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Liverpool’s 2025/2026 season has begun in stark contrast to pre-season expectations.

Rather than establishing early control and consistency under Arne Slot, performances have been inconsistent, with rhythm, attacking cohesion and efficiency fluctuating throughout the opening fixtures.

This instability has extended beyond the team structure; even Mohamed Salah, long Liverpool’s most reliable attacking reference, has endured a rare downturn, registering just four goals and three assists in the first 16 matches.

Compounding these challenges, Slot’s management of Salah’s minutes has sparked debate, while turning recent fixtures into a tactical testing ground.

Salah’s enforced rest disrupted established attacking patterns but also prompted Slot to trial alternative solutions, reshaping roles, spacing and, at times, the front-line structure itself.

These matches played without Salah have provided early insight into Liverpool’s contingency planning.

The issue becomes more pressing during Salah’s absence at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, requiring sustainable, rather than temporary, solutions.

This Liverpool data analysis combines data-led and tactical analysis to explore how Slot may restructure the forward line, focusing on the underperforming Ekitiké–Isak partnership and the potential role of Dominik Szoboszlai as a structural alternative, occupying the right-sided half-spaces Salah typically exploits, ensuring attacking balance in his absence.

For some time now, the name Patricio Pacífico has been circulating by word of mouth among Uruguayan football fans.

Developed at Defensor Sporting, the left-footed centre-back had previously stood out in Uruguay’s youth national teams as one of the most promising players of the 2006 generation.

Identified as part of a new wave of centre-backs capable of orchestrating build-up play from the back, manipulating opposition pressure and assuming responsibility on the ball, Pacífico took a clear step forward during the 2025 season in the top division.

His competitive pathway is not recent.

In 2023, he took part in the U17 South American Championship, sharing a generation with names such as Thiago Helguera or Gonzalo Petit, and made his professional debut a year later, during the 2024 Apertura Tournament, under Martín Varini, whose interview with Total Football Analysis you can read here.

In that initial context, Pacífico mainly operated as the third centre-back during the build-up phase, integrating 3+2 and 3+1 structures, where his role as a first passer was key to attracting and overcoming the opponent’s first line of pressure.

Although he accumulated close to 1,000 minutes during his first season as a professional, it was in 2025 when he managed to establish himself as a regular starter, especially during the second half of the Clausura Tournament.

A trajectory that included a pause due to his participation in the U20 South American Championship with the Uruguayan national team, an experience that delayed his continuity at the start of the year but also added new layers to his competitive development.

Under the guidance of Ignacio Ithurralde, his role underwent a significant transformation.

The coach chose to reinterpret his profile, understanding that he is still in a maturation process before settling definitively as a centre-back.

Favoured by his aerobic capacity, technical reliability and ability to overcome pressure, Pacífico has mostly featured as a classic left-back, with freedom to move laterally at lower heights and sustained influence during the build-up phase.

This Patricio Pacífico scout report aims to break down his current game, analyse the implications of this positional reconversion and explain why, beyond his present role on the flank, Patricio Pacífico’s near future seems destined to develop once again on the inside, as a centre-back.

The Bundesliga title race is rather boring, if we are being honest; Bayern Munich and Vincent Kompany are already running away with the title.

Behind FC Bayern, there is a huge power struggle about who is number two in German football at the moment.

The three key players in this race are Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen.

After Dortmund’s win to start off the last matchday before the Christmas break, the game between RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen became even more important than it already was.

RB Leipzig have been going through a recovery season after missing out on European football for the first time since their promotion last season.

Ole Werner and his men went on an impressive run at the beginning of the season, but have recently cooled off, winning only two of their last five games, though those wins were very convincing.

On the other side, Bayer Leverkusen was the clear number two in Germany last season under Xabi Alonso, but after a massive rebuild in the summer and an early coaching change after just two matchdays, the team struggled to start the season, but quickly turned things around under new coach Kasper Hjulmand.

In the end, Leverkusen managed to win the away game in Leipzig 1-3, deservedly so.

In this RB Leipzig vs Bayer Leverkusen tactical analysis, we will examine the tactics used by Ole Werner and Kasper Hjulmand, how Bayer Leverkusen edged out Leipzig, and why the game unfolded the way it did.

Antoine Semenyo to decide on his future soon with Manchester United and Manchester City pushing.

Take a look at our 2024/2025 scout report on him and what he can bring to another club.

Brahim Diaz opens the score at the AFCON scoring for Morocco and it’s the first goal of the competition.

Take a look at our 2023 scout report on the attacker.

Harry Kane closes his 2025 with 60 goals scored for club and country.

He’s also the fastest player in Bundesliga history to reach 100 G/A, in 78 games.