Cultured Football #158

Changing Football. End of Season Lethargy. Economists Explain Decline of Football. Spurs. Left-backs

Apr 20, 2024

By Duncan Hunter, Scott Johnson and Conor Sharpe for StatsBomb

Football is changing. We know that but we don’t really appreciate just how much that is true until we compare it with past. And then we realise that it is REALLY changing. “A Big 5 team finishing the season with a pass completion rate of 77% in 2015/16 would have been slightly above average -- in the modern game, 77% would land you in the 25th percentile. Pass completion has gone up consistently almost every season since our records began.” The visuals on how goal kicks have changed over past decade is breathtaking.

When Teams Have Nothing To Play For

By Jason McKenna for Analytics FC

Have you ever successfully finished a really big and difficult project at work? If so, you’ll probably know that for the following few days you didn’t put in as much as effort into your work is usual, not because you wanted but it is an unconscious reaction. Which probably gives you an idea what players who ‘have nothing to play for’ feel.

Thomas Piketty and the decline of football

By Jonathan Wilson for UnHerd

In recent weeks I have been writing on-and-off an article about the importance of competitivity in football. Then this article pops up, using the work of major economists to analyse that same problem with such depth that made me scrap the whole project.

Bonus Pick by Ben Morse for CNN: What the Premier League does with its billions of dollars is riling 72 other soccer clubs. This week’s decision to scrap FA Cup replays has not helped the situation. It is very much looking like ‘Peasants vs. Marie Antoinette’.

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Tottenham: To Compete is to Defend

By
elevenify
for
elevenify

Early on in the season, it looked as if Tottenham might actually be set to make a surprise run on the title. Whilst their play has improved from previous season, they haven’t kept that early consistency going with their challenge ending up being that of getting into the Champions League rather than claiming the title. Casual viewers like myself put that down to a thin squad and missing Son Heung-min for a chunk of season. Yet their failure to get more points also has a structural component to it.

Transfer market analysis: Scouting for Premier League left-back alternatives

By Petar Petrov

This is the time of year when thoughts of many fans start shifting to the summer and the names that their club should be looking to bring ahead of a new season. That of left-back seems to be a problem position for a lot of clubs which makes this deep-dive into three possible solutions particularly interesting.

Every Saturday, Cultured Football brings you five great football articles you will enjoy reading.

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Last Week’s Most Read: After 40-year wait, Athletic finally set sail on the gabarra

By Sid Lowe for ESPN

Much of what I know about geography comes from my interest in football. Indeed, football is a fantastic way to learn about different cultures, traditions and ideals. And it is never too late to learn new things. This week, for instance, I got to know about Bilbao’s gabarra and I strongly feel that you should too.

Bonus Pick [Neel Shelat for Fotmob]: Of course, the celebrations on gabarras witnessed in Bilbao this week were due to the Copa del Rey win for which manager Ernesto Valverde deserves a lot of praise.