On Saturday, August 30, 2025, Werder Bremen faced off against Bayer Leverkusen at the Weserstadion, for Matchday 2 of the new Bundesliga season. Both teams had hired new managers in the offseason: Horst Steffen for Werder and Erik ten Hag for Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Yet both teams had started the season with defeats and were...
Borussia Dortmund started their 2025/2026 Bundesliga campaign dropping points against St. Pauli. However, they've kicked on for the second matchday by recording a comfortable three-nil victory over Union Berlin. This win took Die Schwarzgelben to fourth place on the table, exactly where they finished the previous season after an impressive...
In the 2020s, the Swedish Allsvenskan has been very competitive overall, but in the end, the result stayed the same for most years. Over the last couple of years, Malmö FF have won four out of five Swedish top-flight titles, with only BK Häcken being able to win one in...
AS Roma are a club historically marked by legendary Brazilian right-backs such as Cafu and Maicon. Now, I Giallorossi have signed potentially another one in Wesley França. The deal reinforces Gian Piero Gasperini’s squad with a quality right-back capable of upgrading the team’s balance, solidity and threat on that flank....
Following a thoroughly disappointing 2024/2025 season, wherein they finished 15th in the Premier League and lost the UEFA Europa League Final to Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United need to undergo a significant squad upheaval for the upcoming season. With the Manchester United transfer of Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo finalised, Ruben Amorim's next...
With Jarell Quansah's departure to Bayer Leverkusen and Ibrahima Konaté's uncertain signing of a new contract, Liverpool may be short of centre-backs within 12 months. With these concerns, the media has begun discussing the potential addition of Marc Guéhi to the defensive ranks. Crystal Palace rejected bids from Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur...
Igor Tudor guided Juventus back to the UEFA Champions League after taking over from Thiago Motta near the end of the 2024/2025 season. He breathed new life into the squad, and Juventus lost only one of their remaining nine matches of the season, which allowed them to secure fourth place...
Matheus Cunha officially became a Manchester United player after the Red Devils paid the £62.5m release clause that Wolverhampton Wanderers had set. Reports also suggest that United are interested in adding Bryan Mbeumo as their second new attacker this summer, and that the player is willing to move to Manchester. Last season, Cunha...
Florentino Luís is a 25-year-old defensive midfielder, currently playing for SL Benfica. He has been one of the most consistent performers in Liga Portugal over the last three seasons. Born in Angola, he moved to the Lisbon region of Portugal with his family at a very young age, where his...
Massimiliano Allegri has been officially appointed as AC Milan’s new head coach following last week's negotiations. I Rossoneri started their summer reconstruction phase to try to fix what went wrong last season by hiring Igli Tare as the sporting director. This was an attempt to avoid the mistakes made last...
This tactical analysis explores Vasco Matos' work at CD Santa Clara during their outstanding 2024/2025 Portuguese League season. After winning promotion as champions of Liga Portugal 2 in the previous campaign, Santa Clara made an immediate impact upon returning to the top flight, finishing in a remarkable fifth place and securing qualification...
Sir Alex Ferguson once said, 'Attack wins games, defence wins titles'. However, for coaches like Alexander Blessin and José Bordalás, who are not in the ideal position to win titles with their current teams, the legendary quote can be changed to 'attack wins you games, defence keeps you in the...
Filippo Inzaghi has led Pisa to their first promotion from Serie B to Serie A in 34 years, a massive achievement for the club and their fans. Before this, Inzaghi did not have very successful periods with the clubs he coached after he retired from playing football. He coached Milan,...
Wolfsberger AC have been a mainstay in the Austrian Bundesliga ever since earning promotion by winning the 2. Liga title in 2012. This was the first promotion to the top flight in the club's 81-year history and the biggest honour the club had ever won. Until this year, that is,...
As the regular 2024/2025 EFL Championship season finishes, all eyes now turn towards the highly anticipated Championship Play-Offs. The four teams competing for the last remaining spot in the 2025/2026 Premier League are Sheffield United, Sunderland, Coventry City and Bristol City. All of the sides come into the season-defining fixtures...
The Swiss Super League will begin its final stretch of the season this weekend, as the league splits into two groups: the championship and relegation groups, which will start with the top and bottom six teams, respectively. With only five games to go, it's Basel who lead the pack with a...
The term 'false nine' has become really popular in football since Pep Guardiola put Lionel Messi in that role during their time at Barcelona. The idea of making Messi receive the ball between the lines, sometimes unmarked, and allowing him to create spaces for the wide forwards to run into...
AC Milan hosted Atalanta last Sunday for a game that meant a lot to Atalanta, who won 1-0 and consolidated their third spot in the Serie A table, with now four crucial points separating them from fourth-placed Bologna. On the other hand, the Rossoneri lost another vital match, continuing their slow decline and extinguishing...
In the 2023/2024 season, Bayer Leverkusen won the Bundesliga title. They took the world by storm by not losing a single game until the UEFA Europa League final that term. They were that close to an undefeated treble. During that season, many players from the squad received much-deserved world attention,...
Below, we examine six patterns of play that can be utilised in the 3-4-3 formation and similar formations, including 3-4-1-2, 3-4-2-1, and 3-5-2. Four patterns of play are designed for wide penetration, while the other two are intended for central penetration. If you coach the 3-4-3 system or participate in any high-level coaching courses, such as the UEFA...
