Vesper

I do not understand why this game and the the Roma Sevilla game are only 1 game winner take all when ALL the other teams had to play 2 that seems really unfair from multiple angles

2 nil Inter Eriksen

lol Getafe missed a pen

I am so not getting into this Werner's wages argument, lolol

£32.5m for Alaba is a steal but I would need to see what his salary demands are they may be insane

fucking beast goal

1 nil Inter Lukaku

they have fuckall for depth, as I have painstakingly laid out on multiple occasions they get a few key injuries they are fucked atm

no shit!!!!!!

that CUNT Taylor is the ref in the Inter game! outrageous that motherfucker is a Euro ref

total scrub team for Manure

2019-20 UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 Manchester United v LASK Linz http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/europa-league-manchester-united-vs-lask-linz-s1/ https://www.totalsportek.com/manchester-united-football/

2019-20 UEFA Europa League, Round of 16 Internazionale v Getafe http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/europa-league-internazionale-vs-getafe-s2/ https://www.totalsportek.com/inter-milan/

1.98m https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/nick-pope-interview-burnley-goalkeeper-school-charlton-athletic-england-world-cup-338465 I ask Pope how tall he is. “Six-foot-six-inches-ish,” he replies. “The average door is six-foot-six-inches… I’ve banged my head on a few!”

an in-form Marcelo? he is washed up (over a year ago and turns 33 thsi coming spring) and always was shit on defence, RM's system (and players) allowed him that luxury. He would get roasted alive in the EPL. Alba (who turns 32 at then end of this coming winter) is also on the decline, though not as fast, but age is catching up to him as well, his pace and legs are going (I watched a lot of Barca games) Gaya and soon Renan Lodi are probably the two best LB's in La Liga atm ZZ, for some reason, does not seem that happy with Mendy, but that could and probably will change of the remotely availlabel LB's I rate, in order David Alaba (last season here, due to age, but he also can play CB) Theo Hernández (if he shows he can play CB, then his stock soars even more) Alex Telles Ben Chilwell (price is madness) Sergio Reguilón Robin Gosens Nicolás Tagliafico Rayan Aït Nouri Ramy Bensebaini <<< newest add

