Mike Goodman and Michael Caley

It's another Trivote episode as Grace from the Grace on Football newsletter joins us to discuss Klopp leaving Liverpool, how we expect the search to proceed from here, and why this situation resembles the period leading to Brendan Rodgers' hiring. We've also got Goodman and Grace taking on the question of Thomas Frank. Subscribe for Grace's takes at https://www.graceonfootball.com/ Support the show

The big bets of Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali on their new and innovative methods of running a football team have been tested by another half-season of Premier League football. Where do they stand? What do we think they should do in the January window? Support the show

For the holiday, an unlocked premium episode on the European Court of Justice, the Super League, and the future of the business of European soccer. Support the show

City keep dropping points. Liverpool also dropped points against United in one of the most tactically bizarre matches of the season. Arsenal did not drop points. But now they're both ahead of City, and we take a look at the three teams most likely to win the Premier League. Support the show

The launch of fbref.com has changed public soccer analytics, and we sat down to interview Sean Forman, the president of Sports Reference, about the website, how it came to be, what he learned about soccer analytics from building it, and about their new Stathead feature (stathead.com). Support the show

The Premier League is holding serve so we're talking about a more general subject. Where do you go if you want to progress up the table as a manager? Thomas Frank has done an excellent job at Brentford, but exactly where does he go next and what is likely to be open to him? Why and how has the managerial market changed in the past decade? Support the show

The relegation race, such as it is, is defined by the historic weakness of the promoted teams and the 10-point deduction taken by Everton. We put the weakness of Sheffield United, Luton Town and Burnley in recent historical context and talk about how we remain relatively unconcerned about Fulham, Bournemouth and even Everton despite those teams being in situations that would make them serious relegation fodder in a normal season. Support the show

We are joined by Semafor's Liz Hoffman, who has broken all the big 777 Partners news in the last week, to talk about what she discovered, what her business and finance reporting means for Everton Football Club and what we still have to learn. Read Liz's reporting (and sign up for her newsletter) here: https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/11/15/2023/777-partners-bought-sports-teams-with-insurance-customers-cash And check out her book too: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669739/crash-lan...

Roman Abramovich hasn't been owner of Chelsea for a while but he's back in the news with a big leak of documents from Cypriot banks where he did his shady banking. We take stock of what these stories actually mean, what they tell us about how oligarch football team ownership functioned, and whether there will be any consequences for Chelsea. On the Video International "trade": https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67300638 And the football payouts: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov...

Everton, Brentford, Arsenal, United, Bournemouth, West Ham, Brighton, Liverpool and more. Support the show

The Derby gives us the opportunity to do the United pod that's been needed. An impressive win for City (who attacked!) but the real story coming out of it is how bad United were and how fully in line with their performance this season that is. Why is it so bad and can it get better? Support the show

Their numbers are so good. Drill down a little and their numbers are so weird. And this was true last season too except they were weird in a completely different way! What are we to make of this? Support the show

The best team in the world lost again. Does it mean anything? We talk about how City and Arsenal approach their weekend clash, what we can glean from the data about City's attack not quite clicking, and how we think it could get fixed. Support the show

Spurs and Arsenal played to a more or less fair draw, but given our priors this leads to different kinds of questions about Spurs and Arsenal. Why isn't Arsenal's attack quite clicking? Can Spurs keep taking these risks in possession? And we talk about the tactics of the game and stuff. Support the show

Caley did an analytics. Talking about Chelsea, Newcastle, Brentford, Brighton, Forest and the bottom of the PL table in terms of their schedule-adjusted numbers. And stick around for the appendices. For reference, Caley's xG table: https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1703908497543356705 Support the show

Looking back on the window that was. How PSG ended up doing reasonable business, the disaster at Fulham, and all the maybe / maybe not business at the top of the Premier League including Liverpool. Arsenal, United and Spurs. Support the show

It's just three weeks in and there are too many takes about the Premier League. We walk through most of the top teams in the Premier League, look at some numbers, and consider whether there's anything here to be learned just yet. Support the show

We're only two matches into the Premier League season but it's already clear that the new midfield/fullback tactics are creating some wild, Bundesliga-esque matches. What's going on, and is this why midfielders have gotten so incredibly expensive? Support the show

We are joined not only this week by Double Pivot Women's Soccer Correspondent Arielle Dror for a World Cup preview but Arielle will also be providing regular coverage on the ground in Australia and New Zealand for Double Pivot listeners throughout the tournament. We cover the very in-flux state of the US and of most of their top competitors and suggest a few underdogs to watch as well. Follow Arielle on twitter at @arielle_dror. Support the show

Szoboszlai to Liverpool, Havertz to Arsenal, Mount to United -- we're seeing a clear trend of top Premier League teams looking to move to systems with more attacking eights. What's going on? We take a little tactical and statistical tour of recent developments in football and explain why this is really all about fullback tactics. Support the show

