Ultimate Football/Soccer Thread 2016-2017

[Adab]

Leicester is having a bad start.

It is having a start more conforming to expectations actually.

Exactly. They didn't plan on winning the Premier League in the beginning, and it would be a folly to expect them to sustain that form over the long-term period. If my memory is correct, I once read that they're more focused on building up the squad and surviving in the league, and that winning the league wouldn't change things much. If it's true then I applaud them for trying not to get carried away by their sudden success.

[Osarius]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-one-mans-bad-math-helped-ruin-decades-of-english-soccer/

Oh wow

But the counter point does the same thing...

You can't really relate the time in possession or length of passing sequence to goal probability. It's not really a connected statistic. Having the ball for five minutes and passing for a sequence of a hundred passes all in your own half doesn't do shit to boost your chances of scoring.

Reep had some good points. Passing for the sake of passing IS a bad idea. The problem comes when we ask what passing for the sake of passing is. The method he used wasn't the problem. His math wasn't bad either. It's the interpretation. Which is the same problem we have with stats in football now.

[Auremena]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-one-mans-bad-math-helped-ruin-decades-of-english-soccer/

Oh wow

But the counter point does the same thing...

You can't really relate the time in possession or length of passing sequence to goal probability. It's not really a connected statistic. Having the ball for five minutes and passing for a sequence of a hundred passes all in your own half doesn't do shit to boost your chances of scoring.

Reep had some good points. Passing for the sake of passing IS a bad idea. The problem comes when we ask what passing for the sake of passing is. The method he used wasn't the problem. His math wasn't bad either. It's the interpretation. Which is the same problem we have with stats in football now.

Wenger in every loss: We deserved to win! We had more possession!
Yes but what did you do with it? Passed a bit between Coquelin, Koscielney, and Merts? Maybe Monreal too?

[The Blaatschapen]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-one-mans-bad-math-helped-ruin-decades-of-english-soccer/

Oh wow

But the counter point does the same thing...

You can't really relate the time in possession or length of passing sequence to goal probability. It's not really a connected statistic. Having the ball for five minutes and passing for a sequence of a hundred passes all in your own half doesn't do shit to boost your chances of scoring.

Reep had some good points. Passing for the sake of passing IS a bad idea. The problem comes when we ask what passing for the sake of passing is. The method he used wasn't the problem. His math wasn't bad either. It's the interpretation. Which is the same problem we have with stats in football now.

I guess I'm biased and did not even considering passing for the sake of passing. I'm Dutch, our methods to win (well, mostly the Michels/Cruijff/Ajax/Barcelona method) are based on possessing and from there create scoring opportunities.

[The Icemark]

Spurs are so predictable

[Great Kauthar]

mmmmmmmmm fuck morton at least celtic won

[Adab]

And a goalless draw against Burnley. And City won against West Brom to return to the top. Admittedly I didn't expect West Brom to win against City, and I suppose I'm a little bit happy for Pep for breaking his winless streak, but... come on United, surely you can do better than that.

[Great Kauthar]

And a goalless draw against Burnley. And City won against West Brom to return to the top. Admittedly I didn't expect West Brom to win against City, and I suppose I'm a little bit happy for Pep for breaking his winless streak, but... come on United, surely you can do better than that.

Man U will have to step their game up if they even want a top half finish.

[Adab]

And a goalless draw against Burnley. And City won against West Brom to return to the top. Admittedly I didn't expect West Brom to win against City, and I suppose I'm a little bit happy for Pep for breaking his winless streak, but... come on United, surely you can do better than that.

Man U will have to step their game up if they even want a top half finish.

True, that. Considering the current situation I'll be pretty happy if we actually manage to finish inside the top five, so that we can at the very least assure a place in the Europa League.

[Auremena]

Spurs are so predictable

Throwing on N'Koudou earlier would have helped a lot, and it should have been for Big Vic over Dele. He was pretty good, Vic looked kinda like Paulinho today. Ifit had been a sub at the 63rd minute versus the 83rd, GKN would have been able to make a bigger impact. He's always made an impact when he comes on, but Poch hates substituting before the 78th minute.
He's got to figure out a way to break through defensive sides like West Brom, Bournemouth, and Leicester. Not having Lamela was kinda a good thing; all his fanmcy play and dancing about is fine if you're going up against Clichy, but Fuchs is just going to stare at you like you've gone mental.
Having a lack of offensive options on the bench hurt too; I didn't mind Sissoko being out at first, gave N'Koudou the nod to start in the league cup (a game that was intended to be lost) and would be the first off the bench in the league, but we could have used his power later in, instead of Winks, who is by all means a promising player, but not what we needed in the moment.
That is unless he's going to be a clown and just miss shots and misplaces passes.