same size too, basically and I saw he was £18m or so

Bennacer interview: the player Arsenal let go who is making Milan midfield tick https://theathletic.com/1970663/2020/08/04/bennacer-exclusive-ac-milan-arsenal-pirlo/ When AC Milan gave Andrea Pirlo a Cartier pen as a leaving present, he was told: “For goodness sake, don’t use it to sign for Juventus.” After 10 years at the club, the coolest footballer in history twirled it around his fingers, affronted by the lavish gift. Still in shock, il Maestro didn’t listen and soon afterwards was pictured leaning over a thick contract booklet, poised to scribble his name on a piece of paper bearing a Juventus letterhead. “I’ll never say which pen I used,” he winked in his biography. Since then, the director’s chair otherwise known as the role of regista in the lexicon of calcio has been every bit as cursed at Milan as the wearer of their No 9 jersey in the wake of Pippo Inzaghi’s 2012 retirement. It has passed from player to player without anyone making it his own in a convincing manner. Dutch duo Mark van Bommel and Nigel de Jong were demolition men, not architects like Pirlo. As for Riccardo Montolivo and Lucas Biglia, the pair of them suffered with injury not to mention a close association with the team’s decline. The standard Pirlo set remains outlandishly high, unmatchable perhaps. But almost a decade after he hopped on the Frecciarossa train from Milano Centrale to Torino Porta Nuova, Milan now have a player willing to take on the mantle and step into his boots. “I like everything about this role, because you’re at the heart of everything,” Ismael Bennacer tells The Athletic. An ECG would show Milan pulsing to the 22-year-old’s beat — his team’s play murmuring, fluttering and racing depending on the tempo of his passing. “It’s my second year playing in Italy as a regista,” the former Arsenal Under-23s midfielder explains, “I’m still working at it. I think I’m improving. I’m definitely learning a lot.” Bennacer comes across as studious. He pays close attention to other players with the same vocation operating at elite clubs across Europe. “I watch a lot of (Paris Saint-Germain’s) Marco Verratti,” he says, “and Thiago Alcantara (of Bayern Munich) too. Thiago’s so, so good.” Magnets to the ball and, as such, the pressing game of their opponent, deep-lying playmakers figure as the centre of gravity for their team and the match in general. Harass them. Force them into mistakes. Stop them and you shut down their team, or so the thinking goes. The role invites a lot of pressure and requires great responsibility. “I have to give the ball away as little as possible,” Bennacer says. “Zero. To do that, I have to be concentrated whenever I get the ball. I’ve always got to be in the zone. I have to read the game. I need to look first and look early. I do all that already but I have got to get even better at it.” Listening to him make those observations, it’s hard not to think about Verratti, whose nickname il Gufetto — “Little Owl” — really captures the image of him swivelling his head around to check the passing options available to him. The diminutive Italian compares the role to that of a tight-rope walker who, on account of modern football’s trend of splitting centre-backs, can’t always rely on a safety net being there to catch a mistake. In true Verratti style, Bennacer picked up 14 yellow cards in Serie A this season, a figure “bettered” only by Roma’s aggressive centre-back Gianluca Mancini. The need for greater care in his game was starkest early in the campaign, when he gave away a couple of penalties in a 3-1 home defeat to Fiorentina. However, don’t labour under the misapprehension he is some kind of Algerian Paul Scholes, leaping into challenges with poor timing. On the contrary, the reason Milan coach Stefano Pioli rates Bennacer as a “complete” midfielder is precisely because of his rare ability as a filter and ball-winner. Deep-lying playmakers tend to be thought of as passers and passers alone, and while it’s true the metrics from StatsBomb show Bennacer has the highest xG build-up at Milan and makes more open play passes per 90 than anyone else at the club, the interdiction and hustle he brings are every bit as important to the balance of the team. He interprets his role as “defending, getting on the ball, helping the team impose itself on our opponents and putting a shift in”. Milan signed Bennacer last August for a reported €16 million on the back of a second season at Empoli in which he made the most recoveries in Serie A. This season, only Lazio’s Lucas Leiva has averaged more tackles and interceptions per 90 among players in the same position and Bennacer is up there with Atalanta’s energetic Swiss international Remo Freuler for pressure regains and counter pressures. In essence, he carries the water and serves out the champagne simultaneously. “Even though I’m not playing