The Athletic FC Tactics Podcast

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Mark Carey and Ali Maxwell look ahead to Saturday's Champions League final between Manchester City and Chelsea from a tactical and analytical perspective. Can we learn anything from the two games they've played against each other recently? Will City stick with their strikerless approach or throw in Jesus or Aguero? Which of Chelsea's array of attackers are best suited t...

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell gather to offer their distinctive take on football's traditional end of season awards Tasked by Ali with picking an alternative team of the season, with the stipulation being that they can't pick any players who got more than one vote in The Athletic's writers poll, Tom and Michael have picked the players they think have gone under the radar...

On October the 15th, four games into the Premier League season, we released a pod titled 'How does Guardiola get Man City back on top?' - they were struggling and looked miles off the pace. Eight months later they have won the Premier League at a canter and have reached the Champions League final - so how has Pep done it and how does this side compare to the title winners of 17/18 and 18/19? The A...

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell have called time on Fulham and West Brom's stay in the Premier League and all but consigned them to the Championship for next season along with Sheffield Utd, so what went wrong for them this season? Why have they been the worst three teams in the Premier League and what are their respective chances of bouncing back next season? And we also...

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell complete their quest to classify every possible position and role on a football pitch with the third and final edition of the ZM pod footballing glossary, this time focusing on defenders and goalkeepers. What's the difference between a libero and a sweeper? When is a back three really a back five? Should the outside centre-backs in a three m...

This week's Zonal Marking pod is a European Super League Free Zone, come shelter from the storm with The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville as they take a deep dive into that most quintessential part of the English game - crossing. Tom has scoured the data to look at how effective crossing is in the modern Premier League, how many teams focus on it as a main source of attack, which players ar...

The race to qualify for the Champions League looks set to be the most exciting thing about the run-in as we approach the end of the Premier League season. Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham and Everton are all still in contention with eight games remaining. The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell have studied the form and the data to give you their considered take...

What makes an entertaining football match? Loads of goals? Tactical battles? Tension? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell pick five games from the Premier League this season with the highest and most evenly balanced xG they could find to see whether they can crack the code and determine the key ingredients needed for the ideal crowd-pleasing game. Game 1 - Arsenal 3 - 1 Chelse...

When Michael Cox is away... The Athletic's Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell will delve into the Championship and pick out the most interesting stats and best players to watch from each of the 24 teams as we prepare to head full-steam into the business end of the season Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the international break upon us The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell thought it would be the ideal time to travel back to summer 2018, to the hazy days of waistcoats and wasted pints, as Gareth Southgate's England came within twenty minutes of a World Cup final. We all remember the penalty shoot-out and the Trippier free-kick, but were England actually any good in that tou...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our new analytics writer Mark Carey to tackle the thorny issue of how we measure the performance of that most unique of positions - goalkeepers. Taking the lead from Mark's recent pieces on Kasper Schmeichel and Vicente Guaita we look at the various metrics we use to analyse goalkeeping performance, how useful they are at accurately assessin...

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell set out to select an XI from across Europe's top five leagues consisting of players who are unique in their positions - whether it be a curious tactical style, strangely high or low stats compared to what you'd expect, or just the fact that they are ridiculously tall, this is Quite Unique FC See if you can guess who we've picked from these c...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to bring you the definitive guide to the many, many roles and positions you may find among attackers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are West Ham genuine top four contenders? Can Leicester do what they failed to last season and hang on to a Champions League spot? The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to examine the contrasting tactical approaches of the Premier League's gatecrashers and assess whether either side is the real deal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to preview the Champions League knockout stages which get underway on Tuesday night. Coxy has studied the tactics, Worville has mined all the data, and Ali will guide us through all the ties as we look at every single game and every single team left in the competition in detail. The Champions League last 16 in full: RB Leipzig v Liverpoo...

What do Leeds, Nîmes, Montpellier, Union Berlin, Elche, Nice, Freiburg, Brighton, Burnley, and Benevento all have in common? They're all mixing it with the big boys of European football in areas you might not expect. Punching well above their weight or standing out like a sore thumb when it comes to a whole host of different metrics. In this week's ZM pod The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worvill...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to delve into the world of running stats and explain the many different ways in which they are used in the modern game. We'll look at whether the 'distance covered' stats actually mean anything, at how intense pressing sides may end up running less than you think, and the role of tracking data in the recruitment process. Plus we consult...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to tell us what Chelsea can expect from Thomas Tuchel, the tactical chameleon. We'll study his career to date starting with his first job causing a scene at Mainz, his first big gig at Dortmund where he pushed Bayern close but not close enough and then on to PSG who he guided to the Champions League final last season. There's a look at h...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to assess the legacy that Mesut Ozil leaves behind at Arsenal as his seven and half year spell at the Emirates comes to an end. We remember the excitement which greeted his arrival, the way Arsene Wenger had to adjust to fit him in to a playmaker-laden squad, and of course all those assists. There's also plenty of discussion of how it al...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to bring you the definitive guide to the many, many roles and positions you may find in midfield. What's the difference between a 6 and an 8? What makes a true holding midfielder and is it different to the 'Makelele role'? Why do Argentineans love no.5s so much? What's the difference between an Enganche and a Trequarista? And what on ear...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Tom Worville join Ali Maxwell to explain what's going wrong with Frank Lampard's out-of-form Chelsea side from a tactical point of view. Why have they struggled to beat anyone above them? Why are they so easy to pass through? Is it all down to poor finishing from Werner and bad goalkeeping at the other end? What would be the ideal midfield with the players they have?...

The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell round off 2020 by looking at all 20 Premier League teams and picking at least one interesting stat, observation or quirk for each of them. You'll find out which team has taken the most throw-ins, the player has had zero touches of the ball in his own penalty area, which team is best at 'winning' offsides, and how about the team who have scor...

Is Big Sam really just a boring long ball merchant? The Athletic's Michael Cox, Tom Worville and Ali Maxwell gather to look at the stats, the data and the evidence from Sam Allardyce's career in the aim of answering that very question. From his days as a pioneer of Pro-Zone at Bolton, to 'out-tacticing' Jose Mourinho with West Ham, through to his more recent great escapes with Sunderland and Cryst...

The Athletic's Michael Cox and Ali Maxwell are joined by our women's football writer Katie Whyatt to look at why Arsenal are struggling in the big WSL games this season after they lost to Manchester City at the weekend, a result which followed up failures to win against Manchester United and Chelsea earlier in the season. We look at how manager Joe Montemurro is responding to increased scrutiny in...

When Mikel Arteta recently referred to Arsenal putting in 33 crosses in one game as "pure maths" it piqued the interest of The Athletic's resident analytical gurus Michael Cox and Tom Worville - what could Mikel mean by such a phrase and is this really a good idea? The pair join Ali Maxwell this week to look at why Arsenal have recently become obsessed with slinging the ball into the mixer and to...