Cultured Football #168
Making Austria Great Again. PSR Loophole. Six Copa Stars. Innovating in Football. Data to Fight ACL Injuries.
Austria are everything England are not – and never have been
By Barney Ronay for The Guardian
Whatever happens from now on, Austria have been one of the best surprises of Euro 2024, playing the best football of all teams bar Spain. Their success is down to Ralf Rangnick who, contrary to what was said after his experience at Manchester United, is actually a very sharp coach who can gel a team to perform way beyond the values of the individuals. In short, he is the exact opposite of Gareth Southgate.
Bonus Pick (1): A tactical deep-dive into how Austria play. [
for ]Bonus Pick (2): How the soul-crushing, brain-rotting boredom of England has united all of the three lions’ supporters. [
for ]Why Premier League's 'swap weekend' could be another PSR loophole
By Dan Roan for BBC
The biggest surprise about clubs challenged by PSR using transfer of academy players to get around the sanctions is that it has come as a surprise at all. After all, Barcelona and Juventus had already executed a high-profile transfer with similar intent when Miralem Pjanic was swapped for Arthur. If you’re curious to know why this is happening and what the potential benefit is, this piece is for you.
Six Under-The-Radar Stars to Follow in the 2024 Copa América
By Pedro Coates for Hudl
Given that English clubs seem to have REALLY woken up to the potential of getting young talent from South America, it is worth looking at those players who are likely to be breakout stars of the Copa America (and, yes, I know that not all of those featured are South Americans.
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Innovating an Age-Old Game
By for
It is hard to innovate in a game that has been around for well more than a century. Yet Pep Guardiola has managed to do that thanks to a different take on some old ideas.
Women's Super League clubs unlocking secret weapon to combat ACL injury crisis
By Beth Lindop for the Mirror
With research indicating that female footballers are between two and six times more likely to suffer ACL injuries than their male counterparts, and with a number of high profile ACL injuries, it is clear that more needs to be done to understand why this is happening and how to prevent it. Data could be the key to doing so.
Bonus Pick: Given how most clubs view their women’s team, it will be interesting to see how the independent and highly ambitious London City Lionesses fare next season. [Tom Garry for The Guardian]
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Every Saturday, Cultured Football brings you five great football articles you will enjoy reading.
Last Week’s Most Read: England hit new low with dire performance too bad to be boring
By Jonathan Liew for The Guardian
Typically post-match reactions don’t get anywhere close to inclusion in Cultured Football. But this is quite simply a brilliant piece of writing. Including one paragraph where Liew doesn’t use the letter A simply to prove a point about what England are doing wrong.
Thanks Mister PAUL GRECH for the mention. Great stuff.