Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 101
March 4, 2020
From the Hungarians to Wenger – how Europeans shaped English football
As part of our This is Europe week we look at how the game has been influenced by teams, managers and players from the continent
Alf Ramsey didn’t have much time for foreigners – and for him that meant anybody who wasn’t English. “Welcome to Scotland,” a local journalist once said to him as he landed at Prestwick. “You must be fucking joking,” he replied. In Moscow, given the chance to attend the Bolshoi Theatre he preferred to go to the British Embassy for a screening of an Alf Garnett film. He was not somebody who held any truck for continental sophistication. And yet his greatest lesson came from the Hungarians.
Related: Where will the Champions League's place lie in football's new order? | David Conn
Continue reading...
March 1, 2020
Liverpool in danger of going 'easy-osey' with title in their grasp
Jürgen Klopp’s side showed signs of slackening in their defeat at Watford and it could cost them their European crown
There’s a phrase Joe Fagan was fond of, one he used repeatedly in his diary detailing the 1983-84 season as Liverpool completed a hat-trick of league titles: “easy-osey”. It could happen in victory and it could happen in defeat, but it meant the sense he had that the team weren’t quite at it, that confidence was in danger of tipping into complacency, that the edge and the intensity that were so characteristic of that Liverpool side weren’t quite there. Defeats rarely have a single origin, but there’s little doubt what Fagan would have been saying about Liverpool after they lost at Watford on Saturday.
Of course there were other factors. Watford were excellent, for one, well-organised and rejuvenated by the return of Kiko Femenia and Ismaïla Sarr. It’s no coincidence that their recent downturn in form has coincided with the absence of their right flank. And Sarr, with his intelligence of movement and pace drifting in from the right, was the perfect weapon for exposing Liverpool as Troy Deeney dominated Dejan Lovren.
Related: Jürgen Klopp regards Watford loss as ‘rather positive’ for Liverpool
Continue reading...February 29, 2020
Manchester City fans left unhappy by curse of constantly winning trophies | Jonathan Wilson
When a club ceases to be that hapless entity that drew you in, it seems success is not as much fun as everybody assumes
S ilenus the satyr, stumbling with age and wine, was taken captive by the Phrygians and taken before King Midas. But the king recognised him as a friend and joyfully led a celebration of his guest’s arrival, lasting 10 days. On the 11th day the king with gladness came to the field of Lydia and restored Silenus to his foster son, Bacchus. The god, delighted at his father’s return, offered Midas a gift. “Make it,” Midas said, “so Manchester City, whom I supported even in the Third Division days, are the richest club in the world.” Bacchus accepted and Midas returned, rejoicing in his bane. But as City won, and kept winning, he came to understand his strange misfortune, for it didn’t make him happy.
One of my earliest memories is of walking into the kitchen and saying: “I wish we lived in Liverpool.” Surprised, my mam asked why. “Because then we might win things.” Looking back, being born and growing up in Sunderland, and being unaware till much later that some people chose their teams, seems an incredibly fortunate escape. Being a fan of a superclub looks immensely stressful. Seriously, have you seen how stressed they are, all the time? Far better to have a couple of pints with your mates, drift along to the game and half-watch it talking nonsense, comfortable in the knowledge that none of it much matters.
Related: Guardiola has Paisley record in his sights as City seek League Cup treble
Continue reading...February 27, 2020
Guardiola dips into his bible to find tactical blueprint for win in Madrid | Jonathan Wilson
Manchester City manager reverted to principles he wrote on his whiteboard in 2015 to beat a deeply ordinary Real Madrid
Revel in the irony: of course it would be just as the great rupture comes that Manchester City at last produce a great European performance.
Enlightenment is achieved through the abandonment of desire. And yet even within that irony there are deeper ironies, the suspicion that a great European performance may not actually have been necessary, the suggestion that Pep Guardiola’s true opponent was less the 11 men in different coloured shirts than himself, and the realisation that good as City were, this Real Madrid are deeply ordinary, little more than the memory of a team despite their branding.
Related: There is something shifting at Real Madrid, some sense of vulnerability | Sid Lowe
Two against four in attack
An extra man in midfield
An extra man in defence
Continue reading...February 24, 2020
José's blues, boom Saka-laka and the Wilson Scenario – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Barney Ronay discuss Frank Lampard’s changes, VAR inaction, Saka for England, the Wilson Scenario, Jota and cold, a Real Madrid crisis and whether there is anything that Erling Braut Haaland cannot do
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
We take a look back at the weekend’s football, starting with Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Spurs and former manager José Mourinho, who seems to have the look of the doldrums about him already.
Continue reading...February 22, 2020
Pep Guardiola asks: ‘Do you still doubt us?’ after win at Leicester
• Guardiola admits that penalty misses are ‘not normal’
There had been suggestions that Manchester City had slightly lost their focus as the gap to Liverpool increased to unmanageable proportions, but after their dogged victory over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, Pep Guardiola insisted he had never questioned the spirit in his side.
