A-League Analysis
Detailed tactical analysis of A-League matches — formations, gameplans, pressing traps, movements and everything else tactics.
Melbourne City 2-2 Wellington Phoenix
Patrick Kisnorbo’s Melbourne City entered this gameweek as top of the A-League table, hoping to extend their 3-win streak. Looking to dampen their spirits was Ufuk Talay’s…
Melbourne Victory 0-1 Western Sydney Wanderers
Melbourne Victory kicked off their home campaign against Western Sydney Wanderers at AAMI Park. It was a fantastic day for a game, with two packed sets of active support providing…
Melbourne City 2-1 Western United
The A-League is back! The 2022-23 season kicked off with the 2021-22 Grand Final rematch: the premiers Melbourne City vs the A-League Champions Western United.
Player Ages in the A-League (2021/22 Edition)
The A-League 2021/22 season is drawing to a close, with only the finals series left to be played. With that, we’ve now got a full set of data on the regular season, meaning it’s…
Melbourne Victory 3-4 Western United
I was lucky to be at the second clash of Melbourne Victory vs Western United this season. It was truly an incredible game to watch - and probably takes the cake as the best game…
Adelaide United 3-2 Central Coast Mariners
It’s always sad when a football match’s main talking point is a contentious refereeing decision. Not just because the discussion of the game usually devolves into an argument of…
Sydney FC 2-1 Wellington Phoenix: 2 Clubs, 1 System
Sydney FC’s 2-1 victory over Wellington Phoenix saw Steve Corica and Ufuk Talay’s teams adopting similar tactics on the field. While it was subdued in comparison with the rest of…
Newcastle Jets, Sydney FC & Central Coast Mariners: One Month of xG
What a start it’s been to the A-League! The 2020/21 season is 1 month old, and with 27 games played, we’ve seen an astonishing 73 goals - an average return of 2.7 goals per game.…
Melbourne Victory 1-3 Brisbane Roar
Melbourne Victory hosted Brisbane Roar on a rainy Melbourne afternoon at AAMI Park, starting their A-League campaign a week later than their opponents, who lost to Melbourne City…
Western United 0-0 Adelaide United
Western United were lucky to not lose many players through the offseason and lined up with a largely familiar side in their regular 5-2-3 formation. Adelaide United, on the other…
Sydney FC: Lessons from the Asian Champions League
Sydney had what’s becoming a fairly typical Asian Champions League campaign for them - performing well but still not getting results. This time it meant that they played good…
Perth Glory: Lessons from the Asian Champions League
With all the dramas surrounding Perth Glory’s offseason, it was a relief to see them return to the pitch and put up a good fight in their games in the Asian Champions League.…
Melbourne Victory: Lessons from the Asian Champions League
Melbourne Victory (surprisingly) got the furthest in the Asian Champions League, picking up a crucial win against FC Seoul to make it to the Round of 16. While Ulsan Hyundai…
Melbourne Victory 2020/21 Season Preview
The baton for Melbourne Victory’s second rebuild in two seasons has fallen to Grant Brebner, who took charge of five games prior to being awarded the head coach role. With…
How Do Sydney FC Replace Adam Le Fondre?
Sydney FC have had a quiet and stable offseason with no big transfer stories bar one - Adam Le Fondre departing to Mumbai City FC in the Indian Super League. It’s a big loss for…
Analysis of the A-League’s Average Age
Last week saw news stories of two interesting reports: Professional Footballers Australia’s 2019-20 A-League report and Football Federation Australia’s Performance Gap Report…
Melbourne City 2020/21 Season Preview
Melbourne City have come out of this offseason as one of the big winners. They benefit from a very stable footballing philosophy and style of play inherited from the City Football…
Melbourne Victory’s Tactics under Grant Brebner
Grant Brebner was officially announced as Melbourne Victory’s Head Coach following the close of the 2019/20 A-League season, having filled in as caretaker. His playing style was a…
Why Andrew Nabbout to Melbourne City makes sense
Andrew Nabbout’s arrival at Melbourne City comes as a huge surprise. Having been announced for Perth Glory only about three weeks ago, the continued border restrictions on WA…
A-League 2019/20 Season Maps: Shots, Goals, Goals Conceded & Crosses
With the 2019/20 Premier League season finished, I’ve gone through the data and created a series of maps to showcase each teams’ shots, goals, goals conceded and crosses over the…
Grand Final: Sydney FC 1-0 Melbourne City FC
Sydney FC won their fifth A-League Championship in an entertaining but low-scoring final where both teams definitely put their best foot forward. It was first versus second, with…
Grand Final Preview: Sydney FC vs Melbourne City
The longest A-League season will finally come to a close with Sunday's Grand Final, where Steve Corica’s first placed Sydney FC will take on Erick Mombaert’s second placed…
Elimination Final: Wellington Phoenix 0-1 Perth Glory
