This space will be dedicated to the TLs & TDs newsletter and perhaps other stuff? The podcast is devoted to soccer and college football, so expect to find those topics covered/blended here. We’ll see how this evolves. (Try the pod btw – it’s fun)
Newsletter #2 – August (I know it’s September now – shut up)
By: Asa Smith
On Transfers:
I am drinking coffee because I am writing this at 11:30am on a Tuesday. The coffee is from 7-11, and it tastes fine. I am a snob about wine and food, but liking shitty diner coffee.
The winner of the monthly poll on what to write about in this newsletter thingy is “Pulisic and Dest transfer stuff” which was left purposefully ambiguous because as of writing, Pulisic isn’t going anywhere (even though he wants to), Dest isn’t going anywhere (*Narrator Voice* He did go somewhere – AC Milan as it turns out), and the big news as of writing is that there is another USMNT defender who will be plying his trade in Portugal (albeit he might not be a USMNT defender… anyways). So, despite my desire to talk about weird shit, I am bound by democracy such as it is.
The Pulisic Problem
First, the bad news
In the First month of the 2022 season, Christian Pulisic, the LeBron James of Soccer, the Chosen One, Captain America, Wonder Boy, CP10, has started 0/5 games for a Chelsea team that lost 4 attackers from last year and brought in 1. He has subtly (and not so subtly) begged for a loan or transfer, Tuchel clearly doesn’t rate him as a starting level player, Chelsea fans (follow @ChessyHour on twitter) don’t have any deep affection for him, and USMNT fans (all of us) desperately want him playing regular minutes for a team that respects him. Unfortunately, none of the aforementioned parties own Chelsea. Todd Boehly does. And Boehly doesn’t want Pulisic to leave. So he isn’t.
Now, the good news
In those 5 games, Pulisic has been the first attacker off the bench 5/5 times. He is playing (usually) around 20-30 minutes in each game, and he is clearly the first choice option off the bench. Part of the reason he is no longer starting is that Ruben Loftus-Cheek is Tuchel’s new “I don’t have a damn wing-back” plan, which cuts into Pulisic’s secondary role. And part of the reason is simply that since Tuchel took over, he has very obviously seen Pulisic as a sub who is not as good as Mason Mount for reasons that are unclear.
The Outcome
Pulisic is not going to be at Chelsea in August 2023. Part of the problem here is that Chelsea has two games a week from now until the World Cup and if anyone gets hurt they are screwed without Ziyech (who started against Southampton) and Pulisic. So we have to hope that the 18 games between now and then produce an additional 450 minutes worth of preparation for Wonder Boy (25 minutes per game) and reduce the possibility of getting hurt in the build up. Then, in December, after a stunning World Cup display where he dropped 2 goals on Engalnd’s head, he is off to AC Milan to play for the LeBron James of basketball, LeBron James, who just purchased a stake in AC Milan.
The Dest Decision (stuff goes out of date fast, doesn’t it?)
I don’t know man. I don’t get it. Dest has been disrespected 6 ways to Sunday by Barcelona and he seems willing to simply collect his checks and not even get into match day squads, let alone play. Xavi and Barcelona do not want him there, they don’t want to play him, and they don’t want to help him. And he wants to stay and fight for a spot for reasons that are completely unclear. Unlike Pulisic, who is staying against his will, Dest is welcoming this situation. It is like he doesn’t care about playing, which, to be honest, is pretty admirable. To get to that level of success and talent and be completely okay with collecting checks is pretty healthy to be honest. Doesn’t help his form for the World Cup though.
The Creeping Variable
Dest might be playing a high risk game here. He might be looking at the table, seeing that Barcelona want him out, but knowing that come September 1 when the transfer window closes, he is still their best option as an attacking Right Back, and at a certain point, Barcelona are going to turn to him due to injury, reality, or some other sequence of events. Dest gets a reputation as a somewhat carefree figure, but if he is playing a game here, it is a high stakes one. Like a poker player just laughing and smiling, Dest might be calculating and saying that the best thing for him is to stay in Spain, collect $6 million, and force the hand of a club that can’t really afford the situation (even though he is like their 20th highest paid player).
The Preferred Outcome
Dest has been linked with every second tier club at this point seemingly (Man United, Dortmund, Ajax, etc.) and has continuously refused to move on (he could probably make comparable money elsewhere or negotiate for some of the fee paid to Barcelona to go to him) for reasons that don’t make sense to anyone. Dest is playing with fire here, but it could turn out to be a situation where he has all the cards and isn’t going to be bullied into a bad move, which is a very smart thing to do for a player at a crucial moment in his career. I’d hope that he moves to a big club going through a rebuilding period (Man United, Leipzig, Roma) so that he can play a ton while also getting paid and exposure to the best of the best.
The Actual Outcome
Milan seems like a good situation as he reluctantly leaves Barca. Even after everything you can tell he wanted to stay at the club he dreamed of playing for as a kid. It’s kinda sad really. Anyhow, team captain, Italian international, and starting right back Davide Calabria isn’t going to get passed by Dest anytime soon. Every European league has a million matches to play between now and the World Cup though. Alessandro Florenzi, the backup right back, is out for a couple months and was receiving pretty regular playing time. Dest slots in there and will play enough to stay sharp for November.
