I talk about the Premier League because I have an emotional attachment to the players, managers, fans, stadiums, and the entire league. Sure, the tactics are becoming more stale every year, but I am invested in the stories, the people.

The formations are the same; every team is sort of copying each other, and there is not a ton of experimentation, but this is what I am familiar with.

It is like tuning into the same reality TV show. I am invested in the characters. The drama.

I know what winning and losing sounds like. Each Premier League stadium has its own sounds when a goal is scored or when their team wins or loses.

I could sing along with each team’s chants, even when they are muffled or at a lower volume on the broadcast.

I know what the pitch is supposed to look like at each ground. I know when it is worn or too watered.

I could tell you if Kaoru Mitoma combed his hair differently today, if Moises Caicedo was uncharacteristically wearing long sleeves instead of short sleeves, or if Bukayo Saka added an extra rip to his socks.

I can name most benches, and I know all of their preferred positions, even the ones that rarely get any game time.

I can spot when a player has been playing through an injury before it is reported by the way they are running or the little differences in the mannerisms in their movement.

I could spot a player based off their hair and height in a low-quality image or video.

I know each referee and linesman by name, without seeing their face. I know how often they stop play, how likely they are to issue a yellow or red card, and how good they are at spotting an offside.

I can hear the commentator’s voice calling a game in my head when I read their name on the TV schedule.

And then all of the in-game-related things that you become familiar with. What each manager likes, where players are supposed to be when the ball is here, and what formation the team is supposed to be in when the ball is there.

Football is about emotion. If everything is unfamiliar, it is much harder to spot things, changes. I could give you an overview of that game, but I wouldn’t know what the team is supposed to look like.

If I tuned into a random match from another league, I wouldn’t know how tall the players are, their names, their hair, or the numbers on their backs. I wouldn’t know who they are. I might recognize a few players, the stadium, or a manager, but I have no emotional attachment to the game as a neutral.

It takes time, a few games, to build that connection. To become familiar with the people.

This is why I named it the Tactics Journal and not the Premier League Tactics Journal. I am interested in showcasing the most tactically interesting teams in world football. I could focus on the Serie A tomorrow if I wanted.