high up the pitch, I could do to be more decisive,” Bennacer admits, aware that one goal all league season is not enough for a midfielder playing 31 games for a club with the ambitions of Milan. Bennacer isn’t blessed with the free-kick-taking ability of Pirlo or contemporaries in his position such as Miralem Pjanic. He doesn’t have to be though. At Milan, he can leave that stuff to Hakan Calhanoglu or Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Taken under Ibrahimovic’s wing since the Swede rejoined the club as a free agent in January, Bennacer claims to have benefited from working in his orbit, although the switch to a two-man tandem in midfield over the winter has enabled him to flourish too. “I feel a little bit freer,” he says. Ibrahimovic has, to some extent, taken the attention and pressure away from Milan’s young players, which has, in turn, allowed them to grow and come into their own. The level of competition has risen at the Milanello training ground as well. “He demands perfection,” Bennacer says. “Always. You can’t make mistakes when Zlatan’s around. He makes you a better player. That’s how we all think about it anyway.” The 38-year-old ended the season on a high, and Milan’s record since he jetted in from Los Angeles via his homeland is the second-best in the league behind only Atalanta. A goal in the weekend’s season finale against Cagliari made Ibrahimovic the oldest player to ever hit double figures in Serie A (to go with his five assists) and optimism around him being at San Siro again next season is percolating as contract talks intensify. “When he asks for the ball, I don’t pass it to him, otherwise he’ll have more touches than me,” Bennacer jokes, displaying some of the pluck Ibrahimovic has brought out of his team-mates. “I’m kidding. When you’ve got a player like him on the pitch, you look to get him the ball as quickly as possible even if there’s another solution on. We’re on the same wavelength. I get the ball to him so he can then do what he wants. I look for him a lot.” As Bennacer heads off on a brief vacation before Milan reconvene for the Europa League qualifiers in September, he has a chance to look over his shoulder and reflect on how far he has come over the last 12 months. Initially, Bennacer was supposed to follow his coach Aurelio Andreazzoli to Genoa after Empoli suffered what felt like an unjust relegation last summer. Milan were waiting in the wings, however, having been impressed by his poise on Empoli’s visit to San Siro. How players handle the pressure at the Meazza is a valuable indicator of a player’s suitability for both Milan clubs. All too often the bright lights can be overwhelming, but Bennacer is unfazed. “It’s demanding but I like it. I like the crowds, the pressure.” While playing in front of 75,000 as he did in the Derby della Madonnina is far from a walk in the Parco Sempione, the French-born midfielder got a taste of what it’s like to have a heavy burden of expectation on his shoulders at last summer’s Africa Cup of Nations. “It was the sweetest moment of my career,” Bennacer smiles. Relatively new to the Algeria set-up, he took the team by the scruff of the neck and was named Player of the Tournament as they lifted the trophy, beating team-mate Riyad Mahrez and other big names including Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Kalidou Koulibaly to that honour. Watching video of Algeria’s triumphant return from Egypt last July, the crowds are the first thing that strike you. They are gloriously pre-pandemic. Raucous celebrations, honking horns, the smell of cordite from let-off flares. “We hadn’t won the Cup of Nations in 29 years,” Bennacer says. “It was only the second time too. There were five million people on the streets. The population of Algiers, the capital, is three million, but there were five million people on the streets. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.” Tracking Bennacer’s ascent, one wonders if there are any regrets at Arsenal, like there have been watching Serge Gnabry thrive in Germany, where the winger leapt from Werder Bremen via Hoffenheim to Bayern Munich. Allowed to go to Empoli in 2017 for just €900,000, Bennacer insists he holds no grudges against his English club. “I had three years left on my deal,” he says, “but I wanted to play and besides, they weren’t against my sale, so I left.” Arsenal didn’t want to stand in the way of someone who is remembered at London Colney as a reliable professional. His size wasn’t determined a barrier to the first team either, given other players of similar height, such as Santi Cazorla, have managed to establish themselves at the Emirates over the years. Figuratively, Bennacer has grown in stature since departing England. Presumably, he didn’t receive a Cartier pen the way Pirlo did as a leaving gift but watching this young and vibrant Milan side, his signature is all over it.

