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Lead Performance Analyst at Manchester United Women, Carlon Carpenter, is taking questions now for an AMA about performance analysis and tactics. tacticsjournal.com/ama/carlon-c...

tacticsjournal.comAMA with Carlon Carpenter - Tactics JournalCarlon Carpenter, Lead Performance Analyst at Manchester United Women, takes questions about performance analysis and tactics.

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AMA with Carlon Carpenter

tacticsjournal.comAMA with Carlon CarpenterLead Performance Analyst at Manchester United Women, Carlon Carpenter, is taking questions now for an AMA about performance analysis and tactics.Ask a question

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USL Unveils New Brand Identity Ahead of 2028 Three-Tier Promotion and Relegation System

tacticsjournal.comUSL Unveils New Brand Identity Ahead of 2028 Three-Tier Promotion and Relegation SystemUSL: The rebrand comes as the USL prepares to reshape its men’s professional league structure. Beginning in 2028, USL Premier will serve as the top level of a three-tier system alongside the USL Championship and USL League One, with promotion and relegation allowing clubs to move between divisions based on performance. Developed in partnership with creative agency Spark, the new identity draws inspiration from soccer itself, incorporating elements of the ball, field and goal nets into a visual system that connects the USL’s leagues, clubs and communities. The identity also introduces a unified USL Blue and updated league marks featuring a shared design inspired by woven goal nets. Together, the eight marks, including USL Premier, form a cohesive, recognizable family of brandsI am rooting for the USL. I do not like the MLS’ structure with no promotion or relegation, even if they have the money, sponsors, and bigger names.

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Erik ten Hag on Man United: 'The team was not consistent'

tacticsjournal.comErik ten Hag on Man United: 'The team was not consistent'Former Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag, interviewed by Laurie Whitwell for The Atheltic: “The team was not consistent,” says Ten Hag. “On our good day we could match the best teams in the league, in the world, I would even say. On the worst day, we sat below the bottom. And then in Liverpool, obviously, we went below the bottom, also mentality-wise. It was the next Premier League game after we won the League Cup. We were on the high; we went up there, maybe we were too confident, and we got punished. Every attack was a goal.” But the game in which Ten Hag feels his reign changed was the quarter-final of the Europa League a month later, when United were knocked out 5-2 on aggregate by Sevilla, having been 2-0 up in the first leg. “The team couldn’t play without two players,” he says, naming Lisandro Martinez (Licha) and Bruno Fernandes. “Licha was so important for us to play from the back, but also the winning mentality, winning duels. And Bruno. In that game (first leg), at 2-0 up, I decided to sub Bruno, 30 minutes from time, and then Lisandro broke his foot.”Lisandro Martinez played 20 of 63 competitive matches when Ruben Amorim was manager.This may surprise you but I watched every Manchester United match under Amorim.With Andre Onana in goal, who cost them small games and big games, they desperately needed actual center-backs other than Matthijs De Ligt.

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Cesc Fàbregas on using frequent matches to recover from setbacks

tacticsjournal.comCesc Fàbregas on using frequent matches to recover from setbacksComo head coach Cesc Fàbregas: What we’re doing today, if we look at it five years from now, will be better five years from now because this is only the start of our development. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that we won’t go out there and try and do our best on the pitch. The great positive of playing every three days is that when you lose or when you draw, when there’s a game that didn’t necessarily pan out well, there’s always that next opportunity. When you lose and have to wait a week for your next game, that feeling stays with you a little bit longer. That’s why it’s always nice to play every three days.Let Como experience a full season of this and then we’ll see if that still holds true. It is hell, but you want to be in hell.Fàbregas: That’s how you teach them: by not focusing on that and not talking about that. When we played against Inter Milan or Juventus, I don’t talk about the opposition. I speak about what the opposition do and how we can hurt them. If every second word I’m saying is, “Manchester United, look out, Manchester United,” then they’ll go out there quaking in their boots. But if we don’t talk about Manchester United, if we talk about 11 players that want to win, that can hurt you, and what we can do, then we go out there on the pitch and we’ll see what happens. The coach always needs to try and bestow confidence on his players. I feel very strong out there with my players, and I think we can win the game if we do things the right way. If we start to get above our station, then it will become that much tougher as a result.This is why, unfortunately, not having experience as a player is a massive disadvantage. Cesc is just going to know way more about the player’s mindset.

