All Activity

He played match in Japan this morning, the Forest game is Saturday 12:30.. I would not be surprised if he doesn't start. Luckily Caicedo didn't go this time and Enzo returned early, quite shity to play Saturday opening game for the ones who are coming from America/Asia after international break.

Apparently Hamas executing people on the streets. I guess Hamas won't dissarm and this peace plan won't hold.

Returning home? They crossed the line and found out

Joe Biden’s Ignominious Gaza Failure It’s America’s worst foreign policy disaster since the invasion of Iraq. https://prospect.org/world/2025-10-15-gaza-israel-joe-biden-peace-failure/ I’ll admit it: Donald Trump deserves some credit for the ceasefire in Gaza. I didn’t think it would happen—I thought Israel would fully ethnically cleanse the place, and then do the same thing to the West Bank, and Trump would not care. And one should not overstate the achievement here. There were two previous ceasefires negotiated under Joe Biden, under which many more hostages were released. The war may well start up again soon, just like it did after the other ceasefires. Indeed, as I was drafting this article, Israel was already violating the ceasefire terms by shooting several people and cutting the amount of aid let into Gaza in half, supposedly in retaliation for Hamas not producing hostage bodies fast enough. (Hamas claims it is working as fast as it can without digging equipment or electricity.) Still, at the time of writing at least, the ceasefire hasn’t broken, and it appears likely that the rest of the hostages, or their remains, will be released soon. If that happens, a key excuse for Israel’s prolongation of the war will be gone. Though there is no sign of a permanent settlement, much less any prospect of Palestinians getting civil rights, this is the best news we’ve had in the last two years. And it all happened because Trump got mad and leaned on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It proves beyond any doubt that President Joe Biden could have ended this conflict for good more than a year ago. Now, Biden almost certainly would have had a much more difficult time getting Israel, and particularly Netanyahu, to play ball than Trump did. Bibi is a paid-up member of the global network of right-wing authoritarians, and has the staggering corruption scandals to prove it. As we’ve seen with Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, or Trump and Javier Milei, or Elon Musk and Tommy Robinson, or Musk and Vladimir Putin, these people instinctively work together to protect each other and advance their mutual interests. They have a vision of the future, and it’s a boot stamping on a human face—forever. Indeed, Netanyahu is not just a friendly aspiring autocrat—he openly campaigns for Republican policies and politicians. In 2002 he told Congress there was “no question” Saddam Hussein was working on nuclear weapons; in 2012 he campaigned for Mitt Romney, and in 2015 he gave a speech to Congress attempting to derail President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Netanyahu celebrated Trump’s victory in 2016—which indeed led to the nuclear deal being torn up, as well as the American embassy being moved to Jerusalem—and tried to help him in 2020 and 2024. It’s no surprise that Netanyahu would be more willing to listen to Trump than Biden. That said, it appears that Trump did have to apply serious pressure to get this deal through. The New York Times reports that he had more or less let Netanyahu do whatever he wanted, spending weeks on his bewilderingly goofy idea that the U.S. could annex Gaza itself, until the Israeli military hit Qatar with a missile strike. This massive overreach infuriated Trump, who rounded up support from the Gulf states, hauled Netanyahu into the White House, and forced him to get on the phone and read an apology to the Qatari prime minister. (It’s not for nothing that Trump wants to maintain good relations with Qatar, the country that gifted him with a luxury jet to become the new Air Force One.) But that is just to say Israel is a small country in a dangerous neighborhood, while America is the global hegemon providing it with vital money, weapons, and diplomatic cover. When the U.S. president chooses to apply pressure in such a situation, it tends to work. Trump didn’t have to do much, but he also barely touched the levers of diplomatic pressure available to him. And while Biden would have had to push hard, he should have assumed from the start of his presidency that Netanyahu would do all he could to undermine his policy and get him replaced with a Republican, because that’s what Netanyahu does to every Democrat. Biden didn’t do that. He, and the rest of his administration, carried out a criminally stupid “bear hug” strategy of enabling Netanyahu at every turn. When USAID and the State Department’s refugees bureau concluded that Israel was deliberately restricting food and water from entering Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken buried the report and lied to Congress about what he knew, so weapons sales to Israel could continue—and in any case, it wasn’t some great mystery, as it was obvious people were starving. Even when Biden himself set a red line in public, saying Rafah should not be invaded, and the IDF proceeded to do just that, the only consequence was temporarily pausing the delivery of 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs that were totally useless except for maximizing civilian casualties and which Israel had already received in huge numbers in any case. To anyone with a passing familiarity with the history of Israel-Palestine, it was obvious that the Israeli reaction to the October 7 attacks would be murderous collective punishment. Within a week, this was an undeniable fact. Biden would have been entirely justified in applying heavy and intensifying pressure to end the conflict by that point. Likely all that would have been necessary is credibly threatening to cut off supplies of weapons, which, in fact, is required by American law. (That’s why Blinken lied.) It’s impossible to say with any certainty what Biden’s calamitous failure has cost America and the world. At the very least, tens of thousands of Gazans would be alive today. Ukraine might be in significantly better shape, as weapons that ended up blowing Gazan children to bits could have gone to fight Russian aggression instead. It’s not impossible that Kamala Harris would be president today; while there’s little evidence that people directly refusing to vote for her because of Gaza made up Trump’s margin of victory, the genocide did badly split the Democratic coalition, deflect attention from Biden’s very real domestic achievements, and badly demoralize the left. Whatever the case, this is Joe Biden’s legacy. Almost all his highly promising infrastructure and climate programs have gone in the trash. All he’ll be remembered for now is being beaten at humanitarian diplomacy by Donald Trump.

