Aston Villa vs Man City - Second Ball Battles

𝑻𝙤𝒕𝙖𝒍 𝑺𝙚𝒄𝙤𝒏𝙙 𝘽𝒂𝙡𝒍 𝑾𝙞𝒏𝙨
Aston Villa: 8
Man City: 4 (!)

An interesting look into the midfield dysfunction at Man City where they allowed Villa to control and overwhelm them through the middle third.

Tottenham vs Liverpool - Second Ball Wins

𝑻𝙤𝒕𝙖𝒍 𝑺𝙚𝒄𝙤𝒏𝙙 𝘽𝒂𝙡𝒍 𝑾𝙞𝒏𝙨
Tottenham: 9
Liverpool: 12

Liverpool won the physical battle

Measuring Counter Pressing - Man United vs Bournemouth

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞
Man Utd: 54%
Bournemouth: 44%

𝐀𝐯𝐠 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Man Utd: 14 seconds
Bournemouth: 12 seconds

𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬
Man Utd: Lisandro Martinez (9)
Bournemouth: Tyler Adams (8)

Tottenham vs Chelsea - Second Ball Wins

Excuse the alignment, i didn't consider the possibility of a team only completing 1 second-ball win in the entire game.

But the reality is that Chelsea were really dominant with their duel winning. Again, Moises Caicedo leads the chart.

Jadon Sancho Ball Carrying Performance vs Tottenham

24 Carries (1st)
6 Progressive Carries (1st)
3 Shot-Ending Carries (1st)
5 Final Third Entries (1st)
3 Penalty Entries (1st)
3 Successful Take-Ons (1st)

Yesterday's result showed United's flaw in build-up, especially when the system demands a CB that consistently breaks the lines when teams sit off and block passing lanes to the pivot.

De Ligt completed 1 Progressive Pass vs Nottingham Forest.

Harry Maguire in contrast, completed 5.

Measuring Man United's counterpressing

One way to interpret the possession recovered zones is how Forest have repeatedly tried to exploit United's left channel.

They didn't attack Yoro (a teenager on his 1st start), but opted for Martinez's side and found varying success.

Manchester United vs Nottingham Forest - Second Ball Wins

Manuel Ugarte won the most second balls on the pitch. Think this was his best game for United, constantly winning his individual duels and carrying it forward. Lovely key pass for Hojlund's goal too. More of this please.

Liverpool Counterpressing vs Man City

Started the game with all guns blazing, never gave City space to breath (10 sec recovery). Sat deeper in the 2nd half as City gained more control but managed the well (16 sec recovery)

Gravenberch and Mac Allister proving vital with the most recoveries

Moises Caicedo is slowly becoming one of the best midfielders this season. Despite playing as an inverted full-back, he still manages to win the most second-balls

Strong in the flanks and times his challenges to perfection. This is the ultimate duel monster Chelsea need lol

Chelsea are slowly becoming the masters of the dark arts with fouls upon dispossession.

Look at where they lose the ball (left) and contrast it to where they recover it (right), mostly in the oppo half. Recovering possession via fouls in less than 7 seconds.

Enzo and Lavia doing most the work.

Joshua Zirkzee 9.5 Passing Performance

26/30 Successful Passes (86.7% Completion)
3 Shot-Creating Passes (1st)
3 Progressive Passes (8th)
2 Final Third Passes (6th)

Ruben Amorim to Amad:"Big in talent, small in size"

Amad Diallo won the most second-balls (5) against Everton. Just a real asset in all phases of play atm.

Relentless pressing for the goals scored, and physically strong enough to hold off defenders. Always at the right place to win his duels too.

Amad Diallo Ball-Carrying Performance vs Everton

7 Progressive Carries (1st)
3 Key Pass Ending Carries (1st)
2 Assist-Ending Carries (1st)
4 Successful Take-Ons (2nd)

Wolves cant defend for shit but my goodness are their attacks ton of fun to watch

Working on a new analysis - Fouls Upon Dispossession

Will go thru some testing later but feeling pretty positive of how it looks so far. Excited to share it with ya

Amad is incredible man. I cant wait to see him integrated in the front line.

Garnacho performs better wider tho, think itd be better for the team. Looks short of confidence, a lot of it….

Vicario rlly put up a 10/10 performance to keep his clean sheet against City and then said ciao for 2 months 😭

Jonny Evans is closing space down inside the final third 😅 can get used to this

Ooo Mazraoui at RCB? Man Amorim is going to the TOP. By far the best channel defender united hv and is incredibly good at reading (and cutting out) cutbacks

He’s starting Amad as RWB??

Oh well, this should be fun

Genuinely love Cole Palmer’s weight of passing

The punch he gives his passes man…. Never underhits them

My football manager save has City firing Pep in 2041 😭😭😭

Hope he gets enough rest before hand. Dont want him rushing his fitness 😅

I rmbr during Ole’s tenure Shaw’s first game back from an injury was at LCB vs Liverpool.

First game back and he locked down Mo Salah like he was nothing. United drew the game away from home (iirc). But that Shaw performance was magnificent.

Does copy pasting live tweets from Twitter work 😭 real dilemma

I've not seen any Marcus Rashford slander on Bluesky today. This is good. Long may this continue.

Ill be honest, i had Frank up there too but when that Amorim compilation popped up, i think i was instantly swayed

Definitely not 😅 i just made it up but i can see it happening considering Thomas Frank loves a danish in his team. Brentford also seems like a good place for Morten to make that step to the Prem.

There are far too many variables to consider, the team tactics, the opposition, etc.

genuinely difficult to quantify an objective value of the success rate of a transfer.