“Just as a newly-formed political party would be best off finding the point on the ideological spectrum where it can find the biggest ‘space’ (assuming this party has absolutely no ideological principles and is solely concerned with the pursuit of power), an intelligent playmaker given a free role will venture to the position on the pitch where he can find the most space.”

In Episode Thirty Five we look back on ‘The Search for Space’ by Michael Cox, from way back in our pilot issue, Issue Zero, in March 2011. He looks at how a theory of political polling reflects something similar in football tactics.

As New Labour were exploiting the ‘median voter theory’ in the mid-to-late 1990s, a number of Premier League imports – Bergkamp, Zola and Cantona – were exploiting spatial theories on the pitch.

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