Tactics Explained breaks down football matches for fans who want to see how a goal happened, not just that it did. It covers Arsenal, Man City, Man United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern in 2026/27.
Each analysis is written by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, from match reports, official statistics and published tactical analysis. Every page lists its sources. Scores, scorers, minutes and line-ups are cross-checked in at least two outlets; where outlets disagree, the page says so. Quotes come only from pages we opened, credited to the speaker and outlet. YouTube breakdowns are linked for you to watch; they are never transcribed.
The animations are reconstructions drawn from those reports, not tracking data. Player positions are approximate; the sequence of passes, runs and shots is what matters. We don't use match footage, club badges or player photos.
The column at the end of each analysis is our own opinion. It always ends with a risk flag: the strongest reason the view could be wrong.
Before each match a simple model estimates each side's expected goals from this season's xG and goals (blended 70/30), shrunk toward last season's level while the sample is small, and adjusted for home advantage using the league's average. A Poisson distribution turns those into win, draw and loss chances. The prediction is frozen before kick-off and graded afterwards, so the record is public: right or wrong.
The model doesn't know about injuries, rotation or tactical match-ups, so each preview lists what it ignores. It is a baseline for discussion, not betting advice.
Pages update the morning after each match, Korea time. Arsenal matches all get full analyses; for the other clubs, big matches get full analyses and every match gets its score, xG and a graded prediction.