Author Archives: Max Taylor

Written by Max Taylor and Philippe Stengel, Data Visualizations by Jamie Kirke Over the next few weeks, 24 countries will compete for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, seven months after its initial delay. The likes of Mohamed Salah and Riyad Mahrez will headline this year’s tournament, but who are some other names to keepContinue reading “Ones to Watch at The Africa Cup of Nations”

By Breaking Down Each of His Goal Contributions So Far This Season There’s an incredibly exciting group of young center forwards across European football progressively developing their game and rapidly growing in stature. The two obvious names are Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe, who have rightly been mentioned alongside some of the world’s best forContinue reading “Scouting Victor Osimhen”

And how the two can help solve some of Arsenal’s most pressing issues By Max Taylor and Jon Ollington Arsenal and Mikel Arteta’s start to 2021/22 has been, to put it kindly, difficult. Three consecutive losses to start the Premier League season has piled the pressure on the Spaniard to quickly turn results around. ManyContinue reading “Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard: Contrasting no. 10s, Complementary Teammates”

Dominic Wells (@DominicWells_SJ) provides the lowdown on Leicester’s new center forward: In his only season with RB Salzburg (2019/20), Erling Haaland averaged a goal every 61.25 minutes in the Austrian Bundesliga. The man who replaced him, Patson Daka, performed similarly (albeit at a slightly lower rate), by scoring a goal every 72.29 minutes in 2020/21.Continue reading “Patson Daka – Player Profile”

By Dominic Wells, Max Taylor, Brice Koval, and Phil Stengel There’s no player that encapsulates Leicester City’s 5000/1 Premier League title quite like Jamie Vardy. He battled adversity in the early stages of his career – juggling working a full-time job with his passion for football, before Fleetwood Town offered him a contract that could blendContinue reading “Leicester’s Search for a New Striker: Four Possible Options, Using Data and Video Scouting”

This summer, Top Bins Talk is partnering with FIVEYARDS for their Euro 2020 game. To enter, visit their site here – where you will see their list of Golden 50 – before picking 5 players who you think will increase in value the most over the tournament. You can then compete in the leaderboard toContinue reading “Ones to Watch at Euro 2020: Federico Chiesa”

Building moves from deeper areas, zipping passes between the lines, driving through gaps and breaking the press, feeding runs into space, springing counter attacks, carrying into the attacking third — progressing the ball is an extremely important aspect of football. After all, the ultimate aim of the game is to move the ball closer towardsContinue reading “Forward-Thinking From the Middle: Four young midfielders that emphasize the importance of ball progression”

The Playmaker. The Trequartista. The Enganche. The Creator. The Number 10.  It’s a position as elusive as those that play it. A role that has birthed some of the greatest footballers in history. An area on the pitch so vital, so involved, and often where the magic happens: the slide-rule pass, the fancy flick, theContinue reading “The Ever-Evolving No. 10 Position: Four Premier League players redefining our understanding of the role”

It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than 18 months since Bukayo Saka scored his first Arsenal goal: a lovely left-footed strike in the Europa League group stage vs. Frankfurt was his 2nd of three goal involvements on the night, with one first-half assist before a slide-rule pass to Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang in the closingContinue reading “Bukayo Saka belongs at RW – but the search for his best position has proven exactly why he’s so special”

Things can change very quickly in football. On Christmas day, Arsenal sat in 15th place, on 14 points, 14 games into the season; they had just crashed out of the Carabao Cup, recorded their 7th winless Premier League game in a row, and question marks surrounding Arteta’s future began to surface. Fast forward a monthContinue reading “Finding Arsenal’s Next Number Nine”