Vesper

Coronavirus restrictions ‘likely to last six months’ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-lockdown-must-last-until-june-says-top-adviser-s6p0lcxk2 Michael Gove thought GDP meant Great Drugs Party https://newsthump.com/2019/06/08/michael-gove-thought-gdp-meant-great-drugs-party/ Prime Minister in waiting, Michael Gove, had a very different idea of the Gross Domestic Product after spending the nineties whacked off his tits on beak. Friend, Penny Mordant, says Britain’s next Prime Minister should not be ashamed of his love affair with freebasing the ching. “He used to line up two bowls side by side filled to the brim with the finest Colombian marching powder,” she said. “He called it The Double Dip.”

skål!

his distribution last year was really good this year, not so much the problem is also that we are so spoilt with keepers over the past 15 plus years Cech was the best EPL keeper ever and Cuntois was WC at times

Locked Up

especially as GM was a huge Everton target surely we can get £40m or so for Zouma, he has 5 prime years left at least, he is only 25yo, Brighton wants £40m for Lewis Dunk who is 29yo in November in the right system he can be a very good EPL centre backback, he just is not a Lamps style player

Worse than that Until COVID-19 (who the hell knows what the financial shape of the top 100 clubs in Europe will be post crisis) it was on track for us to be the only top 32 European clubs with no new or large, renovated stadium within 2 to 3 or so years I comment on each this list is ordered per player total value, not in terms of quality of club 1 Manchester City modern, giant stadium 2 Liverpool FC adding even more new expansions 3 Real Madrid soon, along with Barca, will have the biggest football only brand new billion euro renovated stadium, I have document both multiple times 4 FC Barcelona see Real Madrid 5 Paris Saint-Germain massive new renovation part of a billion euro overall upgrade of all their physical plant 6 Bayern Munich modern, giant stadium 7 Atlético Madrid recently opened monster new stadium 8 Tottenham Hotspur recently opened monster new stadium 9 Chelsea FC fucked 10 Manchester United panning huge renovation and expansion of OT 11 Juventus FC recently opened monster new stadium 12 Arsenal FC renovation planned for the Emirates 13 Borussia Dortmund more renovations planned, already is a HUGE stadium 14 Inter Milan brand new huge stadium planned to start soon, along with AC Milan 15 SSC Napoli brand new stadium to be soon built finally, they had THE WORST stadium (despite the atmospherics and intimidation factor) on this list, it was a true shithole 16 RB Leipzig modern, large newer stadium 17 Valencia CF brand new stadium finally will be finished soon 18 Everton FC brand new stadium to open in a couple years 19 Leicester City modern stadium, planned expansion to well over 40,000 with far more luxe boxes 20 Olympique Lyon giant new stadium built several years back 21 Bayer 04 Leverkusen soon a large renovation/expansion of BayArena 22 Ajax Amsterdam renovation already coming 23 AS Roma brand new stadium, Stadio Della Roma, soon started 24 AC Milan see Inter (I understand the money situ, but I still find it insane these two monster clubs will still share a pitch) 25 SS Lazio giant new stadium, Stadio delle Aquile soon built 26 SL Benfica renovated huge stadium 27 Sevilla FC complete renovation and massive expansion (entire new third tier and massive luxe boxes) soon starts 28 FC Porto renovated huge stadium 29 Olympique Marseille recently renovated and another planned expansion coming 30 FC Schalke 04 modern, huge stadium, and total renovation/expansion planned 31 Villarreal CF brand new stadium, Estadio de la Cerámica, being built 32 Hertha BSC renovated Olympiastadion a couple years back, then will move to a new giant one other notable clubs Sporting CP large, modern stadium, renovation coming once their financials are sorted Real Sociedad New Anoeta opened in 2019 Wolverhampton Wanderers massive new ground up renovation expansion soon started West Ham United not ideal but they do have a huge stadium, a new one, with tonnes of luxe boxes Borussia Mönchengladbach modern stadium, expansion/renovation on the books soon ACF Fiorentina Nuovo Stadio Fiorentina, over 40,000 cap, soon started Real Betis Balompié recently renovated and increased to 61,000 capacity Athletic Bilbao new modern, 52K cap stadium recent built VfL Wolfsburg modern large stadium, with renovations coming Eintracht Frankfurt massive expansion to over 60,000 soon started Zenit St. Petersburg huge new stadium from WC CSKA Moscow huge new stadium from WC Spartak Moscow huge new stadium from WC Wolves are getting a 50,000 seater renovation with many luxe boxes Nuovo Stadio Fiorentina (I love this design, and ffs, even Fiorentina is getting this done)

Happy Birthday N'Golo Now, Time to sell

The Premier League is reportedly set to restart in July with matches to be played behind closed doors unless the coronavirus situation in the UK worsens.

