1. Don\u2019t watch the ball, watch the player<\/p>\n
I had this lightbulb moment during the World Cup when we wrote about how much Lionel Messi walks during matches<\/a>. The guy is just strolling around, looking chiller than a camel (no, really, read this article<\/a> about why Messi walks like a camel), and then suddenly, he moves. Erling Haaland got attention during the tournament for this behavior, too.<\/p>\n After I learned that, I started focusing on specific players instead of watching the ball, and I immediately noticed a boost to my enjoyment and focus. It\u2019s really easy to glaze over if you just watch the ball go round and round and round.<\/p>\n To get smarter at watching football, pick a player to follow. Watch what they\u2019re watching. Try to guess where they\u2019ll go next. See how they surprise you. You\u2019ll naturally begin to understand the strategy and rhythm of the game.<\/p>\n 2. Look for space<\/p>\n Honestly, Messi is another great example here. Former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola once said<\/a> that when Messi is walking, he\u2019s scanning the opposing defense for weak points, like a soccer-playing Neo from \u201cThe Matrix\u201d: \u201cAfter five, 10 minutes, he has a map in his eyes, in his brain, to know exactly where is the space and what is the panorama.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Premier League specifically, space is very hard to come by, especially if it\u2019s inside the opposition\u2019s defense. When you see the space, ask yourself: What is the attacking team doing to try and get there? What is the defending team doing to try and close it up?<\/p>\n \n Space can be hard to find in the Premier League (Mike Hewitt\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n 3. Look for triangles<\/p>\n The triangle is arguably the most important shape in soccer. Three players are often exactly what you need to move the ball past a defense.<\/p>\n To grossly oversimplify, a triangle of players means a defender can\u2019t just block one straight lane, which forces them into more difficult choices. Once the ball is passed, the passer can move forward as an option for the next pass.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t Sports fans in the U.S. might be familiar with triangles thanks to the NBA\u2019s \u201ctriangle offense\u201d \u2014 invented in the 1940s by Sam Barry at the University of Southern California but immortalized by Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan on the NBA\u2019s 1990s Chicago Bulls. In fact, Kobe Bryant said that playing soccer<\/a> (football) while living in Europe as a kid helped with his basketball IQ because of this rule of triangles:<\/p>\n \u201cThey taught me at an early age how to play in triangles and how to utilize space, which wound up helping me tremendously in basketball. I loved the idea of how quickly the ball moves and how quickly you have to process what\u2019s moving right in front of you to make decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Pay attention to the details<\/p>\n This is where soccer makes you go, \u201cWTF did I just watch???\u201d An attack can take so many patient moves and passes, and then suddenly you blink and the ball is in the net. If you get a chance to slow down a goal and see exactly how it happened, you might be shocked by how much was going on.<\/p>\n For example, in this goal a week ago<\/a> by Arsenal\u2019s Kai Havertz against Chelsea, it looks kind of like the goalkeeper just missed a pretty easy save. But actually, so much cool stuff happens in the three seconds it takes Havertz to receive the ball and then score.<\/p>\n First, his teammate Martin Odegaard is in the way (yellow arrow pointing to him below), spots it early and dodges out of Havertz\u2019s path:<\/p>\n Then, Havertz has a defender right between him and the goal, so it makes sense to shoot around that defender to the left side of the goal. But consider: Everyone else can see that, too:<\/p>\n Instead, he sees the narrower, riskier, less obvious way \u2014 through the defender into the unexpected side of the goal:<\/p>\n The goalkeeper can\u2019t get there in time because he\u2019s prepared for the more obvious route:<\/p>\n The Arsenal players \u2014 Odegaard and Havertz \u2014 calculated each permutation in split seconds. Not to invoke Neo again, but: Very Matrix-like to this non-soccer player!<\/p>\n To be fair to Chelsea, slowing it down also helps you understand the goalkeeper\u2019s decision, too. At first, it looks like he just missed an obvious shot. But if you watch it in slow-motion, you see he deduced the most logical spot for the ball to go\u2026 the attacker just had a surprise move up his sleeve (sock?).