The 3rd Circle

In David Cronenberg's body-horror cult classic "Scanners", members of the public with special psychic and telekinetic powers are recruited by weapons manufacturer ConSec.Jamie and Martin do not mention the Canadian director's 1981 film, but they do discuss scanning.Visual perception is the topic du jour in The 3rd Circle, and unlikely Swedish champions Mjallby AIF are our entry point.How did a tiny fishing community and a 'football doctor' get their hands on the Allsvenskan title? Were telekinetic powers involved?Enter The 3rd Circle to find out.This discussion has been split into two parts.This episode is Part 1.Part 2 will be available soon.

In a recent post-match interview, Manchester City playmaker, Rayan Cherki, dared to let slip that he had gone against his manager's wishes.Pep Guardiola is arguably football's greatest ever tactical mastermind, but on this occasion, it appears that his plan was trumped by Cherki's intuition.What does this episode tell us about the relationship between Guardiola and Cherki?Is it a case of trouble in paradise, or could it be a classic example of opposites attract?Jamie and Gorka analyse Cherki's role in this season's Manchester City and assess how Guardiola can get the best out of the maverick forward.We also hear Arne Slot's theories about breaking down low-blocks and end up wondering: where has all the combination play gone?

The 3rd Circle shines its analytical lens on Glasgow to investigate some unusual happenings in the city's East End.Jamie and Gorka piece together the logic behind the playing style of Celtic's divisive new Head Coach, Wilfried Nancy.What is Nancy trying to do? Why is he trying to do it?What's he building in there?Can Nancy's odd mix of influences come together to create something beautiful?Stranger things have happened...

Like Santa returning from his annual eleven-month luxury cruise, The 3rd Circle is back just in time for Christmas.And what better gift for the well-behaved kids of the tactics-sphere to receive than this brand new episode?While ruthless tyrants like Mr Claus delegate their elf workforce to trawl through billions of messages and make sense of endless communications, Jamie and Martin can afford no such luxury.Our intrepid hosts dive headfirst into the chaotic maze that is football communication, and soon realise that nothing is what it seems.Deception, encryption, misdirection. Can The 3rd Circle break the codes that are holding football hostage?Modern systems are fed through The 3rd Circle's network of bespoke tactical ciphers, but what information will be revealed?What signals are hidden within the noise?

With the match analysis done and dusted, Jamie and Martin delve into the broader narratives surrounding the current footballing moment.The 3rd Circle cross references perspectives and reaction from Rio to Catalonia and wrestles with the complexities of the resultant parallax view.What are the limits of control in contemporary football coaching?How much freedom can be afforded to the players?Is there a deeper symbolic significance to PSG's Champions League victory?There's only one way to find out...

Jamie and Martin delve into the details of Paris Saint-Germain's historic 5 - 0 victory over Inter in the 2025 Champions League Final in Munich.What were the tactical aspects that allowed arch-controller, Luis Enrique to claim his second Champions League trophy in such emphatic style? How and why did the game's tactical dynamics play out and how could Simone Inzaghi have responded to help his players?Our hosts discuss the impact and significance of dribbles, positional rotations, pressing aesthetics and much, much more in this special match analysis episode of The 3rd Circle.

Jamie and Martin take The 3rd Circle's para-academic football research unit down to the deepest level of the game's atomic structure.Forget the God's Eye View, the truest creative forces are inside football's base matter.To investigate these most unstable of phenomena, our hosts channel the spirit of Dennis Quaid and fling themselves headfirst into football's Inner Space.What will reveal itself down at this microscopic level?What will this exercise in molecular tacticology expose us to?There's only one way to find out, its time to enter into The 3rd Circle.

Jamie and Martin get meta in this episode of The 3rd Circle as our ever-intrepid hosts try to sketch a more detailed outline of the dominant tactical paradigm.Could it be that the reality we perceive as real is nothing more than a simulation? Are we all living in a box?If we are, what is its nature? Why are we living in it? How might we escape?The 3rd Circle offers up philosophical musings from Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze and Richard Rorty as we wander like nomads across football's own Desert Of The Real.No stone is left unturned and no assumption is left unquestioned as we attempt to understand why football tactics might be about to undergo a fundamental paradigm shift.