you can say what you want in footnotes, no-one is gonna read it

an article on GuardiolAI and ChatGPTeta's latest attempt to remove any hint of human creativity from their meetings www.nytimes.com/athletic/665...

hate all this "oooh you can't tackle any more, remember when this fixture used to be about tackling" stuff from the commentators here. Merseyside derbies used to be crap. Give me goals like this any day (would also argue TV-influenced Sat 12:30 games don't help if you want feisty tackles)

Lots of new signings - not many goals. It's quite tough to get cohesion between new attackers at this stage of the season, and watching some really quite bad Premier League games so far underlines that. www.nytimes.com/athletic/663...

once a year I find an excuse to write about non-league. So here we go: the first FA Cup meeting between Enfield FC versus Enfield Town: a unique rivalry between a club who left town, and a fan-owned breakaway club who are higher in the pyramid...and play in Enfield. www.nytimes.com/athletic/662...

Sweden a shapeless mess but fair play to Kosovo for a momentous win. Blistering counter-attacking in the first half. Their second goal was outstanding.

mailbag episode this week on our tactics pod. Please submit questions below 😀

The four ways to play football in 1956:

in some countries, they refer to generations of players by their birth year. I never have a clue which years key England players were born in. Now I do. Featuring: how the war affected things, how the golden generation dominated, and how 1976 was a washout. www.nytimes.com/athletic/658...

Very concerning to see 'kicking for touch' at kick-offs having a wave of popularity. Let's get this rugby nonsense out of our game. www.nytimes.com/athletic/659...

my deadline day update: just had my walk home interrupted by some "Ted Lasso" filming. More as we get it.

Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal. The first half was about midfielders dropping back between the centre-backs. The second half was about Liverpool's midfielders pushing up and getting between the lines, allowing forward passes and creating chances. www.nytimes.com/athletic/658...

still slightly unsettled by having A CHOICE of televised Sunday 2pm games. Which is obviously the way it should be. But I think it was easier when Sky just decided for me.

still cannot believe the sheer volume of “stadium announcers” at football matches these days. It’s honestly the loudest thing I ever encounter.

the new CL format - and 8 rather than 6 games - means I think opponent difficulty more-or-less evens itself out and it's more about home/away than anything else. Away versus Bodo/Glimt Kairat, Qarabag, Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Pafos is arduous. Home? No bother.

Liverpool have started defending free-kicks Italian-style - really deep inside their own box. It worked well last night. Then they went back to the usual manner, conceded from it, so went back to being 'Italian'. Quite interesting to hear Slot's explanation. www.nytimes.com/athletic/657...

always found this trend funny as they were all the rage when doing 'food technology' (presumably not called this any more) at school, I never really saw them again for years, then suddenly it's how you measure whether Arsenal should sign Giroud or Higuain bsky.app/profile/chri...

as someone who played youth football in-and-around this area, before Chelsea had built a training ground there, the use of 'Cobham' still just makes me think of the middling Combined Counties outfit, it really throws me bsky.app/profile/liam...

struggling to work out what the underlying point here is. Football journalism is not under threat. There is now a level of content produced, both in depth and - if you look in the right places - in quality that would have been unimaginable in the pre-internet age. observer.co.uk/news/sport/a...

Good luck to the women's rugby world cup - it's presumably no worse than the men's equivalent - but this is an astonishingly bleak set of odds, match after match with a complete no-hoper. Ultimately there's not enough global interest in the sport to make this work.

not a massive tennis fan but Errani and Vavassori, an actual partnership, winning this daft new mixed doubles competition ahead of the thrown-together big names is great. What team sport is all about.

It's incredible how much worse podcasts are to listen to when the panelists know they're being filmed. A 45-minute discussion gives way to 45 attempts to go viral. One person says something relatively mundane and the others go 'OH MY GOD NO WAY' with their mouths open. What a waste.

for all the fuss about the MOTD presenter/pundits etc, I reckon I've chatted about MOTD to about 15 people this year, of varying levels of football fandom, and literally every single one has said they fast-forward through the analysis unless it's about their team. People really don't care.

this MNF game is a Championship game, surely? Everything about it

Mason Mount is a system player: understands his role, knows how to find space, carries out the manager's instructions and gets the best from his teammates. He was bright yesterday, I hope he has a season without injuries. www.nytimes.com/athletic/655...

glad it’s not just me who hates this layout

mad analysis and yet also spot on. It’s very bouncy!

increasingly think that the over-glorification of football’s past is ruining everyone’s enjoyment of the present. Reading fondness for the Jabulani is just too much to accept. www.nytimes.com/athletic/655...

is it FIFA’s job to stop a La Liga game being played abroad? Not for me Clive. It’s an internationalist body dedicated to the spread of football. Blame the clubs and the league. www.nytimes.com/athletic/655...

