Blog Posts

  • England must hope Hodgson cures Gerrard indiscipline

    Injury to to both Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard means England are almost certain to start Euro 2012 with Steven Gerrard and Scott Parker as their central midfield two. Hodgson’s well documented obssession with shape was already much in evidence against Norway at the weekend. No matter what the combinations in midfield (and by the…

  • Were Spain possessed in South Africa?

    A reader asked Differentgame to look into whether the big international tournaments were won by teams with high possession percentages. We only looked back as far as Euro 2008 before we stopped and rubbed our eyes to make sure our peepers weren’t playing tricks on us. Spain won Euro 2008 averaging 49.5% of possession per…

  • Exactly what does Luka Modric do?

    Differentgame shakes its head every time there’s transfer speculation about the little Croatian. It’s the fees mentioned. £30m? £40m? Yes, his football is easy on the eye but does it actually amount to anything? There are four Premier League midfielders who average over 70 passes every time they play a game: Mikel Arteta (76.9), Yaya…

  • An England team of Champions League winners

    With the Champions League Final over, thoughts inevitably return to the England team set-up in the build up to the Euros. Many were underwhelmed by Roy Hodgson’s ‘same old’ selection, but last night proved that the ‘Golden Generation’ simply refuse to go away. Differentgame has already discussed why the Golden Generation tag is appropriate. The…

  • Bayern v Chelsea – Cat and Mouse

    With so many important players out for both sides tomorrow fireworks seem unlikely. An intriguing game of cat and mouse beckons. Bayern will dominate possession with Chelsea looking to keep it tight and spring quickly on the break as they did in the semi-final. Much of the play in the final third will converge in…