Chelsea fans should remember Willian for much more than just jilting Tottenham https://theathletic.com/1971348/2020/08/05/willian-chelsea-premier-league/ It is May 12, 2017, and Willian is dancing to the Chelsea fans’ tune. The club have just won their fifth Premier League title with a 1-0 victory away at West Bromwich Albion and those gathered in The Hawthorns’ away end are going through some of their favourite songs as the players celebrate in front of them. After making an uncomplimentary reference to London rivals Spurs, the ditty continues “they bought his flight, but Willian he saw the light. He got the call from Abramovich and off he went to Stamford Bridge. He hates Tottenham, he hates Tottenham…” With a big smile, Willian jumps from one foot to the other as he milks every word being sung in his honour. Few can remember such an outward display of emotion from the Brazilian winger. There have been highs and lows for Willian throughout his seven years at Stamford Bridge but this one chant — composed soon after he arrived in August 2013 to commemorate Chelsea beating local rivals Spurs to his signature at the 11th hour — has provided the soundtrack to many a performance. Ask Chelsea regulars about their favourite memory of Willian and many will go back to that very first day, when he chose west London over north. It is looking more and more likely he will be making that trip in the opposite direction now, to sign for Arsenal as a free agent. Given Petr Cech made the same decision in the latter part of his career too, albeit in his case for a transfer fee of £10 million, the relationship with Chelsea supporters shouldn’t be negatively affected too much. There have been far bigger characters who have worn the blue shirt during his time — while Eden Hazard was on the scene, it was difficult for anyone to get out of the Belgian’s shadow — but Willian’s connection to Chelsea runs deep. It goes beyond five major trophies, 343 appearances, 63 goals and 65 assists… Jose Mourinho is in a mischievous mood. The press room at Cobham is packed as usual but there is a special buzz in the air. There are rumours that, despite Willian having a medical ahead of a move to Tottenham, he is joining Chelsea instead. Struggling to keep the smirk off his face, Chelsea manager Mourinho says: “That is the danger of medicals before contracts. The best thing is to do the medical in secret.” Willian’s move to Chelsea was two years in the making and it wasn’t just Spurs who were left disappointed. It is a measure of his performances for Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, where he spent six seasons before six months at Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala, that Liverpool were in the running too. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard was employed to try to convince Willian that Anfield should be his next home. They had lost out on Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who had joined Borussia Dortmund from Shakhtar, earlier that summer but were hoping the acquisition of the Brazilian would help their chances of keeping striker Luis Suarez for the foreseeable future. Writing in his autobiography, Gerrard reveals: “I followed the usual routine when approaching a star player we wanted to sign. Instead of calling him directly I always sent a text. It seemed more respectful and allowed the player to read my message at a time when it suited him best. A cold call felt wrong. “I slipped into the groove with Willian. I said hello and hoped he didn’t mind me contacting him directly. I stressed how much I admired him as a player and then, having mentioned the fact that I knew Liverpool were speaking to his agent, I used the standard line: ‘If you need to chat or ask any questions I’m available at any time.’ “It was the opening move in a familiar game. The reply came in and the same old conversation started. Willian thanked me and he said the usual, along the lines of, ‘I’d love to play with you, Steven, blah-blah-blah, but there are other clubs I need to talk to as well.’ “I knew Spurs and Chelsea were also very keen on Willian. So I answered him and said, of course, I understood the situation. But I then went in with my sales pitch. ‘I think Liverpool would be a great move for you. The fans are amazing, the history is there and we’re building a good team. You could do something great here – and we’d love to have you.’ “The next text from Willian was so obvious I could have written it for him even before I read it. He again said that it would be great to play in the same team as me but, ‘I’m not sure Liverpool can give me the Champions League.’ “There was no disputing it. I could not guarantee Champions League football with Liverpool to Willian or any of the other dozens of players I had contacted over the years.” How times change. That honest appraisal of Liverpool’s situation looks very dated now after seeing them make the final of Europe’s premier club competition in 2018 and 2019, winning it on the second occasion. Meanwhile, Willian has got as far as its semi-final only once with Chelsea, and that was at the end of his debut season. Yet perhaps even with the benefit of hindsight, Willian may not have made a different decision. For he has come to enjoy life in London so much, he doesn’t want to leave. Earlier this year, he officially became a British citizen after passing the test all candidates have to go through, albeit at the third attempt. He lives with his wife Vanessa and their twin daughters Valentina and Manuella in a fancy Knightsbridge apartment that overlooks Hyde Park. There have been offers made from clubs abroad, but the desire to remain in the English capital is always on his mind. It is where he wants the two girls to grow up. As he told The Athletic earlier this season: “When we have days off, I try to enjoy them with my family. I go shopping, I have dinner, or go somewhere like Hyde Park and walk around. It’s special when the sun comes up. We love the city.” Those close to him back in Brazil — he