KA
@thewittyjack
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human, football methodologist, {لا إله إلا الله}
Joined May 2021
ever wonder why Iniesta was such an effective ball-carrier?. the secret is in the upper-sidefoot contact he made with the ball consistently.
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Brazil's #6 for the next 15 years, their rival to Federico Redondo. the South American answer to Declan Rice. in fact, the closest regeneration of Declan Rice. Gabriel Moscardo. a thread 🧵.
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Josep Guardiola. the Grandmaster who chose pitches over chessboards. a thread:
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Alonso's Leverkusen are what my vision of ideal in-possession football is. Arteta's Arsenal are what my vision of ideal out-of-possession football is. Basque Brilliance.
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i genuinely don't think I've seen anything like Joshua Zirkzee, maybe ever. it's like 05-06 Ronaldinho and 03-04 Henry fused with post-CR7 Benzema all rolled into one. i don't even have the right language to describe how incredible he is.
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Arsenal fans don't know how fortunate they are to watch this caliber of football week-in, week-out. the things I'd do to have Mikel Arteta at my club are unspeakable.
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Michel, Girona's manager, in an underdog situation, 1-0 up, with a full HOUR of play to go. asking his players to "play like you would in the street". with autonomy, expression, ingenuity, self-expression, creativity. this is football, man.
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Pedri does this constantly. almost always DELAYING actions until the last feasible moment, toeing the line between possible and impossible. he just waits, and waits, almost the way Jordan would hang in the air, waiting for earthlings to come down.
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when Zinchenko and Solomon post on IG nobody bats an eye. i think this should tell us all who's being silenced forcefully and oppressively, that being said. FREE PALESTINE, FROM THE RIVER TO THE FUCKING SEA.
🚨Leicester midfielder Hamza Choudhury faces FA action over ‘river to the sea’ post. Comes after emergence of historic pro-Palestine tweets from chair of FA’s inclusion advisory Deji Davies.
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if anyone in Qatar has a job opening that they could afford me, I'd be very appreciative. doesn't have to be in football, anything at all, I'm in financial/life distress, could be homeless soon, I'd love to be able to work and support myself. please share and RT.
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bodies usually move limb-by-limb when moving side to side, but Musiala somehow teleports his entire body there.
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Locatelli, 20! years old, against CL Finalists Spurs. THIS is a midfielder. Allegri, blood on your old, callous hands.
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If Europe found De Zerbi's football enthralling, wait till they they catch up to Gallardo-ball. - maintaining a positional frame, while free-flowing rotations reminiscent of Total Football are at play. Marcelo Gallardo, see you soon, Maestro.
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I've watched Juve win 9 leagues in a row, 2 CL finals, sign arguably the 2nd greatest player ever, win countless battles and legendary matches,. i have never, EVER, felt more proud of my Juve than tonight 🤍🖤
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energy of a meteor, quality of a diamond. how I miss Marco Verratti.
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Busquets challenges convention with how little CONTACT he makes w/ ball. notice how infrequently he touches the ball, moving / standstill. - intelligent bcs doesn't need to sort his feet out (too tall, pressed easily). - minimizes poor-er touches.
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may be the best 45' i have ever seen from Juventus in Europe in the past 15 years. Thiago Motta will reclaim Juve's position amongst European royalty. Nicolo Fagioli is an absolute superstar.
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Federico Redondo is the best on-ball #6 on planet Earth, the best. nobody is better, nobody is better, he is the absolute best.
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Mr. Thiago Motta, my goodness me. every pass weighted to perfection, every pass communicates the next action, every corner of the pitch touched with his range, while he stands still. like a lighthouse, covering an island's shore with golden rays.
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the best coach in football, bar none, a top 3 manager in football, I'm lucky to witness the emergence of Mister Mikel Arteta, man. (Pep is an alien, he doesn't belong in these earthly conversations)
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i love this Leverkusen title win precisely because it challenges worn-out conventional wisdom. you don't NEED "2-3 years" to rebuild and be competitive, Leverkusen have done it in less than 18 months. if you know what you're doing, and have clear ideas, you don't need YEARS.
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Milan replacing Sandro Tonali with Tijjani Reijnders is an impeccable act of recruitment / squad-building. replace a midfielder with tons of pace and power who has some deficiencies temperamentally with an athletic replica who's better on-ball.
