Mark Carey

It was not so long ago that professional footballers would treat their bodies with little more care than a Sunday league player. “At Liverpool, if we played an away game in the late ’90s, we’d get onto the team bus and there would be a couple of crates of lager,” Michael Owen tells The Athletic . “You’d have to tick a box before kick-off to say whether you wanted chicken and chips or fish and chips after the game — and by the time you were halfway home, the whole bus was engulfed in cigarette sm…

To anyone who can name ’s strongest starting XI this season: congratulations. Genuinely. That is an impressive feat — it’s one that manager Mauricio Pochettino is yet to figure out himself with the glut of young talent that he has in the squad. The fact it is such a difficult question is, in part, due to the lack of availability of some of the players in the Chelsea squad. While it might appear like a swollen group, Pochettino has not been able to select from a full complement of players, with p…

With Andoni Iraola searching for his first win of the season, you would be forgiven for thinking that he would have looked to his most experienced players to step up. In the end, it was the youngest player in ’s starting line-up who provided the most mature performance as they secured a 2-1 victory over fellow strugglers . , in what was just his second start of the season, showcased exactly why he was wanted by so many clubs in the summer. Advertisement Following his £25million ($30.3m) signing…

It’s a sight that has become increasingly familiar in the modern game. A goalkeeper receives a pass from their team-mate, controls the ball… and stops. Then they wait. With no opposition forward willing to press, they wait a bit longer. “Your move” is the body language that is often emitted, with one of the world’s most fluid sports now essentially locked in a game of chess. Advertisement It occurred after 65 minutes during ’s recent 2-1 victory against . With Palace maintaining a rigid 4-4-2 ou…

“When you play a match, players have the ball for three minutes on average. So the most important thing is what you do during those 87 minutes when you do not have the ball. That is what determines whether you are a good player or not.” When Johan Cruyff spoke, you listened. At the best of times, it is difficult to understand the individual value of 22 players simultaneously running around, not least when Cruyff’s sprinkling of statistical insight pre-dated the football analytics revolution. His…

“I’m banning the T word,” said , with typical candour. ’s captain had been asked if they were among the ’s title contenders. “It’s gameweek 16 so there’s a long way to go,” he said. “We’re newbies — if we can keep it up, we’ll see.” McGinn is one of the most popular members of Villa’s dressing room and is well-liked among staff. Advertisement He goes out of his way to speak to whoever he comes into contact with at the training ground or on a matchday; before every away game — when players tend t…

Following the introduction of The Athletic’s match dashboard, it’s time to put our new tools to good use. If only there were a weekend of football that we could use to reflect upon… oh, wait. As returned to the top of the table, continued their great form and dropped points for the fifth time in six games, the narratives are already set up for us. All that is left to do is dig into what occurred on the pitch — we’ll be delving deeper than the typical shot counts and possession stats to provi…

“I think he (Arsene Wenger) likes having the ball, playing football, passes… it’s like an orchestra,” said Jurgen Klopp before his side faced Wenger’s in 2013. “But it’s a silent song, I like heavy metal more.” The decade since has seen Klopp’s style evolve, especially after 2018, when his side increased their ability to control games while still maintaining their transitional threat. Advertisement “Having more of the ball shouldn’t lead to you resting on the ball but it does look more… contr…

While January is not statistically the most common month for clubs to sack their manager, it does act as a pertinent checkpoint in a season. The winter transfer window is open and there is an opportunity for struggling sides to turn the tide. Yes, it is important to respect the people currently in those positions, but good planning is a necessary part of running a successful football club. Advertisement With that in mind, let’s see which alternative coaches could be best suited to change the fo…

“It’s my favourite finish,” says individual striker coach, Scott Chickelday. “It’s a hard finish, but it’s so underrated.” The finish in question? The one to the near post. It’s a quirk we seem to be enjoying more regularly — the one where players shoot from a wide angle and, just when they look nailed on to whip an effort into the far corner, they swiftly reverse the shot to the near post — wrong-footing just about everyone in the stadium. “It comes down to your body — your knee and hips have g…