Brentford’s Antoni Milambo suffers ACL injury, out for remainder of season https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6718618/2025/10/15/antoni-milambo-brentford-acl-injury/ Brentford have confirmed midfielder Antoni Milambo will miss the remainder of the season after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on international duty. Milambo, 20, sustained the injury during the Netherlands Under-21s’ draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday. The midfielder appeared in visible pain and was taken off the pitch on a stretcher. Brentford confirmed on Wednesday Milambo would undergo surgery and remain in rehabilitation for the rest of the campaign. Milambo joined Brentford from Feyenoord in the summer and signed a five-year contract with the option for a further 12 months. He has featured three times in all competitions, starting both of Brentford’s Carabao Cup victories and playing the opening 45 minutes of the defeat to Nottingham Forest in their first Premier League game of the season. The Netherlands youth international has been an unused substitute or missed out on a place in the matchday squad in Brentford’s six subsequent top-flight matches. Milambo joined Brentford off the back of a productive season with Feyenoord, scoring seven goals and providing nine assists across 43 appearances in all competitions. Brentford return to action against West Ham United on Monday. Keith Andrews’ side are 16th in the Premier League after winning two of their opening seven top-flight matches. ‘More bad luck for Brentford’ Analysis by Jay Harris This is a huge blow for Antoni Milambo and it continues Brentford’s rotten luck of new signings having a difficult debut season. Milambo started their opening day defeat to Nottingham Forest and was taken off at half-time. The only other appearances the attacking midfielder has made this season came against Aston Villa and Bournemouth in the Carabao Cup. Keith Andrews has preferred to use Jordan Henderson, Mathias Jensen, Yehor Yarmoliuk or Mikkel Damsgaard in midfield as they are experienced players who can cope with the physicality of the Premier League. The plan was clearly for Milambo to be slowly reintegrated into the starting XI over the course of the season as he adjusted to his new team-mates and gained a better understanding of the coaching staff’s demands. The 20-year-old will now spend a significant amount of time recovering from an ACL injury and is unlikely to feature again in the 2025-26 campaign. Keane Lewis-Potter struggled with a knee injury during his first year with Brentford after a £16million move from Hull City and only made 13 appearances in all competitions. Damsgaard was hampered by knee issues across his first two seasons before becoming one of their key creative outlets under former head coach Thomas Frank. Igor Thiago only played eight times for Brentford last season due to a knee injury and a joint infection. The Brazilian has started every single game this season and scored four goals. Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard and Thiago overcame those injury issues to become important players for Brentford and Milambo needs to take some small comfort from that as he faces an extended spell on the sidelines. The Netherlands Under-21 international is still at the beginning of his career and hopefully this will only be a temporary setback.

