The Double Pivot: Soccer analysis, analytics, and commentary

(This is a subscriber episode from October, now unlocked for all listeners.)

Poker pro Jonathan Jaffe joins the pod to talk all things stats and the practical ways we think about using probability to make decisions.

See the GTO LAB podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@GTOLAB

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The first manager sacked in the Premier League is Manchester United's Eric Ten Hag. He has not done a particularly good job, but there are few hallmarks of good process in his sacking. 

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We talk about Liverpool - Chelsea, City's struggles, Arsenal's, well, you know, and whether there is truly a big three in the Premier League as we expected.

And then on to the real stuff: the Netflix romantic comedy Nobody Wants This, on which we have so many takes. 

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We take questions from the Double Pivot discord on these topics, we remember some center backs who scored goals, and we fight the urge to throw out the script and do a pod on Nobody Wants This. 

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It's in our wheelhouse.* What exactly did a legal review panel find in relation to the Premier League's "associated party transaction" rules, why are City and the PL spinning this ruling so aggressively, what is an ownership loan anyhow, and what's to come next for the financial regulation of English soccer?

* we also learn the etymology of 'wheelhouse'.

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In the Premier League this season, a number of the most striking team stories appear to be, when you dig into the data, fundamentally tactical stories. This means we're talking about Ten Hag and Ange and how Spurs and United have been playing, but also we look at the major shifts in style of play at Chelsea and Crystal Palace and what Fabian Hurzeler appears to be doing at Brighton. Plus our favorite Klopp story. 

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An extremely strange match, and one in which Manchester City's tactical approach to the second half most particularly deserves analysis. But the draw and the injury to Rodri in the first half leave us with a peculiarly wide open Premier League title race. Much to discuss!

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The Premier League has four matchdays done, and that means we have just enough data to be dangerous. What's going on with Liverpool. Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Spurs and Arsenal? 

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Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali are fighting over Chelsea. We break down the exact financial relationships here and the context for their fight, and what it tells us about the business of football in the modern era and what might come next for Chelsea. 

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Saudi Arabia alter their course but continue to struggle, we end up going deep on PSG's transfer window, and how wages end up getting treated differently from transfer fees in the market. We're still trying to make sense of a bunch of things!

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