And a goalless draw against Burnley. And City won against West Brom to return to the top. Admittedly I didn't expect West Brom to win against City, and I suppose I'm a little bit happy for Pep for breaking his winless streak, but... come on United, surely you can do better than that.

I was hoping that Pulis would conjure up some magic and keep it a draw. Would it be too much to ask when they play Arsenal?

[Seraven]

Leicester is having a bad start.

It is having a start more conforming to expectations actually.

Yes, actually. It's to be expected, since Leicester winning the League is more likely considered "a lucky shot" since the other top teams were not at their best.

[Ulan-Ata]

For those of you guys who follow German Bundesliga. Who wants to come over to have some coke and popcorn and watch Hamburger SV finally being shot out of the 1st League? ^^
(And yes, I'm HSV fan. If you got nothing to laugh, develop self-irony xDD)

[Auremena]

For those of you guys who follow German Bundesliga. Who wants to come over to have some coke and popcorn and watch Hamburger SV finally being shot out of the 1st League? ^^
(And yes, I'm HSV fan. If you got nothing to laugh, develop self-irony xDD)

They've been a bit of the Sunderland of the PL recently, yes? Miraculously staying up year after year?
Granted, don't they actually have good players?
Also if you do go down can we have Holtby back, if just so we can stare at him a bit?

[Ulan-Ata]

For those of you guys who follow German Bundesliga. Who wants to come over to have some coke and popcorn and watch Hamburger SV finally being shot out of the 1st League? ^^
(And yes, I'm HSV fan. If you got nothing to laugh, develop self-irony xDD)

They've been a bit of the Sunderland of the PL recently, yes? Miraculously staying up year after year?

Yes, it's a bit like that. Scoring the goal that decides it all within the last three minutes by a big load of luck. At home, we call it "Bayerndusel" ("Bavaria's luck") - as were used to this from the FC Bayern (think of 2001, when that one freaking goal against us in the 95th-or-so minute prevented Schalke 04 from being champion ...).

Granted, don't they actually have good players?

Yes they do. It just doesn't help if the team itself doesn't work in a stable way.

Also if you do go down can we have Holtby back, if just so we can stare at him a bit?

Sure, you can. Maybe you are less angry about own goals and missed penalties than us ^^

[Dumb Ideologies]

But the counter point does the same thing...

You can't really relate the time in possession or length of passing sequence to goal probability. It's not really a connected statistic. Having the ball for five minutes and passing for a sequence of a hundred passes all in your own half doesn't do shit to boost your chances of scoring.

Reep had some good points. Passing for the sake of passing IS a bad idea. The problem comes when we ask what passing for the sake of passing is. The method he used wasn't the problem. His math wasn't bad either. It's the interpretation. Which is the same problem we have with stats in football now.

I guess I'm biased and did not even considering passing for the sake of passing. I'm Dutch, our methods to win (well, mostly the Michels/Cruijff/Ajax/Barcelona method) are based on possessing and from there create scoring opportunities.

I find passy-passy football really boring to watch if there isn't a direction and purpose towards it.

Direct play, either by getting the ball quickly into the opposition's area by using a giant beanpole striker or by quick changes of the play to unsettle the opposition's defensive line prior to an incisive through ball. Now that's my bag.

[Auremena]

They've been a bit of the Sunderland of the PL recently, yes? Miraculously staying up year after year?

Yes, it's a bit like that. Scoring the goal that decides it all within the last three minutes by a big load of luck. At home, we call it "Bayerndusel" ("Bavaria's luck") - as were used to this from the FC Bayern (think of 2001, when that one freaking goal against us in the 95th-or-so minute prevented Schalke 04 from being champion ...).

Granted, don't they actually have good players?

Yes they do. It just doesn't help if the team itself doesn't work in a stable way.

Also if you do go down can we have Holtby back, if just so we can stare at him a bit?

