The same people who praised Dan Burn’s headers against Mexico a few days ago are now calling Tuchel a coward.

A team goes into a positive game state and the manager makes defensive adjustments. If it works, he’s a genius. If it doesn’t, he’s a coward. That’s how football discourse works, isn’t it?

Before Embolo’s second yellow, Argentina’s build-up pass completion was just 83.9%. Before this match, they had averaged 92% at the tournament

Spain 2 : 1 Belgium ▪ xG: 1.96 - 0.43 ▪ xThreat: 1.57 - 0.71 ▪ Possession: 67.5% - 32.5% ▪ Field Tilt: 80.6% - 19.4% ▪ Def Action Height: 56.1 - 45.1

It's really hard to generate threat if there is no balance between push & pull dynamics, which is one of the areas Morocco struggled with against France. Graph: @markstats.club

With David Raya in goal, Spain wouldn’t have conceded this goal. He would have intercepted the cross

One of the most enjoyable hate-watching experiences since Emily in Paris

Set pieces, positive game states and fast breaks are your best friends in the playoffs

Canada has done more in 15 minutes against Morocco than the Netherlands managed in 120 minutes. Koeman is an actual terrorist.

The beauty of stats and data visualization is that, after hours of work, you can finally prove the kind of thing everyone already knew: Argentina go *through* defensive blocks and Portugal go *around* them

The most game-state-driven football match ever

I am glad Argentina ditched their fancy “overload the middle” style and went back to good old corners

here's a stat In the Premier League from 2021-25, on throw-ins taken from deep attacking areas, how many were delayed for at least 20 seconds from after the ball went out of play? 22% In the 2025-26 PL, what was the share of deep throw-ins with such a delay? 46% and in the World Cup? 14%

USA 2 : 0 Bosnia ▪ xG: 0.93 - 0.35 ▪ xThreat: 1.37 - 0.52 ▪ Possession: 48.7% - 51.3% ▪ Field Tilt: 56.6% - 43.4% ▪ Def Action Height: 49.9 - 38.8

The same people who wrote, “Why on earth did you sub off Doku and De Bruyne?” are going to write detailed analyses of how Rudi Garcia turned the game around 🤷

Please stop explaining momentum shifts only through hydration breaks. Game states still exist, and their impact is often bigger than anything else.

The best tactical minds of our time have wrestled with this question for years, but against stubborn low blocks, nobody has come up with anything better than crosses

Twitter tactics bro: “It is so good for the future of football that we see more small countries at international level. More variety, new ideas and non-mainstream football.” Small countries: low block and counterattack.

The best tactical minds of our time have wrestled with this question for years, but against stubborn low blocks, nobody has come up with anything better than crosses

Germany 1 : 1 Paraguay ▪ xG: 1.57 - 0.37 ▪ xThreat: 2.91 - 1.0 ▪ Possession: 75.1% - 24.9% ▪ Field Tilt: 81.5% - 18.5% ▪ Def Action Height: 58.3 - 30.0

Bundesliga players looking baffled by the concept of a low block

South Africa 0 : 1 Canada ▪ xG: 0.15 - 1.4 ▪ xThreat: 0.87 - 1.79 ▪ Possession: 57.8% - 42.2% ▪ Field Tilt: 32.6% - 67.4% ▪ Def Action Height: 34.7 - 55.4

Field Tilt FC

A festival of attacking football

Mauricio Pochettino knows a thing or two about high press

The United States outclassed Paraguay physically and tactically. Pochettino has successfully brought modern club football principles to the national team level

👀 Look at Arsenal on this graph. Over the last 10 games, their directness and pass completion in build-up have shifted from "top three" levels toward the "league average"

Left - Arsenal's pass map before Eze's goal, right - Leverkusen's after. An illustration of what dominance looks like with 30% possession

Graph compares each PL team's last 9 games against the rest of their season. Since Michael Carrick took over, Man United are the most in-form team in the league, Man City drop to fifth by xG, and Liverpool struggle to convert third-best xG difference into points