Best players of the last semester: eight areas Thanks to the collaboration with Impect, the CIES Football Observatory has developed performance indices on a 100 basis in eight areas of play. This Weekly Post presents the 50 outfield footballers with the highest values in each domain for the last six-month domestic league games, with each player appearing only in the ranking for the area in which they scored highest. The following players head the tables in the different areas : Virgil van Dijk (air defence), Moisés Caicedo (ground defence), Rúben Dias (defensive build-up), Pedri González (orchestration), Michael Olise (take on), Lamine Yamal (chance creation), Kylian Mbappé (finishing) and Erling Haaland (air attack). The youngest players in the top 50 of each category are as follows : Eivind Helland (air defence), Agustín Medina (ground defence), Pau Cubarsí (defensive build-up), Warren Zaïre-Emery (orchestration), Estêvão Willian (take on), Lamine Yamal (chance creation), Franco Mastantuono (finishing) and Thierno Barry (air attack). >>> Top 50s for the eight domains >>> More about Impect >>> More about the indices

Then you will be the first one critizie him when he gets outsmuscle and make a mistake in a defense which he alsmot did against Liverpool. No thanks better for him to take it slow like Maresca is doing.

Needs to be started against Forest this kid

Brilliant, England beat Lithuania wahhheeeyyyyy Qualified for the WC with ease, played a load of shite teams including a Wales side who should never had played us before the crucial Belgium game and now the full England hype train is in full force, that's until they reach the last 16 of the WC and we face a team that can actually kick a ball properly and string more than two passes together. Load of absolute shite

We all know that Noni Madueke is a decent player and can be very good on his day.…View the full article

MAISON KITSUNÉ X HUNTER Maison Kitsuné uncovers its very first collaboration with British- born heritage brand Hunter. The capsule collection maries Kitsuné’s Parisian chic with Hunter’s iconic weather-ready designs for both men, women and kids.. https://maisonkitsune.com/ww/woman/collabs/maison-kitsune-x/hunter.html

Struggling Sweden sack manager Tomasson https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/clyl5906qnzo Sweden have sacked manager Jon Dahl Tomasson following a poor start to their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign. They are bottom of Group B with one point from four games following a 1-0 defeat against Kosovo on Monday. Sweden - who have an all-star forward line of Liverpool's Alexander Isak and Viktor Gyokeres of Arsenal - drew with Slovenia and lost against Kosovo and Switzerland in their opening three group games. The former Blackburn Rovers manager, who played for Newcastle United during a distinguished career, became Sweden's first foreign coach, external when the ex-Denmark striker took over in February 2024. "The decision is based on the fact the men's national team has not delivered the results we hoped for," said Swedish Football Association's chairman Simon Astrom in a statement. "There is still a chance of a play-off in March and our responsibility is to ensure we have as optimal conditions as possible to be able to reach a World Cup play-off. "In this, we assess that a new leadership is required in the form of a new coach." Sweden will travel to play Switzerland then host Slovenia in their final two matches as they try to draw level with second-placed Kosovo, who have seven points in Group B. However, they could still reach the play-offs even without finishing in the top two of Group B as a result of their success in the 2024-25 Nations League, where they topped their group. The winners of the World Cup qualifying groups will fill 12 of the 16 spots available for European nations at next summer's tournament, with the runners-up in each group progressing to the play-offs. They will be joined by the four best Nations League group winners who failed to finish in the top two of their groups in qualifying. Wales, Romania, Sweden and Northern Ireland are the four sides currently in the play-off spots as a result of their Nations League performances. 'He forgot what Sweden stands for' - analysis Daniel Kristoffersson, football reporter for Swedish newspaper Sportbladet Everything has gone wrong. He has implemented a system and tactics that we do not have the players for. We have lost to Kosovo twice having not scored a goal - even though we have world-class players like Viktor Gyokeres and Alexander Isak. He has made players like Lucas Bergvall, Gyokeres and Isak look like Sunday League footballers. We could have expected a lot more from the Swedish national team. He hasn't got anywhere near what the players are capable of. He was a dead man walking after the Kosovo game. Before the qualification we were comparing this team to the one that was close to beating the Netherlands in the 2004 Euros quarter-final. Then, we had Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrik Larsson, Freddie Ljungberg, Olof Melberg - a fantastic team. If you look at the clubs the players play for and how they have performed, this is one of Sweden's best teams. But the results are some of the worst. That's 90% up to the coach. He came in with high promises to play attacking and high possession football, but he has been very naive with the defence. Over the years Sweden have had one of the best defences as a team. But Jon Dahl Tomasson promised attacking football and he completely forgot what Sweden stands for - being solid defensively.

