Mike Goodman and Michael Caley

City won the league but are making some big changes in their forward line. Liverpool came close but likewise are looking at some retooling. We also take closer looks at how it all went so wrong for United and what West Ham might do to mount another competitive season. Support the show

Manchester City are going to sign Erling Haaland, for a lot of money. We break down the signing, from the striking division of wages and fees to what kind of player Haaland is and could be, to our questions about his fitness and the way he'll fit in at Manchester City. Support the show

Big game, big pod -- we discuss the tactical narrative of the match, what it tells us about Liverpool and Man City, how Pep got the drop on Liverpool, as well as the unusual initial expected goals numbers and how to read the statistical profile of this match. Support the show

Marcelo Bielsa is out at Leeds in the most Marcelo Bielsa of ways, somehow both on his own terms and against the wishes of the universe. What did he accomplish at Leeds, what went wrong, and what do we think of the hiring of Jesse Marsch to replace him? Support the show

Russia invaded Ukraine and it has a lot of football implications. We still really do not know what those implications will in many ways be but we try to provide some context to help you understand what may come next. Support the show

Tanguy Ndombele is out at Tottenham. Giovani Lo Celso appears likely to follow. We look back on a number of midfielders that we've raved over before, including the two from Tottenham and Naby Keita, Adrien Rabiot, and Paul Pogba, and ask what happened with them and do we take any new conclusions from these results? Support the show

A bunch of business nearly done or in process and bunch of interesting links. We talk Trippier and Vlahovic, Coutinho and Adama. Support the show

A lot of games didn't happen. Most of the ones that did saw their outcomes significantly determined by how severe an omicron outbreak the clubs playing were going through. Does it mean... anything? We talk City, Chelsea, Wolves, Spurs, Arsenal and Liverppol. Support the show

The omicron variant is spreading rapidly in Europe and the US. Tottenham and Manchester United have had to cancel matches because of outbreaks that may not have been omicron but regardless are a model of what we expect to see in sports over the next month. So what is the omicron variant? What are the likely outcomes for European soccer and you know, the world and stuff? Support the show

Opening from Really??? With Mike & Mike The Premier League season resumed and every game seemed to encapsulate a different narrative and statistical issue we've been following. Liverpool, Chelsea, Brentford, West Ham, Newcastle, what have we learned so far? Support the show

It's five matches into the season and everyone knows the table is lying... but is the xG table lying? More specifically, what can statistics tell us this early in the season, what does it mean that statistics "become reliable" after a certain period of time, and how does this inform how we're thinking about Tottenham and Chelsea and Arsenal and Everton? Caley's R2 charts: https://cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com/2015/10/19/9295905/premier-league-projections-and-new-expected-goals Support th...

Berhalter did a bunch of very interesting stuff and it didn't work at all, and Southgate did all the same uninteresting stuff and it wasn't great either. This is mostly about Berhalter because, see above, it was *interesting* but they form a useful counterpoint for thinking about international managers. (sorry for the audio gremlins, still getting used to the transatlantic podcasting and need to update our pre-record checklist) Support the show

content notice: discussion of rape and sexual violence Caley is really mad about the media coverage of the Ronaldo transfer, and Goodman has his own thoughts about the dilemmas that drive and screw up the media here. And there was also an incredibly dramatic transfer window! United and Madrid and Barcelona and Atletico and Chelsea and around we go. We discuss Jessica Luther and Kavitha Davidson's book Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/luther-davi...