Transfer He Wanted
The ideal transfer for a fan perspective is quite different than from a player perspective, which comes up a ton every window. What is best for the player (money, comfort, language, familiarity) is not always what we want. And we can be wrong! Mallorca looked to be a great spot for Matthew Hoppe. It wasn’t. Luca de la Torre hasn’t played much in Spain. Meanwhile, Americans in Leeds and Fulham can show how moving (or not moving) can sometimes work out for different reasons. As always we only want what is best for our guys, and also for them not to be in France because BeIN Sports is terrible.
Newsletter #1 – July
Dear Readers (Especially those of you who have never read anything we have written, as you would be considered listeners up to and including this moment, upon which, you became a reader),
Welcome to the initial “Touchlines and Touchdowns” Newsletter brought to you by Halfspaces.com. I am your writer, Asa aka Twigsy. We are trying out this new format to engage with you guys on a different, perhaps less intrusive fashion. This will likely be a format that is more focused than the podcast (I know, the bar is in hell) but less focused than Ben’s work at Half Spaces. Would you like a deep dive on something? Let us know! Is there a specific person you’d like to write one of these? Let us know! As a preliminary matter, this will be a monthly newsletter but if it picks up steam, who knows, maybe you’ll hear from us once a week! Now on to the content.
On Lamar Jackson and The False 9
By: Asa Smith
The topic for today’s discussion is basically the question of why we are so uncomfortable with players who play outside of prototypes. In Soccer, that is often the false 9 (see, e.g. Robert Firmino or Jesus Ferreira) and in Football, that is the dual threat QB (Lamar Jackson, Michael Vick, etc.). Before we get to the annoying part, let’s get some definitions.
“False 9” is a Striker or Center Forward who doesn’t just stay up top in the formation, waiting for others to get the ball to him and then banging it in. For those of you who are on the football side of things, imagine a WR who is less concerned with the primary function of his job (catching the ball and scoring touchdowns) and is more concerned with the secondary parts (blocking, running proper routes that get others open). The second type of WR is someone who the average fan might think is deficient due to stats that might not be gaudy, but this player can make things a lot easier for everyone else. The false 9 works in much the same way. He (or she) will forgo the goal scoring part of the job to occupy the defense in ways that make wingers much more effective.
“Dual Threat QB” is a misnomer in many ways for various racism reasons, but the term is still in use, so we will use it here. A dual threat QB is one who utilizes his legs to progress the ball and doesn’t simply stand pat and throw the ball around the field. It is best to define the dual threat QB by noting it’s opposite, the “Pro Style” QB. The prototypical “Pro Style” QBs would be Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. They stand in the pocket, throw the ball around, and if they are ever under pressure, they either throw the ball away or take a sack. A dual threat is much more likely to scramble, try and find yards with their legs, and generally move around. Sometimes, these QBs will be used as part of the running game on purpose.
The Problem
Recently, in the NFL, it has been ranking season. Which means various folks of increasing or decreasing importance talk about which player is better than which other player, be it in Madden football or in the real world or in Fantasy Football (check out our latest Podcast episode!) and then assign meaning within that framework. Additionally, this summer, famed “inventor” of the false 9, Pep Guardiola of Manchester City, went out and acquired a true 9 in Erling Haaland, while the USMNT has struggled to find a way to get its best XI on the field when there is not a striker among that top 14 players. All of this comes to the question of how we view players who play a “position” in a way that looks different than is obvious.
Lamar Jackson, in this tweet is considered deficient at throwing the football for reasons that are unclear. He is actually quite a prolific passer, and oh by the way, doesn’t always have to be because he happens to be an elite ball carrier as well. When fans, and the media, undermine secondary skills, they teach fans to miss some of the beauty of sports. I would point you to college football, and specifically option based schemes. The best example in my times was Denard Robinson on Michigan. Denard Robinson was as bad at throwing the ball as people claim Lamar Jackson is, but it didn’t matter. There was joy and beauty in the way he manipulated defenses with his “secondary” skill (his legs) to the point where his “primary” skill deficiencies didn’t matter.
Which brings us to false 9s. If a striker is bad at scoring goals (looking at you Josh Sargent), then often times fans, the media, and yes, even coaches, will simply not play that player at the “9” spot. The problem is that, of course, the goal isn’t for a striker to score goals, its for the team to score goals. So having a player in the “9” spot who creates goals through passing, dribbling, movement, or even defensive pressure is just as important as a striker who creates goals through kicking the ball really hard past the goalie. To tie it back to the previous section, it doesn’t matter if you get yards through the air or on the ground, just that you get the yards.
The Thesis and Solution
Stop placing players into boxes based on arbitrary positions that were invented 100 years ago. It is worth noting that basketball is getting really close to accepting this concept from top to bottom, but it has taken something like 30 years to do it. Remember that Allen Iverson was critiqued for his entire career because he was a “shoot first” point guard. In the Footballs, we can do a better job appreciating and understanding the game when we stop trying to fit every fun and good player into prototypes that should not exist. Perhaps even more importantly, those players from 2 generations ago that form the basis for many of our notions (John Elway, Steve Young et al.) were much more dual threat that you perhaps realize.
Thanks for reading, we are going to try and get this out once a month.
