The Double Pivot: Soccer analysis, analytics, and commentary

Latest Episodes:

Bayern - Madrid May 02, 2024

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We've been doing our Champions League match breakdowns for subscribers, and this week it's the free podcast. Pretty good match!

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Salary Caps, Regulators and Referees Apr 25, 2024

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A lot is happening right now in the administration of the game of football. There's a proposal for a Premier League salary cap, and we discuss what exactly this means, why it's so very different from PSR, and whether it stands any chance of succeeding. And there's the government regulator, which we have both become convinced will not happen in the UK government has any sense. And there's referee discourse, which has sufficiently annoyed us that we have to talk about it again.

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In Which We Refuse To Construct Narratives Apr 15, 2024

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A big weekend in the title race, Liverpool and then Arsenal lost winnable home matches in succession and it was highly dramatic, but it seems far from obvious to us that we learned much from the drama.

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If We Ran Everton Apr 09, 2024

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The club is in an odd spot. They're at risk of relegation, and worse, relegation would probably be a death sentence for Everton Football Club as an operation. But they're also pretty good? With some valuable assets to sell? And a good manager? If it weren't for everything else...
So we discuss how we would approach the problem of running Everton.

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Mailbag: Castles in the Air Apr 04, 2024

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We take questions from the mailbag on how we watch games, on Jeremy Doku and Brennan Johnson, and then we end up building an entire theory of the intersection of player development and modern tactics in the development of really fast guy wingers.

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Chelsea and PSR with Skanda Amarnath Mar 18, 2024

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Part Two of our conversation with official Double Pivot Financial Shenanigans Correspondent Skanda Amarnath (@irvingswisher). And while there are a lot of important details, there's a simple takeaway. Chelsea's PSR crunch is significantly worse than has been generally reported.

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Understanding PSR with Skanda Amarnath Mar 12, 2024

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There has been a lot of news about the Premier League's PSR with the Everton points deduction, reports of violations at Nottingham Forest, and all the stories about how clubs are seeking to get into compliance with these regulations. But we think the actual news here has not been well explained in much football media. So we called in an actual finance expert, the Double Pivot's Financial Shenanigans Correspondent, Skanda Amarnath (@IrvingSwisher) to walk us through what has actually changed -- it's not the rules -- and why a PSR system with teeth is in some crucial ways not only different from North American salary caps but the opposite of a salary cap.

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Liverpool, Arsenal, Man City Mar 06, 2024

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A little check-in on the ol' title race.

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Barcelona Finance with Jon Sindreu Feb 27, 2024

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We finally have the guest who can help us do the Barcelona finance pod we needed. Jon Sindreu of the Wall Street Journal (@jonsindreu) helps explain the books, the league rules, the levers, and even what the heck Barca Vision is. Plus we talk about the Barcelona football team a little bit even.

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Bayern in Crisis Feb 15, 2024

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Solidly beaten by Leverkusen in the top of the table clash at the weekend and then a shocking loss away to Lazio in the first leg of their Champions League knockout. So what's wrong? And separately, how impressive were Leverkusen?

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