Episode 3! We're back at it again. This week, Martin leads a discussion inspired by a previous piece hung in the Touchline Theory Museum: "Why the Hail Mary Fails in our Football". The duo dive into why some dominant, albeit losing, teams tend to ring the alarm towards the ends of matches and descend into disorder, rather than staying true to their practiced blueprint. After watching numerous cases in which a side throws away their final 20 minutes pumping the rock long, subbing on 3 strikers for 3 defenders, and more, our hosts felt obliged to get to the bottom of things. Needless to say, Barcelona's midweek loss to Granada served as the catalyst for today's pod.

Amongst the discussion points, Martin & Will chat about the Hail Mary equivalents in various sports, how it manifests itself in football, and fan responses to the optics of desperation. They look into why fatigue may serve as a motive to change things up, why the availability heuristic, reel problem, and hot hand fallacy might entice teams to jump overboard, and why switching lanes in traffic is never a good idea.

The second half commences with a debate on predeterminism as the ideal state for top clubs, the notions of hopeless relinquishment vs. unpredictability, contingency plans, scouting heartbeat metronomes, desensitization applied to football, and a lovely trio of analogies to finish things off.

Join us to hear our thoughts on all these topics, and more--including some low hanging fruit, an elementary-school rated show, and more talk about pirates.

Find us on Twitter @touchlinetheory

Find Martin on Twitter @MG_theory, and now Will too (!) @WA_theory

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