Analyzing football tactics

Finding the next edge.

Kyle Boas

Author of the Tactics Journal

Get every new post by email. By continuing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Up until what point is it wrong for them to be ball hogs

30 September 2026

Diego Placente, Argentina youth national-team coach and former Argentina international, who has led the country’s U15, U17 and U20 sides, in an interview with Tiempo Argentino, translated from Spanish:

At younger ages you say: “Up until what point is it wrong for them to be ball hogs, to be more individualistic?”

When you see an age group that plays very well, that makes a lot of tactical movements, you lose a little of the essence of street football. So sometimes, let them be more selfish.

Let them learn those movements, but don’t let them lose the dribbling, the doing of different things that, later, when you’re older, you correct because otherwise the coach takes you off, or you see who is better and you mature.

But don’t lose that when they’re so young.

There’s a lot of information, because of the movements or because you make a play and it works… With that, the player thinks less. He doesn’t know that he can make more movements. He isn’t as creative, as spontaneous.

In fact, by playing more simply or “doing what he’s supposed to do,” the opponent thinks the same way and takes the ball from you.

The ball goes between someone’s legs because maybe you stop it for a moment, maybe you put your foot on top of it—that’s street football.

Through exercises or games, try to put the tactics into that, and then, when a tournament is coming, make adjustments.

But don’t waste time doing a lot of tactical work or set pieces if there isn’t a tournament. Try to make sure that on the days they come, they play and play.

Because when they play against each other, with exercises, they improve, and you make things more difficult and they improve, and then the cycle means one player raises the level of the one who is falling behind, and another comes in, and that competitiveness makes everyone improve.

When you play with the good players, you want to be in the national team, you want to play with the good players. You become accustomed to another pace, to other difficulties.

Let the kids play.

The Decision Paradox

29 September 2026

The H-FARM Business School interviewed 25 professionals across elite sport for their new study, The Decision Paradox, on why organizations that invest millions in data and AI still leave the final decision to a human.

The study includes quotes from Marco Fassone, former CEO of Milan and executive at Juventus, Napoli and Inter; Giorgio Chiellini, Director of Football Strategy at Juventus; Demetrio Albertini, former President of the FIGC Technical Sector; Bologna player Federico Bernardeschi; and, among others, champions and managers such as Maurizia Cacciatori, Stefano Mancinelli, Linton Johnson, Umberto Pelizzari and Romano Battisti.

Excerpt translated from Italian:

Midway through the season, Michele Aragona, match analyst at Ipswich Town in the Premier League, faces a dilemma no model can resolve for him. The data he builds himself, spending hours every week on the dashboards those models come from, points to one zone of the pitch as the most advantageous to attack. Watching the matches, however, Aragona notices that some teams defend that very zone with an effectiveness the models don’t capture, because it depends on how two defenders who have played together for years move together, and that doesn’t show up in the numbers. Together with the manager, he decides to go against the data, and at the end of the season that choice turns out to be the most effective of the year.

Suggesting which exercise to include in Tuesday’s training, a choice that if wrong gets corrected on Wednesday, is not the same as suggesting the purchase of a twenty-million player or the moment to call a driver into the pits as it starts to rain. […] Michele Aragona quantifies it without embarrassment: “there are matches where I’m in complete agreement with the data, others where I’m at 15–20%; over a season, maybe 50%.” The data doesn’t change from one match to the next: the cost of being wrong does.

Federico Bernardeschi provides the mechanism that divergence was missing: “as you have information, I have it too.” Knowing you’ve gone down the same side three times means knowing the opponent will expect it the fourth time, and so you change. Where both sides read the same data, following your own profile amounts to announcing your next move in advance.

The paradox therefore has two faces, and it’s important to keep them together: alibis disappear in both directions. You can no longer hide behind instinct, because the data exists and proves things; and you can’t hide behind the algorithm, because legal and strategic responsibility cannot be delegated.

A human must stay in the loop, especially for the harder the problems.

Rodri on the similarities and differences between Luis de la Fuente and Hansi Flick

29 September 2026

Barcelona midfielder Rodri on whether Spain manager Luis de la Fuente and Barcelona manager Hansi Flick demand different things from him:

Coaches always have their own unique touches and styles. Yes, he’s different, but there are many similar situations, especially when it comes to the role. I think that in this regard, the role is practically identical, but from a football tactical standpoint, with Hansi, we defend differently here on the national team.

Yes, I’d say that some of the footballing concepts are different, but overall, I think these coaches ask for pretty much the same things from you: leadership from your position, positioning, organizing the press, and initiating play.

I would love to know what differences he sees in more detail. I would say they defend differently because the quality of Spain’s defense, their back-line, is superior in comparison to Barcelona’s. They can afford to defend more on the front foot. I would also say Spain defend as a unit and Barcelona are more prone to allow a shot, similar to Manchester City under Guardiola. That’s not a negative thing, it is a choice to be passive on purpose to regain possession back quicker. Allow the shot.

How to use Board with ChatGPT, Claude, OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, Muse and Dots

29 September 2026

A lot of new AI assistants have come out. OpenClaw, Hermes Agent, and now Muse and OpenAI’s Dots. Our Board connects to all of them, so you can pick the one you like and have it work on your boards. You need a Tactics Journal Pro account.

There are two ways to connect.

The first is the MCP server. It lives at https://board.tacticsjournal.com/mcp. If your assistant lets you add a custom connector or a remote MCP server, paste in that URL and sign in with your Pro account. In ChatGPT, that is under Settings, then Connectors, with Developer mode on. Then talk to it like you would an assistant coach. “Open my 4-3-3 pressing board and show me a rotation for the right side.”

The second is an agent link. Open a board, create an agent link, and paste it into any assistant that can read a URL. The link only works for that one board and it expires after 24 hours. You can also kill it early.

You choose what the agent can do. Propose is the default. The agent suggests changes and you accept or reject each one. Edit lets it change the board directly. I would start with propose.

Dots are the newest, my favorite option. They are personal agents that run in the background on their own computer. A Dot can connect to the MCP server and work on your boards with you.

I don’t think it matters which assistant wins. You have the ideas, the assistant does the tedious part of moving players around, and you are still the one making the decisions.

For agents reading this

MCP server: https://board.tacticsjournal.com/mcp (works with ChatGPT, Claude, Muse, Dots and other MCP clients)
Agent guide: https://board.tacticsjournal.com/agent/v1.md
Scene schema: https://board.tacticsjournal.com/agent/v1.scene.schema.json
Server card: https://tacticsjournal.com/.well-known/mcp/server-card.json
Access: Pro account for MCP, or a 24-hour link for one board
Keep unknown fields, stable IDs, board order, notes, views and timings when you write back.

What game situation is this actually recreating

28 September 2026

David Garcia:

One of the strangest things about football training is how many activities have become completely detached from the game situations they were originally designed to solve.

Take something like a 4v4+3, you can find thousands of versions online, coaches use it everywhere, it looks recognizably “football,” players are busy, there are decisions, pressure, passing, support, all the things we associate with a good activity, but ask a really basic question, what game situation is this actually recreating, and what problem are the players meant to become better at solving?, and quite often there isn’t a clear answer.

I don’t think that means the activity is bad, I think it means we’ve often started at the wrong end.

An activity gets created because a coach sees something happening repeatedly in a match, they want their players to experience that situation more often, so they build a training environment around it, but then the activity gets shared, copied, modified, put into session libraries, posted online, copied again, and eventually the original game problem disappears.

What remains is the exercise.

Crafting training sessions around the match seems like common sense.