News! Breaking! Kane stays with Tottenham and Madrid lodge a frankly unbelievable bid for Mbappe and PSG even more unbelievably turn it down. What's going on in the striker market, in the business of football at the tippy-top level, and what does it all mean? Support the show

Lionel Messi is leaving Barcelona because they cannot pay him any money. It's a financial story and a football story and we get into it -- what is Barcelona's best way back and how long will it take them? Where is Messi going and if it's PSG, what is that gonna look like? Support the show

We take your questions on soccer and how it works, discussing struggleball and pressing, xG in video games and what it reveals about what analytics is, and the ongoing search for WAR. (also uh lol sorry Heather we'll actually answer your question on an upcoming pod.) Support the show

Italy were fortunate to get through, England were a defensive powerhouse again... without Spinazzola, is there anything Italy can do? We talk about why Southgate has done a very good job despite the Saka and subs weirdness, the dynamics we expect in the final, Kyle Walker, Bonucci and Chiellini, Sterling dribbling... all the stuff. Support the show

All our takes on the first part of the first round of games including Italy, Spain, Belgium, England and Netherlands takes -- why we are still skeptical of the Netherlands but were impressed by Spain even in a draw. Look for more little pods at the tournament continues! (Episode re-uploaded due to an audio issue in the first version.) Support the show

Big international tournaments! Happening soon! We get you up to speed on some of the big teams to watch in the Euros while taking some listener questions and also the USMNT won an international tournament and Goodman saw it happen so we've got a little on that too. Support the show

We look back on the end of the season drama, and then on to manager news. We break down the careers of Antonio Conte and Zinedine Zidane and consider where they'll go next and what are the upsides and downsides of each for potential clubs. Support the show

We've got seasons ending with a lot on the line in England, Spain and Italy, and the podcast takes you around the big games and asks the important questions like, will Atalanta's players feel happy or sad on Sunday, what the hell is wrong with the La Liga table and why won't anyone put some respect on Ronald Koeman's name? Support the show

Tottenham are looking for a manager. The German coaching carousel spins. Weirdly almost all the richest clubs in the world are standing pat. What's going on, what do we expect from the managers who are or may be moving, have teams' approaches to their managerial positions changed? Support the show

We are joined by Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Robinson to talk about the sudden collapse of the Super League, why it happened, and what comes next. Robinson is also the co-author of a book about the founding of the Premier League, The Club, and we think about why that breakaway succeeded but this one failed. And you absolutely must stick around for his anecdote about how Man City decided to join up with the Super League. The Club: https://www.hmhbooks.com/shop/books/the-club/9780358213...

There's a title race in Spain, suddenly! And there was a great Clasico. We break down the game and why we think Barcelona are still favorites despites losing to Real Madrid and sitting third. And we begin our top four profiles, going over how Leicester City and West Ham got here and how the relative stability of their xG numbers in both cases hides some real changes over time. Support the show

(Opening from The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzche) Chelsea and Leicester lost, Liverpool and West Ham won, Spurs -- who still technically in the top four race! -- drew with Newcastle. We walk through the small changes in the race this week and our favorites to get through. Support the show

It's an international break and the US Men's National Team has good players on it, some of whom were even allowed by doctors and public health authorities to play with the team. Dest, Pulisic, Reyna, Aaronsen, formations, Musah, the Gold Cup, it's all here. Support the show

There's Derby talk and Chris Wilder talk and Kelechi explodes but the Premier League ain't giving us much right now. So we get into some of the weird stats of Covidball and the consistently uninteresting big performers of the season. Support the show

How PSG pressed Barcelona out of a big tie, how Leipzig failed to contain Liverpool, Dortmund surprising us a bit against Sevilla, all our takes on the latest round of the Champions League right here. Support the show

A lot has changed since we last covered the top teams in Europe. We take on the teams playing this week in the Champions League, including PSG's injury problems, how far Barcelona have rebounded, the peculiar new Leipzig system, Ronaldo's new/old role, and more. Support the show

That was very nearly another fascinating Spurs-Liverpool match and we get into the first 20 minutes before Kane's injury more or less put it to bed. And right now the top four race is as open as it's ever been, what's up with that? Support the show

Over at patreon.com/doublepivot you can get our subscription level player profiles beginning with Martin Ødegaard and Papu Gomez, and continuing through the week with more every day. And there is even a special deal, 15 percent off when you subscribe for a year so check it out. Support the show

Frank Lampard appears to be on the way out at Chelsea. We look back at his time at Chelsea and consider what we got right and what we got wrong, and we talk a bit about the state of research on analytics about managers -- do they really matter? Support the show

