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The 3rd Circle

Latest episodes

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Jun 6, 2025 • 1h 2min

Episode 8: Champions League Final Analysis (Part2) - The Limits of Control

With the match analysis done and dusted, Jamie and Martin delve into the broader narratives surrounding the current footballing moment.The 3rd Circle cross references perspectives and reaction from Rio to Catalonia and wrestles with the complexities of the resultant parallax view.What are the limits of control in contemporary football coaching?How much freedom can be afforded to the players?Is there a deeper symbolic significance to PSG's Champions League victory?There's only one way to find out... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jun 3, 2025 • 1h 28min

Episode 7: Champions League Final Analysis (Part1)

Jamie and Martin delve into the details of Paris Saint-Germain's historic 5 - 0 victory over Inter in the 2025 Champions League Final in Munich.What were the tactical aspects that allowed arch-controller, Luis Enrique to claim his second Champions League trophy in such emphatic style? How and why did the game's tactical dynamics play out and how could Simone Inzaghi have responded to help his players?Our hosts discuss the impact and significance of dribbles, positional rotations, pressing aesthetics and much, much more in this special match analysis episode of The 3rd Circle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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May 9, 2025 • 1h 34min

Episode 6: Atomic Tactics

Dive into the microscopic world of football tactics, where dribbling becomes an art form akin to decoding the Da Vinci Code. Explore how balance, scanning, and first touches can revolutionize gameplay. Discover the unique traits that set elite players apart and the role of coaching in unlocking their potential. Hear about the chaos of soccer strategies, with insights on how stars like Messi thrive in unpredictable situations. The conversation encourages innovative approaches to training and audience engagement for collective growth in the beautiful game.
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Apr 8, 2025 • 1h 25min

Episode 5: Boxed In

The conversation dives deep into the nature of reality, pondering whether we're living in a simulation. Hosts explore how rigid perspectives in group dynamics can hinder meaningful dialogue and the evolution of football tactics. The episode highlights the importance of adaptability in coaching and the cultural nuances that affect gameplay decisions. Listeners are encouraged to challenge their biases and embrace new ideas, all while humorously reflecting on the peculiarities of mapping our understanding of the world.
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Mar 19, 2025 • 1h 18min

Episode 4: Identity Crisis

It's who we are, mate. So, who are you? Who are we? Who made who? Who's next?In this episode, Jamie and Martin tackle one of the most prevalent concepts in contemporary football tactics - Identity.Ralf Rangnick proposed that coaches need a video of the perfect match in their heads, but is this really true?How do pre-defined, idealised models of play cash-out in the real world of playing and coaching?Our hosts fire off on multiple trajectories to explore these questions.How can we integrate aspects as disparate as the Hong Kong Protests, The White Stripes and Cyborgs into a cohesive whole to bring simplification and clarity to the confusion? Or should we even try?Find out for yourself by entering The 3rd Circle. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 3, 2025 • 1h 25min

Episode 3: Stillness & Speed

In perhaps their most complex assignment so far, Jamie and Martin enter The 3rd Circle to interrogate how Time constrains the reality in which football is played.Our hosts find themselves in a race against the clock and must channel their inner Dennis Bergkamps to find ways of progressing through a seemingly endless entanglement of temporal contradictions. So, if you're ready to find out how teddy bears, Jason Statham and The French Revolution all interact to reveal the secrets of football's relationship with Time, just press PLAY on your listening device and get ready to tumble into the spiralling vortex of The 3rd Circle Podcast's tentacular timelines. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 17, 2025 • 1h 20min

Episode 2: Equilibrium

William S Burroughs wrote that "'Never go too far in any direction' is the basic rule on which England is built". Could it be that Burroughs' observation is as pertinent now as it was back when it was written in 1975?Pep Guardiola has alluded to a break in the established norms of the modernised English game. But how can we understand the nature of the different forces that are pushing football beyond the confines of static tactical constraints? Jamie and Martin plunge themselves deep into the zero-gravity chaos of The 3rd Circle to investigate.Find out how aspects like imbalance, collective dribbling, communication systems and the psychology of horror movies all play a part in helping us understand how we can nudge tactical theory and coaching practice into unstable, far-from-equilibrium states. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Feb 3, 2025 • 1h 21min

Episode 1: In The Beginning, There Was Now

In this first full length excursion into The 3rd Circle, Jamie and Martin try to make sense of the complex tactical landscape that we find ourselves in today.Our hosts trawl through obscure old newspaper articles and match reports as they sketch out a timeline of football's recent tactical history. Pep Guardiola's 'superhuman' Barcelona, Carlo Ancelotti's Milanese diamond and Roger Schmidt's taurine powered Red Bull Salzburg machine all serve as references as we hurtle through a tumultuous period of radical change and paradigm shifts.So, strap yourselves in, turbulence is expected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Jan 31, 2025 • 23min

Episode Zero: Arrival

Jamie Hamilton and Martin Rafelt venture into The 3rd Circle to explain what this mysterious new space means for the football tactics-sphere.In this short introductory episode we find out why Thomas Tuchel once told Martin to 'just fool around', we're treated to a surreal Oliver Kahn impression and our hosts get into the linguistic significance of alien symbols in Denis Villeneuve's movie, Arrival.Half-spaces, needle players and Bob Dylan. The 3rd Circle is here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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