Castles is a Manc loving cunt BUT I so approve of this IF true superb price for a potential top 10 WC CB Gabriel Magalhaes is 1.9m, pacy, grat on the ball, only 22

roflmaooooooooooooooo

I am stressed from all the shit it is maddening to try and remote control my department from our home drinking helps me to sleep better, I am working on like basically 2 hours sleep max fucking pissed off as a friend of hours refused to stop working at her gallery and now she is VID positive (from a contractor she thinks) and quite sick she is the 4th person we know now who is positive here in Sweden, and 10th overall

oooops that's what I get for not drinking last night

Selective? I listed EVERY topflight goal and assist ever by both of them, plus ALL their other goals and assists and did a lot of calculations on my own. Also March and November births in the same year can be in the same class. I was years younger than all the other girls in my six forms so age to class levels can often be deceptive.

they are pretty close to the same age (Sancho is 7 and a half months older) but Sancho is a superior player at this point, with much more experience CHO has 9 goals (1 league) and 12 assists (5 league) in 2526 topflight minutes Sancho has 31 goals (27 league) and 42 assists (37 league) in 6443 topflight minutes it's easy to extrapolate out CHO to Sancho topflight minute wise just multiple CHO totals by 2.55 yields 23 goals (3 league), 31 assists (13 league) so over a 4000 minute season Sancho is at 20 goals (17 league), 26 assists (23 league) (all at 19 years and younger) CHO for 4000 minutes is 14 goals (2 league), 19 assists (8 league) (all at 19 years and younger) CHO's big weakness is league goals and to a point, league assists, 2 league goals, 8 league assists over a 4000 (all comps) minute season is poor playing every minute of 38 league games yields 3.420 league minutes CHO has played 1188 EPL minutes, scoring 1 goal, with 5 assists, so even if he played every minute of every EPL game, it still only works out to 3 goals and 14 assists, which, goal wise is NOT acceptable (and no winger in the EPL plays 3420 league minutes) 80% of total EPL minutes is realistic, so for CHO, that yields 2 goals, and 11 assists for a full EPL season finally, just taking this season only and extrapolating his league minutes out to 80% of a full 3420 (multiply by 3.6) it still only yields 3 to 4 goals (albeit 14 assists which is a really decent return) he simply must ramp up his league production, especially league goals Jadon Sancho Date of birth/Age: Mar 25, 2000 Callum Hudson-Odoi Date of birth/Age: Nov 7, 2000 (19)

I think we keep Kepa but buy another good keeper as well, in case he crashes out on a perm, for real basis there are SO MANY options out there, but Oblak is a pipe dream, as even if we sold Kepa, that still means around a £250m total net outlay over 7 years for one position (starting keeper, when all net transfer costs and salaries are taken into account) Alexander Nübel was snatched up by Bayern. no clue on the rest of our moves, other than one of the LB's is surely gone (I want both gone, but I wager Alonso stays and we just give up and decide to eat most all of the resale value down the road versus the £45m or so we had on offer from RM in 2018) and upgraded upon (if not, we are well and truly fucked there) the coronavirus pandemic has introduced far too much delta into it all to make truly educated positings once again here are GK options my top 15 (no true order, but bold are my 5 favourites) André Onana Alex Meret (doubt Napoli will sell him to us) Thomas Strakosha Predrag Rajkovic Dean Henderson (doubt Manure will sell him to us) Ugurcan Cakir Sven Ulreich <<< great Caballero replacement, but not a number one Odysseas Vlachodimos Matvey Safonov Salvatore Sirigu <<< great Caballero replacement, but not a number one Martin Dubravka Mike Maignan Koen Casteels Pierluigi Gollini Aaron Ramsdale 25 other options (no order) Samir Handanovic (if he was 28 or younger would be in my top 2 or 3, but he turns 36 in July, a superb shot stopper) Pau López Kasper Schmeichel Unai Simón David Soria Fernando Pacheco Tomas Vaclik Rui Patrício Péter Gulácsi Paul Bernardoni Emil Audero Juan Musso Alex Remiro Bartlomiej Dragowski Benjamin Lecomte Dominik Livakovic Alban Lafont Ionut Radu Nick Pope Marko Dmitrovic Yann Sommer Altay Bayindir Hendrik Van Crombrugge Ondrej Kolar Illan Meslier

