A host of unrecognisable faces in last night’s Brazil-Morocco game for those of us who consume football entirely through the Panini sticker-album prism.
Liam Rosenior’s conservative tactics at Brighton felt like a last-ditch roll of the dice for a desperate coach who is running out of moves.
They were muddled, misguided and ultimately a horrendous mistake.
@conor-oneill.bsky.social breaks down the chaos.
🔗nyti.ms/4vZMcJc
“We’re a lot better in both boxes. We’re defending our box a lot better and we’re managing to be clinical in the other box,” Harry Maguire said, after Manchester United's victory against Brentford.
@conor-oneill.bsky.social with the numbers showing that Maguire knows what he is talking about.
It took an inordinate amount of time to collect the data and make this graphic, but at least we now have conclusive proof that Sweden is, in fact, colder than Texas
Newcastle’s trip to Qarabag tonight is the furthest any PL side has ever travelled in the Champions League.
Took a look at how English teams fare on their long-distance journeys, in a CL campaign that has already logged 100,000+ more air miles than 2024-25.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/705...
South Africa compensating for a lack of (birthday) cards with their ill-discipline tonight imo
Using historical ClubElo ratings, I’ve put together what I think is the most comprehensive analysis of Champions League draw difficulty.
Arsenal’s draw is certainly kind, but it is unlikely to challenge these guys in the easiest-route stakes.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/710...
The pain of Ireland’s playoff defeat, which had just started to subside, has come roaring back with vengeance.
Anyway, here is your tactical guide to Group A, kicking off tonight and including Mexico, South Africa, South Korea and those dastardly Czechs
Read for free here:
We launched our comprehensive and visually stunning interactive World Cup player profiles page today. A huge amount of work went into this from loads of people.
I wrote about Bruno Fernandes, among others.
Check out Stars of Soccer for free here:
www.nytimes.com/athletic/int...
Full piece here, packed-full of meteorological magic, and available to read for free
www.nytimes.com/athletic/734...
Read The Athletic's detailed profile of Portugal's Bruno Fernandes.