It was in May 2024 that the first links between Chelsea and Estevao Willian started to be reported. A deal to sign him the following summer was soon concluded, and since then Blues fans have waited patiently to see him unleashed. They cannot wait much longer. Supporters have been tracking the youngster ever since those first rumours, and the excitement has continued to build. Some really special moments - a first Brazil goal, scoring against Chelsea in the Club World Cup, some ridiculous displays in the Brazilian league - kept raising expectations further, but it felt like the last minute winner against Liverpool in the final game before the international break was the 18-year-old's real coming-out party. After the game, TV pundits around the world showered him with praise and he took his first major step from highly-rated talent to household name, at least in footballing circles. As talents go, you almost could not design one more suited to get supporters excited. A pure one-on-one dribbler who is not afraid to shoot and has the natural movement and instincts of a goalscorer, Estevao looks utterly fearless despite his age. The much repeated lines about needing to be patient with him and his development are made to look faintly ridiculous by just how confident and capable he is already. Manager Enzo Maresca is doing his best to protect the prodigy, but there is only so much he can do when Estevao continues to make such important impressions from the bench. For now, fans will be content to see him arrive as a game-breaking roll of the dice in the second halves of games. But if he keeps looking so much more dangerous than his rivals for minutes on the wing, it will only be a matter of time before the coach has little choice but to give him regular starts. CFC news

Set to be rewarded with a new contract to ward off interest from Real Madrid. (AP)

@Vesper 🤭

Also, they won't be as constrained by FFP or PSR rules because of their massive revenue. Tbh, spending money was never really an issue for them until Ratcliffe came on board and they began to dial back massively on spending.

Kanes 44th goal this year edit' 45th *two tonight

Israel to halve aid into Gaza over slow return of dead hostages https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-hamas-hostages-ceasefire-10-14-2025-665a1cbe249f08c8513ceceaa04db201 TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — The fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was tested Tuesday as the slower-than-hoped return of deceased hostages from Gaza prompted an Israeli military agency to declare a “violation” of the truce agreement that it would respond to by halving the number of trucks allowed to bring humanitarian aid into the devastated territory. The United Nations’ humanitarian office in Gaza received word of the cuts from the Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to the territory, according to spokesperson Olga Cherevko. U.S. officials and international aid groups were also notified, according to three AP sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. The Israeli government did not immediately comment. A day earlier, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 living hostages in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced at Israel’s release of some 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the ceasefire’s first phase. But now attention in Israel has turned to when Hamas will return all the bodies of hostages who died in captivity. While Israeli officials had understood there could be some delay in the recovery effort, the families of hostages and their supporters expressed dismay that only four of the 28 bodies were returned on Monday.

Israel shoots dead at least 9 Palestinians in Gaza despite ceasefire https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/10/14/live-trump-signs-gaza-ceasefire-deal-with-leaders-of-qatar-egypt-turkiye Israeli soldiers kill at least nine Palestinians trying to return to their homes in northern Gaza City and southern Khan Younis in the first major violation since the US-brokered ceasefire began. US President Donald Trump has promised lasting peace in the Middle East after signing a Gaza ceasefire deal with the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye. Palestinians released from Israeli detention say they were beaten and humiliated with one former detainee describing Israel’s Ofer Prison as a “slaughterhouse”. Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of a captives and prisoner exchange. Some 154 prisoners were exiled to Egypt. Hamas also released all 20 surviving Israeli captives held in Gaza and handed over the bodies of four others. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 67,913 people and wounded 170,134 since October 2023. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks and about 200 taken captive.

