Mark Soos

In love with data&football. Premier League pundit at 📺 Spíler TV. Podcaster at🎙️@premierleak, co-writer 📕: Olvasd a játékot

[Mark Soos @mark_soos_]

@VidusZsombor Én ebből csak azt olvasom ki, hogy bejött a rakásom.
Köszönöm az elismerést! 😉

[Brodarics Tamás @brodi_1909]

⚽️

[The Game Changer English @TGC_english]

There are significant advantages in going man-to-man when pressing high, hence its rise in recent seasons.

What we are now seeing from coaches like Kompany and Enrique is remaining man-to-man even once the opponent has settled possession. We have seen this before with Gasperini, which also points us towards the main concerns with this approach. I’ll analyse it from a cognitive, physical, technical, and strategic perspective.

1.⁠ ⁠Cognitive – Constant man-to-man reference points require relentless concentration, even from attacking players, who are usually vulnerable to blindside movement. One lapse in attention or delayed reaction can immediately break the entire structure, as there is less collective protection of key spaces through zonal coverage. Naturally, many of the solutions used against man-to-man exploit attackers’ lack of defensive awareness.

2.⁠ ⁠Physical – Sustaining individual duels and repeated high-intensity actions across large spaces for long periods is extremely demanding. Over 90 minutes, physical drop-off is almost inevitable. This factor alone makes this approach unrealistic for most teams, especially across a full season, where fitness levels, squad depth, and consistency all become major variables.

3.⁠ ⁠Technical – Because the game becomes more duel-heavy and transition-heavy, technical security becomes even more important. Players are forced into more isolated situations, under pressure, with less margin for error. Lower technical quality gets exposed much faster.

4.⁠ ⁠Strategic – The biggest issue is that settled man-to-man systems naturally reduce access to control and rest periods. If your in-possession game is also forced to be high tempo or vertical due to the opposition pressing in the same manner, you create a chaotic game where both teams are constantly trading transitions and territory. There is simply no mechanism left to create low-variance, controlled lull periods, which have been essential for the most successful managers, such as Guardiola, Mourinho, and Ancelotti.

This is not a viable solution for most teams. I do not even think it maximises results for teams like Bayern when facing higher-quality opponents. It works better when you have a major qualitative advantage over the opponent, which Bayern and PSG do for the most part, or when the opponent decides to take the same approach and level of risk, which evens out the playing field, as we saw in the PSG vs Bayern first leg.

I do not see this approach being mass adopted in the way people think, nor do I see Guardiola, Arteta, Simeone, among others, moving away from zonal approaches.

Written by @MeiaArmador__

[Atlético de Madrid @Atleti]

Nos encanta el olor a césped recién cortado por la mañana.

[Luis Garcia @luchogarcia14]

It was Everton Luis !! Special match. Great old memories❤️

[Spencer Mossman @fc_mossman]

Late night rant but it pisses me off to no end when people say "eye test is never wrong" or "eye test > data".

???

The second data was applied to any sport, including football, the early adopters gained an advantage.

"Eye test is never wrong" is a deliriously hubristic statement... everyone is wrong about things all of the time. 99% of eye tests, including mine, are shit. It demeans those with professional expertise to think you're right as often as them. Its a genuine skill most people don't have.

Legitimate, professional, respected eye tests are valuable because you see things data does not; legitimate, professional, respected data analysis is valuable because it reduces bias and you can 'cover' a lot more a lot faster than just watching a player.

Those things are equally valuable because they do something better than the other.

Do not confuse proper data analysis or video scouting with crafting narratives with "stats" or "eye test" from watching a player in passing.

And I'm not lecturing from the "legitimate" side of the fence either... my understanding of how data fits into the greater picture could be dead wrong and I'm not afraid to learn/grow.

But anyone that says anything other than "data and eye test are great compliments because they help balance out the shortcomings of the other" is selling you something, probably an NFT. Are you dumb enough to buy?