Sure, you can. Maybe you are less angry about own goals and missed penalties than us ^^

He's cute so having him back at Spurs would just even more solidify us as the most attractive club in the world.
The way you describe him, he can't be a worse buy than Sissoko. Being a fucking clown on the pitch, missing shots, and misplacing passes, at least we can have cutie Lewie around.

We're expecting way too much of him. He was never a 30 million player. Maybe 18 million, now playing as a 7 million player. I wasn't terribly fond of the link, but then when it was announced we matched Everton's bid I thought maybe... It possibly could work out?
Not convinced so far. I want more N'Koudou. Putting him on with 7 minutes to go was awful, he needed more time.

I guess I'm biased and did not even considering passing for the sake of passing. I'm Dutch, our methods to win (well, mostly the Michels/Cruijff/Ajax/Barcelona method) are based on possessing and from there create scoring opportunities.

I find passy-passy football really boring to watch if there isn't a direction and purpose towards it.

Direct play, either by getting the ball quickly into the opposition's area by using a giant beanpole striker or by quick changes of the play to unsettle the opposition's defensive line prior to an incisive through ball. Now that's my bag.

DIxPetey Crouch.
/thread

[Ulan-Ata]

The way you describe him, he can't be a worse buy than Sissoko. Being a fucking clown on the pitch, missing shots, and misplacing passes, at least we can have cutie Lewie around.

We're expecting way too much of him. He was never a 30 million player. Maybe 18 million, now playing as a 7 million player. I wasn't terribly fond of the link, but then when it was announced we matched Everton's bid I thought maybe... It possibly could work out?
Not convinced so far. I want more N'Koudou. Putting him on with 7 minutes to go was awful, he needed more time.

Yeah, those 30 million ... but well, here in Germany they often mention in the media that you guys in the UK are generally very generous with your payment of football players and coaches. What surprises me more is that the HSV did have such a lot of cash at hand.
On the other hand, I mean, okay, 30 million ... that's what you'd probably have to pay Ronaldo just for showing up at training, eh? ^^
Regarding missing shots and dumb pases - that's not a Holtby specialty. In Hamburg they often purchase players who did a good job in their former teams (Lasogga, Bobby Wood, Alen Halilović; back then Westermann etc.) but messed up completely after their arrival in HH. I've already spent a good load of time trying to figure out why Bobby Wood scores one goal after the other in the U.S. national team but in Hamburg won't hit a barn door at two meters of range. Must be that cloud over the city ...

[Auremena]

The way you describe him, he can't be a worse buy than Sissoko. Being a fucking clown on the pitch, missing shots, and misplacing passes, at least we can have cutie Lewie around.

We're expecting way too much of him. He was never a 30 million player. Maybe 18 million, now playing as a 7 million player. I wasn't terribly fond of the link, but then when it was announced we matched Everton's bid I thought maybe... It possibly could work out?
Not convinced so far. I want more N'Koudou. Putting him on with 7 minutes to go was awful, he needed more time.

Yeah, those 30 million ... but well, here in Germany they often mention in the media that you guys in the UK are generally very generous with your payment of football players and coaches. What surprises me more is that the HSV did have such a lot of cash at hand.
On the other hand, I mean, okay, 30 million ... that's what you'd probably have to pay Ronaldo just for showing up at training, eh? ^^
Regarding missing shots and dumb pases - that's not a Holtby specialty. In Hamburg they often purchase players who did a good job in their former teams (Lasogga, Bobby Wood, Alen Halilović; back then Westermann etc.) but messed up completely after their arrival in HH. I've already spent a good load of time trying to figure out why Bobby Wood scores one goal after the other in the U.S. national team but in Hamburg won't hit a barn door at two meters of range. Must be that cloud over the city ...

Prices and wages are inflated for players in the premier league, even more so for English (and Welsh if they were youngsters at Cardiff, Swansea, or other clubs in the English league system) players, but even considering him being a PL player, I wouldn't have paid over 20 million for him, even with the form he showed in the Euros.
New moves can always be difficult; I know Wood and Halilovic are brand new so may need some time to adapt to the team, and in the matter's case learn the language, perhapslike in Wood's case he's already adapted to the national team but just needs a bit of time to grow. He came from the 2. Bundesliga last year, didn't he? Look at Vinny Janssen; he didn't come round with AZ after being in the Jupilier league until like midway through the season, then ended up as the top Eridivise scorer. Or perhaps you're right and Hamburg is just as toxic as Tyneside.
Hope you guys improve, relegation may lose you that fancy Emirates sponsorship (if you still have it.)
In the meantime, I'll take up your offer of coke and popcorn, as long as you order a pizza too.

