Manchester United manager’s often defensive tactics and desire for total control of his players could stem from a sense of being an outsider

It’s not a coincidence that the Premier League has become the global home of shambolic defending and Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea all have issues to resolve before the weekend

Juve have conceded only three goals in the Champions League all season and Real Madrid must find a way through their central defensive setup in the final

Antonio Conte has been praised for his bold use of Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso but history suggests it is part of a wider trend dating back to the 1960s

Pep Guardiola’s demands that Sergio Agüero contributes more towards winning the ball back – and it is the same for Diego Costa at Chelsea – shows that the role of the striker is no longer confined to scoring

These are early days at Manchester City for Pep Guardiola but it appears that the manager’s basic template is a 4-1-4-1-cum-W-M formation with the Belgian and Spaniard sharing responsibilities in attacking midfield

Games of cut-and-thrust, with two teams going at each other, were almost nonexistent as we too often witnessed a slow bicycle race of non-possession

The European Championship has seen Wales, Italy and Germany succeed by employing the tactic but its revival may be more practical than ideological

Liverpool face Manchester United on Sunday in what will be a clash of two managers who started out with similar philosophies but are now very different

Jonathan Wilson: Louis van Gaal believes simply having the ball shows ambition but possession, shots on target and even goals aren’t necessarily enough to satiate fans