In terms of tactics, the Premier League is in a realistic stage. Or also take a look at the remarkable new points about the tactics at the No. 1 British tournament in the 2025/26 season.
After 4 consecutive seasons of the championship with a clear style, based on the control of the ball and dominating the space, Pep Guardiola's Man City ended the 2024/25 season in third place with 71 points, the worst achievement since the launch season of Guardiola 2016/17.
Meanwhile, Liverpool easily ascended the throne in the first season of Hau Jurgen Klopp. Arne Slot's team resonates thanks to flexibility and adaptability. They won 25 matches and lost only twice in the first 34 rounds, the moment the trophy was almost belonged to them.
Nottingham Forest shows that a small team can win the European Cup by using a “classic” strategy: defending first and counterattack later. While the second consecutive, all three newly promoted teams were relegated in the first season.
So what can we wait for the season 2025/26?
Border defender no longer bundle in the middle
Last season, the group of clubs chasing European capacity seemed to realize that they did not need to copy the way Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal, that is, dragging a border defender into the stone in the middle. In fact, these teams were even more successful with the border defenders rising forward, running through the winger.
According to statistics from Skillcorner, Milos Kerkez is the only player in the tournament to perform more than 100 overlap situations and more than 100 cross -moving phases in (underlap), very suitable for Bournemouth's direct play when there is ball. And the fact that he joined Liverpool this summer made Kerkez a younger version of Andy Robertson.
“He is a player model, physically, maybe many times to be high to the end of the pitch with the ball in his leg and performing quality crosses,” Bournemouth's coach Andoni Iraola commented on Kerkez last season.
Similarly, the appearance of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, the winger in the Bundesliga championship team 2023/24, allows Arne Slot to deploy the maximum width and the border defenders often rise on both wings.
Bien Bien Bien Lewis Hall and Tino Livgento of Newcastle United especially regularly perform underlap phases. Antonee Robinson has 10 assists for Fulham last season, performing the most cross -bodies, often rising from the left -back position.
Other notable names include Daniel Munoz (Crystal Palace), Aaron Wan-Bissaka (West Ham United), Michael Kayode (Brentford) and Lucas Digne (Aston Villa).
According to Skillcorner, the frequency of Bien Bien defender has decreased in recent seasons, nearly 14% lower in the 2024/25 season compared to the 2018/19 season. Meanwhile, underlap phases have increased, more than one -third more than the same period.
This seems strange if considering the popularity of the players in the opposite leg, the players on the opposite side compared to their favorable legs and tend to cut into the middle, which is often suitable for a supported defender by overlapping phase.
However, many coaches want their winger to start a very high and wide position, and by luring the opponent defender to create a one -of -one, underlap -phase situation can sometimes open the opponent's defense.
“Lavolpiana” – pulled down the pillar midfielder
The battles between the Premier League are changing. We can see that right in the situation, when the teams often deploy with 6 players near their goal and 4 people close to the middle of the pitch, leaving the area in the middle of the field because the opponent often pressed him.
Once the ball control position, the average defense blocks in 4-4-2 scheme are increasingly popular, to attach directly to the middle line. As a result, short passes through the middle become more risky than the benefit (unless the team owns a pillar midfielder capable of escaping pressing like Rodri or Ryan Gravenberch).
According to Footovision, an advanced data supplier, the ratio of cross -route passes is carried out in the middle during the process of deploying the ball down 5% in the Premier League, from the season 2023/24 to 2024/25.
Please wait more than the “Lavolpiana” tactic, named the Argentine coach Ricardo La Volpe. This is how a central midfielder backwards, playing between the two central defenses, and performs the cross -route passes.
For example, Newcastle's Sandro Tonali took on this role, allowing the right-back Kieran Trippier to rise and create 2-1-1-1-to-back with the left-back of Ipswich Town.
If there is a midfielder to play this role, it is the Aston Villa's Youri Tielemans. He ranked 9th in the year of Europe's leading league last season in terms of cross -route passes (24 times).
With Rodri injury most of the previous season, Bernardo Silva was the one who performed this task at Man City, especially before the hard -working defense blocks. Mateo Kovacic can also take this role, and this is a familiar feature in his teams.
Carlos BaleBa also did this in the implementation phase leading to the opening goal of Brighton on the field of Manchester United.
“We have a good balance between defense and control of the match when holding the ball,” Brighton's Fabian Hurzeler said after the match.
