Curated Cutback #3:

Hi everyone,

This week I want to try a different format for this version of the newsletter.

First of all, this week I've been working on bringing you the post I have extensively teased about central defenders in Serie A, and it will be out on Friday. Just like I did for the Logan Costa post and the visualizations I’ll use in the next one.

CHESS. 

This week, The Athletic is returning to the level of quality I expect from them, and they published an excellent article about how many elite players and coaches are passionate about chess. As explained in the article, it’s a pastime where players and coaches seek inspiration for their actions on the field. For instance, how Guardiola (who else?) uses it to find even the slightest competitive edge, how Salah plays on Chess.com in his spare time, how Magnus Carlsen - the strongest chess player in the world - is invited to team events, and much more, such as:

A BOOK. As I mentioned, The Athletic has been on fire this week. The other excellent article I read was an interview with Ian Graham, who recently published a book about his experience in the Liverpool analytics department. James Pearce, The Athletic's correspondent for Liverpool, has tried to briefly reconstruct Ian's experience during his tenure with the Reds - he was already there under Brendan Rodgers - and up to the victories with Klopp. The article also touches on a sensitive topic for the club's fans:

GK. 

Still on the Reds, the only signing of their summer - so far - has been Giorgi Mamardashvili, a goalkeeper. Not exactly what comes to mind when thinking of Liverpool’s needs.

However, this article highlights how Alisson has had a slight decline in recent seasons, but there are also some great visualizations. Lastly, Mamardashvili’s clear limitations are analytically explained; let’s say he’s not the best passer in the world:

HERE WE GO. 

The world of football is extremely complicated.

There is an endless number of elements that converge in sports. In football, political stances are minimized in every possible way, yet people who are not always as one imagines them are put on pedestals. They have flaws like everyone else. In this sense, the semiotic analysis of what’s behind Romano’s posts that do not contain a “Here We Go” is great for understanding what moves the strings behind the sport we are passionate about. In this case, the article talks about those tweets Romano produced for Greenwood.

But that isn’t the only case.

LA PAZ. 

Nico Paz seems set to become a new Como player soon. I hope he plays a lot because he is considered one of the best players from the last Real Madrid Castilla, and, well, he knows how to play football. A classic example of a football crush without clear reasons. Anyway, he has also played enough to score in the Champions League against Napoli last season, although the goalkeeper helped him.

GODDESS MAKEOVER. 

Atalanta, somewhat reluctantly, has been forced to rebuild its squad almost entirely. 

They have signed Retegui - to replace the injured Scamacca - Zaniolo, confirmed De Ketelaere, strengthened midfield and defense with Godfrey, Bellanova, Sulemana, Samardžić, and Brescianini. They seemed to have been following Danso for a while and now appear interested in Cuadrado. Meanwhile, they let El Bilal Touré go without ever seeing him play properly (?) due to his injury. Bakker never convinced Gasperini too, and it seems Ederson has been followed by several clubs for some time. And too keep the summer easy-going seems increasingly likely that both Lookman and Koopmeiners will leave soon.

In short, Atalanta play-style will probably look very different next season, as hinted by the arrival of Brescianini and Bellanova:

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. 

At "Ultimo Uomo," they worked hard this week.

On one hand, they explained why the 2. Bundesliga is an incredible and widely followed league, why German fans are so passionate despite the competition in Germany being essentially monopolized by Bayern. They also reminded us that in Italy, we have a complicated relationship with rules. We need them, but we don't know how to establish and enforce them properly. We want everyone to follow them, but we almost never start first.

In short, if Serie B, C and D in Italy are plagued by structural problems, and in Germany, the 2. and 3. Bundesliga always draw enthusiastic crowds and the matches are unmissable events, culture is largely responsible.

This weekend I worked on this, and you might be wondering what it is.

It’s a modified file from the one created for players by the socceraction python package. Not everything is visible; some essential IDs like those of the game, player, and team are missing, as I couldn't fit them in the screenshot.

Anyway, the most important changes have been in the format of the "minutes_played" column, where I modified a rounded format of the minutes into a precise one like the one you see there. I added the "match duration" column to eventually calculate how many minutes a player did not play when called up. But most importantly, the last 4 columns. Those 4 columns are why I embarked on this little project, having for each player the moment their game starts and in which half, as well as the end time.

This way, I can adjust player metrics for possession for the precise minutes they were on the field rather than for averages over the total. A small improvement but one that could make a difference if one would be working in a professional environment.

See you Friday!

The first photo was taken from the respective post, and I’m not currently monetizing from this newsletter, so I don’t want any problems.

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