[Blackburn Rovers @Rovers]

🤯 Balazs Toth with a save of the season contender! 🇭🇺

#ROVvWBA | #Rovers 🔵⚪️

[Training Ground Guru @ground_guru]

The evolution of analysis ~ @loulangdown

https://t.co/YViVhmklqt

[Abel Lorincz @Abel_Lorincz]

The most technical teams will dominate football in the next 5 years. Playing vertically, using every advantage, always playing on the edge where you might loose the ball is the way forward. We are in for so much fun.

[Spencer Mossman @fc_mossman]

📊 How much of Adam Wharton's forward passing is a result of Oliver Glasner's ideas, and how much is his own doing?

- Comparing his half season at Blackburn in 23/24 to his most recent two at Palace, his rate of vertical, risk taking passes has consistently been high (as in the % of his passes that are this type of action); 79th percentile for prg passes and 100th percentile for through balls in the Championship, never below the 99th percentile in the PL
- Success rates for both have improved this season despite maintaining the same rate of being insanely direct
- His back pass rate has never been higher than the 10th percentile
- Lateral pass rate has always been high, his short/medium pass rate went from median at Blackburn to minimal at Palace

➡️ This reads to me like a player that really wants to go vertically on his own volition, and the current system is perfectly conducive to this mentality. If/when he moves to a higher possession side, I don't think this directness will go away (although it can likely be dampened to rebalance the risk/reward). The lateral + short/med passes are the pass types that high possession side metronomes most commonly make more than other midfielders, and he was somewhere between solid and excellent considering he was a 19 years old the last time his role involved these actions in any significant capacity.

I don't think it is a good idea to sign him and turn him into a possession controller, as he still lacks oop and it would be hiding his best trait... the ability to create what 99.9% can't. If a club is going to spend high 8 figures on him, there should be a plan to allow him to push the risk profile and probably play further up the pitch where these risks carry less downside + have greater impact... think a MØ, Bruno Fernandes type of final 3rd touch center of gravity.

[Mark Soos @mark_soos_]

@bence_valyi imái meghallgattattak.

[markstats 🍁 @markrstats]

I wish we had a specific term for when a team exits a hot overperforming run and quietly drifts back toward the average

[Mark Soos @mark_soos_]

@VidusZsombor Elvileg van egy megegyezés az UEFA-val még tavalyról. Hogy ez idénre mennyi veszteséget engedélyezett azt senki nem tudja. De ez brutális szint. Persze a PL-ben más az elszámolási szabály ott nem lesz ilyen magas közel sem.

[Premier League @premierleague]

From 2002 to 2026 📆

James Milner has set the all-time appearances record in the Premier League!

[LEAK. ⚽️🎙 @leak_podcast]

Luciano Spalletti felébresztette az Öreg Hölgyet! Újra van miben reménykedni a Juventusnál - de mennyire lehet nagyot álmodni? 🤔

Kommentben találtok linket a teljes műsorhoz! 👇

[Tactx @Tactx_]

VVD has made the game look too easy with his laid-back temperament in dangerous situations.

When it doesn’t go right, it looks lazy.

Ask a CB enough questions, and they can look like a bad defender, and this Liverpool team is putting VVD in far more situations than any defender would like.

It's a fine line between confident defending and what can appear to be lazy defending.

[adidas Football @adidasfootball]

it’s go time. choose yours. 🚨🌪️

[Asim @asim_lfc]

Brothers ❤️🇪🇬🇸🇳
#LFC

[LEAK. ⚽️🎙 @leak_podcast]

A műsor legfontosabb kérdése: Reece James akkor most védő vagy középpályás?!

YOUTUBE: https://t.co/HLZuLsbHxA

TELJES: https://t.co/g4I8VGm4pG

[Liverpool FC @LFC]

A closer look at a top performance from Milos 💪

[LEAK. ⚽️🎙 @leak_podcast]

Best of LEAK. 2025 👊🔥

Boldog új évet kívánunk mindenkinek! Ilyen volt 2025 számunkra, tartsatok velünk 2026-ban is.

Kommentben találtok linket a válogatáshoz 👇

A műsoraink legviccesebb jeleneteinek kiválogatását és összevágását köszönjük szépen Berecz Ricsinek 🙌