Articles
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How Manchester City Created Space Against Newcastle’s 5-4-1
Despite Manchester City’s success against low blocks since the arrival of Pep Guardiola in 2016, they have always struggled against the 5-4-1. When questioned by Gary Neville in August 2018 about whether or not Guardiola had been implementing new tactical ideas in pre-season training, he replied “Yes, we found a lot of problems to attack…
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Player Analysis: Brenner
The last few years have proven that MLS has transformed from a “retirement league” to a top exporter of young talents. Alphonso Davies, Miguel Almirón and Tyler Adams are just a handful of the players who have gone from playing in MLS to starting in top five leagues. Rather than go for declining, big-name stars…
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The Secret to Atletico Madrid’s Success: Balance and Adapting to Luis Suárez
Atlético Madrid have enjoyed a very impressive season in La Liga so far. They have accumulated an impressive 55 points with 17 wins, 4 draws, and only 2 losses. They sit comfortably in first place, three points ahead of local rivals Real Madrid despite having one game in hand, and have conceded 16 goals in…
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Player Analysis: Matteo Pessina
Matteo Pessina is not one of the most conventional midfielders in Italian football. A much-traveled player already in his short career so far, he is not a footballer that has settled into one role throughout his career. Despite that, the 23-year-old is starting to emerge as one of Serie A’s most intriguing midfielders. After…
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Scouting Report: Marko Johansson
Marko Johansson has been playing regular football for 4 years now. Still, it feels like he never has had his real breakthrough yet. After years on loan in various Swedish clubs, he has experienced promotion to Allsvenskan, winning it, as well as suffering relegation. Mixing top performances with some less impressive actions, Marko’s last four…
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Player Analysis: Maxence Lacroix
VfL Wolfsburg are having a tremendous season, sitting in fourth place currently above the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, and Borussia Mönchengladbach. There are multiple different reasons for this, one being their impressive defensive performances which have seen them concede just 19 goals this season, the second-lowest in the division [RB Leipzig, 18].…
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Player Analysis: David Carmo
Portugal began their 2018 UEFA U-19 Euros adventure on July 16, taking on Norway in the Hietalahti Stadium in Vaasa, Finland. Despite missing several key players such as Diogo Dalot, João Félix, Diogo Leite, and Rafael Leão, Portugal came out victorious in their opening group stage match, as a Miguel Luís goal at the cusp…
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Tactical Analysis: The First Weeks of Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea
The past 12 months have been quite a crazy time at Chelsea Football Club. It was just one year ago when Chelsea confirmed the signing of Hakim Ziyech from Ajax, a transfer that would introduce a record spending spree after qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, with the West London club splurging over £200 million…
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Politics and Football in Turkey
Since it began with Greeks playing pick-up games in the neighborhoods of Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire, football had been and still is the most popular sport in Turkey. As years passed football became a national phenomenon with the foundation of a national league in 1959. During the early dates of the league football fans…
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Player Analysis: André Todisoa
André Todisoa was born in Madagascar and his formative years were spent with his current club; Madagascan side Fosa Juniors. This season, at 20 years of age, he has become a key fixture in the team starting four out of five games in the Malagasy Pro League (Madagascar’s top division) so far. Todisoa has…
