Analysis
Ibrahima Konaté Scout Report At Liverpool 2021/2022 – An Antidote To Liverpool’s Defence?
When Liverpool were crowned England champions in 2019/20, they conceded only 33 goals from 38.92 xGA. However, they struggled to repeat this defensive success last season because of recurring centre-back injuries. They recorded an xGA tally of 47.06 while conceding 42 goals. Without Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, and Joel Matip in the squad for [...]
Analysis
Ajax and talents have also been a match made in heaven as the Amsterdam-based club are famously known for consistently producing top talents regularly and grooming a lot of their youngsters from the grassroots level to the highest level. In recent years, the likes of Donny Van de Beek, Frenkie De Jong and Mathias de [...]
Sarina Wiegman: What will her England setup look like?
The England women’s football team is currently under the interim leadership of Norway legend Hege Riise, who replaced former boss Phil Neville earlier this year, and who has led the team to a convincing win against Northern Ireland and losses to France and Canada. However, following the conclusion of this year’s Olympics, current Netherlands boss [...]
Vicky Losada: FC Barcelona Femení’s midfield skipper
Vicky Losada has been one of Barcelona Women’s most impactful midfield weapons during the numerous seasons that she was at the club but this summer she will be leaving to search for a new challenge that would be most probably in the FAWSL, a league that she knows very well given the season that she [...]
Premier League 2021/22: Analysing CPFC’s squad for the upcoming season
After spending four seasons at Crystal Palace, Roy Hodgson left his hometown club at the end of the 2020/21 season, helping them to stay in the top flight of English football for another season. Finding Hodgson’s replacement will be a huge and important task for the Eagles but an even bigger task will be rebuilding [...]
La Liga 2020/21: Which U23 players contributed more goals to their team’s tally?
Atlético Madrid won the 2020/21 La Liga on the final day of the season, finishing two points above city rivals Real Madrid, who finished second, and seven points above third place Barcelona. Sevilla finished fourth comfortably. This particular La Liga season can be remembered for the fact that some talented young players like Alexander Isak, [...]
Serie A 2020/21: Percentage of goals scored by different age groups
Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan won the 2020/21 league title. It was Inter’s first since 2009/10 and they did it in style, finishing 12 points above second placed Milan. Atalanta finished third and Juventus fourth, just sneaking into UEFA Champions League qualification in the last week of games. The following visualisation shows how the goals of [...]
Bundesliga 20/21: Visualising Wolfsburg’s impressive season
Wolfsburg finished fourth in the 2020/21 Bundesliga season. This was their best campaign since their second place finish in 2014/15. Wolfsburg’s impressive season must be mainly attributed to their excellent defensive record with Mark van Bommel’s team conceding just 37 goals. Only RB Leipzig had a better defensive record. Offensively, Wolfsburg scored 61 goals and [...]
Ligue 20/21: Comparing the xG and xGA of every team
Lille were crowned champions of France for the first time since 2011. Defending champions Paris Saint-Germain failed to win the league for the second time in the last five seasons. Monaco and Lyon finished third and fourth respectively. The below visualisation shows the Expected Goals (xG and xGA) performance of all the 20 teams from [...]
Analysis
Achraf Hakimi Scout Report At PSG 2021/2022 – A Closer Look At Paris Saint-Germain New Recruit
Achraf Hakimi, after one superb season with Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan, seems to be on the move already. After the Italian coach unexpectedly left the San Siro, a whole host of Inter’s players were linked with a move away from the club. Principally, it was Romelu Lukaku’s name plastered over the papers, but now that [...]
Analysis
Julien Stéphan Coaching Style – Analyzing The New RC Strasbourg Boss
After guiding Strasbourg to a safe, 15th place finish in Ligue 1 this past season, Thierry Laurey’s five-year spell as RC Strasbourg manager came to an end in late May. Less than a week after his departure, Les Coureurs announced that former Rennes boss Julien Stéphan would replace Laurey at Stade de la Meinau. Stéphan’s [...]
Analysis
Jose Mourinho Tactics: What Can We Expect From The Special One At AS Roma?
José Mourinho’s sacking at Tottenham Hotspur may not have come as a surprise to many people. Perhaps the timing of the sacking was odd, given that Spurs were set to play the Carabao Cup final a week later against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City; however, the circumstances were certainly not unusual, with Tottenham sitting in seventh. What was most [...]
Brentford FC: How the Bees finally broke into the Premier League
Everyone loves a good football story, especially when the underdog wins in the end. And we have just seen Brentford’s romantic happy ending with the beginning of their adventure in the Premier League. Their first-ever promotion to the EPL was earned under Thomas Frank, who took charge in 2018 and has transformed the team, leading [...]
Analysis
Jesse Marsch Tactics At RB Leipzig 2021/2022 – What Will The American Coach Bring To Leipzig?
The Red Bull network of clubs has had a well-deserved reputation for having good structures and systems in place to ensure that any vacancies in the coaching or playing staff are filled quickly and with the right personnel. Their scouting operation is the envy of many clubs - you will often find some of the [...]
Emi Buendía: How he fits into Aston Villa’s setup
Aston Villa finished the 2020/21 Premier League season in 11th place, a far cry from their 2019/20 campaign, where they only avoided relegation on the last day of the season. Villa improved by a big margin during last season, picking up 20 more points, scoring 14 more goals and conceding 21 goals fewer, and were [...]
Scout Report: Five defenders to watch in 2021/22
This is the first in a series of articles for this magazine that will look ahead to the 2021/22 season with a view to highlighting some interesting players to watch out for. In this piece we will concentrate on the defensive positions with five players selected. Whilst these players are mainly considered central defenders some [...]
Scout Report: Five midfielders to watch in 2021/22
In the second in this series of articles looking at young players to watch we will turn our attention towards midfielders. This time we have selected a variety of players from different nations and regions around the world and who play in slightly different positions to one another. We have not limited ourselves to just [...]
Kelvin John
Kelvin John Scouting Report: Why Genk’s Newest Signing Is Dubbed The ‘Tanzanian Mbappe’
There are many ways for young players to get into the professional game. The most common route is through a pro academy, while others transition to senior football at a low level and then grow from there. In the case of Kelvin Pius John, the path has been different. The 2003-born forward, dubbed the ‘Tanzanian [...]
SC Braga: A formationless side?
At the beginning of April, in a fascinating interview with Miguel Delaney of the Independent, Carlos Carvahal discussed his work with Braga. Currently sitting in fourth place in Liga Nos, Carvahal moved to Braga this summer following a very impressive fifth placed finish in 2019-20 with Rio Ave. English football fans will remember Carvahal from [...]
Cade Cowell: Why European giants are monitoring the American starlet
Cade Cowell first took the league by storm as a 15-year-old, becoming the youngest homegrown signing in MLS history. As a U15 player for a local US Soccer Development Academy club, Ballistic United, the Stanislaus county native and former Modesto Ajax player led the nation with 33 goals in 32 games while playing against the [...]
Analysis
Luka Ivanusec is a versatile midfielder who made a name for himself in the 1.HNL in recent years with the 2020/21 campaign being a breakthrough season, as he shone for both club and country on the European stage. The 22-year-old was part of the Croatia U-21 side for the U-21 European Championship and also made [...]