After a lot of worries about how they might plug the ffp gap, Chelsea found buyers for Kovacic and Havertz in the Premier League and for a bunch of their excess salary in Saudi Arabia. How did this happen, was it a conspiracy, and wait who are Chelsea's good players now? Support the show

Big day! Lionel Messi rejects both Barcelona and Saudi Arabia to go to MLS. We offer context -- why couldn't Barcelona afford him? why couldn't Saudi Arabia land him with an impossibly large salary, and what does that tell us about the KSA sporting project? And what's going on with the MLS offer? Support the show

Barcelona's bond offering, Saudi Arabia's current account balance -- we talk about the global financial and political context of European football, and why these contexts weigh harder on the game than they do in American sports. Support the show

Drama! Bayern's Bundesliga title streak could end on Saturday. We talk about the frankly bizarre Dortmund team that has a chance to do what no one predicted this summer, and what's gone wrong from Bayern over the season and recently under Tuchel to land them here. Support the show

The Champions League semifinals were a dreadful anti-climax. But it's interesting why they were such. And can anyone stop City? Like, ever? Support the show

We got one really live race going but it's a good one. Leeds collapse, Forest bad, Everton bad, Leicester also in trouble, we talk through the teams at the bottom. Support the show

Bad game by Spurs. We break down the set of bad decisions that brought them to this point. Support the show

The 6th and 7th place teams in the Premier League have, otherwise, quite distinct profiles. We break it down. Support the show

Lots of small takes on Premier League teams. Spurs, Everton, United, Leeds, Villa, Liverpool and on. Support the show

It's the hottest thing in owning soccer teams: owning lots of soccer teams. But why is it happening, what risks does it pose to the current state of football, and what do we expect to see in the near future? Support the show

What's going on with non-state soccer owners trying to sell their teams? What's going on with the aggressive non-state money coming in to soccer? What, for real, is going on with Chelsea and Clearlake? We talk to Skanda Amarnath (@irvingswisher) about the baseline state of play in the sports business. Support the show

No, not really. But a lot of interesting questions about exactly how to understand their recent slump, what to expect from this team over the rest of the season, and the kind of fascinating tactical periodization of the City match. Support the show

Yes, Chelsea has a plan! But is it a good plan? We are very skeptical. Support the show

A walk through the entire table besides the top two. Starting with top four, Newcastle and United have run hot long enough to look very good, Spurs and... Brighton are their top competition? It could get settled pretty quick. Support the show

With the transfer window open and big money ready to move, we have been recording player profiles for subscribers, and this is a little teaser of what that's covered. You can subscribe at patreon.com/doublepivot Our Premier League back to speed podcasts coming later this week. Support the show

Argentina won the World Cup! And the match, while it developed into a pure vibes Rocky-style haymaker fest at the end, was actually a really interesting tactical battle before that with Argentina coming out very much on top. We have a lot to dig into! Support the show

The USMNT won and go through to the knockouts. It was another good game in a good tournament for the USA and so we figured we'd talk about it. Support the show

Mike thinks England are going to win the World Cup. Michael thinks Alvaro Morata could score lots of goals. We're coming in hot. Support the show

It's been reported that FSG are looking to sell Liverpool. We take a look at what this means: why would FSG sell now, and what does that tell us about the state of elite European football? Support the show

Is it secretly another Leeds episode? Well sort of. What does pressing look like in contemporary football, how are Leeds a throwback and what exactly are Newcastle doing that is just so good? Support the show

Our priors, updating in real time. Arsenal were really good, Liverpool were pretty bad, how far are we willing to go in adjusting our evaluations of these two clubs after another game in line with their performances over the full season? Support the show

Arsenal won a messy North London Derby and we talk about what single-match xG means and can tell us about this game, while City won a pretty silly Manchester Derby and we talk about just how good they might be. Support the show

A lot of great questions! Juventus, Leicester, Fulham, Odegaard, Kulusevski and the North London Derby. Support the show

Potterball begins, Everton are not particularly bad, and we take on the greatest of all soccer questions: what if America's best athletes played soccer? Support the show

Well that was sure something. Thomas Tuchel already sacked, Graham Potter already hired. We talk about the process here (bad!) and the result (interesting, possibly not bad!) and what we are watching to see with Potter at the new club. Support the show

It's been four games, are we rethinking anything? On Aston Villa, West Ham, Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton. Support the show

As Beveridge's Law demands, the answer is mostly "no". But we walk through the game and why it suggests a clear floor under United and the bits and pieces of Liverpool concern that it excavated. Support the show

The analytics pod leans hard into tactics and description in the early part of the season. We begin with a discussion of Arsenal's win over Crystal Palace and their underwhelming xG, and Liverpool's draw with Fulham and their rather more whelming shot numbers. Support the show

Part I of our all-twenty-teams Premier League preview and draft extravaganza. Spurs and City, Liverpool and Newcastle, Brentford and Leeds and more, let's do this. Support the show

Chelsea are doing more confusing things and we try to piece them all apart. Sterling more or less makes sense but is expensive, and all the rest of it makes somewhat less sense and we still have a lot of midfield questions. Support the show