The pressing trap that keeps working down the right
Betis v Girona
They invite the pass into the full-back and then take away every option he has. It is not a mistake he is making — it is the trap working.
3 September 2026
The archive
Everything published, tagged by team, phase and idea. It grows twice a week.
Why your build-up dies in the second phase
Method piece
Everybody can play out of the first line now. Almost nobody has a plan for what happens twenty yards later.
29 August 2026
The near-post routine 200 goals have in common
Set-piece study
Two hundred corners that produced goals, and the thing most of them share is not the delivery.
22 August 2026 Members only
Rest defence: the three players who decide the counter
Benfica v Sporting
The counter-attack you concede is decided while you still have the ball, by three players nobody is watching.
15 August 2026 Members only
Man-marking is back, and it is not what it was
Method piece
The version that has returned is conditional, and the condition is what makes it work.
8 August 2026 Members only