Jack Elderton

Four months on from this post and can't get away from this stuff anywhere. Online/offline - it's everywhere. Not doing so hot as a result. Not even platforming myself to avoid ag and still experiencing maximum ag. It's great!

I could actually rant all day about how shit it all is right now. It's so shit. I wake up every day and read more horrible shite entirely designed to make the environment more hostile and to squash us into easily digestible boxes for the intolerant or remove us from view by whatever means necessary.

Thank you!

YouTube video by Analytics United How Far Behind Are West Ham? | The West Ham Breakdown

Latest pod is out looking at the growing gap between West Ham and competition across the PL. We ask some of the big questions about how style and linked development can work in conjunction with the state of the current squad to sustainably create growth.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXP4...

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing re Toti Gomes? Data is excellent, very impressed every time I watch. Looks a top player.

YouTube video by Analytics United How West Ham Stopped Cole Palmer (And How Chelsea Won Anyway)

Latest video looking at why West Ham sat deeper on Monday and how Maresca was able to change it using the depth of talent on the Chelsea bench. Interested to see future progression in responses to 3-diamond-3 when someone like Palmer is present at #10.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfy-...

YouTube video by Analytics United The 6 Perfect Wing-Backs for Graham Potter’s West Ham | Transfer Factory

The transfer window might be over and we finished this bonkers time of year by covering six wing-backs we think could make a positive difference at West Ham next season.

Points for anyone who can guess who came first in the extended top ten on Patreon!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pACw...

Incendies? Well, you'll have to just watch that one. I suggest padding in the time to take a long walk afterwards.

Why do these films keep me up at night? Burning does for the way in which it presents reality as a subjective experience filtered through many controllable & uncontrollable layers. The idea of self-deception in pursuit of a reality that finds us a predestined protagonist is utterly horrifying here.

Every now and then, I have a night where I can't get to sleep because I'm stuck thinking about Lee Chang Dong's Burning or Denis Villeneuve's Incendies. Maybe the trick is giving the film a fire-related name but then Tony Scott's Man on Fire would've stuck with me in the same way and... it didn't.

Perhaps figuring out why that is might be more beneficial than spending £ to catch up again after waking up from a weird dream where we won some games.

Don't want to ramble on too much with half-developed thoughts... Football can be simple (better players = better team = better results) but it's still worth stepping back and looking at the 13 years since promotion to see that our successful moments have largely come when we've been a bit weird.

Instead, West Ham seems to have this vague but quite well expressed aversion to difference, even if it brings success, repeatedly rediscovering failure when attempting to navigate back to the centre and "catch up" at great expense.

The skill is knowing exactly how you're different, beyond the coach, and understanding how to maximise that difference without baking in stagnation. This is almost impossible but the key is surely to try and that's where I think WHU fail to build atop layers that can somewhat serendipitously appear.

It's about having a clear idea of how to be better not just how to catch up/keep pace and I think we're seeing (and have seen for quite some time) that being *better* w/o incredible finance can be anywhere on the innovative-backwards and attractive-ugly scales but is almost always different.

I got somewhere closer to talking clearly about this stuff when I did the Tifo pod w @jonmackenzie.bsky.social & @calgoodall.bsky.social where I had different ideas re what success looks like for a mid-table team. This was all less developed then anyway bc I was operating within Moyes debate-land.

Every time I post something like this, it is read purely through the narrow lens of Moyes-X but that isn't really the point I've been trying to express the whole time. I think Moyes is a fantastic manager and nothing will change that but it's not about any one person.

With each passing day, I feel that I should be less apologetic about my ideas wrt ambitious mid-table football clubs (PL). Forced to adopt a somewhat back-foot position because of the dominant feelings at WHU but still think the vast majority of that is disconnected from understanding how to win.

Seeing Everton & Forest put 11 past Leicester & Brighton really hammers home the fact that we stopped investing in the thing we did best just before it was about to properly go bang in the wider tactical environment of the PL.

Underlines the lack of understanding, forethought & strategy at WHU.

YouTube video by Analytics United A Whole New World | The West Ham Breakdown

Latest pod rattling through loads of positives with specific focus on greater adaptability enabling better usage of players thus extracting better levels from the squad. Potter's flexibility is arguably perfect for overseeing stylistic transition at WHU.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUNU...

YouTube video by Analytics United The 6 Perfect Midfielders for Graham Potter’s West Ham | Transfer Factory

Lots to share on here today but will start with the second episode of our "Transfer Factory" series where we looked at six midfielders that could improve us in midfield.

Points for anyone who can guess which 19 year-old only just missed out in seventh...
youtu.be/nrFae_bP1Sw

Fair. But I stand by that post! It was nice to get a draw away at Villa Park but don't think that point is worth more than using the opportunity to properly assess Scarles, Orford etc.

Discovering that people think Kilman is bad has been a wild experience. Straight shootout between him and Bowen for HOTY right now and don't think it's even that close.

His nonsense is spoiling the match and that's actually working for us

What a pathetic load of nonsense at the end of this first half from all involved. Book the captains and get on with it.

Not surprised that we look ok in possession with this XI but would've been so valuable to get good info on the younger players given how tough it was going to be defensively regardless.

Should've played the kids. Would've learned more. We already know some of these older players aren't good enough.

Just broke 3k subs (160k views) in the almost six months since we launched the channel. Decent start!

Eintracht Frankfurt have really cracked this -sign a striker who has struggled to nail the lone #9 job, play them in a front two, sell for loads- lark haven't they

So proud of AU team making this series a reality. I've worked on the tools that powered this video for six years and I'm beyond excited to finally start sharing the results. Please do shout w feedback because we're now entering the major learning curve with translating all that bts work to video.