🟡According to local outlets in Brazil, Chelsea are once again keeping an eye on Brazilian prospects, and this time the focus is on Santos left-back Souza. 🟢Chelsea are still in talks with the representatives of Nigeria’s U20 star Abduljelil Kamaldeen. (@ayo_oguntimehin) 🔵Striker Jashayde Greenwood joins Chelsea from Wolves after clearance from the Premier League. Right back Riley Ebho also joins Chelsea from West Ham. They've also confirmed the addition of Justin Osagie to the CFCDev squad. (@Chelsea Homepage) 🟣Axel Disasi is now in the spotlight at Borussia Dortmund and could present another opportunity to sign a bargain. (@BILD) ⚪️Beşiktaş management has identified Chelsea defender Axel Disasi as their primary target in January. (@Fotomac) 🔴Chelsea and Brighton are keeping close tabs on Lazio defender Mario Gila. (@FrazFletcher) 💬Scout Mick Brown on Maignan Chelsea have been talked about with Mike Maignan for a long time, 'They`'ve had scouts watching him a lot ana hey know him pretty much chapter ana verse now. "He's somebody they identified as one of ;heir top options to strengthen in goal because that's a position they want to prioritise at the moment Their current options aren't good enough and thev feel thev are in need of an upgrade 'We know they tried to sign him in the summer but they couldn't get it over the ine, but they've already done some of the work towards bringing him in. They'll have a good idea of his demands and what they can expect, and at the same time he'll know their plans for him ana vhere he might fit in It's a deal they've been working on, so if somebody like Bayern Munich is in for him now, I expect Chelsea will still be confident they can get it done 'They're ahead of any of the other interested clubs because of the work they've done already." ⚫️3 players Chelsea could sign in January? London World have an article out on three players Chelsea 'could sign this January. 1:Kenan Yildiz: Chelsea are certainly not hort of attacking options on paper after adding both Aleiandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens among others to their attacking options but that's done nothing to silence numerous reports linking them with a move for Kenan Yildiz. According to TuttoJuve, The Juventus man was the subject of a failed bid in the region of £58m in the summer but an improved offer could still be submitted in the winter. 2:Jorthy Mokio: Chelsea are one of a number of top Premier League clubs to be linked with Aiax wonderkid Jorthy Mokio. The 17- year-old enjoyed a fine season in the Dutch capital last term and is already seen as one of the first names on the teamsheet. He car play as a defensive midfielder but also as a centre-back, which is something Chelsea could take advantage of after Levi Colwill's ACL injury. 3:Dusan Vlahovic: Former Arsenal transfer target Dusan Vlahovic is reportedly pushing for a move to the Premier League as he enters the final few months of his Juventus contract. The 25-year-old has scored 62 times in 153 matches for the Old Lady and could further enhance Chelsea's goal threat. The player is crucially free to discuss personal terms with clubs outside of Italy by January. 💭According to outlets in Brazil 𝙍𝙊𝘽𝙄𝙉𝙃𝙊'𝙎 𝙎𝙊𝙉 Robson Jr. from FC Santos being monitored of Chelsea & Liverpool!

Dortmund are desperate to finalise a new contract with Schlotterbeck, however they are now planning for life without the talented 25-year-old amid significant interest from Liverpool. Disasi has emerged as a legitimate candidate to replace the Germany international, and he would become the third Chelsea player to join Dortmund in quick succession, following the recent moves of Carney Chukwuemeka (€20 million) and Aaron Anselmino (loan).

We don’t hear much from Teddy Sheringham these days, do we? A fine striker in his day, and…View the full article

so clowlake want to continue to buy more wingers instead of top gk and cb which would make the club real contender for the title but nah let's get wingers

Chelsea fans horrified by what they’ve seen from Levi Colwill – it’s just the reality of an injury https://Chelsea.news/2025/10/colwill-injury-what-theyve-seen/ Colwill’s weak leg horrifies fans One notable thing that happened at Cobham this week was Levi Colwill’s return to the gym for the first time since his ACL surgery in August. Chelsea fans online were horrified to see his atrophied left leg following months of sitting around waiting for the injury to heal. It will be a long way back from here, with Colwill not expected to feature before the very end of the season, if at all. The good news for the team is that this Saturday should see Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo and Trevoh Chalobah all return and be available to play in defence, ending a really tricky period where we were down to the bare bones at the back. Colwill can take his time with his return, and by the looks of things he’ll need it. It’s going to take a lot of patience to get back to where he was – and it’s vital to make sure there aren’t future recurrences. It’s going to be a very dull few months of gym work for him while he watches his teammates having fun out on the pitches at our training centre.

