As we close out 2025, Modern Soccer Coach  released the final podcast episode of the year with a simple but important goal:not to look back — but to look forward. Across the past 12 months, the podcast has traveled through elite environments in Brazil, England, and Italy, spoken with coaches, analysts, and leaders at the highest levels of the game, and explored modern ideas around tactics, player development, and coaching methodology. One theme kept coming up again and again:

The center back position has changed more than almost any other role in the modern game. Once defined by duels, box defending, and clean sheets, today’s center backs are increasingly judged by their ability to build play, break lines, and operate under pressure close to goal. In this Modern Soccer Coach podcast episode, Gary Curneen is joined by former Premier League defender Danny Collins and former MLS Defender of the Year Ike Opara for a wide-ranging, honest conversation o

Throw-ins are one of the most frequent restarts in football — often 25 to 45 per match  — yet they remain one of the least intentionally coached moments in the game. Corners are analyzed. Goal kicks are planned. Build-up play is rehearsed weekly.Throw-ins? Too often, they’re rushed, improvised, or treated as moments to simply “get the ball back into play.” That gap is exactly why attacking throw-ins represent a major competitive opportunity  — especially in youth and academy

Fernando Diniz is often associated with relationism, but focusing only on that label risks missing something equally important: how his teams are evolving the first phase of the game . Rather than relying on fixed positional structures, Vasco consistently altered who  occupied the first line. Midfielders dropped into buildup alongside — and sometimes instead of — the center backs. The center backs themselves pushed wider and higher, arriving in advanced areas on the dribble r

This week on the MSC Podcast, we sit down with Fred Lipka, Technical Director of Youth Development at Major League Soccer. Few people have influenced the MLS academy landscape more over the past decade, and this conversation goes deep into what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to change in US player and coach development. Fred shares powerful insight on why he believes American soccer has been “built upside down,” why the weekly rhythm should always be five days to d

In the modern game, “tactical flexibility” has become one of the most repeated phrases in coaching circles — but also one of the least understood. Every weekend we hear coaches say players must adapt to different shapes, different roles, and different systems. Yet the big question remains: How do you actually coach  tactical flexibility? This week’s MSC Breakdown  tackles that challenge head-on. Using the 4-3-3 as a starting point, we explore how coaches can layer simple, eff