“As we enter, once more, into the depressingly-inevitable annual period of more-widespread and focused moral outrage reserved for poppy-refusenik James McClean, it is refreshing to encounter a more considered contribution to the debate from a proponent of the Remembrance symbol, as opposed to the usual abusive, outraged, reactionary and knee-jerk bully-boyism we have come to expect in relation to the matter. The author of this contribution, ‘DowntheMannyRd’, offers sincerity and good will in encouraging James McClean to reconsider his refusal to wear a poppy this November.” backpagefootball

“Camus’ aphorism, often misquoted as ‘what I know most surely about morality…I learned from football’, is a favourite of high-brow fans of sport and t-shirt printers everywhere. It is, of course, a reference to his experiences playing in goal for the RUA, the Algiers Racing University football team, and the Montpensier Sports Club. He started playing for them at the age of fifteen and quickly made a good impression. Jonathan Wilson’s beautiful book on ‘keeping, The Outsider, the title of which is surely a conscious echo of Camus’ novel, describes in detail some of his recollections of playing. He was praised for his bravery and his abilities in goal, and was even once knocked out taking a powerful shot straight to the chest, a forewarning of the tuberculosis that would force him to hang up his gloves and, from that point on, only participate in football as a spectator.” Put Niels In Goal

“More than ever, the cold hard financial reality of dropping out of the Premier League is firmly at the forefront of club owners’ minds, so it is relatively unsurprising to see Tim Sherwood flung onto the managerial scrapheap alongside Dick Advocaat. Both men hit a simple goal after coming in late on last season- to survive- and both oversaw a terrible run of results at the start of 2015-16. That’s the crux here, throughout the history of the game results have been the fundamental currency for measuring success and underlying metrics and strategies run a distant second to losing six straight and eight of ten when gauging a manager’s survival chances. Sherwood’s season win percentage was closer to none than second to none and that was that.” Stats Bomb

“Now without this being another cliché attack on the English game, whether it be grassroots or transfer fees, I’m talking about an issue much closer to home, and when I say home, I mean the hallowed turf, our homes away from home. Ticket prices have come under scrutiny a lot as of late, but my concern comes from another area. As a young child, most of us fall in love with football after that first step into a roaring stadium. Beyond the mist of cigarette smoke and smell of burgers, there lived some magic, something which engulfed all of us, but as the generations age and the game moves forward, so has the passion some fans share.” backpagefootball

“… The field of public soccer analytics has a left-handed-pitcher problem. Since it consists of so many events, baseball is fertile ground for analytics. A whopping 143 players in Major League Baseball had more than 500 plate appearances this season. Meanwhile, in the Premier League last season, only seven players took 100 shots, and only two had more than 50 shots on target. To get around that problem, most of the advances in soccer analytics have come from working with aggregates. Whether it’s some of the more basic concepts (like total shots ratio or comparative shots on target) or slightly more opaque metrics (like expected goals), the process comes from looking at the totals across leagues and then drawing conclusions.” Grantland

“After such a draining international break for us Americans, there will be no hard-core analysis here this week. It’s a nice time to introduce and use a few new tools to take a look at some of the more extreme early teams as far as chance creation. Following Paul Riley’s lead, I’ve opened up chance/deep completion maps for the big 4 European Leagues (he’s taken care of the EPL quite nicely). It’s a tableau workbook with every pass ending within 30 yards of goal for every team with all kinds of filters available. If you want to see only long-balls that wind up incomplete tried by Sassuolo, you can. If you want to see only chances created from the left half-space by Koln, go ahead. These will ideally be updated every two weeks.” Stats Bomb

“For Villarreal, standing atop the La Liga summit for the first time in their history, 2015/16 represents a culmination of an extraordinary rejuvenation. European semi-finalists three times since 2003, domestic runners-up in ’08, yet relegated in 2011; they are perennial overachievers beset by an implausible penchant for self-destruction. Never the bride, yet their presence on the guestlist is achievement enough.” Outside of the Boot

