Euro 2012 Preview : The Netherlands
Every time the Netherlands is represented at a major finals event, a number of clichés are without fail spouted out by the great and the good in the media. In-fighting, the Brazil of Europe, Total football, great technical ability, weak national league etc etc etc Things have changed. The World Cup 2010 shattered a […]
Euro 2012 Preview:Germany
Over the past decade the German national team has never been a side boasting of a lot of flair and fluidity. They have been a hard working unit that has relied heavily on a strong work ethic rather than any individual trickery. Ahead of EURO 2012 we see a very different German squad, one with […]
The Euros are here!
Keep following our blog for team by team previews before the Euros start.
Champions League final – Tactical Overview
Bayern Munich vs Chelsea Chelsea produced another fine defensive performance/killed football again. Depending on your viewpoint… No real surprises from Bayern with their line-up, boss Jupp Heynckes isn’t one for rotation, and fielded a team of players who had played most of the season – some of them 50+ games. Bayern’s main strength […]
8 Articles to read before the Champions League Final
Bayern Vs Chelsea-European Cup Final Preview -Michael Cox -Zonal Marking If Chelsea did an ‘Inter 2010′ in the semi-final against Barcelona, they need to repeat the trick here – Inter went onto beat Bayern in the final that year.Jose Mourinho’s side played extremely defensively in the final two years ago, essentially continuing the strategy they’d […]
FA Cup Final – Chelsea vs Liverpool:Tactical Review
Chelsea lifted the FA Cup for the 4th time in 6 years to prove that the old guard have still got it – even if only as a great cup team, instead of realistic league title challengers. Chelsea and Liverpool lined up fairly similarly, but the difference was in midfield where several Liverpool players had […]
Wayne Rooney – Transformation into a playmaking forward
It may seem like a long time ago when an 18 year old Wayne Rooney swapped the Merseyside blue shirt for the Manchester red. Eight years on, he is the most important member of the Manchester United squad – as important as Cristiano Ronaldo was, if not more. Temperamental, dynamic, talisman – these are the […]
Manchester City 1-0 Manchester United:Talking Points
LineupsRoberto Mancini named an expected line up with Tevez supporting Aguero up front and Zabaleta instead of Richards at right back. Ferguson meanwhile made four changes to the team which started against Everton. He dropped Rafael and the injured Evans in defence and brought in Jones and Smalling. Park and Giggs were also named in […]
Barcelona vs Chelsea : Tactical overview
In some ways, there isn’t much to say about this game that can’t be summed up in a couple of simple sentences. Barcelona attacked relentlessly, and Chelsea defended valiantly. Barcelonahad all the possession and territory but could only score two goals, Chelsea hit them twice on the break. Job done? But there’s more than that […]
7 Articles to read before El Clásico
Real Madrid keep on scoring but will it be enough against Barcelona? -Sid Lowe -The Guardian One week, Messi leads in the Pichichi charts, the next it is Ronaldo. TheClásico is a confrontation of a thousand subplots; Messi v Ronaldo, players who define their teams, is the most compelling of them. At times, you can almost picture the […]
Rough Diamonds #10-Marc-André ter Stegen (Borussia Mönchengladbach)
28 matches into the 2010-11 season German club, Borussia Monchengladbach, had conceded 62 goals and were in last place being five points away from safety. Six matches later, the Foals, as they are lovingly called throughout Germany, ended their regular season overturning the five point deficit with their defence conceding only three more goals in […]
Hillsborough Memorial Silence ruined
This is not the sort of article you’d normally expect on The False 9. However, we felt moved enough by the events at Wembley during the Chelsea vs Spurs FA Cup semi-final to share our views. Chelsea Football club has vowed to identify and punish any supporters that they identify as being involved in the […]
What if Pep’s Barcelona played against Sacchi’s AC Milan?
Pep Guardiola has re-invented football so much in the past decade that one wonders if the game is still the same that was played in the last three decades. ‘Total Football’ – as some may put it, is slowly becoming the new face of football in the new decade, as specialists find themselves out of […]
Rough Diamonds #9-Stephan El Shaarawy (AC Milan)
Most of us tend to associate Italian football with quality defenders and a dearth of attackers. Attacking talents are considered a rarity in Italy. In more recent times, Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi would come to peoples’ minds when asked about Italian attackers. Under the last three coaches, Cesare Prandelli, […]
How Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona Reinvented Total Football
Arrigo Sachi, the mastermind of the Milan side of the 80′s, had once staked a claim that the next tactical revolution in the game, would be the conversion of the whole pitch into a midfield area. What does it imply? The teams in the forefront of this revolution would have the luxury of having defensive midfielders […]
AC Milan vs FC Barcelona – a tactical overview
This game won’t go down as a classic between the sides, given some of the amazing results in the past, but there were some points of interest. A classic Italian shut-out that at times owed more to typically English traits of heroic last-ditch desperate tackles and blocks. Barcelona dominated possession and territory as expected, but […]
Rough Diamonds #8-Moritz Leitner (Borussia Dortmund)
Over the last few years, Germany has produced some of the most talented attackers in the world. Ranging from lethal goal scorers like Mario Gomez, to the simple yet creative Toni Kroos, we’ve seen them all being born in the Bundesliga. One club that has seen innumerable talents coming to the fore is Borussia Dortmund. […]
Europa League Quarter Finals Preview
The 2011-12 Europa League has been one of the most exciting and certainly the most widely watched version in recent years. Big spending Manchester City have been knocked out by a disciplined and hard-working Sporting and the other “big” team in the competition,Manchester United were given a footballing lesson by Athletic. Out of the remaining teams,I […]
The Secret of Swansea’s Success
There is no secret to Swansea’s success…. Swansea City are the latest newly promoted side to charm the neutrals and earn the respect of opponents throughout the Premier League. Following their 3-0 away victory over Fulham they currently lie 8th in the table – only three points off Liverpool, by mid-March find themselves just one […]
Football Venn Diagrams-The Crying Man City Fan!
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