Through the inhuman eye of VAR
We've gone from trying to judge whether a ball is over a white line to analysing the molecular composition of the paint. Just because we can doesn't mean that we should.
Tag
Essays
A collection of 84 posts
Daniel Farke's aura
Maybe this is the formula. Coaching is less than we think: it's just saying things quietly to footballers. It's also more: it's knowing what to say
How to remember the players we don't remember
All the signs are that Gruev is a good footballer. And, in a way, that's what I'm thinking about. Because what more does Ilia Gruev have to be?
Marcelo Bielsa is making it easy again in Uruguay
The interesting stuff at this press conference was about how Bielsa was going to transform Uruguay into a Bielsa team, given he has almost no time with the players, and such a particular style of play to teach them. I think his answer is also relevant to how he did it in six weeks at Leeds.
A legacy of loan clauses
It's Orta and Radrizzani's legacy that, in the end, they don't have one — everything they tried to build last season, when after Bielsa they really tried to build their own thing, has gone, and they've gone with it. The legacy of this for 49ers Enterprises is that they're still here.
The agony of Sam Byram
Will Byram stay fit is one question, and will Leeds United break him is the other.
Joel Piroe, and what Leeds were missing from their Brighton model
When Leeds United were finishing 9th in the Premier League, I mocked Brighton for only winning nine games per season every season for four seasons. Now I can see what that stability was leading up to.
Don’t make me do the maths
CEOs aren’t fun: they’re the boring looking guys, tense and sweaty, who are there to be screamed at when things go wrong, and to stay firmly out of the way when the team does cool things that have nothing to do with them.
Failing so soon
Brace yourself, because the three weeks left in the transfer window are likely to be tougher to take even than the summer so far.
Can Thorp Arch save our transfer window?
If there's a bright side to relegation, it's the chance of lining up on opening day with a spine of Meslier, Cresswell, Gray and Gelhardt — Roy of the Rovers stuff, sure, but people bloody loved Roy of the Rovers, didn't they?