“Ever sat down to send a tweet, and no matter how hard you try, simply can’t fit in everything you want to say in 140 characters? Well, at this very moment in time, I’m trying to condense the world of non-league football, with its dozens of leagues, hundreds of teams and thousands of players into one simple yes or no answer. Is the game below the Football League working? Every fibre of my body wants to be able to type a big fat yes, but the reality is that the game at this level is too vast to say that in a convincing manner.” Football Pink

“Once more as we enjoy the plot and intrigue surrounding the league boiling up to a deliciously non-tepid level, the all important momentum is halted by the intervention of a wholly undesired and largely trivial wander into the international arena. That said, the time off gives plenty of time for recruitment and sadly i’m going to have to rule myself out of the running for the Sunderland job; the threat of relegation is simply too great a risk at this stage of my managerial career and I feel the organisation has not sufficiently embraced the modern analytical methods I espouse…” Stats Bomb

“A lot has been made of the rise of counter attacking as a tactic in the Premier League this season, but there is nothing particularly new about it. It is not as if more teams are doing it than before, but it is being highlighted because the likes of West Ham, Leicester and Crystal Palace have had notable successes playing that way. What I think has changed is that more managers understand the need for pace.” BBC

“When playing against a team that sits behind the ball and focuses on maintaining a compact defensive unit, using a target player has its benefits. Many teams will concede that they have inferior levels of playing ability to their opposition and so will see fit to ‘park the bus’. In a compact team, the gaps between each player will be small and so their opponents will find it difficult, not only to play penetrative passes between these gaps but will also struggle to find space to receive the ball between the defensive blocks, i.e between the defensive line and midfield line. One way in which the side in possession can break these lines, however, is by utilizing a target man.” Outside of the Boot

Long ball
In association football (soccer), a long ball is an attempt to move the ball a long distance down the field via a cross, without the intention to pass it to the feet of the receiving player. In Continental Europe the style is called kick and rush. It is a technique that can be especially effective for a team with either fast or tall strikers.^[2] The long ball technique is also a through pass from distance in an effort to get the ball by the defensive line and create a foot race between striker and defender. While often derided as either boring or primitive, it can prove effective where players or weather conditions suit this style; in particular, it is an effective counter-attacking style of play in which some defenders can be caught off-guard. …” Wikipedia

“After weeks of patiently waiting for new information we are now aware of some of the Football Manager 2016 New Features with the game due for release on November 13th. For the first time ever, you will be able to customise the appearance of your manager and see him on the touchline. This will include being able to alter height, clothing colours and upload a profile picture to get an image that looks like you or the real life manager/player that you are looking to emulate.” Squawka

Football Manager 2016 Features, Screenshots & FM16 Videos
“Finally some of the new Football Manager 2016 features have been announced throught out the last day, something I have been eagerly anticipating for a 3 month time. While Football Manager 2016 will be available for PC, MAC and Linux, Sports Interactive have not forgotten about the tablet and mobile users by introducing an all new line up of different Football Manager 2016 versions giving you the chance to play FM16 wherever and whenever – building on the mantra of FM15. New this year is Football Manager Touch 2016 and Football Manager Mobile 2016.” Passion4 (Video)

“When Moussa Sissoko moved to Tyneside from Toulouse in the January of 2013, it was a classic Newcastle United signing. A 23-year-old French international, with bags of potential, signed for a knock down fee with just six months remaining on his contract.” backpagefootball

“Global Soccer Network‘s main target is it to revolutionize the modern day scouting in soccer. Influenced by ‘Moneyball’, Michael Lewis’ international bestseller, they have considered possibilities of how scouting in professional football could become more effective and created their unique rating system, the GSN-Index. We thank Dustin Bottger, CEO of Global Soccer Network, for his time and valuable insight.” Outside of the Boot

“Sporting website The42.ie have published a selection of interesting insights, garnered from a discussion between Paul Fennessy and Cormac Moore about the latter’s new book The Irish Soccer Split, in a piece entitled, ‘Why don’t we have an all-Ireland soccer team and will we ever see one?’  The Irish Football Association (IFA), founded in Belfast in 1880, was, of course, the original football association in Ireland and was, at that time, officially representative of the entire island. It remained the sole national governing body for a period of over forty years.” backpagefootball