Hello Rank Squad!

We hope you're all enjoying the festive period and that your midwinter festivals - whichsoever they be - are merry and bright! We didn't want to break our almost 5 year streak of not missing a Wednesday drop, so here's a little Christmas Special that the boys threw together for you to enjoy at some point over the next few days.

We take a look at some of our favourite things across the course of the season so far, picking out players, teams, leagues and managers who have defied expectations, risen above the madness, or just made us smile.

We're looking forward to seeing you in the New Year, but we hope that whatever you're up to over the next few days, that you have a chance to relax, have some peace and quiet, and enjoy the wintery delights of some December football.

All our Love,

Jack & Dean

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

It's time for The Truth!

Atalanta are currently top of Serie A as we close in on the halfway point of the season. After winning the Europa League last season, the glass ceiling for the club from Bergamo has been well and truly smashed, but can they go one further this year, beat out some giants of the game and claim their first Scudetto?

We examine just how a club from a small city north-east of Milan has turned the Italian football landscape upside down, upsetting the traditional order of Italy's biggest clubs and managed to put together an incredible run of continental qualification under Gian Piero Gasperini, all whilst making a gargantuan profit in the meantime.

This iteration of Gasperini's disruptors has the potential to be their greatest ever, but can they maintain such blistering league form against the depth of Inzaghi's Inter and a Conte Napoli side that don't have European football to contend with? How has Gasperini turned a bunch of players unwanted elsewhere into one of the best units in the game? And is this finally the time where promise becomes domestic silverware, changing the established order forever?

The Truth is somewhere in the middle...

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!

There are certain clubs and players who need something new to set their seasons back on track, and the potential for drastic change is just around the corner with the January Transfer Market opening in under two weeks. We take a look at some of the gambles that clubs could take in the market, and whether they might be good enough to save sagging seasons.

Before that, we examine the interview with Marcus Rashford released on Tuesday by Henry Winter, where he said he was ready for his next challenge. What does that mean? Where does it leave his future at Manchester United? And where could he possibly go in January if that's an option?

Jack also finishes off with a mini ranking of the best football books he's read this year, in case anyone is looking for a couple of gifts to ask for in their Christmas Stocking, to finish things off!

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

It's time for The Truth!

Tottenham Hotspur are an enigma. Sometimes they look unstoppable, like in their 4-0 rout of Manchester City a few weeks ago. At other times they look turgid, slow and far too easy to break down. It's led to a fanbase split on whether the manager is the problem, or just another symptom of something that goes far deeper.

Sam and Dougie discuss why things seems so weirdly up and down for Spurs, with a lack of consistency highlighted across their games not just this season, but over the entirety of 2024. In recent weeks, there has been a pretty visceral negative reaction to the manager - Ange Postecoglou - from elements of this Tottenham fanbase, whilst others have suggested that because these problems stretch far further back than the Australian's tenure, there is almost certainly something deeper going on.

Does the ownership need to take more accountability? Nobody is doubting the impressive nature of the facilities, both at Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium, or at their state of the art training ground, but has there been enough squad investment to give both players and coach a fair crack at ending the trophy hoodoo?

Has Ange Postecoglou's lack of flexibility in how he wants his team to play been exposed in the Premier League? Or is this just another injury and fatigue crisis that a squad is failing to manager? The Truth is somewhere in the middle...

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!

It's time for Champions League Takeaway, your midnight feast of Champions League content - after another breathless week in the UCL that saw thrills, spills, and everything in between.

We start with Wednesday's action, opening with yet another tough night for Pep Guardiola, whose City side were pulled apart by Juventus in transition in the second half, and who now has one win in his last ten games in all competitions.

Then it's on to Dortmund, where a breathless second half between BVB and Barcelona saw the Catalans come out as 3-2 winners, but there was plenty of positives to take from both sides of this one; and to the Emirates, where Arsenal saw off Monaco 3-0 in the Arsene Wenger Trophy, and did so without scoring from a corner!

