🎙 @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

🎙 @Pirlo_official: "How do you get to the first team? You have to be good... Fagioli joined after Portanova's departure, he will be a part of the group but will still be able to play for the #Under23s."

#SampJuve

🎙 @Pirlo_official: "Today everyone should be able to train with the group apart from @PauDybala_JR, but we hope he is on the right track too. We have a tour de force of matches coming up, it will be necessary from time to time to see who is better."

#SampJuve

🎙 @Pirlo_official: "Tomorrow, @federicochiesa will start from the beginning. @WMckennie? He is guy who has a great desire to improve, and can do it. He has good room for growth and has the right mentality."

#SampJuve

🎙 @Pirlo_official: "Against tight defences you need to be patient - we know that Sampdoria will try to be compact. Ranieri keeps the lines very tight, we will have to try to widen them."

#SampJuve

Here's a look at some of my prefered #UCLFantasy options ahead of MD7.

⚽️ Goalkeepers

🇧🇷 Ederson €6.0m - Part of a great defence and free of rotation which always is a worry with City players. And who knows, he might even take a penalty soon 😅

#FPLCommunity #UCL

🇵🇱 Szczesny €5.5m - A bit cheaper than most of the other top clubs keepers and with Porto coming up twice, he should at least get one CS.

🇩🇪 Hitz €4.1m - Dortmund not in great shape and he has produced a couple of errors in the last weeks. Should start if Bürki 🚑 remains out.

⚽️ Defenders

🇩🇪 Kimmich €6.6m - Expensive, but most likely worth it. 4 assists in his last 3 games 🅰️ 🔥

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Man. City defence - Take your 🔵 pick here. Cancelo currently is the most attacking one with Stones/Dias also providing some goal threat. Rotation the usual caveat.

🇪🇸 Angelino €5.4m - The wing-back is still Leipzig's top scorer with 4 goals + 6 assists so far this season ⚽️🅰️

🇧🇷 Danilo €5.0m - The cheapest way into Juventus' backline.

🇪🇸 Hermoso €4.2m - Enabler from Atletico's defence. Playing v Chelsea who don't score too many atm.

🇫🇷 Kounde €4.1m - Another cheap pick, this time from Sevilla. Many #UCLFantasy managers already had him in their teams for the group stage.

⚽️ Midfielders

🇪🇬 Salah €11.6m - Even though Liverpool is struggling atm, he still finds a way to score in a lot of games.

Pith: Behind the Western Guilt Complex

My take on the courage deficit afflicting us.

One of the defining characteristics of our society is a sense of guilt.

This guilt manifests itself in the way we bend over backwards for marginalised groups, and the way we defend weakness with ferocity.

White guilt, LGBT allies and male feminists abound.

Obesity is championed as body positivity.

People are villainised and ostracised for their lack of feeling for those who struggle. You are a bad person if you are against redistribution.

Our judgement of people's character primarily takes place through this lens.

Empathy, rather than courage, has the moral high ground.

I say this merely as an observation, rather than to dismiss the merits of empathy as a virtue.

I've long wondered why this is, and have been presented with various explanations.

One is colonial and slaver guilt - that we feel ashamed of the horrors we committed as the British Empire and as white slavers in the US.

Another is our culture's roots in Christianity, where the notion of original sin breeds a sense of shame.

Read this small thread to know why #GabbaTest win is so special. 👇

1. India didn't had it's key players playing like Rahul and kohli. So it was always a pressure situation. Even you not see on face but it lies well within them

2. Big players like Ishant, shami, umesh and Bhuvi were injured

3. Rahane was New captain with very few experience in Captaincy. He only captained 4 matches before it.

4. Gabba was the ground or I would say fortress of Australia where it was unbeaten for past 33 years

Thread:

Are Man Utd recent wins as a result of Individual brilliance from Paul Pogba or coached & tactics?

Fulham 1 vs. 2 Man Utd — Tactics #MUFC

Much has been made of the wins against Burnley, Wolves, Fulham as United are winning games narrowly with "Individual Brilliance". They are not dominating games. "Scrappy wins", if you will, and said this form will not be sustainable. #MUFC

Let's look at the Fulham game:

United usually buildup in 2 different shapes/patterns:
1. 244(424) or

2. 3-1 shape where one of 2 CMs drop as a 3rd CB to create a 3v2 superiority v the opposition 1st line.

424 shape come from #mufc transitioning quick as mentioned in my threads prev. when #mufc are out of possession their defensive shape 442.

This is not the best ex.👇Sorry

United's shape in the final phase of attack is 235. Luke Shaw is an inverted Winger as AWB stays wide on the other side while Pogba sits in the right half space.

The positioning of the players was great all game.

