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Nov 10 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal | Tactical THREAD

➡️ Cucurella seems to have Saka's number?
➡️ Gusto's best defensive performance?
➡️ Odegaard invisible but decisive, Palmer the opposite
➡️ Caicedo stepped up as defensive shield
➡️ Raya swept to perfection
➡️ Rice at LCM is too vanilla Image
Arsenal erred today by using Rice as a LCM off the ball, which meant he couldn't get to grips with Cole Palmer who arguably had his best big match display this season in terms of 'involvement'.

Having said that, Cole Palmer didn't make the most of it with some poor decision making in key moments but it was overall a step in the right direction as he didn't ghost but tried to impact the game.Image
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His rival Odegaard had returned from injury and he was a ghost for the most part. Very little involvement but then when the key moment came, he managed to make it count with a great ball to Martinelli who put it away despite a torrid display prior to it.

Sanchez positioning was poor for the goal.Image
Despite Gusto's error for the goal, overall it was a tremendous display by him... he locked Martinelli up for the most part and as for Cucurella, we mentioned in our preview that he's one of the few LB's that Saka finds tough to face and he proved it again.

Great positioning, tenacious in the tackle and low centre of gravity. He was excellent and Chelsea can take a lot of heart from the performance of both defenders today.Image
Declan Rice at LCM. I am not seeing it.

Doesn't have enough creativity and goal threat for such an advanced role, doesn't really progress the game from that role, cuts onto his right too much which makes him predictable and it means taking him away from what he's best at...

Shielding the back 4.Image
Finally Maresca moved Neto to the opposite flank in-game.

I'd like to see these shifts happen more often to keep opponents guessing and give his selected players a second wind.

When Neto is overexposed to left wing, teams can evetually get used to it but he did do well vs White, but it seemed to freshen him up even more when he switched flanks and he was so much more sharper than Madueke... blitzed through Arsenal with that goal.

Madueke needs to rest up for now.Image
Just two players I forgot to mention, Caicedo did fantastically today, operating deeper than Lavia but really protected the right flank and helped out Gusto as well as CDM.

Raya for Arsenal, some really good headers when he came off the line and was very alert throughout.

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More from @pythaginboots

Nov 3
Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea | Tactical Thread

➡️ Palmer ghosts (played in front of Ugarte/Casemiro) ➡️ Mazraoui inverting sets traps for Madueke
➡️ Hojlund made it stick too much (release earlier)
➡️ Maresca stop A team v B team
➡️ Chelsea vulnerable out wide

#CFC #MUFC Image
Palmer was given a free ride against Newcastle, with plenty of space to operate in.

In this game, United had two defensive minded players in midfield (but both with a tendency to leave space in behind). Palmer failed to exploit this space, dropping too deep to connect player and letting United midfield get set up.

Maresca needs to show some more balls or inventivenss here and be prepared to take Palmer off, or combine him with anoher playmaker in these type of games where he is stifled especially bigger games where space is at a premium.Image
He wasn't the only one. Look how much Chelsea showed a general lack of penetration with their passing, only Neto is looking to get in behind... everyone else is too close in their own half and not really looking to turn United and get right at them. Image
Read 6 tweets
Oct 28
Ten Hag 's 7 DEADLY TACTICAL SINS

❌ Large distances in midfield (3-1-6)
❌ Lack of quality overlaps
❌ CB's either too slow or feeble
❌ CF's starved or undercooked
❌ Lack of legs/positional IQ at CDM
❌ Bruno, Rashford - Hollywood Ball
❌15 min press

A THREAD 🧵

#MUFC Image
How often did we see United play this absolutely moronic 3-1-6 shape in possession where there was zero relationisim in the midfield region, no chance for the deepest midfielder to find consistent options to pass it to and create some triangles... a key concept for when a team is trying to control chaos.

Eriksen, Casemiro, Mainoo... all suffered at times as the sides deepest pivot only to see their partners flying forward to pick up pockets of space with no real chance of the ball getting there and watching their team mate swarmed under pressure.

Not to mention this also left the team pretty vulnerable on the counter which we will touch upon later.Image
Anthony is now officially a meme and truth be told, he should shoulder some blame for that but Ten Hag hung him out to dry from a tactical point of view and he's not the only one.

Rashford has also recently begun to suffer due to Ten Hag's full back choices.

Wan Bisakka behind an inverting winger didn't make sense, hence it was Garnacho at RW which fixed this issue. He then moves Garnacho left this season, and replaces AWB with another mostly defensive full back in Mazraoui?