<\/p>\n 5. Going backward is sometimes the best way forward<\/p>\n (Wait, did sports just give me profound insight into real life<\/a>??)<\/p>\n One of the more frustrating defensive strategies is a \u201clow block,\u201d where a side sit deep toward their own goal and don\u2019t budge \u2014 as a kid, I remember calling this babysitting the goal. You could be the best team in the world, and a low block comprised of seemingly far inferior players can be enough to stop you from scoring; after all, it\u2019s kind of tough to score with 11 people in front of you. We saw this when Cape Verde used the strategy to draw (tie) with Spain in the World Cup.<\/p>\n Enter: Going backward to get forward. Roberto De Zerbi, now the head coach at Tottenham Hotspur, popularized a strategy called \u201cbaiting the press\u201d while in the same job a few years ago at Brighton & Hove Albion. Baiting the press essentially means drawing the opposition away from their goal. If you sit back with the ball, your opponents ultimately need to come try to get it from you if they want to score. Once they come forward, it opens up space behind them, and you pass it into that now less-defended area of the field.<\/p>\n 6. Always assume there\u2019s a plan<\/p>\n It\u2019s really easy for fans to think, \u201cThat was stupid,\u201d or, \u201cThat manager doesn\u2019t know what he\u2019s doing.\u201d And football fans will let (!) you (!) know (!) when they think you\u2019re being an idiot. But no matter how well or poorly the plan goes, there\u2019s always a plan. You\u2019re always watching a game of calculated risk.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very rare that someone is being stupid,\u201d Alex tells me. \u201cThere\u2019s always something behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n Three more tips if you want to go deeper<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking to level up, here are a few more tips from Alex.<\/p>\n Tip 1: It\u2019s OK to feel like some matches are boring!<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let that thought discourage you or make you feel like you just don\u2019t get it. Some matches ARE boring! (And that goes for every sport, folks. I\u2019m looking at you, Rams-49ers in Melbourne<\/a>.) One fallacy, though, is the idea that because soccer is a low-scoring sport, that\u2019s why it\u2019s boring. High-scoring games can actually be much more frustrating.<\/p>\n Tip 2: Have a football app like The Athletic that includes a lineup.<\/p>\n A) You get to know the players. B) You\u2019ll learn the shapes and formations. Compare the lineup on your app to the players on the field, and you\u2019ll start to understand how different positions on the pitch might move depending on what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n Tip 3: Invest in any sort of soccer video game.<\/p>\n If you like video games (couldn\u2019t be me), try one out! A lot of fans learn a lot about soccer through them. You learn about real players, follow storylines, discover strategy and get familiar with how different positions contribute and where players can operate.<\/p>\n \u201cI reckon if you ask the average football fan in the UK, \u2018Can you name any players from Italy?\u2019, they\u2019ll mention one (or all) of Victor Ibarbo, Gervinho and Seydou Doumbia, because they were players everybody used across two FIFA games,\u201d Alex tells me.<\/p>\n Highlights from the week\u2019s action we\u2019ve delivered 489,297,478 pizzas since spurs last scored a premier league goal<\/p>\n \u2014 Domino’s Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) September 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Micah Richards, one of the crew on UCL Today, finally got to \u2018meet\u2019 Kylian Mbappe (on Zoom! not even IRL!) and lost. his. damn. mind<\/a>. He hugged the TV screen! He read a poem! Honestly, most relatable content I\u2019ve seen all week!!![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2294884509-scaled.jpg\")
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\nErling Haaland scored! Golden Boot, here he comes. Except \u2026 it was a bit controversial<\/a> \u2026.
\nTottenham still has no goals. (Sorry, but my husband is a Tottenham supporter, so it\u2019s my duty to track this.) Even Domino\u2019s is piling on!<\/p>\n
\nThe \u201cand Raphinha took that personally\u201d moment. He was snubbed in Ballon d\u2019Or nominations and then went and did this:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/raphinha-gif.gif\")
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