What Possession Statistics Can and Cannot Tell Us
Possession percentages are among the most familiar statistics in football coverage and among the most misread. How they are calculated, and what they conceal, both matter.
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Catenaccio and the Italian Defensive Tradition
Catenaccio is often caricatured as pure negativity. Its history is more interesting: a precise set of ideas about marking, cover and counter-attack.
From Michels to Guardiola: The Lineage of Positional Play
A thread of ideas runs from Ajax in the 1960s through Cruyff's Barcelona to Guardiola's teams. Tracing it shows how football philosophies are passed on and changed.