Alex Keble

London

Freelance Journalist at Tribal Football

Features and Tactics Writer at Premier League Productions

Football journalist. Tactics & features for @PremierLeague, @SportingLife, @OptusSport, etc. I’m now exclusively on Threads! Email: [email protected]

Articles

Can Nottingham Forest finish strong as they enter the defining point of their season?

1 week ago | sportinglife.com | Alex Keble

The last thing Nottingham Forest need is for people to overreact to a single bad performance and a result entirely at odds with the pattern of their season. But it’s hard not to see the 1-0 defeat to Everton as an omen.
Manchester City 'enjoying' the most successful crisis season in English football history

1 week ago | sportinglife.com | Alex Keble

It says a lot about the insulation afforded to the super-clubs that Manchester City look like they’re about to have the most successful crisis season in English football history. Pretty much everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong for the champions. And yet a couple of months from now Pep Guardiola’s side might have qualified for the Champions League, won the FA Cup, and picked up £97 million for winning the Club World Cup.
Football tactics: Corner chicken & Rory Delap 2.0 - what's the future?

1 week ago | bbc.com | Alex Keble

If the past decade of English football has one unifying theme it is tactical renewal. Since the mid-2010s - and since Antonio Conte, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp - the Premier League has attracted Europe's best coaches, putting a once sleepy and unsophisticated division at the vanguard of tactical innovation. But we are in a moment of flux. New ideas still flood into the league but nothing, yet, has emerged as the next great theory.
Premier League review: What we learned in Matchweek 32 so far

1 week ago | premierleague.com | Alex Keble

Football writer Alex Keble highlights the hot topics and tactical lessons from Matchweek 32 so far, including: - Man City show their spirit ahead of summer revival - Arsenal's inability to finish matches defining their season - Maresca loosens the reigns to inspire Chelsea's comeback - Individual errors a worry ahead of Spurs’ biggest game of Postecoglou era - Everton’s battling performance has Forest fans worried - Well-rested Newcastle blow away error-prone Man Utd - Villa show their depth,...
Analysis: Man Utd's familiar issues visible again in Newcastle defeat

1 week ago | premierleague.com | Alex Keble

Football writer Alex Keble analyses Newcastle United's 4-1 win against Manchester United. There was a time not long ago when a calm, routine 4-1 victory for Newcastle United would have triggered a mini-meltdown inside and outside Manchester United. These days, with Man Utd beyond crisis and into a season-long malaise, results like this simply feel like a regulation win for the demonstrably better side.
How far will Salah go in his quest for Liverpool greatness?

1 week ago | premierleague.com | Alex Keble

After Mohamed Salah signed a new contract to extend his stay at Liverpool, football writer Alex Keble analyses whether the 32-year-old can break even more records. Salah has already secured his status as a Liverpool legend. Now is the time to stake his claim as the club’s greatest player ever – and the best the Premier League has ever seen.
The Premier League's old aristocracy is beginning to crumble

2 weeks ago | sportinglife.com | Alex Keble

A growing rabble of pundits have taken to TV studios and podcasts to declare English football has become boring. It’s the best evidence we’ve got that the Premier League is the healthiest it’s been in a decade. The way people digest football, and the tone and content of debate, changed dramatically over the last ten years as the newspapers lost influence and the ex-pros on TV coverage, podcasts, and social media grew in stature.
What is an indirect free-kick and what's the best way to score one?

2 weeks ago | premierleague.com | Alex Keble

Did you know that it's possible to be given a free-kick inside the penalty box? Just eight indirect free-kicks inside the 18-yard box have been awarded in the Premier League over the past decade, with the most recent coming for Wolves against Ipswich last Saturday. Here, football writer Alex Keble explains this rare set-piece. There’s something about the award of an indirect free-kick that brings out a childlike joy in all of us.
Struggles of the 'big six' have made the pundit class lose all perspective

2 weeks ago | sportinglife.com | Alex Keble

The world looks that much greyer when your team’s in a bad place. We get it, it’s infuriating, and at the end of a long and pointless season that sensibility can colour everything around you. But really, lads, was all that anger strictly necessary?
Analysis: Man City's derby diamond played into Man Utd's hands

2 weeks ago | premierleague.com | Alex Keble

Football writer Alex Keble analyses the 0-0 draw between Manchester United and Manchester City at Old Trafford. A forgettable Manchester derby. The 0-0 draw at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon pretty much summed up the respective seasons of Manchester United and Manchester City. Fans of both clubs will have trudged home with that in mind, and frankly little else. It was an oddly unfocused Manchester derby, lacking energy, edge, or excitement.