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Jordi Condom Aulí on the cultural and adaptable purpose of rondos

tacticsjournal.comJordi Condom Aulí on the cultural and adaptable purpose of rondos

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Italy used diagonal passes to pull Turkey apart

tacticsjournal.comItaly used diagonal passes to pull Turkey apartSpielverlagerung: The reason this diagonal ladder worked so well against Turkey is that current defensive systems are not designed against diagonality. This becomes apparent when one realizes that Kökcü or Uzun and Elmali never scan diagonally backwards, but rather at the ball, frontally and laterally, and did not cover the space or opponents diagonally. (This was also a cause between Barcelona and Racing Santander. Funny that this occurs more frequently with diagonal shifts.) The players who are the key to this diagonal ladder do not appear in their decision-making because they were not perceived at all. Which can lead to wrong decisions. The lack of scanning also leads to the players behind them suddenly receiving a responsibility for the diagonal players, even though their starting position is not ideal for this (see Demiral and Raspadori). It can also lead to communication problems, like with Uzun and Elmali, who both then rush out towards Raspadori and no one feels responsible for Kayode anymore. So what helps is diagonal scanning into the back. Then the players know where their opponents are and can make better decisions. Or also coaching from the teammates who see the diagonal players. Another reason is that the diagonal ladder usually leads from one side through the center to the other side. Therefore, most opponents collapse towards the middle, including those originally far from the ball. As a result, the space originally far from the ball becomes even larger and through the counter-movement (the ball moves diagonally away from the center, the opponents diagonally into the center) the space develops faster and is thus bridged more quickly. That the diagonal shift could happen at all is thanks to another relationist aspect for Italy: extreme overloads. Modern systems are not prepared for these and do not know how to react to them. As a result, wrong decisions are made and/or a lot of space or a player becomes free somewhere. Due to the heavy overload of the left side, and the strongly ball-oriented movement of Raspadori, both was then the case for Italy.This is my point. In order for diagnoality to become more widely adopted, teams have to win, and they are. And these relational principles will help elevate teams like Italy who have qualitative disadvantage.They are outperforming our expectations because their opponents are not built to defend on the diagonal.

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LinkedIn is very frustrating

tacticsjournal.comLinkedIn is very frustratingLinkedIn is very frustrating because on one hand it is the best platform to reach my main audience, coaches and football professionals.I have a centralized place for all of my work at tacticsjournal.com, but you are penalized by the algorithm whenever you post links. People don’t see it in their feed.I have an incredible daily morning newsletter where I share fixtures and scores from teams I find tactically interesting, news, recommended reading from writers I follow, and the day’s blog posts, all in one email. But I can’t share it here easily. I’ve looked into Linkedin newsletters and from what I’ve seen so far it is probably too much extra work.I don’t like the idea of posting directly to LinkedIn. I want people to go to tacticsjournal.com and the best way to do that is to share posts via links, but they’re penalized by the algorithm.The alternative, which I am considering, is to post directly to Linkedin and then have a link at the bottom to sign up to the newsletter.I’ll let you know how that experiment goes.

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This is not good, this is not good, and this is not good

