Omission Bias and Penalty Kicks

Interesting report at the British Pschological Society's blog suggesting keepers should just stand in the middle of the goal, rather than diving. Research suggests that omission bias comes in to play, that is, goalies feel more regret on letting in a penalty if they don't dive than when they do.

A few points:

- It would be sad if this new tactic was adopted, leading to the demise of the second* greatest penalty, the chip down the middle. (watch the Portugese penalty on 32 sec - I don't mind England being beaten by that display of balls)

- This obviously assumes that a professional goalkeeper is capable of saving a ball hit straight at him.



* This is the best form of pen, obviously. Helps if you tell your team what you're doing though.

Choose an English coach - Platini

Of course he would say that! He wants England to be as shit as possible, the dirty frog.



Platini - wants what's worst for English football.

"My dear, my penis is a mountain"

Just checking nobody missed this.

Shearer coy about England vacancy

I should fucking hope so.

Prick.

Slaven Bilic is cool as fuck

Ahead of England's must-draw game, we can only look on at the chump we have at the helm who pales in comparison to the rugged bad-boy Croatia have leading them.

And now for something completely different...

Quota me Happy

Why is it that just as one sports organisation realises quota systems are a stupid waste of time, another much more powerful one wants to bring them in?

As far as I can see, the effects will be thus:

1) Prices for English players increase dramatically as demand increases. As with most football transfers, this will be most outrageous at the lower end of the talent pool. Few could bemoan a Hargreaves or an Owen commanding a high fee, but expect to see makeweights like Nicky Shorey and Stuart Downing going for silly money, purely because of their nationality.

2) The quality of the Premier League goes down. As talented foreign stars are replaced with less talented Englishmen, so the quality will decrease.

3) Because of this decrease in quality, the English players will be playing with, and against, weaker players and so their ability will not be as high as it is now. Therefore, the England team will be worse also.

The only plus for the England team I can see would be:

- due to the advantages of being England qualified, more African and Commonwealth players opt to play for England, thus increasing the talent pool available. The French have been doing this for years (Patrice Evra and Patrick Vieira were both born in Dakar, Senegal, for example). What Englishman wouldn't welcome football's answer to big KP?

Power to the (capitalist) people

"Democracy" and "fan power" have now landed in the UK, specifically in the Blue Square Premier (aka the Conference), where Ebbsfleet FC, not content with changing THE NAME OF THE CLUB to suit sponsors Eurostar, have now sold a 51% stake to venture capitalist firm myfootballclub.co.uk. Team tactics, starting XI will now be decided etc etc.

The "real-life Championship Manager" model is without doubt a rather cute idea. The terraces have always been a pretty vibrant marketplace of ideas - how wonderful to get all Freakonomics on that shit and have the fans actually call the shots.

Except... the new owners aren't fans. Or rather, they aren't fans of Ebbsfleet FC - they're just fans of a rather cute idea. For example Tom Dear, one of the folk who paid 35 quid for a stake in the club:

“To be honest, I didn’t even know Ebbsfleet existed. I don’t know if it will work, but it will be interesting".

Interesting indeed, great fodder for dinner parties and down the pub. "Yes I'm part of that online club thing. We get to pick the players, it's all very modern and interesting. Rather interestingly, all the players are completely unmotivated, none of the actual fans turn up anymore and the club is facing both relegation and bankruptcy. Still, I reckon I've got my 35 quid's worth."

Of course, the fabled wisdom of crowds could in fact propel Ebbsfleet into the League: time will tell. But Christ, I'm glad it's not my club.