There's a roundup of all the rest of Wednesday's football too - Atletico's routine win over whipping boys Slovan Bratislava; Milan squeaking past Crvena Zvezda at San Siro; Feyenoord's topsy-turvy 4-2 win over a battling Sparta Prague; Stuttgart hammering Young Boys 5-1; Lille making it hard for themselves but finally besting Sturm Graz 3-2; and Benfica's frustration at drawing 0-0 with winless Bologna.

Then in Part Two, we're onto Tuesday's action, which begins with a flip to Real Madrid, who answered some of their critics with a big 3-2 win in Bergamo against Atalanta - where Kylian Mbappé looked far more like himself...and then promptly went off injured.

We talk a bit of a strange game between Leverkusen and Inter, where both showed signs of their best, but which Leverkusen ultimately won by channelling last year's 'Alonso-time' late dramatics; before heading over to Leipzig to discuss Aston Villa's best performance in a while which saw them past Leipzig - who are now officially out of the race for qualification.

Rounding things up, we discuss some absolutely mesmerising footwork from Michael Olise as Bayern dismantled Shakhtar in Gelsenkirchen; Liverpool staying perfect with an imperfect performance at Girona; PSG getting back to winning ways against hapless RB Salzburg; Sporting's continued struggles as they fell to Club Brugge; Brest's swashbuckling smash-and-grab against PSV; and Celtic's credible display at the Maksimir as they drew with Dinamo Zagreb.

It's Ranks!

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!

On today's episode we thought it would be a good time to take a look at the players currently leading the way in the scoring charts across Europe, and cast our thoughts ahead to who looks like they have a good chance of taking home the award at the end of the season.

We skim across some of the players who have set out their stalls early in the summer leagues of Europe, before diving deeper into the contenders from the big five and beyond, based on current form and our expectations of minutes and consistency going forward.

Before that, there's time for Things We Love, where Dean goes a bit off beat to criticise some of the decisions coming from Sir Jim Ratcliffe regarding his staff at Manchester United, and Jack waxes lyrical about Atletico Madrid's dramatic win over Sevilla at the weekend and the potential of a genuine three-way title race in Spain.

It's Ranks!

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

It's time for The Truth!

Aston Villa eased the pressure on themselves with a win against Brentford in midweek, but it doesn't change the fact that November was an incredibly difficult month for the Villans - with their last win before the Bees this Wednesday coming on October 22nd against Bologna in the Champions League.

Many people have pointed to the lack of Douglas Luiz this season as a major reason that Unai Emery's Villa have struggled to control games, but it surely can't be as simple as that, so Sam and Dougie take a deep dive into a topic close to Sam's heart and try to work out exactly what has been going wrong for the Villans across the last few weeks.

We discuss the lack of pressing and compactness, which may well be by design; as well as some strokes of unfortunate bad luck that have hampered their chances - as well as putting into question whether this summer actually strengthened or weakened the squad off the back of last season's success.

So have Villa been found out, or are they just currently gripped by a crisis of confidence and inability to finish their chances? Are the problems endemic, or will they go away as normality returns in the New Year?

The Truth is somewhere in the middle...

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?

Hello Rank Squad!

We're returning to one of our staples this week, an old-school ranking that takes on one of our favourite topics—the players who have stepped up their game this season and taken things to a whole new level. We cross Europe to take in a number of ballers who have reached new heights since we kicked off again in August, and hand out due flowers to those most deserving of them.

Our journey takes us to Bergamo to take in a striking sensation; Frankfurt for a man who might be Europe's most explosive this year; Florence for a career resurrected in superb style; Catalonia for a written-off Brazilian making waves in Blaugrana; and Merseyside for the midfield maestro maybe nobody saw coming - as well as giving out some honourable mentions for good measure.

Before that, Dean's Things We Love discusses the current situation at Manchester City and how this sets up Pep Guardiola to perform one of his most impressive feats in the game of football, whilst Jack has some love for the response crews in Fiorentina-Inter who were to rapid to react to shocking scenes with Edoardo Bove's collapse, as well as some uplifting news on his recovery.

It's Ranks!

And remember, if you’d like more from the Rank Squad, including extra podcasts every Monday and Friday (including our weekly Postbox taking a look at the whole weekend of football) and access to our brilliant Discord community, then why not join us here on Patreon?