Mamelodi Sundowns FC
Mamelodi Sundowns: South Africa’s Most Dominant Team
Mamelodi Sundowns have built a reputation as one of the best football sides in Africa. With their unique and attractive style of play, coined: ‘Shoeshine and piano’ — a style of play not too dissimilar in certain aspects or others to the distinct styles you might see on offer at some of Europe’s most attractive [...]
Roma: Mourinho’s adaptation to a 3-5-2 – tactical analysis
Speaking in an interview back in the summer of 2019, legendary Portuguese manager José Mourinho cited the importance of adaptation in life by paraphrasing the founder of evolution, Charles Darwin: "It's not enough to be one of the strongest ones. It's not enough to be one of the best ones. It's not enough to be [...]
Denise O’Sullivan: The Republic of Ireland’s midfield maestro
The Republic of Ireland (RoI) missed out on the Women’s World Cup finals tournament in 2019, with a third-place finish in their qualifying group not enough to see them progress. However, fast forward to the 2023 qualifying stages, they currently occupy second place in their group, which would see them into the playoffs and competing [...]
Ethan Ampadu: The Welshman’s resurgence in Italy
Ethan Ampadu rose to prominence at an early age coming through the ranks at Exeter City, where he made his first senior appearance at 15 years of age. After impressing with Exeter City and being highly rated within the Welsh football set-up, Ampadu joined Chelsea. As you would imagine Chelsea sent him out on a [...]
Brazil: How Tite can fit Coutinho and Neymar together
With Philippe Coutinho getting back to his best and Neymar returning from injury, Tite must figure out how to play the two stars together. The Brazilian manager has been in charge since June 2016, only losing five matches out of 70 played. However, his job will be on the line for the 2022 World Cup [...]
Data Analysis: Finding interesting midfielders from South America
South America is an inexhaustible source of talented footballers and each transfer window, some of them move to Europe to play on football’s highest stage. For this analysis, we dive into South America to find interesting midfielders who can impact the scoreline and make a difference for their team. It is a long time since [...]
Analysis
With the rise of social media and the general availability of football footage and information, it’s becoming increasingly common for teenage players who are still children to be touted as the next big thing before they make a single senior appearance, often based solely on highlights. At first, the case of Endrick Felipe Moreira de [...]
Emilie Haavi: Her impact on Roma Women’s attack
Emilie Haavi is a 29-year-old international Norwegian player who just moved to Roma Women during the winter transfer market. Haavi started playing for the Serie A Women’s side for the first time ever in January 2022 when Roma faced Milan Women in the Italian Women’s Super Cup semi-final. Before that, Haavi’s career witnessed adventures at [...]
Canada MNT: The most exciting story in International Football
Back in 2018, when John Herdman took over as manager of the Canada men’s national team, he said the ambition was to qualify for the 2022 World Cup to lay the foundation for the 2026 World Cup (co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States). At the time, some might have questioned if the new [...]
Barcelona: Scouting new full-backs
Despite putting themselves in a desperate financial situation with years of mismanagement, Barcelona are back in the market. While the main priorities remain higher up the pitch, it's becoming painfully obvious the defensive line will need reinforcement as well; specifically, the full-back areas. However, the market for full-backs is scarce, to say the least. The [...]
Nikola Storm 2021/22: The Belgian winger at K.V. Mechelen – scout report
When looking around the Belgian Pro League and picking out the most talented wide players at the moment; names that come to mind include Noa Lang at Club Brugge, Junya Ito at KRC Genk, and Aron Dønnum at Standard Liège. One name not commonly mentioned is Nikola Storm at KV Mechelen. At 27, some may [...]
Analysis
Over the years the English Football League, notably the EFL Championship, has proven to be a great testing ground for young and talented players. It is not uncommon to see young players given considerable minutes at first-team level as they find their feet and work on their game's rough edges. In some cases, we also [...]
