Whilst David Moyes faces the impossible task of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson as the Manchester United manager next season (albeit under the guidance of Ferguson himself in his new role at Manchester United), Everton FC’s future is uncertain at best. Everton are faced with a few options: do they opt for a Moyes-like Malky Mackay? [...]

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 [...]

The classic 4-4-2 has been labelled a neanderthal system of football, even by Sir Alex Ferguson himself, and has not been relied on in its purest form for quite some time. A tale of diamonds, wingless wonders, has not regularly inspired Sir Alex’s team talk instructions. Then again, the manager has made a habit of change [...]

*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 1/5) 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 On a daily basis I get emails asking questions about [...]

We’ll begin with a quick review of the Euro 2012 Semi Final Result: Italy 2 Germany 1…and ‘It could have been four, or five’.    This was the night that Balotelli finally came of age; where Pirlo was involved with 34% of the Azzurri’s play (received or played a pass) and boasted a 92% pass [...]