The Double Pivot

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

A fascinating if not super competitive pair of semifinal matches are in the books. We look at everything PSG did right and, as is typical for us, spend a lot of time perserverating on what went for a Bayern team that won 3-0. 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

We break down the big games, Leicester-United and a little bit on the others (Watford-Arsenal!) and then ask, well, what did we learn from these 90 matches since the shutdown? Kinda turns into a City pod. Support the show

We have actual final day drama in the Premier League. Six teams with everything on the time, five crucial matches. We tour the games with plentiful tangents, here's part 1 with Manchester United and our picks for the relegation chase. Support the show

We break down the ruling against UEFA from the Court of Arbitration in Sport, and how it crystallizes the fundamental issue here: there are no good guys, and UEFA got caught breaking its own rules, but nothing about the ruling exonerates City either. And then we have Real Madrid's title, how Zidane put together a title-winning team despite crucial things going wrong early in the season, and what the future of La Liga will look like -- maybe without a great Barcelona side for a long time? Sup...

Has the top five race ended? Has the relegation chase ended? We break down Leicester-Arsenal and look at the teams remaining in contention for the top five and there's not a lot left here. At the bottom things remain more in doubt, but the chances we're talking Europa places in a week are pretty high. Support the show

It's been inevitable for a while, but it was certainly not inevitable 12 months ago and even less so six years ago. How did Liverpool build a team to win a Champions League and Premier League trophy in back to back seasons? How do we tell this story, and how do we parse out the different causes, from business development to analytics to coaching and tactics to good fortune. It's an unquestionable analytics success story, and also one that takes on a different shape from many of those we're us...

We walk through the whole Premier League team by team. And there's a lot of football coming and we want to help you out, so for each team we make the case that you shouldn't watch them. It gets harder as we go along. Support the show

He's going to Chelsea! Probably! But the podcast works better if we treat it as settled fact! We break down what kind of player Werner is, how he might fit on this Chelsea side and within Lampard's style, and what this transfer indicates about the state of the football economy. https://thecorrespondent.com/517/three-reasons-the-football-season-is-starting-again-money-money-money/4240227200-05001e50 Support the show

We break down Bayern's victory over Dortmund and the effective end of the title race in the Bundesliga. And we discuss the new substition rules in soccer, how they're being used, and what we'd like to see from managers with this new resource. Support the show

Time to talk about actual soccer games with actual soccer statistics. The Bundesliga is back and Dortmund and Bayern won and we spend a lot of time talking about Gladbach and Leverkusen's underlying statistics because of course we do. Support the show

Caley is joined by poet, scholar, activist and wikipedia-confirmed Arsenal fan Clint Smith (@clintsmithiii) to talk about why he loves and misses sports (even Arsenal!), and about his academic work in the study of education and the way people who have been incarcerated make meaning through education. Support the show

The Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has nearly completed its purchase of Newcastle United Football Club. We talk about what this means. Another ownership group in the Premier League driven not by a need to make profits but by a drive for soft power, sportwashing a reputation sullied by war crimes, murder and oppression. What will that mean for Newcastle and the Premier League? George Caulkin's report in The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/1759832/2020/04/21/newca...

We've reached the point of the pandemic where sports leagues around the world are scrambling to find ways to safely return to action. The Bundesliga is poised to make the first attempt in the soccer world, and the Two Mikes size up the odds against the Germans (and really, everyone else). Then they talk loosely about generational gaps and leaps before turning to lobsters and chocolate tortas (but not together, that would be gross). Support the show

Mike Goodman is joined by political scientist and Tottenham fan Brian Schaffner to go back over the season for Tottenham, because that's fun, and then they talk about the use of analytics in another field entirely, with Schaffner's political science / public opinion research. Support the show

The Double Pivot Interview Series continues, with Mike Goodman talking to SB Nation's erstwhile soccer writer and current e-sports writer Kim McCauley (@lgbtqfc) about the only kind of sports that people can play under pandemic, how to understand it, how to watch it, and more. Support the show

Soccer! Sort of! Michael interviews Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan), a reporter from The Athletic who has been covering all the drama with US Soccer, for a recap and analysis of everything that's gone down in the last month with the equal pay lawsuit filed by the US Women's National Team. There's a lot to cover, and it's about soccer, mostly. Support the show

We're back and the Premier League has now shut down, and it raises more specifically the question of what sports will be while we're shut down, so we talked about it on this podcast, too. Support the show

What's this pod going to be during the pandemic? We have a plan! We will be doing shorter podcasts, several per week, on various topics. This week becuase things are nuts, we have a pair of podcasts directly on the news and soccer and coronavirus. We have a little soccer to talk about (Atletico did a soccer) but we're as overwhelmed with the pandemic as anyone and the question of what sports will be, so we talked about on this podcast. Support the show

The COVID-19 not-yet-a-pandemic is already disrupting the Italian football season, and if the projections from epidemiologists are to be trusted, it won't be for just a few weeks and it certainly won't be just Italy. We dig into the newest example of how sports themselves don't stick to sports. Then we talk about relegation, honestly, pretty much as if there will be a normal Premier League season. It's hard to keep your brain in pandemic mode. Support the show

Manchester City have been banned from the Champions League for the next two seasons, and fined $30 million for breaching Financial Fair Play rules. City are appealing to the CAS. The Two Mikes explain what the hell CAS is and also sort through the rest of the mess to clear it all up for you. Der Spiegel article on Football Leaks: https://www.spiegel.de/international/manchester-city-exposed-bending-the-rules-to-the-tune-of-millions-a-1236346.html Tariq Panja on UEFA and PSG: https://ww...

