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Aug 26, 2017 · General NFL discussion: predictions, previews, history, Xs and Os. My Commanders have the 8th worst Defense since 1979, according to DVOA metrics.
Madden and video games. Madden and other video games. 39.5k. posts. CF25 User List, online Dynasties PS5 and Xbox. By Fresh Prince, 9 hours ago.
NFL General. General NFL discussion: predictions, previews, history, Xs and Os. 551.4k. posts. Who's looking for a new QB in 2025? By Mdpackfan22, 2 minutes ago.
- Overview
- Is the game becoming more attack-focused?
- Is the league becoming faster?
- Is tackling a dying art?
- Are teams pressing more?
- Tiki-taka and the long ball
- Which positions are in demand?
- Is there a 4-4-2 renaissance? Is 4-3-3 back for good?
- Positional fluidity on the rise
What does the future hold for tactics in the Premier League?
As part of the Future of Football series, Sky Sports investigates the past and present, before making bold predictions for the future, based on data and projections from leading experts...
Arsenal were once renowned for winning 1-0 and that low-scoring habit actually reflects the early era quite well. The Gunners' average score in the Premier League last season was 2.32-1.13.
Premier League goals have been on a general upward trajectory since hitting troughs around 15 years ago - rising from a low of 2.45 per game in 2006/07 to an all-time Premier League high of 2.85 last term.
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Runaway teams have been pushing that ratio higher in recent years. Last season, Manchester City (94 goals) and Arsenal (88) scored around three times more than Wolves - who netted a league-low 31 goals.
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People often refer to new signings needing to adapt to the pace of the Premier League. On the eye, the English top-flight appears to have become faster - but has it?
Since only 2020/21, when the tracking metrics changed, the number of sprints per game has risen incrementally every season - rising from 127 in 2020/21, to 129 in 2021/22 and jumping to 134 last season.
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Most top clubs sit in the top half for these rankings, with the exception of Manchester City, who play an almost unique brand of possession-based, build-up play.
One of the biggest changes under Eddie Howe's stewardship at Newcastle has been their physical output - having registered a league-topping 5,667 sprints last season. Leeds, under Marcelo Bielsa, literally soared off the chart compared with their rivals, but slipped into second spot under several coaches last term.
Another feature of the game on the wane is tackling - an art which has been in decline for nearly two decades.
Manchester United full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka has received criticism for his attacking abilities in the past, but few dispute his talent at timing a good tackle.
Fulham midfielder Joao Palhinha received widespread acclaim for his ability to break up play - registering a league-topping 148 tackles last season. Moises Caicedo is in demand and ranks second on that list, Casemiro ranks fourth and Bruno Guimaraes is ninth - all three players represented top-six clubs.
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Why?
Pressing is on the rise, particularly the high press.
Between 2003/04 and last season, reclaiming possession in the final third rose from an average of 4.3 per game to 9.7 - equating to a 125-per-cent hike.
This metric defines when a player recovers the ball in the final third when neither team has possession, or where the ball has been played directly to the player by an opponent and recovers possession for their team - typically achieved with a coordinated team press.
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In terms of pressing, Klopp's high-intensity style based around 'gegenpressing' was, arguably, the most influential in the modern era of the English game - but Guardiola also demands similar levels from his side.
It goes without saying that fewer clubs play long balls in the modern era, but what is the scale of that change?
Even as recently as 2009/10, more than 17 per cent of passes were played 'long' - defined as passes exceeding 32m. Last season, that ratio had dropped to just 11.4 per cent - the lowest on record.
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The chart below highlights how the top teams almost exclusively record the lowest rates for playing long balls.
Conversely, relegated Leicester perhaps attempted to play the short passing game too much during their quest to secure top-flight survival - with Jamie Vardy spending considerable time on the substitute bench in favour of forwards who are more comfortable receiving the ball to feet.
Forwards have almost exclusively hogged the limelight and loosened clubs' purse strings most. A glance at the list of world-record fees underlines how attackers have typically been the prized assets throughout history.
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However, things have been changing domestically. Pep Guardiola jettisoned Joe Hart for a ball-playing goalkeeper when he joined Manchester CIty in 2016 and signed technical midfielders Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan, before spending over £100m on new full-backs the following summer.
Image: Chelsea splashed a league-record £106.8m on Enzo Fernandez in January
Meanwhile, the two most expensive players in the history of the division are defensive midfielders: Enzo Fernandez (£106.8m) and Declan Rice (£105m) - with both deals completed in the past year.
The 4-4-2 formation gets a bad reputation these days, commonly being associated with an old, less-tactical style of play - with long balls 'lumped' up to big strikers. In recent seasons, Burnley and Southampton braved critics and went old-school.
It remains the most used system in the Premier league since 2006/07 - largely because of its dominance in those earlier years.
For context, the 4-4-2 was used 498 times across the division in 2006/07 - no system comes close to matching that dominance in a single campaign since then.
Last season, 13 teams started in a 4-4-2 on 62 occasions in the Premier League. In fact, only the 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and 3-4-2-1 were used more frequently this term.
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Sky Sports' Peter Smith:
Last season, it felt as though conveying a team's line-up in a traditional formation was failing to tell the real story of how that side would shape up in and out of possession during the match. Those familiar labels of 4-3-3, 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 are too simplistic for the more complex positional play coaches are requesting from their players.
From early in the season, Oleksandr Zinchenko's role of stepping into midfield from left-back was giving Arsenal an often decisive numerical advantage in midfield. It was a big part of their fine form in the first half of the campaign.
Later, Rico Lewis showed impressive game intelligence at a young age to perform a similar role from right-back for Man City, spending much of matches in-field, forming part of a box midfield alongside Rodri. In the final part of the season, John Stones was able to do the same, either from a starting position at right-back or, even more eye-catchingly, straight out of centre-back.
It was a trend which caught on, with Trent Alexander-Arnold doing the same at Liverpool and Pascal Gross putting his midfield skills from right-back for Brighton. The ultimate aim was to provide extra bodies in the middle of the park and create overloads in important areas. A search for space. For Alexander-Arnold it seemed a solution to emphasise his brilliant ball-playing ability and limit his vulnerability in one-on-one defensive situations.
But it wasn't just on the ball where teams were showing flexibility. It's not a new phenomenon for teams to defend in a different set-up to how they attack but this season it became plainly obvious how sides were switching approach in and out of possession. The classic 4-4-2 was given a revival, with sides banking lines of players in front of opposition teams when they lost the ball and proving hard to break down.
Comprehensive coverage of the NFL draft. Over the next few months Football's Future will bring you player profiles, team updates, hot news, mock drafts, live draft coverage and much more.
Future of Football. This special Sky Sports series investigates what football could look like in two or three decades' time, as rapidly evolving sport changes across a broad range of areas ...
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