The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast

What makes an entertaining football match? Loads of goals? Tactical battles? Tension?The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell pick five games from the Premier League this season with the highest and most evenly balanced xG they could find to see whether they can crack the code and determine the key ingredients needed for the ideal crowd-pleasing game. Game 1 - Arsenal 3 - 1 Chelsea Game 2 - Leeds 1 - 4 Leicester Game 3 - Manchester United 6 - 2 Leeds Game 4 - Liverpool 3 - 0 Leicester Game 5 - Newcastle 2 - 2 Tottenham Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Michael Cox is away... The Athletic's Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell will delve into the Championship and pick out the most interesting stats and best players to watch from each of the 24 teams as we prepare to head full-steam into the business end of the season Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the international break upon us The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell thought it would be the ideal time to travel back to summer 2018, to the hazy days of waistcoats and wasted pints, as Gareth Southgate's England came within twenty minutes of a World Cup final. We all remember the penalty shoot-out and the Trippier free-kick, but were England actually any good in that tournament?Cox and Worville have looked at the footage and the data to determine whether Southgate's Three Lions were worthy semi-finalists.We look at the supposed lucky draw, the reliance on set pieces and penalties, plus pick out some highlights featuring the likes of Dele Alli and Jesse Lingard that you've probably forgotten about by now.There's also a look ahead to the forthcoming set of international fixtures and the Euros that loom in the summer - what is Southgate's best XI? Are we going to end up with a very similar team to 2018? Do the likes of Ollie Watkins or even Patrick Bamford have any hope of making the squad in the summer? And what's going on with Trent Alexander-Arnold? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our new analytics writer Mark Carey to tackle the thorny issue of how we measure the performance of that most unique of positions - goalkeepers.Taking the lead from Mark's recent pieces on Kasper Schmeichel and Vicente Guaita we look at the various metrics we use to analyse goalkeeping performance, how useful they are at accurately assessing their performance, and we try to dispel some common myths around the importance of save percentages and distribution.And it wouldn't be a pod about goalkeepers if we didn't try to work out who should be England's no.1 for the Euros so we look at the numbers to try and work out whether Pickford, Pope or Henderson deserves the shirt for Southgate's side. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell set out to select an XI from across Europe's top five leagues consisting of players who are unique in their positions - whether it be a curious tactical style, strangely high or low stats compared to what you'd expect, or just the fact that they are ridiculously tall, this is Quite Unique FCSee if you can guess who we've picked from these clues: A veteran keeper who keeps it simple and is the best cheerleader around A right-back who would be more at home in 1992 than 2021 A young Premier League centre-back who doesn't really tackle but also doesn't pass A ball-playing centre-half from Serie A who loves to use his weaker foot An all-action left-back from Berlin who loves to surge forward A decorated defensive mid who has quietly turned into an attacking midfielder An Italian midfielder who plays like a young David Silva The most tactically diverse midfielder in Europe A prolific Argentinean who has never scored for Argentina A 6ft7 striker with elegant feet on a hot streak A sleep-loving Spanish winger whose mother named her dog after her son's famous night on Merseyside Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to bring you the definitive guide to the many, many roles and positions you may find among attackers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are West Ham genuine top four contenders? Can Leicester do what they failed to last season and hang on to a Champions League spot? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to examine the contrasting tactical approaches of the Premier League's gatecrashers and assess whether either side is the real deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to preview the Champions League knockout stages which get underway on Tuesday night.Coxy has studied the tactics, Worville has mined all the data, and Ali will guide us through all the ties as we look at every single game and every single team left in the competition in detail.The Champions League last 16 in full: RB Leipzig v Liverpool Barcelona v PSG Sevilla v Dortmund Porto v Juventus Atletico Madrid v Chelsea Lazio v Bayern Munich Atalanta v Real Madrid Gladbach v Man City Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What do Leeds, Nîmes, Montpellier, Union Berlin, Elche, Nice, Freiburg, Brighton, Burnley, and Benevento all have in common?They're all mixing it with the big boys of European football in areas you might not expect. Punching well above their weight or standing out like a sore thumb when it comes to a whole host of different metrics.In this week's ZM pod The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to look at why these clubs and their players are among Europe's biggest statistical outliers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to delve into the world of running stats and explain the many different ways in which they are used in the modern game.We'll look at whether the 'distance covered' stats actually mean anything, at how intense pressing sides may end up running less than you think, and the role of tracking data in the recruitment process.Plus we consult the data to reveal which players top the sprinting, jogging and walking charts in the Premier League. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices