🎙 @Pirlo_official's virtual press conference has begun: "@sampdoria_en is a good team, they come off the back of a positive run, they have added quality to the squad. And it's never easy to play against Coach Ranieri, whom I respect a lot."

#SampJuve

Marseille’s Morgan Sanson is the latest rumoured Villa signing, with a number of respected outlets reporting the signing today, but what can the midfielder bring to Villa Park, and where would he fit into the side?

Sanson began his career with an excellent reputation and with a lot of expectation – earning10 caps for the French Under-21 side. A serious injury to his cruciate ligament, however, set the midfielder back somewhat. Since 2016, however, Sanson has stayed relatively injury free.

As a player, Sanson is a very active player. His statistical profile, compared to Ligue Un central midfielders this season, shows a healthy number of both defensive and attacking actions, a significant creative output, the will to enter the box, and a lot of ball carrying.

The big question around Sanson is that of who he would replace in our midfield. Whether it would be in preparation for Douglas Luiz to return to Man City, to compete for place with John McGinn, or to replace Ross Barkley if his deal did not become a permanent one?

Stylistically, John McGinn makes the most sense. Looking at Sanson’s profile again, this time with McGinn’s, the similarities are clear. Both players are ball-carrying, box-to-box midfielders whose passing isn’t a strength. Both can score, create, and love to enter the box.

A thread (a mostly apocryphal yet would love to believe in story) on John Bart King: Greatest of all American cricketers. (Yes, they did played cricket during late 1800s to early 1900s)

Story from @Ram_Guha edited book, 'The Picador book of Cricket'

#Cricket
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The cricket championship tournament of Philadelphia was called The Halifax Cup. King used to dominate in this series. From 1904 to '08 he won the Batting Cup 3 times & the Bowling Cup 4 times, & he twice exceeded 300 in an innings, once in 1905 vs Germantown & in 1906 vs Merion
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It was during this period that one of my favourite cricketing stories has its origin. It has been told and retold so many times that obviously there are many versions of it, but all scepticism apart, I would like to believe it to be true.
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So the story happens at a Halifax Cup match between Belmont (King's team) vs Trenton at Elmwood. The Trenton captain missed his train, and when he arrived on the ground about an hour late he found that in his absence his side had won the toss and batted and were doing badly;
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by the time he had changed and got ready to bat, 9 of the side were out & he had to bat #11.On his way to the wicket the Trenton Cap apologized to his opposite for being so unpunctual, adding unwisely that his team wouldn’t have been in such a mess if he hadn’t missed his train
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Analyzing Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup through data and tactical analysis: a thread.

#MUFC’s plan was to progress the ball wide through the flanks to find runners and/or switch the players — and it was well executed.

Issues:

(A) Henderson’s ball distribution was not well utilized to find forwards through long balls.

(B) Weak verticality/central presence.

This can be better seen through the territory Manchester United occupied in both halves — although they dominated through the left flank, they progressed well through the right as well.

The height of central presence increased as a result of substitutions: Fred/Bruno.

EXAMPLE: #MUFC’s dominance in the left was seen in multiple formats which include:

(A) Construction of triangles — to cross, create space and perform third-man runs.

(B) Rashford dribbles > cutbacks.

(C) Overlaps from Luke Shaw.

(D) Long balls from deep to find runners.

So how did #MUFC move the ball?

In the first half — they looked to build-up *and* progress to the left flank to create opportunities to exploit #LIV’s high line i.e long balls, overlaps.

Directness improved in the second half with a more dangerous forward presence.

A Thread about the best test batsmen 1/25
#India #Aus #NZ #Stats #Cricket

A #statistical breakdown

Kane Williamson: 7115 runs @ 54.31, 24x100s
Virat Kohli: 7318 runs @ 53.41, 27x100s
Steve Smith: 7368 runs @ 61.91, 27x100s

Smith here has the best average by a fair way.

But the joy of cricket is in its intricacies so let’s dive a little deeper. At home the 3 batsmen are absolute run machines.

Kane Williamson: 3788 runs @ 65.31 13x100s
Virat Kohli: 3558 runs @ 68.42 13x100s
Steve Smith: 3485 runs @ 68.33 14x100s

Here their statistics are very similar.

However it is worth noting how hard it is to bat in each of these countries. These figures reflect the average runs of each players team mates in the last 10 years.

Australia: 44.27 runs/wicket
New Zealand: 42.28
India: 44.17

These numbers would suggest that it is slightly harder for New Zealanders to bat in New Zealand. However, the quality of batsmen from New Zealand is definitely lower than the other two countries in the last decade, despite recent improvements.

The class of a batsman is often determined by their record away from home. So how do the stats add up in this regard?
Kane Williamson: 2680 runs @ 42.53 with 9x100s
Virat Kohli: 3760 runs @ 44.23 with 14x100s
Steve Smith: 3609 runs @ 60.15 with 13x100s