Friday March 27 2020 Football Nerd How football's suspension could negate injury problems By Daniel Zeqiri Jose Mourinho has not solidified Tottenham's defence CREDIT: PA Throughout football's coronavirus hiatus, we remain committed to providing a weekly newsletter of football facts, analysis and retrospectives. If there is a topic you are keen for us to cover please email [email protected]. Above all, stay safe. Those supporting the argument that the season must be completed at any cost are fond of claiming the 'integrity' of the Premier League must be preserved. The integrity of this season will be unavoidably compromised however, by the number of injured players who would have missed the closing stretch of the campaign but could be fit when football resumes. Given the human, social and economic cost of the coronavirus pandemic such concerns are frivolous trivialities, but interesting to consider nonetheless. Tottenham Hotspur are the most obvious beneficiaries from the delay, with Jose Mourinho on record as saying he could not wait for the season to end such were their injury problems. Heung-Min Son and Harry Kane faced an uphill battle to play again this season due to a broken arm and a hamstring injury, likewise January signing Steven Bergwijn after straining ankle ligaments. All three key attackers could be available if the season is completed in June and July. Opponents who have already played Tottenham twice would undeniably have an advantage over those who have not, but there are no perfect solutions to this unprecedented problem. Key injuries were looking like defining the race for Champions League football and the Europa League places, with Chelsea and Manchester United missing 13 first-team players between them when football was suspended just over a fortnight ago. CREDIT: OPTA Frank Lampard's squad were badly creaking, with N'Golo Kante, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham all suffering recurring problems and setbacks as they tried to return to full fitness and Mateo Kovacic limping off against Liverpool in the FA Cup. Christian Pulisic was also yet to return from injury and Ruben Loftus-Cheek a long-term absentee. United did not have the same quantity of injuries, but were thriving without their two most talented players. Paul Pogba had barely kicked a ball since the autumn while Marcus Rashford has now been granted extra time to fully recover from a stress fracture to his back. At the bottom of the league, Bournemouth's chance to recuperate could be bad news for Watford and West Ham in the two places above them outside the relegation zone. Eddie Howe's team had a horrendous spate of injuries this season with eight first-team players absent when the season was paused. Defensive stalwarts Steve Cook and Simon Francis could be back, while all Bournemouth fans will be praying David Brooks finally gets a clean bill of health. Elsewhere, Everton fans could get their first sight of central midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin since August while Arsenal's luckless left-back Kieran Tierney could be back in contention. Both were substantial purchases last summer, but could be like new signings this.

I agree with it all except one Claude Makélélé replaces Viera that team is so loaded offensively and Makélélé provides a better defensive spine, but it is close and I can so see why he went with Viera, who was far more versatile in fact those two are arguably the two most underrated players in EPL history, as both were easily all world XI quality for ages Makélélé being allowed to leave Real Madrid was probably the stupidest thing they have done in the past 25 years 'Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?' - Zinedine Zidane, August 31, 2003 the rest are perfect

Umayyad conquest of Hispania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umayyad_conquest_of_Hispania The Umayyad conquest of Hispania, also known as the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula or the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom, was the initial expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate over Hispania (in the Iberian Peninsula) from 711 to 788. The conquest resulted in the destruction of the Visigothic Kingdom and the establishment of the independent Emirate of Córdoba under Abd al-Rahman I (ruled 756–788), who completed the unification of the Muslim-ruled areas (known as al-Andalus). The conquest marks the westernmost expansion of both the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe. During the caliphate of the Umayyad Caliph Al-Walid I, forces led by Tariq ibn Ziyad disembarked in early 711 in Gibraltar at the head of an army consisting of Berbers from north Africa.[1][2] After defeating the Visigothic usurper Roderic at the decisive Battle of Guadalete, Tariq was reinforced by an Arab force led by his superior wali Musa ibn Nusayr and continued northward. By 717, the combined Arab-Berber force had crossed the Pyrenees into Septimania. They occupied further territory in Gaul until 759.