How Pep changed it to combat Alexander Arnold whilst breathing life into City’s attack 1/

Pep mentioned in his post match interview that he changed the formation at half time in part to combat the threat from Liverpool’s full backs. In a quiet first half Alexander Arnold looked like Liverpool’s main attacking weapon. Both full backs stayed wide and were given space 2/

Alexander Arnold set up a headed chance for Mane in the 25th min. Zinchenko challenges Salah for Henderson’s cross field pass. He can only head it on to Alexander Arnold who’s in space. No one else has picked him up and Zinchenko has a problem 3/

He beats Zinchenko with a nice bit of skill and crosses for Mane to head over 4/

City’s set up had left Alexander Arnold free. Sterling was playing way too far up the pitch to mark him and despite Gundogan playing in a left 8 role he was more often than not dealing with the threat centrally. When Henderson plays the pass we can see their postions 5/

— THREAD —

Reasons I would like United to keep playing the system they played against Aston Villa

United decided to field four midfielders against Aston Villa, but like I mentioned before the game, they didn’t use a diamond and went for their usual 3-1-6/3-2-5 with Pogba higher up the pitch.

This system United played against Villa isn’t new since they used it multiple times this season with Martial instead of Pogba and Cavani instead of Martial. They also used it after the restart but the profiles were completely different as those from this season.

This season, it is much more balanced in my opinion, and the new depth in the team can allow injuries without changing the system. Now, I will look at the various profiles United have upfront to explain why this new system can fit United well.

Rashford drives at players better but also his shooting technique and the way he attacks the channels suit the right better. His goals from the 2018/19 season and the 2020/21 season in the PL are seen below.

Is the reason that we keep on bottling semi-finals a mental thing, or is it just us finally encountering good teams in the tournament?

A factual thread looking at each competition we've gotten to the semi-finals of and lost under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

#Thread #Cricket

It's important that credit should be given to the right individuals where 'coaching' is concerned. Let's not be blind to some leading contributions that have come from lesser-known names.
#TeamIndia #coaches

Blindly crediting a Rahul Dravid or a Ravi Shastri for years of hard work someone else has put in is not fair. Here's a list of individuals responsible for the success of Team India players...
#TeamIndia #coaches #AUSvsIND

Shubhman Gill -- his father Lakhwinder Singh.
Rohit Sharma -- his childhood coach and go-to man Dinesh Lad.
Cheteshwar Pujara -- his dad Arvind Pujara
Ajinkya Rahane -- Pravin Amre
Virat Kohli -- Rajkumar Sharma, Ravi Shastri
Rishabh Pant -- Tarak Sinha, Ricky Ponting

Mayank Agarwal -- RX Murali
Prithvi Shaw -- Santosh Pingutkar (childhood coach), Mak Waingankar (long-time mentor), Raju Pathak (Rizvi)
R Ashwin -- nobody in particular, grew in stature as he played more cricket
Jasprit Bumrah -- the Mumbai Indians set up, and Bharat Arun

Hardik Pandya -- Jitendra Singh in Baroda & Mumbai Indians set-up
Kuldeep Yadav -- Kapil Pandey
Mohammed Siraj -- Bharat Arun
Mohammed Shami -- Badruddin Siddiqui & Bharat Arun
T Natarajan -- Diwakar Vasu
Wriddhiman Saha -- Jayanta Bhowmick
Navdeep Saini -- Bharat Arun

Analyzing Manchester United’s stalemate draw over Liverpool in the Premier League through data and tactical analysis: a thread.

MUFC’s plan was to bypass Liverpool’s high press through vertical *quick* passes and long balls to exploit their lack of senior CB’s but — execution was lacking.

An improvement in presence came came from progressing the ball wide but the final ball was still poor.

Taking a look at the flow of passes:

➾ Manchester United had a higher concentration of passes in their own half and posed little to no threat — but built out the back well under pressure.

➾ Improvement: they were able to exploit Liverpool wide through overlaps and cutbacks.

EXAMPLE: #MUFC build out the back in a series of quick forward passes.

This came from Martial dropping deep to carry — essential. Bruno’s trademark backwards flick that takes Fabinho out of the backline and Rashford’s blindside run here was excellent.

Poor final ball.

Let’s take a closer look at the lack of territorial dominance — issues:

(A) While #MUFC were able to improve their suppression — the right flank was very poor with Pogba tucking into the half-spaces.

(B) #MUFC had poor central penetration — more difficult to score.

Thread:

Highlighting a couple of improvements from United's Europa league R32 win over La Real. #MUFC

La Real 0 v 4 Man Utd — Buildup & Pressing. #RSOMUN

Pressing & traps:

Often #mufc are hasty & over-commit in their pressing, especially from players like Rashford and Bruno. Thus leading their press to be dis-jointed and by-passed easily. On Thursday, they nailed it. They formed a pressing cage around #RSO entire midfield.

Aim was to minimize #RSO creative players' involvement on the ball. In fact, Merino & Silva had the fewest touches of their teammates. Bruno & MG11 focused on cutting passing lanes to midfield instead of rushing the press. MG11 pressed nearside CB when ball went out-wide.

