Ignore the intro, it's a lie. We take up the big Arsenal - Man City match from Sunday and what it tells us about the two clubs and try to intervene in the high-spirited but somewhat misguided discourse that's arisen from the match. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Villa and Liverpool both have underlying numbers are running well behind expectations after four games, but also their slow starts are reflected very differently in the actual table. We get into what's gone wrong so far on tactical and personnel levels, how much we expect things to bounce back, and how much the real points they've taken affect this…

Nuno Espirito Santo has been sacked by one of the Premier League's more chaotic owners, we talk about that drama and the added factor that Forest hired Ange Postecoglou to replace him, a manager practically his absolute tactical opposite. Plus we talked USMNT a bit. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Most of the headline business on deadline way was as expected, but we found both some unexpected transfers lower down the table to discuss. And we consider what it means that the Premier League, and especially the top of the Premier League, spent so much money this summer. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Liverpool struggled badly against Newcastle while City lost to Spurs, and both matches captured the current tactical meta in different ways. We walk through the history of where the extreme control tactics of contemporary football came from and how clubs are now responding to control with different versions of chaos, pressing, athleticism and direc…

Arsenal got the three points, but their close-fought 1-0 victory over Manchester United felt strange to watch and was a major statistical outlier in a number of ways. We are joined by CBS Sports' James Benge to discuss what he saw from Arsenal in their opening match and what it might mean for the season. Follow James online: https://bsky.app/profil…

It's that time again! We go through all 20 Premier League teams, draft our favorites, and talk about why we picked them. Part II of course available at http://patreon.com/doublepivot Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

We talk about strategies for staying in the Premier League as a promoted side, how much harder it's gotten, what approaches are being employed by Leeds, Sunderland and Burnley, and why we think this season one of them breaks the streak. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Who do you got? Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

We are joined by Sophie Lawson to discuss the Women's Euros, which were heading into their semifinals as we were recording. How Spain have established themselves as the best in Europe, why Germany have made the semis but still disappointed so far, how England have shown fight but not yet the quality of ball that they need, and how Italy are just It…

Talking about all the agreeable soccer analytics you can listen to if you join at https://www.patreon.com/c/doublepivot And if you do, here's how to join the Discord https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266-Getting-Discord-access Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

The deal is still held up in contractual, semi-legal limbo, but we talk about Gibbs-White and analyzing players based on per-90 and per-touch metrics, and whether this is a risk worth taking for Tottenham. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Summer means transfer talk but also maybe a teensy bit of international football. We discuss Malik Tillman to Bayer Leverkusen as well as Malik Tillman within the context of the USMNT. And we talk about Nico Williams to Barcelona, why it hasn't gone through yet, and what the plan is for him at Barca. Support the show…

Chelsea has not yet completed most of the many transactions they're reported to be working on, but certainly it looks like another summer for churn. And our question is, why. Support the show

With Crystal Palace in danger of missing out on Europe due to their ownership situation, and Chelsea being, you know, the way that they are, we felt it was time to talk to an actual expert about what private equity is and what is new about private equity ownership in sports. So we asked George Pearkes, all-around finance knower on social media and …

Tottenham are hiring Brentford's manager to replace Ange Postecoglou. Frank has been adaptable in his career with a few consistent tendencies, and we've got some takes. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Manchester City appear to be moving in the June window, with transfers for Rayan Cherki and Rayan Ait Nouri advancing, rumors around Tijjani Reijnders and Tino Livramento hanging around, and we look at a very strange season and what all of this might mean. Support the show

We're playing team of the season but with a twist. We each have to draft a separate, reasonably coherent XI of the players who were the best and the most productive in the Premier League in the last season. Did we pick your favorite players? Did we terribly disrespect your team? Check it out. Support the show…

It starts with the fullbacks. It appears very likely that with Trent leaving, Liverpool will sign both Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez. Both good players at good prices, but neither can replace the ball progression and midfield creativity of Alexander-Arnold. So what else will need to happen to make this team competitive at the highest level? Sup…

Real Madrid are reportedly making two major changes, dropping Carlo Ancelotti for Xabi Alonso and bringing in Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold as a right sided defender and ludicrous passer. We discuss how all of this may, or may not, but probably will, but exactly how well will it work out? Support the show…

The second leg was somehow even better than the first. We talk the stats and tactics from an incredible match, what we've learned about Hansi Flick and Barcelona this season, sing the praises of Inter Milan and Inzaghi, and talk a bit about the future of Barcelona. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

We take a mailbag question on the math of goal difference, projecting points from goals, and what it tells us about the game of soccer. This one is for the nerds. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Four big teams, two big games, Arsenal vs PSG, Barcelona vs Inter, it's a soccer analytics podcast. Support the show

We are joined by Dan Davies, author of the fantastic new book The Unaccountability Machine, to talk about the book and the new ways of thinking about business and capitalism that he introduces, and then to discuss how this model of thinking can help explain why European football is the way it is. The Unaccountability Machine: https://press.uchicago…

We break down Arsenal's big win, Real Madrid's toothlessness, Inter's away result, and why we continue to see PSG and Barcelona as the best remaining teams in the tournament, probably the best teams in the entire world. And that brings us to Lamine Yamal, who is good. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

No football just literature and history. A Drop of Corruption: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735559/a-drop-of-corruption-by-robert-jackson-bennett/ Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Tactics Tom is in charge for England the results were the same and the football was not scintillating but it was tactically distinct and interesting to discuss. So we had Grace Robertson of graceonfootball.com join us to discuss it. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

