CONCACAF: Three stand out players from the 2023 Central American Cup
The 2023 CONCACAF Central American Cup is well underway. This year’s tournament is the inaugural edition, with teams from across the region competing against each other to be crowned the best team in Central America. The competition features 18 teams from the region who qualify based on their domestic performance. For the 2023 edition, Costa [...]
Unbeaten Portugal: How Roberto Martínez’s side qualified for Euro 2024
In his second venture as a national team head coach, Roberto Martínez has one of the most talented teams in the world at his disposal: Portugal. In a team full of stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes, and Rafael Leão, Portugal continue unbeaten with eight games and eight wins. In fact, in the [...]
KuPS Women: The Finnish side making history in 2023
Finland is not a nation that many would name when listing the powerhouses of the European women’s game, with them qualifying for the European Championships on four occasions but only making it out of their group twice, whilst they have yet to appear at a World Cup. However, when looking at their national squad, there [...]
Scouting Strikers: Using Principal Component Analysis to scout forwards
In 1996, the Southampton manager at the time, Graeme Souness, fell victim to a hoax phone call from an individual claiming to be then-FIFA World Player of the Year, George Weah. “Weah” persuaded Souness to give his cousin, forward Ali Dia, an opportunity in the Premier League. Souness obliged. However, it was soon apparent that [...]
Player Analysis
Jérémy Doku was one of Manchester City’s four major transfers in the summer of 2023, brought in as a long-term investment, similar to Joško Gvardiol. While the 21-year-old has predominantly played as a right-winger, Pep Guardiola has different plans for him, seeing the potential of using him as an inverted winger due to his favoured [...]
Set-Pieces: Different ways to distract goalkeepers during direct free-kicks
Set pieces are an integral part of modern football. So many fans may have heard about the design of corner routines, indirect free-kicks, or even throw-ins and kick-offs, but it may sound strange to discuss the design of direct free-kicks in a similar manner. Everybody knows that there are technical tricks of direct free-kicks, such [...]
Analysis
How The Best Premier League Centre-Backs Suit Their Teams Tactics – Data Analysis
We are just over 20% of the way into the 2023/24 Premier League season, and the table is starting to take shape. In terms of individual performances, each season, we get the same questions: who is performing well? Who is underperforming? Is “x” player past their best? We will address those questions regarding the performance [...]
Thiago Almada
MLS Scouting Report: The Top Five Talents This Season – 2023
With the arrival of superstars like Lionel Messi from Paris Saint-Germain, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba from Barcelona, the MLS has suddenly seen a big rise in popularity. But even before these La Liga giants crossed the pond, the American domestic league had already been full of talent; some were more prominent than others, but [...]
Real Madrid: How Carlo Ancelotti finds midfield balance in the Bernabeu
People came into this season not expecting much from Real Madrid after losing Karim Benzema over the summer and could not recruit Kylian Mbappé or another big-name attacking player. The biggest signing was Jude Bellingham, who arrived from Borussia Dortmund and added one more midfield option for Carlo Ancelotti — but the squad already had [...]
Counter-attacks: Why We See More Of Them In Modern Football
Counter-attacks in football are thrilling moments of high-speed action that can turn the tide of a game in an instant. They are tactical sequences that require a delicate balance of speed, precision, and teamwork. In this tactical analysis, we will delve into the art of the counter-attack, exploring the key elements that make it successful, [...]
Arnar Gunnlaugsson
Víkingur Reykjavík: How They Have Been Transformed By Arnar Gunnlaugsson Tactics
Who Is Arnar Gunnlaugsson? Vikingur Reykjavik are one of Iceland’s most historic football clubs, with seven league titles to their name, two of which have come within the last few years (2023 and 2021) and five Icelandic Cups (2023, 2022, 2021, 2019 and 1971). However, life hasn’t been entirely straightforward throughout their history, including their [...]
Kevin Kelsy: Can he become Venezuela’s star striker?
Carlos Domingues, a very famous journalist in Venezuela, described Kevin Kelsy after he scored his first professional goal back in 2022 at Mineros de Guayana as: “a player that we don’t regularly have” and one that Venezuela has needed for quite a long time. A striker of his profile is certainly strange in Venezuela — tall [...]
