The Inside Left

Jonathan Wilson: Tactical Analysis Boom

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

When Jonathan Wilson released his history of football tactics, Inverting The Pyramid, he started something. Now, helped by the rise of Twitter and niche writing in general, tactical analysis is a more accessible part of the British football media than ever before. We asked Wilson about the boom…

Tactics Board 1

Kenny Millar: Football Manager Stole My Life

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

Last summer, three Football Manager obsessives decided to write a book about the game that has captivated a generation of football fans. We asked one of them how the idea for a book came about, what stories they uncovered and which players agreed to be interviewed about their virtual attributes…

Football Manager Stole My Life

Palace And The Play-Offs: A History

WORDS: BRYAN DAVIES

Ahead of tomorrow’s Championship Play-Off final, a lifelong Crystal Palace supporter looks back on the Eagles’ incredible relationship with the Play-Offs, the unforgettable games, the disappointments, the euphoria of success and the emotions thrown up by this increasingly intense end-of-season contest…

Wilfried Zaha by Tom Brogan (via Flickr)

Jonathan Wilson: The Rise of Long-Form

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

With journals such as The Blizzard making waves on the football media scene, long-form writing about the game is enjoying great popularity. We asked the man behind that very periodical, Jonathan Wilson, how a media form restricting us to 140 characters has aided the growth of feature-length writing…

The Blizzard champions longform football writing in a digital age

Paine Proffitt: Football Art

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

Paine Proffitt’s artwork has graced the programme and fanzine covers of several British clubs, so you might be surprised to hear that the man behind these traditional images of the beautiful game is American. We took the opportunity to talk to him about the connection between football and art…

Under a Mackem Sky - Sunderland get the Paine Proffitt treatment

Danny Last: European Football Weekends

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

It doesn’t get much better than a long weekend with friends and  a far-flung football match thrown in and, through his cult website European Football Weekends, Danny Last managed to capture the essence of football tourism. We ask him about his travels, his site and how blogging has changed…

European Football Weekends badges

Zach Slaton: The Transfer Price Index

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

We ask the Forbes columnist and football infographic connoisseur about the differences between the MLS model and the European league system, whether we should really judge a manager’s performance based on the value of the squad at his disposal and what we can learn from graphs and wiggly lines…

Zach Slaton writes about soccer analytics for Forbes and transferpriceindex.com

Simon Kuper: On Soccernomics

INTERVIEW: DOMINIC BLISS

Be prepared to start viewing the game differently as the groundbreaking football writer and co-author of Soccernomics discusses the potential of analytics in football, the pitfalls of misusing data and the reasons why everybody has become so interested in reading about the financial side of the game…

FT Columnist Simon Kuper has a unique approach to football writing

The Unstoppable Rise Of Shakhtar Donetsk

WORDS: VADIM FURMANOV

Last weekend saw Ukraine’s biggest derby game end in yet another victory for the all-powerful Shakhtar Donetsk. Now, after years of unchallenged hegemony, one Dynamo Kyiv supporter asks how this great club has come to be living in Shakhtar’s shadow and when, if ever, they will reassert themselves…

The rest of Ukraine, including Dynamo Kyiv, has only been able to look on enviously at the rise and rise of Shakhtar Donetsk (jeep-people via Flickr)

Rostov, Where History Is Worthless

WORDS: ROBERT DILLON

Once a footballing power in the Soviet era, SKA Rostov-on-Don are in dire straits. Financial woes have forced the club to withdraw from Russia’s Second Division and there may be worse to come, but few seem to care. Is the Don region’s most successful team about to disappear without a whimper?

SKA Rostov-on-Don

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