tacticsjournal.comThis is not good, this is not good, and this is not goodBrighton left-back, Olivier Boscagli, talking to Sky Sports about his conversations with Fabian Hürzeler before joining the club: I waiting for him to tell me how good I am and, you know, trying to… Interviewer: Seduce you? Yeah. And like, “Okay, you want to come with me?” But it was the opposite. My first meeting, I called my agent after the meeting. I said, “Oh, who’s this guy? What’s this?” Because he showed me some videos of me when I was playing in PSV, and he said to me, “This is not good, this is not good, and this is not good. So this is where I want to work with you. On this point, on this point, on this point.” So in my head, I was thinking, he shows me only the bad things, and he wants me? So I had a feeling, “Oh, does he really like me?” But on the other side, normally as a player, almost everybody knows what they do good. And to know and understand what you do bad is a bit more difficult as a player. Interviewer: Was it a fair assessment? Oh yeah, totally fair. But I really liked the way he did it because he said to me, “Doing this, doing this, doing these good things, you know how to do it, and you know how to do it every week. But those kinds of things, this I want to work with you, and this I want to improve you.” And then I felt directly like, “Oh, he wants to work with me, and he wants to improve me on some points to make me better.” I think it was really important because, some coaches, they just like the way you play, but they don’t think about this. Of course, when you have your total package as a player, there are some players who are really fast, some players really good technically. You have different players. But he likes complete players. So he also showed me how to be a complete player.The sign of a great coach is one who wants to improve what he has, and Fabian Hürzeler shows this even when he is signing players.

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James Maddison on borrowing Bruno Fernandes's deep runs for his own game

tacticsjournal.comJames Maddison on borrowing Bruno Fernandes's deep runs for his own gameTottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison: Yeah, definitely. One thing about Bruno Fernandes that I love is the runs he makes in behind. He just makes so many good runs because he’s not a fast player, is he, Bruno? But the timing of his deep runs, almost past the striker, past the back line, gets him a lot of chances and creates a lot of opportunities for himself and others to score from his deep runs. I noticed that years ago and tried almost adding it to my game. The season before last, the season before the injury, I scored a lot of goals from running in behind. So you’re always trying to learn, take stuff from the best players like him.With Bernardo Silva gone, Bruno Fernandes is one of the few remaining players in the Premier League who belong to a dying breed: footballers who think several steps ahead, processing the game with the speed and precision of a supercomputer.

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Be more like Xabi Alonso for the sake of the obedient Pedro Neto's of the world

tacticsjournal.comBe more like Xabi Alonso for the sake of the obedient Pedro Neto's of the worldPedro Neto has always been a threat in a straight line. He is a very athletic player, but his pace doesn’t define him. It has, however, defined him over the past two seasons at Chelsea.When he was at Wolves, he showed he was capable of having a mind of his own, as most Wolves recruits do, rather than mindlessly making run after run after run, only to run some more. Wolves’ recruitment strategy targeted players with flair and dribbling ability. If you need a dribbler, look to Wolves.He is an obedient player, obviously, because he suppressed that natural instinct every footballer with any form of ability has: to use deception and avoid doing the same thing twice.Enzo Maresca—and technically Liam Rosenior, though he inherited Pedro Neto’s lack of confidence after two years of working with Maresca—took advantage of that obedience to promote a more restrictive style of football that attacks the mind. Xabi Alonso seems to have reignited that creativity and individualism.Be more like Xabi Alonso.

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FIFPRO study of 791 female footballers finds 49% are considering ending their careers early

tacticsjournal.comFIFPRO study of 791 female footballers finds 49% are considering ending their careers earlyThe 2026 FIFPRO, 2026 Global Employment Report: Working Conditions in Women’s Football study surveyed 791 female footballers from 40 countries about their employment conditions, income, workload and well-being. 49% said they were considering ending their football careers early. 57% reported experiencing mental health difficulties. 46% of those considering early retirement cited psychological stress. $1,669 was the median monthly salary (USD). 19 months was the average contract duration.For perspective, the equivalent median monthly wage in the US was approximately $2,740 for cashiers, $2,915 for childcare workers and $3,070 for cleaners.

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Fabian Hurzeler on helping Brighton's players turn consistency into habit

