Football - The beautiful game

Born in Gualeguay, Argentina, Lisandro Martínez started his senior career at Newell's Old Boys, and moved to Amsterdam in 2019. In his first season at Ajax, which came under current Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag (more on this later), Lisandro alternated between playing as a defensive midfielder as well as a centre-back. As his career has progressed, during which he even played as a left-back, Martínez has settled into his role as the left sided centre-back alongside Dutch wonderkid Jurrien Timber in the heart of Ajax's defence. Nicknamed 'The Butcher of Amsterdam', Martínez is very much like any South American defender one would imagine - aggressive and tenacious, yet possessing the technical qualities that caught the attention of the scouts at the Amsterdam club. His excellent 2021/22 season saw him win Ajax's Player of the Year, and now the Argentine is being chased by a host of clubs around Europe. So how good is Lisandro  Martínez ? In this article, I will...

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...