24/25 Match Week 16 Recap

Manchester is RED…

And this may be the best post from a player all season.

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Headlines 📌

• Current Situation📈📉

• Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥- Tell Me What You REALLY Think

• Off Island 🏝️ - Interesting Data

• Best Bets 💰

Headlines 📌

• CS Match of the Week. Manchester Is RED. City 1-2 United. Spursy - AGAIN. But this time, not from Spurs but from Pep’s fading City. In terms of “quality”, this Derby is well down the list but in terms of “statement”, this Derby is near the top of the list. Was this the moment City’s run has ended, and United’s started again?

  • City 1-0. 36’ Gvardiol from KDB.

  • Half.

  • United 1-1. Penalty to United, deserved, at 86’ and Bruno Fernandes finishes.

  • 2 Min Later…

  • United 1-2. Very unusual error just 2 min later by City and Manchester is RED, Amad Diallo AT 90’.

  • City now have 1W 2D 8L in their last 11 matches. Amazingly poor run by the club with 4 straight titles and 5 of the last 6. Any other manager would be out, but Pep has earned the chance to turn this around.

  • 2 Minutes of 2 Robbies. Good 2 min analysis.

• Royal Dyche. Arsenal 0-0 Everton. Just a reminder, few managers can “park the bus” with his team in front of the net and play for a 0-0 draw better than the Everton manager.

  • AND. Pickford (Everton Keeper) has the highest CS% in the PL at 40%,

• Loved But Sacked. Two managers who fans and ownership really love were sacked after this weekend.

  • Southampton. Russell Martin is out after the Saints lost to Spurs 0-5. The manager who took Southampton back to the PL with a great style of play just couldn’t get his side to defend.

  • Wolverhampton. Gary O’Neil was exactly what management wanted and showed great promise last season with a limited roster. The club was hoping for more of the same this season but a 1-2 result to Ipswich at home was all they could handle and Wolves, who were competing for Europe recently, are sitting 19 and looking for a new manager.

• Speaking of Managers. This really bothers English fans - Just TWO managers remain in the PL. Dyche (Everton) and Howe (Newcastle).

• Save of the Season Contenders. Jordan Pickford (Everton) is having a MONSTER season in the net. But these three keepers had a GREAT weekend.

  1. Emi Martinez for Villa, crazy great. Forest 2-1 Villa.

  2. Robert Sanchez for Chelsea, crazy good. Chelsea 2-1 Brentford.

  3. Dean Henderson for Palace, would be even better if the video were online in the US.

• Report from Kazakhstan. Got some great feedback on the Hot Topic 🔥 last week about Kazakhstan. CS subscriber Paul also commented - “I really loved Kazakhstan. Almaty was a wonderful City.” Great to hear! I think a Northern Hemisphere Summer/Fall would be the time to go.

Current Situation 📈📉

NOTE: Green Up Arrow means a club jumped UP 2 positions in the table or moved into a European spot. Red Down Arrow means a club moved DOWN 2 positions or more in the table for fell out of a European spot.

• Forest keep rolling sitting at 4 with just a 2-goal differential.

• Spurs 17-goal differential sums up their season, how are they in 10.

• Everton will need to start stacking some wins, draws will not get it done.

CleanSheets Counter & Goal Tracker

Hot Topic 🔥🔥🔥

Tell Me What You REALLY Think…CS Statements

• Expect Man United to be Competing for Titles Soon. Love the Amorim hire. United got a winner. Two of United best players, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho were left off the squad for the Manchester Derby. Why? “It’s important to say why: it was not a disciplinary thing. Next week, next game, new life, they are fighting for their places…For me, it’s important: the performance in training, the performance in game, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with teammates, the way you push your teammates, everything is important…And today the team proved we can leave anyone out of the squad and manage to win if you play together."

• Chelsea Will Win the Title. City is out of it, Arsenal has potential. Liverpool have the upper hand and experience. But for Chelsea - the manager is proving to be the right hire, the depth is there, multiple superstars, competition for playing time every day and “less pressure to” than the other three. You can get Chelsea at +1400 to win the league, fourth best odds. That’s a good bet.

