The English Football Thread

[Vesper 30,080]

[Vesper 30,080]

Scouting Martín Zubimendi

A massive profile on Arsenal's likely midfield signing: his fit, function, defensive game, physical profile, press resistance, passing range, untapped skills, and potential to transform Arsenal

https://billycarpenter.substack.com/p/scouting-martin-zubimendi

“No, there’s nothin’ you can send me, my own true love
There’s nothin’ I wish to be ownin’
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean.”
— Bob Dylan

---

In Thief (1981), James Caan’s character, Frank, is seen breaking into high-end vaults during a spate of nighttime heists. These scenes are not edited for pace or drama, and there’s little dialogue. Everything looks disarmingly practical. Michael Mann lets it play out slowly, clinically, as we hear the grind of the machinery and the hums of the power drills.

Our man Frank isn’t improvising. And Caan isn’t using movie props, but actual tools: a magnetic drill press, an industrial torch, and a custom-built thermal lance. The camera lingers as he locks the press into place, adjusts the angle, and begins boring into the safe’s reinforced steel. Sparks fly, and there are no dramatic cutaways or bouts with cheap tension. Just a man doing his job.

Screenwriters have a phrase for this kind of scene: “competence porn.” It’s meant to describe the appeal of watching people who are good at what they do, especially when it’s complicated, and especially when they do it with precision and calm.

It’s part of why we’re willing to watch Matt Damon read manuals, rig parts together, and shovel shit in The Martian. It’s part of why Hidden Figures and Arrival resonate, or why we watch Sherlock Holmes solve problems we don’t fully understand. The satisfaction is from the stakes, sure, but also … we like watching capable hands. We like watching systems being worked, problems being solved, little mechanics of confusing jobs being revealed by people who make them look easy.

It’s also why people like watching Martín Zubimendi.

snip

[Laylabelle 9,534]

14 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

The wait to break the Premier League's goal involvement record goes on for Mohamed Salah.

But on his 400th Liverpool appearance, he really should have been celebrating equalling the tally.

Quite how the Egyptian side-footed Cody Gakpo's low cross wide of an empty net from just yards out in Monday's defeat at Brighton, no-one really knows. His own wry smile suggested his own disbelief.

Two months ago, he looked set to destroy Premier League records and produce the greatest attacking individual season in the competition's history.

Salah's double against Southampton on 8 March took him to 27 goals and 17 assists in 29 matches, just three goal involvements short of the Premier League record of 47, held jointly by Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole.

He also looked certain to beat the record of 20 Premier League assists in a season, jointly held by Arsenal's Thierry Henry and Manchester City's Kevin de Bruyne.

Since then, has recorded just one goal and one assist in eight matches, leaving him still one short of the goal involvement record and two short of the assist record.

Still bloody ridiculous 

[Laylabelle 9,534]

On 18/05/2025 at 22:07, Strike said:

Can't be hanging on results elsewhere. As long as we don't concede early, the mistakes will come I feel 

Nahh exactly we've gotta win then see what everyone else does. 

[Vesper 30,080]

world class goal by Marmoush

amazing technique

[Vesper 30,080]

fuck

Bournemouth hit the post

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

23 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Still bloody ridiculous 

Imagine if we'd signed him...oh hang on

[Strike 7,474]

1 minute ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Imagine if we'd signed him...oh hang on

Liverpool knew how to use him. He fits that RF role he plays there. Our style of play wouldn't suit him so well 

[Laylabelle 9,534]

2-0..

Where did Villa spring from?! Think been looking at who is above us or just below now they're there too

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

3 minutes ago, Strike said:

Liverpool knew how to use him. He fits that RF role he plays there. Our style of play wouldn't suit him so well 

Theres a documentary on him -he says he wasnt mature as a 21 year old at Chelsea - and being loaned to Fiorentina made him change his ways completely

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

If the Cherries get one its game on

[Fulham Broadway 17,299]

Kova red card for being shit at shooting

[TheHulk 2,402]

Bournemouth are a disgrace of a football club, got red as well.

[LAM09 7,043]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

world class goal by Marmoush

amazing technique

Kepa getting beaten from distance (arguably goal of the season but still). Name a more iconic duo.

[nyikolajevics 2,689]

8 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

Kepa getting beaten from distance (arguably goal of the season but still). Name a more iconic duo.

Chelsea & expensive striker signings.

[LAM09 7,043]

4 minutes ago, nyikolajevics said:

Chelsea & expensive striker signings.

Chelsea and GK signings under current ownership. The list could probably go on. 😄

Edited May 20 by LAM09

[Special Juan 28,088]

There was no way Bournemouth were ever getting anything here...shit can of a football team, already on the beach and spent 90 minutes plus walking and watching City pass around them

[Vesper 30,080]

The Athletic’s end-of-season awards, 2024-25: Men’s football

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6336642/2025/05/20/athletic-end-of-season-awards-2024-25-men/

The Premier League title has long since been won and the battle to avoid relegation was also decided weeks ago, leaving the fight to qualify for European football in 2025-26 as the major outstanding issue of this season.

