Now more than ever, Premier League teams need to be tactically flexible and willing to adapt. Stick with the same strategy for too long and opponents will figure you out ... you'll soon start sliding down the table.
The 2024-25 season has seen a number of ingenious or surprise tactical tweaks, leading to excellent performances or a dramatic change in fortunes. We've listed five that we think have been the most impactful, from Arne Slot's novel solution up front for Liverpool to the simple, yet effective way Nottingham Forest have catapulted themselves into the top four.
Usually when you compile a list like this, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola is front and centre of it -- yet he's nowhere to be seen. Take that as another reminder of how surreally poor his side have been.
Slot and Díaz revive the 'false No. 9'
Around 10-15 years ago, a spate of false No. 9s appeared at the top level of European football, taking their lead from Lionel Messi's mesmeric performances for Barcelona. Ezequiel Lavezzi, Raheem Sterling and Roberto Firmino, among others, all tried their hand at the curious role, which involves playing up front but spending barely any time testing opposing centre-backs. Instead, the player drops back into midfield to conduct play and try to feed goal-hungry wide players.
You don't see many of these nowadays, as the sport feels so athletic and compressed between the lines, there's barely any room for a player like this to exist. From Erling Haaland to Robert Lewandowski to Alexander Isak, strikers are typically big and strong, able to run the channels and hunt goals like a traditional No. 9 would.
So that makes Liverpool's Luis Díaz somewhat of an anomaly: He genuinely looks like a false No. 9, constantly moving away from central zones while the Reds have the ball and combining in deeper areas, often on the left. Manager Arne Slot opted for this setup when Diogo Jota got injured in October rather than simply fielding Darwin Núñez as the focal point, and it has worked brilliantly for the league leaders.
Luis Díaz (7) often drifts left to combine with teammates, freeing up space for Salah (11)
Liverpool have been imperiously effective with Díaz up front, while he has chipped in with a number of important contributions (12 goals and three assists in all competitions), most notably a hat trick against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League. Meanwhile, Cody Gakpo has excelled from the left flank and it's been well over a month since Mohamed Salah played a game without scoring or assisting. Perhaps the most important consideration for any tactical move Slot makes is, "How does this affect Salah?" This one has arguably taken him to another level.
Tonali unlocks the potential of Guimarães
Newcastle are on a five-game winning streak in the Premier League, scoring 15 times and conceding just once during that span. It's a patch of form that coincides directly with Sandro Tonali's first run of games in the starting XI in over a year, due to the 10-month gambling ban that wrecked his 2023-24 season and forced a slow start to this one.
Tonali has slotted into the centre of the Magpies' midfield three, his bustling style rejuvenating the physical and aggressive edge that the best versions of Eddie Howe's Newcastle United have had. That has pushed Bruno Guimarães into a freer role just ahead, usually to the right, and it has transformed the Brazilian's game too.
Guimarães (39)'s new role brings him closer to Alexander Isak (14), which delivers a range of benefits
Now situated higher up the pitch, he's able to link up more with striker Alexander Isak, influence play in the final third and get into the box more. And when Newcastle press and win the ball high up, it's Guimarães who can play that first, incisive pass to create a big chance -- as seen for Anthony Gordon against Tottenham.
So, not only has Tonali's presence shored up the team defensively -- their expected goals against (xGA) figure is below 1.0 in each of the last five league games -- but it has also extracted Guimarães' best run of form of the season (seven of his eight goals and assists this season have come in the past nine games). As a result, that has had an impact on Isak, who has scored 10 goals in his past nine appearances in all competitions.
Arsenal's set piece havoc
A lot of good came out of Arsenal's midseason trip to Dubai in January 2024, most notable of which was a vast improvement in set piece performance.
Fast-forward a year and Arsenal have earned the moniker "Set Piece FC" from some -- a nickname that's intended to be a criticism, but also naturally hammers home the fact that they're lethal from dead-ball situations.
Their corners were good last season; but now, each one is so potent that they represent major events within games ... almost like a free kick close to the area. Arsenal take a long time to put the ball into the box and that's seemingly by design: The wait builds fear, anxiety and anticipation ... it builds a sense of drama.
The deliveries have also levelled up: Declan Rice's offerings from the left are now as good as Bukayo Saka's from the right, and there's more variety to the placement of the ball. Their classic routine is a group rush from the back post to the near post, where centre-back Gabriel Magalhães (who has four goals this season) is the target and everyone else causes a ruckus. But they've added layers to this routine now, sometimes using Gabriel as a decoy, sometimes scoring via flick-ons and back post deliveries.
Gabriel has taken 17 shots in the Premier League this season, 13 of which have been from inside the six-yard box.
Their free kicks are just as dangerous, with almost every player standing offside then curving their runs back to an onside position as Rice swings the ball in. Arsenal are not the only team to do this kind of thing, but they probably do it best.
The monotonous work preparing and practicing these routines on the training ground with specialist coach Nicolas Jover is certainly paying off: Arsenal have scored the most set piece goals (10) in the Premier League this season -- just over a quarter of their overall tally (39).
Morgan Rogers moves wide for Villa
Morgan Rogers has had the kind of season that has made people sit up and take notice. His powerful dribbles take Villa from one end of the pitch to the other in a flash and it has been exhilarating to watch him swat tacklers aside, charging forward to break open defences.
Indeed, he tops all Aston Villa players for a series of dribbling metrics, most notable of which is his 40 carries into the final third, and has left some of the best players at the top clubs in the world -- from Manchester City to Bayern Munich -- trailing in his wake.
The issue for Villa is that Rogers' style of dribbling is high-risk/high reward. As effective as his runs are when they come off, he's been dispossessed 38 times and has miscontrolled 56 passes this season, both by far the highest numbers in the squad. Worse yet are the areas of the pitch where he loses the ball: playing as a support striker it's in centre of the pitch, which leaves Villa vulnerable and open to counterattacks.
So Unai Emery moved him to the left flank, asking John McGinn to play as the support striker instead. Rogers has continued to motor forward with the ball -- and in fact, thanks to playing close to the touchline in smaller areas, his footwork and close control have improved -- but when he does lose possession, it's in the wide areas, which is less dangerous.
Since the move, Rogers has delivered four great performances (vs. Brentford, Southampton, Manchester City and Brighton & Hove Albion) to help cement Emery's strategy.
Nedum Onuoha praises Nottingham Forest for their recent strong play after a 3-0 win over the Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Nottingham Forest: Gamestate kings
It's much easier to win games if you take the lead. That's hardly a revelation, but it's worth keeping in mind at times when football can feel incredibly complex.
Forest are certainly doing so as they continually take the lead in matches, then successfully turn those leads into victories. They've scored the first goal in 15 of their 20 Premier League matches and have won 12 of them, which has vaulted them into an unexpected chase for a Champions League spot.
It's a tried-and-trusted strategy for punching above your weight. Forest are effectively matching what Leicester City did during their miraculous 2015-16 title win (40 points from 20 games), the only difference being that at least one of the traditional big guns have avoided a complete disaster of a campaign this time.
Leicester take the lead and kept clean sheets a lot; Forest are doing the same. A more recent comparison could be Villa, who continually took the lead and then won games during Emery's first 12 months, quickly leading them into ... you guessed it ... a Champions League place in 2024.
It will be interesting to see how opposing teams react to Forest now that their secret is out and people start to set expectations based on what they have accomplished so far. In 2016, it took Premier League managers an astonishingly long time -- more than half the season -- to adjust to Leicester's devastating counterattacking tactics. Will the response to Forest be faster?