The seat I have self-proclaimed as the best seat to watch a football match as a spectator is the ball steward stall right next to the dugout. The reason I am so fortunate to have this seat is a consequence of me playing for Crystal Palace and as a result, I have been lucky enough to ball boy many games. These include Crystal Palace vs Spurs and Crystal Palace vs Liverpool.

Why would I call this the best seat in the house?

There is no other seat in which you can hear what all the players say, or the managers screaming at their players to do a better job. You get another perspective when you hear the managers discussing what to do in real-time, then seeing the result of their new tactics working on the pitch. This is completely different from when I used to try and guess what the managers were going to do from the stands and seeing it analyzed on match of the day that night.

What Players have I been most impressed with

When on my stall next to the dugout, I was able to appreciate how good these superstars are. When I was watching Crystal Palace vs Liverpool my appreciation and rating of Virgil Van Dirk immediately rose. Virgil Van Dirk never broke a sweat whilst he toyed with Palace attackers when In possession and arrogance when defending 1 vs 1. The other player I was very impressed by was James MacArthur. Being a midfielder myself, I was able to appreciate some of the cute passes and clever presses he accomplished during the game ( all of which look much better from such close-up) .

What Have I noticed when Observing different managers?

What I noticed, was how different each manager operates on the touchline. Patrick Vieira likes to stay mostly quiet, with an ongoing conversation with his backroom staff. Roy Hodgson would see something he would like to change and tell his number two (Ray Lewington) which would immediately voice this to the players. Steven Gerrard would encourage his players and remind his players through positive interaction of what there had done on the training pitch that weak. Jurgen Klopp was quite an aggressive dictator with very high expectations from his players. He used many hand signals to tell his players messages. An example of this was the constant wave of his hands in a circular motion towards Trent Alexander Arnold. However whist I noticed a vast difference between their actions, there was one constant denominator. The celebration and happiness of the manager, the assistants, the analyst, and the physio were ecstatic. This would be because all of their hard work throughout the week had worked on that particular instance.