Brentford are really ~good~. Which is why you should read this article I wrote about them a month ago.
Or you could just read it for fun.
12.02.2026 22:55
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Brentford are really ~good~. Which is why you should read this article I wrote about them a month ago.
Or you could just read it for fun.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this confused at Liverpool’s strategy in my 18+ years supporting the club.
Yes, I’m losing my head because of this:
People have to
• spend ~huge~ money to watch football games.
• spend incredible amounts to get access to some expanded stats on the game.
At this rate, we’re going to be in a place where people’d have to be rich or semi-rich to follow the sport!
I wish I’d followed American Sports long ago.
Subscribe anyway & just tell me what you think so that we can have some good discussions anyway! :-)
I had some thoughts on Gakpo & his game in shot-taking sequences, so I posted it on my Substack.
(The goal this year is to turn my thoughts & not seek perfection everytime - if not an article, a thread or a note)
Follow me on Substack & subscribe to my newsletters if you find my work interesting.
Genuinely a bit unlucky today but 7 points in 5 games against promoted sides is grim.
• Burnley - 4 points - 2 games
• Leeds - 2 points - 2 games
• Sunderland - 1 point - 1 game
Big sus
Trying to really follow the “1% improvement every day” & hoping I can stick to this approach the whole year.
Apple’s summarisation functionality for notifications is a bit 🫤. Especially with WhatsApp texts, I sometimes get confused & end up having to look at the message straight away. (On iPhone)
Funny how Madrid have sacked an ex-Liverpool player to replace with another ex-Liverpool player. “Mr. Rafa Benitez, you’re the influence”
First article is out! I dived into some of the underlying numbers behind Brentford's style and success so far this season, which finds them 5th in the league table.
Link to the post: open.substack.com/pub/rithwick...
New Year, new resolutions - I'm back to writing! I've created Rithwicked Deflection to write all things football.
Please spread the word! Appreciate subs and shares. First article drops tomorrow!
Link: rithwickeddeflection.substack.com?utm_campaign...
And Mateta!
Only players who aren’t sitting in defence (+GK) are Guimaraes & Szoboszlai. Used like a bar of soap. If it wasn’t for suspension, Szoboszlai would’ve racked up another 90 I reckon.
I'm not entirely sure what the game plan is here from Slot. Yes, you're tightening the defence, but we've got weaker in possession and from an attacking POV, which has led to games being tighter.
Feels like he's banking on others dropping points as well and us being ~average.
Tough times!
Tight games = variance = results could go either way.
Slot has indirectly mentioned us playing games with high variance (saying we deserved more in certain games), but it is a byproduct of our game model.
To stabilise the defence, we've been more measured (weaker attack)
This whole Salah thing is crazy. I get why he shouldn’t have gone public but it isn’t like our other attackers are setting the stage on fire.
Isak & Wirtz have both been underwhelming with way fewer output than Salah himself.
This is such a mess.
My favourite Mo articles are those that surround Liverpool players (ex, current, linked)
I think it’s time to cut ties. Thank you, Arne but this is the final straw.
Also qualifying for the World Cup with Norway 🇳🇴 is an incredible achievement for him & the country!
Insane goalscorer & he’s only 25.
Just found a crazy stat:
Haaland has 16 goals in 8 games in the current World Cup qualifiers. SIXTEEN goals! For context, Ronaldo has 41 in 52 games in WC Qualifiers.
• Haaland - 55 goals in 3920 mins (~ a goal every 71 mins)
• Ronaldo - 143 goals in 17987 mins (~ a goal every 80 mins)
How can you look at that Van Dijk header & the flight of the ball to say, yeah Robertson is blocking Donnarumma’s line of sight.
I just don’t get it.
We also had all our 3 senior CBs pick up season ending injuries, so that too.
I was skeptical of the Kerkez signing & him being a LB for us. But my god, did not expect it to be this bad.
He always looks lost when defending in the box & is a tad too late to react. Ok top of that, he’s also very rash.
The players not being at their best is one thing because something as basic as simple passing has been horrendous.
But, Slot not having figured out the weaknesses & tweaking when it is obvious is so worrying.
🗣️ I’m speaking at the Leeds Digital Festival next week. For those in Leeds, we’ll (Data Science at ASDA) be talking about how we drive business value with some interesting Data Science work at ASDA!
Get your ticket now (it’s free) before it runs out! :-)
www.eventbrite.com/e/driving-va...
😭😭😭😭😭 (i’m sorry but why’s that last part funny but also a compliment)
Is Siri going to get better?
Today @suhailpatel.bsky.social told me something I still think about when we talked about measuring the efficiency of AI tools for devs:
“Always applying critical thinking when using AI tools will be the difference between devs who do well with AI and devs who don’t”
Resisting “autopilot!”