Articles
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Gianluca Scamacca’s Emergence at Genoa
Aspiring footballers in Italy find it tough to break through at senior level, and with Italian coaches having the preference for established stars or experienced heads, looking for that valuable playing time can be hard and disheartening. In January 2015, a 16-year-old striker named Gianluca Scamacca left the Roma youth system and joined PSV…
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Helmut Groß, Controlled Chaos and the Stuttgart School
The late 1990s and early 2000s saw a period of struggle for the German national team. After winning the European Championships in 1996, the World Cup two years after that saw them fall in the quarter-finals, losing to debutants Croatia in France. The 3-0 embarrassment led to calls for change, but it didn’t arrive in…
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Premier League Predictions: Matchday Eight
With another international break approaches, teams across the Premier League will want to end Matchday Eight with a win. Here is what to watch out for. Brighton vs Burnley Despite losing 2-1 to Spurs, it was a valiant effort from the Seagulls. Tariq Lamptey excelled yet again and is increasingly growing in stature…
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Player Analysis: Teun Koopmeiners
Arne Slot’s AZ Alkmaar grabbed the attention of European football fanatics last season, finishing second in the Eredivisie (tied on points with Ajax), advancing to the Europa League knockout round, and boasting an expansive style of football. The ‘Cheeseheads’ boast a wide range of talents that have ascended from the academy to the first team…
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Tactical Analysis: Leeds United vs. Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City side travelled to Elland Road on Monday night to take on an in-form Leeds United side. With Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds side having just thrashed an in-form Aston Villa side 3-0 and Rodgers’ Leicester side having beaten Arsenal 1-0 the previous week, the game promised to be an intriguing contest. …
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Player Analysis: Diogo Jota at Liverpool
After an incredible two-year spell that saw Liverpool win the Champions League and lift the first Premier League trophy in club history, Sporting Director Michael Edwards was tasked with a new challenge: purchase a young forward with enough versatility to play across the front three, who was comfortable coming off the bench and fighting for…
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The Miracle Match of 1950: England vs. USA
Up until recent years, you would almost always struggle to find comparison in terms of stature and wealth of footballing talent when it comes to the United States of America and England. Many other sports serve the reverse purpose, but football belongs on the east side of the North Atlantic, or so many would believe.…
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Tactical Analysis: Julien Stéphan’s Rennes
Since taking charge midway through the 2018/19 season, Julien Stéphan has completely changed the course of Stade Rennais Football Club. Having spent the past three years managing Rennes’s B team, Stéphan replaced Sabri Lamouchi on December 3, 2018, when the Brittany club were 17th in Ligue 1. After a string of victories which saw Rennes…
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Player Analysis: Ali Akman
It is somewhat ironic that Ali Akman was born in Yıldırım, a district of the Turkish city of Bursa which translates into English as ‘thunder.’ As they say, you can take the boy out of thunder, but you can’t take the thunder out of the boy. Just ask Emilijus Zubas, Erhan Erentürk, Atilla Özmen,…
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The Reawakening of Hirving Lozano at Napoli
When Mexican international Hirving Lozano arrived at Napoli in August 2019, his transfer from Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven was seen as a landmark moment. The transfer fee of €38 million plus bonuses was the most the Partenopei had paid for a player at the time, it was the highest figure the Rood-witten received for a player,…
