Tom Harrison

The best prospect in Mexican football? Analyzing Gilberto Mora, in Liga MX and academy football

2 goals for the extraordinary Gilberto Mora in the U20 World Cup yesterday.

Back in February, I profiled the 16-year-old, analysing his underlying numbers, remarkable ball retention, shot locations and performances in the Tijuana academy 👇

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/the-best-p...

Pressing the ball reception can improve high press efficiency Studying the concepts of tempo and access in a high press

✏️ Studying tempo in a high press, inspired by tactical analysis from @jonmackenzie.bsky.social & @liamtharme.bsky.social

▫️Pressing a ball reception = Less progression & more recoveries

▫️More time on the ball = More long passes & better success %

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/tempo-and-...

🤔🤔🤔

This one is good

And applies to the importance of shots from the likes of DJJ and Lukic from outside the box

#doop

Tempo and access: Key concepts for a successful high press? Studying opposition time on the ball before being put under pressure

✍️ Pressing the ball reception can improve high press efficiency

▫️Limiting time on the ball before a pressing action reduces opposition ball progression

▫️Generating turnovers is more complex, as increased time pre-press leads to more long passes

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/tempo-and-...

Thank you Neel!

You may well have seen this but I enjoyed this recently

bsky.app/profile/tomh...

A pleasure to provide some quotes for the @cesarhfutbol.bsky.social piece on Gilberto Mora

Check it out below 👇

Pro players should be pretty aware of where they are in relation to their goal though, so a small step to one side as an opponent lines up a shot doesn't seem too difficult. Could again be something that's worked on in training and planned alongside the keeper (e.g. always step to the same side).

Seems a better decision to try to get defenders to press attackers at a slight angle when they're in a possible shooting situation. It's the shot funneling idea that was seen in Dyche's Burnley, blocking part of the goal and limiting the attacker's options, without blocking the keeper's view.

I have seen Liverpool defenders literally jump out of the way, but even if coaches don't want to go that far, they can change general coaching points.

I've seen "body, ball, goal" coaching (or similar) given to defenders and keepers, which encourages the defender to block the keeper's sightline.

Nothing I love more than when analytics research backs up things that just obviously completely make sense

I know you weren't, I was just joking around! Thanks again Alex

Thank you Kyle, I've been enjoying your blog for a while!

I,

and I can't stress this enough,

love this shit.

Mark linked it here:

bsky.app/profile/mark...

Great idea. Honestly it's not something that I looked at, but I definitely should have done. Deflections are often just said to be bad luck, and there is an element of that, but being positioned in a certain location would likely increase the deflection possibility.

Maybe an idea for a part two!

Yes, and I know it's simple, but I've seen coaches teaching "ball, body, goal" positioning (or something along the same lines) to both goalkeepers and defenders. This naturally results in the defender blocking the keeper's view.

So it's something that hasn't been considered enough in my opinion.

Thank you Alex!

That's a good point, I'd forgotten about that analysis from a few years ago. I guess I'm just another guy who "swallowed a laptop" and is trying to re-invent old ideas 😅

This is v cool. Reminds me of Dyche’s Burnley doing a neat funnelling thing where there was no pressure but the Gk sightline was kept clear.

Thanks for sharing, glad you enjoyed the piece!

Thanks a lot for sharing Mark, glad you enjoyed the piece!

Fun example of the kind of thing you can look into with the Statsbomb public dataset

This is neat

Thank you John! Your articles have been an inspiration for me, so it means a lot that you got something out of this piece

✍️ Blocking the goalkeeper's sightline can increase goal probability

▫️Defensive positioning study with @statsbomb.com data

▫️Pressuring shots reduces goal probability

▫️If a defender can't pressure the shot they should move to clear the keeper's view

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/blocking-t...

Free-kicks: Where should teams shoot from? It seems that teams should attempt more indirect free-kicks

✍️ Free-kicks: Where should teams shoot from?

▫️Analyzing StatsBomb open data to find the most efficient decision based on the location of the free-kick

▫️How Messi has out-performed the average

▫️Should teams attempt more indirect free-kicks?

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/free-kicks...

10 ways that football clubs should be using analytics How teams can create advantages over their opponents

✍️ 10 ways that football clubs should be using analytics

🆕Recruitment & contracts

✅Pre-game, live, collective & individual analysis

❓Predicting young player potential

📈Training data & overall trends

👇Exploring each type with Liga MX case studies

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/10-ways-th...

Is Alexis Gutiérrez good enough for Club América? Cruz Azul have done well to get a significant fee for Gutiérrez

✍️ Is Alexis Gutiérrez good enough for América?

▫️Less attacking output than current options Álvaro Fidalgo & Érick Sánchez

▫️Very little impact in build-up

▫️Few dribbles, lots of sideways/backwards passes

👇Complete analysis of América's new signing

cambiodejuegoenglish.beehiiv.com/p/alexis-gut...