The coaches often appreciate this adjustment in the stage of deploying the ball not only because it opens favorable passes, because the opponent often does not dare to push a player too high to press the midfielder, but also because it helps reinforce “Rest Defence” to fight counterattack.
The fixed situation returns to the basic style
The paradox is that although clubs are increasingly focusing and investing more in fixed situations, the tactics are returning to the old style.
Last season, 60% of the corner is the inwards (Inswinger), increasing compared to 41% in the 2018/19 season. The ratio of short -corner stone is still stable (about 1/5 of the total), while the outswinger is gradually disappearing.
The teams mainly copy the approach of Arsenal and Aston Villa, the two Premier League clubs soon hired a fixed situation coach, which often stuffed the player into the 5M50 area and the ball swirling on the opponent's goalkeeper. Everton under Sean Dyche also often caused difficulties for the opponent with this stone.
“The special feature in the Premier League is that you can block people, push, make mistakes and not blow the whistle,” Crystal Palace's coach Oliver Glasner shared about the corner penalties last season, indirectly explaining why many teams prioritized the corner in the corner because they were allowed to do so.
“This brings more opportunities in attacking from a fixed situation, but it also causes more trouble when defending.”
Similarly, the teams are increasingly liking the long ball right from the serve, and the long -distance boundaries have increased steadily in the past 4 years: the 2020/21 season has 279 fruits thrown into the penalty area (only 3 goals from these situations), and last season is 501 fruits and 20 goals.
The Brentford of Thomas Frank, as the previous seasons, led the tournament in this clause, with 103 fruits thrown into the penalty area and 6 goals from throwing situations. Now, when Frank has become the coach of Tottenham Hotspur, this tactic may spread if his new team continues to apply.
The return of the potential of the diagram 3-4-2-1
Chelsea in the 2016/17 season is the closest team to win the Premier League with a variation of the 3-4-3 diagram. Man City has ever transformed into this form quite a lot in the attacking stage of the season 2022/23 (when John Stones moved from the center-back to the midfielder), but overall, for many years, the strong team of the tournament most played the 4-3-3 diagrams quite well.
However, 3-4-2-1 is gradually returning. This is Ruben Amorim's favorite diagram at Manchester United and Oliver Glasner at Crystal Palace, both who have succeeded with it in the old clubs Sporting CP and Eintracht Frankfurt.
In the ball control match, MU and Palace can push a Wing-back to the striker, and use the two “numbers 10” to pin the opponent defenders, while still playing close to the striker.
The same script took place with Wolverhampton Wanderers under Vitor Pereira. When he arrived in December 2024, Wolves was ranked 19th with only 9 points after 16 matches.
The predecessor Gary O'Neil was rotated between the three and four people, but Pereira was steadfast with 3-4-2-1 for the rest of the season. As a result, Wolves won 33 points in the last 22 matches, safe relegation in 16th place.
This can become a sample for many teams, especially rookies that need a firm defensive foundation. When most of the defense team with four people, the use of the Wing-back system can be quite a simple way to create the advantage of the number and form 5-person attacks.
In total, there were 120 times the teams used 3-4-2-1 or 3-2-4-1 (other ways of the same structure) in the season 2024/25, with the frequency of increasing steadily from the 2019/20 season, the time is only 25 times.
Focus on attacking status
The Premier League has “overtaken” the Bundesliga last season. The No. 1 UK tournament is currently the best counterattack in Europe.
The number of shots from rapid counterattacks has increased steadily in the past 5 years, as well as the expected goal index (XG) from those situations.
After 54 goals from quick counterattack in the 2021/22 season, the last three seasons recorded 87, 83 and the latest was 112 goals.
More and more teams want to play openly, occupying the opponent's yard, leading to an increase in the opportunity to counterattack. In addition to the tournament that owns many strikers and wingers who are both fast and technical, the open ribs are more likely to be exploited.
Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal are the three teams scoring the most counterattack last season, proving that this is no longer the “weapon of the weak”, while Brighton, Tottenham, Leicester City, Nottingham Forest and Brentford conceded at least 8 goals from these situations.
“People talk a lot about what we do when we have the ball, about scoring, but if we look at our Gegenpressing capabilities, the way we take back the ball, it is really difficult for the opponent,” Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard shared in March 2024.
Waiting for next season will witness more fierce gegenpressing, maybe even more tactical fouls, and the coaches focus more on “Rest Defence” – that is, the location and distance between the players when the team is holding the ball, to be ready to close immediately if losing the ball.
