In the Premier League this season, it feels like most players are playing at forty percent rather than the sixty percent we are used to. Teams are merely surviving games. It is hard to critique what they are doing tactically because of that. tacticsjournal.com/2026/01/18/w...

I have created a social media platform for football. Two big features: - Delay Sync: Sync the chat to your broadcast delay to avoid spoilers. Never let a text ruin a goal. - Group Chats: Talk to other members between games. You can sign up now for free. I'll share my progress here. syncdchat.com

I built a social platform for football fans called SyncdChat. It syncs chat messages to your specific stream delay, ensuring everyone reacts to the goal together, no matter your delay. I need your help beta testing it. tacticsjournal.com/2025/12/26/i...

Liverpool have struggled this season in attack and one of the main reasons is spacing. They’re too spread out. Manchester City faced the same problem and solved it by making the pitch smaller in possession. Teams like Liverpool should do the same. tacticsjournal.com/2025/12/21/t...

When Manchester United have the ball, they are aligned on the diagonal in a 4-3-3. You wouldn’t call Amad Diallo a wing-back, you would say he is playing right wing. This is another team that challenges the way we traditionally look at formations. tacticsjournal.com/2025/12/16/m...

Manchester City’s Rayan Cherki assisted a goal with a rabona, where a player kicks the ball by wrapping their kicking leg behind the standing leg. In the eyes of Pep Guardiola, a rabona is a problem. This is what I call ‘Getting Pep’d.’ tacticsjournal.com/2025/12/07/g...

Every team uses decoy runs. Bayern Munich tied the timing of the pass and the third-man run to the moment the decoy finished his run against Arsenal. The timing between the decoy, third man, and passer was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. tacticsjournal.com/2025/12/03/t...

Taking something that is complex and communicating it simply is very difficult, but it is worth it. When you make your explanation as simple as it can be, your ideas spread. There is less friction for those that want to listen. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/29/e...

We are used to looking at the pitch horizontally, in a straight line, from back to front. Instead, if you look at how players organize on the diagonal, on an angle, you can spot why teams have trouble progressing past the opponent’s defense. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/24/d...

You remember things you can visualize. If you’re worried the people listening will stare at you like you’ve got four eyes, include a word or sentence they can picture. A complex idea becomes simple when you can see it. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/20/h...

Footballers like Pirlo, Nedved, or Zico don’t exist in our mind today because we are overexposed to football. If a new movie was released by an actor every week instead of every other year, that actor would feel less special to us. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/14/a...

It wasn’t a new camera that changed football on TV in the 90s; it was the time that persists on the scorebug. Viewers went from feeling like a member of the crowd to having their attention split between the game and a stopwatch. It ruins your immersion. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/12/t...

For the past 25 years, every Premier League champion had a talisman. It is unlikely you will finish first if you don’t have that one player to propel you to the top of the table. This could be the first year it is a defender — Gabriel for Arsenal. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/08/g...

When an ant can’t carry a large leaf back to the colony alone, the others step in to help. The ants are not spread apart; they are close together. In football, midfielders can starve an attack if the spacing between players is too big. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/07/m...

Teams are becoming more successful at passing long, in the air, because they are prioritizing placing more players around the header to win the second ball. You do not have to win the header, but you must win the second ball. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/04/w...

If you want to spot trends before they happen, it is important to identify when a change of form is due to tactical changes or the execution of the tactic. In most cases, the underlying issue is the execution, not the tactic. tacticsjournal.com/2025/11/02/t...

Since I started the Tactics Journal, I have received several dozen messages from other writers, podcasters, and video creators asking for feedback on their work before I find it myself. I ignore all of them. Here is why. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/31/g...

I have been watching the Premier League all my life as my main source of consuming live football. I have never been less motivated to watch a match due to several team’s over reliance on long throw-ins and corners. They are playing a different sport. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/28/t...

If Cody Gakpo scores either of the two shots that hit the post, or the unmarked header inside the six-yard box, Liverpool win, Ruben Amorim is struggling and sacked, and Arne Slot is challenging for a back-to-back title. But he doesn’t score. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/22/r...

We put too much emphasis on the manager’s role in the game. Sometimes the players are the problem, and sometimes they are the solution, but they are first. They are the reason the play happened, not everything is by design. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/20/p...

The saddest four words in football that a player can say is “Am I allowed to?” That question comes from the fear of the reprimanding voice of generations of coaches. Their voice echoes in the heads of the players, afraid to make their own decisions. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/19/a...

The only time during a match in which multiple players can be overtly physical with their arms and hands is during a corner kick. We focus on how rehearsed set-pieces are, but that added physicality from multiple players simultaneously makes overpowered. tacticsjournal.com/2025/10/12/c...

Imagine you are a singer, comedian, speaker, any form of entertainer. Their worst nightmare is the audience leaving mid-performance. Now think of the impact a crowd leaving in the middle of a match can have on a football team. That aspect is overlooked. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/30/i...

I can’t unsee how effective a midfielder dropping and maintaining six or more yards of separation is to help break up a compact defense. I wish more teams rotated midfielders back like this to unlock space for easier central progression. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/28/y...

