The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast

The Athletic

Hosted by Michael Bailey, revered football tactics writer Michael Cox is joined by Mark Carey, Liam Tharme and more of The Athletic's brightest tactics and data department to break down the tactical and technical details behind the biggest footballing stories each week - assessing the latest trends, systems, players, managers and all manner of statistics in order to give you a deeper understanding of the game.

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327 episodes
Updated June 9

Episodes327

Newest first

Mar 17, 2021 · 42 min
The goalkeeping blind spot - why is it so hard to measure the performance of keepers?
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.
Mar 10, 2021 · 54 min
Quite Unique FC - finding Europe's unicorn players
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 FC
Mar 2, 2021 · 50 min
The Attacking Glossary - Striker, Centre-Forward, False-9, Second-Striker and beyond
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
Feb 24, 2021 · 49 min
West Ham & Leicester - the top four gatecrashers
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to look at the tactics and stats behind West Ham and Leicester's excellent seasons so far as they both find themselves in the top four.
Feb 16, 2021 · 52 min
Champions League knockout phase - every team analysed
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 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feb 10, 2021 · 34 min
Europe's biggest outliers - from Leeds, to Montpellier, to Berlin and back again
In this week's ZM pod The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to look at some of Europe's biggest statistical outliers
Feb 3, 2021 · 34 min
Running stats explained: Pace, intensity and the Premier League 'plodders'
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.
Jan 27, 2021 · 40 min
What Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to tell us what Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel, the tactical chameleon.
Jan 19, 2021 · 36 min
Mesut Ozil's Arsenal legacy
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to assess the legacy that Mesut Ozil leaves behind at Arsenal as his seven and half year spell comes to an end
Jan 13, 2021 · 55 min
The midfield glossary - 6s, 8s, 10s, Enganches and beyond...
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 in midfield. What's the difference between a 6 and an 8? What makes a true holding midfielder and is it different to the 'Makelele role'? Why do Argentineans love no.5s so much? What's the difference between an Enganche and a Trequarista? And what on earth is a shuttler? All these questions and more answered as the ZM pod goes box-to-box for the next fifty-five minutes Subscribe to The Athletic Right now you can enjoy the Athletic for just £3.99 per month as part of our January sale. Enjoy great analysis and in-depth features from the very best football writers around, as well as ad-free versions of all of our podcasts. Just go to theathletic.com/zonalmarking to sign up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jan 6, 2021 · 39 min
What's going wrong at Chelsea?
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to explain what's going wrong with Frank Lampard's out-of-form Chelsea side from a tactical point of view.
Dec 30, 2020 · 44 min
An interesting stat from each of the 20 Premier League teams
The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell round off 2020 by looking at all 20 Premier League teams and picking at least one interesting stat, observation or quirk for each of them.
Dec 23, 2020 · 35 min
Is Big Sam more than just a long ball merchant?
Is Big Sam really just a boring long ball merchant? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell gather to look at the stats, the data and the evidence from Sam Allardyce's career in the aim of answering that very question.
Dec 16, 2020 · 29 min
Do Arsenal have a problem with the 'big games' in the WSL?
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our women's football writer Katie Whyatt to look at why Arsenal are struggling in the big WSL games this season
Dec 9, 2020 · 39 min
Why have Arsenal become obsessed with crossing the ball?
When Mikel Arteta recently referred to Arsenal putting in 33 crosses in one game as "pure maths" it piqued the interest of The Athletic's resident statistical and analytical gurus Michael Cox and Tom Worville - what could he mean by such a phrase?
Dec 2, 2020 · 29 min
What kind of player is 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo?
The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell take an almighty leap into the stats to work out what sort of player Cristiano Ronaldo is right now in 2020 as a 35-year-old at Juventus.
Nov 26, 2020 · 34 min
Half-backs, inverted centre-backs and more unusual positions we're seeing this season
The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell are back with another tactical masterclass, this week casting their eye on some of the more unconventional roles and positions we've seen a host of players taking up this season in the Premier League and beyond.
Nov 18, 2020 · 43 min
Javier Mascherano: the accidental centre-back
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by Argentinean football expert Rupert Fryer to celebrate the career of Javier Mascherano as he announced his retirement this week
Nov 12, 2020 · 47 min
The top five overachievers across Europe this season
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell for a whistle-stop tour across Europe to look at five unheralded teams who have found themselves in unexpectedly lofty positions in the league table so far. Starting on home soil with high-pressing Southampton.
Nov 4, 2020 · 40 min
Surviving the difficult second season in the Premier League
The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell for the second part of our series looking at the challenges teams face after being promoted to the Premier League. This week we look at the various ways teams have gone about trying to establish themselves in their second season after staying up.

The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast

The goalkeeping blind spot - why is it so hard to measure the performance of keepers?

Quite Unique FC - finding Europe's unicorn players

The Attacking Glossary - Striker, Centre-Forward, False-9, Second-Striker and beyond

West Ham & Leicester - the top four gatecrashers

Champions League knockout phase - every team analysed

Europe's biggest outliers - from Leeds, to Montpellier, to Berlin and back again

Running stats explained: Pace, intensity and the Premier League 'plodders'

What Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel

Mesut Ozil's Arsenal legacy

The midfield glossary - 6s, 8s, 10s, Enganches and beyond...

What's going wrong at Chelsea?

An interesting stat from each of the 20 Premier League teams

Is Big Sam more than just a long ball merchant?

Do Arsenal have a problem with the 'big games' in the WSL?

Why have Arsenal become obsessed with crossing the ball?

What kind of player is 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo?

Half-backs, inverted centre-backs and more unusual positions we're seeing this season

Javier Mascherano: the accidental centre-back

The top five overachievers across Europe this season

Surviving the difficult second season in the Premier League