We got us a Premier League title race but uhhhhh City are going to win it now? We talk about Liverpool's collapse-that-is-not-a-collapse, Pep's transformation of Man City, Frank and the Chelsea game, and the chance of an upset title winner. Support the show

We keep it rolling! Not too many interesting games but a fascinating pile-up in the top four and title races and we walk through what's going on with Chelsea, City, Villa, Spurs, United, Leicester and Everton. Support the show

We take a lot of your questions and get technical right off the bat, with discussions of data collection and "post-shot xG" leading into some talk about City, Grealish, Brighton and Chelsea. Support the show

Do we have a better sense of who's going to win the Premier League title? Maybe a little? Spurs-Chelsea analysis, how much are Liverpool favored by, how close are City, and is there anyone else.... maybe? Support the show

A Mourinho Masterclass from Spurs, what does it mean? Why are we feeling so sure that Jurgen Klopp is the best manager in the world right now? And what is Mikel Arteta doing? Support the show

Our listeners can have a little USMNT analysis, as a treat. And then on to more of your questions, including discussions of Gareth Bale, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and the importance of the "utility player". Support the show

We still don't understand what's happening in football. We bounce a few questions off each other -- Juventus, Barcelona, Tottenham, Everton and Manchester United, what's going on? Support the show

The Premier League table is strange right now, but unlike what you'd expect when the table is weird after five matches, it's not *lying*. It's just weird. We walk through the teams that we still expect to be good but have questions about, the teams we're reasonably convinced are now good, and the teams we're starting to give up on. Support the show

There's a plan to bail out and massively reorganize English club football, and it's both a fascinating document chock full of good ideas and a total scam. We break it down! And then we try to sort out what Arsenal are doing and how bad it's likely to get. Support the show

What a weekend! The Premier League continues to delight and confuse and we try to sort out as best as we can what happened in Saturday's matches -- in particular the strange patterns of Leeds vs Man City -- and look at what we can draw from Everton's continuing dominance, Chelsea looking competent, and Manchester City... what. Support the show

So much is happening in the PL that isn't what we expected. In part one of the pod here on the free side, we look at the hot starts by Leicester, Everton, Brighton and Liverpool (ok we expected that last one) and consider what's gone wrong early at Manchester City. Support the show

Mike and Michael look at the hottest narratives of the first week or two -- Everton, Palace, Arsenal, Leicester, Weston McKennie and more -- and ask, "is this anything?" How much can we have really learned from 180 minutes of football? In most cases, of course, not that much, but there are real trends to take a look at. Support the show

Leeds and Liverpool played a classic and (parts of) the popular narrative about it are more right than the shot stats might suggest. Arsenal were good and Chelsea were bad but does it mean anything? Oh yeah and Everton - Spurs. Support the show

It's that time again! A new Premier League season kicking off and we preview all 20 teams and try our best to stuff it into two hours. Here's the first hour! Support the show

The Premier League season is almost upon us, and we've seen very different strategies so far from the teams we'd rate 3rd to 9th in the Premier League as they approach another run at the Champions League places. Who's doing it right, Everton or Spurs, Wolves or Leicester, Arsenal or United? We break it down. (Chelsea... Chelsea's fine.) Support the show

Goodman and Caley walk through a tactically fascinating but sadly short of actually great Champions League Final and appreciate how Bayern replaced Arjen Robben with Serge Gnabry and became the best team in the world again. Then they turn to Everton, a team with no plan that will probably be good and fun anyway. Support the show

Wow. Bayern-Barca was the perfect crescendo to everything we'd predicted and City-Lyon was.... not. We talk about the distinct patterns of the Bayern match and consider whether Pep's shit works in the playoffs. Support the show

Two quarterfinals are in the books and one semifinal is scheduled. We break down two very exciting but tactically meh games -- Leipzig did enough to break down Atleti's profoundly negative side and PSG almost got football'd by an exhausted Atalanta but... didn't -- and then we give you our preview of that semi. Support the show