Brendan Rodgers is a man who has an appreciation of footballing perception and culture, regardless of its roots, a man who strives for perfection in the evolution of the game. The strategies of ‘Tiki-Taka’ and ‘totaal-voetbal’  form the basis of Brendan Rodgers’ modus operandi. For Rodgers the season of 2011/12 will be regarded as the [...]

While Arsenal fans begin to implode with silly season in full swing, the signing of Lukas Podolski has seemed somewhat forgotten under rumours of M’Vila, Llorente and the vicarious obsession with the Eden Hazard transfer special. ‘Prinz Poldi’ as he is lovingly dubbed by many in Germany, will be 27 by the time he joins [...]

For many seasons the Premier League had four teams that fought it out for the title and the Champions League places – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. But after Man City were taken over, Harry Redknapp took over at Spurs and Newcastle’s impressive form this season this has all changed. There are now a [...]

With Roberto Martinez currently in the front running to take over the vacant manager’s job at Liverpool I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how his tactics, formations and general footballing philosophy might be applied to the current crop of Liverpool players. Footballing Philosophy It is pretty evident Martinez’s teams likes [...]

Now, before Newcastle fans jump on this quicker than a sacking in the Chelsea boardroom just because it has ‘weaknesses’ in the title, the article is not aimed at slashing any Newcastle United throats or criticising anything that has gone on this season. The aim here, was to highlight statistical statements about Newcastle United in [...]

I’m stumbling around an eerily darkened room at 2 o’clock in the morning. The musty aroma of burned eraser fills my nostrils. Skin-inflamed fingertips pulsate with throbbing bolts of pain. I grasp for the calculator that litters my tea-stained desk. Frazzled and frizzled amongst a clutter of paper & pencil, it can only mean one [...]

For Everton and their fans, the sense of déjà vu gets stronger by the season. Another dysfunctional summer led to the customary slow start with Everton winning just five of their first 15 league games. Dismal defeats to Bolton and Tottenham left David Moyes’ team languishing in 14th by mid-January. Thankfully, the Tottenham defeat signalled the [...]

Beginnings at Porto In his first season as manager of FC Porto, Andre Villas Boas had statistics of:  Won the Portuguese Super Cup  Won the Portuguese League  Won the Millennium Cup  Won the Europa League  Went the entire season with only FOUR losses, including 2 in the preseason, 1 in [...]

With our goalkeeper, defence and midfield already chosen for the Premier League team of the year (http://www.eplindex.com/14737/premier-league-team-year-1112-opta-stats-part-2-midfield.html) we now look at which two strikers made the line up and announce our final team. We have done this by comparing players for each position using Opta statistics from the 2011/2012 season. We have then awarded 5 [...]

The defence had already been chosen for the Premier League team of the year (http://www.eplindex.com/14552/premier-league-team-of-the-year-based-on-statistics-part-1-defence-opta-stats.html), but since then we have decided to change our scoring system due to popular demand. We have now awarded 5 points for the player that tops each statistic, 4 points for the player that comes second, 3 points for third, [...]