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Bernardo Silva is not positional, he is not relational, he is a chameleon, made of clay, becomes what the moment demands of him.
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I genuinely don't think the public space has grasped just how good Joshua Zirkzee actually is. I know we we all know he's good, but I don't think the public has registered just HOW good. generational gets thrown around lackadaisically, but Zirkzee?.
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you're made to sing, you golden child. my Redondo, el mejor mediocampo del mundo, one for the ages.
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Manuel Locatelli is the glue holding everything together for Juventus. he's entering his Thiago Motta controller arc, calm, composed, technical and emotional leader.
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Redondo plays the #6 the textbook way it should be played. lighthouse, pillar, guiding. moving when it makes sense, staying when it makes sense, all efficiency, no excess.
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all-rounder + runner + passer + dribbler. perfect dynamic balance.
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funny thing about Moscardo is that he'll bench Romeu almost immediately, guaranteed starter for Barcelona. he's that good, yes, at 17.
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it will be crucial for a team like Arsenal to have a few 5-0 / 6-0 / 7+ goal games moving forward. when you smell the blood, and can obliterate opposition, you should take every possible chance to do so, particularly in the 1st half of a season.
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I can't believe how good the Dutch are. - Verbruggen in goal. - Timber - VVD - Ake - Van De Ven - MdL - Blind - Dumfries - Botman at the back. - Wieffer - Reijnders - Koopmeiners - Veerman - Frenkie in midfield. - Xabi Simons - Zirkzee - Lang higher up. Euro24 Darkhorse.
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if Frenkie De Jong is the nuisance many Barca fans think he is, I'd be more than happy to take him off their hands. one man's trash, is another man's beautiful Dutch Tulip.
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the issue with Xavi is this:. as a player, he used to look for, and act, when spaces APPEAR, he was reactive, read, react, read, react. you don't coach that way, your job as a coach is to GENERATE spaces.
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not enough is said about Bayern, man. the quality of players and managers they attract/keep, the level of competitiveness they regularly show in the CL, as a Bundesliga side without huge TV revenue like English teams or global appeal like Madrid/Barca. incredible club.
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"without players who can dribble, nothing can be done". Nunes, Kovacic, Doku, Gvardiol.
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quick reflections on @ReneMaric article addressing the (at the time) unconventional usage of Rafinha by Pep Guardiola. specifically in "libero" or "inverted FB" situations in Bayern vs Koln in 2015.
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Enzo Maresca had Leicester THIS dominant structurally/behaviorally after mere weeks of his 1st ever pre-season. against Liverpool, mind you. you could see the dynamics are perfect, timing arrivals/ de-markings. missing top-end quality only.
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Game-State, its Conditions and Fluctuations, and why it is the Holy Grail for seekers of the European Throne. How to win the Champions League, a thread.
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how quickly they forget, one of the only *true* all-phase, complete midfielders since 2010. retention, progression, build-up responsibility in the 1st / 2nd phases, box-crashing, all while being a legitimate defender in every sense. Manuel Locatelli.
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folks saw that Redondo is a tall #6 and lumped him into the Busquets / Rodri comparisons, unfortunate. do you not see how he eats up ground and space?. entirely different athletic caliber.
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Arteta's out-of-possession stuff and the intensity and competitiveness he's brought to Arsenal are by FAR the most impressive element of his coaching to me. he's almost single-handedly made mental monsters out of Arsenal, and the precedent wasn't there.
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coaches like Southgate/Allegri get a reputation for being "common sense" coaches who "keep it simple", exactly how the pub fans/Twitter guys like it. the issue is that their brand of "common sense" coaching Is just disguised lack of nuance and total rejection of evolution.
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I fawn over Gabriel Moscardo every single time i watch him play. just, indescribably good, he'd start for an inter-galactic XI ffs.
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What I love most about Alonso is that he gives me certainty. I know he can coach a low-block, a press, and countering from both. I'm confident he can coach a team to keep the ball, empowering individuals (Wirtz/Grimaldo/Boniface). and he gets buy-in from the players. elite.
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if he cannot recover to pre-ACL levels physically, convert him. Federico Chiesa would be one of the most devastating #9s in Europe, if done right, that is 35 goals a season, bet your house on it.
