Football Grid
Football Grid is nine small questions laid out as a noughts-and-crosses board. Three clubs run down the side and three clubs or countries run across the top, and every square asks for one player who fits both: Chelsea and Barcelona, say, or Liverpool and France. Name a player who fits and he fills the square. Each player can only be used once, so the man who fits three squares has to be spent wisely.
On your own you get twelve guesses for the nine squares, and every guess spends one, right or wrong, so a perfect grid leaves three to spare. At a table it turns into tic-tac-toe for two people on one phone: take turns to pick a square and name a player, claim it if you are right, and win with three in a row. Answers count from every league appearance in our data, so a two-game loan is as good as a decade.
How to play
- Three clubs run down the side and three clubs or countries across the top. Tap a square and name a player who fits both.
- Twelve guesses for nine squares, and each player fills one square only. A wrong name tells you which part it missed.
- At a table it is tic-tac-toe for two: claim a square by naming a player who fits it, and three in a row wins.
From the coachSave the player who fits three squares for the one where you have nobody else.
Where to start
Press Start and look at the whole grid before you touch it. Some squares will be obvious at a glance and some will look impossible, and the impossible ones are where the round is won or lost, so get a feel for which they are. Then tap a square you are sure of, type the name and watch it fill. Start with the easy squares; it settles the nerves and it uses no guesses on doubt.
Your first grid will probably finish with two or three squares empty. That is normal: the corners that pair two clubs from different countries are hard until you learn to think in transfers rather than in squads. If you are stuck on one square, the light-bulb hint shows the initials of a player who fits, which is often all it takes to jog the memory.
How to get better at Football Grid
Spend your versatile players last. A player who fits several squares is valuable, and if you use him on the first square he fits you may find he was the only name you had for another. Before you fill a square, ask whether the player you are about to name is your only answer anywhere else on the board. If he is, find someone else for the easy square and save him for the hard one.
Think in journeys rather than in squads. Most squares that pair two clubs are filled by a small group of players who made the move between them, usually in a handful of seasons around one manager, one sale or one loan relationship. Once you have one name for a pair, ask who else moved the same way at the same time. For a club and a country, think about which managers kept buying from that market and which seasons the club leaned on it most.
Use your spare guesses on the squares that matter. You have three guesses more than you need, which is enough to try a hunch on the hard corner but not enough to spray names at it. A wrong answer tells you exactly why it missed, whether the player never played for the club or comes from the wrong country, so read the message before your next try. At the table, take the centre square early: it sits on four of the eight lines.
Where rounds get lost
- Spending the obvious name on the easy square — The first player who comes to mind usually fits more than one square. Use him where nobody else will do, and fill the easy square with someone who only fits there.
- Forgetting the short spells — A loan of a few games, a season at the end of a career or a brief comeback all count. The answers people miss are rarely the stars; they are the players who passed through.
- Guessing without reading the miss — Every wrong answer says which part of the square it failed, the row or the column. Two wrong guesses on the same square for the same reason means it is time to change the approach, not the name.
Common questions
- Can one player fill two squares?
- No. Each player can be used once per grid, even when he fits several squares. That is the heart of the game: a player who fits three squares is worth saving for the one where you have nobody else.
- Does a short loan count for a square?
- Yes. A player fits a club if he made at least one league appearance for it in the leagues we cover, so a loan of a couple of games counts as much as ten years. Cup and international games are not part of the data.
- How many guesses do I get on my own?
- Twelve for the nine squares, and every guess spends one, right or wrong. Asking again after an ambiguous surname or naming someone already on the grid costs nothing. The round ends when the grid is full or the guesses run out.
- How does the two-player game work?
- It is tic-tac-toe on one phone. Take turns to tap a square and name a player who fits it. Right, and the square is yours; wrong, and the turn passes. Three in a row wins, and if nobody makes a line the player with more squares takes it.
It’s you if you see a list of two clubs and immediately start counting the players who moved between them.