The great Johann Cryuff once said; “When you play a match, it is statistically proven that players actually have the ball for only 3 minutes. So, the most important thing is: what do you do during those 87 minutes when you don’t”.

For balance, he also once said “the best office is a ball”, which is obviously nonsense.

Welcome, then, to 87 Minutes. A football tactics dispatch from FourFourTwo’s Adam Clery that helps to explain the on-field anomalies, perversions, and absurdities we subject ourselves to every single week.

Why is my team as defensively organised as four cats guarding a fish?

How come [objectively worst player I’ve seen in my life] has been playing like Fiorentina-era Batistuta recently?

One of the lads in the pub said “Segundo Volante” and I just politely nodded, am I old now?

We’ll tackle all of this and much, much worse.

Football tactics shouldn’t be the preserve of stats nerds and people who’ve lied about doing their badges, it should be for everyone. So whatever level of insight you can bring yourself to swallow, we’ll not only have something for you, but we’ll be letting you set the agenda.

It’s 87 minutes of insight, all packed into a 3-minute read. Forza.

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I wasn’t joking about that “““agenda””” thing. Paid members get to decide what we’re looking at no matter how niche or how daft the subject is. Players, teams, goals, haircuts, third kits, whatever! It’s all good stuff.

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