Cool-headed Salah, combined with the chaos strike pairing of Núñez and Díaz, offers ‘big chances’ and goals galore Injury, international tournaments and even kidnap have worked against Liverpool to prevent their front three from starting more than nine Premier League games together this season, but it seems Jürgen Klopp has settled on a first-choice attack as he aims to end his reign with a second title. Before there was Sadio Mané, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah, but things have changed amid a rebuild. Salah remains but his assistants are different; Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez have settled ..read more

The Norwegian remains ruthless but in the awkward German the title pretenders have acquired a player growing in efficiency Sir Alex Ferguson once said: “Attack wins you games, defence wins you championships.” The meeting of Manchester City and Arsenal on Sunday could well prove the former Manchester United manager right. The teams are very different in style when it comes to their centre-forwards. Manchester City have arguably the world’s best No 9 in Erling Haaland, whereas Kai Havertz assumes the role of a false 9 for Arsenal. The contrasts will make for an intriguing match at the ..read more

In a football world dominated by one style, the Stathamesque flamethrower-wielding mavericks need to be cherished The Middle-Aged Serial Action Murder Epic has been one of the most popular movie types of the last 50 years. These films tend to have the same basic setup, which is middle-aged men repeatedly murdering the thing they’re anxious about. For many years this was simply Nazis. A group of men, occasionally disguised in Nazi uniforms – nuance: fear that deep down they actually are Nazis – slaughter thousands of endlessly replicating Nazi soldiers and everyone feels good about this ..read more

Pep Guardiola may look to minimise the threat of Darwin Núñez while John Stones could have a pivotal role Pep Guardiola sides have always had a vulnerability to balls played in behind their defensive line. It is inherent in the high press that makes his teams so good at regaining possession: you cannot have one without the other (which is one of football’s enduring strengths as a sport: no positive comes entirely without a negative; there is no “best” way to play ..read more

Liverpool and Manchester City managers have brought the best out of one another to usher in golden age of English football It will, as ever, be a clash of contrasts. The joy machine against the tortured genius. Extrovert versus introvert. Low-slung baseball cap versus designer knitwear, ordered chaos versus chaotic order, 4-3-3 versus who-the-hell-knows, blood red versus cool blue, the hair transplant against the immaculate bald pate. For the past eight years, this is the duel that has painted the skies of English football, took it to new and unfamiliar places. And now, the end. For all the an ..read more

We had success at Birmingham with set pieces and Liverpool’s and Arsenal’s men are showing how to exploit them now Emphasising the importance of set pieces was hardly regarded as glamorous in the past, the focus of teams lower down the table desperately seeking any advantage over wealthier counterparts. Nowadays, clubs at the top are prioritising cunning corner routines and clever throw-in tactics because there are fine margins in football and being smarter than your opponent can make the difference. Liverpool won the Carabao Cup last Sunday from a set play and Arsenal’s men have been very goo ..read more

Liverpool’s serial woodwork-botherer and Arsenal’s low-scoring striker show that the game is not about goals alone Football is a simple game, but it is also a complicated one and sometimes the greatest complication is working out just how complicated. As data reveals the intricacies of its internal workings and informs ever more complex pressing and counter-pressing schemes, so at the same time the bluntest and most obvious observations take on a weird profundity: “What they need is somebody to put the ball in the net.” At the highest level, the impact of data on processes has been huge and le ..read more

Germany and Bayern Munich could not quite fathom where to play the young Beckenbauer, so he effectively invented a role for himself “For me,” Helmut Schön said of Franz Beckenbauer in February 1965 after calling him up to the West Germany team for the first time, “he is the player of the future. Maybe not in midfield, perhaps up front.” People were always looking at Beckenbauer and seeing in him a being from another age, and that meant that, for a long time, nobody really knew what to make of him. He was handsome, charismatic and languid, a player of effortless elegance guaranteed to enrage th ..read more

In the seasonal flurry, the process is over-prioritised and as the Liverpool manager points out, players’ emotions count more In March 2019, Manchester United went to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League trailing 2-0 from the first leg. By half-time, they led 2-1. Needing another goal to go through on away goals, their manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, pulled a counterintuitive masterstroke: he sat back. For half an hour, almost nothing happened. PSG pushed tentatively, first baffled and then anxious. And then Solskjær unleashed his assault on panicking opponents, United won ..read more

No longer a game of territory or possession, the prevailing tactic is more complex – as Bournemouth’s kick-off routine shows Bournemouth kicked off. They had gained a certain notoriety for their kick-offs last season, scoring, for instance, in the 10th second at Arsenal following a bluff in which they loaded the left side and then attacked down the right. This time, at Old Trafford, the kick‑off was far more straightforward, knocked back and, as two men charged down the right, the ball was swept out to that flank. It was overhit. Neither of the chasers had any real chance of getting there and ..read more