#tactics

#tactics

The spirit of Stoke City's legendary ball flinger lives on with the long throw-in enjoying a renaissance in the Premier League this season. Indeed, statistics show that the number of long throw-ins per match has more than doubled from last season, pointing to a very real and meaningful trend. It's a trend bemoaned by some, including Jamie Carragher, who in his punditry has taken issue with the way long throw-ins disrupt the game (the game's lawmakers are considering taking action too).

Seattle Reign FC head coach Laura Harvey said she used ChatGPT for tactical advice this past offseason, which ultimately led her and her staff to test out a new formation with five defenders. Harvey, who is a three-time NWSL Shield winner and three-time NWSL coach of the year, told the "Soccerish Podcast" that she had not previously played in a back-five or heavily researched it.

Frank is more of a pragmatist, more willing to be direct, play on the break and wait for opportunities to unveil an array of clinical set-piece routines, whereas Maresca veers towards dogmatism. The Italian comes from the Pep Guardiola school; he prizes dominance of the ball. Chelsea's average of 59.7% possession this season is bettered only by Liverpool in the Premier League.

HT: 0-0. On the basis of that half, Shels are facing a much weaker opponent than Qarabag and Rijeka and this feels more like Windsor Park where they are getting reasonable time on the ball on a big pitch in a vast stadium that is far from intimidating.

Wowzers - who predicted this stunning scoreline? Perhaps Nathan Jones, though he might have wished for even more goals. This was no easy task - Ipswich Town, a Premier League side just last season and one of the promotion favourites, stood firm with an unbeaten home record this campaign. In front of a packed crowd of 28,006, two astute managers clashed, but it was Jones' tactical courage - playing two up front - that helped deliver this win.

This time it was the first on the way to a largely comfortable 2-0 win in Spain that suggests that a team is emerging once again, with Bernardo Silva scoring the second in a first half of notable superiority before a second in which there were moments to suffer but not too many of them. When Haaland was withdrawn with five minutes to go, there were whistles and relief; he, and they, could do no more damage.

The test is very useful for us; it shows us that all our rivals are tough. All our opponents play at 100%. Venezuela played a good game. We won, but that's not the important thing. We wanted to see how the team was doing and get some playing time under our belts. I wanted to try the 5-3-2 option, which is an interesting variation, and we have the players to do it. There are times when defensive solidity is needed.

I expect a tough opponent tomorrow. It wasn't easy to beat them in the first leg. They play a lot of long balls, so you have to fight for the second ball, the third and fourth ball. They did well against Slovakia. It won't be easy. We have to perform very well to win,

A coach must be able to do it all, I have to set my ego aside and do what is best for the team,

They've since lost two straight Premier League matches to goals in the 97th and 95th minutes. Last season, they lost two Premier League games -- total -- before they clinched the league title. Throw in the 1-0 loss to Galatasaray in the Champions League last week, and they've lost three games in a row for the first time since 2023. Their manager, Arne Slot, has now lost three straight games for the first time in his career.

But it wasn't that he was using tiki taka to make the case for the Green New Deal or universal health care. (That would be ironic, given how Guardiola and a number of his players got in trouble for not paying their taxes.) Rather, he was trying to verbalize what made his team so different from their competitors: "Everyone does everything."

But, after Jarrod Bowen's second-half equaliser had earned them a spirited point, the former Tottenham and Nottingham Forest boss took his players over to the travelling supporters at the end of the match in a show of unity and togetherness. "What I think is important is to appreciate what our fans did traveling to Liverpool on a Monday night and giving the support they've given," he said.

Only 20 days after his sacking by Nottingham Forest, Nuno Espirito Santo was back in a Premier League dugout and reminding himself why he returned so quickly. A revitalised West Ham earned a point at Everton, and deserved more after a fine second-half performance. It is a green shoot of hope, which did not look forthcoming before the break when Everton held a lead thanks to Michael Keane's header. West Ham equalised through a superb Jarrod Bowen strike

The only frustration is with a fuller squad we'd have even more points on the board - we'd certainly be more creative in the final third,

The red card changed the game after three minutes. After the red card for them, 10 v 10, it changed the game for us. We needed to start in a better way. "It's a red card. [We should have had] a penalty for Joao." After the red card, Estevao Willian, Pedro Neto and Cole Palmer were all sacrificed so Chelsea could change formations to match United.

Finding it hard to get one over on your former boss after a run of eight straight defeats? Devise a gameplan that restricts their most important players and lead Arsenal to five games unbeaten against Manchester City if you include the Community Shield win in 2023, equalling the longest streak of any manager against Pep Guardiola, alongside Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Tuchel.

It is a quiet midweek afternoon on the outskirts of Bristol and, up to now, Natasha Mo' Hunt has been her normal upbeat self. England's scrum-half has been discussing any number of topics, from her love of rugby's tactical nuances to her croissant-loving fans, with the easy confidence of someone relishing every second of this women's Rugby World Cup. Her sparkly eyed positivity is such that it's easy to forget she has had to escape the heart of darkness to be here.

I'm doing the same thing I did in the last match because, from above, I get a lot of information that I can use at halftime,

Traditionally one of United's primary attacking outlets, thriving when given freedom to push forward, create chances, and support the forwards, Fernandes finds himself operating closer to his own penalty box. Many believe this shift is limiting his ability to impact games in the way both he and fans expect. United's poor start to the 2025-26 Premier League season has only heightened the scrutiny. Man City defeat exposed weaknesses Man United A 3-0 defeat to Manchester City in the derby match was particularly revealing.

Five league games, zero wins and 10th in the 12-team Scottish Premiership, Neil McCann's assessment that "a lot of things are going wrong at the minute" at Rangers is an accurate one. In the Ibrox side's latest dismal display - a first defeat at home to Hearts since 2014 - Russell Martin became the first Rangers head coach to fail to win any of his first five league games in 47 years.

I was very predictable today on court. He did many things, he changed up the game. That's also his style of how he plays. Now it's going to be on me if I want to make changes or not. That's definitely [what] we are going to work on. I'm trying to be more prepared for the next match that I will play against him.

"It's not easy to defend a lot of long balls and not easy to defend a lot of second balls, so I'm happy with the result," Nagelsmann told BBC Sport NI. "It's not that easy when every set piece and ball that's free on the pitch they play a long ball and attack with 10 players with the second ball. "There are always a lot of players in our own red zone. It's not brilliant to watch, this way of soccer, but it's effective and it's not that easy to defend it. "I think we had 10 or 12 set-pieces to defend, and we only conceded one goal. It's really a strength of the Northern Ireland team. It's not that easy - we have better players but it's not that easy to defend this way of playing soccer."