Ryan O’Hanlon – Football Scout

N’Golo Kante has proved he’s one of the most valuable players in soccer no matter his position

Frank Leboeuf feels Olivier Giroud may need to leave Chelsea in order to secure regular first team action.

Kante made his name as a defensive midfielder and took Leicester and Chelsea to league titles. Now he’s playing a different role but is just as effective.

A couple of years ago, N’Golo Kante might have been the most valuable soccer player in the world.

In August 2015, Leicester City signed the relatively unknown French midfielder from Caen for £5.6 million. The season before his arrival, Leicester finished with 41 points. In Kante’s only season with the club, Leicester finished with 81 points, winning the most improbable championship in the history of modern sports.

Then, in July 2016, Chelsea signed the by-now-well-known French midfielder…

Messi is the best finisher in football. Does anyone else come close?

In case you’re not familiar with expected goals (xG) yet, the statistic is built around the idea that the majority of teams and players convert the same chances at the same frequency. For the most part, the best teams and players aren’t the best because of their ability to finish a high percentage of attempts; they’re the best because of their ability to generate a high volume of high-quality shots.
In other words, it puts a number on the idea that you hear managers talk about every weekend: Who…

What if Manchester United kept David Moyes for his entire six-year contract?

Alejandro Moreno believes that Marcus Rashford needs to develop an elite striker’s mindset to improve at Manchester United.

Moyes’ run as Man United boss didn’t last too long even though his original contract only just expired. Truth is, they’d be no worse off if he was still there.

The David Moyes era at Manchester United didn’t last long and yet, it just ended.

You know the details by now. Sir Alex Ferguson retires as the most successful British manager of all time. He hand-picks his successor before he leaves, tipping his fellow Scotsman to be the club’s next longtime steward. After taking Everton from relegation-fighter to Champions League qualifier, Moyes makes the move to United and brings Marouane Fellaini along with him.

Moyes bans fish and chips from the Carrington….

Champions League will be won by Man City, Liverpool or Barcelona. Sorry, everyone else

For the past decade or so, every single Champions League campaign has begun with a kind of unspoken agreement among everyone watching. We tune into the qualification playoffs as if the fourth-best team from Italy or England could actually make s…

Harry Kane has declined over the past year. Should Spurs fans be concerned?

If you had to guess, you could probably get most of the names. Over the past 10 years, who would be on the top 10 for most shots attempted in a single Premier League season?

The list doubles as a pretty good summation of the most impactful players in the league over that span. There’s Luis Suarez, who is on there twice. Wayne Rooney’s on there. So is Cristiano Ronaldo. The two defining Chelsea players of the era, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, both make appearances, as do Gareth Bale and Robin…

The best attackers in the Premier League, 2010-19: Who will dethrone Mohamed Salah?

ESPN FC’s Craig Burley reacts to some of the hottest takes from the weekend’s football action around the globe.

Liverpool’s Salah has been sublime since returning to the Premier League.

The most valuable thing you can do on a soccer field is score a goal. The second-most valuable thing you can do on a soccer field? Play the pass that leads to a goal. The market agrees: the 12-most expensive transfers of all time include 11 attackers and one midfielder, Paul Pogba, who is especially valued because of his ability to contribute like he’s an attacker.

Without someone who can put the ball on a plate and/or put it into the back of the net, all of the other stuff — pretty passing…

Should we be worried about Man City’s ‘superteam’ dominating the Premier League in the long term?

Arsenal certainly have the firepower to score goals against Liverpool, but can Unai Emery get his players to organize defensively at Anfield?

Pep Guardiola and Man City have been dominant in the past two seasons but is this just the start of their dominance?

In 1953, socialist football conquered England. That November, Hungary’s “Golden Squad” — the Aranycsapat, Olympic gold medalists who hadn’t lost in three years — traveled to Wembley and essentially reset the course of British soccer. England hadn’t ever lost at home to continental opposition, but what was billed as “The Match of the Century” quickly turned into a rout.

Behind a never-before-seen kind of slick, positional fluidity, the Hungarians won 6-3, marking what Jonathan Wilson described…

Liverpool can’t rely on Salah, Mane and Firmino forever. Which one could they sell to make way for new talent?

Outside of a backup goalkeeper, a 17-year-old center-back with red hair and a 16-year-old winger, Liverpool haven’t added any new players this summer. Before acquiring free agent keeper Adrian on August 5, the club hadn’t made a single senior signing. (And since Alisson went down in the first half of the season opener vs. Norwich, Adrian’s now the starting goalkeeper until further notice.)

While the teams chasing them at the top end of the Premier League all improved in the final week of the summer…

The secret to Liverpool’s success in 2018-19: why being good at set-pieces can win you trophies

You might have missed it as the camera angle was panned down to a close-up on the corner flag in the 79th minute. With Liverpool 3-0 ahead against Barcelona in their Champions League semifinal second leg but tied 3-3 on aggregate, the announcers…

Mesut Ozil’s decline shows football’s No. 10s are a dying breed

Former Arsenal forward Paul Mariner says Laurent Koscielny is putting his legacy with the Gunners at risk with his recent behaviour.

Steve Nicol feels Laurent Koscielny doesn’t have enough leverage at Arsenal to be snubbing their preseason tour.

Former Arsenal striker Paul Mariner breaks down why Edu becoming Arsenal’s technical director will do the club a load of good in the coming seasons.

We reached Peak Attacking Midfielder some time between August 2015 and May 2016. It might’ve been on Feb. 2, or perhaps it was a couple of days after Christmas. There’s a case for mid October and a couple candidates from late September, too.

The precise day, though, is less important than the totality of them. Most people remember the 2015-16 Premier League season as the one when Leicester City shocked the world and shattered the odds. But that campaign was also host to the greatest individual…

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