A false nine tears a pure zonal midfield apart, and always has
The overlap has become a decoy run and nobody gets credit for it
The best defensive action in football does not show up anywhere
Home advantage lives in the referee's head, not the players' legs
Five substitutes helped big squads, it never helped tired players
Most teams invert their fullbacks because they saw someone else do it
A half-hearted counterpress is worse than not pressing at all
Compactness is a vertical problem and teams keep measuring it sideways
Half-space has become a word that means nothing at all
PPDA is a bad number and we should stop quoting it in arguments
Defending deep is a skill, not an admission of fear
Your winger tracking back decides more matches than his finishing does
Wrapping a fragile player in cotton wool breaks him faster
The hour-mark substitution is a habit, not a decision
One striker pressing alone is just expensive jogging
The high line stopped being a bluff, and that is the problem
Every counter goes through the channel your inverted fullback left open