The first A-League elimination final was a battle of two teams out of form: Ufuk Talay’s Wellington Phoenix with 5 points in their last 6 games against Tony Popovic’s Perth Glory…
Western United: A few quick thoughts for finals
Mark Rudan has gotten Western United to the promised land in their inaugural season and they arrive in the A-League Finals Series as one of the form teams. having made the most of…
Perth Glory Finals Preview
Perth Glory have just about managed to limp their way into the 2019/20 A-League finals series, recording two wins and four losses since the restart and pipping Adelaide United to…
Western United 5-3 Western Sydney Wanderers
The A-League’s second 8 goal game in 9 days came as Western United and Western Sydney Wanderers played out a crazy game of football which saw a two chipped goals, a 3-0 lead…
Melbourne City 2-0 Sydney FC
Melbourne City was the last team to return to A-League action, kicking off their end-of-season campaign against the newly crowned premiers Sydney FC. Sydney had already played two…
Melbourne City vs Sydney FC Preview: Data Analysis
I’ve been playing around with data this week, so rather than a standard preview for Melbourne City vs Sydney FC, I’ve looked at some of the data behind each of the teams and…
Melbourne Victory 1 - 2 Western United
The unlikely setting of Bankwest Stadium was the venue for Grant Brebner’s Melbourne Victory coaching debut, who took on Mark Rudan’s Western United, who were hoping to complete…
Brisbane Roar 0 - 1 Adelaide United
Brisbane Roar vs Adelaide United saw Warren Moon and Carl Veart meet for the first time as managers, having both come into their teams fresh. It was a close contest, dominated in…
Sydney FC 3 - 1 Wellington Phoenix
Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix met for the first game of football in the A-League for almost four months, and what a game to kick off the A-League again! It had everything - a…
Preview: Sydney FC v Wellington Phoenix
A-League is finally back, and kicking us off will be Sydney FC vs Wellington Phoenix, in what has been suggested to be a Grand Final preview. Steve Corica comes up against his…
Crossing in the A-League Part II: Game State, Home/Away and more
This article is part two of my crossing analysis, and it breaks down crossing more to answer a few of the questions that popped up, including game state, home vs away, crossing…
Crossing in the A-League: Where’s it gone?
I listened to the June 23rd episode of the Fox Football Podcast (Adam and Robbie chat new broadcast deal), in which a question was asked about crossing. I decided to see if I…
Western Sydney Wanderers’ Tactics under Jean-Paul de Marigny
Western Sydney Wanderers and Markus Babbel struggled in the 2019-20 season, and by the close of Round 15 Babbel was sacked, with his assistant Jean-Paul de Marigny taking charge.…
Scouting Report: Robbie Fowler's Tactics in Brisbane Roar's Revival
Robbie Fowler has Brisbane Roar playing with a patient, possession focused style, looking to work the ball methodically into dangerous situations, but notably not playing risky…
Scouting Report: Sydney FC
Sydney FC find themselves top of the A-League, 8 points clear of Melbourne City, but with three games in hand. They have a consistent identity in how they play; an attack minded…
Asian Champions League: Yokohama F-Marinos 4-0 Sydney FC
Ange Postecoglu’s Yokohama F-Marinos produced a fantastic display that completely outclassed the A-League leaders Sydney FC.
Newcastle Jets 2 - 1 Melbourne City
Newcastle Jets played Melbourne City in what ended up being the last game of soccer to be played in the A-League for a while. Melbourne City played in their standard 4-3-3…
Western Sydney Wanderers 1 - 1 Sydney FC
Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC played out an entertaining derby with the organised (but different) defensive strategies coming up on top. Western Sydney Wanderers lined up…
Central Coast Mariners 2 - 4 Melbourne City
Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne City played out an entertaining game of football that started out hectic, but settled and later petered out in hot conditions. Central Coast…
Melbourne City 1 - 1 Western Sydney Wanderers
Melbourne City came into the game with a clear tactical gameplan against a defensive/counter-attacking Western Sydney Wanderers, in a game characterised by a lack of individual…
Sydney FC 0 - 0 Perth Glory
Two organised, deep defences meant that neither team was able to score in a game lacking of clear cut chances. They cancelled each other out, with the draw probably the most fair…
Melbourne Victory 1 - 4 Sydney FC
Sydney’s structure and organisation ensured that they won the Big Blue against a Victory side which struggled to link play. Sydney’s 4-2-2-2 is fluid, with all players able to…
Western United 6 - 2 Central Coast Mariners
Western United’s press wreaks havoc on the Mariners’ right-back zone.
Melbourne Victory 2 - 1 Adelaide United
Melbourne Victory snatched victory from an Adelaide side who weren’t able to take advantage of their tactical play.