• City out of Europe. Yes, there are injuries, but City’s problems have to do with player attitude. Pep has gotten this club up for 8+ years, but the players are not in it to win. It’s not something you can turn the switch on. This occurred in the off-season when it seems players started to think about their careers outside of City. You can see that the attention to detail is gone and you can assume that it has been gone where it matters most - in between the matches on the practice field.

• Palace have the best result... of the bottom 7 teams in the table. Yes, Ipswich won at Spurs 2-1 and West Ham won at United 2-1, but both those wins are more on the home sides. Palace completely dominated BHA at the Amex 3-1. Expect a run from Palace with a good possibility of finishing, as they usually do, between 8-12 in the table.

• What Did He Say? Why do soccer managers cover their mouths when talking to players. First, they could be speaking any language. Second, IF it is even possible to understand what they are saying what action really could even be taken in game. And it happens AFTER the game as well, stupid.

• Flopping. Flopping has gotten “better” (less frequent) but is still a part of the game. Here is a rule that should be implemented: clear and obvious flopping can be punished via video review after a match, 3 game suspension. Must be clear and obvious and determined withing 30 minutes after the match. You can appeal, but if it is so clear that the appeal is just to delay punishment the game ban goes to 4 games.

• Culture Change. MLS need to change leadership if they want to grow. If they were treated like a manager, they would be sacked. Viewership keeps dropping. Their TV contract (see below) is not helping. While there are some good markets there is a perception the league is not very good. Seems the people who watch MLS are hard core local market fans. They are missing general sports fans and even soccer fans who choose international leagues over MLS. It is not a “welcoming” culture for non-hard-core fans - hard to find on tv/streaming, the season schedule is off, the production is weak and the politics dominate.

• Catlin Clark IS the WNBA. If the WNBA is a thing at all.

• A Charlie Brown Christmas is the best Christmas cartoon. It’s a Wonderful Life is the best non cartoon.

Off Island 🏝️

Interesting Data

What are the MOST VIEWED SOCCER TEAM pages in each US State.

• 26 Arsenal, 4 Chelsea, 2 Liverpool, 3 City,1 Palace and the rest 1 MLS clubs.

• What is going on in Colorado? Palace?

• West Virginia with the only non EPL or MLS club with La Liga’s Real Madrid.

Compare to 2023

• Maine continues to be Liverpool, yet West Virgina went from Barcelona to Real Madrid.

What are the MOST VIEWED PLAYER PAGES in each US State.

• Aaron Cresswell, born in Liverpool, has played in 5 matches for West Ham this year. Why is Pensylvania looking at his page? No idea, even the West Ham X account has no idea - “Is it his immaculate hair?”

• Francesco Totti is close to 50 years old, what are people in Hawaii looking for?

• 38 Messi, 8 Ronaldo, 1 for Cresswell, Chiesa, Beasley and Totti.

MLS Disappoints with Apple - DOWN close to 50%

LA Galaxy beat NY Red Bulls in the “Super Bowl” of MLS but very few people watched it - which is pretty bad considering these were NY/LA clubs.

• The number on Fox/Fox Deportes was 468k viewers. Add to that the estimated 60k viewers on Apple TV and the number is roughly 530,000 viewers. That is DOWN 47% for last year’s championship between Columbus and LAFC which aired in the same time slot.

• Last year’s MLS/APPLE TV deal was for $2.5B over 10 years. that is looking like a bad deal for both sides. People are not signing on with Apple to watch MLS, even with Messi at Miami. MLS numbers are way down. MLS are locked into a 10-year deal, and with inflation are actually losing future opportunities.

• The Average PL numbers on broadcast networks over 800k for a regular season matchup, and higher for the larger clubs.

• For comparison purposes, 556k people watched a regular season matchup between Rutgers and Michigan State on FS1.

• The LEAST viewed NFL game this season has been the Cardinals/Chargers that aired only on ESPN+, it drew over 2 Million.

• MLS has some work to do.

Best Bets 💰

Don’t take big favorites. Don’t take big favorites. Don’t take big favorites.

A nice up week wiped out by the Gunners.