Scout Report: Hidden gems from the second tiers
We have now reached the crunch point in most competitive leagues around Europe as the picture at both the top and the bottom of the table is becoming clear. At this point we start to have a really significant sample size in terms of minutes played and as such we can now use data to [...]
Ajax: Why are they so hard to score against?
Ajax are, once again, leading the Eredivisie title battle and are on the verge of doing something remarkable. Their pattern of signing youngsters and developing them into some of the most wanted players in Europe continues, and they have a very strong collective despite parting with some of their biggest talents in the last few [...]
Pedro Porro: Why Sporting’s wing-back is in the spotlight
In 2020/21, Sporting won the Primeira Liga for the first time in 19 seasons. Rúben Amorim arrived at Sporting with the then third-highest transfer fee ever paid for a manager. He rightly earned the praise for Sporting's stunning turnaround, especially given the number of players they sold off with few players coming into the squad. [...]
Patrick Wimmer: Arminia Bielefeld’s star in the making
Fascination in young footballers has never been higher, especially in youngsters playing at the highest stages, taking part in the biggest matches across Europe and representing the biggest clubs. When thinking about young talents that have played at such a high level so early in their career, the likes of Phil Foden, a Manchester City [...]
Premier League 2021/22: Southampton’s season so far
Southampton currently sit 10th in the table with only one defeat in their last eight games at the time of writing. This streak also involves games against Manchester City, Spurs, and Manchester United with the Saints collecting five of nine points from those three games. Ralph Hasenhüttl’s men had one of the worst starts to [...]
La Liga 2021/22: Barcelona’s squad age profile
FC Barcelona are in the middle of a rebuild. Following the arrival of former player Xavi as the manager in November, the Catalan club secured the signings of Ferran Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Adama Traoré and former player Dani Alves in January. The summer window of 2021 saw Barcelona sign Luuk de Jong, Eric García, and [...]
Donyell Malen
Bundesliga 2021/22: Can Donyell Malen Succeed Erling Haaland At Dortmund?
It is almost guaranteed that Erling Haaland will leave Borussia Dortmund in the summer. The center-forward, who signed from Red Bull Salzburg in January 2020, is set to leave the German club after becoming one of the most prolific center-forwards in Europe. He has a release clause attached to his contract and one of the [...]
Serie A 2021/22: The numbers behind AS Roma
Jose Mourinho’s third season syndrome arrives quicker every time the Portuguese moves to a new club. After winning their first three league games of the season, Roma have won back-to-back games only thrice since matchweek three. That level of inconsistency means that Mourinho’s men are seventh in the table, two points behind local rivals Lazio. [...]
Ligue 1 2021/22: Strasbourg’s impressive season so far
Strasbourg are fourth in the 2021/22 Ligue 1 table, only one point behind third place Nice and five points behind second placed Marseille. They have a four point lead over fifth placed Rennes and are well on course to finish in a Champions League spot. This is after Strasbourg finished 15th in the league last [...]
EFL Championship 2021/22: Is James Garner ready for a Manchester United?
Manchester United’s James Garner has been a hot topic over the last few weeks for his performances in central midfield. However, Garner’s performances have come for Nottingham Forest and not Manchester United. When United are in a desperate need for a midfielder, Manchester United’s academy graduate, is on loan at Nottingham Forest for the second [...]
Jesper Lindstrom: How has he performed at Eintracht Frankfurt?
Eintracht Frankfurt have had a mixed season thus far. They had a rocky start to the season, with just six points from their first 10 games but a run of six wins from seven games after this spell rocketed them up the table. Now, they have returned to some form of equilibrium, sitting in 10th [...]
Jack Wilshere: Why he still has more to offer
Jack Wilshere had been without a club since the end of last season, where he spent the second period of the 2020/21 Championship campaign in his second spell with Bournemouth, however, he has recently joined AGF in the Danish Superliga. This analysis will avoid repeating his story and history with injuries, for it is well [...]