For the purposes of this article, a footballing philosophy is defined as: a set of beliefs about how football should be played on the field tactically. Football tactics are assumed to be that of the strategy(-ies) employed by a team to defend, attack and everything in between (the two transitions of losing the ball and winning the ball). The definition of [...]

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 [...]

The tactic of dominating possession was at first a defensive ploy from Scotland against the stronger, quicker and more devastating England team in the late 1800s. It was a tactical approach that existed purely as a way of controlling the opposition and the game, not as a ends in itself. The possession-based philosophy that Cruyff [...]

Liverpool’s game against Fulham demonstrated, in my opinion, the highest level of performance under Brendan Rodgers to date – and not because of the 4 – 0 score line, but because of the way in which the players executed the phases of play that Rodgers and his coaching staff propose to the Liverpool players every [...]

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 [...]

Ravi Ramineni is a Football analytics freelancer. His passion is to analyze and visualize Football data to help coaches and clubs with opposition analysis and scouting. www.analysefootball.com and www.onfooty.com are his analytics blogs. He is also a big fan of the “Yellow Submarine” Villarreal and also manages www.forzafutbol.com and www.villarrealusa.com. You can follow him on twitter at @AnalyseFooty, this is his debut [...]

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 [...]

*Part 5 now unavailable PLEASE FIND LINKS FOR PART I, PART II AND PART III AT END OF POST Introduction: the foundations (part 4/4*) – Midfield and Concluding Statement  This is a four*-part series of articles that aims to introduce football coaches and fanatics to basic concepts in a systems football approach (such as tiki-taka). [...]

Introduction: the foundations (part 3/5) – Defence This is a five-part series of articles that aims to introduce football coaches and fanatics to basic concepts in a systems football approach (such as tiki-taka). The systems approach to football is founded upon a system of complexity and unity. Part three of this series promised an illustrative [...]

Introduction: the foundations (part 2/5) – Positioning This is a five-part series of articles that aims to introduce football coaches and fanatics to basic concepts in a systems football approach (such as tiki-taka). The systems approach to football is founded upon a system of complexity and unity Please read both the Andre Villas-Boas approach and Brendan [...]