[Ulan-Ata]

Yeah, those 30 million ... but well, here in Germany they often mention in the media that you guys in the UK are generally very generous with your payment of football players and coaches. What surprises me more is that the HSV did have such a lot of cash at hand.
On the other hand, I mean, okay, 30 million ... that's what you'd probably have to pay Ronaldo just for showing up at training, eh? ^^
Regarding missing shots and dumb pases - that's not a Holtby specialty. In Hamburg they often purchase players who did a good job in their former teams (Lasogga, Bobby Wood, Alen Halilović; back then Westermann etc.) but messed up completely after their arrival in HH. I've already spent a good load of time trying to figure out why Bobby Wood scores one goal after the other in the U.S. national team but in Hamburg won't hit a barn door at two meters of range. Must be that cloud over the city ...

Prices and wages are inflated for players in the premier league, even more so for English (and Welsh if they were youngsters at Cardiff, Swansea, or other clubs in the English league system) players, but even considering him being a PL player, I wouldn't have paid over 20 million for him, even with the form he showed in the Euros.
New moves can always be difficult; I know Wood and Halilovic are brand new so may need some time to adapt to the team, and in the matter's case learn the language, perhapslike in Wood's case he's already adapted to the national team but just needs a bit of time to grow. He came from the 2. Bundesliga last year, didn't he? Look at Vinny Janssen; he didn't come round with AZ after being in the Jupilier league until like midway through the season, then ended up as the top Eridivise scorer. Or perhaps you're right and Hamburg is just as toxic as Tyneside.
Hope you guys improve, relegation may lose you that fancy Emirates sponsorship (if you still have it.)
In the meantime, I'll take up your offer of coke and popcorn, as long as you order a pizza too.

Mh, yes. I do understand it is a new and difficult situation if you're a very young and new player, you might not even know the language of the country you're playing in, and there's a giant bunch of fans with a load of shitty experience behind them expecting you to shoot them the stars down from the sky. I'd even say it's both - new situation and a toxic city ^^ the system also goes into the other direction - as soon as average-to-insufficient players leave Hamburg, they suddenly score one goal after the other (or destroy opponents' attempts to do the same) in their new teams, without needing a lot of time to adapt. I've been following this for quite a couple of years, and I have a very nice book about the HSV's history showing Hamburg has been a "skilling team" from the beginning of the Bundesliga in 1963 - push up players and sell them as soon as they are skilled enough. (No complaint here, I know it's the same issue with, for example, Schalke.)
What Hamburg also has is a tremendous structural problem, beginning with the waste of coaches. They've had 15 coaches within the past 15 years. This quick Hire & Fire policy has led to squads randomly bunched together by the diverse concepts of three or four coaches; they often got big issues playing together with each other. The results are hard to miss seeing.
The only reason they are still in the Bundesliga is the luck they had in the relegation matches of 2014 and 2015, with both times scoring that one goal within the last two minutes of regular time (you might be able to imagine my heart attacks during these matches ^^). This year, they managed to stay in the league without relegation. Currently, they are on the last place (18 out of 18), and they are running out of time to catch up. If it goes on the way it's going now, they're gonna go down by default this time.
And yes, I'm gonna order a pizza too. Also gonna get beer, in case you like.

[Auremena]

Prices and wages are inflated for players in the premier league, even more so for English (and Welsh if they were youngsters at Cardiff, Swansea, or other clubs in the English league system) players, but even considering him being a PL player, I wouldn't have paid over 20 million for him, even with the form he showed in the Euros.
New moves can always be difficult; I know Wood and Halilovic are brand new so may need some time to adapt to the team, and in the matter's case learn the language, perhapslike in Wood's case he's already adapted to the national team but just needs a bit of time to grow. He came from the 2. Bundesliga last year, didn't he? Look at Vinny Janssen; he didn't come round with AZ after being in the Jupilier league until like midway through the season, then ended up as the top Eridivise scorer. Or perhaps you're right and Hamburg is just as toxic as Tyneside.
Hope you guys improve, relegation may lose you that fancy Emirates sponsorship (if you still have it.)
In the meantime, I'll take up your offer of coke and popcorn, as long as you order a pizza too.