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incredible, this is the collective messaging players and staff should receive and have, always. if you live in fear of losing the ball, losing a duel, misplacing a pass or skying a shot, you'll NEVER be consistently great. Courage is the blood of champions.
📹😳 Unedited video of Lionel Scaloni right after the loss against Saudi Arabia with English subtitles. You can't miss this. WOW .
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may be the most underrated of all the big name wonderkids. sensational.
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21-22: Allegri requests Dybala's departure because he doesn't fit the (4-3-3) he wants to play. 22-23: Allegri asks for Di Maria, plays 4-3-3 for 4 weeks, switches to 3-5-2, Di Maria plays out of position, leaves. 23-24: Allegri persists w/3-5-2, plays Chiesa out of position.
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I think Messi's greatest skill ever is how he used defenders to disguise his shots, I've never ever seen anyone even close to it, he was actively scoring 20+ goals a season that way. those shots are almost "moving free-kicks", defenders were walls Messi would bend shots around.
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Translating details of Game-Model from Training Ground, to 90 Minutes:. - Pep's emphasis on attracting press to local (ball-near) zone, this instance being sideline, to exploit underloaded (ball-far) side. - Watch Basti / Robben calling for the switch.
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there's no coach in football that wouldn't build his team around Xhaka if he had the chance to. sensational brain.
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the most elite manager-archetype, *Dominant Adaptability*. willingness to adapt to any game-moment or game-state, with an unwavering commitment to only one thing,. Total Dominance of every possible moment. defend like Warriors, press like Wild Beasts, pass like Princes.
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Floor-raisers: . - showstopper GKs.- box defenders.- DM that protects zone 14.- duel-winners.- ball-strikers + carriers.- hold-up #9. Ceiling-raisers:. - ball-playing GKs.- deep progressors.- 360 retainers.- outlets to attack space .- individual mavericks.
@thewittyjack Which profiles do you classify as floor raisers and which as ceiling raisers. How do you distinguish the profiles?.
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the VERY best coaches / clubs MUST transcend the limited scope of their game-models / styles,. the thought should be,."how can i make my team unbeatable?". for example, if i were to defend Vini or Leao or Mbappe in a CL Semi-Final, what profiles do i need?.
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Courage defeats Fear, always a pleasure to see the fearful ones beaten. thank you, La Roja.
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it's Barca, then.
Olmo, for his price tag, will be the reason a sporting director gets sacked somewhere in the world. 60M is outrageous stuff.
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as good as Musiala is, he's an eyesore for me, I don't like watching him at all.
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imagine if Bellingham was 6'4, faster, stronger, lighter on his feet, better socio-affectively, and a more capable carrier in open space. what a player that'd be, no?.
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this is the gap you're trying to bridge as an analyst. this is public opinion + professional insider opinion on Xavi Hernandez, later known as one of the best midfielders in history, BEFORE he was put in a technical/tactical context that platformed him best. ask yourself why.
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one of the biggest misconceptions about recruitment right here. top clubs (structurally) aren't signing players based on the desires of an individual manager,. these clubs recruit both players AND managers through a particular conceptual framework, that allows continuity.
Onana is a good player, but football clubs shouldn’t sign players without a manager in place. *THEY* are the ones that should decide what positions need to be improved upon based on their system and style of play. They can then liaise with other staff to target suitable profiles.
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Juventus is one sad, sad club right now. perhaps the biggest fall off in recent football history, completely unrecognizable. went from a giant locking horns with the other European greats, the Madrid's, Barcelona's, Bayern's, to. nothing. sad.
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may well be THE worst possible transfer Juve made at the time. Juve were on brink of re-entering the Madrid/Barca/Bayern club, total domestic dominance, 2 CL finals in 3 years, stable wage structure + cheap Serie A market full of talent. CR7 + Higuain set Juve back a decade.
What's your honest thoughts on Cristiano’ move to Juventus on this day back in 2018, Bianconeri? . GO. 👇.
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Thiago Motta, Futsal, 5-a-side, the Brazilian influence, and cross-sport lateral inspiration.
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why is FT is incredibly rude so regularly?. it's become incredibly rare to find tweeters that talk about football and interact without insulting those they disagree with. why are you guys so rude?.