Numbers like 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 3-4-3, and 5-2-3 describe the formation to help us quickly visualize how players are arranged on the pitch, but that is our interpretation of the tactic. What is being communicated by the coach to the players is what matters. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/26/t...

The best ideas are ones that are not forced. They will flow out of you. You won’t even be able to give yourself a second to overthink it. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/24/d...

It is easy to oversimplify Ruben Amorim’s attacking tactics. On the surface, Manchester United look predictable because they just get the ball and attack, direct play. That impression has fed the perception that United lack a sophisticated plan. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/23/r...

I had to watch back Barcelona’s match against Newcastle to study what Anthony Gordon mentioned when he said, “The way in which they keep the ball was a learning experience.” We don’t play against that kind of style in England. At least not at that level.” tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/20/l...

Chelsea always defend free-kick crosses with a predictable offside trap. Bayern Munich exposed it by baiting the trap, keeping all their attackers offside, and then they crossed to an onside man free at the back post. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/18/t...

PSG manager Luis Enrique has started watching the first half of matches from the stands, borrowing that idea from rugby coaches. In his words you either “adapt, improvise, and stop being predictable for the opponent, or you’re dead.” tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/16/l...

Aston Villa stands alone as the only club in England’s top seven divisions yet to score this season. The underlying issue is one we underestimate because it is hard to quantify—the mood within the squad. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/14/w...

Arsenal always found solutions in the buildup as Liverpool struggled to press in the first half. In the second, they switched to a man-to-man midfield — Szoboszlai marked Calafiori and Konaté marked Martinelli — giving them the control they needed. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/04/l...

Manchester United’s newest goalkeeper Senne Lammens is 6’4 and makes great reaction saves, but he has a skinnier build and a shorter reach due to the fact that gets his hands in the game but not his legs. That makes him look less imposing in net. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/03/s...

The mood of the team is a thing that you cannot quantify from the outside, and the transfer market is a massive distraction. Don’t be surprised when teams who are underperforming to start the season start to turn it on when this summer window closes. tacticsjournal.com/2025/09/01/c...

You can like an aspect of a manager’s game or a set of players, even when the result goes against them. You can look forward to watching a team even if you know they’ll likely lose. That is the beauty of being a neutral. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/28/b...

If you want to experience football fully, you need to watch teams at all levels, not only the high-level teams. You have to see the creative ways teams compromise. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/27/b...

It is a blessing in disguise for Liverpool that Dominic Szoboszlai got to play right-back because he’s the closest thing to Trent Alexander-Arnold that they have. He is their most important player. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/26/s...

If your team is only functional when you have the best ball-playing goalkeeper in the world, that is a problem worth solving because that type of goalkeeper is ultra rare. Embrace the long ball or be left behind by the teams that don’t concede goals. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/25/s...

The fact that Thomas Frank did not use a back five and sit back and let Manchester City attack in their own half spoke to the confidence he has in the quality of Tottenham’s side. The thing that surprised me was that both center backs were active. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/24/f...

When you are playing in a back five and you give up a goal on the far post, who is at fault for the goal? The answer is the entire team, and this is a perfect example from West Ham against Chelsea. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/23/w...

I feel sorry for those who in ten to twenty years will want to go back to watch Xabi Alonso’s first match in charge of Real Madrid, only to be met with a lifeless performance of a team drained of its personality. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/20/x...

Watching players like Tijjani Reijnders, Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Hugo Ekitike, Mohammed Kudus, Antoine Semenyo, or Lamine Yamal reminds you how insignificant a manager is. The coach lays the foundation, but the players are the reason we show up. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/17/i...

Tottenham’s use of a back four or back five should be situational based on the opposition they face. The most interesting difference between the two options was the way in which the defenders jumped out to help in the man-to-man press. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/14/t...

In theory, Arsenal’s attacking output should improve because they signed Martin Zubimendi. If a positional team does not have a holding midfielder that can find and play the least obvious, they might as well not have a striker. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/12/a...

I saw a video of Pep Guardiola and Jeremy Doku today from Manchester City training that frustrated me. It is the worst thing Guardiola has brought into football. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/10/p...

Tottenham manager Thomas Frank is anti-chaos but not risk-averse. They take necessary risks but only in the right conditions. The football is super simple. It is similar to Nuno Espirito Santo’s defend-to-counter blueprint at Nottingham Forest. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/08/w...

Liverpool are going to miss Trent Alexander-Arnold more than they imagine because Mohamed Salah thrives from direct passes into space or into his feet. He might become lost in the game without them in the short-term. tacticsjournal.com/2025/08/04/l...

I have never understood the emphasis on a nutmeg, as it is immediately seen as a negative for the defender. You have to put that “mistake” into context if they are showing the dribbling attacker to one side. tacticsjournal.com/2025/07/10/d...

The football world mourns the loss of Diogo Jota, 28, and André Silva, 25. It puts one major issue with football into perspective: the lack of time players are given away from football. I am deeply saddened for their family and friends. tacticsjournal.com/2025/07/05/l...

Quicker passing is the focus for next season, and that will force teams to overload the center more because you need numbers in close proximity to make those quick passes work. tacticsjournal.com/2025/07/04/q...