CS EPL Summer Season 7.10

REMINDER - CS is on SUMMER HOURS 

• The Schedule You Should Expect - CS will be 1X weekly, with occasional breaking news content during the offseason.

• Season Previews Starting July 23. Leading up to MW1 CS will preview all 20 PL clubs and provide a look at the season ahead.

• Match Week 1. PL Season 2024/25 kicks off August 17 and we will be back to our Tuesday, Friday Schedule.

• All Links go to X unless specified.

Clean Sheet will be looking to grow in Year 2 - PLEASE SHARE by giving the following link for those to sign up - OR - respond to this email with an email to sign up.

Clean Sheet has been RENEWED for Season 2!

In Today’s CleanSheet:

• Summer Headlines ☀️📌

• Euro2024🌍

• Copa America🌎

Summer Headlines ☀️📌

• Under 40. Less than 40 days to Match Week 1 of the PL.

• INs and OUTs. Player movement will continue to pick up as the Euros and Copa come to a conclusion. Joe Prince Wright (@JPW_NBCSports) has been tracking each team’s movement. And, you can always follow the Sky Sports tracker.

• Man United is cutting 250 jobs in the Club (BBC Sport), with currently 1150 people on staff. That’s a big number when you realize this includes all age levels, administration, coaches, etc. Another impact as a result of FFP, maybe.

Penalty Taking & Saving - Art & Science

Been fun watching the Euro’s & Copa knock out stages. It brings to the forefront an often forgotten, but unbelievably important, part of soccer - the Penalty/Penalty Kick/PK.

• 3 of 4 Copa quarterfinals went to PKs.

• 2 of 4 Euro quarterfinals went to PKs.

• 1 of 8 Euro Round of 16 went to PKs.

• SO far, 6 of 16 knock out matches have ended in a penalty shootout.

The Science - A PK is not automatic, and situational pressure matters.

• 85% of PKs ARE converted in the PL. Of the 15% NOT converted, 12% are saved and 3% are just misses. Since the PL is all league play, these PKs are in the flow of the match.

• 77% of PKs ARE converted in World Cup play for penalties during play. This number is almost identical for

• 70.3% of PKs ARE converted in World Cup Shootouts.

• One reason for the higher miss % of shootouts is that a team’s “best” penalty taker, who usually takes all the in-game penalties, is much better than the others who take penalties in a shootout. Yet. it’s clear the pressure of the situation will impact penalty taking.

The Keeper matters.

• The “average” keepers save % is 15%, 23% and 29.7%, respectively, per the data above.

• The gap in quality of keepers is wide. With a minimum of 10 PKs faced in the PL, the best all-time top 10 keepers save % is 30% or greater. The bottom 5 save % are less than 5%.

The Art - Emotion & Volatility.

In @GeirJordet (X) new book, Pressure - Lessons from the Psychology of the Penalty Shootout, Geir discusses the stress that impacts performance. AND, he has a GREAT breakdown of how England used these concepts to successfully execute their penalty shootout against Switzerland this week in the Euros.

Preparation Matters

Just like athletes study their opponent’s game/moves in other sports, Keepers look for the tendencies of potential penalty takers. Look at the notes Jordan Pickford (Everton) put on his water bottle during England’s match against Switzerland.

Now, if you are a penalty taker, and you know the keeper knows your tendencies will you change your approach and go away from your go-to shot. If you know what I like to do, but I know you know, do you really know?

Makes me think of this scene from The Princes Bride (YT 4m).

Unless You Just Read the Keeper - WOW

Look at this NO LOOK PK - Ivan Toney (Brentford) for England.

The Best Results Ever? Hard to Argue against Eni Martinez

Emi Martinez (Villa) has now had BIG Shootout Saves to win a World Cup Final v France (2022), win a Copa quarterfinal v Ecuador (2024), and win a Europa Conference semifinal v Lille (2024).

• Here are 4 minutes (YT) on Emi’s psychological approach to win the World Cup - a little corny but a very interesting listen.

• This save - Awesome. This save - Awesomer.

Even the GOAT can miss.

Here are all the PKs in the Argentina-Ecuador shootout - Emi’s saves and Messi’s miss.

Euro2024🏆🏆🏆

For all things Euro’s, check out the official UEFA website here.

The Semi-Finals

FOUR things you should know

1. 3 Goals. France has scored just THREE goals the entire tournament (not including penalty shootout goals) and have only allowed 1 goal.

2. 11 Goals. Spain have scored ELEVEN goals and allowed 3.

3. Netherlands are the only team of the remaining 4 to lose a match this tournament, 2-3 to Austria.

4. England is already questioning the assigned referee for their match against the Netherlands.

   • Felix Zwayer, who was convicted of match-fixing and banned for 6 months in 2005 after taking a $350 bribe has been assigned to England’s match. In addition, Jude Bellingham (England) was fined for publicly questioning Zwayer’s integrity in a post-match interview after Bellingham’s Dortmund side lost to Bayern Munich 2-3 in 2001.

Copa America🌎

You can find the standings and more at Copa America 2024.

FOUR things you should know

1. Liverpool. Colombia’s Luis Diz and Alexis Mac Allister face off against Uruguay’s Darwin Nunez, all Liverpool teammates. Nunez got the best of another teammate when Uruguay beat Brazil and their goalkeeper Allison who also plays for the Red’s.

2. O’ Canada. Marsch March’s On. The manager not “good enough” for the USMNT just took Canada to the semi-finals. What a run for the Wisconsin native and the Canadians.

3. Argentina have scored 6 goals in the tournament, Messi has yet to hit the scoresheet.

4. Many PL fans, and specifically Leeds United fans, may be rooting for Uruguay and their manager Marcelo Bielsa who led Leeds to the PL 3 years ago and is a fan favorite wherever he goes. El Loco Bielsa has had quite an amazing career (Wiki), all around the world. I’m sure 99% of American sports fans couldn’t pick him out of a lineup of one.