The positioning of Mbappe and Cucurella means that either Jude or Mbappe will always be free in the left half space. This positioning used to happen before too but it never worked because two things changed here, Endrick takes a more traditional number 9 role from the RW which pins a CB and stretches the opponent vertically giving more space between the lines for Mbappe and Jude and second Diomande combines a lot more than Vini.

Started reading this after arsenal’s 3-0 loss @Jon_Mackenzie

Kostoulas is an amazing CF, can play with his back to goal, can operate in tight spaces, create space for himself through movements, find others, amazing, just amazing

I guess Hurzeler set up Brighton really well, instead of playing through Arsenal's press, bait them to create pockets between the last line of defense and the midfield and go direct through long balls for 1v1 against the Arsenal back 4 and use the pockets created by dragging out the press.

wtf is this Brighton jersey man

Spurs overload the central zones to give space to their wingers / full backs but the problem is that none of them these wide players are the type of players who would take on their defender, try to beat them and do something. All of them are good runners into the space. I guess Maddison will help Spurs a lot to release these players behind the opposition defensive line

If Real Madrid are serious about this season, they need to bench Vinicius and start Diomande on the left. That won’t solve all the problems but at least the attacks will be more dangerous.

Vinicius is so disappointing to watch this season. Everything he does is a failure.

Real Madrid's ideal pivots should be Tchouameni and Silva. Once you see Valverde and Bernado play together, you can feel the difference between them. You can see how Bernardo is constantly moving, is being in space to receive an easy pass while Valverde is either static or in the shadow of another player

It's clear the Vini is suffering from lack of confidence, there are chances that the old Vini would take while he is just trying to play the pass to Mbappe or someone else now.

Liverpool's new 3+1 build up with Szobo as the makeshift right back works well in terms of rest defense, but this means Wirtz has to drop deep always to help out Gravenberch . This setup is good for Szobo and Liverpool but doesn't find Wirtz in the most dangerous positions

Alonso often drops Palmer deeper, in front of the opposition defensive block, probably to use his passing abilities to unlock the defense. But this only happens when Joao Pedro isn't dropping too.

I always read all your tweets and watch all the podcasts you’re in and bought your book too

Too many PL teams are crowding the center and forcing teams out wide. Earlier Bournemouth did against Newcastle and now Forest doing the same against Spurs. You can see why Arteta wanted a world class winger who can be the difference maker, a chaos, someone who can do things on his own out wide.

Newcastle might have the fastest players up front but their midfield can't handle a high press and Bournemouth hit that weakness. However, Bournemouth are willing to stretch their shape to not let runners behind their defensive line + high press during Newcastle build up which is creating gaps in between the lines. The first goal of Newcastle came from such a situation as Smith push up really high and Barnes was in space.

You can almost sense that Madrid will concede a goal in a crucial match due to Camavinga’s bad passing

I feel like Arsenal are overloading the midfield as they should but neither do they have the right player to play a pass through multiple defensive line in the 3+1 build up, nor do they have the right players in the half spaces in the final 3rd who can do some damage. Bruno's signing makes a lot more sense now.

Mbappe's positioning on the right half space has been the biggest problem for Malaga, with Brahim inverting inside and Mbappe in the same half space, both of them are pinning the CB and FB of Malaga giving Trent all the space and time

The biggest thing Mourinho has solved is Jude's positioning in the Madrid team. It's not just about playing him closer to the goal but also about not playing him as the sole number 10. He always stays in the left half space and the right half space is covered by the RW. If you give Jude the responsibility of one channel, he will be very very devastating.

I know Jose likes his FBs to stay wide, but I would prefer Trent to invert during the build up phase, he is very good at playing line breaking passes or play a pass beyond the defensive line for Vini or Mbappe. Once the team reaches the final 3rd, then push Trent wide for those whipping early crosses