The 3rd Circle

William S Burroughs wrote that "'Never go too far in any direction' is the basic rule on which England is built". Could it be that Burroughs' observation is as pertinent now as it was back when it was written in 1975?

Pep Guardiola has alluded to a break in the established norms of the modernised English game.

But how can we understand the nature of the different forces that are pushing football beyond the confines of static tactical constraints?

Jamie and Martin plunge themselves deep into the zero-gravity chaos of The 3rd Circle to investigate.

Find out how aspects like imbalance, collective dribbling, communication systems and the psychology of horror movies all play a part in helping us understand how we can nudge tactical theory and coaching practice into unstable, far-from-equilibrium states.

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In this first full length excursion into The 3rd Circle, Jamie and Martin try to make sense of the complex tactical landscape that we find ourselves in today.

Our hosts trawl through obscure old newspaper articles and match reports as they sketch out a timeline of football's recent tactical history.

Pep Guardiola's 'superhuman' Barcelona, Carlo Ancelotti's Milanese diamond and Roger Schmidt's taurine powered Red Bull Salzburg machine all serve as references as we hurtle through a tumultuous period of radical change and paradigm shifts.

So, strap yourselves in, turbulence is expected.

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Jamie Hamilton and Martin Rafelt venture into The 3rd Circle to explain what this mysterious new space means for the football tactics-sphere.

In this short introductory episode we find out why Thomas Tuchel once told Martin to 'just fool around', we're treated to a surreal Oliver Kahn impression and our hosts get into the linguistic significance of alien symbols in Denis Villeneuve's movie, Arrival.

Half-spaces, needle players and Bob Dylan.

The 3rd Circle is here.

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