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Reposted by Footballarguments

Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

One of the most important elements of football is something that nobody ever talks about: luck. So what is luck in football, how does it arise and why is the game so random? robfielder.substack.com/p/fooled-by-...

robfielder.substack.com

Fooled by Randomness - The Importance of Luck in Football (Part 1)

“I don’t believe in luck in football.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

And a final reminder about the new blogpost

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

You have my full understanding if you've had enough of the World Cup by now. But if you've got room for even just a little more, I'd appreciate you taking a look:

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Reposted by Footballarguments

Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

New blogpost: Team of the World Cup 2026 Written together with the marvellous @robfielder.bsky.social A decent World Cup, one outstanding team, and at least two individual performances that will be remembered for a long time footballarguments.wordpress.com/2026/07/21/t...

The first eleven of the team of the world cup 2026: featuring Pickford, Cucurella, Romero, Cubarsi, Porro; Rodri, Anderson, Bellingham, Mbappe, Kane, Messi

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

As you may have guessed, the write-up for the Team of the World Cup 2026 blogpost is currently underway. It will probably be published in the coming days. In the meantime, who makes your Team of the Tournament? And who wins your Golden Ball? I found the latter question to be quite difficult.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I went into this match without too much emotional investment but I exited it disgusted. What a horrible match. 90% of the blame for that lies with Argentina but Spain should have done much better as well. The same goes for the referee.

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Lewis @lgambrose.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

It's hard to know where to begin. With all the other all-time greats, either they're done with international football 5-10 years younger than he is now, or it's done with them. Yet here he is, still the most impactful, most dangerous player at the entire tournament.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Excellent, excellent stuff. I continue to think that as a scoring-passing-carrying triple threat, Pelé is the only player who may rival Messi for the GOAT-title. (We'll never know for sure but Messi probably beats him as a playmaker and in terms of longevity.)

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The last time that Messi appeared in my selections was back in 2022-23 (Bench Team of the Season). I was pretty certain that, as great as he undoubtedly is, this would prove to be the final time he would ever feature. Underestimated him again.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

It's been ages since I saw a nominal top team that so brazenly attempted to win a match not through physicality, but through violence (and provocation). Some dark, dark Clasicos from the early 2010s come to mind.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The way things are shaping up, Messi will score with his hand at some point.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Messi looks like a 39-year-old. So do his teammates.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

He will haunt Germany's pressing game for a while, very impressive

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Reposted by Footballarguments

Tobias Escher @taktikfuchs123.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Soeben ist die allerletzte Team-Vorschau auf die WM auf Laptoptrainer online gegangen. Die Analyse zu Deutschland ist nicht hinter einer Paywall versteckt. Damit habe ich das geschafft, woran ich selbst gezweifelt habe: Alle 48 Teams sind analysiert! www.laptoptrainer.de/2026/06/12/v...

laptoptrainer.de

Deutschland bei der WM 2026: Taktik-Vorschau | Laptoptrainer

Deutschland hofft bei der WM 2026 auf den fünften Titel. Auf Laptoptrainer.de gibt es eine taktische Vorschau auf diesen und alle anderen WM-Teilnehmer!

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Reposted by Footballarguments

Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Always a great pleasure to contribute to this and great to see Harry Kane win a very deserved player of the year. The best player in the world at the moment.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

I don't want to distract you from the opening ceremony but:

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

And another season in football history has ended. I often try to publish the Team of the Season blogpost the day after the Champions League final. I'm a bit behind schedule this time around, will probably take me about a week to finish it. In the meantime, who would you pick?

