Yan Diomande 👇

More control throughout different game states is necessary for Manchester United next season. More control when winning, maintaining the transitional threat is more beneficial imo. It reduces variance. Image Source: @johnspacemuller.com

Whoever gets Ayyoub Bouaddi will secure a really elite midfielder out of possession. Anticipation, positioning, timing, intensity, jumps to close off the right angles, knows how to shuffle across & navigate through different roles, defensive positioning, etc

Ayyoub Bouaddi Comparison With Some Midfielders in the 2025/26 season.

Yan Diamonde's defensive production compared to Vinicius Junior and Kylian Mbappé in their leagues. NB: Diamonde is involved in more duels compared to the other two, but wins fewer. The other are involved less & win fewer.

Noticed some of these ideas from Manchester United against Rosenberg. Diagonal passes from deep into the space between the pressing unit & backline. Opposite movements between Zirkzee, Lacey, & Mbeumo to exploit that space BTLs & runners to release behind the defensive line.

There has been an event occurring during 2025/26 season in which Real Madrid attackers perform well most of the time whenever they are not all on the same pitch. The 2026 WC was no different. Bellingham, Mbappé & Vinicius Jr were the top goalscorers for their NTs. Table: @theathleticfc.bsky.social

In one of my discussions of how Tuchel could've have adress it.

Last summer, I played around with data, aiming to compile a list of players who can fill the defensive midfielder role at Manchester United. Here is my "nonsense" ranking of the top 30 in the top five leagues. Youri Tielemans & Andrey Santos appeared in my top 30 list.

Rodri, Fabian Ruiz, & Dani Olmo partnership in midfield strikes a balance for Spain. There were lot of moments when Rodri provided pausa & invited pressure & immediately fired a forward pass that accelerated the play. Olmo BTLs offered that quick half turn receiving & quick releases as well.

Mikel Merino is one of the elite players who sniffs out rebounds.

It's really hard to generate threat if there is no balance between push & pull dynamics, which is one of the areas Morocco struggled with against France. Graph: @markstats.club

Leandro Trossard is one of the few promising pieces that keeps Belgium alive with his all-round contributions. That inswinging cross toward Tielemans prove again these kind of deliveries are effective. Trossard created 13 Chances before the Sénégal game for Belgium.

An elite playmaker.

I appreciate the genius & work of Austin Macphee to come up with these different dead-ball situations routines with Aston Villa or with Portugal. That low cross delivery toward the front post & Ronaldo, Félix run from the far toward the near post arriving at the blindside of defenders is brilliant.

Once, Miguel Soler told Pep Guardiola about crosses toward near-post zones. It's hard to deal with these deliveries, & it's better to prevent them at the source, which teams have found problems doing so & attacking teams are better at accessing these crossing zones.

Yan Diamonde is a nightmare to Kimmich. His acceleration toward the byline and back post crosses generate immense threat against Germany. Data back this up. Diamonde's possession value increases toward the byline & in the cutback zone. Viz: @futi.live

I think Morocco generated threat more from high regains/turnovers than when they are in settled possession. The main idea of Morocco in possession is to have Brahim Diaz slightly deeper on the right supplying underlapping Hakimi or Saibari with passes over the top. Viz source: @futi.live

Alex Freeman.

Another scene where Morocco took advantage of their distribution IP, compressing the width, immediately pouncing on following a possession loss in the final third. And that rest defense shape contributed to Morocco reloading the attack smoothly and notably working the ball out via wide connections.

Good rest defense from Morocco at the start of the game. Minimum width, with Bouaddi, Diop, and Mazraoui marking Brazil's players who have the potential to counter, whereas Chadi Riad is meant to cover behind Morocco's players who are man-oriented.

Just finished reading Pep Confidential book. I find myself more in love with Pep Guardiola, how he works and thinks. Most importantly, I think he was probably right in overthinking his choices, given the reasons he puts in front of you, except the 4-0 thrashing vs Real Madrid.

Possession is an offensive and defensive tool. I like this 15-pass sequence from Pep Guardiola to disorganize the opponents' defensive shape to generate gaps to attack & how it serves the team to upset the counterattack at the source. Many similarities with Xabi Alonso's model.

This was in February. Aston Villa registered the highest conversion rate in the PL in terms of shots outside the box.

Premier League will miss Pep Guardiola: the best 'ideas thief' football has ever seen.

I like Pep Guardiola's framework of football "language learning" revolving around the idea, the language, & the people, which are the players. Xabi Alonso's 'core idea' & 'language' were spot on with Real Madrid, but 'the people' were used to a certain way of operating.

It's really rare to find a board at a big club that understands the difference between what it takes to win a league and what it takes to win a UCL. Bayern Munich seems to understand that whoever the head coach is. And they made it clear the day of Pep Guardiola's presentation.

Barcelona goes around diagonally & enters diagonally. Ferran Torres' half-turn receiving & his curved run toward the touchlines left his man in his wake. In the meantime, Rashford, with an out-in run, punishes the space behind. Diagonality is the kryptonite to man-marking.

I think the Couvade syndrome applies to all departments of Real Madrid. If we take, for example, the off-ball phases, it's totally normal for players to compare themselves to Mbappé & proceed by not commit to OOP duties.