Football - The beautiful game

Enough has been said about Manchester United's 2021/22 season, from scathing articles about the underwhelming Ralf Rangnick tenure to the training ground bust-ups between the players. We can all agree that this was probably United's worst season in a very long time, and this is considering the fact that we all saw the meltdown that came in Jose's final season, Moyes just not being good enough to carry out a job of this scale, and Louis Van Gaal's football that put almost everyone to sleep. Add to this the fanfare that surrounded the Red Devils at the beginning of the season, having just finished second in the league to which they added Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane, and Cristiano Ronaldo, and it becomes evident just how bad the season had to go to be called the worst season of the Premier League era. It still happened, and after all the disappointments, there might just be light at the end of the tunnel for the Old Trafford faithful. There has been a big overhaul at the ...

When I wrote an article last year titled ' Using Machine Learning To Find A Jules Koundé Alternative for Tottenham ', the idea of creating an app that allows anyone to find player alternatives had already been sowed in my mind. It was then nurtured by the impending overhaul at Manchester United and has finally blossomed as the transfer window now comes around the corner. I finally got around to making the app, which you can now find on my Twitter profile  here . In this article, I will take you through the idea, the execution, and the issues I faced while building the web app. My biggest project is finally here! I made an app that employs Machine Learning to group and find players with similar profiles. https://t.co/m4yhib1XvD pic.twitter.com/P9E4BSmVw3 — Anuraag Kulkarni (@Anuraag027) May 19, 2022 The Idea So as I stated earlier, the idea came from a previous article. The thought in my mind was simple - is there a way I can tell which players are similar by looking at their ...

FootMercato , in 2021, quoted Marseille central defender Gonzalez (about Kamara): “What he does for the team, for OM, it’s incredible. He’s only 21 but it looks like he’s 30. For me, Bouba is the best player in the league!”. A year has passed since, and the French defensive midfielder has gone on and improved even further. Under Jorge Sampaoli, Kamara has adapted to a system employed by some of the best teams in Europe and grown into a player that looks ready to make the step up to a Champions League side.  This article will take a look into his playing style, strengths, weaknesses, and why Manchester United should be looking to snap him up. The Sampaoli Revolution Appointed as Marseille manager on 26 February 2021 after the departure of Andre Villas-Boas, Sampaoli brought with him an aggressive, high possession, and dominant style of play. Where in the 2020-21 season Marseille averaged 54% possession, good enough only for 7th in the French league, Les Olympiens currently keep...

The Start Of Something New It is crazy to think that the last time Manchester United hired a 'permanent manager' from the onset of their tenure was in May 2016, when the Red Devils brought in serial winner (yet recently sacked by Chelsea) Jose Mourinho. Once the Portuguese left the club in a distraught state, with players seeming to lack any motivation to perform and the fans (rightly) starved of any variation of positivity, United thought to follow in the footsteps of something a lot of clubs seemed to be finding success in - bringing in former players who 'know the club' as managers (Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid) - and got Ole Gunnar Solskjaer from Norwegian club Molde FK as an interim manager to get through the rest of the season. What followed was an incredible (but unsustainable) run, followed by Ole being made the permanent manager, and the rise and decline of the side during his tenure. Ralf Rangnick came in next, another interim man...

  Wolves' Midfield Maestro When Rúben Neves moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers from Porto in the summer of 2017 aged just 20 years old, it was a move that confused many. The Portuguese was seen as one of the hottest prospects in European football, and hence the astonishment of watching such a player move to the second-tier of the English football pyramid seemed justified. Ever since that move however, Neves has wowed the fans at the Molineux through his immense technical ability, his screamers from outside the box, and his excellent ability to hit long, diagonal balls like some of the best midfielders that have graced the Premier League in the past. He has formed an excellent partnership with fellow Portuguese veteran João Moutinho, anchoring the centre of the pitch to let the likes of Adama Traore & Raul Jimenez to cause havoc in the final third. His ability on the ball and to spray long passes for fun has caused some United fans to speculate he could be the heir to Michael Carr...