🚨 How do you stop Kylian Mbappe?

In one of my favourite videos to make to date, I detailed the tactical + individual things teams like Barcelona, Newcastle and Rennes have done, to great success 👀

Florian Wirtz has received more line-breaking passes in at least 2m of space in the final third than any other player in the Big 5 Leagues in 2023/24

The Leverkusen midfielder has received 5.9 of these passes per 90 minutes - only one other player has received more than 5 per 90

I don't think we fully appreciate how difficult it is to mess up a penalty in this way...

Nicolas Jackson is going to be an excellent Premier League striker.

Also only just noticed that he's averaging 0.73 npxG+xA per90 (Opta via Football Reference), which by debut PL season standards is exceptionally good.

It's a Monday afternoon and so it's time to settle down for a Did You Notice thread from the weekend's football...

And this weekend, it's all about Unai Emery and the relationship between the tactical plan and its execution... [thread]

'People stereotype Asians to doing certain jobs because they are good at it.'

Yan Dhanda says he's lucky to have had many managers with 'a different mindset' towards South Asian heritage footballers as he opens up about the challenges that still face the community in the game ⤵️

Nothing and nobody can prepare me to face the chaos that is Manchester weather today.

Running out of words to describe Florian Wirtz's brilliance, he is simply a 💎.

This was madness…

“The coach tried to drench me, Edmond Tapsoba tried to drench me. I’ve come here to hide!”

A jubilant Jeremie Frimpong joined me / leaned on me as he celebrated Bayer Leverkusen’s first ever title. ESPN FC

No doubt there will be plenty of praise for Leverkusen's stars like Wirtz, Boniface and Xhaka but B04's success has been in the making because of many great cogs - one of them being Exequiel Palacios. 🇦🇷

Wrote about him earlier this season for FotMob

fotmob.com/en-GB/topnews/…

The fact Bayer Leverkusen were 17th in the Bundesliga when Xabi Alonso took over and that wasn't even two full seasons ago boggles my mind.

Florian Wirtz has a FIRST senior hat-trick and the league is LEVERKUSEN'S! 🎇

History.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen are German campions for the first ever time

Bayern Munich’s 11-year dominance of the #Bundesliga is broken by Xabi Alonso’s Werkself.

A first ever hat-trick in the Bundesliga for Florian Wirtz, what a day to do it. You simply have to say wow. 🌟

The skill ⚡️
The finish 😮‍💨

Rennes go into the half-time break trailing, but Désiré Doué opened the scoring with a brilliant goal!

📺 TNT Sports & discovery+ UK

You've probably heard about Serhou Guirassy's unforgettable season, but I don't think we're talking about this goals/shot on target ratio which is at 0.71 (fbref has him at 0.65 prior to today), so this got me thinking....
#Guirassy #VfBSGE
THREAD

Left winger

With Bayer 04 Leverkusen on the cusp of the title, Bundesliga English asked me to write about #Wirtz and his role as a 10. I may have said yes:
bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/…

🆕Always thought Loïs Openda would do well in the Bundesliga and no surprises to see second him second only to Harry Kane for G+A this season, he's a terrific forward.

✍️ Analysis of his brilliant debut season for Bundesliga English -

bundesliga.com/en/bundesliga/…

Víctor Boniface back as if he never left. What an impact. What a player!