Match Tactics
Why Pressing High Is Harder Than It Looks on Paper
On a tactics board, a high press looks simple. Your forwards close down the center backs, your midfielders cut passing lanes,...
After every tournament knockout decided on penalties, someone in the pub says the same thing: it is a lottery. The losing manager usually says it too, in the press conference.
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Match Tactics
On a tactics board, a high press looks simple. Your forwards close down the center backs, your midfielders cut passing lanes,...
Fan Culture
Football is not only what happens on the pitch, it is the community that gathers around it, and much of that community lives in...
Club Heritage
A football club's history is not only in the record books and the memories, it lives in objects, the old programmes, the...
Player Development
There is a pattern visible in players who keep improving after the academy years, through the junior-senior transition and into...
Player Development
A sixteen year old I was working with two seasons ago had every physical marker a scout wants to see.
Club Heritage
A club historian I interviewed for a completely different piece last year mentioned, almost as an aside, that the training...
Sections
Archive
Three writers who come at football from different angles: one breaks down match tactics and substitutions, one writes about player and youth development from time spent on training grounds, and one covers fan culture and club history. Every article carries a byline, and every byline links to everything else that person has written.