The Makélélé Role: How a Screening Midfielder Became a Position
Claude Makélélé was so associated with protecting the back four that his name became shorthand for the job. What did the role involve, and why did it matter?
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Editorial Desk
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Articles by Editorial Desk
Rest Defence and the Inverted Full-Back
How a team is arranged when it has the ball decides how well it defends when it loses it. The inverted full-back became one of the best-known answers.
PPDA and the Problem of Measuring the Press
Passes allowed per defensive action became a popular shorthand for pressing intensity. It is a useful number, but only if you know what it leaves out.
The Evolution of the Back Three
Three-man defences have come and gone in waves, from the WM to sweeper systems and the wing-back sides of the 2010s. Each wave solved a different problem.
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.
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.