Ramsey has clicked with Dybala but are Juventus playing him in wrong position? https://theathletic.com/1700756/2020/03/26/james-horncastle-juventus-aaron-ramsey-paulo-dybala/ A hoarse Antonio Conte was in no doubt about the precise moment his Inter Milan team lost the Derby d’Italia earlier this month. “The game was quite balanced,” the 50-year-old grimaced, as he tends to when breaking down a defeat, every word bitter to the taste. “We were doing better than them in the second half. Then (Aaron) Ramsey’s goal changed everything.” The Inter midfielder Matias Vecino should have followed Blaise Matuidi’s run. Instead, he let the World Cup winner play a neat one-two with Alex Sandro and dash in behind Inter’s defence. At the near post, Milan Skriniar could have blocked the pass Matuidi pulled back across the box but it escaped him and all of a sudden, Cristiano Ronaldo is nudging the ball away from Skriniar’s centre-back partner Alessandro Bastoni. Ronaldo looks about to break the Serie A record for the longest scoring streak in the history of the league but fortunately for Bastoni, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner’s touch is heavy. Unfortunately, it falls into the path of Ramsey, who is perfectly placed to sweep it home and put Juventus in front in the biggest game of the season. “They got better after that and we suffered in quite a big way without a reaction,” Conte acknowledged ruefully. Shortly afterwards, the Juventus head coach Maurizio Sarri swapped Douglas Costa for Paulo Dybala and within five minutes, the champions had doubled their lead. Rodrigo Bentancur caught Ashley Young out with a long diagonal over the top for the Argentine, who then produced one of the most memorable moments of the campaign. “La Joya’s” first touch sent the wing-back the wrong way and after a one-two with Ramsey, he zig-zagged into the penalty area, agilely dribbling past Young again before finishing with the outside of his left foot. The artistry involved made it understandable that the Italian sports dailies splashed Dybala all over the front pages the following day but, as Conte alluded to, Ramsey, with his goal and assist, played a pivotal role in deciding the marquee fixture of the Serie A calendar. The win sent Juventus back to the top of the table and, amid increasing pessimism about the prospects of the season resuming in Italy, it leaves the Old Lady where she needs to be to retain her title should the league and the FIGC decide to assign one if the campaign cannot be finished. Ramsey had already announced himself with a goal on his Serie A debut against Hellas Verona in September, the first by a Welshman for Juve since Ian Rush’s strike in the Turin derby in May 1988. Almost six months later, the display he put in against Inter had an altogether different, more powerful resonance simply because it spoke to how one imagines Juventus and Ramsey saw their relationship working out when they agreed to join forces. It was a consecration, the delivery on expectation at precisely the right moment, a turning point. And of great satisfaction to the player must have been the awareness that he had decided a huge game while also playing true to himself. Part of the Old Lady’s charm offensive on Ramsey was their understanding of his skill set. Fabio Paratici, the club’s chief football officer, enunciated this in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport last February when news of Ramsey signing for Juventus had already broken. “In my opinion, Ramsey is a player who is still yet to find his best position because he’s never played as a No 8 in a midfield three,” Paratici explained. Against Inter, this was the precise role Ramsey performed and to decisive effect. Impressed by what he saw, Fabio Capello, now offering his opinions as one of the pundits on Sky Italia’s coverage of Serie A, suggested to Sarri that Ramsey is better able to express the full range of his talent from that position. “This is Aaron’s argument too,” Sarri said. “He claims he needs to have the play in front of him in order to time his runs. When he plays with his back to goal or cuts inside, he loses a second.” Early in the season, Ramsey represented the first discernible break from Massimiliano Allegri’s Juventus. Sarri’s inaugural starting XI surprised many people in how little it deviated from what went before, most strikingly in midfield where Sami Khedira and Matuidi — stalwarts of the ancien regime — kept their places despite the expectation that the pair would be the first victims of the Sarrista revolution. There wasn’t a single new signing in the team that kicked off the season in Parma and aside from a greater emphasis on building play out from the back and a higher, more sustained press, the mood was one of plus ca change. A spark of reinvention only appeared after the fragile Douglas Costa pulled up against Fiorentina in September and Sarri switched from a lop-sided 4-4-2 to one with a diamond in midfield, with Ramsey, now available after some lower back trouble, playing in the No 10 role that Juventus fans associate with Michel Platini. The 2-1 wins against Verona and Brescia, and 2-0 victory against SPAL, felt like the beginning of a brave new world for the Bianconeri. The passing got quicker and the combinations slicker. Acting on the encouraging signs, especially at the Rigamonti (Brescia’s home), Sarri concluded it was worth persisting with the system. Configured as such, Juventus qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League with two games to spare, outplayed and defeated a then-unbeaten Inter side at the San Siro in October and went undefeated themselves until December. There were flashes of what Ramsey was capable of as a player, but catching fire proved difficult for a couple of reasons. For a start, he missed nearly all of pre-season, including the tour, clocking up just 20 minutes