tacticsjournal.comFabian Hurzeler on helping Brighton's players turn consistency into habitBrighton & Hove Albion manager Fabian Hurzeler: They all have this hunger to improve every day. They all have this hunger to listen and to be very quick learners. They might make my idea their idea, and I think that’s always the key for a coach. I have ideas together with my coaching team and we have principles, but in the end the players have to live it themselves. They have to believe that’s their idea. We show this desire to score and also the desire to defend. It starts in a mindset: how you attack the box. If you have this desire — “Yes, I want to score” — then you go into the box with a different intention. They sacrifice for each other. You might need to do a run for your teammate to open a space. I always use this example from Thomas Müller: he makes 10 runs and 10 times he doesn’t get the ball, but the 11th time he gets the ball for himself. The other 10 times before, he opened the space for his teammates. No one gives him rewards for this, but these kinds of works are important, and we really emphasise them in our meetings.That is the type of play I like. Make the run regardless. Now you have a team of eleven players all ready to recieve the ball.Hurzeler: Players—that’s what I always mention and emphasise: the players’ connection. That’s what the players really own. We as coaches shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously or think we have that much impact on these dynamics, because in the end the players have to build it on their own. The players who were on the pitch yesterday need to listen and learn our style of play even when they’re not playing. They showed yesterday that they’re really good at listening and that they try to do it in every training session. They don’t always have to play to learn these things, and they can identify with our style.The relationships are the most important thing.

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How have Brentford improved at corners?

tacticsjournal.comHow have Brentford improved at corners?HybridMarking on Substack: Through this data breakdown we can see a clear stylistic change in how Brentford are using their corners to create attacking threat. They use goalkeeper screens significantly less, a drop in 53%. In fact, this season they’ve used just one screen from their 22 corners compared to 30 last season. The amount of inswingers used has increased - this season they’ve used just inswinging deliveries, whereas last season they used the odd out swinger. However, this one should be taken with a pinch of salt as we are still early into the season and the set piece strategy and trends of the league could evolve and change. The one that catches my attention the increase in deliveries aimed towards the back post compared to the front post packing set ups seen earlier - a rise from 17% to 42% - demonstrating a key stylistic change. […] The first thing I’ve noticed is how Brentford are using their set ups to create positional problems for defences- a key difference from the set ups used last season which were much easier to identify. Vs Tottenham’s set up instead of attacking from one or 2 packs, they split into 3 small pairs allowing them to stretch the man markers in the hybrid set up. They bypass the Tottenham zonal line to isolate the area without cover- outside the post- a high ROI area for second contact chances. These 3 pairs all have different roles and react to different timing - the pair in the 6 yard box move to block which triggers the cue for the penalty spot pair to insert themselves in between the front post zonals. Tottenham’s set up pushes out to the front post space and the back post bump prevents the retreat- where Brentford overload 2v1.Very detailed breakdown of Brentford’s corner renaissance this season.

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São Paulo Head of Youth Scouting Luan Faria tracks players pushed down rival clubs’ queues

tacticsjournal.comSão Paulo Head of Youth Scouting Luan Faria tracks players pushed down rival clubs’ queuesLuan Faria, Head of Youth Scouting at São Paulo, speaking to ge, describes São Paulo’s “meia confecção” strategy: We target players who have already spent time developing at other clubs, particularly those with promising performance indicators and experience at major academies who were not given enough opportunities. Many can be brought in without a transfer fee. We identify their potential, take a chance on them, and the approach has produced results. […] When I arrived, São Paulo did not have a proper market-analysis process. Players were often signed because someone had seen them in a single match, a coach liked them, or an executive thought they looked promising. There was no systematic evaluation designed to reduce recruitment mistakes. […] We previously lacked the budget even to send scouts on routine trips. Information about players came from outside sources, often without enough evidence to evaluate it properly. Agents were constantly offering players of different standards, and decisions sometimes had to be made from videos lasting only half a minute. That created an enormous risk of mistakes. Today, when a player is offered, we already have detailed scouting reports that decision-makers can consult. […] If you look at clubs with a financial advantage over us, their chance of error is very high because they are signing all the time. Players have ups and downs. Flamengo made a move we could not compete with, but soon they sign another player and the boy who was a priority goes to the back of the queue. That is where we stay alert. That was Djhordney’s case. Palmeiras got him, but they sign players every three months. He began to be left on the sidelines for several reasons. We began talking to his agent, found Palmeiras would not exercise the purchase option, and went to Novorizontino to arrange a loan.

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Co-owner of Spielvrlagerung, @martinrafelt.bsky.social, is taking questions now for an AMA about the future of the game and coaching education. tacticsjournal.com/ama/martin-r...