—I was the first to sound the alarms on INEOS with detailed explanation. I remember United tacticos trying to defend them because of hope & big names. My insight goes beyond players.
(a thread)
—I announced Arne Slot as a T3 coach in the league via his presence before any game was played and a worthy rival to Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola. My insight goes beyond ordinary analysis.
I don't do too many predictions anymore because they have served their usefulness as a tool for me, but these are two of the major unfolding narratives in the EPL covered above.
Henry's narrative that Arsenal are trying to not lose the title while Liverpool are attacking it is wrong.
It is a narrative that assumes player quality = manager intentions, which is one of the common fundamental errors of team analysis.
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Fans and analysts too often give overwhelming responsibility to the manager for player decisions, quality and luck.
The other argument is that coaches ‘build’ teams and ‘buy’ players so they must yet hold some responsibility for the kind of team they have.
This is also a fundamentally flawed argument.
Coaches, no matter how powerful in modern football, rarely get full say in signings. There is, usually, a transfer committee where interests between the coaching staff, executive management and financial officiers are balanced.
There are too many bad arguments. Perfect preservation when you are relying on documentation by memory is obviously not even possible (unless Allah somehow miraculously made it so).
Then we have various extant manuscripts that doesn't align with the standard Uthman code.
If you claim that all of this is from God, then even slight variations in style, pronunciation, punctuations, much less entire words are necessarily lethal to the claim of divinity. It shows that human error & interference was possible at least in documentation and transmission.
This is all the difference between Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta.
Pep adapts his game model to his player's qualities, especially the forwards. Mikel uses Vieira and Martinelli in the same way as Bukayo Saka. Talent maximization is not completely there, yet.
Although, there's something to be said about the fact that the only big distances runner Arsenal have is Gabriel Martinelli, so that's a good argument for not tweaking the game model enough to suit him.
However, he's a regular & you're meant to get the best out of your regulars.
Part of it is also the fact that Martinelli doesn't have Jesus, a frequent rotator, available. This is why I still don't blame Mikel Arteta much. Because everything can be explained.
For me, however, what cannot be explained is Vieira playing like Bukayo in a friendly
Most ‘Game's Gone’ enthusiasts think that street football is about producing tricks & flips for their wet dreams and highlight reels.
But its true benefit is plenty of touches & opportunities to develop problem-solving skills & personality in a small or irregular format.
Juego De Posicion is about maximizing effectiveness of possession in relation to the game state, the opposition threat and the fundamentals of the game.
It is, primarily, a tool to maximize possession to win, not really a development tool.
Street football, for instance, places kids of different ages together, which can be very challenging for younger ones but can be a platform to stimulate growth, efficiency of play & creativity for those with talent.
Also emphasizes 1-on-1s, small spaces and irregular situations.