Both West Brom and Southampton possess teams that are full of underrated or unheralded players. I have identified both as teams with criminally underrated players in the central midfield areas: Yacob and Mulumbu for West Brom; Cork and defensive stalwart Morgan Schneiderlin for Southampton. Within football circles all four players have impressed and we could well [...]

The introduction of Daniel Sturridge has brought about tactical changes at Anfield that possibly offer a resounding solution to Liverpool’s defining tactical inefficiency that we have seen so much of this season. For the last two seasons (and more) at Anfield, Liverpool have consistently created chance after chance, only to leave fans frustrated and little [...]

Marco Van Basten often spoke about an invisible cord that connected players within a formation, that one player’s movements would directly affect another. The possession-based philosophical approach to football thinks about football in terms of space; how can a team control the game both with or without the ball? What was particularly interesting about the [...]

Here is a diagram of the 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3) and its passing options. There are many teams that use this formation across the world: FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Arsenal just to name a few. Each team has a Defensive Midfielder which is vital for the team to function. In this case the Defensive Midfielder is the number [...]

As Santi Carzola ran away from Pepe Reina’s goal into the Arsenal away support the camera’s cut to Brendan Rodgers. A man who has by now put away his notepad and pen to accept that his strategy did not go according to plan against an excellent Arsenal side. Brendan Rodgers sets his team up in [...]

Brendan Rodgers’ appointment as Liverpool manager has prompted some fascinating discussions about his overall playing philosophy and how it might be transferred to his new club. Swansea’s impressive passing statistics have been much quoted in this context; only Manchester City attempted and completed more than them last season. An intriguing aspect of this preference for [...]