The top comment on the Celtic subreddit post about Nancy's firing hopes that they go out and get "Ange or anyone else who plays a normal tactic" (stares at camera)

Amorim and Maresca to their now previous employers

Whoosh. That was an insane performance from Eva Lys, who goes from barely being able to win games of Iga to taking her deep to a third. But Iga recovers from a set and 3-1 down, saves a bunch of break points down the stretch to take it 6-4 in the third. Amazing crowd in Sydney. Poland wins the tie.

Stuff on minutes restrictions is interesting. Fairly normal in the NBA, but a typical argument in football where medical departments and managers/coaches clash due to potentially misaligned priorities. Clubs 100% should put power into the medical depts hands on this, and look to enforce

went back and grabbed the full video of her intro. absolutely incredible 🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌🇮🇹🍝👩‍🍳🤌

This is a nice discussion of what xG is and what it isn't, something that's always good to refresh every now and then

excellent piece by @hkhaliqueloonat.bsky.social on the set pieces which gets at the core of the issue -- we're not seeing more set piece goals on top of a normal amount of open play goals, we're seeing set pieces increasingly dominate a less attacking game

my new year’s resolution is 4K but i’ll settle with 1080p

hell yeah Chelsea is briefing now and it is spectacular "In addition, he has increasingly avoided wearing club tracksuits, opting instead for his own clothing." www.bbc.com/sport/footba...

West Ham you have outdone yourselves bravo

Rayan Cherki is the only player of his role within the top 5 leagues ranking above the 85th percentile for all of: - Chance creation: 0.52 open-play xA P90 (100th) - Final third involvement: 30.3% of team touches (97th) - Dribbling intent: 5.31 take-ons P90 (90th) - Ball retention: 78.3% (87th)

Things nobody said in August: "by 30th December only Arsenal will have lost fewer games than Sunderland"

It's called football because you throw it with your arms onto three dudes' heads and it bounces off the keeper's chest into somebody's groin and he knees it into a defender's elbow and there's like seven minutes of VAR and then you put the BALL down with your hands and kick it with your FOOT

This is a good example of why discarding data collected in extreme game states (goals difference at 4 or more, maybe even 3) in aggregate team stats is probably a good thing

I would say anti-Trump Republicans/former Republicans looking at MTG at this point and believing she “stands for liberal democracy” is a great window into how they let themselves get duped into handing the Republican party over to incompetent aspiring fascists.

Absolutely second this, plus I love the corner annotations with "good, bad, fun, dull"

Tuned into the Battle of the Sexes, telecast announces a "sellout" crowd of 6,000. Coca-Cola Arena has a capacity of 17,000. 🙄

The Unai Emery "catenaccio for 60 minutes, pedal to the metal in the last half an hour" in all its splendor

I see the discourse has turned to video podcasts. Generally speaking, for many shows, I'm actually fine with the rise of the video pod. But my main hobbyhorse is this: YouTube hasn't taken off because audiences want to watch podcasts, it's taken off because that's where audiences already are.

The US looking at Brazil and South Korea actually have accountability for attempted coups

another robot highlight for 2025: man wearing humanoid mocap suit kicks himself in the balls

it's a 100 percent legal and normal goal in the PL in 25-26, and it's a good and effective tactic under the rules as enforced, but stationing a five man meatwall in front of the keeper so he can't claim a ball hit to the six and hoping you get a deflection for a goal is dumb

"As always, the best way to understand the greatness of women’s tennis is to watch women’s tennis." As usual, @tumcarayol.bsky.social sticks the landing. www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

how is Europe real bsky.app/profile/hone...

a very happy The Fellowship Sets Forth from Rivendell Day (December 25) to all who celebrate

[Billy Beane voice] How can you not be romantic about data visualisation

It isnt a problem necessarily for men’s coach’s to work in the women’s game. But it is a problem when men’s coaches decide to work in the women’s game because they can’t get jobs in the men’s game. Which is like all the men’s coaches who decide to work in the women’s game.

Year 1 data on congestion pricing in Manhattan… * Vehicle traffic: -11% * Foot traffic: +3.4% * Storefront vacancy: -0.9% * Pollution: -22% * Revenue for mass transit: $548M So YES this has been a huge success.

City have been much more reliant on counter-attacks to create chances this season. Their xG from counters per game and share of non-penalty xG have both more than doubled compared to a relatively steady baseline. For the first time, Pep's team rank at or near the top of the PL by these metrics.

12-day Masters are much less likely to feature matches between the top seeds, which is what you would ultimately want to see at the biggest events iainmacleod.substack.com/p/the-true-i...

Could definitely see a studio use AI as coding assistant and not for any of the artistic parts and still get called out in headlines for "making the game with AI"

I think a lot about how in football pragmatic means defensive even if it is not in fact pragmatic, and the same is true in centrist politics where "defensive" means right wing. seems to be like something ingrained in people that Bad Things Must Work

if there are increasingly more goals being scored from set pieces and penalty area chaos, without any overall increase in goal-scoring, the percentage of goal-scoring being done by forwards will necessarily decrease

Hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars have been and are being spent on the assumption this would be an exponential curve that hit 90% by 2028 and, well ...

Inside you there are two wolves, and each one scored an own goal

at some point (soon), the WTA is going to need some better spokespeople for the women’s game. I am le fucking tired.

On top of whatever mental illness causes a person to believe they need a billion dollars, once they accumulate it, the money quickly warps reality and smooths out their brain irreparably. Did a little thread about this.

Brazilian winger Alysson is supposed to be 19, but this makes him sound like he’s well into his 30s

at the end of the day, I just feel badly for trans people. they are always being used to fuel some culture war when all they want is to live peacefully like everyone else. the anti-trans propaganda hurts women who don’t fit the feminine stereotype, too. exhausting shit.

Ha, of course. If we said 'zee coordinates' people would think it was a joke against the French

It's very subtle but if you look closely you can notice how Inter's left side is just a smidge better than the right side

ok going even further back in 23-24 the only >= 2.0 xG match was the late win over Spurs but there's a penalty in there for >2.0 non penalty xG, not a dead rubber, no red cards, you have to go back to the 4-1 title on the line loss to City in April 2023 it's been over two and a half *years*

Couldn’t Sam Altman just ask ChatGPT how to make itself profitable

Now morbidly curious if like OnlyFans does this.

A contender for knee slide of the season here

The tipping point of football becoming physicality-pilled as space compresses/expands has long been a personal focus, but the one thing that made Modrić exceptional for that kind of profile, and underpinned his sheer completeness in contrast to Xavi, Pirlo, et al. was his abnormal stamina and motor.

I love this article (should be Google-translatable) www.ultimouomo.com/passaggio-ri... There's so much nuance and context that goes into whether a pass is a "good pass"; it's fascinating to think about how we could measure this better in football analytics with combined event and tracking data

Some interesting data trends on Manchester City's season (🧵, some metric explainers at the end) 1/ As of today, this would be the first season where City don't top the PL for possession % and field tilt since 2017/18, and the first where they drop below 60% and 70%, respectively