How High, How Wide? How Each Premier League Team Uses Their Full-Backs
By Oliver Hopkins for The Analyst
Premier League full-backs are no longer defined simply by their ability to defend wide areas. Some push high into attacking positions, others drift into midfield, while certain teams favour a more restrained approach. Regardless of how they are used, the only constant for full-backs is their growing importance.
Turns Out Manchester United Really Are That Broke
By Pauly Kwestel for Kwest Thoughts
Manchester United have been in the news a fair bit this week. But, whilst most of the attention has been on the goings-on in the dugout, with Michael Carrick making way for Mauricio Pochetino, the recently published accounts should be commanding just as much attention. Because, whilst the money keeps coming in, it is also going out at a fast pace.
The Power of the Moving Crowd: On the March With Stade Rennais Fans
By Guirec Munier for Lower Block
On matchdays in Rennes, Milan and Turin, Stade Rennais supporters take their songs and colours into the streets long before kick-off. Following the Roazhon Celtic Kop this photo-essay looks at how such marches turn public spaces into expressions of collective identity.
Each week on Cultured Football we pick the five great football stories from the previous seven days.
When to Fire your Coach - For Dummies
By Mauro's box
Judging by these past few days, it seems that there is agreement that, if you want to change managers through the season, an international break is the ideal time to do that. Drawing on examples from across European football, this is a thoughtful, occasionally humorous look at when a managerial change is justified and when it is just a case of impatience.
How Germany’s greatest goalscorer is guiding the next generation
By Alex Bysouth for the BBC
Hard work and a hunger to learn defined Miroslav Klose's career that saw him go from amateur football to becoming Germany's greatest goalscorer. Now managing Nuremberg, he is applying those same principles to developing one of the youngest squads in German football.
Bonus Pick: A Season In Marseille
By Paul Grech for Cultured Football
In Marseille, Olympique de Marseille is more than a football club: its fortunes are closely tied to the identity of a city shaped by pride, politics and a powerful sense of belonging. George Boxall has written a book - FADA!: A Season in Marseille - to explore the complicated relationship between supporters, their club and the place they call home.
Introducing Cultured Picks
Every month on Substack Notes, I’m sharing a handful of football-related objects that will have captured my attention; books, magazines, films, photography, clothing, design and anything else that explores the game’s culture.
The idea is simple: just like every week I share five articles I believe people will enjoy reading, every month I will be sharing those finds that I feel you would enjoy owning. At least if your tastes are anything close to mine.
Most people find Cultured Football through someone else. Be that link.
In Case You Missed It Here’s Last Week’s Most Read: How an unknown Greek side became one of football’s coolest clubs
By Krishan Davis for Goal
They may well be playing in Greece’s second tier, but Athens Kallithea’s reputation now extends well beyond the country’s borders. Since their takeover in 2021, the club have developed a distinctive identity that has attracted admirers around the world. Yet, whilst the celebrated shirt designs have been getting the headlines this is not simply a marketing effort but there is serious ambition to build a club capable of competing at the highest level.
That’s all for issue 285. See you all next week.
Hey Paul, every home game at Easter Road, Leith(Edinburgh) for several years in the 60’s through the 70’s I watched Hibernian/Hibs, who had a succession of full-backs who also functioned as highly effective wingers, whipping crosses over from the corner flag onto the heads and feet of the world-class forwards and half-backs of the time - Alan Gordon, Jimmy O’Rourke and Pat Stanton come to mind, and Eric Schaedler was the finest attacking left-back I’ve ever seen. The concept is not new, at least in Scotland 🙂
I love it! Thanks!!