I'm bang up for this Premier League season. There *should* be a good title fight, although you can never be sure. Lots of interesting situations at the top-half clubs. Some question marks over the hanging-around-a-bit bottom-half clubs. Think the promoted three will at least have a bit of character.

my new favourite thing is football reporters who have years-out-of-date pinned tweets. One transfer guru has one saying Potter and Howe are favourites to replace Southgate as England manager. Another recently removed one saying Arsenal should keep Aubameyang at all costs. More when we get it.

Enjoyable game, enjoyable shootout.

must admit I just don’t get this lad at all. Everyone was banging on about how good he was in that season at Southampton. He scored six goals.

right, I’ve got to finally ask: what is the point in “newsletters”? Why would I want to be served this in my email inbox alongside confirmation of my Sainsbury’s delivery order and Ticketmaster suggesting I get tickets for a band I don’t really like?

just seen an article giving *half-time player ratings* for a *pre-season friendly*

a Euro 2025 tactical review. A(nother) tournament where star individuals didn't make the difference. Goal kicks played extremely short compared to past tournaments. A huge number of goals. www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...

a Euro 2025 tactical review. A(nother) tournament where star individuals didn't make the difference. Goal kicks played extremely short compared to past tournaments. A huge number of goals. www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...

Incredible that England have won Euro 2025 having trailed in all three knockout games. But the performance against Spain was good. Wiegman made some very big calls, which helped to close the gap to a Spain side who were clearly the most talented at the tournament. www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...

must be said, there's an incredible number of England fans in Basel today. Feels different to what we've seen before: 2022 was at home, 2023 was obviously too far for most. 2025 feels like classic England Away

compared to two years ago, Spain are better in attack but more open in defence. Opponents have caused them problems by attacking behind Paredes, breaking the counter-press, and sometimes at set-pieces. It's an uphill task but England are likely to have a good gameplan www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...

5 finals in 5 attempts for Wiegman. Pretty good. England have started matches poorly at Euro 2025 and there’s a question about the balance of the starting XI. But she has consistently made unconventional and decisive changes during her England tenure. www.nytimes.com/athletic/art...

Spotify allowing comments on podcasts has made the experience of actually being on podcasts a lot more depressing, but the positive is you can click on the names and go “oh he’s a massive Stereophonics fan, who cares what he thinks”. Should probably find a different podcast platform to listen on.

Forgot to post this the other day...a profile of Patri Guijarro, probably the most consistent player at Euro 2025. With @laiacervello.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/athletic/650...

England v Italy is the final chance at Euro 2025 for a proper shock. There's a big six these days - England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden - and they don't lose to anyone else. The others are P27 W0 D1 L26 against them in 2022/2025. Can Italy do it? www.nytimes.com/athletic/650...

#amnotabettingman and first time I've looked at odds during Euro 2025 but think England at around 1.5 tomorrow to win (in 90mins) is very good value. Italy are improved but they'd struggle to get a single player in England's XI, and unlike Norway there's no organisational problem with England

Since I did a best XI for each round of the groups (in articles) here’s one for the QFs: Berger Bronze Bjorn Minge Kett Cantore Zigiotti Bonmati Pina Girelli Hoffman

Laughably bad from France, but fair play to Germany for possibly the most impressive performance I’ve seen from a side down to ten (for 105 minutes!) www.nytimes.com/athletic/650...

if this is 1-1 at the end of extra time France should concede the tie, no dignity in winning this on a shootout. Go home

Unbelievable centre-forward display from Hoffman in the circumstances. Just won so many free-kicks. It's boring but that's so useful when down to 10

Battison-Schumacher role-reversal!