“Ask me about these guys?” he said with exaggerated incredulity. “Do you still doubt about what they’ve done, seven titles in the last eight [possible domestic trophies, including the Community Shield], in every game we played, the way we played, the personality, there are no doubts.”
Related: Gabriel Jesus spares Agüero blushes to leave Manchester City clear of Leicester
Continue reading...Erling Braut Haaland brings freshness to a game in thrall to pixels and profit | Jonathan Wilson
Teenager’s goal for Borussia Dortmund against PSG was a perfect reminder that football is meant to be enjoyable
It can be difficult sometimes to remember why we ever started liking football. What was it that first stirred us back in our childhood to make sure we were always by a radio or television at twenty to five? That led us to pore over the details in the Sunday papers? That made us belt a ball endlessly against the garage wall and keep detailed records of the games of Subbuteo we played against ourselves? It’s hard to remember now. Was it the legal wrangling? Was it the appeals to the court of arbitration for sport? Was it the futile pixel-by-pixel examination of offside decisions? Was it even the thrill of seeing the rich and greedy hammer much poorer opposition and then demand to be even richer? Was it human-rights-abusing states pumping money into the game to make everybody forget about their wars and torture centres? It’s so hard now to remember.
Chunk!
Related: Red-hot Erling Haaland hits double to give Dortmund victory over PSG
Related: Erling Braut Haaland gatecrashes again to haul Dortmund out of mire | Andy Brassell
Continue reading...Gabriel Jesus spares Agüero blushes to leave Manchester City clear of Leicester
What did it mean? Does it matter that a late Gabriel Jesus goal gave Manchester City victory at Leicester? What does any of it mean? At least when we stand on the edge of the abyss and gaze into the void, wondering if there might be any purpose to any of it, football usually offers the consolation of the league table. We can cling to that, in its tallying of points find a point. And yet now with the shadow of City’s Champions League ban, and a probable appeal against that, and the possibility of a Premier League points deduction, although nobody seems to know for what season it might apply, the certainties of the table seem somewhat less secure.
If City’s ban is upheld without any delay for the appeal, fifth will be enough for Champions League qualification. Which is great news for Leicester, whose lead over Sheffield United in sixth is 10 points – even after a run of only three wins in 11 games. And it is not as though Chelsea in fourth, whose win on Saturday was just their fifth in 15 games, are breathing particularly aggressively down their neck. And if the ban is upheld, what really have City left to play for, other than the indisputable income that comes with second place?
Related: Leicester City 0-1 Manchester City: Premier League – as it happened
Related: Chelsea’s Frank Lampard furious after VAR admits error over Lo Celso stamp
Continue reading...February 19, 2020
José Mourinho v Julian Nagelsmann: yesterday's man v force of the future?
At 32, RB Leipzig’s coach is 25 years younger than his Spurs counterpart – their Champions League meeting feels like a battle of two eras
On Wednesday night, as Tottenham take on RB Leipzig, José Mourinho might look across at the opposing bench and recognise something very familiar. In Julian Nagelsmann, the coach of RB Leipzig, he will see a driven man who desperately wanted to be a footballer whose career ended prematurely, somebody who quit a university business course to focus on sport, somebody who from a remarkably early age has been marked out as one of the brightest coaches of their generation.
He will see, in other words, a version of his younger self. Tim Wiese, the wrestler and former goalkeeper, even nicknamed Nagelsmann “Mini-Mourinho” during his time as assistant coach at Hoffenheim. And perhaps in that, Mourinho will feel a pang of mortality. At 32, Nagelsmann is 25 years younger: he is the future while Mourinho is repeatedly battling suggestions he may be the past.
Related: Mourinho fears Son will miss rest of Spurs' season with arm fracture
Related: As Klinsmann dives for cover, Hertha and Nouri are left to find feet | Andy Brassell
Continue reading...February 18, 2020
Chelsea fans show that patience with Lampard may not be infinite | Jonathan Wilson
There was a murmur of dissent at the defeat by Manchester United and the excuses for a mediocre team will soon run out
Just briefly, for no more than a couple of seconds, there was a murmur of dissent directed at Frank Lampard by the home crowd. It came midway through the second half as Olivier Giroud was brought on for Michy Batshuayi. Up went the ironic roar: why hadn’t the French World Cup winner been brought on sooner? But then by that stage Chelsea fans were greeting most things, particularly decisions by the referee Anthony Taylor that went their way, with ironic cheers. If a VAR call had favoured them, or Batshuayi had scored a goal, the roof would have come off.
Still, the moment seemed telling, in part because the question is so obvious – Giroud may be 33, and he may have a history of missing big chances in the biggest games, but why has he been limited to just 304 minutes of football this season when those favoured by Lampard have been so erratic in front of goal of late? – and in part because it suggested Chelsea’s patience with Lampard may not be infinite.
Related: Frank Lampard laments Maguire's red-card escape in Chelsea defeat
Continue reading...Jonathan Wilson's Blog
- Jonathan Wilson's profile
- 501 followers
