Author Archives: Sameer Chopra

Recently in England there’s been an obsession with the playmaker. Every side has one or more, even teams fighting to avoid relegation like QPR and Southampton. The recent infatuation with creativity and technique is a classic case of sides copying … Continue reading →

Queens Park Rangers struggles in this season’s Premier League are well documented. Despite having an expensive squad with several glittering names, the London club have been rooted at the foot of the league table for almost the entire season. Taking … Continue reading →

Stability in football is an exceptionally unsexy, yet necessary topic. While fans and the media love big-money buys and managerial changes, the truth is that there is only one surefire way for teams without ridiculous money or talent to outperform … Continue reading →

As silly season descends upon the Premier League again and the transfer rumours start heating up, it becomes quite easy as fans to forget about things like budgets and stability and start dreaming of shiny new player acquisitions to help … Continue reading →

Ever since Rafael Benitez left Liverpool, fans have seemingly lurched from one crisis to another, even if that word is thrown about all too loosely these days. From struggles with ownership and transfers to constant managerial upheaval, Anfield has rarely … Continue reading →

This writer must confess, Lucas Leiva has never been his favorite Liverpool player. The Brazilian is articulate, tidy, and one of the best holding midfielders in the world. Still, my eye is shallowly drawn to flashes of genius, readily shown … Continue reading →

Researching or studying football tactics can seem like an overwhelming task, simply because aside from the basic framework provided by the rulebook, so much else is left fluid. Formations, player roles, player positions, they all mean something different depending on … Continue reading →

When Brendan Rodgers got the Liverpool job, he brought in a very Spanish-Dutch style of play. Possession is everything. All offensive and defensive work starts with the ball. When you are without the ball you need to win it back … Continue reading →

Today, where so much money rests on the result of a team’s soccer season, the number of clubs that aren’t being managed with the idea of sustainable competitiveness is crazy. Players come, players go. Even top clubs such as Arsenal … Continue reading →

Arsenal used to try and emulate Barcelona, but now they’re closer to Real Madrid. They used to be a side of clever, tricky players. Now the London club trots out a much more physically imposing lineup, represented in the early … Continue reading →

People have been writing about the modern association of soccer with business for many years now. Soccernomics, that beautiful book that marries football passion with economic realities, helpfully points out that the problem with this association is that clubs aren’t … Continue reading →

I’ve written previously about my opinion on Brendan Rodgers’ hiring as Liverpool manager. Rodgers obviously has a clear and attractive footballing philosophy that appeals to fans, heavily influenced by the Total Football style of the Dutch and Spanish. The one … Continue reading →

The only path to sustainable success is stability. The only way a side without extraordinary financial backing can succeed in an environment as tough as the Premier League is through having a defined plan bought into by all its players. … Continue reading →

Sir Alex Ferguson has nothing left to prove. Everyone knows this. And if reports that suggest he was recently in New York speaking to Pep Guardiola about Manchester United are to be believed, the man himself knows it too. Still, … Continue reading →