Analyzing football tactics

Finding the next edge.

Kyle Boas

Author of the Tactics Journal

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Why aren't we using exoskeletons more

09 November 2026

Empirical study on how lower limb exoskeleton robots improve older adults’ physical performance through psychological mechanisms by Changjian Wang and Tianyou Zhang:

Participants in the intervention group wore lower limb exoskeleton robots, while those in the control group did not, so participants could clearly perceive their group assignment, posing a risk of bias due to expectation effects.

[…] The control group performs self-directed exercise training of the same duration and intensity without wearing the exoskeleton. The intervention lasts 8 weeks, with physical performance tests and psychological assessments conducted before and after the intervention.

[…] In the control group, there were no obvious changes in psychological indicators before and after the intervention; in the intervention group, the RPE perceived exertion score decreased significantly, while the exercise self-efficacy and ABC balance confidence scores increased significantly.

[…] three sessions per week, each lasting 40 min, including a 10-min warm-up, 25 min of exoskeleton-assisted walking and stepping training, and a 5-min cool-down.

[…] After the intervention, the intervention group showed increases in walking speed, step length, and 6-min walking distance, while gait variability coefficient and balance sway value decreased; the control group showed no significant changes in any exercise indicators before and after the intervention.

[…] Exoskeleton assistance is set to a low level (10–15 N·m) to provide light support and help participants adapt to the robot’s power rhythm while fostering a sense of safe exercise.

[…] The main training is optimized with alternating steady walking and short-distance stepping, walking speed increased to 0.8–0.95 m/s, and exoskeleton assistance set to a medium level (15–22 N·m).

[…] Assistance is dynamically adjusted based on the participant’s real-time condition, ensuring reduced physical strain while retaining some self-generated effort to avoid full mechanical compensation.

[…] Exoskeleton assistance is kept at a medium-high level (20–28 N·m), emphasizing gait stability and endurance training while reducing perceived exertion. Towards the end of this phase, the proportion of assistance is gradually decreased, encouraging participants to exert more effort themselves, avoiding device dependency, and reinforcing their confidence and capability to exercise independently.

I think there is a future where every player is wearing one of these exoskeletons off the pitch, between games, to help with recovery. Maybe even in certain types of training.

cc: Mikel Arteta and his weird and interesting alternative methods.

Simplify

08 November 2026

I’m getting a lot of inspiration lately from people who create things that are simple.

They aren’t trying to do everything, they are trying to do one thing well.

It is hard to fight the urge to do more.

It is way easier and, in some ways, more fun to make something that people love that is easy to maintain. You can do something you love and it is simple.

For this reason, I don’t fault those who focus so heavily on corners.

Michael Carrick on Sir Alex Ferguson's ruthlessness and making every player want to please him

08 November 2026

Manchester United manager Michael Carrick:

Yeah, I mean, there’s a real balance to it actually, because it wasn’t always a nice experience. Now everyone looks back and goes, wasn’t it fantastic and wasn’t it great with all the players.

He wasn’t nice always. He was supportive and he would push you, but it wasn’t nice. But you always felt the trust and the respect from him. For whatever reason, you were desperate to please him and you wanted to do well for him.

From the football side and on the pitch side, it was pretty ruthless, to be honest, and it had to be. That’s why he built the teams that he did, because he was ruthless.

He speaks to me about why he signed me a little bit, because he knows I moved away from home at 15. In terms of the character, he knew my upbringing, my family, kind of where I was from, what that meant.

So there was a real backstory and underpinned understanding of each player: where they come from, what made them tick, did they have something in them where they could survive adversity or overcome a challenge.

I think sometimes it’s not till later on you understand that. But in the moment, he just found a way of pretty much every player I’ve come across wanting to please him, which in the end is the genius of leadership.

The best coaches or managers of players will be the hardest on the players they believe should be better. They can’t always be your friend to be in that role.

Jérémy Doku has lost possession 67 times across his last three Premier League games

07 November 2026

When I went back and watched Didier Drogba’s first season with Chelsea recently, the first thing I noticed was how many times he gave up the ball. He is one of my favorite players. If he played today, I’m not sure other people’s opinion of him would be as positive.

Back then, in the 2000s, the ball changed hands between teams often. If you gave up the ball, it wasn’t as big of a deal because you would get it right back.

Today, it is different. Teams can hold onto posssesion and immediately punish you on the ground. Therefore, players are coached to be tepid and cautious.

In my opinion, an attacking player must have a personality. If they are focused only on how they will fail, they can’t succeed. To succeed, they would have to be boring, and have no personality.

There are many players who have made a career out of being boring. Would you rather be boring or one of the Jérémy Doku or Dider Drogba’s of the world?

I would be worried if Doku wasn’t giving the ball away 67 times.

I’m not worried because if he didn’t take chances, he would have no threat and no personality, and defenders wouldn’t have to worry about him getting beyond them.

Fabian Hurzeler on his three-step process for positioning wide players

07 November 2026

Brighton & Hove Albion head coach Fabian Hurzeler:

I think the first thing what we analyze is in which position can the player himself express himself the best, and in which position, which area on the pitch, he can be the best version of himself. And I think that’s the key bit for everything that comes afterwards.

Then we try to build the right connection, for example with the full-back. So when we speak about Maxim Deba and Oluskagi, for example, on the left side, it’s about building relationship: who is making the rotation in the right moment; who is, for example, in the middle of the pitch, then the other have to be more higher, outside on the pitch. And it’s really about building, and then we come back to connections, building these kind of connections. That’s the second part.

And then of course in certain moments you have to adapt to the opponents. You have to understand, okay, which space they might give you, whether you see maybe a mismatch, and then you try to discover these kind of things.

But first of all, it’s really what is the strength from the player, in which position he can express himself, how can you build the strongest connections and keep working on these kind of connection. Then the third thing is really adapting and seeing elements from the opponent we might can use to fulfill our match plan.

Those are the words of a top manager.