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What Is An Inverted Winger? (+ Tactical Analysis)

12 May, 2025

Wingers are often the most high-profile players in football. In the modern game, they're at the heart of most deadly attacks, their mixture of skill, speed and clever exploitation of wide space making them some of the trickiest players to deal with on the pitch. But they're also a continuously evolving breed; the days when legendary English wingers like Stanley Matthews were required to simply race up the touchline, paint their boots with...

What Are Patterns Of Play? (And How To Coach Tactical Patterns)

19 Apr, 2025

The vocabulary of football has expanded massively in recent years, with terms like transition , press resistance , and half-space all entering the popular lexicon of the sport and allowing casual fans to impress their friends with technical terms like never before. One of the more simple additions to the way people speak about the sport is the phrase 'patterns of play', which you'll now regularly hear on popular football podcasts or...

Soccer Positions Explained - Complete Guide (2025)

01 Jan, 2025

Sport never stands still for long. The game of soccer is constantly evolving, as coaches, tacticians, and players seek to find new ways to gain an edge over their rivals. One of the key areas in which soccer teams look to gain advantages is by trying out new formations and tactical systems. Soccer formations can vary massively; shapes such as 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 are built on a strong, compact back line, while other formations like 3-4-3...

9v9 Soccer Formations: 6 Of The Best

08 Jul, 2024

Soccer can be played by almost anyone, regardless of age, background or financial situation. As a result, soccer is played regularly by millions of young people all over the planet, and the game has developed accordingly to allow younger players to compete in an appropriate environment. A variety of small-sided games have grown and become popular, one of which is 9-a-side football. In this article, we'll be providing you with a solid guide to...

The 5-2-3 Formation: Its Uses, Benefits and Weaknesses

03 Jul, 2024

A lot can be interpreted from a soccer formation. When the team line-ups are announced before kick-off, fans, it sparks pundits and commentators into waves of speculation about how exactly the starting XI will shape up, what the job of each individual player will be, and what we can learn about the tactical strategy of each manager from their decisions in these intriguing early stages. Part of the reason that football lovers spend so much...

The 4-1-2-1-2 Formation: Its Uses, Benefits and Weaknesses

28 Apr, 2024

There are a wide variety of different ways that a coach can choose to set up their team. Whether it's parking the bus with a low block in defence or pushing the opposition back line hard with an intense gegenpressing strategy, the options are extensive. However, whatever tactical areas a coach chooses to focus on, at the root of it all there needs to be a strong, well-structured formation. Many of the world's most popular formations are...

The 4-4-1-1 Formation: Its Uses, Strengths and Weaknesses

17 Mar, 2024

The best modern-day managers are known for their innovation. Even when a soccer formation looks fairly simple when written down on paper, top-level coaches will regularly invert certain positions and tweak things tactically to outwit the opposition and push their players to the next level. This kind of innovative, forward-thinking positional play can be developed from a number of different starting points. However, whatever approach a coach...

The 5-3-2 Formation: Its Uses, Benefits and Weaknesses

11 Feb, 2024

For modern managers and the vast teams of assistant coaches and analysts that assist their preparations each week, the options are almost endless when it comes to tactics. The evolution of the game over the course of the last few decades means there are countless different ways to set up a team to try and win in any given match. Probably the most important tactical component for a head coach to get right is the formation, which dictates the...

The 9 Best Defensive Midfielders Of All Time

10 Dec, 2023

In football, matches are won and lost in midfield. The battles and conflicts that take place between central midfielders make up some of the defining moments in any game, as the two teams tussle for possession of the ball, and action switches repeatedly between one end of the pitch and the other. Taking charge during these key moments is the defensive midfielder: combative, dominant, and forming the linchpin of their side's core unit in the...

The 9 Best Wingers Of All Time

28 Nov, 2023

Picture the scene: a tense, focused defender is stationed out wide, jockeying an attacker by the bright white touchline. But in a flash, the speedy, technical forward they're up against conjures a moment of magic and skill, and their clever footwork takes them past the defender and into a dangerous position. As a supporter of the attacking team, it can be one of the most exciting moments in football. And there's one pivotal player behind it —...

The 11 Best Strikers Of All Time

20 Nov, 2023

Football is a global sport, played by millions of people across the planet. And whether you're on the beaches of Brazil, the streets of Spain, or the muddy fields of England, there's one thing that you can always expect to find amongst young people playing the game: an adoration for world-class attackers. Strikers are often the most beloved players on a team, grabbing the headlines and inspiring fans in a way that many players in other...

The 11 Best Midfielders Of All Time

15 Nov, 2023

Midfielders pride themselves on being the heartbeat of a team. They occupy the central areas of the pitch, typically dominate possession, and also tend to cover more distance during a match than players in any other position. The best midfielders of all time are capable of dictating the tempo of a match and generally bossing things all over the park. In this article, we'll be providing you with a list of players who are particularly...

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