Analysis
Why midfield press resistance matters more than dribbling
Beating pressure with the first touch and the next pass keeps attacks alive more reliably than beating a man one-on-one.
Analysis
Match and season analysis combining video study with data: shape changes, pressing success, chance quality and where a result was actually decided.
Analysis
How set-piece coaches earn their pay in modern football
Dedicated set-piece coaches have turned dead balls from a marginal part of training into one of the most measurable edges in the sport.
Analysis
Why zone 14 still decides football matches in 2026
Coaching fashions rotate, but the rectangle at the edge of the box keeps producing the game's most valuable touches — and the data has never really argued otherwise.
Analysis
How xG hides what it cannot say about finishing quality
Expected goals measures chance quality, not conversion — and treating a striker's xG as a verdict on his finishing quietly ignores everything the model was never built to see.
Analysis
Why a back three requires specific, not generic, wingbacks
A back three does not simply add a defender — it multiplies the demands on the two widest players, who must be attackers, defenders and midfielders in the same movement.
Analysis
How rest defence shapes a team's vulnerability to counterattacks
The structure a team leaves behind the ball when it attacks — its rest defence — decides almost everything about how badly it can be hurt on the break.