• Featured, Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on July 20th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

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    Joe Cole, Gerrard, Hodgson & Being English

    Joe Cole, Gerrard, Hodgson & Being English

    It’s been a weird few days. First, the hard-to-fathom sale of promising, albeit rough diamond, Emiliano Insua – all the more strange as he was the third and final left-back out of the club in six months – followed shortly after by the signing of a player who wanted wages Liverpool could not match, Champions League football the club couldn’t offer and a locale that was not in, or near, London.

  • Featured, Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on June 29th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

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    Does Roy Hodgson Have The Credentials?

    Does Roy Hodgson Have The Credentials?

    This piece was originally published on June 21st. Since then it’s become widely accepted that Roy Hodgson will be appointed this Thursday. This tallies with information I received a couple of days ago: that the appointment will only take place once Standard Chartered officially replace Carlsberg as the club sponsors. With this in mind, I’ve brought this piece back to the top of the site, as the main featured article.

  • Featured, Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on May 27th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

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    The Kid(s) Can Play

    The Kid(s) Can Play

    With all this is mind, I thought I’d spend the summer (which could be very depressing) picking out those Academy individuals I think might be best suited (in time) to making the step up to the first team ( … but all the while adding the caveat that careers go wrong for a number of reasons.)

  • Book Extract, Featured, Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on May 25th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

    Tags

    Magical Mystery Tour: Istanbul, 2005

    Magical Mystery Tour: Istanbul, 2005

    To Celebrate ‘Istanbul Day’, this is an extract from “Golden Past, Red Future”, the book I began writing in 2004, and which culminated in an unexpected trip to Istanbul. Subscribers can download a free PDF of this entire book, along with three of my other titles.

  • Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on April 22nd, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

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    ‘Zidane Theorem’ Applied to Liverpool FC

    ‘Zidane Theorem’ Applied to Liverpool FC

    Zidane Clustering Theorem is designed to show that teams full of very good players are better than those with a few superstars and a collection of also-rans making up the numbers (the ‘Zidane’ referring to the Real Madrid approach during the time of galácticos.)

  • Featured, In-Depth Analysis, Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on April 12th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

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    Sub Standard? Rafa’s Subs Record

    Sub Standard? Rafa’s Subs Record

    The season where Liverpool’s first tactical substitution was on average the latest after the opposition’s (2008/09), was the most successful league season the club has had in years. More relevant to this study, it was the year with the highest number of substitutions that turned losses to wins: six.

  • Part Free, Talking Tactics

    Posted on March 30th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

    Tags

    Midfield Pairings and Flawed Logic

    Midfield Pairings and Flawed Logic

    Apparently, you only have to play Steven Gerrard in central midfield and all problems are solved. If that was the case, why was the Reds’ worst league performance of the season at Wigan, with him in that very position?

  • Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on March 21st, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

    Tags

    The Past and the Pending

    The Past and the Pending

    In football, we are always searching the past to predict the future. But rather than suggest things definitely can’t happen – “so-and-so will never be good enough”, “Liverpool will never win the league under X manager”, etc – I like to look for examples that show things can change for the better

  • Part Free, Part Member

    Posted on March 12th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

    Tags

    The ‘Current Price’ of Every LFC Signing 1992-2010

    The ‘Current Price’ of Every LFC Signing 1992-2010

    Following on from other work with Graeme Riley’s Transfer Price Index, this is the list of all of Liverpool’s Premier league signings, and how much they cost in “today’s money”. Subscribers can also download a PDF of the entire TPI database, which contains the signings of every club between 1992 and 2010.

  • Part Free, Part Member, Transfer Price Index ©

    Posted on February 10th, 2010

    Written by Paul Tomkins

    Tags

    TPI© Percentage of Premier League Spend (Gross)

    TPI© Percentage of Premier League Spend (Gross)

    “The Benefit of New Players” … The notion that individual signings take time to settle (or may never settle) is valid. And this may well be at the heart of why significant investment works so well, and leads, within 24 months, to trophies and higher league positions. The injection of new blood seems fairly essential to boost a team; but additional riches give more licence for a hit-and-miss strategy

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