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I NEED somebody to make a comp out of this. this must not be buried.
199 - ⚡️ Julian Weigl completed 199 passes with Dortmund against Köln in May 2016, a record for a top 5 leagues player over the last 10 seasons. Diamond. @PSG_English
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De Zerbi's training INTENT,.why his game-model translates effectively:. - instead of thoughtless speeding up play, instruction is to pause on the ball, attract pressure and manipulate it. - small sided games with this INTENT intice development in body orientation / disguise.
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Football Twitter has become unbelievably boring and monotonous, it feels like everyone has the exact same thoughts/opinions, everything is regurgitated w/o even being fully understood, there is almost zero genuine critical thinking, it's all trendy wording and drama.
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son of the legendary Fernando, Federico Redondo is one of the best #6 profiles i have EVER seen. look at how quickly he covers ground, how he reads the game, the length of his legs, disguise on passes, turning radius(6'2). this is a MONSTER.
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one of the most underrated elements of Zirkzee's game right there, remarkable range and technical precision in the delivery (look at the fizz and backspin to allow the receiver to maintain momentum). give Zirkzee Joao Pedro's Brighton role and watch him flourish. genius.
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nobody persisted with an accurately described the possible impact of Declan Rice better than @nonewthing . guy's borderline genius with it, lucky to have him around.
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Seedorf at only 16! years of age, entering the 1st team of a European giant like Ajax. this is a 1-in-a-million mental profile, these mental profiles are virtual guarantees of success. incredibly valuable, not discussed enough.
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the pain in my heart. we gave them this AND 28M for. Douglas Luiz.
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Koop, possibly his best performance so far. Mbangula, so much personality, i appreciate you. Mckennie, you've shut me up entirely, indispensable role player. Manuel Locatelli, i have no words, you represent everything good about my Juve.
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you have no idea how lucky you'll be if you get Lijnders, absolutely no idea.
Pepijn Lijnders as manager at Ajax is a big ‘no’ if you ask me. As an assistent absolutely perfect, but being the actual manager is a completely different thing, the risk would be way too big. The last 3 managers have all been below average, Ajax needs a strong name again.
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Teun Koopmeiners should be on the list of every elite team, every single one. you won't find 5 midfielders in Europe that can defend / block space / control build-up + progression / receive + rotate in the final 3rd AND score goals like Teun.
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Pep gives his players the rules, and once they've intuited them, he gives the most responsible of them license to break the rules.
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do-it-all. has range, plays in the 1st/2nd/final-third, wins duels, grafter OOP, great in tight spaces, top mentally. real Footballer, if he's available for 25m, it's a snip.
Rodrigo De Paul vs Real Madrid (H) 23/24.
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nothing I love to see more in football than courage and the courageous hoisting up the trophy, rejoicing in their unforgettable-ness, itching their proud names in the history books. there are many ways to win, yes,.but to win with courage?. it's the most beautiful way of all.
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Kendry Paez, you make me dream. Chelsea are some lucky bastards to have him.
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you think Arsene Wenger signed Thierry Henry because of "performance" and "form"?. risk thinking for yourselves a little bit.
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IQ of an all-time great. - Lucas overlaps, thinking this helps the possession sequence by:. -(1) attacking space in behind.-(2) creating space for Mbappe to cut inside. BUT, Mbappe knows spacing will be cramped by Lucas bringing HIS defender w/him.
Napoli players possess fantastic socio-affective intelligence, whenever Kvara is engaging in 1v1s they don't make runs around him to crowd his space, they afford him incredible amounts of time to execute 1v1 actions, it'd be even more effective if he had more explosiveness.
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Inter are playing football like this. I'm so jealous, Allegri, i don't like you.
Football at its finest .
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- not one of those immobile #6s that are bound to earth by virtue of their leggy-ness, Gabriel has ingredients for a supreme deep ball-carrying package. - incredible stride length / variety, engine, smooth for 1.85m. - transfers his weight SUPERBLY.
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incredible market sleeper. I'm still here for this young phenom.
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the notion that Real Madrid's squad-building has gone awry is incorrect at best, there seems to be a gross misunderstanding of Madrid's recruitment / squad-building philosophy. this (if true) is the correct call, which Madrid often make.
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