No Grass in the Clouds

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5/17/2024
16 : 44

The Best Teams That Didn't Win the Premier League, Ranked

With one game left in the 2023-24 season, the most likely outcome is the same outcome from five of the previous six seasons: Manchester City win the Premier League. The collateral damage: Arsenal will
5/14/2024
16 : 14

Meet the Pass That Explains the 2023-24 Premier League Season

What's the best way to score a goal? I wrote about pullbacks: It's just way harder to complete a through-ball than it used to be. But if that's true and teams aren't pushing their
5/10/2024
16 : 24

The 16 Worst Misses of the Premier League Season

Remember this? It didn't end up in the goal. Good times. I wrote about the biggest and most important misses of the Premier League season: If it seems like I'm only focusing on Liverpool,
5/7/2024
16 : 24

Why Bayer Leverkusen Are Better Than a Hypothetical Team With Messi and Ronaldo

Start here: We didn't expect anyone to be unbeaten at this point in the season. Then go here: If, in August, I told you that it was going to happen, then how many teams would you have guessed
5/3/2024
18 : 4

Every American Soccer Player, Ranked, Again

The second volume of the UNITED STATES MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM PLAYER PERFORMANCE INDEX is out. The point of this, as you all no doubt understand, was to come up with a simple way to assess the
5/1/2024
16 : 34

7 Questions About Liverpool and Arne Slot

Plus, a draft! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
4/30/2024
18 : 4

Podcast app setup

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4/27/2024
6 : 24

Podcast app setup

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4/23/2024
16 : 54

All of Manchester United's Signings Under Erik ten Hag, Ranked

Sunday's FA Cup semifinal “win” over Coventry City really felt like the end of an era at Manchester United. So, I decided to look back at all 16 players who joined the club during that era. Erik
4/19/2024
15 : 44

Will Barcelona Ever Catch Real Madrid?

The final El Clasico — the final “The Classic” — of the season is on Sunday. Real Madrid are flying, while Barcelona are dying/crying/lying/whatevever-other-term-with-a-negative-connotation-rhymes-with
4/16/2024
17 : 24

How Liverpool's Season Started to Fall Apart

And it was all going so well. A little over a week ago, Liverpool were the favorites to win the Premier League and the Champions League. Today, they're relative longshots to win either one — let
4/16/2024
11 : 54

Podcast app setup

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4/14/2024
16 : 55

Podcast app setup

Open this on your phone and click the button below: Add to podcast app
4/13/2024
7 : 56

Why This Arsenal Might Be the Best Arsenal We've Ever Seen

Famously, the 2003-04 version of Arsenal played 38 Premier League games and didn't lose a single one. I wrote about why this season's Arsenal, who've already lost four times, might be even
3/29/2024
16 : 24

Is Harry Kane Cursed? An In-Depth Investigation

When I started this piece, I figured all the threads would lead back to a specific moment in April 2018: when Harry Kane claimed a somewhat dubious-looking goal by saying, “I sweat on my daughter's
3/26/2024
17 : 54

Everything You Need to Know About the Premier League Title Race

OK, not everything. But I looked at every game Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal still have to play — and then I ranked them all, in order of difficulty: City's non-penalty xG differential at
3/22/2024
17 : 24

Why Is European Soccer Still So, Uh, I Don't Know, Dumb?

A couple weeks ago, I moderated a panel at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference with the following people: -Sarah Rudd, co-founder of src | ftbl, former head of analytics at Arsenal -Ian Graham,
3/20/2024
16 : 54

Is Gregg Berhalter Good? And Why Are Premier League Teams Scoring So Many Goals?

After a week off, I've got two for you today. The first: My colleague Jeff Carlisle and I explored a question that lots of angry USMNT fans on the Internet seem to be quite sure of: Is Gregg
3/8/2024
17 : 54

How Klopp, Pep, and Klopp-v-Pep Changed Soccer Forever

One last time, huh? Ahead of Sunday's game at Anfield, I wrote about the managers for Liverpool and Manchester City: Although Pep's City are further than ever from Klopp's heavy-metal
3/5/2024
17 : 34

The 50 Best American Soccer Players Right Now, Ranked

I was tasked with coming up with a way to rank the club performance of every male American soccer player. To do so, I relied on my two favorite metrics for player performance: 1) Are you playing? And 2