started playing from the age of four in Ribeirao Pires, just outside Sao Paulo — always thought Barcelona was the ultimate ambition. Compatriot Ronaldinho was his idol and the Nou Camp is his favourite stadium. However, despite being linked with the Catalan club many times, Willian’s connections with London have grown. He has set up a digital and branding company called WV Agency with his wife (the company taking its name from their initials). He also launched an online course here last summer to help future football professionals and was a co-owner of Babbo, an Italian restaurant in Mayfair, with former Chelsea (and possibly future Arsenal) team-mate David Luiz although sources say he has now pulled out of that venture. There has certainly been no suggestions of any regret on his side about choosing London over Liverpool, nor Chelsea over Tottenham. Chelsea made their first approach in summer 2011, then had a £16.5 million offer rejected by Shakhtar in the January 2012 transfer window. Anzhi, who enjoyed a brief period of spending a fortune on players under owner Suleyman Kerimov in a bid to become a force on the European stage, succeeded with a £30 million offer 12 months later. But the ambitious experiment came to an abrupt end and their high profile players, including Willian, were put up for sale. Tottenham may have thought they were favourites for his signature, but Willian has always downplayed it. He moved to Chelsea, quickly followed by another big-name Anzhi player in striker Samuel Eto’o, for £32 million. As he told Brazilian paper Globo Esporte: “Things just happened. Chelsea came with an offer and everyone knows that I wanted to play for the club since I was at Shakhtar. It shook me, but I didn’t think twice. As both presidents (Kerimov and Abramovich) are friends, that helped too. It was a very easy negotiation. The Brazilians at Chelsea called me, especially David Luiz, who told me to come quickly. I was very happy to have them around. I wanted to play at Chelsea, even more so with Mourinho, who is the best at what he does.” It was a surefire way to ingratiate himself with the fans from day one, but it would take a lot more than snubbing a move to an adversary to endear himself to his new colleagues. “Playing behind Willian was a big pleasure,” former Chelsea right-back Branislav Ivanovic tells The Athletic. “I think I played the best football of my career with him on my flank. “He was one of the players who made me better, so I’ll always thank him for that. It’s very important to have a connection between the players on the flanks and we had a fantastic one. When he arrived, he spoke a bit of Russian (Ivanovic joined Chelsea after 18 months with Lokomotiv Moscow), so we found a connection straight away.” While Willian’s contribution went under the radar outside the Chelsea FC bubble most weeks and even became a divisive topic among those that followed the club, his stature with those in the dressing room always remained high. Ivanovic was an important player to please. Not only was he a regular in the starting line-up, the Serb also had a significant voice within the club because he was on good terms with the hierarchy. You will be hard-pressed to find anybody who has a bad word to say about Willian anyway, though. He has never been the loudest voice in the camp, but he has won people over with what he can do with the ball at his feet. “He is not the type of player that talks too much,” current Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger says. “He leads more by what he does on the pitch, when he does his thing. He is like Hazard in this respect — by playing the way they do, they show what they are. He is a guy that dictates the game. There are not many players in the world that have the type of quality he has. He was always training afterwards, practising free kicks and shooting. He always wants to improve.” Due to his speed when in possession, Willian has been affectionately likened to a “PlayStation player” at the club’s training base, as if he is being controlled by someone playing the FIFA video game. For the majority of his spell at Chelsea, he gravitated towards their Portuguese-speaking fraternity. There were players such as Oscar, Filipe Luis, Ramires and Diego Costa, as well as Luiz, to converse with about life back in Brazil. But he still committed to learning English and has become more of an influence the older he has got. Brazilian-born Italians Jorginho and Emerson are there now to help keep his Portuguese up to scratch, but observers have noticed how much he has embraced having more responsibility as a leader. “Since I came to Chelsea, I have been close to him from day one,” Rudiger explains to The Athletic. “It was him and Luiz who got me into the team and helped me out in the first couple of months, when it was not that easy. He was one of the ones that helped me. “He is a great guy and a really, really good footballer. He is a calm and humble guy. It will be sad if I do not see him again as a team-mate.” Robert Green spent only one year in Willian’s company, Maurizio Sarri’s sole 2018-19 season as manager, but the former England international got to appreciate him in a different way perhaps to other players because, as the third-choice goalkeeper, he was watching every week from the dugout or the stands. Sitting there also made him aware of the moans and groans from the sections of the crowd who grew frustrated at what they were seeing from Willian. “He does a lot in the game, not just goals and assists, and I think it goes unnoticed. He is incredibly talented, but he is someone who always left you expecting more,” Green says. “I can see why people have been frustrated, but then I think people expect too much in general. To be consistent as an attacking player is different to a centre-half. There are only a few forward players in world football that can deliver every match. “Before matches, he is always very relaxed, very chilled. I think that’s why he divides fans. Because he is so laid-back, it comes across