in Juventus’ final friendly against Triestina. Still rehabbing the injury he suffered in Arsenal’s Europa League quarter-final against Napoli last April, Ramsey endured lumbar pain and some minor muscle fatigue in his hip flexors and adductors. Overall though, he has been available for 64 per cent of Juventus’ games. In his absence, or as an alternative, Sarri tended to use Federico Bernardeschi. He also picked his moments to play Dybala, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain all together. Perhaps overly cautious with Ramsey — the Welshman has played three games in a row only twice and didn’t play 90 minutes until the Inter game earlier this month — finding rhythm and consistency has not been straightforward. The occasions when he was building up some steam only to find himself back on the bench — take the Leverkusen game in Turin for instance, the Derby d’Italia at the San Siro and the first leg of Juventus’ Champions League round-of-16 tie with Lyon — must have been the source of some frustration. Playing as a No 10 isn’t necessarily new to Ramsey. He has done it, when the circumstances dictated, for Arsenal and Wales, and it’s also true Paratici felt he could “play as a dynamic trequartista like (Ashton-under-Lyne’s finest) Simone Perrotta was at Roma.” The difference is Perrotta could count on Francesco Totti, the perfect false nine, to put him through mid-stride or link up with him in some other ingenious way. By contrast, Ramsey – and Juventus as a whole – doesn’t have a reference point in the penalty box for him to bounce off because Ronaldo tends to start wide while Dybala goes right or comes short. That split-second Ramsey loses turning to face his strikers is the difference between being open and not. It’s a tell for defenders too, making him easier to read. At least Sarri now seems to gradually be coming round to the idea that Ramsey poses a greater threat from deep. After all, this is where he stood out at the Emirates. The mind goes back to the 2013-14 season when Arsenal used 4-2-3-1 and Arsene Wenger lined him up next to Mikel Arteta. The balance of that tandem was something to behold. Arteta passed while Ramsey drove forward. He played some of the best football of his career. Then, the Spaniard got hurt and Wenger couldn’t replicate the same dynamic, settling on Francis Coquelin and Santi Cazorla instead. There was no longer a natural place for Ramsey in the side and he ended up on the right. Beside Coquelin, he didn’t offer enough passing quality. Next to Cazorla, Arsenal lacked defensive steel. Ramsey couldn’t play as a No 10 because of the presence of Mesut Ozil, and the German’s arrival made it less likely Arsenal were going to play 4-3-3 when their big-name signing from Real Madrid wanted to drift between the lines. The player the Old Lady fell in love with was the one who ran N’Golo Kante — yes, him — into the ground and scored the winner in the 2017 FA Cup final. Coming from deep, with Granit Xhaka covering for him, it is odd as we turn our mind back to Juventus that up until February, only 16 per cent of Ramsey’s minutes were in his best position. Apparently more willing to accept that than he was in the first half of the season, Sarri’s response to Capello still indicates he hasn’t given up completely on Ramsey playing just off Juventus’ two strikers. Sarri remains curious to see what the 29-year-old can do there when he’s in peak physical condition. “I’d also say that his fitness is different now from when he was playing as a 10,” Sarri countered. After not starting Ramsey in the league between October and the beginning of January, the former Chelsea and Napoli coach included him from kick-off in four of Juventus’ last five games before the suspension of Serie A. Playing as a No 8, Ramsey has now scored in each of his last two starts and the dinked finish to see off SPAL in February, with Dybala spotting his run and slipping a pass through for him behind the defence, offered a hint of what was to come in the Derby d’Italia. It’s nothing their team-mates haven’t seen in training, where the understanding between them has blossomed. As in the 1950s, a Welshman (John Charles) and an Argentine (Omar Sivori) are starting to hit it off in black and white, and Juventus need connections like the one emerging between Ramsey and Dybala to take hold, considering how dependent they have become on Cristiano. Since December, the 35-year-old has propped up Serie A’s fourth-best attack and is responsible for 63 per cent of its goals. The lack of a reliable flow of goals from midfield has been of particular concern, especially given the output in the past from players like Claudio Marchisio, Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba and, more recently, Khedira. If Sarri is looking for more goals from that area of the pitch, then Ramsey has certainly made a strong case in limited minutes. Compared with the other midfield options, he has the same amount of expected assists per 90 as Bentancur (0.18), yet the Uruguayan has racked up six assists to Ramsey’s one. A haul of four goals makes Ramsey Juventus’ top-scoring midfielder and it begs the question how many might he end up with if he continues to make runs from deep on a consistent basis. Unlike Rush, who was homesick in Turin — though he claims never to have uttered the infamous line “it was like living in a foreign country” — The Athletic understands Ramsey is enjoying life in Italy, where he’s practically next-door neighbours with Ronaldo. He’s got to know the city over the last nine months, identifying his favourite restaurant spots and is learning about the Barolo produced in the Langhe, where the cheese and white truffles are also delicious. Ramsey has certainly given Juventus a taste of what’s to come and Sarri could do a lot worse than continue to blend the flavour he brings to the team with Dybala.

