If there was any remaining doubt that Lionel Messi is the greatest football player of his generation, they were erased tonight, as Barcelona got the better of Arsenal in the much-hyped battle of the teams playing football ‘the right way’. Arsenal didn’t lose this match tactically, but they didn’t help themselves. Read more »
No surprises for guessing that Barcelona again saw more of the ball in the game at the Nou Camp – it’s doubtful any side will visit there this season and see more possession. Read more »
A game as tight, tense and nervy as you’d expect from a 1st v 2nd clash – Bayern emerge from it on top, despite playing for 50 minutes with ten men after having Hamit Altintop dismissed. Read more »
A tight game that was won the better side. United looked tired after their midweek game in Munich – Chelsea were fresher, brighter and created more goalscoring opportunities. They are now in the driving seat. Read more »
An exciting, crucial game at Old Trafford resulted in a deserved 1-2 win for Chelsea. The tactical battle throughout the game was quite subdued – both sides set up as expected once we had the team sheets, and the only real change was when United pushed forward late on. Read more »
A decent game for the neutral tonight, but fairly underwhelming from a tactical point of view. Both sides played as expected, the result was no surprise, and all the goals came from defensive mistakes rather than attacking brilliance. Read more »
A crazy game of football to watch, a difficult one to analyse. Two open, attacking sides produced a wonderful game for the neutral, but one that will probably leave both managers absolutely fuming – Wenger because his side were awful and conceded poor goals, Guardiola because his side threw away a 0-2 lead. Read more »
We were told constantly before the game that Arsenal against Barcelona was a clash of two sides who play football ‘the right way’ – short, quick passes from excellent technical players comfortable in possession. And that proved to be correct, although this graph shows a stark contrast between the sides. Read more »
How on earth did Manchester United manage to lose this game? On top after twenty seconds of playing time, Rooney causing the Bayern centre-backs no end of trouble, and a spare man in the centre of the pitch, it really is quite remarkable that Bayern will go to Old Trafford with the advantage. Sir Alex Ferguson has been constantly praised on ZM for his tactics so far this season, but he might have to take the blame here. Read more »
This Greek side achieved perhaps the most astonishing thing in the history of international football. There have been one-off shocks, games that went against the favourites because of a particular set of circumstances. USA 1-0 England in 1950. Senegal 1-0 France in 2002. But those things can happen; shocks in football happen because it’s such a low-scoring game, and dominance doesn’t always equal goals. Read more »
On paper, United should be set up perfectly to deal with this one. No side in Europe rely on their wide players as much as Bayern do, no side in Europe defend from the wings as effectively as United do. Read more »
The contest that many neutrals might have hoped to see in the final. Two similar sides in many ways – they play a similar brand of football and have both favoured 4-3-3 systems this season. Read more »
After twenty trips down memory lane, this series has finally come to an end. Below are the twenty sides chosen, in descending order, to represent the 2000s in tactical terms.
Choosing the sides was a difficult task. The intention was not to choose the twenty ‘best’ sides, but to choose twenty sides who were somehow interesting tactically, or those who made a significant impact upon the game. Read more »
There’s a case for saying that was the first huge game of the season. Title favourites Inter against the side who look most likely to topple them, and Jose Mourinho up against Claudio Ranieri – the man he replaced at Chelsea almost six years ago. Read more »
It’s not yet a case of ‘Cristiano who?’ but Nani has finally started to justify his hefty price tag, in his third season at Manchester United. Today he got two assists, and had a hand in another goal. As the Chalkboard shows, Nani’s crossing from wide positions on the left-hand side is not the best, but he is very effective at beating his full-back, coming inside and providing more accurate passes.
The decade started with the most attacking, open tournament in modern football, at Euro 2000. The four semi-finalists all played ‘classic’ Number 10s in the hole between the opposition defence and midfield. France, Italy, Portugal and Holland had Zinedine Zidane, Francesco Totti, Manuel Rui Costa and Dennis Bergkamp respectively – it almost seemed essential to have a player in this mould to be successful – helped by trequartista-less England and Germany’s early exits. Read more »
A brief break from the in-depth tactical analysis here, to round-up the major European leagues, highlight this weekend’s crucial table-topping fixtures, and celebrate how wonderful European football has been this season. Read more »
What more can you say about this Barcelona side? European champions, La Liga champions and Copa Del Rey winners, all in the first season under the charge of Pep Guardiola. And they didn’t do it by merely winning games, they did it by winning in style, making them perhaps the most universally respected side of the decade. Read more »
It’s a shame that the three-man defence has become so unfashionable in recent years, because tactically it’s a lot more interesting and varied than a four-man defence. It essentially did the same job – with one fewer player, allowing the side to dominate the midfield with an extra man. Read more »
It’s easy to criticize Steven Gerrard at the moment. After all, he’s having the worst season of his career, in an amazingly underwhelming campaign for Liverpool, having come so close to their first Premiership title last time out. Meanwhile, more persistent doubts remain about his true ability as a footballer. The master of modern football tactics, Arrigo Sacchi, once said that Gerrard ‘lacks what I call knowing-how-to-play football’, describing him as ‘a great footballer, but not a great player’. Read more »
If you’re a centre-back making your Premiership debut, the one striker you don’t want to come up against is Didier Drogba. Skilful, strong and a great goalscorer, Drogba is almost unplayable on his day. Read more »
