Good morning! I will be posting more, and I’m excited to share this new incredible morning email with you each day. This is a new format I will be using for the email newsletter. It will be a recap of all of the posts from the day, scores from teams I follow that I find tactically interesting, polls, news from my feed, and recommended reading from writers I follow.

Kyle Boas Author of the Tactics Journal

In today’s email:

• Thomas Tuchel on England’s mistakes, recovery, and failure to close out Spain
• Luis de la Fuente: ‘When I select players, I don’t just look at the footballer’
• Lamine Yamal knew Spain would win after Argentina’s red card in the World Cup Final

TACTICALLY INTERESTING

Teams and games I am following.

• The Guardian: Meet the new 55 minute England collapse, not the same as the old 55 minute England collapse
  Before this Nations League opener there was general agreement on the desirability of systems, pattern, repeatability.
• The Independent: England take positive step forward but Spain defeat reveals true level they must reach
  The World Cup final England could have had but, on this evidence, there would still have been the same champions.
• The Guardian: Oyarzabal earns Spain Nations League win as England pay for Kane penalty miss
  It was another high-profile game when Thomas Tuchel’s England let a lead slip in the second half and went on to lose.

Thomas Tuchel on England’s mistakes, recovery, and failure to close out Spain

England manager Thomas Tuchel, in the post-match press conference after England’s 3–2 Nations League loss to Spain:

I think we had the worst possible start against a team like Spain, who love to control the game and play with confidence. To be one-nil down so early is the worst possible start.

We survived two big chances and then grew into the game. We played more and more in Spain’s half, won an incredible number of high balls, played very bravely without the ball, pushed them back, and created more and more throughout the match.

The difference was that Spain were more clinical and composed in the last 20 metres. We could have created more clear-cut chances from our ball wins, but we got the momentum and belief back. We scored twice and could have scored a third before half-time; we absolutely should have scored one in the second half.

We were clearly the better team but could not score the third goal. Then another technical mistake cost us, the momentum shifted, and we conceded from open play. They played through the middle, which we should have defended better. We wanted to close the middle.

The result is not what we wanted. We could have won the same match, so we have to live with it, recover from it, learn from it, repeat what we did well, and reduce our mistakes.

England’s wings lack the same amount of flair and dynamism compared to Spain. They are very athletic but lack that layer of unpredictability.

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Luis de la Fuente: ‘When I select players, I don’t just look at the footballer’

Pol Ballús and Guillermo Rai for The Atheltic interviewing Spain manager Luis de la Fuente:

“When I select players, I don’t just look at the footballer. I look at the person. I’ve known some of our players for 15 years, and if they are here it is because they fit into our philosophy of turning this into a family. If you don’t fit into this, you’re out.

“I can tell you, people do not know the real Lamine Yamal. He is a fantastic team player. A diligent team-mate and a guy who makes living around him extremely easy.

“People talking about his ego? I don’t understand the negative connotation of the word ‘ego’. We all have an ego. As long as you put that ambition into the team’s collective goal, ego is a spectacular thing to have. Everybody in this team has that collective mindset.

“This is the true secret: to select the right profile of a player to then create a family. At Euro 2024, you could see Jesus Navas, who was 38, playing video games and having a laugh with Lamine. Now, Oyarzabal (29) is a player who Yamal really listens to and looks up to.”

Football is less about tactics and more about people.

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Lamine Yamal knew Spain would win after Argentina’s red card in the World Cup Final

Sid Lowe for The Guardian:

“The way Lamine Yamal tells it, Spain knew they were world champions before they had scored, in the moment Enzo Fernández was sent off. It was the third minute of second-half stoppage time, still 0-0, but now, he says: “We knew it was impossible they would score, and with the ball against 10, very difficult for us not to.” The surprise was that they hadn’t already, but on 106 minutes the ball came to his feet. He had been thinking about this moment for some time.

The battle with the one, two, three players facing you is “very psychological”, Lamine Yamal says. “A full-back will have a coach who says: ‘OK, Lamine: what he does is …’ I think of him as a robot, trying to stop me. Robots can be almost perfect but a human will have something a robot doesn’t. Football is mechanised but there are players like me, Pedri, many others, who have that special spark. There’s a typical Neymar move when he stops, fakes, goes the other way: I watched so many videos of him. I try to play with opponents, ensure they can’t mechanise me, don’t know where I’m going.”

“I remember three plays in minutes 60, 70, 80 or thereabouts, when I took on the full-back. Every time, [Alexis] Mac Allister came over. If I had really wanted to go at the full-back, I would have gone at him fast; instead this time I went slower, carrying the ball, so that Mac Allister had time to get to me, Pedro [Porro] could arrive behind me and I could play it back.” A little space made, from Porro’s cross Nico Williams headed back and Ferran Torres, who had struggled throughout the tournament, scored the goal.

“We knew Ferran needed it,” Lamine Yamal says, then laughs: “Well, everyone needs a goal in a World Cup final. If Unai Simón had scored, great. When it goes in, it’s spectacular, you feel you’re champions. You can’t explain the emotion. All I wanted was to keep playing. I never thought: ‘They might equalise’. There was a small push, a chance [Pau] Cubarsí cleared, but I was enjoying it.”

I can’t imagine the power Lamine must feel knowing he is able to think differnetly than everyone on the pitch because they are allowed and able to produce that spark. Many players aren’t allowed in today’s game.

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NEWS

• Serie A clubs seek an earlier winter window to complete deals before the financial year ends
  By bringing the window forward to 28 December 2026, clubs say they could complete player transactions within the current financial year, helping them balance their books.

RECOMMENDED READING

Everything published yesterday by the writers I follow

• The Athletic: England lose thrilling game to Spain but has Tuchel found a more confident approach? Did Yamal outshine Kane?
  Analysis as Thomas Tuchel's side take on the World Cup-winners in a Nations League group game at Wembley Stadium
• Seth’s Blog: KnotChat: Danny Meyer
  The last of the series!

Contains information from OpenLigaDB, made available under the Open Database License (ODbL 1.0).