An Anfield Wrap with a difference today, all the transfer tattle is over on our subscription feed, with Rob Gutmann getting ridiculously excited about more potential ins to follow in the footsteps of Mo Salah. Here though, we’re doing something else in a podcast of two parts.
First, I’m joined by Andy Heaton, Ian Ryan and Paul Senior and with Liverpool making two high-profile appointments off the pitch this summer in the shape of chief executive Peter Moore and head of club and supporter liaison officer Tony Barrett I want to discuss what we as fans want from Liverpool FC. How do we want them to act? What should it’s identity be? What would make it a de facto ‘good club’?
I then speak to Simon Strachan, who is the co-founder of Gain Line – a sports analytics company – and along with his business partner Ben Darwin they have worked at the top level in rugby union. They’ve got some interesting theories that are now being applied across all sports, including football, in particular around squad stability and team cohesion.
All this and more on this week’s big show.
Peter Moore has form for his Twitter game, I can’t see it changing for Liverpool. The one thing he has going for him in this respect is he’s a fan first, has been all his life, and a phenomenal businessman. You don’t get to lead EA (multi-billion $ industry) as an englishman if you’re not.
Go with the flow, he’s awesome and a breath of fresh air in my humble opinion :)
The old adage applies to Moore. Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it. Fair game to him giving as good as he gets on Twitter. Don’t like it? Don’t shit his twitter account up with idiotic comments.
Paul is exactly right in his opening comments. I’ll go one further and say Liverpool have a lot of pathetic individuals for supporters. If you want me to back that up then choose any Liverpool article on the Echo and read the comments. I’m happy with the way the club is going. Some of that is dependant on how the summer transfer plans work out but I’m not worried about it.
Regarding Peter Moore and his Twitter activity I’d again echo Paul’s comments. I’ve no issue with it but I’d advise him to have some caution on the content and frequency but only because I know how vindictive some of our fans are.
May have mentioned this before but one of my best mates is the main charity raiser for the Royal Liverpool. She loves Ian Ayre for all the opportunities he’s given them and the access to the club they’ve enjoyed. Charity is important but I’m not convinced it needs to be shouted about. It always strikes me as charity for popularity when it’s like that. I don’t know what else the club do but I’m sure the above example isn’t the only one.
Really interesting chat with the Aussie fella about analytics.
Im not being funny though…. Its all common sense.
The more you bond the better you’re team will play. The more they like each other the better they will play.
ha ha…. really…ha ha.
What surprised me is the impact that these common sense approaches actually make.
Anyway…. I really enjoyed that one…
1.Load of bollocks those aussie blokes.
2. Aussie rugby is shite has been for 15 years
3. In football Buy the best players with a good manager and they will find a way.
“Cohesion is vital” So rubbish players that are good friends win the league every year do they? Bollocks
“Influence of manager is minimal” – bollocks look at Ferguson or Paisley or shankly or pep or Mourinho
“It’s ranked by money then cohesion” – spend well and you are good end of story
“Much easier to change skill of players than character” – bullshit turn me in to Ronaldo then. Up skill me!!!
Finally got round to listening to this. Interesting chat with Simon on cohesion – but I wonder if there is a little reverse causation going on here? In that success is a predictor of team cohesion, and then the extra cohesion leads to more success. He’s presenting skill and cohesion as interacting factors in their model but I’m not convinced that is the whole story (although I’m not really clear how they are measuring cohesion). I would love to see a case study of Chelsea the past three seasons to test their theory: what factors stayed the same, what changed, etc., that led to very different results, and if support staff have a big influence on cohesion too, e.g. the public humiliation of Chelsea’s club doctor that was by all accounts a popular and integral part of the club must have had an effect on cohesion within the team that season… Good interview in any case.