The trigger for United's press was when the ball is played to the FBs. This is where a ball nearside Winger pressed the FB, while the CF closes the ball nearside CB & the CM (Scott) & FB (AWB) pressed the dropping CM (Merino) & LW (Oyarzabal).+CB pressed dropping CF (Izak). #mufc

Buildup:

#MUFC built-up in a 2422 where the CF & CAM dropped to help the buildup. #RSO pressed in 4132 with Silva pushing up. Th improvement was how Fred and Scott communicated & opened up angles for their CBs to cut through the press.+ Bruno dragging Illarramendi OOP.

Since today is #ARSMUN , here is my combined 11 for the two.
I use the 4-3-3 formation, with 2 holding midfielders nd an attacking midfielder .

1.BERND LENO
A tough decision between the two great goal keepers, I go with Bernd.
Though he just edges David

2. AARON WAN-BISSAKA
We all believe Aaron has been better this season compared to the Arsenal right back Bellerin.

3. KIREAN TIERNEY
There is going to be a heated discussion here, Like shaw has been good too. But KT takes this in my line up.

4. ERIC BAILEY
The Ivory coast defender has been good this season and has saved united on several occasions. He slides in this line up with ease

5. HARRY MAGUIRE
The £80M defender will be chosen alongside his teammate in central defence. Their partnership has proven to be the best for ole's side this season

Traditional sports ranking of community strength:

Teams > Players > League

but esports/socialmedia/fantasy/tradingcard-boom/tech-unbundles-everything has shifted things

Players > Teams > League

Players are realizing it. Teams will be wise to adapt fast.

We're doing our best at @weareangelcity to build a world class pro sports club with the new reality in mind.

e.g., For a century, there was tremendous brand + community value in 'putting on the pinstripes' of the NY Yankees bc a player was imbued with the community + brand love from being associated with the club... just like a journalist getting a job with the NY Times...

But now, fans -- the community -- have a direct relationship with the individuals (the players/journalists) who are doing the real work every day. That is a huge power shift... and it's a very good thing for those men + women.

Very different industries, obviously, but Substack-ification of media in 2020 was a preview for a lot of other sectors. Going to be interesting to watch in sports, bc it's the most meritocratic industry, yet still very problematic history between owners + players.

(THREAD)

There will be no real theme throughout this thread like I usually have. Simply wanted to talk about a couple of topics from the past few gameweeks.

Let’s start with Leicester assets that have a great schedule coming up with eve, LEE, ful, wol. It seems like...

Rodgers has decided the front 3 now with Maddison, Barnes and Vardy. Let’s compare them per start over their last 4 games:

Barnes vs Maddison vs Vardy

xG: 0,49 - 0,12 - 0,35
Touches in the box: 5,25 - 1,33 - 6,67
Shots: 3,5 - 2 - 3,33
Shots on target: 1,5 - 0,67 - 0,67

xA: 0,11 - 0,13 - 0,23
Key passes: 0,5 - 2,67 - 0,67
FPL points: 6,5 - 7,67 - 4

Interestingly enough it’s actually Harvey Barnes that has shown the most promise out of the Leicester attack in recent weeks, especially if you look at value for money with Vardy being...

considerably more expensive than Maddison and Barnes. Barnes is the cheapest and the lowest owned Leicester attacker. He is definitely a differential that I am looking towards despite it being tough to fit in all the great midfielders in FPL this season.

Kane vs Son

Kane over the last 3 games (LEE, FUL, shu) vs the previous 3 games (liv, LEI, wol)

FPL points: 29 - 6
Goals: 3 - 0
Assists: 1 - 0

xG: 2,07 - 0,22
xA: 1,64 - 0,05

🎙⭐️ @Pirlo_official & @chiellini are in the house to preview #FCPJuve!

🔴🖥 Follow our presser LIVE on @JuventusTV ➡️ https://t.co/hCNqMpy1if

#JuveUCL #ForzaJuve

🎙 @chiellini: "We are coming from a good period, Saturday's match doesn't hurt us. We are fighting for all of our goals and now another big goal begins. We're going into it with enthusiasm, albeit aware of the obstacles."

#FCPJuve #JuveUCL

🎙 @chiellini: "@FCPorto defend very well, they are a physical team and we will have to be good at breaking them down and avoiding their counter-attacks that can be devastating."

#FCPJuve #JuveUCL

🎙 @chiellini: "We are all four centre-backs of a high level. The choices come down to the coach and for our part we know that we must always be ready, accepting every choice. The team wins, we alternate, and there is a great feeling among us."

#FCPJuve #JuveUCL

🎙 @chiellini: "The emotional aspect will also be important, but we experienced something similar in the #CoppaItalia. In the #UCL there are more pitfalls because the opponents are less known to us, we will have to be good at not making the mistakes of the last two seasons."