Blog Posts

  • Mexico Scouting Report

    This is the game I’m most looking forward to in the 2nd Round. I’m assuming most readers are familiar with most of the Dutch players but not so the Mexicans. That being the case I’ll use a few passing networks and then a bit of video to highlight things to look out for. First up…

  • The Only Way is Messi

    It’s been an inauspicious start for La Albiceleste (Google it) as they’ve struggled to overcome Bosnia and Iran in their first two matches. Unsurprisingly, it’s been Messi who’s eventually unpicked the locks to secure victory in both games. But is the ‘give it to Messi’ tactic getting the most out of the team as a…

  • England v Uruguay – Passing Postmortem

    Earlier this week I took a quick look at Uruguay’s passing network v Costa Rica. Which team learned lessons from their opposition scouting? Here’s Uruguay’s main passing links from last night: 1. I’ll start with the keeper kicking. If you read the last piece you’ll know Muslera went long to Stuani on the right all…

  • England v Uruguay – 7 Situations

    Something different today. I finally got round to playing with passing networks and had a quick look at the Uruguayans against Costa Rica. First things first: I haven’t looked at Costa Rica and what they did. At all. This is merely a test to see how much we might be able to glean about one…

  • Safe hands? Is your keeper performing as well as expected?

    As I’ve previously discussed, my main Expected Goals (ExpG) Model is based entirely on where shots on target were taken from. This makes it really handy to begin measuring the quality of saves a keeper makes as distance and angle of shot are two big factors in how difficult a save is. The model contains…