Unwritten: What is speed in football and how do you measure it? https://theathletic.com/1703178/2020/03/27/speed-football-premier-league-fast-fastest-player/ Speed is an aspect of football that is so key, and yet so infrequently written about. There are various ways that teams can use speed to their advantage: attacking upfield fast, getting shots away quickly after turning the ball over, or moving the ball quickly to pull the opposition out of position. Rapid movements, fleet feet and quick thinking: the Premier League has always been a league where the use of speed (or lack thereof, in some cases) has lead to greatness — Leicester City’s title-winning season, for example, was built on speed. It is something that’s deemed so important, yet from a statistical point of view it’s rarely mentioned. The first kind of speed is the one we all know, and likely had to repeat again and again in physics lessons in school: ”speed equals distance over time”. To start measuring how fast a side attacks, let’s first determine what a slow attack looks like. Take Manchester City’s 44-pass goal against Manchester United back in November 2018. This move took City one minute and 55 seconds from start to finish. They moved the ball a total distance of 699 metres, for a territorial gain of just 42 metres (how far the ball was actually moved up the field). Taking the territorial gain and the total duration of the passing sequence, the direct speed (how fast the ball moved upfield) can be calculated. This City goal, while aesthetically pleasing, is on the super slow side, clocking up just 0.38 m/s, and is one of the slowest goals in recent memory. If City’s goal that day is the tortoise, the hare is Leicester’s fourth goal against Aston Villa in the 4-1 drubbing back in December: With Ricardo Pereira (21) picking up the loose ball and sending it long, Dennis Praet picks up the loose header from Villa’s Douglas Luiz and sends Jamie Vardy on his way. This move comprised of just two passes (and only one of them is complete, violating one of the commandments) and took 11.5 seconds from start to finish. Moving 86.7m upfield, this goal was reminiscent of Leicester teams of yesteryear, with a direct speed of 7.5 m/s. Calculating these metrics over every eligible shot in the Premier League in the past five seasons, we can see which is the fastest attack in terms of raw distance over time. The criteria used here is all shots that have come from open play, that aren’t rebounds, and don’t come from moves that only cover a tiny amount of ground (e.g. a goalkeeper getting tackled and the ball put into an empty net). Leicester’s title-winning team are the fastest, with moves averaging 3.9 m/s. They also dominate the top five with the 2016-17 and 2017-18 teams included. Where Leicester differ, though, is the absence of many passes in their moves leading to shots. Their passes per sequence is the lowest by a long way compared to the other teams (the lowest in the dataset, in fact) and shows how different Claudio Ranieri’s team was when it came to turning defence into attack. Essentially, they moved the ball by carrying it forward, with Vardy scoring more goals following a carry of five metres or more than any other player in the Premier League that season. Sean Dyche’s Burnley in 2018-19 sit third in the table by this measure, with their way of attacking quickly being slightly different to that of Leicester. While Leicester’s quickness was born out of long passing and ball carrying, Burnley progressed their attacks through even longer passes and winning possession from second balls. The inclusion of Steve Bruce’s Newcastle United isn’t overly surprising, given the team is set up to absorb pressure and attack from deep, yet their attacking approach is different again. Objectively, they are the most passive pressing team in the Premier League this season, allowing the opposition 19 passes before sticking a foot in and attempting to win it back. They also start their attacking moves from the second deepest position in the league, after Arsenal. With Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-Maximin as the two key