How differently Carlo Ancelotti has been perceived by two different sets of players and management highlights the unique culture at each club, and the importance of finding both players and managers who fit those unspoken rules. Read more »

It's fascinating how despite the all the tactics, pressing and previews, it's disconnected, individual moments that change the entire narrative of a match. Read more »

In a classic Jose Mourinho paradox, he is both right in his analysis yet also shoulders the blame. Read more »

Klopp revealed the joy of his locker room in stealing a point. Sarri, on the other hand, admits Chelsea are much closer to Liverpool and Manchester City than he imagined. Read more »

Strangely, in a roundabout way, Julen Lopetegui lost his chance to lead Spain on the world's biggest stage but he finds himself firmly in the national team picture. Read more »

Two matches spanning just four days crystalized the difference between this season and last for Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side. Read more »

Italy have won just once in their last seven matches, highlighting a player development problem beyond changing managers. Read more »

The critics say that Manuel Pellegrini needs to "become brutal" to survive this season in England, both in his docile personality and in his side's physicality and activity out of possession. Read more »

Tweet after tweet, back heel after back heel, undervalued signing after undervalued signing, Roma push the boundaries of the modern sports fandom through a holistic approach. Read more »

There may be no longing analysis of a side other than having the best player in the world, or no glowing recaps of a playing philosophy the way there was when Messi played with Xavi and Iniesta. But there will be trophies. Read more »

Christian Pulisic's career is still firmly in its developmental phase, and he's a star only in terms of the attention he gets from folks who are eager for the USMNT to finally have a world-class player. Read more »

As managers new to England quickly discover, Maurizio Sarri will need to figure out his defending off scrambles and second balls to prevent what he described as a "horrible" 15 minutes in which Arsenal evened the score in the first half. Read more »

This upcoming season doesn't feel like an iteration of Atleti, but an entirely new sequence. Atleti can still win matches 1-0, but they can also score four goals if necessary. Read more »

Gareth Bale exists in the two states: recovering from a calf injury and on the verge of a pulled hamstring. He's somehow been somehow invisible at the biggest club in the world, but that's changed with Ronaldo leaving for Italy. Read more »

We often ask athletes that they build their lives around the game they play, because we feel that if they're not doing everything in their power to play well, we're somehow being robbed of their potential. Ronaldo is one of the few players who clears that ridiculous bar and he still occasionally catches flak, because he's doing it for selfish reasons. Read more »

There are rare instances when a player develops an institutional bond with his club. Mauro Icardi appears to have one with Inter, having joined back in 2012 and stuck around through some lean years and now they're back on the upswing. Read more »

Thomas Partey, coming off a great season, has arrived in Atleti's midfield. Now he has to arrive again, repeatedly, in order to keep hold of what he's got. Read more »

If the Pogba-Mourinho relationship is to be mended, Pogba must be the one who bends. He's well within his rights refuse, which is why cataclysm at United looks increasingly certain. Read more »

Barcelona has built a muscular team around Lionel Messi that aims to devastate rather than transcend. Now 31, it's about time to take the measure of thes arc his career has traveled, and where it's headed. Read more »

While Pep Guardiola's City works to find improvements from the smallest details, Arsenal's first match under Unai Emery showed the club plays best when attacking vertical instead of side to side out of the back. Read more »