Diego Simeone is a smart guy, but intensely stubborn, and he hasn't considered the inverse of his formulation: players dictate styles, but styles also dictate players. Read more »
Colin McGowan - Soccer Analysis
Atleti Are Approaching A Kind Of Anti-Realization
Nobody Pities Pep's City Project For Their Failures Anymore
Pep Guardiola is an excellent coach, but he can't make a credible argument that his successes are not bought as much as they are earned. Read more »
Lionel Messi's Patience With Barcelona Has Finally Run Out
Lionel Messi is both demanding and passive-aggressive in the way that star athletes often are, and he's right to be upset about how Barcelona have wasted his unparalleled talents with squads that haven't worked or even made much sense. Read more »
This Champions League Will Be The Ultimate Spectrum Of Interpretation
It's unclear what this particular title is going to mean. It is certainly something, upon which we will probably never totally agree. Read more »
Fake Noise, Fake Fans, Fake Normalcy
Though the action resembles an intermittently buffering version of midseason soccer, the context in which that action takes place is noticeably strange. Read more »
What Jurgen Klopp Wants Isn't What Society Needs
Jürgen Klopp's got a great career and a lot of money. Anybody trying to cut the line- to have their concerns addressed before those truly in need- is worthy of scorn. Read more »
It's Time To Start Figuring Out Next Season
There is no good reason why leagues can't hit the ground running whenever they get the all-clear. The sooner the planning starts, the more enjoyable the soccer will be upon its return. Read more »
Atleti Beating Liverpool Defies Expectation, Explanation
Liverpool were doing what they needed to do to come out on top. Dominating possession, driving Atleti into their own box, pulling even before halftime, working Jan Oblak, finally breaking through early in extra time. It was all very intelligible. Read more »
Atleti's Capacity To Beat Liverpool Remains Largely Theoretical
In what was either a doubling or a tripling back on what they actually are versus what most people believe them to be, Atleti were impenetrable and opportunistic on Tuesday against Liverpool. Read more »
Barcelona's Empty Sanctimony
The Barcelona board are a capricious, and, going by recent evidence, not particularly competent bunch. They belong to a uniquely sociopathic rich guy strain, one concerned only with revenue retrieval, status, and success. Read more »
Paul Pogba Isn't Young Anymore But He's Still An Enigma
Paul Pogba is 26 years old and should be in his prime. Yet what he is, at present, and what he still could be, in the future, remains hazy. Read more »
Tottenham's Risky Grand Vision Replacing Pochettino With Mourinho
Whether this feeling lines up with reality or not, Jose Mourinho's hiring is the opposite of capitulation, a bet that the past year under Mauricio Pochettino has represented a step backward rather than the beginning of a protracted decline. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: Sports Betting
An unfortunate and ubiquitous reality in England and, probably soon, here in the U.S., are suffering carnival barkers who say they want you to win big but are actually trying to rob you. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: National Federations
The USSF has revealed itself to be much more like a private, money-making concern than a benevolent nonprofit that's supposed to look after the welfare of American soccer and its most accomplished athletes. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: Videogames
While the actual soccer world is vast, fraught, and fluid, videogames like FIFA, PES, and Football Manager create the illusion of a more legible universe. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: The Sweeper Keeper
It's not a new position, but the sweeper keeper is at its peak in 2019. It's closer than it ever has been to an orthodoxy. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: The Soccer Bar
When you strip away the peculiar trappings of American soccer fandom, the affectation and unctuous cultishness of it, you find people killing time together before they spill out into the street two hours later and the slow rhythms of daily life resume. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: The Number 10
James is a number 10 in a sport that hardly uses them anymore. Sometimes uniqueness is not an asset; it only makes you an awkward fit. Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: Political Action
Sports, especially a game as global as soccer, can and should be powerfully politicized. Why wouldn't you pull every lever available to you, to help create a world in which your greatest worry really is how well your team plays on the weekend? Read more »
End-To-End Stuff: The Long Throw
The viability of the long throw, and the way we think about it, depends upon how it's deployed. Does its use spawn from a searching ingenuity or simply a lack of other ideas? Read more »