We are joined by the Athletic's Adam Crafton to discuss his and his colleagues' reporting on Manchester United, what's happened since Jim Ratcliffe took over, what they claim they're doing and what it means for the club. And then we also discuss the increasingly explicit American political context of the upcoming World Cup and international soccer …

We are joined by financial journalist (and soccer and cycling fan) Ben Walsh to learn about the great sport of road racing, the background of INEOS as a sports ownership group, and how fans of cycling were well ahead of the curve on what to expect from Ratcliffe at Manchester United. Check out Ben's newsletter, The Bender: https://bendwalsh.substac…

Big matches in the Serie A title race get their due and then we talk about the team with the best underlying numbers in the Premier League recently, which as you surely all know is Crystal Palace. Palace: https://bsky.app/profile/scott.cannonstats.com/post/3ljdm73v3wn2o Ovalle: https://bsky.app/profile/lawsonsv.bsky.social/post/3ljjheamocs26 Suppor…

Huge six-pointers all around and we take stock of the teams we covered last week (City, Forest, Newcastle, Chelsea, Bournemouth) and ask how much we need to think further about Brighton and Villa after they made up ground. Simon Tinsley's PL projections: https://analytic-fpl.streamlit.app/ Support the show…

There are probably right now five teams in a race for three spots. We take a close look at Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, City, Bournemouth and Newcastle and handicap the race. It's a close one! Simon's projection website: https://analytic-fpl.streamlit.app/ Support the show

We wrote an article on financialization and soccer for Bloomberg, and it helped us crystallize our thinking on the state of the business of football. On labor costs and competition, on regulation and financialization, on Covid-era changes in the economic environment, on oligarch and state ownership and what it means for solidarity in the capital cl…

After multiple contradictory developments, Tottenham landed Mathys Tel on loan from Bayern and also signed a deal with Bayern and Tel for an option that remains hard to pin down. We talk about the story here and how it probably went down (we disagree a little on this!) and what kind of player Tel is and what Tottenham can expect. Support the show…

Two big matches between teams in the chase for the Champions League places. What we learned from City's new tactical approach, how Chelsea approached this match, and how Bournemouth won big. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Another weekend, another loss, another tumble further into the bottom half of the table for Tottenham and United. We talk about the problem of what a club should do when things are bad and yet there isn't a lot to be done immediately and they really just need a longer-term strategy or better execution of such. Support the show…

Manchester City are adding Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis in the same window and maybe also Andrea Cambiaso. Will these signings fix the crisis at Man City? Support the show

Usually when things look a little funky in the Premier League table, you can count on an analytics podcast to tell you it's mostly variance. But this season, the wide open race for top four or five really reflects a pile-up of pretty good teams. We walk through these contenders and how they've gotten here. Support the show…

A new financial fair play / registration crisis at Barcelona as a judge backs La Liga's determination that they cannot register Dani Olmo under La Liga FFP, setting him up for free agency. But Barcelona's financial situation has changed a lot in the last couple years, and the possible negative effects of this are not as stark as they were potential…

It is still the most interesting statistical and tactical story in the Premier League. In world football probably. Pep Guardiola is trying some new tweaks on his system and his team keeps dropping points. We talk through what's changed since the slide began, what happened against Everton, and what to expect in the transfer window. Support the show…

Leicester City fired Steve Cooper a few weeks ago, and this weekend the two managers in 19th and 20th place in the Premier League, Gary O'Neil of Wolves and Russell Martin of Southampton, both got the sack. We take a look at the very different stories of these three clubs, what we expect from the relegation race this season, and the trend of defens…

Jim Ratcliffe sacked his Sporting Director Dan Ashworth after a pretty short term. It is not a hopeful moment for the new football system at United. We discuss what we know about how their football operations work and then move from there to talking about new manager Ruben Amorim, his system, and how the players are fitting together. Adam Crafton a…

It's a very exciting season in Italy, with multiple teams in touching distance of first place and no obvious favorite yet in December. We walk through Napoli, Atalanta, Inter, Fiorentina, Juventus, Lazio and Milan. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

Five losses in a row, three in the league. And it's not really a five-match thing, the losses are somewhat fluky but performances have been down badly at City ever since Rodri got injured. We break down what's (relatively) wrong with City and why we're skeptical it can be wholly fixed. Support the show…

We are joined by official Double Pivot English Correspondent Grace Robertson to discuss the new England manager Thomas Tuchel (who is not actually managing England yet) and what to expect from this team over the coming World Cup cycle. Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

(This is a subscriber episode from October, now unlocked for all listeners.) Poker pro Jonathan Jaffe joins the pod to talk all things stats and the practical ways we think about using probability to make decisions. See the GTO LAB podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@GTOLAB Support the showMike Goodman and Michael Caley által

The first manager sacked in the Premier League is Manchester United's Eric Ten Hag. He has not done a particularly good job, but there are few hallmarks of good process in his sacking. Support the show

We talk about Liverpool - Chelsea, City's struggles, Arsenal's, well, you know, and whether there is truly a big three in the Premier League as we expected. And then on to the real stuff: the Netflix romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, on which we have so many takes. Support the show

We take questions from the Double Pivot discord on these topics, we remember some center backs who scored goals, and we fight the urge to throw out the script and do a pod on Nobody Wants This. Support the show

It's in our wheelhouse.* What exactly did a legal review panel find in relation to the Premier League's "associated party transaction" rules, why are City and the PL spinning this ruling so aggressively, what is an ownership loan anyhow, and what's to come next for the financial regulation of English soccer? * we also learn the etymology of 'wheelh…