As the 20 clubs of the domestic top-flight prepare to wrap up their league campaigns over the next week, including Sunday’s 10-game final day, The Athletic’s team of experts have been voting in our annual end-of-season awards. These cover the Premier League, the Championship and also the big competitions in Europe.

We have done the same for women’s football — you can find out about them here.

But without further ado, let’s reveal the winners in the men’s game…

---

Premier League Player of the Season: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

 

Mohamed Salah set standards nobody could get close to as he propelled Liverpool to the title.

The prolific Egyptian flourished under new head coach Arne Slot, breaking the record for most goal involvements in a 38-game Premier League season (46 and counting). The previous best was 44, achieved by Thierry Henry of Arsenal (2002-03) and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (2022-23).

Salah, who is also on the brink of winning his fourth Premier League Golden Boot in eight seasons as the division’s top scorer, has tormented top-flight defenders. As well as netting 28 league goals, he has also been the champions’ most creative force with 18 league assists.

Across all competitions this season, he has 33 goals and 23 assists in 51 appearances — climbing to third place on the club’s all-time scoring list with 244. He’s signed a new contract to replace the one that was expiring this summer too, so Premier League defenders face having to deal with him for two more years.

Premier League Young Player of the Season: Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

Morgan Rogers is a unique footballer. He is nimble and fleet of foot, but is seemingly built of concrete.

His physicality has created a rare type of attacker — a brilliant ball-carrier who is hardly ever outmuscled. Combine all of this with a developed end-product and you get a 22-year-old who is a critical cog in manager Unai Emery’s Aston Villa system.

Few players enjoy a rise as swift or sharp as Rogers’ has been, going from a so-so midfielder at Middlesbrough in the second-tier Championship and during a string of previous EFL loans, to an England international and elite playmaker in less than 18 months.

Premier League Manager of the Season: Nuno Espirito Santo (Nottingham Forest)

 

There are a few managers who have earned their place in Nottingham Forest history by inspiring truly remarkable transformations in the club’s fortunes. Brian Clough took Forest up from the second tier in 1978 and over the next three seasons made them not just domestic champions but kings of Europe — twice, Frank Clark followed another top-flight promotion in the early 1990s by swiftly earning UEFA Cup qualification and Steve Cooper took over a team fighting relegation to the third tier in September 2021 and within nine months had the club back in the Premier League after 23 years away.

With the job he has done at the City Ground since replacing Cooper in December 2023, Nuno Espirito Santo has more than earned his place among that group.

Forest spent the previous two seasons fighting against relegation. Many pundits predicted back in August that it would be the same story again. But Nuno has proved Forest’s doubters wrong.

There’s been a battle alright, but of a much more enjoyable kind for the team and their fans.

After they climbed to third in the table before Christmas, it seemed Forest were on course for a top-five finish and Champions League place. While they might have stuttered slightly over the race’s final furlong, they have still qualified for Europe for the first time in three decades and could still cross the line in the top five to return to the continent’s elite they conquered under Clough.

Nuno has given Forest an identity again, a mentality that has seen them beat Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Manchester United (twice) this season. He has allowed their fans to dare to dream that nothing is impossible.

Premier League Team of the Season

 

Nottingham Forest spent a lot of time and money trying to find a reliable goalkeeper, and in 2024 winter-window buy Matz Sels they finally found their man. No Premier League keeper has more clean sheets this season than his 13 and few, if any, have been as important to their team.

Champions Liverpool provide 50 per cent of our all-star team’s back four. The departing Trent Alexander-Arnold added six more assists to his Premier League total, while his Anfield captain Virgil van Dijk is the league’s top-goalscoring central defender (25) since he came to the English top flight with Southampton in 2015. Talking of goals, Arsenal’s set-piece devourer Gabriel retains his position from last year’s XI, with Bournemouth’s overlapping-run merchant Milos Kerkez completing the quartet.

Arsenal are represented in our midfield three too, with the increasingly influential Declan Rice bouncing back from that much-debated red card against Brighton in August to dominate games on both the domestic and European stages. Meanwhile, Liverpool provide the incredibly consistent Alexis Mac Allister (five goals and five assists in his first Premier League season for the club, and now the same again in year two) and Ryan Gravenberch, whose conversion by new head coach Arne Slot into a No 6 was one of the tactical shifts of the campaign.

Up front, we have Salah, a player who must now own more records to do with scoring and/or assisting than most other footballers have actual goals. The Egyptian is joined by Alexander Isak — just the third Newcastle player to hit 10+ goals both home and away in the same Premier League season — and Chris Wood, who after a sensational season with Forest (20 league goals so far) is now the record Premier League goalscorer for both them and Burnley. And if that doesn’t earn you a spot in a team of the season, then what does?

snip