We've lent a helping hand on how to watch football like an analyst – but you should find these tools handy, too...
This season gives football fans even more scope to enjoy watching games on the telly, not least now BT Sport and Sky Sports are fighting for every morsel of credibility in their rights scrap.
BT have bagged Champions League and Europa League highlights for the next three seasons after paying £897 million for the privilege, but Sky Sports have still got G-Nev & Co. providing the excellent insight we love to devour on Monday Night Football.
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So here's how you can get up to speed this campaign...
1) BT Sport's app
BT Sport pack free with BT TV; £5/month with BT broadband; £19.99/month without BT broadband
It takes a lot to impress FourFourTwo, but BT Sport have managed it with their shiny new mobile buddy for the 2015/16 campaign. You can stream ANY Champions League or Europa League encounter, with the ability to seamlessly switch between matches accompanied by goal updates and real-time statistics.
What's more (and our favourite part), you can revisit any of the goals (or other key incidents) from any of the games via the timeline at the bottom of your screen. If you get in late and want to watch the match from the start, meanwhile, simply scroll back to kick-off and enjoy. It's the perfect companion to pacify your other half when The Great British Bake Off takes precedence on a Wednesday night.
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2) Sky Sports' 'tactical cam'
A simple addition to Sky's football services this season, but a potentially interesting one if you're keen to watch from a more tactical perspective. It's essentially just a wide-angled view you can get via the red button or Sky Go app, but it's how G-Nev and Carra get their insight. Apparently, anyway.
"A lot of people watch games but they don't see the game," Neville says. "On Monday Night Football, I watch a birds-eye view of the whole pitch. For the first 15-20 minutes, I'll stand there and watch the big camera and get a picture of the game. Then I might come and sit back down, when I've got a picture of the game.
"If something changes on the screen people are seeing at home, I might go back to the big screen and think 'well, what's happened?' You're looking at the game differently, you're looking at it as a coach. That's how a coach or manager would look at the game."
Yes it's our very own, but we wouldn't bang on about it if it wasn't so ace.
If you're not up to speed yet, Stats Zone is FourFourTwo's award-winning app available to use on your internet browser, iOS and Android. And now the world's most innovative football app has upped its game, with the new and improved version armed with faster alerts for your favourite teams plus shareable animated chalkboards. We're not fibbing when we say it's a tool that enables you to analyse matches in a way that's never been possible before; this season from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue Un and Champions League. Using live Opta data, you can get a snapshot of each team and every player's performance in a whole manner of categories, not restricted to but including: shots, passes, tackles, influence and fouls. What's more, it'll cost you absolutely nowt.
There's a lot to like about Forza Football, not least the breadth of its football coverage which spans 420 leagues and cups around the world. We approve because it provides tailored push notifications on your favourite teams (anything from goals and team line-ups to red cards, half-time scores and video highlights), but it also comes with the nifty addition of allowing you to share opinions about your team to get your voice heard around the world. An all-encompassing favourite for FFT.
Joe was the Deputy Editor at FourFourTwo until 2022, having risen through the FFT academy and been on the brand since 2013 in various capacities.
By weekend and frustrating midweek night he is a Leicester City fan, and in 2020 co-wrote the autobiography of former Foxes winger Matt Piper – subsequently listed for both the Telegraph and William Hill Sports Book of the Year awards.