like he doesn’t care. If he screamed and shouted, I don’t think the same questions would be asked. “I never saw him angry. I’ve seen him upset, disappointed, but he wasn’t vocal. He is just a laid-back guy. When he spoke, he was very nice and was always smiling. But he wasn’t one to have deep and meaningful chats with. “I think he has stepped up at Chelsea this season. With the younger players coming through, it has made his role as a senior member of the squad even more significant.” Naturally, there have been occasions when Willian hasn’t always been calm or full of cheer. The loss of his mother, Donna Zee, at the age of 57 in October 2016 hit him hard, so much so he lost 4kg from the stress of it all. The club granted Willian compassionate leave to return to Brazil to grieve. Notably, all his team-mates wore black armbands in support of him during a game against Leicester City. When Costa scored the match’s opening goal, he made a ‘W’ sign with his fingers, shown below. After Hazard found the net to make it 2-0, he held up two fingers on each hand to pay homage to Willian’s shirt number (No 22). Willian enjoyed a positive relationship with all his managers apart from Antonio Conte, who started him in just 35 of 76 Premier League games across 2016-2018. Things went particularly sour in Conte’s second season. An indication of the falling-out came after what turned out to be the Italian’s last game in charge, a win over Manchester United in the FA Cup final. Willian posted a group photo on his Instagram page, but the manager couldn’t be seen because trophy emojis had been put over the top. A rather unconvincing explanation was given: one of Willian’s daughters had picked up his phone and started playing with it. In truth, there had been problems since the summer 2017 pre-season tour. Sources have explained how it all began when the team were in China and Conte caught Willian’s fellow Brazilian Kenedy yawning during a team meeting. He berated the wing-back in front of the entire squad and Luiz stood up to defend his countryman. That led to issues between Conte and Luiz, who ended up playing only 17 times for the club in all competitions that season. Willian, as a close friend of the centre-back, was dragged into the internal politics and seemingly guilty by association. Conte was very much the exception though. Mourinho loved Willian, which is why he tried to sign him when manager of Manchester United and again since he took over at Tottenham last November. After the disappointment of Chelsea’s loss to Atletico Madrid in the 2013-14 Champions League semi-finals, Mourinho singled out Willian’s work-rate for praise and said his was the example Hazard needed to follow. A few days later, as Chelsea were losing ground in the title race, he highlighted Willian again. He said: “I have Dr Paco Biosca, the doctor at Shakhtar Donetsk for many years with Willian, and he says he doesn’t recognise Willian now: the professional, the player, the commitment. The only thing he recognises is the talent. He’s improved. But you can’t succeed with everybody.” Willian ended up being voted by fans as their Player of the Year for 2015-16, which was Mourinho’s and Chelsea’s worst season under Abramovich. They went into it as defending champions but finished a lowly 10th, Mourinho was fired in the December with Chelsea a point above the relegation places and talents such as Hazard, Oscar, Costa and Cesc Fabregas were accused of downing tools. One of the few to be consistent throughout was Willian, with 11 goals and 10 assists across all competitions. It prompted defender Gary Cahill to say: “Willian, from the time I’ve played with him, has improved month after month, season after season. This season, for sure, has been his strongest in a Chelsea shirt. He’s been the standout performer this year. Very exciting for the fans to come and watch, and for us to give him the ball and let him do his stuff. On his day, he’s a very special player.” On taking charge last summer, Frank Lampard opted to get rid of Luiz but made Willian, another former team-mate from his own Chelsea playing days, a mainstay of his team. Lampard urged the board to agree a short-term contract for Willian to see out the season after it was prolonged due to COVID-19 and also to give him a new longer extension to keep him at Stamford Bridge. Lampard only got to play with Willian in his last year at Chelsea but has clearly come to respect what the Brazilian offers even more since becoming his coach. Speaking last November, Lampard said: “On the ball, we all know his ability. But his off-the-ball work is an outstanding example for Callum Hudson-Odoi, for Christian Pulisic, for other young players who think the only part of the game is going by people, crossing or shooting. He does the other side brilliantly, with absolute humility.” There have been suggestions from pundits that Willian has saved his best until last, and 2019-20 has been his finest season at Chelsea. The return of 11 goals and nine assists is good, but perhaps it is a testament to the former Corinthians trainee’s character that his highest figures for a Chelsea season — 13 goals, 12 assists — came in the one where he was under most duress, that second year under Conte in 2017-18. It comes as no surprise to Ivanovic. “Mentally, Willian is a winner,” he says. “He always wants to win and to be competitive with the other guys, so he sets a very good example. But his best quality is how easy he is with the ball. “He’s so calm and enjoys life with his family. He showed us how we could enjoy life and play football on that top level — he’s probably one of those guys who never feels pressure. “If you tried to count how many times he lost the ball, you wouldn’t get to 10. He’s very strong with the ball. Whenever I think about him, I have his smile in my head.” Chelsea’s fans may frown at the possibility of Willian wearing the shirt of a direct Premier League rival when the new season starts next month but whatever happens, he has given them plenty to grin about.