The knockout stages of the Champions League are upon us, so the Two Mikes break down each matchup. In this episode, they talk Atleti-Liverpool, Dortmund-PSG, Atalanta-Valencia and Leipzig-Spurs. Support the show

The two Mikes race through the latest results in England (and what we've learned of late about the clubs in the thick of the most noteworthy results) before turning their attention to more of your questions. Support the show

We start with one of our "Mousa Dembele" pods where we scout a player using the stats. Here it's United's new signing Bruno Fernandes, an elite creator who may or may not be a possession sieve, and what to expect from him and why we're excited to watch him in a top league. Then we take listener questions about what "ball progression" means and why different measurements are proliferating, about the ongoing transformation of the fullback position and its knock-on effects on football tactics, ...

These were not two slates of matches that reward analysis. Chelsea-Arsenal and Everton-Newcastle actively defy any attempt to analyze them. But we find our way through, taking stock of the extent of Chelsea's decline, Wolves' rise, and whether there are any new takes we can wring out of Spurs and United anymore. Support the show

Nate Scott of For the Win and USA Today sits in for Caley and talks Fulham soccer, off ball movement and the dangers of playing pretty football at the bottom of the Premier League table with the remaining Mike. Make sure to also check out Nate's true crime podcast, The Sneak, about an armored car heist and the once great athlete who committed it."For more on The Sneak, see here: https://wondery.com/shows/the-sneak/Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

This week at patreon.com/doublepivot we've got a continuation of last week's player pod with discussions of players around Europe including among others Achraf Hakimi, Fede Valverde, Christopher Nkunku and, uh, Messi.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Halfway through the season, we've seen enough of key players at every club to make some observations. The two Mikes point out a player or two from nine EPL clubs (Arsenal, Brighton, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Norwich City, Sheffield United, Newcastle, Palace) that you should be noticing, and not always for good reasons. Part 2 (and the other 11 clubs) follows on Patreon.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Analytics seem to be missing something about Liverpool. Or at least, that's how it seems to a lot of people trying to understand the club's run of dominance. The two Mikes take a closer look and explore a few theories, and use Tuesday's Dortmund-Leipzig match as a perfect jumping-off point for the discussion.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

The two Mikes explain why Everton should stick with Duncan Ferguson in perpetuity (full disclosure: this misleading and completely incorrect statement was written by a Liverpool fan), and then move on to the Manchester Derby, which may have killed the title race. The only hope for that title race may now lie with Leicester City, who have figured out some things.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

There's a new manager at Arsenal, the very early returns weren't different. Will we see something different? How will it affect the top four race, if there even is a race? Leicester, Chelsea, United, Spurs, Wolves, Arsenal, is anything gonna happen?Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Mourinho is managing Tottenham, they won two games and look, it's not our fault this is objectively interesting. It is! So we've got a podcast on it, and also City-Chelsea.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

There are so many reasons why the marriage of Tottenham Hotspur and Jose Mourinho is bound to end in an ugly divorce, but for now, the two Mikes imagine a world where it just might work. Before that, they take a quick look at the biggest match in England this weekend: Manchester City vs. Chelsea.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Liverpool put some distance between themselves and Manchester City (and Chelsea!) with a big win, and while the teams performed relatively evenly in the match, the two Mikes spotted some tactical issues that made things tough for Pep Guardiola's squad. As previously mentioned, Chelsea is pretty dang good, while Leicester vs. Arsenal perfectly encapsulated both squads.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

As Liverpool grow more heavily reliant on fullbacks attacking, and Manchester City deal with injuries and inconsistency on the backline, it creates some odd possibilities for the squads' clash this weekend. Outside of the title race, the race for top 4 is shaping up to not be much of a race at all if nothing changes, and the same could be said for the relegation places. But as usual, the numbers suggest otherwise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the ...

The latest edition of Liverpool vs. Spurs contained multitudes and the two Mikes are here to break it down, but not before a quick look at Burnley vs. Chelsea, which was super weird in its own right.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Welcome to the 2019-20 Premier League season, where even the teams fighting for the top spots in the league are doing so in the most uninspiring fashion imaginable. If you like goals and you like shots, well, this isn't the place to find them. The two Mikes attempt to figure out what the heck is going on.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Mike and Michael are at the Statsbomb conference in London. They talk through some of the highlights of last weekend's matches in the Premier League and then discuss what they saw at the conference and the new key concept in soccer analytics introduced by Thom Lawrence, "The Valley of Meh" and what it means for understanding the game.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

A Manchester United - Arsenal match seemed to confirm every one of our priors about these two teams. But is something wrong with City? Why are Liverpool a bit less good than they seem? My god what is happening with Spurs? Mike and Michael start to reconsider Spurs and Chelsea while holding the line on the rest. Plus more of the same questions from La Liga, while Real and Barcelona continue not to whelm us.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

Teams outside the top two in the Premier League may just be mailing it in and playing the kids this season. Chelsea vs. Liverpool was an interesting watch, and Leicester City showed its best lineup against Spurs, Other things are happening, too! This is just part one!Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show

For subscribers at patreon.com/doublepivot we have a two-part (p)review, where we cover our eight Champions League groups, by way of discussing the matches in the first round on Tuesday and Wednesday, and what to expect in the groups over the next few months.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport the show