Soccer Analysis

MLS could continue to sign aging stars from Europe to capture audiences while profiting from sending young players the other way. Read more »

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The modern era of player movement adds another story of supposedly expensive transfers who didn't live up to their potential with glamour clubs refinding not only their form but a joy for the game by leaving for smaller. Read more »

Real Madrid, Arsenal, Bayern, Inter Milan and Marseille lead their respective leagues in xG, while Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Nico Paz and Mason Greenwood are the individual leaders. Read more »

xG shows a different picture in the Premier League than the actual table, while Christian Pulisic ranks second in Serie A in WhoScored rating. Read more »

Liverpool storm to the top of Premier League expected points while teenage phenom Lamine Yamal leads LaLiga with an incredible 8.74 performance rating and becomes football's most valuable player at €200 million. Read more »

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The strategy appeared to be throwing as many young attackers on the field as a nine-figure budget would allow and seeing what stuck. But what if, either by precision or scattershot approach, Chelsea actually succeeded in building a cohesive, world-class attack, one characterized by directness, speed, and goals? Read more »

Xabi Alonso has a roster loaded with talent, but he is navigating an unforgiving balance between stardom and structure. Read more »

The Lamine Yamal breakout season has continued with Barcelona winning a domestic treble. Read more »

Mohamed Salah and Liverpool are atop the Premier League rankings, while things are far closer in Spain between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The critical top-5 clubs and players in the major European leagues. Read more »

The casualness was part of Eden Hazard's brilliance. Plus, we never saw him have to readapt his game as he aged. In a roundabout way, never seeing Hazard fade away in smaller leagues is its own sort of immortality. Read more »

Because soccer is unpredictable and fun and joyful and compelling- because it's a very good thing- it attracts the amoral, cynical, and outright awful people, who seek to capitalize on our interest in it. Read more »

There is a unity between Jurgen Klopp's philosophy of pressure and his ability to shape raw material, to turn the potential of Cody Gakpo into something tangible and match-winning at a Premier League and Champions League level. Read more »

The same drumbeat that carried Eden Hazard to Real Madrid will try, in a syncopated cadence, to push him out. It is the peculiar thing that Madrid does. Read more »

El Gran Derbi is the best rivalry hardly anyone outside Spain cares about. Given that Sevilla and Real Betis have both been pretty good over the past half-decade or so, their matches are intense and well-played. Read more »

Gianni Infantino has a greedy proposal to host more World Cups with shockingly cynical justifications for it. Read more »

Clubs like Inter Milan are always in a tenuous position in the tier right below the behemoths who will poach the players who contribute to whatever fleeting success befalls them. Read more »

Coaching hires are a crapshoot and Xavi doesn't have much of a record to go on. But he's Xavi. So, sure, why wouldn't Barcelona give him a shot? Maybe he'll turn out like his old boss Pep, or like Simeone. Read more »

Kylian Mbappe is on the verge of joining Real Madrid, either now or next summer while Harry Kane must wait for Daniel Levy to decide his fate for him. Read more »