Talent: The great paradox.

Paradox in that it exists and equally it is something of a myth.

Thread - With their legacy & millions of fans Mohun Bagan & East Bengal have seen several iconic personnel over the years. This list includes players, officials...and groundsmen. Popularly known as "mali" two such groundsmen became legends in their own rights. #IndianFootball

Bhaskar "Bhasiya" Senapati was from Orissa & joined Mohun Bagan in 1937. It was said that Bhasiya gave up offers in Brook Bonds & State Bank so that he could continue to work at Mohun Bagan. His voter identity card had the club address as his home address #IndianFootball

After Mohun Bagan's shattering 5-0 loss in 1975 IFA Shield final he was so sad that he didn't eat for 3 days. Among his favourites were Gostha Pal, Chuni Goswami, Subrata Bhattacharya. He played dual role of "Head mali" & club masseuse #IndianFootball

Upon his 1992 retirement, Bhasiya was given an unprecedented farewell. He was provided a life membership to the club, felicitated by players & officials while he went around the Mohun Bagan ground in front of applauding spectators #IndianFootball

Shankar Pillai joined East Bengal in 1940s & worked for the club for the next six decades. Coaches, players and management changed as East Bengal became one of India’s most successful clubs but Shakar mali remained constant #IndianFootball

I'm starting to think Marvin Lewis is one of the more underappreciated NFL coaches of the past couple decades. Staying 16 years in one place is TOUGH, and I feel like people have forgotten a lot of context along the way.

In the 12 years before Marvin Lewis arrived, the Bengals were 55-137. In the two years since he left, they are 6-25-1. That's 14 years and 0 playoff appearances.

Lewis was 131-122-3 with 7 playoff appearances.

Lewis took over a 2-14 team in 2003. His first three years, he went 8-8, 8-8 and 11-5.

He got his QB in Year 2 in Carson Palmer and reached the playoffs in Year 3. But on his very first throw, Palmer tore his knee.

So, we begin the narrative that Lewis was 0-7 in playoff games. Fair criticism to a point. But here were his seven QBs for those playoff games:

Jon Kitna after 1 throw
Carson Palmer
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
Andy Dalton
AJ McCarron

The Bengals, who have a cheap owner as GM, not only struggled to find Marvin Lewis a QB but also struggled to get him much of anything. They consistently let good players walk, from Carson Palmer to Marvin Jones to Kevin Zeitler to Eric Steinbach to Leon Hall to Reggie Nelson.

Analyzing Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in the FA Cup through data and tactical analysis: a thread.

#MUFC’s plan was to progress the ball wide through the flanks to find runners and/or switch the players — and it was well executed.

Issues:

(A) Henderson’s ball distribution was not well utilized to find forwards through long balls.

(B) Weak verticality/central presence.

This can be better seen through the territory Manchester United occupied in both halves — although they dominated through the left flank, they progressed well through the right as well.

The height of central presence increased as a result of substitutions: Fred/Bruno.

EXAMPLE: #MUFC’s dominance in the left was seen in multiple formats which include:

(A) Construction of triangles — to cross, create space and perform third-man runs.

(B) Rashford dribbles > cutbacks.

(C) Overlaps from Luke Shaw.

(D) Long balls from deep to find runners.

So how did #MUFC move the ball?

In the first half — they looked to build-up *and* progress to the left flank to create opportunities to exploit #LIV’s high line i.e long balls, overlaps.

Directness improved in the second half with a more dangerous forward presence.

Read this small thread to know why #GabbaTest win is so special. 👇

1. India didn't had it's key players playing like Rahul and kohli. So it was always a pressure situation. Even you not see on face but it lies well within them

2. Big players like Ishant, shami, umesh and Bhuvi were injured

3. Rahane was New captain with very few experience in Captaincy. He only captained 4 matches before it.

4. Gabba was the ground or I would say fortress of Australia where it was unbeaten for past 33 years

📍A thread. @RishabhPant17

Rishabh Pant's father was ill for a long time. He passed away in Roorkee on April 7, 2017. He went home to attend his father's funeral.