Good morning tactics fans and welcome to the #TacticsTuesday newsletter – full of analysis, scouting and tactics. Fill up on your football knowledge – follow the Total Football Analysis page and be part of the squad that want more than just a match report.
Short corners feel like they are being used more and more often in the modern game and Karim ES has been doing research into them – in the first part of his series, he looks at the art of the short corner including attacking with numerical superiority and direct play into the rebound zone.
Leicester City returned to Championship football against playoff final losers Coventry at the weekend – Jack Manship analyses the first chance to see Enzo Maresca’s tactics in play.
ICYMI yesterday, we continue to lead the way with our analysis of the FIFA Women’s World Cup – Fintan O’Reilly went deep into how Morocco bolstered their defence after the 6-0 defeat to Germany, a change that sees the underdogs face France in the last 16 today.
At Germany’s expense, Morocco went through in one of the biggest World Cup upsets of all time – Beth Limb analysed the powerhouse nation’s shortcomings in the tournament.
England needed penalties to get past Nigeria in their Round of 16 clash yesterday, but the Lionesses delivered some sensational strikes from the spot to seal their place in the quarter-finals. Rachel Daly’s effort was excellently struck — though she plays left-back/left wing-back for England, she primarily plays up front at club level — read about the 2022/23 WSL top scorer’s vital role at former club Houston Dash in our vintage scout report.
Meanwhile, in the other Round of 16 game from yesterday, Hayley Raso and Caitlin Foord helped hosts Australia get past Denmark on their way to the quarter-finals. We previously analysed how Foord, who’s been crucial in Sam Kerr’s absence this World Cup, adapted her game on arrival at WSL side Arsenal in 2020.
Scott Martin continued his NCAA series, picking out his team to watch this season and why.
The Premier League gets underway on Friday, and last week we launched our TFA Tactical Preview Magazine for the season. All 20 teams tactically broken down looking at how they play, who’ve they recruited so far and what it all might look like this coming season. You can download your copy now as part of your monthly or annual membership.
We have some TFA Scouted reports for you too.
Juventus’ Marley Ake has joined Udinese on loan for the season – our TFA scouting team identified Ake in March as a player ready for Tier 1 minutes.
Troyes hot prospect Wilson Odobert is being linked to Burnley – we scouted Odobert back in April of this year and felt he was definitely one for the future.
Napoli have moved to replace Kim Min-Jae with Natan of RB Bragantino – our data identified Natan in March as a player who should be moving to a Top 5 league in Europe.
Ion Nicolaescu gets a big move from Beitar Jerusalem to the Eredivisie and Heerenveen – we scouted the 24-year-old striker back in June and felt his next step would be a Tier 2 club.
xGOLD favourite Akor Adams finally gets his big move from Lillestrom to Ligue 1 Montpellier – we originally identified Adams back in 2021 using our xGOLD tool.
And finally…
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Atlético Madrid over the last couple of seasons. However, they finished in third, just one point of city rivals Real Madrid last season, which is not disastrous. Álvaro Morata is reportedly set to sign a new contract at the Metropolitano; we analysed how Diego Simeone’s tactical tweaks helped his side turn a corner in the second half of last season, with Morata’s intelligent centre-forward contributions playing an important part, showing why the Argentinian coach would be so keen to keep the Spanish striker.
Arthur Cabral is seemingly on his way to Benfica from Fiorentina; we highlighted five alternatives to the 25-year-old Brazilian when he was linked with Barcelona back in late-2021, some of whom were quite interesting shouts in retrospect.
That’s it for this today – we are back at the same time tomorrow. Spread the word!
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