Den store tråd til anbefaling af fodboldjournalistik med mere

[Mads740]

Forbes har et interview i tre afsnit med Simon Kuper (eller Cooper, som A kalder ham) og Stefan Szymaski, der har skrevet Why England Lose. Det er ikke fordi interviewt er synderligt velskrevet, men det er nogle interessante betragtninger fra de to herrer angående Liverpools problemer og hvem de mest effektive angribere i Europa er.

De første to afsnit er online (1 og 2), og nummer tre skulle komme i morgen (og her er det). Et par uddrag

Om Liverpools indkøb:

The error there was that they did use numbers, but the way they tried to construct the team was as a crossing team. You use the numbers to find the people who are the best crossers, [Stuart] Downing and [Jordan] Henderson, and then you find the guy who’s best at heading in crosses, which is indeed Andy Caroll. But there’s a numbers problem there, where the stats show that crosses produce very few goals. In other words, high numbers of crosses are not the way to victory.

om UEFA's Financial Fair Play-regler

In particular, the financial fair play rules seem to be addressed at clubs that have sugar daddies. It’s not hard to find people who when they talk about this the conversation quickly goes to Chelsea and Manchester City. As if stopping these people from buying clubs and investing in talent would somehow improve the game. I am not clear that it would improve the game.I think one of the key issues in Europe has always been the dominance of the few big clubs – the Real Madrids, the Bayern Munichs, the AC Milans of this world.

In fact, the only thing in the English context that has challenged the dominance of the big clubs since the creation of the Premier League are three sugar daddy teams – Blackburn Rovers, Chelsea, and Manchester City. All of the other titles have been won by what you would call the established powers in Manchester United and Arsenal. In that sense the financial fair play is dealing with the wrong issue, and identifies a problem that is not really a problem

Om Spaniens og især Barcelonas talentudvikling:

I was in South Africa during the World Cup, and as Spain progressed I kept returning to the topics of the Masia, Barcelona, and the academy. Which for me was a kind of eye opening day. I happened to meet this great guy who worked in the Masia and he showed me around. Having grown up in Holland I could see that what they were doing was just Dutch. It was the same thing that Ajax did. And then when Ajax and Barcelona essentially played each other in the World Cup final, it was the same teams. The same academy had produced both teams.

Why England Lose er naturligvis også obligatorisk pensum for fodboldinteresserede.