Mh, yes. I do understand it is a new and difficult situation if you're a very young and new player, you might not even know the language of the country you're playing in, and there's a giant bunch of fans with a load of shitty experience behind them expecting you to shoot them the stars down from the sky. I'd even say it's both - new situation and a toxic city ^^ the system also goes into the other direction - as soon as average-to-insufficient players leave Hamburg, they suddenly score one goal after the other (or destroy opponents' attempts to do the same) in their new teams, without needing a lot of time to adapt. I've been following this for quite a couple of years, and I have a very nice book about the HSV's history showing Hamburg has been a "skilling team" from the beginning of the Bundesliga in 1963 - push up players and sell them as soon as they are skilled enough. (No complaint here, I know it's the same issue with, for example, Schalke.)
What Hamburg also has is a tremendous structural problem, beginning with the waste of coaches. They've had 15 coaches within the past 15 years. This quick Hire & Fire policy has led to squads randomly bunched together by the diverse concepts of three or four coaches; they often got big issues playing together with each other. The results are hard to miss seeing.
The only reason they are still in the Bundesliga is the luck they had in the relegation matches of 2014 and 2015, with both times scoring that one goal within the last two minutes of regular time (you might be able to imagine my heart attacks during these matches ^^). This year, they managed to stay in the league without relegation. Currently, they are on the last place (18 out of 18), and they are running out of time to catch up. If it goes on the way it's going now, they're gonna go down by default this time.
And yes, I'm gonna order a pizza too. Also gonna get beer, in case you like.

How many times have you said "I should be coach!" It's been the way when Tottenham were hiring and firing as well. Go from 'Arry to AVB to Sherwood, who was dreadful but kept us in the European places, barely. It was a lot of looking good, like 72 points under AVB, but the tactics I never felt were solid, and god the Paulinho buy was a dreadful one we all agree.
Sometimes during the adjustment period though, while you're working with the players to form them to your style, it takes time, and I can't imagine how it's been at HSV, averaging a new coach every year... Players have to adapt to new tactics over and over and over again and I can't imagine that makes them terribly happy and probably makes them want to leave.
Good thing you invited me; relegation match 2017, if you have a heart attack again, I'll get you all CPRed up
I'll bring the beer, got plenty of it. Might need more, lots more of a disappointing season to go, right?

[Ulan-Ata]

Mh, yes. I do understand it is a new and difficult situation if you're a very young and new player, you might not even know the language of the country you're playing in, and there's a giant bunch of fans with a load of shitty experience behind them expecting you to shoot them the stars down from the sky. I'd even say it's both - new situation and a toxic city ^^ the system also goes into the other direction - as soon as average-to-insufficient players leave Hamburg, they suddenly score one goal after the other (or destroy opponents' attempts to do the same) in their new teams, without needing a lot of time to adapt. I've been following this for quite a couple of years, and I have a very nice book about the HSV's history showing Hamburg has been a "skilling team" from the beginning of the Bundesliga in 1963 - push up players and sell them as soon as they are skilled enough. (No complaint here, I know it's the same issue with, for example, Schalke.)
What Hamburg also has is a tremendous structural problem, beginning with the waste of coaches. They've had 15 coaches within the past 15 years. This quick Hire & Fire policy has led to squads randomly bunched together by the diverse concepts of three or four coaches; they often got big issues playing together with each other. The results are hard to miss seeing.
The only reason they are still in the Bundesliga is the luck they had in the relegation matches of 2014 and 2015, with both times scoring that one goal within the last two minutes of regular time (you might be able to imagine my heart attacks during these matches ^^). This year, they managed to stay in the league without relegation. Currently, they are on the last place (18 out of 18), and they are running out of time to catch up. If it goes on the way it's going now, they're gonna go down by default this time.
And yes, I'm gonna order a pizza too. Also gonna get beer, in case you like.

How many times have you said "I should be coach!" It's been the way when Tottenham were hiring and firing as well. Go from 'Arry to AVB to Sherwood, who was dreadful but kept us in the European places, barely. It was a lot of looking good, like 72 points under AVB, but the tactics I never felt were solid, and god the Paulinho buy was a dreadful one we all agree.
Sometimes during the adjustment period though, while you're working with the players to form them to your style, it takes time, and I can't imagine how it's been at HSV, averaging a new coach every year... Players have to adapt to new tactics over and over and over again and I can't imagine that makes them terribly happy and probably makes them want to leave.
Good thing you invited me; relegation match 2017, if you have a heart attack again, I'll get you all CPRed up
I'll bring the beer, got plenty of it. Might need more, lots more of a disappointing season to go, right?

