Nicolò Zaniolo

So there's lots of stuff to talk about because coming into the game, like I said, Roma haven't been in the Champions League since 2019.

Do you guys remember that game, the Florenzi game? The Zaniolo game against Porto, where we got knocked out for the stupidest shirt pull in the history of the game.

I'll never forgive Florenzi for that.

But we finally came back.

No, it can't be the Bergamo because Bergamo, I'll always remember we won, um, that, we won that game with, um, Tammy Abraham, uh, 4-1, and that was the Mourinho era.

The Zaniolo game.

Yeah, I remember.

Yeah, so def- definitely not that one.

Udinese, on the other hand, had started their campaign with a respectable 1-1 draw, but that match came at a cost.

They had a lengthy injury list themselves, with Nicolo Zaniolo and Matteo Palm adding to the woes of Alessandro Zanelli and Giorgi Chakvitans.

The good news for them was the return of Keenan Davis to spearhead their forward line.

The game itself was a testament to how quickly things can turn in football, and it was a match where errors, unfortunately, proved very costly for the home side, Monza.

Yeah, I remember he played.

And then, He played 3-5-2 when he used to play with Tammy Abraham and then this boy, Zaniolo, as a man up.

And then he would play the captain, Pellegrini, Lorenzo Pellegrini, behind them.

And then the following season, when Zaniolo left, he brought in Paulo Dybala.

This is a Spanish team.

They have a base of the La Masia.

Let me use those players, those boys, to control the game in the middle so that if we want to go high, we go.

And it's clear.

And we'll come to that in a second.

Josh Caress says, "We should go and get someone like Nicolo Zaniolo, Mateta, Gakpo, and play Marmoush as a support striker, similar to how he thrived at Frankfurt." Yeah.

[notification sound] Yeah, we might have to do that now.

If Marmoush is gonna sit in the 10, maybe because Maddison's out, then maybe you do go and get M- Mateta.

It depends what level Celtic want to go to.

Do they want to get a proper number one, a stature, or do they want to get somebody to back up Zaniolo? But the other signings still to come in at Celtic.

The difference between Celtic and Rangers, and you constantly compare them because it's natural.

Celtic have got quality.

I think he's a really quality player.

A lot is reliant on Nicolo Zaniolo.

All the balls feed through him.

He really is central.

A lot of the passes are direct to the center forward and then a lay back to Zaniolo and allow the wingers to get in behind.

That's exactly how Camara's first goal comes.

It's just those overloads, and Como did not know how to deal with it.

Their motto, in my mind, whenever I watch Udinese, is, "Do not make it easy for the other team, uh, to beat us." Like, they're physical.

A lot of the times, it was long ball to, uh, to, to Deulofeu, the center forward, and then allow Atta and Zaniolo to help on those second balls and, and to try to score goals.

They do lose Atta, who, again, I mentioned, I think he's one of the best players in Serie A.

Reminds me of the days that I watched De Paul at Udinese, and I said, "Is anyone watching Atta? He's that good." They lost Kristensen, which I, I'm, I mentioned as well.

Um, and they...

But they kept So- Solei and they kept Zaniolo, and I think this team is gonna be all Zaniolo-dependent.

[smacks lips] I have them finishing in 11th place.

That seems to be their track record.

There's a lot of s- surprise call-ups that haven't, haven't been called up before because that's what Mancini does.

He did it with Zaniolo.

Uh, at Inter he did it with, with Balotelli.

I mean, he even did it with Nyoni.