Soccer Analysis

Why wouldn't Barcelona’s board spend recklessly: is the club actually going to go out of business? European football needs Barcelona as much as Barcelona needs European football. Read more »

What does the perfect Chelsea manager look like? Somewhere between Jose Mourinho's ability to message to the masses, with Carlo Ancelotti's laissez-faire approach, and Antonio Conte's clear structure? Yet even if Chelsea were to find perfection, it would only be for a couple seasons anyway. Read more »

At the bleary and miserable end, there wasn't much left to recommend Frank Lampard, beyond the fact that he's one of the best players in club history. Read more »

Giving up goals signals a poor defense, scoring goals means a dangerous attack. So what then, to make of Liverpool failing to score a goal in four consecutive matches for the first time since the 1999-00 season? Read more »

Thomas Tuchel admittedly knows what he wants now in the future: to go back to just managing on the field, to reconnect with the traits that made him such a compelling managerial figure in the first place. His time at PSG was a blip of fantasy, now it's time to go back to simplicity. Read more »

Iago Aspas is of a region, as close to a folkloric player as we want in the social media age. He gives space to secrets, that a player could be one of the best in the league and still go unnoticed. Read more »

The emphasis on eschewing safety for pressing is why Hansi Flick's Bayern were the team that both dominated and defined 2020. Read more »

An American manager taking over a large Premier League club seemed impossible in 2013. Again, just in over seven years, it seems only a matter of time. Read more »

Lucien Favre's legacy at Dortmund was of a stabilizing manager who attempted to play attractive football, developed young talent, and almost won. Read more »

When Messi and Tevez paid tribute with their jerseys, it was to bring Maradona to the present. But it was also Tevez and Messi, along with us, reaching back to the simplicity of the past. Read more »

Playing with a signature, possession-based style, against any opponent, is the victory for Roberto De Zerbi in itself. How that translates onto the table is for the rest of us. Read more »

There was always a distance, an invisible glass, that could never be breached with Maradona. We were below, and he stood above as we never intersected on the same plane. Read more »

Through a combination of happenstance and planning, the USMNT looked outward, and the results are beginning to match the expectations we'd built up this entire time. Read more »

Ralph Hasenhuttl has said he prefers his side to fly under the radar, adding that it’s more fun to be a pirate "than to join the navy." While the outsider status suits him, big clubs are seeking him out and they would have to conform to him. Read more »

Even during a pandemic, even on his last legs, Zlatan Ibrahimovic is playing how he's always played, embodying the character he's always been, making us feel close but keeping a distance, as he's always done. Read more »

But where, if anywhere, are 10s thriving? Even articles about the demise of the No. 10 are decreasing as we move on to analyzing structure. Read more »

Our discussions over the existential future of American soccer revolved around player development, though less exciting, non-viral topics like infrastructure and pathways were equally as essential for sustainability. Read more »

Though Arsene Wenger only left Arsenal in 2018, this feels like a completely different footballing world, even if he played an essential role in shaping it. Read more »

In lieu of nine figure superstars, Edinson Cavani's free transfer could end up being the best value in the window for a club that doesn't need to do value. Even when the process is incomplete, you can still arrive at the correct answer. Read more »

Diego Simeone is a smart guy, but intensely stubborn, and he hasn't considered the inverse of his formulation: players dictate styles, but styles also dictate players. Read more »