And was predicted to be demolished in their first game instead of the tie, away, against a powerhouse.
The Rocky like underdog coming together as a team was the trope set up that is being subverted, as they become a power not by being a team, not a “we in us”, just by having a schmuck star doing it all.
Not that this show is strictly realistic, but that couldn’t happen in real life. An unhappy player could certainly act out and force the team to get rid of him, but he couldn’t force a transfer to a specific team, and a team would never ordinarily send a star to a crosstown rival. (Though maybe they’ll decide he’s toxic enough that sending him to Nate is just the thing for both of them).
As an aside, It’s also not super realistic that EVERYBODY would pick Richmond to finish last. After all, two other teams got promoted at the same time, and one of them had a worse record than Richmond last year.
Somewhere above hajario suggested that Rupert hired Nate for the same reason Rebecca hired Ted, trying to lose intentionally. Others said it was wildly unrealistic that Rupert, who is established to be a diehard Richmond supporter, would buy another London club.
Synthesis: Maybe Rupert’s thinking is that if he can’t lead Richmond to glory, the next best thing is to lead one of their rivals to relegation. There’s got to be some reason Rupert seems to be so high on Nate.
Rupert’s motivation has been clear and simple from the beginning. I’m not sure why it’s even a question.
He’s got to be up to something. I can’t believe he’s actually as convinced of Nate’s greatness as he claims to be.
Nate was the strategic brain behind Richmond. The Richmond coach is ignorant of the basic strategy of soccer. Rupert removed his brain. It’s all about making Rebecca pay for taking the team away from him. He wasn’t going to pay a ton of money to Zava to help Richmond. He wants to crush Rebecca. Rebecca wants to crush him. I don’t see how it can be read any other way.
Even if you think it’s a team coming together sort of thing, maybe that leads you to mid table. If you want them to win the whole fucking thing, you need a Zava type player… Or a Zava type player who then gives Tartt the motivation to be that type of player (after all he was a highly touted prospect for a reason and one of the reasons he hasn’t reached his heights is work ethic - for example being a bit taken aback when Roy says meet me at 4am)
Remember in that soccer show they cut to, the old curmudgeon pundit talks about the great job Nate is doing (when pooh-poohing Ted’s job by saying he just plugs Zava in)
Nate’s a former kit man. He came up with a few ideas but I definitely didn’t get the idea that he was the brains behind the operation; that seems to be Coach Beard. And the old curmudgeon pundit is clearly supposed to be a fool, but I don’t think Rupert is.
BTW, every site I see gives the last name for Will, Nate’s replacement as equipment manager, as Kitman. Did some list of characters include him as Will, with kit man listed as his role, and someone got confused?
He’s the Wonder Kid, certainly everyone else in the Lassoverse thinks he’s the brains. Beard isn’t thought of at all.
Exactly. The media considers Nate the Wonder Kid. There is a reason that moniker keeps following Nate around - and it doesn’t seem to be meant ironically.
Why not? Just about everybody picked Bournemouth to finish last this season. Here is an NBC prediction page where all 3 pundits picked Bournemouth last:
How did they do?
Coach Beard studies up on tactics and the like - he’s shown reading Inverting the Pyramid on the plane over to England in the very first episode - but I get the idea he’s almost as lost tactically as Ted, just that he’s trying to do the work to try to understand it all and - probably - getting a bit better at it.
Nate, on the other hand, came up with the false 9 tactic that won the promotion match, and called for the triple sub in the FA Cup game against Tottenham, so he has the tactical side of the game well covered.
Plus, frankly, the English football press will never give any U.S. coach any credit for any kind of tactical awareness, so that part is at least true-to-life.
If you mean “how are they doing” - they’re tied for 18th with West Ham (interestingly enough), just one point (i.e. one tied match) above dead-last Southampton in the league table (standings). All three teams are on track for relegation, though all are within four points (i.e. one win and one tie) of 12th in the table, so not bound to be relegated just yet.
They are currently 2nd from last. A point better than Southampton. So not too bad off the mark I guess.
Agreed. And Inverting the Pyramid is just a basic history of football tactics. Really well written and interesting, but really isn’t anything too complicated or innovative. It’s more about the stories of the people who were innovative in tactics than an indepth view of the tactics themselves. You’d hope someone new to football would have at least read it once. The fact Beard keeps reading it is strange… but I guess they are using it as a stand in for tactical manual.
Yeah but that dude is the former Richmond manager who got fired in the first episode and replaced by Ted and is frequently slagging off Ted, Rebecca and Richmond.
I had completely forgotten that - nice!
So, can someone remind me who Rebecca slept with? The black player/restauranteur?
(If she is pregnant, her drinking was somewhat problematic.)