The 2025/2026 campaign has brought with it a distinctly recalibrated version of Manchester City under Pep Guardiola. After a disappointing 2024/2025 season, in which City failed to win a single trophy and only just managed to secure a place in the UEFA Champions League, Guardiola was forced into a period of tactical...
If the third round of the Carabao Cup provides one thing, it is a plethora of debuts for exciting academy talent, particularly with the Premier League sides. In the past, John Terry, Wayne Rooney, David Beckham, and Cesc Fabregas all received their first bow at the senior level in the...
Some exceptionally young and gifted English attacking talent have graced the Premier League stage in recent weeks. Rio Ngumoha became Liverpool's youngest ever goalscorer at 16 years and 361 days, when he scored the dramatic late winner away at Newcastle United. At the same time, Arsenal's 15-year-old sensation Max Dowman recently...
We began this series intending to dissect Manchester City's in-possession approach for 2025/2026. First, we explored the build-up, analysing the ideas of Pep Guardiola and his new assistant Pep Lijnders, particularly against man-marking high-pressing schemes, which is a common trend these days. Then, we examined their progression phase and the...
In our previous Pep Guardiola and Pepijn Lijnders analysis, we began exploring Manchester City’s in-possession tactics by focusing on their build-up. The phase in which Pep Guardiola’s side demonstrated tactical flexibility and diversity in their game plan, adapting based on the starting personnel and showing resilience against the opposition’s high-pressing...
After a season that fell short of their usual dominance, Manchester City approached the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup with a refreshed outlook, both on the pitch and in the coaching setup. The club reinforced their squad with several additions, most notably Rayan Cherki from Olympique Lyonnais, Rayan Aït-Nouri from...
Welcome to TFA today, where we share important articles from the TFA archive that are relevant once again. Robert Lewandowski Is On FireRobert Lewandowski is on fire this season, bagging a hat trick yesterday against Alavés. Check out how he fits seamlessly into Barcelona's system in this Robert Lewandowski scout report from...
Pep Lijnders Tactics At RB Salzburg As we will see in this tactical analysis, defensive issues have plagued Red Bull Salzburg during the 2024/25 season. The problems are possibly due to new coach Pep Lijnders, who came from Liverpool after working with Jürgen Klopp. Lijnders is a smart coach, but...
The new Austrian Bundesliga season is upon us, with Red Bull Salzburg getting life under ex-Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders off to a positive start in game one of the new league campaign by earning three points, albeit a hard-fought three points, against newly-promoted Grazer AK — local rivals of...
The constraints-led approach to training design has steadily gained traction within the coaching realm in recent years. This approach is a core pillar of a larger teaching methodology known as “Nonlinear Pedagogy” which is an immensely deep and quickly developing approach. With that in mind, in this article, we will...
