1
Diverse analysis
We’ve commented here before on the growing analytics revolution in the world of soccer, with clubs employing increasingly sophisticated tactics to identify and rate talent. The pandemic has accelerated this, with scouts largely unable to travel and attend games to assess players live, as Paul MacInnes reports in The Guardian. One example is Jay Socik, who earned (relative) fame tweeting about Sheffield United and has now worked for several Football League clubs.
“There has been a massive influx of people doing public work, be it on social media or writing blogs who have now been swallowed up by clubs,” Socik says. “I’m one myself and I could reel off 10, 12 examples in the past 12 months. Right now club staff are educated to know about data but the level to which they understand it, because they’re so busy with everything else, is not the same. So I think we will continue to see more and more paid positions going to people who are out there doing the work on social media. It’s where the expertise lies right now.”
Not unlike baseball in the 2000s, this is leading to the employment of many amateur analysts at clubs - though with a diverse and welcome twist perhaps only the global game can provide, with a teenager from Bengaluru earning a role with Dundee United.
England plays a sport that is as statistic-heavy as anything from the US, and Ashwin Raman grew up in India first and foremost a cricket fan. Indeed he started watching football purely to apply an analytical eye to matches. But the 17-year-old from Bengaluru, who is a recruitment consultant at Dundee United, is the kind of diverse appointment that the popularisation of data in football has made possible.
2
Not Fox Soccer World
For those of us in the United States who used to seek out glimpses of live European soccer at Italian restaurants or ponied up for expensive pay-per-view packages, the importance of obtaining rights to the sport for top networks being mentioned in the same breath as the National Football League still feels somewhat surreal. But here we are, via SBJ:
ViacomCBS will lean heavily on live NFL and soccer programming to drive subscriptions to Paramount+, its streaming service that officially launches March 4. Paramount+ will carry every NFL game that is available on CBS. During a web presentation yesterday, CBS Entertainment Group President & CEO George Cheeks said the NFL drives more streaming subscriptions than any other programming, while UEFA brings more new subs than any sports partner, except the NFL.
3
Rating soccer
It’s worth remembering, though, that the most popular properties in American soccer are not the European leagues or Major League Soccer. Ratings continue to grow for Liga MX, and unlike many sports, ratings are up versus pre-pandemic days:
Though a little dated, this chart from World Soccer Talk is a reminder of this reality - and why talks of closer collaboration between MLS and Liga MX, including a merger perhaps in the next decade, isn’t going away.
4
Rose-tinted memories
Well done to the LA Galaxy on not only releasing an excellent new jersey that nods to the club’s past, but doing so with a pretty sweet animated video - a good solution to pandemic-era kit launches.
5
Costly change
Progress can be a brutal bulldozer. As investment in women’s football grows at a dramatic pace, with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid finally joining the party, independent clubs in Europe who have enjoyed success historically are rapidly becoming collateral damage, Rory Smith reports at The New York Times.
While that investment is welcome and overdue, it is not without cost. Across the continent, the teams that did so much to sustain and grow women’s soccer before the money arrived, the clubs that constitute so much of its history, have found it all but impossible to compete: England’s Doncaster Belles, Spain’s Rayo Vallecano, Italy’s A.S.D. Torres, even Turbine Potsdam of Germany, a two-time Champions League winner. Glasgow City, champion of Scotland for 13 years in a row, knows it can hold out for only so long now that Rangers and Celtic are showing an interest in the women’s game.
6
Wizzing into the future
How to evolve a club’s identity - rather than uprooting it - is a delicate challenge that many MLS teams are struggling with. The much-cited example of Sporting KC’s 2011 rebranding behind some of the recent moves misses a critical point or two: that club’s transformation in brand was a part of a larger, complete transformation of the club as a whole. Alongside a new name, KC moved to what was then the best stadium in the league after years of groundhopping, they improved markedly on the field contending for and winning trophies almost immediately, and they were moving away from a name and brand that was, well, a little challenging to embrace and had already been changed once (Wiz > Wizards). The Guardian digs into some of the mixed reactions to brand identity shifts in MLS.
New isn’t always better, though, and rebrands aren’t always popular. In fact, over 5,000 aggrieved Montreal fans have signed a petition in protest at the club’s new identity. “We weren’t expecting the Impact to do something so drastic,” Felipe Vera, a member of the Ultras Montreal group that launched the petition, told the Montreal Gazette. “To change something like that, it’s kind of like saying what happened before is no longer considered.” The Chicago Fire’s 2020 rebrand caused such disgruntlement among supporters that the club has already vowed to design a new badge for next year.
7
Distant corners
This looks like it should be a cracking read: especially on the back of 12 months when traveling to distant lands to watch the beautiful game has been but a dream.
8
Beyond the mix
Chicago’s newest professional soccer team set the bar high with a launch video that pulled off the neat trick of placing the club’s identity into the rich layers of the city’s diverse history - while looking forward to a vibrant new chapter that House aims to be part of. No mean feat.
9
Me against my team
Believe it or not, I started writing this entry about whether Jose Mourinho had been trolling the world by holding back on unleashing Gareth Bale and Dele Alli in the Premier League - and lo and behold, Bale scores within two minutes against Burnley.
At Four Four Two, Andrew Murray has a deeper thought on why Mourinho is man-managing in an increasingly belligerent way.
Long gone is the early ‘us against the world’ Mourinho era where he would defend his players ad infinitum. This is purest self-protectionism and follows an increasingly familiar path. Dig out the player (usually their attitude or mentality), limit their game time, employ extensive verbal and physical gesticulation as if to say “well, you see what happens when I listen to others” after eventually affording said player excuse minutes. Should the player actually return to the mean, well, then bask in the glory of your own coaching splendour. He’s good at that, you might have noticed.
10
Risky investment
What will the pullback on Chinese investment in football mean for European clubs? Swiss Ramble points out there will be many loose ends to tie up, with no little risk not only for the clubs directly involved.
11
1938
Black History Month comes to a close today, and there’s been a bounty of great discussion, interviews and good-cause merchandising in the world of soccer. We’re particularly partial to this delight from Forward Madison FC.