Monday, 10.03.2025
Revisiting the theme of analysing matches from previous seasons but not too long ago to be called a ‘retro analysis’, I planned on analysing Chelsea’s first match against Manchester City in the season they won the title under Antonio Conte.
When he was appointed as Barnsley manager in November, Gerhard Struber was a relative unknown to the typical English football fan, but the Austrian had begun to make a name for himself in Europe with his high intensity philosophy and his success at Wolfsberger AC. When he was appointed, Barnsley were rock bottom of the Championship and were without a win in sixteen, and so the aim was very much to fight against relegation.
Julen Lopetegui’s arrival at Sevilla ahead of the 2019-20 season provided a welcome opportunity for both Sevilla and Lopetegui to re-establish themselves within Europe’s elite. Lopetegui having almost a full season’s break following embarrassing dismissals at Spain and Real Madrid had a point to prove against many doubters.
Thomas Tuchel’s PSG side faced Nagelsmann’s RB Leipzig in the first Champions league semi-final on Tuesday evening. Whilst both sides came through their quarter-finals with late winners, PSG did so fulfilling their favourites tag with Leipzig instead causing an upset.
Constantin Eckner and Abel Meszaros dissect PSG’s tactical changes in their win over Atalanta, RB Leipzig’s defensive performance against Atlético, Bayern Munich’s 8-2 demolition of Barcelona, and the potential of Olympique Lyonnais. They also discuss the upcoming match-ups in the semi-final and briefly provide their take on the Pep Guardiola controversy.
The Champions League quarter finals treated us to some interesting match-ups over the past few days, two being Leipzig’s victory over Atletico Madrid and Lyon’s shock result over Manchester City.
To an extent, both performances in possession can be explained by the importance of depth options to threaten in-behind. This collaborative analysis between MV and JD will explain their role in Leipzig’s in-possession strategy, while the lack of options led to City struggling against Lyon’s 5-3-2.
Ever since the massive success of Guardiola at Barcelona, a lot of people have gravitated towards the philosophy of positional play. This momentum in turn, increased the number of articles and analysis on the subject, putting a large emphasis on playing out from the back in the current literature on the game. Because of this, I thought that it might be interesting to go completely against the grain, and instead focus on long balls and how one is able to utilize them.
Two of the Europa League’s strongest remaining sides met as Inter Milan took on Bayer Leverkusen in one of the first quarter-finals on Monday evening. Leverkusen dispatched Rangers comfortably over two legs, whilst Inter beat Getafe in a one-off tie. An intriguing counter lay in waiting.
Early in the 2017/2018 season, Julian Nagelsmann met Jurgen Klopp in opposing dugouts for the first time. The young coach demonstrated some effective ways of playing against Liverpool’s narrow 4-3-3 press using their 3-1-4-2. This analysis will breakdown those tactics, but does it constitute as a retro analysis?
As has often been discussed across Spielverlagerung, the flanks generally offer lesser strategic value for the in-possession team. A ball-carrier by the touchline only has 180 degrees of movement and limited access to space across the pitch. Therefore, defensive strategies commonly look to show the opponent towards the outside and into a pressing trap.