attacking outlets in transition, Newcastle look to run the ball upfield, with Almiron and Saint-Maximin as the 3rd and 8th most willing runners in terms of distance-per-carry: Moving the ball upfield with speed is one way that a team can be quick, but another is turning defence into attack quickly and taking shots soon after turning the ball over. Taking advantage of these transitional moments is key to creating shooting opportunities, and speed of thought and speed of reactions are the tools required. Defining these moments when teams win the ball back and shoot quickly is relatively straightforward — any shot that comes from the ball being recovered in open play and taken within 15 seconds of the sequence starting is counted. Here’s the fastest teams in the last five seasons in terms of turning defence into attack quickly: Naturally, this lists consists of clubs that press high up the field, or at least used to. Jurgen Klopp’s early seasons at Liverpool were when Liverpool’s press was at its most intense, which is a similar story to Mauricio Pochettino at Spurs. Manchester United buck the trend slightly. This season, they don’t exactly fit the bill in terms of a high-pressing side, but in Daniel James, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, they have the youngest (and arguably fastest) collection of attacking talent this season. Being able to turn the ball over and attack at speed is another way of getting included here, similar to Leicester’s title-winners from 2015-16. Chelsea’s inclusion in 2016 is intriguing, given it’s Antonio Conte first year managing the team, and also the first year of N’Golo Kante in midfield. Eden Hazard had his joint-best year in terms of scoring, as did Diego Costa, as Chelsea cruised to the title. Lastly, teams can use speed to their advantage through crisp ball movement — letting the ball do the work — to carve open opportunities to score. There’s the caveat that this measure is far from perfect — with the absence of a timestamp of when the ball is received in the data, these statistics don’t take into account the time that a player is on the ball and the time that the ball is on the move (i.e. has been passed). Nonetheless, the table of fast-tempo sides below makes for interesting debate. To also cater for messier moves in the data (and on the field) only those which last 15 seconds or more are included. To approximate tempo here, we take the duration of an attacking sequence and divide it by the number of passes that take place within it. A quicker tempo move is one that has less time between passes. Of two sequences that each last 20 seconds, the one with five passes and a tempo of four seconds per pass is quicker than the other sequence consisting of just two passes and a tempo of ten seconds per pass. Arsene Wenger’s final year at Arsenal coincided with Arsenal having the fastest team for ball movement, with an average of 2.8 seconds per pass. Although the passing may have been of the U-shaped, painful variety, it was still done at a relatively high tempo. Pep’s City also feature three times in here, which passes the eye test given how they look to pull opponent’s from left to right, waiting for the right moment to play through the lines and carve open a scoring chance. Notably, the tempo at City under Pep compared to Pellegrini has changed a fair amount, with the latter’s side averaging 3.2 seconds per-pass, the highest of any City side in the past five seasons. These measures, however, are partly stylistic instead of being indicative of great attacking sides. While Fulham of 2018-19 had a relatively high tempo, and an attack good enough for mid-table last year, the defence was ultimately too flimsy to keep them afloat. Speed of movement, reactions, and of the ball itself are just three ways that the fastest teams in the Premier League can be labelled as “fast”. It’s not always a winning strategy to be quick. Sides that play at speed tend to either burn out (Spurs), get tactically worked out by opponents (Ranieri) or lose the pieces that made the speed so successful in the first place (Conte’s Chelsea) — but it’s certainly fun to watch.

