Soccer Analysis

The following is a list of the 50 essential players and managers who will define the 2019-20 Premier League season. Read more »

James is a number 10 in a sport that hardly uses them anymore. Sometimes uniqueness is not an asset; it only makes you an awkward fit. Read more »

Sports, especially a game as global as soccer, can and should be powerfully politicized. Why wouldn't you pull every lever available to you, to help create a world in which your greatest worry really is how well your team plays on the weekend? Read more »

The viability of the long throw, and the way we think about it, depends upon how it's deployed. Does its use spawn from a searching ingenuity or simply a lack of other ideas? Read more »

Somehow, 2019 represents a vital time for the perception of Jose Mourinho in how he'll be remembered within soccer history. He is undoubtedly an era defining manager, but he's recently left himself vulnerable to revisionist criticism due to his inability to evolve. Read more »

Due to durability issues, due to inconsistency, due to his own insistence on being paid like a superstar, Gareth Bale was set to be done with top level soccer, more or less by his own choice. Read more »

In looking at the uniformity of the modern three-point heavy NBA style, one wonders if there is a danger of efficiency creating a sameness within soccer if every side pressed high for 90 minutes in search of one mistake. Read more »

When Neymar inevitably returns to Brazil's lineup, it will be on Tite's terms. Though what he loses in personal glory he may make up for in international trophies. Read more »

If you replace the original players of the Diego Simeone era with new players that have similar qualities as the players they are replacing, will it be the same Atleti as before? Read more »

Lionel Messi's devotion to winning with Argentina in the face of obvious deficiencies evokes a combination of a soccer Sisyphus and a Godot-esque of wait for a title that will seemingly never come. Read more »

Brazil's efficiency in defending and counter attacking makes you forget they don't even have Neymar, but they do have Gabriel Jesus. Read more »

The reality is Diego Simeone's past few years at Atleti have revealed a certain cowardice within, an unwillingness to fail on unfamiliar terms and a comfort with losing so long as he's gone down using trusty methods. Read more »

Marco Giampaolo's attacking instinct should only be augmented by Milan's budget as compared to Sampdoria. Read more »

With Eden Hazard's idolization of of both club and Zinedine Zidane, the move was cultivated over the decades. Read more »

Colombia were organized in their high press and direct in their attacking. They also were energized by the occasion while Argentina was going through the motions. Read more »

In 2019, the Copa America is defined as much by what it isn’t in the modern soccer age, as much as what it strives to represent. Read more »

The most interesting aspect of Max Allegri's success is that it came with no defined, built-in style or catchphrase, no tiki-taka or gegenpressing branding or philosophy easily consumed by audiences. Read more »

Our MOTM goes to Alisson for his late saves, but credit Virgil van Dijk for his calming influence. Those two players changed Liverpool from being an exciting team in the wrong way of giving up late leads, to seeing out their first Champions League win since 2005. Read more »

With each team's unique, singular journey to the Champions League Final, both Liverpool and Tottenham can claim destiny on their side. Read more »

This will be a colorful clash of styles, and at the end of it we're going to see a European champion who hasn't summited that mountain in a while (Liverpool) or ever (Spurs). Read more »