Lorran: Why so many big clubs are looking at the young Brazilian midfielder
Lorran is a young left-footed attacking player for Flamengo in Rio de Janeiro. He made his senior debut for the club in the Campeonato Carioca, the regional tournament for the Rio de Janeiro State, at just 17 years of age. He then went on to make a total of four appearances in this competition, playing [...]
Analysis
Chiara Beccari Scout Report At Como Women 2023/2024 – The 2023 Golden Girl Candidate
Chiara Beccari is a 19-year-old Italian international who has recently been selected among the nominees for the 2023 Golden Girl after having participated for the first time in the Women’s FIFA World Cup with Italy. Despite getting knocked out during the group stage, her World Cup performances and team performances at Como Women enabled her [...]
Coaches Corner: Training effective defensive transitions
As much fun as it is to watch possession-dominant teams pick their opponents apart, one of the most impressive and educational elements of their game is the response in defensive transitions. Sure, the likes of Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Barcelona are all highly entertaining teams with an aesthetically pleasing style of play, but the [...]
Analysis
Pedro Porro Scouting Report At Tottenham Hotspur 2023/2024 – His Premier League Season So Far
Tottenham are one of the form teams not just in the Premier League but the entirety of Europe. Spurs are joint-top of the table after 8 match weeks into the season. Ange Postecoglou’s men have been near perfect so far, thanks to several players stepping up in their performances. The defensive unit has been vital [...]
Granada C.F.
La Liga 2023/24: Bryan Zaragoza’s Impressive Start To The Season
Granada have had a poor start to the season back in La Liga. After getting promoted for the 23/24 season, the Spanish club are 2nd bottom in La Liga after 10 games with only one win on the board so far. In a season with many negatives to discuss, one shining light has been the [...]
Serie A 2023/24: Federico Dimarco’s season so far
Inter have had a solid start to the 2023/24 season. They have scored the most goals and have conceded the fewest goals nine games into the season. To say that they have been rock-solid defensively is an understatement, and one player who has been part of that defensive unit is Federico Dimarco. The left wing-back [...]
Bundesliga 2023/24: Is Jonas Wind finally living up to the hype?
A lot of hype has been surrounding Jonas Wind’s name for quite some time now, and rightly so. The Denmark international racked up impressive numbers during his time at Copenhagen, and he did it consistently, too. This secured him a move to Bundesliga club Wolfsburg in January 2022, and after a slow and steady start, [...]
Youssouf Fofana
Youssouf Fofana Scouting Report At AS Monaco – Tactical Analysis
Monaco is top of the Ligue 1 table after nine match weeks, and midfielder Youssouf Fofana has been integral to that. The 24-year-old, in his fourth full season at Monaco, has grown leaps and bounds since signing for the Ligue 1 club as a 21-year-old in 2020. The visualisation below shows where Fofana ranks for [...]
League Two 2023/24: U23 Players expected goal contributions
League Two has one of the most unpredictable leagues so far this season, and not just that, the league has also seen some top-notch performances from some brilliant young players. Louie Barry, Jake Young, Micheal Mellon, and Lewis Payne – all aged 23 or under have stepped up for their respective teams and have taken [...]
League One 2023/24: U23 Players expected goal contributions
League One has been known to develop and produce some outstanding players for the higher divisions of English football. Several players currently playing for the biggest teams in England’s top flight have had their fair share of time playing for clubs in League One when they were younger. With the League One season up and [...]
EFL Championship 2023/24: All 24 teams’ goals scored vs goals conceded
We are in that phase of the season where the EFL games are going to be coming thick and fast. The teams who have dropped to the EFL Championship from the Premier League — Leicester City, Southampton and Leeds United are all having decent seasons so far, with Leicester City flying at the moment, and [...]
Scouting South America: Using data to analyse the continent’s most progressive players
South America has historically been the most fertile continent for developing top-level football players. When you think of the history of the game, the likes of Argentina and Brazil, and even Uruguay, stand out in terms of true heavyweights of the sport. Crucially, from our perspective in this magazine, they also stand out regarding player [...]
Zulte-Waregem: Looking to bounce straight back under Vincent Euvrard
After a disappointing 2022/23 Belgian Pro League campaign, Zulte-Waregem were relegated to the Challenger Pro League, starting life back in the second division for the first time in 18 years. After starting this season with Frederik D’Hollander in charge, he was replaced only a few matches into the season, being replaced by former RWDM boss [...]