Before the COVID-19 outbreak caused Europe’s major leagues to halt their seasons, Paris Saint-Germain led Ligue 1 with a commanding 12-point lead over André Villas-Boas’s Marseille. On April 30th, they would be crowned champions of Ligue 1 for the seventh time in eight seasons.   The Parisians being top of the French first tier has become…

Before the 2019/20 season was suspended, football fans around the world had the luxury of following one of the most interesting editions of La Liga in the past years.   Not only was there a nail-biting title race between Real Madrid and Barcelona, but the European spots were also being tightly contested between several teams.…

On May 12, 2019, Liverpool missed out on the Premier League title by one point to Manchester City.   They accumulated 97 points, a total which in any other season (aside from 2018/19 or 2017/18) would be more than sufficient to win the title, but toppling over a Pep Guardiola dynasty is never an easy…

German football has often emulated German culture. There is a priority on the system, on fluidity and smoothness, on the collective mattering above all else. In a country that brought the term “expressionism” to the fore in 1920’s cinema, there is a distinct lack of expression allowed in German football. The team comes first so…

Something unique is happening at Stamford Bridge this season. For the first time in the club’s history, Chelsea were forced to deal with a transfer ban, which prohibited them from replacing their best player in Eden Hazard. They replaced outgoing manager Maurizio Sarri with club legend Frank Lampard, a far cry from the more proven…

The Clássico between FC Porto and Benfica is by far the biggest game of the country. The two teams have been almost the only contenders for the Portuguese title in the past 10 years and are not only the best teams on the pitch, put also in terms of their club administration and structure. The…

The UEFA Champions League has given us some memorable nights in recent memory but few group stage matches have had anywhere near the madness, thrill and all-round quality that was on show when Frank Lampard’s high-flying Chelsea took on Erik Ten Hag’s league leading Ajax at Stamford Bridge. A game that began as usual at…

Inter Milan are – as everyone knows them – the team regularly touted to usurp the inevitable Italian champions Juventus, and ultimately suffer at the behest of their own incompetence.  Everything post-Mourinho has led to the same question asked over and over and over; why can’t Inter do it? Why do they keep failing? Well,…

MLS Conference finals brought the fans two games who surprised everyone, with both favorite teams being knocked out of the competition and missing the 2019 MLS Cup final. A lot of credit has to be given to the Seattle Sounders, a team that is in great form, very organized defensively and with excellent attacking players;…

Welcome to a new special series on Breaking the Lines! This tactical insight, attempting to profile the most interesting and creative tactical thinkers in football is a new initiative that will feature on the site every couple of weeks. First up: Marco Rose.    Having innovated his own aggressive style of Germany’s new-age style, Marco…