The Double Pivot: Soccer analysis, analytics, and commentary

Latest Episodes:

Manager Sackings in England Dec 18, 2024

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Leicester City fired Steve Cooper a few weeks ago, and this weekend the two managers in 19th and 20th place in the Premier League, Gary O'Neil of Wolves and Russell Martin of Southampton, both got the sack. We take a look at the very different stories of these three clubs, what we expect from the relegation race this season, and the trend of defensive possession at the bottom of the table.

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Meet the New Boss at Manchester United Dec 12, 2024

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Jim Ratcliffe sacked his Sporting Director Dan Ashworth after a pretty short term. It is not a hopeful moment for the new football system at United. We discuss what we know about how their football operations work and then move from there to talking about new manager Ruben Amorim, his system, and how the players are fitting together.
Adam Crafton and Laurie Whitwell in The Athletic on Ashworth: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5978018/2024/12/08/dan-ashworth-manchester-united-exit-reasons/

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Serie A Title Race / Top Four Race Dec 05, 2024

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It's a very exciting season in Italy, with multiple teams in touching distance of first place and no obvious favorite yet in December. We walk through Napoli, Atalanta, Inter, Fiorentina, Juventus, Lazio and Milan.

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Man City in Crisis Nov 25, 2024

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Five losses in a row, three in the league. And it's not really a five-match thing, the losses are somewhat fluky but performances have been down badly at City ever since Rodri got injured. We break down what's (relatively) wrong with City and why we're skeptical it can be wholly fixed.

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England and Tuchel with Grace Robertson Nov 20, 2024

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We are joined by official Double Pivot English Correspondent Grace Robertson to discuss the new England manager Thomas Tuchel (who is not actually managing England yet) and what to expect from this team over the coming World Cup cycle.

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xG meets GTO: Talking Stats and Poker with Jonathan Jaffe Nov 04, 2024

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(This is a subscriber episode from October, now unlocked for all listeners.)
Poker pro Jonathan Jaffe joins the pod to talk all things stats and the practical ways we think about using probability to make decisions.

See the GTO LAB podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@GTOLAB

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Ten Hag Out Oct 29, 2024

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The first manager sacked in the Premier League is Manchester United's Eric Ten Hag. He has not done a particularly good job, but there are few hallmarks of good process in his sacking.

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Is There a Big 3 Anymore? Plus... the Nobody Wants This discussion Oct 22, 2024

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We talk about Liverpool - Chelsea, City's struggles, Arsenal's, well, you know, and whether there is truly a big three in the Premier League as we expected.
And then on to the real stuff: the Netflix romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, on which we have so many takes.

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Mailbag: Pulisic, PSXG, Diarra and more Oct 15, 2024

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We take questions from the Double Pivot discord on these topics, we remember some center backs who scored goals, and we fight the urge to throw out the script and do a pod on Nobody Wants This.

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APT and PSR: Explaining the Man City - Premier League court case Oct 08, 2024

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It's in our wheelhouse.* What exactly did a legal review panel find in relation to the Premier League's "associated party transaction" rules, why are City and the PL spinning this ruling so aggressively, what is an ownership loan anyhow, and what's to come next for the financial regulation of English soccer?
* we also learn the etymology of 'wheelhouse'.

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