Monday Night SCOUTED Declan Rice v Moisés Caicedo Monday Night SCOUTED presents: a crab and a horse fight to the death https://scoutedftbl.com/declan-rice-v-moises-caicedo/ Mohamed Salah versus Eden Hazard. Virgil van Dijk versus Nemanja Vidić. Moisés Caicedo versus Declan Rice. Not a single international break passes by without at least one of these debates flooding social media timelines. This time, I have successfully resisted the urge to engage...on the timeline. Instead I've written 2000 words on the issue. I hope, through this newsletter, to highlight the foolishness of this debate by viewing it through the lens of totally non-foolish and sensible animal-inspired metrics. Forgive me, for I am about to engage in discourse: not to provide a definitive answer, but to demonstrate how dumb the debate is in the first place. Maybe everyone will read this and log off for a bit? Of course not. But it won’t stop me from trying. Would you compare a crab and a horse? No. Crabs inhabit marine environments. Horses live on land. Crabs are decapods with pincers - I learned the scientific word for these organs is chelae. Cool. Horses are mammals with hooves - I knew that one. Crabs shuttle horizontally and are aggressive when provoked. Horses run in straight lines and bolt when scared. It would be ridiculous to compare them. So why do we compare Caicedo (the crab) and Rice (the horse)? [At this early point you may be wondering if Jake is okay, or if Twitter has totally fried his brain. Please stay with us. This is good, I promise - ed]. At the risk of sucking all fun out of a trivial issue, asking which player you would rather have in your team is a better question - but still requires a lot of nuance. Even posing which you'd rather build a team around is redundant, because you would pick different players to complement either. Football is a team sport and individual debate is irrelevant - but I know that's not fun. Here’s my idea of fun. As a continuation of the zoomorphism, I’m going to translate the crab-like qualities of Caicedo and the horse-like qualities of Rice into a few different metrics and, eventually, Archetypes. First up, habitat. For now, we'll assume that to mean the areas of the pitch a player habituates, instead of their team environment or tactics. That’s because I wanted to introduce another term I’ve borrowed from gaming to help distinguish player profiles: Area of Effect (AOE). Looking at the volume of touches in each third alongside the proportion of touches taken in each should reveal a player's Area of Effect. The value of defining a player's AOE is that it helps understand which skills to compare between two players: in the modern game, a full-back and a centre-midfielder can share the same AOE, for example. You would not compare a player that spends the most of their time in their own box with another that lives in the opposition's penalty area. You know they do different things. Admittedly, it becomes more difficult as players begin to converge into the centre of the pitch. In other words, midfielders are the most difficult to separate through this process. But it’s worth a try. This graph plots Touches per 90 in all thirds of the pitch and inside each box. It also includes the percentage of total touches in each zone which I’ll refer to as Proximity. Rice and Caicedo have a similar number of Touches per 90 but the distribution of them across the pitch is different. Caicedo is a relative outlier for the Defensive Third, but it’s not as extreme when looking at the Proximity to this area. However, in the Middle Third, he is notably above average for both substance and style. This part of the pitch is clearly Caicedo’s AOE. Rice, however, is almost bang-on average for Proximity to each third. In fact, only five players in the dataset sit between -0.2 and 0.2 for Defensive, Middle and Attacking Third: Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, Frank Onyeka, Mateus Fernandes and James Garner. Of those five, only Rice and Anderson rank above average for Touches per 90. This combination of substance and style paints the picture of a dynamic, do-it-all box-to-box midfielder. In SCOUTED parlance, it illustrates the Ground Eater Archetype. This name encapsulates a player’s ability to literally cover ground or metaphorically gobble up grass. Just like a horse. Everything pertains to long distances: lung-busting runs both with the ball, driving towards the opposition goal, and without it when recovering towards their own. Rice is constantly moving through the thirds. A Ground Eater’s AOE is the entire pitch. Caicedo, in contrast - which does not mean better or worse - is a crabby, small-space menace. While Rice covers multiple thirds due to the verticality of his running, Caicedo shuttles across horizontally, making jabby challenges and punchy passes. This lends itself to a concentration of touches in a specific third. By scuttling side-to-side, Caicedo ensures he doesn’t have to gallop up-and-down like a horse. Like Rice. That’s not a criticism, it’s smart. He knows his limits. Just as Rice can struggle against the most agile players. In fact, Caicedo is such a rampant ball-winner that he does rank above average for Tackles in the Attacking Third. But his principal AOE remains the Middle Third. He