Hello – I’m now a full-time writer for The Athletic. It’s a sport-only, subscription-based sports website that focuses on good, intelligent, in-depth features – I’ve written more about why I’ve joined here. There’s around 40 other journalists, all covering British/European football, so there’s an incredible amount of good content on there. Here’s the kind of thing I’ll ..read more

Liverpool won their sixth European Cup after a disappointing final when neither side played at their best. Roberto Firmino was declared fit to start, while Jurgen Klopp selected Gini Wijnaldum over James Milner in midfield. Mauricio Pochettino used a 4-2-3-1 formation and started Harry Kane and Harry Winks, who had both been out for several weeks. Lucas ..read more

Reminder that my book Zonal Marking is out now! Chelsea won the Europa League thanks to a 20-minute spell at the start of the second half where they dominated down their left. Maurizio Sarri was able to call upon N’Golo Kante, who was declared fit to start. Andreas Christensen continued in place of the injured Antonio Rudiger ..read more

Here is an extract from Zonal Marking which is out today in hardback, ebook and audiobook and can be bought here The Netherlands, by its very nature, is based around the concept of space. A country whose name literally means ‘lower countries’ is a remarkable construct, gradually reclaimed from the sea through the revolutionary use of ..read more

Reminder that my book Zonal Marking is out tomorrow! Just like Liverpool the previous evening, Tottenham came back from 3-0 down in the tie, to set up an all-English Champions League final. Eric ten Hag was without David Neres, and therefore switched Dusan Tadic to the left flank, with Kasper Dolberg upfront. Mauricio Pochettino was still without Harry ..read more

Reminder that my book Zonal Marking is out this week… Liverpool produced a remarkable comeback to defeat Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final, having lost the first leg 3-0 at the Camp Nou. As always with Liverpool’s European victories at Anfield, the win was credited to emotion, atmosphere and history. While those factors are certainly relevant ..read more

Ajax followed their historic win at the Bernabeu in the previous round with a similarly impressive victory away at Juventus. There were two major themes from the first leg in Amsterdam, a 1-1 draw. First, Ajax used Donny van de Beek in a man-marking job on Miralem Pjanic, which badly hurt Juventus’ passing from deep positions ..read more

Chelsea played through Liverpool’s press impressively before half-time, but then a 10-minute burst of pressure won Liverpool the game. Jurgen Klopp’s team selection was as expected, with the trio of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita – who started together in a 4-3-3 for the first time in the midweek win over Porto – again in ..read more

Chelsea played through Liverpool’s press impressively before half-time, but then a 10-minute burst of pressure won Liverpool the game. Jurgen Klopp’s team selection was as expected, with the trio of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita – who started together in a 4-3-3 for the first time in the midweek win over Porto – again in ..read more