EUROPA LEAGUE | SHAKHTAR DONETSK VS WOLFSBURG http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/europa-league-shakhtar-donetsk-vs-wolfsburg-s4/ http://hdstreams.club/hd/ch4.php https://www.totalsportek.com/wolfsburg/

How data and analytics work at Chelsea from top to bottom https://theathletic.com/1951313/2020/08/04/chelsea-analytics-data-gps/ On a normal day at Cobham, the majority of Chelsea’s first-team squad will arrive ‪between 10am and half-past‬. Some will head to the canteen for breakfast, while others will have eaten theirs at home. When they gather in the dressing room to get changed, part of the routine includes putting on the Catapult vests, fitted with GPS units, that have been left in their boot holes. As they put their kit on, the eyes of some will be drawn to either of the two TVs in the room. One will be showing an edited highlights package of each player’s best physical actions from the previous match, the other displays a more basic table of their performance metrics: total distance covered, top speed, number of high-intensity sprints and more. The thinking is that appealing to the players’ competitive nature is the best way to get them to engage with the data, and the screens are frequently a source of banter as individual numbers are compared. Out on the training pitch — which is lined with Catapult sensors — head coach Frank Lampard and his staff will be accompanied by an analyst carrying a laptop or tablet. Chelsea have refined their system to provide live data reports that can be viewed as the session progresses and every player has his own individual targets to hit for each performance metric every day. Within an hour of the end of a session, the fitness coaches will be provided with a report; the first page containing an easily digestible statistical summary of what happened during the session, and the subsequent one consisting of a more detailed breakdown of how each player is doing relative to their performance targets. This information is discussed in the afternoon and incorporated into the training plan so that, by the next morning, the coaching staff have a clear idea of how much work to load on to every member of the squad. It’s a smooth, sophisticated process in keeping with Chelsea’s status as one of European football’s modern giants — and it’s just one example of how the club’s analytics operation has grown in influence and resources during the second decade of Roman Abramovich’s ownership. Matt Hallam is not a name you’re likely to recognise, but he is a very significant figure in the story of Chelsea’s evolving relationship with data analysis. A psychology graduate of Loughborough University, he arrived at Cobham on an internship to work under Tim Harkness, who was brought to the club with Carlo Ancelotti in 2009 and now holds the title of head of sports science and psychology. So impressed was Harkness with Hallam that when Michael Emenalo was made technical director in July 2011 and signalled he was looking for someone to help him with the technological side of gathering and presenting information on players, Harkness told him he knew someone already at Cobham who would be suitable. Emenalo explained to Hallam what he wanted: a bespoke database that would house all of Chelsea’s scouting reports and other information on players they were monitoring, and present it in a fashion that would be clear and accessible to any key staff who wished to view it, as well as owner Abramovich. Above all, Emenalo wanted a tool to help increase the level of internal transparency of player signing recommendations made to the club’s hierarchy. Hallam asked for two weeks to come up with a solution, but returned to Emenalo after only one. The idea he presented was to use a data analysis tool called QlikView as the platform for a Chelsea-specific player database that would allow for the club’s scouts to upload their reports, video clips to be viewed and edited into highlights packages, and advanced metrics compiled. The concept struck Emenalo as much more secure and discreet than the approach favoured by many other clubs of having their scouts upload reports to Scout7, a platform more vulnerable to unauthorised access (Liverpool paid Manchester City £1 million in a private settlement in 2013 after a complaint that three Liverpool employees had repeatedly accessed City’s Scout7 account). Hallam was given the green light, went away and created Chelsea’s player database. Most top clubs now use sophisticated analytics programmes and databases to underpin their recruitment but, in 2011, Hallam’s advocation of QlikView and adaptation of the software to suit Chelsea’s specific needs put the club ahead of the curve. He has worked closely with head of international scouting Scott McLachlan in the years since to make their process of talent identification more data and analytics-driven, and is regarded internally as indispensable. As the loan system Emenalo devised rapidly expanded in the following years, Hallam’s database was also used to monitor players Chelsea sent out to develop at other clubs. Fabian Unwin, a former sergeant in the Norwegian air force, is the analyst specifically detailed to work on the club’s many loan players and his responsibilities include sifting through the stream of information that travels from loan clubs to Cobham, as well as compiling tailored video packages from their matches to feed back to them. For the players involved, the process is efficient and individually-focused. Richard Nartey is a Chelsea academy graduate who spent this past season on loan at Burton Albion in League One, before being released by his parent club. “When I was at Burton I could go on this app that they’d set up and I could view all my clips that the loan analyst person puts together,” he tells The Athletic. “The loan analyst sends it to Chelsea, and Chelsea send it to you. I have had all my clips from this year and I have put them in a shorter highlights reel from my time at Burton lasting eight, nine minutes. If people want to see more, I can get it. Thanks to Chelsea I have them. Clubs that are looking for players in a certain position can see what they are looking for.” Nartey was already accustomed to this level of detailed feedback from his journey through Chelsea’s renowned academy, where every age group from under-14s onwards have a dedicated performance