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

In an age where football sometimes feels quite bonkers, I get a perverse kind of pleasure from this minimalism*. (*aka 'very impressive deep-block defending that is far from easy')

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Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The first post-war World Cup. Who were the best players of the 1950 edition? Going back to something i looked at with @footballarguments.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/robfielder…

open.substack.com

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Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Today's post looks at how we value tournaments. What criteria should we use and how does that change over time? This is the lead in to a series of detailed posts about individual competitions. open.substack.com/pub/robfielder…

open.substack.com

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Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Today's newsletter is on the subject of trophies and whether they matter in assessing great players robfielder.substack.com/p/do-trophies-…

robfielder.substack.com

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Rob Fielder @robfielder.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Today's newsletter is about the separation between ability and performance in football and the relative importance (or lack of) around completeness and versatility. robfielder.substack.com/p/understandin…

robfielder.substack.com

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Today's loss was completely deserved, but international football needs a strong Italian team. Especially one that taps into some of the not-so-undeserved clichés associated with the Italian way of playing. Any World Cup is much poorer without a good (!) Squadra Azzura.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Sehe ich das richtig, dass es keine Möglichkeit mehr gibt, das Hinspiel Atalanta - Bayern re-live zu sehen? Prime scheint es nicht mehr zu haben, DAZN auch nicht.

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Justin Kraft 🏳️‍🌈 @justin-kraft.de · 22/01/2026

Mehr zu meinem Buch:

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

There finally will be a new Team of the Decade blogpost out in a few hours time. 🙂

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 15/11/2025

I have started to re-watch the available matches from the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Footballia lists a total of nine of them, which is a quantum leap compared to the last one. Not all of them feature 90 minutes of footage, though.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

The great @robfielder.bsky.social and I have come up with a new blogpost: footballarguments.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/t... A few momentous events in football history happened this year: Real & Di Stefano reign surpreme, the rise of Pelé & the Brazilians, and, sadly, the Munich Air Disaster

footballarguments.wordpress.com

Team of the Season 1957-1958

Manager: Matt Busby Bench: Dominguez, Sarti, Herkenrath; Cervato, Lesmes, Marche; Wright, Juskowiak, C. Maldini; Corradi, Magnini; Atienza; Clamp, Szymaniak, Flowers; Masopust, Hanappi; Rial, Sivor…

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

My yearly Ballon d'Or take: would have given it to Lamine Yamal, but Ousmane Dembele is not a crazy choice by any means.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

I guess Harry Kane carries the Alfredo Di Stefano 'box-to-box forward' act as far as anyone can in modern football. Hugely impressive.

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Lewis @lgambrose.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

No greater pleasure than any time I'm asked to contribute to this. The entire project is a service to the recording of football (and football fans) with its coverage of eras that have too little and an era now that has too much of low quality.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

It took a bit longer than usual, but then again the season ended in an unusual way. But here it is! New blogpost: Team of the Season 2024-2025 With player portraits by the amazing @lgambrose.bsky.social and @robfielder.bsky.social ! footballarguments.wordpress.com/2025/08/01/t...

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Yesterday's Club World Cup final concluded (in my book at least) another season in football's history. You know what this means... the new Team of the Season blogpost is still under construction but should arrive in the relatively near future (historically speaking).

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Time for a little mini-project: re-watching all the matches from the 1957-58 Season (excluding the World Cup). It really is a small project since there aren't that many.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

I usually publish my Team of the Season blogpost shortly after the Champions League final. This season, however, I'm going to wait for the Club World Cup. I may not like it, but it clearly feels like part of this season and not the next one, right?

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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 15/05/2025

NEW with @simonkuper.bsky.social: The prevailing narrative around increased injuries and player workload in elite football is wrong. Players don’t play any more football than in the past. What has changed is a sharp rise in intensity of play. Not more minutes, but each minute exerts more load.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

I am by and large an eye-test guy, but I occasionally like to look at the great players of the past through the lense of (admittedly pretty basic ) statistics. One question I asked myself was: How did the great goalscorers of football history perform when playing against top-class opposition?

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

I'm not sure there have been many teams for whom being 0-2 down meant less than for this Barca. But then again, they have plenty of experience with being 0-2 down. Still, crazy entertaining stuff.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Flick's Barcelona are by far the most entertaining team around and an amazing one in many senses. I rooted for them to reach the final but in a way it feels kind of right that they came close but did not get there. They are throwing dice all the time. Loaded dice maybe, but there is too much chaos.

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Footballarguments @footballarguments.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

In his match report @sidlowe.bsky.social writes that Yamal's performance suggested "not that he might become the best player around, but that he already might be" This is something I come back to, too: even the best 17 year-olds merely hint at future greatness, they are not great already. Yamal is.

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