Articles
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How Cristian Romero’s Aggressive Style Can Fit Antonio Conte’s System
At 23 years of age, Cristian Romero is a starter for Tottenham Hotspur and the Argentina national team, a Copa América winner, and one of the most promising center backs in Europe. But at 17, he had reached a breaking point where he considered whether a football career was even worth pursuing. Born in…
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Tactical Analysis: Mark Robins’ Promotion-Chasing Coventry City
Heading into the 2021/22 Championship campaign, the vast majority of prediction tables were identical in personnel when it came to the teams expected to finish from 1st to 4th: Bournemouth, Fulham, West Brom and Sheffield United. But whilst the table’s top end is accurate for three of the league’s seemingly superior foursome 17 games into…
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Player Analysis: Ben Johnson
When talking about West Ham’s latest “wonderkid”, pundits tend to fall into the same predictable patterns. They’ll point to the Hammers as the ‘academy of football’, draw a cheeky comparison to Frank Lampard, and finish up by suggesting that East London is somehow football’s true spiritual home. I promise not to do any of…
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Player Analysis: Giovanni Simeone
Living in the shadow of a famous relative is not easy for anyone following in that person’s footsteps. Diego Simeone had a lengthy career as a midfielder for a number of clubs and played over 100 times for his native Argentina. His son Giovanni has had a mixed playing career so far. There have…
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Bruno Fernandes: Manchester United’s Portuguese Magnifico
Since joining from Sporting in January 2020 for an initial fee of €55 million, Bruno Fernandes has arguably become Manchester United’s most important signing since the capture of Robin van Persie in 2012, which delivered the Red Devils their last Premier League title to date. Playing in the traditional #10 position, Fernandes has taken the…
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The Tactics behind Union Saint-Gilloise’s Belgian Title Challenge
The Jupiler Pro League (Belgian first division A) has largely been dominated in recent years by just a handful of teams. You would have to go back to 1997 to find a champion whose name isn’t Club Brugge, Gent, Genk, Anderlecht, or Standard Liege. If you travel all the way back to 1935, you enter…
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Leicester City: Brendon Rodgers’s Counter-attacking Masterpiece
Since replacing Claude Puel as Leicester City manager on February 21, 2019, Brendan Rodgers has led the Foxes to the FA Cup and FA Community Shield and back-to-back fifth-place finishes. Under Rodgers, Leicester have emerged as one of the most tactically flexible teams in Europe, often displaying high-tempo electric football and defensive solidity. Ole…
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Hansi Flick – Revitalising Both Bayern Munich and Germany to Devastating Effect
After 15 years as Germany manager, Joachim Loew parted ways after losing to England 2-0 in this summer’s European Championships at the Round of 16 stage. This showcased the overall stagnation that had occurred under Joachim Loew, his tenure concluding in a whimper rather than the immense success he had been used to. The…
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Soccer Legends: Lionel Messi
The career of Lionel Messi, one of the greatest soccer players the world has ever seen. Lionel Messi is one of the most famous, most popular, and most decorated soccer players of all time. He holds the record for most Ballon d’Or wins, the highest-scoring South American player ever, and he holds the record…
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How Trevoh Chalobah Has Made The Leap at Chelsea
Two years ago, Fikayo Tomori had just broken into England’s senior squad off the back of several excellent performances in the Premier League for Chelsea. A year later, with Tomori now frozen out of then-manager Frank Lampard’s lineups, fellow Cobham graduate Marc Guéhi was embarking on a sensational loan spell at Swansea City, staking his…
