Gremio and Renato Portaluppi (known as Renato Gaúcho) are inseparable. Other than one forgettable year playing for Serie A’s Roma, Renato spent most of his career playing in Brazil’s top clubs. Although his career began at Grêmio, his playing days are most closely associated with clubs from Rio de Janeiro,...
The 4-4-2 appears to be the most common defensive shape for teams that form a mid-block, as it offers a more balanced vertical and horizontal compactness in contrast to other common formations. Even teams such as Barcelona, Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Juventus, who are renowned for playing in a 4-3-3 formation, are not...
If you have read Jonathan Wilson’s extraordinary book Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Soccer Tactics, you are well aware of football’s historic march from attack-centred formations and subsequent footnotes. As the book portrays, football tactics started with attack-minded systems, then became more defensive in pursuing results. Tactical trends and formations followed...
This is the final instalment of a three-part data analysis series that I have been writing this week concentrating on using data to identify potential strikers in the second tiers of the top 5 leagues. In the first part of the series, we were looking at potential targets in the...
