• Tweet

• Tweet

The international break and the that it creates in the amount of football being played at the highest level has not slowed down the pace of football bloggers. Fabio Capello in an attempt to give us something to write about this week has been sure to create his own stories.

O Captain! My Captain – Twisted Blood

The pick of the piece about the captain situation has been courtesy of Twisted Blood. You will find that many of the piece go over the same old ground, why does the England captaincy matter? Who cares? it’s just an armband and a (coin) tosser right? It matters, because it matters to the England team. But because the English with a footballing mentality of the battle, strength and pace in going to war. We need a leader on that field to set the pace and to give us the confidence to through ourselves in. The captain probably has a bigger role in many other English sports. Cricket is a major example, maybe the English just can’t seperate the captain of the football team with the captain of the other sports.

One thing though that in the past it has shown that it is a real honour for those who are picked. John Terry, so hurt by its withdrawal before the World Cup decided to conduct his own mini revolt and campaign against the manager. Something I think Capello must have done well to forget upon his reappointment.

The View from Pakistan – Back Page Football

Sepp Blatter’s vision of bringing football to the world, in his search for a Nobel Peace Prize has seen a great scrutiny on smaller nations. World Cup competitions in South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar all in an attempt to improve the national game of the country and the fortunes of the people. Whether this is going to work is a debate to be had after Sepp’s reign. But the Asian market is always one of the most interesting to keep an eye on as it potentially could have a major impact on football. Usman gives us a look at how football is growing in Pakistan, but like many Asian leagues, it still has along way to go.

How The Inflatable Banana (Almost) Saved Football – In Bed With Maradona

The Football Fans Federation have caused a little controversy this week with their campaign to bring terraces back to the highest leagues in football. This has brought back some discussions and memories from dark days in football involving the Hiddlesborough and other crowd issues in football. Charlie Killen gives and excellent account of a short spell of much needed fun around the world started by Manchester City. Which should put a smile on your face even now, but please on Vuvuzelas.

How I Learned to Pass – In Bed With Maradona

All the authors of this site came together through a shared interest in the management simulation Football Manager. We discussed the finer details of tactics and how we could recreate this in the game. Does this make us a ready made real life football manager? Probably not. But what this has allowed us to do is to think of the game differently. Playing Football Manager has really improved my tactical knowledge. Nothing is going to replace the real thing, but I would buy into the idea that games like FIFA, PES and FM can help the development of young people trying to get into the game.

Seeing is Perceiving – Dispatches from a Football Sofa

Isn’t it interesting how we each get something different from a game? How who we support, who we don’t support and how we think football is played will change the way look remember, even see a game in front of us? Greg uses the Tottenham v West Ham game as an example of such a thing. What many people thought was a great 0-0 performance. Plenty of goal mouth action from Spurs, made for an excitement game. But for Greg a Spurs fan it was a game of frustration as West Ham did well to break down Tottenham’s attacks and those that did get through, just wouldn’t go past Robert Green.

Inspired by the recent piece from Five in Midfield. Looking at a single picture and how that has changed his whole perception of the Brazil v Italy final in 1994.