Ted (Jason Sudeikis) gets Beard (Brendan Hunt) and Roy (Brett Goldstein) to explain their Total Football tactic to AFC Richmond.
Jack (Jodi Balfour) gives Keeley (Juno Temple) a first edition of Sense and Sensibility signed by Jane Austen.
Before his arrival, he finds that Home Secretary Brinda Barot plans to bar refugees from entering Britain.
Meanwhile, Nate (Nick Mohammed) wants to ask Jade (Edyta Budnik) out on a date but is worried that she could reject him.
The tactic has mixed results, and Trent (James Lance) is unconvinced that it will pay off, but Ted maintains his optimism.
The next day, they use a tactic devised by Roy to teach the team to pay attention to each other's positions on the pitch: the players are connected to each other with strings tied to their penises.
), But it needlessly had to jockey for attention with Keeley and Jack's 'love bombing' deal, Nate's protracted date with his favorite hostess, and even with Sam's Twitter feud with a U.K. politician intent on keeping immigrants out of the country.
"[3] Alan Sepinwall of Rolling Stone criticized Nate's storyline, writing, "it sure feels as if the writers are expecting Nate's romantic adventures to make us sympathize with him again — rather than, you know, having him actually make significant amends for all the people he treated like garbage before he quit Richmond to coach West Ham.
"[4] Keith Phipps of Vulture gave the episode a 4 star rating out of 5 and wrote, "It's easy to resolve to change your life when on vacation and away from the everyday routine.
It also introduces some new problems, specifically for Sam, and a sadistic new practice technique that almost seems designed to invite lawsuits (but, this being Ted Lasso, almost certainly will not).
Embracing longer run times shouldn't be detrimental to the story, but 'The Strings That Bind' might be the most self-indulgent hour of Ted Lasso yet.
Ditto the second one, on 'versatility', although no matter how 'total' Total Football may be, it does not involve swapping out your goalkeeper, especially not in favor of the team's shortest player.
"[7] Fletcher Peters of The Daily Beast wrote, "Luckily, in Season 3 of Ted Lasso, nothing has changed about Rebecca and Keeley’s friendship.
And the way his voice cracked as Sam pointed out that the same people who love him for scoring goals would 'ship me back to wherever the f–k I came from' if he stopped winning matches was especially effective.