive. You know, pretty much all of their offense
is generated through you know, set pieces, and uh, you
know they draw a ton of penalties. Obviously they have
drawn Moreno is a great forward and Santa Cazorla is uh,
you know, one of like somehow at the age of
thirty five, he's gotten completely healthy and it's kind of
transformed the way that they play football. But you know,

(47:09):
just Messy when a title is on the line. I
mean I want to be I want to be betting
on that guy because he's gonna play ninety minutes. He
is not going to stop until the game is put away.
Villa Real is is what n at right now, is
standing in between them and sitting alone at the top
of the table. So I do like the Barcelona money line.
I know we've been talking about how we are not

(47:29):
inspired by a lot of the Barcelona players, but we
are very inspired by Leo Messi. Of course, sometimes that's
all you need, right one score games a lot of
the time. All it takes is a simple trick from Messy.
Next thing, you know, like Barcela's ahead of Real matred
by a point, and and that's everything. Considering what the
odds are going to be going for some of that future.
It's just to me sometimes with with the way they're

(47:51):
playing minus one thirty five, I don't know that the
way they played against that Letty go, if they do
that against Villa Real, they're winning that, like let it
go as a very respectable opponent in my opinion, and
it's very tough to grind out a game like that
against one of the better defensive sides in Europe. Like,
I know, we're talking about their form for id letting
go and how poor they were playing prior to the

(48:13):
season returning, like it's it's you know, I don't know.
I just can't count out Simione too, Like he's probably
the greatest motivator um in terms of intensity in the
whole sport at the moment, and it's kind of hard
to back off against him. Messy again, man, I don't know.
I just this is legacy stuff, right, And we talk

(48:33):
about how sometimes I talked about this with Kevin Walsh
and how this summer is so important for Lebron James
in the NBA because it's simply a legacy summer. Like
if Lebron wins this, like this is like, you know,
that's four titles he's winning in in a pandemic year.
It's winning in after Kobe Bryant said, like, it just
carries so much more weight because the memory is just

(48:54):
gonna last a lot longer than it would be any
other year right now, Like there's so much going against
Leo mess see that if he somehow pulls this off,
it's just like like what what can you even say
about the guy anymore? Because it's just it's just disgusting
and he's so good. Like I don't even know what
to say because you get this whole live about a
team and it's a team sport and again he just

(49:16):
he's just pulling this out of nowhere all the time.
I don't know, I get left speechless by this guy.
And I don't really understand the concept that he's just
not one of the greatest or the greatest ever because
he didn't want a World Cup. It's just silly to me.
I don't know, that's just me venting. Yeah, I mean
he is. He's the best soccer player of all time
and great fun. So he lost in the final against Germany.

(49:39):
You know, it was a zero zero game literally where
you go player to player, player to player. Germany has
the advantage almost everywhere except for like literally everywhere. Yeah,
like like they are they are, you know, they have
amazing infrastructure. They were you know, twenty two guys deep there.
Their bench would have been better than they wont seven
oh one against the home home country. Like no one

(50:00):
does that. That's you know, I don't care who's missing
from that game. We haven't seen anything like that. And
then we're just like asking messy here, who doesn't have
a big defensive line and all that, Like, I don't know,
that's just I mean, that's just us spending I guess
about this stuff because it gets so ridiculous and and
we used to hear it about like it's it's really
the parallels you could just draw with Lebron, Like I

(50:21):
try not to do the generational thing. I just try
to do whoever I saw, I'll consider the greatest, right,
Like Lebron is by far the greatest basketball player I'm
not gonna give him craft for not beating like you know,
Kevin Durance Warriors. Like what is he supposed to do?
Like fact, the fact that he's gone him there, and
he's getting them within certain points in amount of games,
like he was like they had the lead in over
eight percent of the minutes that he was playing in

(50:42):
the finals. It's just the fourteen percent of the minutes
that he's not playing. His teammates are not coming through
for him. How's that his fault? Why should his legacy
take a hit for something someone else didn't do it?
It's just for me. That's that's why it's silly that
hag Waine misses a sitter in the finals and somehow
Messy is not the greatest because of what his teammate
did do, right, Like yeah, like Ron is the greatest

(51:05):
because Ron has always had better teammates. I mean even
the even better coaches, better teammates, better international players. Hell,
why doesn't anybody talk about when Cristiano goes down in
the Euro Final that his team wins when he's out? Yeah? Yeah,
he he had to have Dair who plays for you know, literally,
it's just like a totally don't even know where he is.
I'll be honest, Yeah, I believe. I think I think

(51:25):
he plays in Russia now. But like that guy saved
that guy gave Ron, you know, the only international hardware
of his career. Yeah, and they use the UFA Nations League,
which I don't carry Anyway, that's like a competition. That's
like we're playing the group stage in November, but the
titles in April. Like that's not a competition that should count.
But Messi has an Olympic gold medal and he's been

(51:45):
to more international finals than Cristiano has. So I don't know.
I mean, that's just like it's a funny debate. I
think they're both amazing players and they're proving it again.
And the longevity that they've had is unparalleled in this
sports history. I mean, it's just you haven't seen it before.
Z Don one of the greatest players of all time.
He was done in his early mid thirties. Like these

(52:07):
guys are thirty three, thirty five, Like Cristiano has got
like twenty five goals in the toughest defensive league in
the world. Like, I mean, I can't wait for them
to come to the MLS. By the way, those dudes
like like, so where do you go? Real quick? So
where are we betting? I think I don't think either.
It's coming in New York. I think one goes to Miami.
I think Christiano goes to Miami for David beck Amy
and then and then one of them goes to the

(52:28):
Galaxy too as well. I would imagine or or NY CFC.
I think those would be the destinations. And my CFC
never pull off the big dogs like that, you know,
it's always like the Red Bulls as well. Where where
Tirion replayed? Who knows? Yeah, hopefully we see something like that. Davis,
it was great chatting with you as always. Thanks everyone
so much for watching. We'll see you next week. Sports

(52:54):
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