also nips away the ball more often than Rice in most other defensive actions, including the composite metric of Tackles, Interceptions, Blocks, Ball Recoveries and Clearances. Formations are becoming less instructive of how a team will set up due to the awareness, importance and diversity of in-possession and out-of-possession systems. If anything, the teamsheet is a better representation of what we’re likely to see OOP than IP. So, when analysing, scouting or comparing players, selecting players based purely on their position is becoming more problematic. At least by looking at something like AOE, players that operate in similar areas of the pitch will likely have to solve similar problems, making a comparison fairer. But even these problems can be solved in different ways. Take passing, for example. The Ground Eater characteristics of Rice’s general coverage also apply to his passing to some extent. His ball-striking ability has transformed him into a set-piece demon, but it also augments his passing over larger distances, again touching on this emerging long-versus-short dynamic. True Progressive Passes are all Progressive Passes excluding Passes into the Penalty Area, counting all “completed passes that move the ball towards the opponent's goal line at least 10 yards from its furthest point in the last six passes”. Both Rice and Caicedo rank above average for output, but Rice is moving towards the significant end of the spectrum; his 1.44 Score is the highest for either player across all metrics on this graph. However, the real separation is based on the percentage of completed passes logged as True Progressive Passes. Caicedo dips slightly below average (-0.33), as expected from a more metronomic passer, while Rice ranks slightly above average (0.82). This difference is also apparent when looking at the percentage of Caicedo’s passes as Short Passes and the percentage of Rice’s passes as Long Passes. Neither player represents a massive jump away from the average, but the difference between the two provides more clarity for our comparison. It’s also worth highlighting that both players have similar Scores for Passes into the Final Third, Progressive Passing Distance and Progressive Distance per Pass. Both players are similarly effective at achieving progression via passing, yet both do so through different means. After all, a long pass at an angle out wide could cover the same distance towards goal as a stabbed line-breaker straight through the middle. You can see this stylistic difference illustrated by the Distance per Pass metric. So, it is fair to compare Rice and Caicedo’s ability to progress the ball with their passing as an isolated skill. But even that discussion pits two contrasting styles against each other. You must also consider the context in which that effective ball progression is being achieved. For Caicedo, we already have knowledge that he is active in securing the ball before he plays it forward. Now let’s apply the same framework we did for passing, this time to each player’s carrying. This separates the crabs from the horses. Despite Rice and Caicedo having a near-identical score for Carries - which correlates extremely closely to Touches - Rice distances himself from Caicedo in most other metrics. Rice is notably above average for Distance and Progressive Carrying Distance, which speaks to the verticality of the Ground Eater style. The fact he is also above average for both Distance per Carry and Progressive Distance per Carry further illustrates that horse-like, galloping quality. Here we see the clearest difference between our crab and our horse. It makes sense that Caicedo’s concentrated AOE in the middle of the pitch does not translate to significant Carrying output. Meanwhile, this is the metric by which players like Rice should be measured. Saying Rice is a more effective ball-carrier than Caicedo is like saying a horse is faster than a crab. It’s redundant. Even if you argue that Rice and Caicedo share the primary responsibility of progressing the ball through the thirds, there are notable differences between the two when combing passing and carrying metrics into Progressive Actions. Caicedo’s primary means of Progression is passing and he is effective at getting the ball into the final third. In some cases, his jabs will be the most efficient way to do so. But Rice has the option of booming switches or thundering gallops, combining to make him more effective and efficient at progressing the ball on the whole, just as Caicedo is more effective at winning it back. Look at Rice’s score for Progressive Actions per Touch. Rice and Caicedo are different animals. This is not a guide for how to be fun at parties or a hack for generating views and impressions on social media, but the question I ask myself before I start to compare two players is: could these two play together? You can answer that by thinking about whether their skillsets would be complementary to one another and whether they share an AOE or on-pitch responsibilities. But if you really want to compare two players, specifically Rice and Caicedo, there is only legitimate way to frame it. This is the only question I’ll allow. Which team would win in a football match: 11 crabs or 11 horses? Take that one to the pub this week.