Stop Watching the Ball: Michael Cox Unlocks the Fascinating Hidden Sides of Football
About this episode
Michael Cox discusses the hidden tactical aspects of football as the World Cup approaches.
Love the show? Becoming a Supporter unlocks a weekly bonus Applied episode, ad-free listening, and our Discourse forum where you can engage with us directly. All for the price of a coffee, once a month, so become a member now! Show notes Most of us watch football and follow the ball. Football journalist Michael Cox watches the spaces, the shapes and the patterns that few others understand. As we build towards the FIFA World Cup Quarter-finals, Ross and Gareth sit down with one of the sharpest tactical analysts in football writing, and perhaps the best at explaining it. Whatever your level of interest, you'll come away seeing the game completely differently. Cox runs the rule over all the major teams and players at this year's World Cup, dissecting and explaining their strengths, their weaknesses, and what will decide each tie. Along the way he unpacks the tactical questions casual fans never quite get answered: how France's individual brilliance differs from Spain's possession and shape, why Messi and Haaland barely run and how whole systems are built to let them save their bursts, the shift from man-marking to zonal defending, the risk-and-reward of a full-back charging forward…
People in this episode
Hosts: Ross Tucker, Gareth
Guest: Michael Cox
Topics covered
- football tactics
- World Cup analysis
- player performance
- tactical systems
- football development
Keywords
- football
- tactics
- World Cup
- Michael Cox
- analysis
- Messi
- Haaland
- tactical systems
- football development
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: FIFA, European academy
Places: Africa, South America, Asia
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