Guillaume

A panorama of Manchester United's fitness concerns The premise of this blog post is to open a panel through which Manchester United's fitness woes can be contextualized.

Following Manchester United's fitness woes and the injury crisis of 2023/2024, a blog post on where things went wrong through a coaching and sport-scientific view.

guillaumevdw.substack.com/p/a-panorama...

McDONALD'S: Yoro order is ready! This blog post is a trial-and-error-ish way for the author to improve his scouting/benchmarking skills by expanding on jotted bullet points concerning Leny Yoro's game.

A summer scouting blog on Manchester United's youngest INEOS-recruitee, Leny YORO

guillaumevdw.substack.com/p/mcdonalds-...

How to qualitatively assess physical performance in football An introduction to qualitative analysis of physical performance in football, a scope drowned by its quantitative counterpart.

How do you analyse physical qualities of a footballer on a qualitative level?

Blog post on practical lenses fans can analyse players through without data:

guillaumevdw.substack.com/p/how-to-qua...

Lisandro's Box: Don't Open It! Scouting and coaching points on defending crosses

Blog post on Lisandro Martinez's box defending incl. scouting and coaching tips on how to be better at it.

guillaumevdw.substack.com/p/lisandros-...

+1⃣ in the backline is the standard option. Possibility to push Martinez higher (to CM), Bruno to DM and Hojlund to CB/GK

Pendulum press to leave option open and invite into trap

📐Middle of red triangle (HYBRID): shortest distance to everyone + free player in transition!

BG with one striker allows +1 between Martinez and De Ligt, which allows the RWB to join the frontline.

2/3 front 3 in the pendulum (pushing ball into pressing trap), two wide players in the middle of the red triangle

ttx

For clarity: the elbow technique

Lock both elbows over the arms of the defender, and push down with your weight on either of the sides where you want to roll the defender

3⃣ Details make a difference

Defender gets his leg in front of Rasmus' right leg and thereby fouls him.

Arm is over Højlund's shoulder and he is fouled.

Elbow technique = defender can only pull the shirt
Leg placement = Rasmus has rolled him

2⃣

Defender's arm is not locked (elbow technique)

Right leg could be used as a screen here (already stepping towards the ball) to prevent a touch

Defender is rolled, but still has a chance because Højlund doesn't create the barrier

1⃣

Side-on orientation with the arm OVER the opponent's arm

Balance leaning slightly too much into opponent (shoulders should be above feet, knees low).

In this situation, Højlund should LOCK his elbow over the opponent's arm and then PUSH down to ROLL the defender.

Hold-up play (a SKILL) involves

⚖️BALANCE
🧭ORIENTATION
💪STRENGTH

to perform multiple TECHNIQUES well.

There's not much to get out of public training videos except for surface level circuits/rondos/drills.

What I did expect and do like about Amorim is that he is timing the session himself in typical (?) Portuguese fashion

+ the integrated sprints with risk/reward (lose the ball = 50m sprint)

Guillaume on the Grass | Substack Football as seen through the lens of a UEFA-licensed coach. Click to read Guillaume on the Grass, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

This is my newsletter where I post(ed) articles & snippets on coaching, scouting and training through the lens of my education and experience.

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