It's interesting how AFTV became such a model for later engagement farming - those guys were ahead of their time lol
Yep. Funnily enough even the Gary Neville level content is styled off it these days - just two notches down from Troopz
Bringing things a bit more back OT ... This having been Arteta's 300th game in charge, I just heard Andrew Mangin say that in those 3 games the leading appearance maker was... wait for it... Bukayo Saka with 251. Which completely reinforces how good & durable Saka's been, but also how much Mikel has relied on him, pushed him to play through "niggles", etc. That's 83% of the matches. Wow.
This has been a theme in the last couple of transfer flow podcasts - whether clubs are risking permanent damage to their top young players due to the much higher intensity levels compared to 10-15 years ago. Barca seems like they may be doing this, but we might also be seeing that with MO8 - who lets face it, started piling up minutes at a very young age, so might be closer to his decline than his age might suggest
Yeah. But (thankfully?) this year with our increased quality in depth, we seem to be seeing more proactive rotation of players by Mikel? E.g. Martin#2 not starting last game (but sadly having to come in earlier than planned b/c of Martin#1's injury)
Were we ever this deep in quality per position? Can't think of a side we had off hand that was. Even the Invincibles? The first XI had all time greats (Henry, Bergkamp, Pires, Sol) in them but after that how many man for man position for position as good now? I don't know the answer to that.
They're the blue print on how to coopt and shape narratives among the increasingly online fanbase globally. Hope they are paid well for it.