Growing appetite for Premier League season to be abandoned on moral grounds https://theathletic.com/1702521/2020/03/27/coronavirus-premier-league-null-void-abandon/ A number of Premier League clubs want to end the current season with immediate effect and replay it in full once it is deemed safe to do so — even if that means Liverpool being denied a first title in 30 years. One senior figure told The Athletic it is morally wrong for football to even be discussing playing behind closed doors while the coronavirus crisis is at its peak. “You look at the people sitting around the Premier League table by Skype; their egos cannot sustain a mirror being held up to them,” they said. “The fact is they are not as important as a Tesco delivery driver at this time. We run a game. No more, no less. There is no place for sport at the moment.” At a meeting of all 20 top-flight teams last week, there was a “100 per cent” commitment to completing the 2019-20 campaign whatever that may take, including the prospect of staging matches behind closed doors, and the idea of declaring it “null and void” was off the table. That was largely motivated by the possibility of having to pay back £762 million in broadcast revenue which has already been distributed, in addition to issues around competitive integrity. But privately, some clubs have developed strong reservations about resuming football during the coronavirus crisis and are leaning towards the season being re-run regardless of the consequences. This was a view initially raised by West Ham United vice-chair Karren Brady on March 14 and in the subsequent Premier League video call, she and Brighton & Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber sounded a note of caution on the realities of finishing the matches, though there were no dissenting voices. Yet behind the scenes, it appears there are more who do not share the collective message, with the chairman of another club telling The Athletic he finds the existing position “insulting”. Any decision on what comes next needs 14 of the 20 clubs to agree in a vote. Despite European football’s governing body UEFA stating its aim of concluding all domestic and European club competitions by June 30, as things stand, the men’s and women’s seasons in England have been “extended indefinitely” with fixtures recommencing “no earlier than April 30”. One chairman is furious that the sport is even considering a return in the midst of such societal turmoil, describing it as “embarrassing” and adding: “What we are doing is wrong.” Several teams are said to be of the opinion that April 30 should not be viewed as a chance to play, rather to buy time for the authorities to negotiate with broadcasters over the size of any rebate. The next Premier League shareholders meeting is scheduled for April 3 and one high-ranking club official said: “I’m hoping the situation changes by then but unfortunately, the world is changing and it’s changing for the worse every day. “It’s absolutely clear what is going to happen. It’s a worldwide pandemic. You just start (the Premier League season) again and there are very few losers. Liverpool, I know. But in the grand scheme of things, honestly, it really doesn’t matter. You’ve just got to start again. “This (COVID-19) is going to get worse here (in Britain), so it’s not about players returning to training. If we all stay at home and self-isolate for the next two, three months, we’re going to get through this quite simply. But even then, there’s going to be a period of slow reintegration into normality, otherwise the virus will spike again. So, if we’re lucky, the new season will start in September. “If they want to say, ‘This season is over and it will be recommencing with the final nine games being played out in September’, fantastic. But if that’s not feasible. Just end this league with whatever consequences that has. End it and say the new league will start in September. “We look like petulant, ridiculous children now. I passionately believe what we’re doing is wrong. And I would like to think my colleagues now believe that as well, that the world has changed. It’s a scary place at the moment and we’ve got to treat it seriously.” Professional Footballers’ Association deputy chief executive Bobby Barnes told The Athletic earlier this week that an initial reluctance among players he is speaking to over staging matches in empty stadiums has started to shift because they realise there may be no other option. This concept is opposed by one chairman, who said: “How can you play a contact sport that could result in injury and a highly-paid, highly-privileged individual having to go to hospital to be fixed, placing an even greater burden on the hospital system at a time when the virus is escalating? I just find it so insulting that we’re even talking this way; it’s just not important. “If we start playing behind closed doors, can you guarantee you’re not going to have thousands of people turning up outside (the stadiums)? It’s absurd. Forget the practicalities of it. I just find the whole proposition insulting. That people are on ventilators dying and yet we’re playing a game. I’m baffled by it. Even in good times, what we do is full of self-importance. It’s just a game of football.” With Liverpool 25 points above second-placed Manchester City and two wins from securing the Premier League trophy, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United perceived to be overachieving in sixth and seventh respectively, and Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion in the Championship’s automatic promotion places, such views will not be universal. But one club director feels football has its priorities wrong: “The position we’re taking is ridiculous. There are such bigger issues to deal with yet every question is, ‘Will Liverpool be champions?’. “It really just doesn’t matter. In world history, this will be recorded as a very challenging time. There is a place for football and entertainment but that’s in a time when there are no troubles and there are no major issues that need to be dealt with. “At a recent meeting, one club said, ‘Listen, I’m going to let my players go on holiday but if they get stuck because the situation changes, do you think the government will send private planes over to get them so they can play football?’. This is how disconnected and ludicrous they are.”