Articles
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Winning is Fine, But Not Like That
Arsenal score too many goals from set pieces. It’s cynical. It’s not proper football. Wins feel hollow. Something something Arsène Wenger would be disappointed. If a team is exclusively reliant on set pieces, ignores open play entirely, and builds their whole identity around dead ball situations, that’s a legitimate tactical concern. It suggests fragility, raises…
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What Chelsea Could Look Like Under Xabi Alonso Without Spending a Penny
Despite rumours surrounding a long managerial shortlist following the hasty exit of Liam Rosenior, Chelsea have acted quickly to secure the services of former Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso. Although Alonso, who won the Bundesliga unbeaten with Bayer Leverkusen in the 2023/24 season, is relatively junior within the world of football management, he has carved…
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Every Team That Lost the Champions League Final: Where Are They Now?
Losing a Champions League final is heartbreaking. Apart from the World Cup and the Euros, it’s probably the biggest loss a football team could sustain. Some teams bounce right back, like Ajax, which lost the 1969 European Cup Final to AC Milan 4-1. It seemed that Catenaccio had triumphed against Total Football and that was…
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Television vs. Terraces: Online Fandom and Matchday Supporters
The shimmering dissent within the fandom of Premier League clubs which has been building over the last few years has become more and more acute and at present feels it is about to erupt in to total warfare. This distinction revolves around an identifiable rupture between two types of fans: those who attend matches on…
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How Daniel Farke Saved Leeds United’s Season
In the 25/26 Premier League season, amid its own intellectual movements and shifting dogmas, Leeds United have underwent their own renaissance. Their recent form has been exceptional, with the team unbeaten in seven league games, but the true origin, or rebirth, of this improved Leeds came back in November. On a losing streak of…
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How Nico O’Reilly Became a Vital Cog in Manchester City’s Title Chase
Nico O’Reilly is proving to be one of Pep Guardiola’s most crucial players this season, having played the 5th-most minutes of any player in this Man City squad in the Premier League, playing a total of 32 matches ahead of the likes of Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki, while having made a total of 41…
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Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona: A Religion
On May 2, 2009, at the Santiago Bernabéu, in front of eighty thousand people who had come expecting a contest and received instead a sermon, Barcelona beat Real Madrid six goals to two. The scoreline is the least interesting thing about what happened that night. Real Madrid were not a bad team. They were…
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From the Six: How Modern Build-up Mistakes Geography for Progression
Modern football has turned the six-yard box into a stage for misrepresenting possession. Today’s football reflects a follower mentality, particularly evident in the misunderstanding of possession football. Building from the back now means embarking from deep areas, and it calls itself possession. It is important to distinguish between the backline and the field’s overall…
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Aaron Drinan: Swindon Town’s Attacking Talisman
Swindon Town defender Will Wright joked in October after a 2-2 draw at home to Notts County that last season he could not hit a barn door. At that early stage of the season the goals were flying in for the striker nicknamed by us Swindon fans as “Drinaldo.” After a PCL knee injury…
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Luis Díaz: The Timing of Chaos Inside Structure
There is a persistent tendency in football analysis to simplify players like Luis Díaz into a familiar set of descriptors. They are labelled instinctive, emotional, direct, or —perhaps most commonly —chaotic. This vocabulary is not entirely incorrect, but it is analytically insufficient. It describes what the player appears to do without addressing the conditions…
