It's not just the World Cup looking over the club game

The Independent’s football newsletter [The Independent]( November 04, 2022 [View in browser](   [The Independent]( [The Independent]( The Independent is proud to be media partners of the BT Sport Action Woman Awards 2022. Each year these awards celebrate the achievements of brilliant and inspiring female athletes. [To see the nominees and cast your vote please click here.](   It's not just the World Cup looking over the club game Super League change approach I was at Web Summit in Lisbon this week, where there was a fair amount of political intrigue - particularly around the issue that continues to cast a shadow over the entire game: the Super League. In one corner (almost literally, given the lay-out of the Altice Arena), there was Liga president Javier Tebas again laying into the entire concept, but also offering reams of research to completely undercut the idea that young people are less interested in football. In the other was Bernd Reichart, the new CEO of A22 Sports Management, who are working with the Super League clubs. The German wasn’t so combative, though. He has instead attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, and is looking to engage in dialogue with all key stakeholders. From that perspective, it is almost like the Super League is doing things the wrong way around. They are now attempting to build up connections and a groundswell of support, although that from the lowest position possible given the manner the news broke in April 2021. It’s a big job but we could of course have big ructions to come. The kids have never been more invested... La Liga had commissioned Price Waterhouse Cooper to do the research and some of the results were interesting. They found the following. Globally, Gen Z (that is ages nine to 24) are the group with the highest level of interest in sport); that football is by far the most followed sport globally among that age group, and six times more popular in that regard than American Football. The main difference is the consumption, which isn’t entirely based on sitting down and watching matches for 90 minutes any more. It is arguably more immersive given so much of it is based on social media tracking. An intensity that's starting to fade Diego Simeone’s situation sums up how quickly football can turn. It was only a few years that he could have had his pick of so many jobs, namely Manchester United. They were interested for so long. Now, after getting knocked out of European competition altogether, there is ongoing debate over whether Atletico Madrid should keep him. The reality is that the club is too emotionally indebted to him to sack him right now. He did only win his second title at the club a year and a half ago. The debate nevertheless extends into the infrastructure of the club and reflects one of the bigger reasons why Simeone is now struggling. Virtually everything at Atletico, from youth teams to recruitment, is set up to play a more modern game; something closer to classic Spanish principles of pressing and possession. That all stops when you get to the first team, as Simeone continues to practice an ideology that was arguably out of date a decade ago. He will be fine this season. But next? A former captain offers a new spark The Arsenal players have obviously seen Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s BT promo - quoted below - and it has created a bit more edge for their trip to Chelsea on Sunday. The Gabonese striker is actually quite a popular figure in Mikel Arteta’s dressing room, but he just wasn’t a good captain. The ad has naturally been mentioned a lot. It comes at a time when Arsenal had maybe lost some of their emotional momentum, just as Chelsea lose some of their tactical momentum. Arteta’s side had been flagging in games until they played Nottingham Forest. Chelsea have been playing like they’ve internalised the first steps of Graham Potter’s framework but now needs to go deeper. That is something that can happen with coaches like this, given they willingly refer to it as an “education process”. There’s that period when there’s an immediate good run - as happened with Potter’s first results - and then a plateauing, before the next stage. This is almost exactly what happened with Pep Guardiola at Manchester City in 2016-17. It could make for quite a chaotic game on Sunday. Bad time for one of the best fixtures Jurgen Klopp is meanwhile likely to change his team again on Sunday, for Liverpool’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur. How they could do with a result given they’ve lost their last two in the league, against forgiving opposition. The word nevertheless is that those defeats to Leeds United and Nottingham Forest have made Klopp realise that there is obviously more to this than formation, which is why he may revert for Sunday. He knows he can’t just solve it with tactical changes. It adds an extra element to a fixture that last season probably offered the two best matches of the campaign. It was as if the two specific styles of Klopp and Antonio Conte perfectly complemented each other in terms of competition. The difference now is neither side is paying their managers’ optimum football. BT Sport Action Woman Awards 2022 We have teamed up with BT Sport for their brilliant awards celebrating women in sport. Don't forget to vote for your winner. The deadline for voting is November 9. [To cast your vote click here](.   Top stories [Arsenal in danger of running out of steam before World Cup break]( [Antony’s controversial circus trick was the act of a true Manchester United winger](   Miguel's Dispatches A novel one this weekend, dictated by the nature of the games. I am doing Chelsea-Arsenal at 12pm and then trying to make it across London for Tottenham Hotspur-Liverpool. It is a double that has been achieved by a few journalists, to be fair, but the window between games leaves you pretty dependent on public transport. Wish me luck!       QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Arsenal, nothing personal. I’m back. I’m blue. I’m ready." Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a promo for Sunday’s game at Chelsea that has raised some eyebrows   Reading the game quiz Reading the game quiz There are five players who have played in the Premier League and also scored at least five goals in a World Cup campaign. Name them. ([You can find out the answers here](. 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