Gareth Southgate has led a revolution that has produced better results and entertainment while England’s cricketers have also benefited from a more aggressive attitudeAmong the myriad skills that are employed in different sports one that is shared by a…
Liverpool and Spurs rely on the role to wreak havoc in attack and Saturday’s game will show how the position has evolvedIt is quarter of a century since Jack Charlton observed after the 1994 World Cup that full-back had become tactically the most impor…
For the elite clubs press-and-possess remains the dominant mode and the league’s less wealthy simply cannot competeOnce upon a time, not so very long ago, football was a game in which two teams battled for the ball and, when they had it, tried to score…
Manager likes to play his way regardless but Chelsea’s win over Guardiola’s side in December was not down to his masterplanSometimes things in football just happen. The most extraordinary victories can be achieved by teams whose tactical schemes have s…
Manager likes to play his way regardless but Chelsea’s win over Guardiola’s side in December was not down to his masterplanSometimes things in football just happen. The most extraordinary victories can be achieved by teams whose tactical schemes have s…
It is 125 years since the first false nine and its history since is fascinating as much for its failure to become a dominant tactic as for its many successful applicationsAt times it feels in football there is nothing new, merely the reinvocation of ol…
The Norwegian’s man-management at Manchester United has been top class – but the game against Tottenham will show whether he has the tactical nous to beat the bestNobody realistically doubts that Manchester United’s game against Tottenham on Sunday rep…
Press and possess is the method of many leading teams but Didier Deschamps’ side in Russia and Real Madrid before them picked up the biggest prizes playing in their own mannerThe same basics everywhere: it would be easy to believe that football in 2018…
This feels like a manager shaking a kaleidoscope and hoping for the best – clinging on until you can throw Marouane Fellaini at a problem should not be a long-term planSome time, this purgatory must end. Some time, even a board as laissez-faire as Manc…
Rules may have stayed the same since 1992 but modern football’s best teams tend to have 11 outfield players, one of whom can use his handsIn January 1912, two members of the Football Association’s Rules Review committee went to White Hart Lane to watch…
All Mourinho’s instincts will be to kill the game but going for broke represents his best chance of another famous winWhen people said they wanted José Mourinho to make Manchester United more like Alex Ferguson’s treble winners, this, presumably, isn’t…
Tottenham came unstuck when they pressed high at the Etihad last season but it was preferable to their timid performance against Manchester City at WembleyTottenham would press them, push high up the pitch, even from goal-kicks. They’d be aggressive an…
Jose Mourinho’s side were astonishingly passive against Juve but amid his post-match bluster there was the kernel of a pointThe problem with modern European football is how stratified it has become. With resources now divided so unequally, how, realist…
Manchester United seem incapable of doing the thing José Mourinho’s teams are renowned for so the manager must change his approachThere are times when you wonder whether the gods of football have almost too pronounced a sense of irony. Not content with…
Manchester United’s trip to face Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea offers a clash of styles on and off the pitch and starts a defining run of matches for Mourinho One reason put forward to explain why the great plague did not just keep on ravaging the human rac…
Pep Guardiola went back to the basics of Cruyffism at Anfield and in doing so showed new-found flexibility and pragmatismEighteen games into Pep Guardiola’s second season as manager of Bayern Munich, his side lost 4-1 at Wolfsburg. It was their first d…
Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have both reined in their attacking instincts this season, aware of leaving gaps in defenceIt is all about the full-backs but these days it is always all about the full?backs. From a tactical point of view Sunday’s meetin…
Goalkeeper is an outstanding shot-stopper but does not excel at passing and this is reflected in how Manchester United playDavid de Gea has been named in the PFA team of the year in five of the past six seasons. He has been Manchester United’s player o…
