📰 @TheAthleticFC 📕 Zonal Marking (amazon.co.uk/dp/0008291160) 📗 The Mixer (amazon.co.uk/dp/0008215553)
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The 2024 version of The Mixer is out now. The most comprehensive account of the Premier League’s on-pitch development over its first 32 years.
Amazon link ⬇️
amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0008708…
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Xavi 1-1 Klopp at the Johan Cruyff Arena. A ferocious game, a fair result, the beginning of a new era for two sides recovering from an early World Cup exit on penalties and trying to rediscover their identity. ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7627297…
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Football clubs clearly aren't very good at appointing managers because they routinely sack them after a year. It is time to involve the players more in the process. They are likely to be better judges than clueless owners or faceless sporting directors. ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7619910…
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Michael Cox retweeted
Manchester United are rather immobile...but it's also refreshing to see a side not hooked on relentless man-marking in midfield. This is how football looked for a long time. It was good! It means you can play technical midfielders instead of runners! ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7615090…
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a huge police operation in south London today ahead of the 12:30 kick-off: the WSL meeting between Charlton and London City Lionesses
As with any fixture, the Sporting Events Act 1985 is in place, which means entering or attempting to enter a ground while intoxicated is strictly prohibited. A Section 35 dispersal order will also be in place, allowing officers to remove anyone causing disorder. It will cover this area.
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Michael Cox retweeted
🚨SATURDAY POD!🚨
This week @acjimbo, @Zonal_Marking, @oilysailor &
@KuperSimon discuss a player you could clone an entire 11 out of. Plus the manager 🏆🧠
It's Frank Rijkaard 🇳🇱
pod.fo/e/62d57c
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Great stats here. Interesting in isolation but also because it underlines that, for all the obsession with Haaland's speed and strength (particularly in the summer) his spatial awareness is why he's the best penalty box striker around.
Erling Haaland has been offside 25 times in four years of Premier League football.
That is once every five games, 76 behind top-of-the-table Dominic Calvert-Lewin and fewer times per 90 minutes than full-backs Riccardo Calafiori, Andy Robertson and Pervis Estupinan.
He was not caught offside once in five games at the World Cup.
It is all the more remarkable given that, since 2022, only four other Premier League players have made more runs in behind opposition defences.
He views this as a badge of honour, but how does he do it?
📝 @SamLee
🔗 nyti.ms/4yJxkze
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This happened if you were playing football and took a shot so bad that it went miles over. The message was that it was such a useless piece of football it would look good in rugby. No-one was doing drop-kicks across the playground, and no-one ever will.
Younger rugby fans will never see the like.
For a couple of years after 2003, on state school playgrounds pretty much all over England you could have kids booting a ball shouting Wilkinsonnn as they did it.
No player comes close now.
Golden legacy chance messed up by the RFU.
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Because - no disrespect - almost no-one cares. There's a real changing of the guard in British sport at the moment. Many 'traditional' sports have not been able to make themselves interesting or relevant. Rowing is now less popular than sports no-one knew existed a decade ago.
Rowing is the third best-funded Olympic sport in the UK (behind cycling and aquatics, which have more events, ahead of athletics) and a medal banker for decades yet coverage has vanished from BBC and non-specialist press. Odd that we’ve stopped covering something we’re good at
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For better or worse, we now all know what people click on / read / listen to. This has led to the democratisation of which sports get covered. Lots of the sports that seem relevant if you went to certain types of schools are now, in very clear, quantifiable terms, not relevant.
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Last month Joh McGinn named Riccardo Calafiori as his toughest opponent. Last night showed why: clever movement, always sneaking in behind McGinn, slick on the turn, linking between the lines. Another assist. Feels like this could be his season. ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7555186…
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If you want to scrap the 3pm blackout, fair enough! But make no mistake, you are therefore very much on the side of the “corporate giants” on this one.
⚽️ The 3pm blackout has had its day. It’s time to back fans and football.
I’ve written to the Prime Minister. @andyburnham’s been standing up for fans against corporate giants, opposing Infantino’s plan to sell off the World Cup.
🍒 P.S. UTCIAD! I hope we smash Everton today!
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Support the pyramid! Maintain the blackout!
The 3pm blackout clearly helps smaller clubs. Lift the blackout, then we have a 'goals show' at 3pm & it's the major televised slot of the week. If you don't care about smaller clubs, that's up to you! But the idea it's an antiquated rule just isn't right.
theathletic.com/4885582/2023…
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the Bundesliga always opening with the champions is a nice tradition - but it’s also a terrible advert for the league, an instant reminder that this is no longer a competitive division. 14 titles in 15 seasons incoming. It’s a real shame it’s ended up in this state.
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A funny fixture. Despite their proximity I have never considered that Fulham & Wimbledon might...play one another. Happened 3 times at the start of the century, but when Wimbledon FC weren't in Wimbledon. So, in a way, their first local derby in 40 years.
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His right-back played as a left-winger! Garth Crooks was fond of some rather adventurous formations - and it's inevitable a weekly best XI will be a bit top-heavy sometimes - but this brings the game into disrepute.
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Here's an investigation into a crucial question: why don’t players ever position themselves to the side of the box* at penalties? Here's a case for it being a worthwhile tactic, inspired by Corinthians Feminino and, er, Pythagoras' theorem.
nytimes.com/athletic/7069905…
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lovely to see Leon Goretzka starting out wide and getting to the ball first #pythagoras
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Michael Cox retweeted
The first task in Iraola's notional in-tray was presumably 'sort out the midfield'. Some familiar issues against Newcastle: Gravenberch's unique qualities have to be maximised, but Liverpool conceded twice after he lost the ball on the edge of the box. ⬇️
nytimes.com/athletic/7534041…
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