Barcelona hosted Mallorca at the Camp Nou on Saturday night, and the Catalans put five past their struggling guests, snatching all three points in La Liga after a rather dominant display, led, of course, by a Lionel Messi hat-trick. This tactical analysis will use statistics and analysis to present both teams’ tactics and explain...
The clash between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur was more than just another Premier League fixture as Jose Mourinho came to Old Trafford for the first time after his spell at the club. Since he didn’t end up with them on the right foot and was seen as the main...
Just two and a half years ago, Monaco were standing on the mountaintop of French football, having just won their first Ligue 1 title since the 1999-2000 season. The club was praised for reaching the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League, and a young Parisian named Kylian Mbappé was hoisting...
Shrewsbury Town hosted Sunderland at Montgomery Waters Meadow in League One at the weekend in Phil Parkinson’s third game as Black Cats boss. They were hoping to follow up a 5-0 home victory over Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday night with another impressive display, whilst their hosts were aiming to put...
Real Madrid travelled to Mallorca to face newly promoted RCD Mallorca for the first time since 2011/12. The hosts battled bravely against the drop, but it was the side that arrived unbeaten in La Liga that would leave empty-handed. Zinedine Zidane's men went behind early on as Lago Junior capped a...
Barcelona's academy, La Masia, is well-known to the footballing world. After all, it is the same academy that produced players like Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernández, and Andres Iniesta, among many others, who went on to become among the best on the planet. But despite that, their younger crop of players...
Rochdale played host to Blackpool in League One on Saturday, with both sides having had impressive starts to the new season for various reasons. Dale have caught the eye thanks to the ultra-aesthetically pleasing style they have adopted under new manager Brian Barry-Murphy. At the same time, Pool remain unbeaten in...
This season marks the introduction of a new generation of Atlético Madrid, with the departure of three legendary defenders from the domestic title-winning side in 2013/14, as well as top-class players like Antoine Griezmann and Rodri Hernandez. The whole team had to be rebuilt, and a quality centre-back was chosen...
The 2018/19 campaign was one to forget for Real Madrid. With a La Liga title race almost over by October and humiliation bringing their European dominance to an end, sights have been set on this campaign by most even before Christmas. Embarking on a new season in 2019/20, there were...
Despite a sixth-place finish last season, Wolfsburg and Bruno Labbadia decided, with four games to play, that come the summer, they would part ways. The German side moved swiftly to announce that 44-year-old Austrian coach Oliver Glasner would be next in the hot seat. Perhaps an unfamiliar name to many, Glasner...
Tim Walter arrives at VFB Stuttgart with a strong reputation despite failing to gain promotion with Holstein Kiel last year. In contrast, Walter arrives at a club hoping to bounce straight back up to the Bundesliga following their disappointing campaign last year. Walter faces a difficult task in boosting the...
Ajax Amsterdam were capable of reaching the Champions League semi-finals with a relatively young side under Erik ten Hag. The Dutch coach could mold the young Ajax team into a competitive Champions League side. Therefore, Erik ten Hag utilised several tactical concepts that lent Ajax their dominant style of play....
The showpiece event of European football took place at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid on Saturday evening. For the first time since 2008, the Champions League Final was an all-English affair, pitting Tottenham against Liverpool. Having been defeated in last year's final by Real Madrid, Liverpool were one of the...
After a stunning start to his time as Manchester United's interim manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær has faced an extremely difficult spell in which United has been catastrophic. In fact, ever since his spell in charge was made permanent, United have conceded a lot of goals. This will be the focus of...
Italy is usually well-known for its defensive mindset. The term Catenaccio is closely connected with Calcio and its tradition of defensive discipline and results over style of play. Of course, there are several exceptions, such as Arrigo Sacchi, or in the last few years, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri. Those coaches have...
Eyebrows were raised in November 2018 when Dutch coach Marcel Keizer was announced by Sporting CP as José Peseiro’s successor. Apart from an ill-fated six-month spell as Ajax head coach in 2017, the 50-year-old does not boast much top-level coaching experience on his CV. That said, he is, of course,...
Another home game at Molineux, another positively dominant performance from Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolverhampton Wanderers. Two goals, both in the first half, from Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez gave Wolves all three points against a despondent Cardiff City side who have now conceded 10 goals in three games. If you...
In a game marred by some horrific refereeing decisions, Bournemouth and Wolves shared the spoils at the Vitality Stadium. The man in the middle, Roger East, got a number of things wrong, including, but not exclusive to, a handball by Chris Mepham in the penalty area which went unpunished, an elbow from...
Olympique Lyon took on Paris Saint-Germain in what was expected to be a highly contested encounter between the two French giants. The visitors lead Ligue 1 with Lyon sitting in third 16 points adrift, but the outcome of this match still bears significance to the chasing pack. A win would...
This was the headline posted by Spanish publication Marca when Thomas Tuchel’s side signed the Schalke defender from the clutches of Barcelona. Thilo Kehrer is another product in a long line of defenders who have flourished when given the opportunity in the Bundesliga. The world-renowned Schalke academy has produced numerous...