Here, we have a very common phrase: "Germany is a nation of 80 million potential federal coaches!" Seems to have some truth in it and also applies in a similar way in other countries ^^
Of course it's very easy to say, "if I had been coach, I'd have placed Westermann into the defensive midfield, where he's always belonged in, then he'd have done way better, like on Schalke!" I wouldn't want to be HSV coach. Not even if there was no prospect of being fired within the same season I signed the contract.
For me it's a miracle that there are still enough players who want to go to Hamburg ... (well, 30 million might be convincing in single cases ^^)
They quite did show solid tactics when it was about Bruno Labbadia getting fired, and they also showed it when Markus Gisdol got hired - although it was a great plan saying "the match against Bayern is gonna be Labbadia's fate match!" - they were showing spirit as shit and eventually lost only 1:0 - but yeah, if you make a coach's fate dependent on a match on FCB, you're already having him fired; I assume they'd even have fired him if they had won against FCB. This is what it works like in Hamburg. ^^
Gonna need the CPR, arigato in advance
Maybe the match is gonna be nicer with a sustainable beer intake.

[Dumb Ideologies]

DIxPetey Crouch.
/thread

I genuinely think he could have become an all-time great if it wasn't for the sniffy reluctance to embrace his talents from an establishment too caught up in airy-fairy continental trends.

[Guaranesia]

Köln today - such a lackluster performance

[Osarius]

I guess I'm biased and did not even considering passing for the sake of passing. I'm Dutch, our methods to win (well, mostly the Michels/Cruijff/Ajax/Barcelona method) are based on possessing and from there create scoring opportunities.

Right, but even then, there is always direction to it. It's never as simple as "keep the ball and pass a lot" ... which is how a lot of people interpreted it.

My understanding of Cruyff's philosophy was that keeping possession was primarily to eliminate the need for defence, and is typically sought closer to the opponents goal to increase offensive output (both of these things are clear when we look at Barcelona, lol). Didn't he also say horizontal passing is "prohibited" under his system because if a mistake is made, it's harder to recover the lost ground? Or something like that anyway?

Anyway... When I say "passing for the sake of passing" I mean situations in which the pass made doesn't actually improve the situation for the team in possession. Because then why are you doing it? I get that sometimes a sidewards pass can open a vertical passing lane, or a backward pass might relieve pressure and allow a through ball, and so on... but a lot of the time, those sidewards/backwards passes are for the sole purpose of keeping the ball moving while retaining possession. That's defensive. It has zero impact on the ability of a team to score. Those passes are what happens when a player doesn't have a forward option (which means the attack has already broken down and possibly indicates a flaw in the team's shape and movement) or isn't confident in making a forward pass to one of his/her options (which again means the attack has already broken down and possibly indicates a flaw with the player).

There IS a case to be made for the idea that more passes = bad, because each pass a team makes is (technically) another opportunity for a turnover of possession through interception/misplaced passes/bad control etc etc. No matter how small that chance is, more passes will always mean a team is more likely to lose possession. That's simple probability. Since having possession is a defensive action -- if you have the ball, the other team can't score -- it stands to reason that not having the ball is a negative to any offensive action. So it follows that more passes --> less possession --> negative impact on offensive output. This is horribly oversimplified, because not all passes have an equal chance of being intercepted, and sometimes the risk of a turnover in possession doesn't outweigh the potential benefit of making the extra pass... but you can see how they came to the conclusion that more passes was bad.

The problem was that they dogmatically subscribed to the idea without considering the flaws. And we got hoofball. Which is still the predominant tactical system used at grassroots level in England fifty years later, because of two things. Firstly, it's easy to teach and harder to prevent unless you have athletic players. Most teams will not have a particularly athletic squad. So... basically, it works. Secondly, the level of coaching required to teach other systems simply does not exist. Most coaches are just parents (who would have learned the same hoofball system themselves as kids) and they aren't really equipped to teach kids anything else.

[Liventia]

Well, that was… something. Top of the league for the first time in over 900 days.