Good morning analysis fans and welcome to the #TacticalThursday newsletter – full of analysis, scouting and tactics. Fill up on your football knowledge – follow the Total Football Analysis page and be part of the squad that want better tactical analysis, data and scouting in their world.

Today, Marcel Seifeddine is back with a deep dive into deep runs from free kicks and how this could be a game-changing weapon in a team’s set-piece toolkit.

Anantaajith Raghuraman has done the honours in previewing this weekend’s Asian Cup Final between Qatar’s pressing power and Jordan’s counter-attacking artistry.

ICYMI yesterday, we’ve spent some time this week reviewing interesting arrivals in the winter window and Brandon Liss looked at five in the Belgian Pro League – always a good league to monitor in terms of who they are bringing in.

Neil Warnock is now the Aberdeen manager, breaking the hearts of any Championship clubs who had him pencilled in as Plan B if needed – Alexandra Hunt looked at how Warnock has evolved and what that could mean we see at Pittodrie from the remainder of the season.

Saturday brings us a key clash in the La Liga title race – Real Madrid play Girona. Jack Chippendale tactically previewed the game looking at Real’s main weakness and Girona’s defensive line.

From the archives, Fintan O’Reilly suggests;

Third-tier FC Rouen pulled off a massive upset in their Coupe de France clash with AS Monaco last night, knocking out the Ligue 1 side and booking their place in the quarter-final. Read all about Maxime D’Ornano’s side in our October analysis.

Paksi FC defeated Mezőkövesd 1-0 away from home last night to maintain their place atop Hungary’s top flight. Read about how they’ve used set-pieces to their benefit in a big way this term in our set-piece analysis.

Bournemouth have reportedly activated their clause to make Luis Sinisterra’s move from Leeds United to Bournemouth a permanent transfer. Take a trip back to his breakout season with Feyenoord in our 2022 scout report.

Luis Muriel’s time with Atalanta is set to end, with the Colombian forward on his way to Orlando City. Our 2019 scout report analysed what he’d bring to Gian Piero Gasperini’s side as he initially joined them.

And that’s it for today – we’ll be back tomorrow with more pieces old and new about everything analysis in the football world.

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