By next Tuesday we’ll know the identity of the inaugural MLS is Back Tournament winner and who will qualify for the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League. The hastily arranged tournament, which is being held behind closed doors at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, FL., has thrown up its fair share of…
If reports are to be believed, Liverpool are about to improve their one area of weakness. The Premier League champions don’t currently possess a natural understudy to Andrew Robertson at left-back. When the Scotland international isn’t available or he’s rested, the team’s dynamic changes completely. I guess they managed just fine last season, amassing 99…
Pressure can crush players. It can also help turn them into diamonds. In the case of Odsonne Édouard at Celtic, it was very much the latter. The Bhoys sold goal-machine Moussa Dembélé on the final day of the 2018 summer transfer window. No obvious replacement was signed but, earlier on in the summer, the Scottish…
Football data visualisations are so widely used nowadays that discussing their importance seems naive. When executed well, they are able to convey an incredible amount of information very quickly. Moves, passing directions, shots, defensive actions and virtually every type of event that can be recorded in a football match can be represented on a graph,…
The play-offs are under the spotlight this week, with much of the footballing world’s focus on the battle for promotion from the EFL now that the Premier League season is over. But while there’s little doubt that the Championship’s showpiece event is one of the biggest, or certainly most lucrative, games in world football –…
To European audiences, Major League Soccer has always been a strange sort of hinterland where ageing greats and up-and-coming domestic prospects meet. And never more so than in its current guise with the MLS is Back tournament taking place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, FL.…
Looks can be deceiving, especially in football. For example, take Joelinton. If he walked past and you knew nothing about him other than the fact he was a forward, you’d assume he was a target man. The Brazilian is 6ft1 and has a presence about him. He was signed by Newcastle United to replace 6ft2…
Three months is both lots of time and no time at all. Three months ago, there was no Premier League action, and now the season is at an end. But three months ago we were in the midst of various lockdown-related restrictions, and that, unfortunately, hasn’t changed as much as we’d all like. It seems…
Liverpool aren’t the only fabled English club who finally brought a long wait to an end this summer. After 16 years in the wilderness, Leeds United are back in the Premier League. After 21 managerial appointments, three seasons in League One and 736 league matches, something had to change. That change was appointing former Newell’s…
Ever since the inception of the Premier League in 1992, Sky Sports has been at the forefront of the football conversation in the UK and beyond. The broadcasting giant has played a significant role in the global success and popularity of the competition and has enjoyed television rights for each of its 28 seasons. By…