analyst. “If you go and speak to them about it, they will give you any stat from any game,” he adds. “One time, they gave everyone their pass completion rate for short distance, medium distance and long distance. “After every game, you get the amount of distance you covered, you can look back at distances you covered on every game you played, the fastest speed you’ve hit in any match, the deceleration time. They have everything for you. You kind of learn as they tell you. I didn’t know they could track some of the things they give you. “One of the main things I learned was… it’s called a VC load, it’s how much force you put through your body. The higher your VC load, the more force is going through your body and that means potential injuries can be worse, if you don’t learn how to deal and cope with different things. They can manage your training, depending how your VC load is. They also showed my peak speed at the start of the year and halfway through the year, to show whether it was working or not. “You can call them any time. Last season, when I was trying to go on loan I spoke to Michael Emmerson (under-23s’ lead performance analyst). I told him that I was trying to go on loan and wanted a highlight reel of my under-23s clips. He sat down with me and we made a six, seven-minute video of different parts of my game: heading, long passing, short passing, tackling. He does that for anyone who asks to go on loan.” Some of the more senior figures in Chelsea’s analytics operation have been at the club as long or longer than Hallam and Harkness. James Melbourne, head of first-team analysis, joined from Prozone in 2005. First-team match analyst Christy Fenwick was recruited from Wolverhampton Wanderers two years later and is credited as being the first person at the club to collect and analyse performance data on individual players and the team as a whole over differing periods of time. Chelsea are also open to hiring analysts who have worked in other sports. One of the more recent additions is lead recruitment and data analyst Dan Pelchen, who arrived at Cobham in the summer of 2018 after spending six years with Melbourne-based Aussie rules football club Collingwood. Pelchen initially came to England to learn more about how analytics work in football, but is now considered key to the unit. First-team performance analyst Paul Quilter is one of several members of staff who, like Hallam, were brought in on internships and impressed enough to be offered permanent roles and contracts. Giving opportunities to smart young people has always been prominent in Chelsea’s thinking when building out their analytics operation, and brings the added benefit of engendering a deeper sense of loyalty among those hired. The vast majority have academic backgrounds in sports science, and all pride themselves on keeping a low profile. “As a club, we’re not data-led,” Ben Smith, Chelsea’s head of research and development, said in a presentation at the Sports Analytics Innovation Summit in 2013. “We’ve got a huge range of experts and we try to use our data as a support tool. Very rarely are we going to present data and make a decision based solely off that — it’s just an extra source of information that our coaches will take on board; and if it’s good data, hopefully it’s going to have an impact and be seen in our results.” It’s fair to say, however, that advanced data analysis informs virtually every decision made on the football side of the club. Many of the most significant recent advances have come in the sports science department, reformed during Antonio Conte’s two years as manager and overseen by Harkness. QlikView is still used at Chelsea, but a technology partnership with Microsoft has enabled the club to transition to using a more powerful data visualisation tool, Power BI, for much of their data analysis. It is this software which allows the club’s analysts to monitor live data during training sessions and to quickly create the reports which are sent to Lampard’s fitness coaches each afternoon and inform the next day’s session. Training workload is now highly individualised, subject to adjustment based on proximity to matches and a number of other variables. Lampard has benefited this season from the strides data analysis helped Chelsea make in maintaining the fitness and sharpness of substitutes and squad players during Conte’s title-winning 2016-17 campaign, when Cesc Fabregas was one of the club’s best performers despite only starting 13 league matches. Data gathered on academy prospects who train with the first team is particularly useful when assessing whether or not they are ready to play senior minutes, and is regarded within the club as more indicative than anything that can be gathered from youth football. Sources have told The Athletic that Billy Gilmour’s impressive physical metrics in training and games backed up Lampard’s belief that the teenager was capable of making an immediate impact in senior football, despite his relatively slight frame. Some first-team players are more interested in their performance data than others. It should come as a surprise to no-one that Cesar Azpilicueta is always keen to learn everything he can about his physical output on the pitch, from the total distance he covers to the number of high-intensity sprints he completes. The sophistication of Chelsea’s analytics operation has other uses. Devising the individual rehabilitation regimes to help Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek come back from their respective achilles ruptures was a joint effort between the club’s medical and sports science departments, with data analysis fundamental to the decisions of when both players could be given the green light to step up their recoveries in matches for the under-18s and development squad. Whether it is scouting, managing loan players, assessing first-team performance or injury prevention and recovery, the professionalism and progressive mindset underpinning Chelsea’s analytics operation stands up to comparison with any of Europe’s better run elite clubs. The work they do off the pitch will continue to be vitally important to any success achieved on it.

may a white horse and the ghost of Stanley Matthews fly up his arse and lay the spawn of thousand carrion maggots (adopted from an old Arabic curse)

MUCH better!!!

gotta pic?

I fucking hate it