Back in March of this year, a few friends and I were sitting in the pub, chatting generally about football and our plans for the year ahead. It turned out that all of us wanted to travel overseas to watch a match, but had never been able to organise it properly.   Long story short,…

Burnley bid farewell to a seven-year spell in the Premier League in 2022 — their longest uninterrupted spell in the top-flight since the ’60s — after suffering relegation, with the club replacing interim manager Mike Jackson with Vincent Kompany. The Clarets parted ways with manager Sean Dyche in April after ten years at the helm,…

In the realm of football, two elemental forces exist:  space and control. The prevailing inclination among many managers is to grasp onto control, manipulating their players as if marionettes on strings, dictating their every move. Much like the intricate game of chess, where the humble pawn typically remains a pawn, save for rare instances when…

Dara O’Shea is the biggest success story of West Brom’s Academy in recent years, going from youth player to captain in four years. Now at 24, his £7 million transfer to Premier League side Burnley has helped stabilise West Brom’s finances whilst leaving them without their most important defender. So how can they replace him?…

In the second half of this two-part series, delving into some of the key and recurring tactical tendencies of Villarreal under Quique Setién, we will cover the Yellow Submarine out of possession. Part 1 of this article focussed on Villarreal with the ball. As a reminder, for this piece, the following LaLiga games were observed.…

After a summer that saw them bring in the likes of Boubacar Kamara and Diego Carlos, things looked promising for Aston Villa. However, they would win just two of their first eleven league matches, grinding out narrow victories over Southampton and Everton, and their early-season struggles would see the club hierarchy make the decision to…

After narrowly avoiding the drop under Gary O’Neil in their return to the Premier League, Bournemouth have raised eyebrows by deciding to sack the 40-year-old Englishman and replace him with Spanish manager Andoni Iraola. After promising spells at AEK Larnaca, Mirandés and Rayo Vallecano, Iraola joins the Cherries on a two-year deal, and he will…

At only 37 years of age, Luis Freire is the youngest coach in the Primeira Liga. Freire has coached at every level of Portuguese football, managing 351 games in total and gaining seven promotions in his career with a host of different teams. He has moved from the I Div.Lisbon AF with Ericeirense all the…

The 2022/23 season was eventful for Villarreal. The Yellow Submarine were forced to replace their head coach in October, returned home to the renovated Estadio de la Cerámica in late December and in 2023 are celebrating their centenary year. By early June, Villarreal had finished the LaLiga campaign in fifth place. Their hopes of catching…