Barca’s poor defence this season is down to how they press. 1st line of pressing is too passive & their pivots often don’t cover the right spaces/bad timing. If this happens with Flick’s high press & they don’t sign a space dominator,they will ship goals.

Real Madrid win so many duels. This is the main theme of their beatings of Girona & Barcelona this season (whilst Barca struggled badly against Girona). Real Madrid just swallowed both teams up in the duels and with how much ground their midfield & attack could cover.

Vinícius playing more central this season has developed his game. As we also saw vs Bayern in the 2nd leg, as well as his usual intensity, his wing play is also more cultured. This is key given Mbappé’s arrival means he will likely return to playing LW.

Alonso will regret the choice not to use an orthodox striker vs Atalanta’s man to man press. No presence to hold up the ball or run the channels. The ball just didn’t stick and Leverkusen couldn’t get out. The 2nd Atalanta goal even came from this. One for Alonso to learn from.

Amorim, Klopp & Alonso have all been tactically outclassed with an aggressive man to man high press and quick fluent passing moves after they regain the ball. Don Gasperini. This is pure coaching.

The Chelsea squad is stacked with top technicians. Gusto, Colwill, Caicedo, Enzo, Palmer, Nkunku are all top technicians who would be maximised with a patient possession style that exploits central areas. Pochettino’s high pressing & more vertical style of football has never

England’s left side attacking dynamic is the main area of concern. Shaw is not likely to make it according to Southgate so this would leave Gomez, Branthwaite & Trippier as LB options. Asking them to provide width is not the best fit if it’s Foden playing narrow LW as is likely.

Ridiculously good seasons from these two. Gundogan left, KDB and Haaland both had extended spells out of the team. Foden & Rodri stepped up massively to become the protagonists. World class.

Ultra tight control in possession with multiple top technicians between the lines aligned with the long shot threat of KDB, Foden, Rodri from those same areas, is an unstoppable formula. It pushed Man City over the line for the treble & again for this 4peat Premier League title.

Fitting that the 1st goal came from Bernardo on the RW and passing into KDB in the right half-space and then into Haaland. That’s the template Man City goal that started off during the treble run-in last season. Walker wide right with Bernardo narrow was killing Man City’s

It was the antithesis of Liverpool’s plans vs Man Utd at Old Trafford (albeit no Rashford & Bruno this time). Neutralise Man Utd’s main threat in transition: Pep does it by constantly passing short & taking no risks with the ball, Arteta does it by setting up deeper off-the-ball.

Arteta just sat deeper in his 4-4-2 (to prevent Man Utd having any transitional threat). They were so compact and denied all access into their box. Man Utd didn’t have the quality to penetrate them. The scoreline looks close but in reality, this was a stroll in the park.

Nottingham Forest are a very powerful counter-attacking team. If you lose a cheap ball or 2nd ball when you’re attacking, Murillo & Aina have the ability to pass into the front. MGW can connect and drive. CHO has composure to pick the right option. And they have the searing pace

That separation+shoot from Hudson-Odoi is unbelievable. His shot comes within a miliisecond of him dribbling inside Gusto, with minimal back-lift. This is the type of unstoppable move that had him on a world class trajectory.

Installing the Kovacic-Rodri double pivot regularly feels like Pep’s final boss move of pure control that he pulls out in a title run-in. It’s impossible to force them into build-up errors & they can pass in such close proximity together that it opens up the rest of the pitch.

This guy is the best tactical analyst I have ever seen in my entire life.

It’s a disservice to limit Gvardiol’s abilities to calling him a defender

Ball-carrying capacity of Gvardiol-Kovačić-Akanji in the same XI is unreal. Feeling that Pep is trying to think one step ahead again here.He’s trying to find more methods of arriving in the half-spaces rather than always occupying them,so he can overload the opposition last line.

A man of Josko Gvardiol’s size and build shouldn’t be able to gracefully move like this 😂 this is a freak of a defender