marginality & discontinuity
United Kingdom
Joined January 2023
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Samuel retweeted
This is from a research article that separated individual effects from teammate effects on performance. It points to a principle: who you play with matters more than who you are.
Players are not singular components. They are agents within a complex system, and skills do not add or subtract, they interact.
Player recruitment should optimize for potential synergies by projecting how players interact when they're in the same team. Commoditized recruitment models assume team quality is the sum of each player's qualities. They're biased to actions and events that have already happened, and emergent effects by definition have not happened yet.
Stream of consciousness from myself:
First thing is dominance through ball-possession, a major part of controlling games is to simply have the ball. Whilst ball-possession is not an exhaustive stat it is indicative of a few things: repeatable buildup patterns that give you consolidation of possession to create your chances from settled possession and granted that field tilt is on a par (for Liverpool it is), territorial dominance: meaning the team gets themselves into the opponents final third and can stay there for prolonged periods.
Samuel retweeted
I know the word gets thrown around a lot these days when it comes to big transfers, but Olise joining Bayern genuinely marks a cultural shift and has completely changed the trajectory and image of the club for years to come. I could write an entire thesis on this.
Samuel retweeted
Depending on the situation, habits and tendencies turn into strengths or weaknesses as a secondary effect. So, in essence the focus should be on changing the conditions of engagement rather than absolutely look to fix a ‘weakness’.
Football is strategic and requires players and managers to drop the egos, to win. Not to necessarily resolve every strength or weakness. Which is why the best managers hardly ever change their game-model. Review the game strategy to propel you to win, not to win every battle of strengths & weaknesses.
This is wholesome and lovely. Feels like vindication & justification for both staying at Tottenham for so long but also leaving at the time he did. Romance works.
Samuel retweeted
When we talk about pressing, I feel like we always talk about intensity. But found this in article @spielvercom in 2017 about access which still resonates with me:
My stream kept buffering but caught a good chunk of the game (on my phone), will rewatch tomorrow :)
Samuel retweeted
Aristotle says that arguing with random people is a waste of time because the average person doesn't know how to argue and therefore will not help you become better at it (let alone help you clarify a point). A nice thought to post on the "argue with random people" app.
Iraola’s football has really good, mainly because of intensity rather than anything tactical. There is much more of a wall being put up within our high & mid blocks which is making us more resistant to being played through in the same way we used to under Slot.
Ironically the pressing system between the two coaches are quite similar, zonal to M2M, but wherever possible leaving +1. However our pivot aren’t man-marking the opponents in the way we used to, keeping the centre more protected than it used to be.
Each player generally stays within their predetermined zones which it easier to defend on an individual level, Slot emphasised zonal defending a little less and expected players to cover more of the pitch out-of-possession.
Rio’s use of pausa is what I love most about his iteration. I think because he’s now receiving in central areas, slowing down to speed up is even more paramount and pfft, he’s passing with flying colours.
Reliably receives on the half turn, takes contact then jets away gracefully. Once he spins away, he speed away or he looks to slow to plot his next move. It’s all so calculated but intuitive.
Also really happy with the amount of diagonal entries we’re getting from him, something I felt we would struggle without a left footer on that side.
The good thing about Wirtz, is that he is a volume player. Meaning, if he has a certain amount of touches he pretty guarantees you a tonne of final third & box entries at the very least. Which, with the quality of attackers we have, should allow him to bank a good amount of assists.
13 passes into the final third, 11 line breaking passes. 77 touches. Covered the most distance yet again.
From here on in, it’s about how many decisive actions can he execute. I don’t think it’s a cognitive issue, rather a psychological one. Look to finish off a move, rather than maintaining it.