So where are the overlaps coming from when Dalot likes to invert? none of this is coherent or makes sense.Image
Read 8 tweets
Sep 30
Ten Hag’s #MUFC tenure vs Arne Slot brief #LFC reign is a wonderful study in the importance of good coaching.

Failure to sign Zubimendi - was easy for Liverpool’s build up to take a hit and for them to lose ‘control’.

Instead Slot coaches his way out of it.

A THREAD 🧵 Image
Ten Hag’s terrible player profiling especially in the midfield region has really haunted Manchester United during his entire reign.

The 6 region has completely baffled him on and off the ball.

Yet this is the area of the pitch where the modern coach most needs to excel in since the rise of Guardiola…
Slot you could tell from day 1 in pre season was preoccupied with getting this area of the pitch right. Whilst he was also seeking a transfer solution for this role he was nevertheless laying down ground work for the players who could compete for this area of the pitch.
Read 12 tweets
Sep 2
Klopp-Ball to Slot Ball…

5 KEY DIFFERENCES we’ve observed since Arne took the post.

A Thread 🧵

#LFC #LiverpoolFC Image
We touched upon this previously but it seems super fast starts to rattle the opposition are Klopp’s bread and butter whereas Slot tends to want to digest the action before unsheathing his sword…
Midfielders used as a gateway vs as dictators.

Klopp prior to his last season and his reluctant attempt in trying to bring in Thiago aside generally used his midfield as a way of winning the ball and efficiently getting it to the flanks.

Slot likes his side to really use the midfield to build up play, his side creates more authoritative sexy passing combos in central regions of the pitch and you’re more likely to see deep lying playmakers thrive in a Slot system hence the chase for Zubimendi than in Klopp’s OG Liverpool side.Image
Read 6 tweets
Aug 27
A key difference between Arne Slot and Klopp?

Intensity of 1st half vs 2nd half.

Klopp used energy of the crowd to win the first 15 minutes and ride the momentum for remainder of game whereas Slot prefers surgical approach first before loosening handbrake.

A THREAD (w Data)🧵


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Due to the small sample size, we looked at Slot time with Feyenoord to see if this was a coincidence or if this is a deeper principle he has always abided by. The numbers shocked us…

Feyenoord definitely stepped it up more second half compared to first half… Image
We then wanted to see how prime heavy metal football compared. So we look at 2018/19.

It seems sides do increase their attack in second half, due to the need to get a result and tiring legs but what we did observe was a big difference between how intense Slot is in 2nd half.
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Read 5 tweets
Aug 23
The COSTLIEST transfer errors by GREAT managers …

A THREAD 🧵 Image
The sale of Jaap Stam. Jaap was the world’s best centre back during the treble season but a season later he was sold (not quite in his prime but still operating at a world class level).

Early in the 2001–02 season, Stam was controversially sold to Lazio in Italy after Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was reportedly upset by allegations Stam had made in his autobiography Head to Head about the club. Stam made numerous statements in the book about his views on opposing players, and alleged that Ferguson's approach to buy him was done without the permission of PSV. Later, Simon Kuper reported that contrary to initial belief, Ferguson had noticed that Stam's tackling numbers were declining and simply assumed the defender was past his playing peak.Laurent Blanc was signed as his replacement.

In 2007, however, Ferguson described the decision to sell Stam as an error: "At the time he had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level."Image
The sale of Eto’o and signing of Zlatan Ibrahimovic… letting go of the ideal striker for a tiki taka fluid style of play and bringing in a relatively tactically static target man type.

Ibrahimovic arrived at Barcelona when they were at the top of the mountain, and there was only one place for them to go. Yes, Barcelona won La Liga again in 2009-10 – they were one game away from an unbeaten season, only losing to Atletico Madrid – but they were to face disappointment in both the Copa del Rey, where they lost to Sevilla in the final due to away goals, and the Champions League, eliminated, famously, by Mourinho’s Inter in the semi-finals.

Ibrahimovic played sporadically, particularly by his standards; in La Liga, he was left out of the matchday squad on five occasions and was benched twice. He did not take it lying down.

The Swede later claimed that he was “a Ferrari being driven like a Fiat” in his book as he was limited to 23 league starts, and was substituted off in both legs against his old club, Inter.

He provided 34 goal involvements throughout the season, but the team simply didn’t seem to function as well with him as the focal point; Guardiola’s tiki-taka style did not require a bruising frontman, instead a light touch with flexibility and swift interchanges. Lionel Messi and Pedro were trusted to do that; it appeared that Ibrahimovic was not.Image
Read 12 tweets

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