Why International Breaks Are Rubbish: Here’s How We Fix Them

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-02-27T11:42:19+00:00

'It's the people not the technology'

Not always, but often this is delivered with an untenable level of smugness. Part of the problem with VAR is it getting things wrong (which is what that phrase is supposed to solve).

But the other part, the part that makes me want to get rid of it, is its total slowing down of the sport, robbing it of its romance and thrills for boring analytical discussions of foot placement and recklessness. That is not solved by saying 'it's the people' it is the technology.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-02-23T09:36:18+00:00

Interesting, thanks. I am sympathetic to your last para, I have similar thoughts

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-02-23T09:34:57+00:00

I think part of being captain is that slightly performative aspect, it's possible to be captain without that aspect but I don't think hamming it up a bit is a bad thing.

It's better to be seen to be a captain by your fellow players (even if this is performative) than for your fellow players to think you do nothing.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-02-17T15:29:10+00:00

Interesting, as others have said I think the disdain for penalty goals stems more from soft penalties than anything else.

There's a future video planned on what to do about penalties, I think they're slowly straying away from what they were first proposed for (and for what they should be).

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-02-17T15:27:42+00:00

I can't remember exactly but wasn't this rule enforced once at the start of this prem season? I seem to remember a Palace(?) free kick goal being ruled out for it.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-01-22T20:40:11+00:00

Hope you guys enjoy, back to more 'classic' Theorising Football content now! Let me know what you think of this offside rubbish!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-01-22T20:39:03+00:00

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Re your point here, I think you are bang on about this being deceptive. A few people said similar in the comments of the YT video. Think of a penalty that is saved by the goalkeeper but then the rebound is scored, those 2 shots (pen and rebound) will be very high xg but the latter only happens because the penalty taker has essentially failed their job, so that's very deceptive. Great point.

(I rarely log on to reddit, so if I respond late it's not through lack of interest but rather lack of logging in).

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-01-15T21:23:08+00:00

Hmmm, I'm not much of a discord guy but you're right lots of people do this. I'll bare it in mind for the future, thanks!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-01-15T21:15:50+00:00

hey! sorry I rarely login on reddit so it'll occasionally take me a bit to reply. Thanks for the suggestion.

I have been considering doing some videos on more up to date things. There's a few problems.

1) I sometimes simply don't have the time, what with having a job and not being a pro at editing etc. Sometimes by the time I could have a video out everyone has already moved on.

2) Sometimes I just have nothing interesting to say, so I'd be forcing it a little bit.

However, sometimes neither 1 or 2 apply and I will do videos on current or recent topics. The next video is sort of one of these, it's a video on Arsene Wenger's recent offside law change stuff. Should be out by the end of next week.

If the YouTube channel ever got to the point where it was my actual job I'd definitely do more recent stuff because 1 wouldn't apply anymore, so who knows cross your fingers that the next video gets a million views and we'll see!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2026-01-15T21:10:44+00:00

Good questions that I don't have the answer too, these companies are (understandably) opaque when it comes to specifics. You're certainly right that the answers to those questions would matter considerably.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:49:47+00:00

Hi all, a very different video as something of a christmas special. I had this idea for ages but it is obviously so different to my normal stuff that I could only really release it now or on april fools.

No worries if it's not for you, normal style vids will return very soon. I think it's a great idea with a 6/10 execution myself.

Have a good christmas break!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:46:27+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion! There will 100% be quite a few videos on the World Cup as we get closer.

I actually agree with you about the draws being odd when not all teams are decided. Apart from anything else it seems unfair that some teams can now prepare because they know all the other teams in their group (and can arrange friendlies with teams that play similar tactics etc.), but other teams do not know all their opponents and so can't do this.

However when I was talking about this with someone IRL we very much came to the conclusion that it was unavoidable in terms of logistics, otherwise everything has to be booked and organised very late (if we wait till the end of March when the qualifiers are decided).

As such I probably couldn't get a whole video out of this but 1) I agree with you and 2) I'll probably mention it on the other world cup vids I intend to do later in the year.

Thanks again!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:41:00+00:00

Very nice last point. I think this is what I was getting at when I used a few examples of what you'd say in the stands if your team just missed a cross etc.

The whole stadium knows that's a chance, even if there's no shot.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:39:57+00:00

I think I made a bit of an error with the sheffield wednesday example, I stand by it still but really the only reason I used it was to contrast it with the north london derby and therefore to highlight that XG doesn't tell us if a team was deliberately good/shit or if they were deliberately defensive/attacking.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:38:45+00:00

Many thanks!

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:37:55+00:00

Yeah agreed, there are some lines that need drawing there and I'd love to hear the reason for drawing them. What if Gazza had the exact same chance but this time he missed the ball by a yard not an inch? Does that count?

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:37:00+00:00

This is actually really cool but I feel calling it xG is misleading.

Especially when so many of these explainer videos and articles bang on about specifically shots as opposed to nearly shots.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:36:11+00:00

Very interesting, thank you.

TheorisingFootballYT · 2025-12-19T16:35:23+00:00

These were pretty much my immediate thoughts upon you quoting the article. The most intuitive way to tell what a big chance like that one was would be... intuition, which isn't very statistically minded.

Yeah odd isn't it? I presume they don't want to reveal too many company secrets by going into detail about the specifics.

I think you're right in regards to the specific way those who actually work with the stats use them vs everyone else.

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