Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 104

World champions Liverpool and Manchester City school Leicester - Football Weekly

Max Rushden, Flo Lloyd-Hughes, Jonathan Wilson and Lars Sivertsen discuss Liverpool becoming champions of the world, more racist abuse, Watford’s vital win, vitriol towards AFTV and rodents tampering with VAR in France.

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We start in Qatar, where Liverpool beat Flamengo 1-0 in extra time to become Fifa Club World Cup champions for the very first time. We then look at Chelsea’s win over Tottenham, which was overshadowed by racist abuse towards Antonio Rüdiger in the second half. We also discuss Watford’s vital win over a laboured Manchester United.

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Published on December 22, 2019 16:10

Manchester City complain to Premier League over clogged-up Christmas

• City one of five clubs facing two games inside 48 hours
• Leicester, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Wolves the other four

Manchester City have lodged several complaints with the Premier League over their Christmas fixture list in which they will play two games in less than 48 hours and then have only two clear days before they play again.

City are one of five clubs – with Leicester, Bournemouth, Newcastle and Wolves – facing two games inside 48 hours. Wolves’ turnaround is the tightest at 44 hours and 45 minutes, though most clubs are, like City, playing two games across three days. Only Arsenal, Chelsea, Sheffield United and Liverpool – who have played two games in four days in Qatar – have avoided this.

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Published on December 22, 2019 14:30

Kevin de Bruyne’s intelligent rage transcends space and time | Jonathan Wilson

The Manchester City midfielder was unplayable against Leicester and his smart positioning allowed others to thrive

For Manchester City there is hope, and its name is Kevin. It may take something miraculous for them to close their 11-point gap to the leaders, Liverpool, who have a game in hand, but there is something miraculous about Kevin De Bruyne’s form. His performance against Leicester on Saturday was extraordinary, somehow furious and measured, a blur of activity that was also precisely targeted.

Four shots, two on target. Seven key passes. Two successful dribbles. Two successful crosses. Five tackles made. The numbers give some indication of the scale of his performance but only some. De Bruyne is playing with such energy he seems to defy basic notions of how time and space function. You watch him go to close a defender down, follow the flight of the ball as it’s hacked clear and suddenly there he is underneath it as it comes to earth again, an ability previously thought to be restricted to N’Golo Kanté in his two seasons of title-winning pomp and the Beano character Billy Whizz.

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Published on December 22, 2019 02:42

Kevin De Bruyne’s intelligent rage transcends space and time | Jonathan Wilson

The Manchester City midfielder was unplayable against Leicester and his smart positioning allowed others to thrive

For Manchester City there is hope, and its name is Kevin. It may take something miraculous for them to close the 11-point gap to the leaders, who have a game in hand, but there is something miraculous about Kevin De Bruyne’s form at the moment. His performance against Leicester on Saturday was extraordinary, somehow both furious and measured, a blur of activity that was also precisely targeted.

Four shots, two of them on target. Seven key passes. Two successful dribbles. Two successful crosses. Five tackles made. The numbers give some indication of the scale of his performance but only some. De Bruyne is playing with such energy at the moment that he seems to defy our basic notions of how time and space function. You watch him go to close a defender down, follow the flight of the ball as it’s hacked clear and suddenly there he is underneath it as it comes to earth again, an ability previously thought to be restricted to N’Golo Kanté in his two seasons of title-winning pomp and the Beano character Billy Whizz.

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Published on December 22, 2019 02:42

Spurs can underscore defensive failings that threaten Lampard’s Chelsea future | Jonathan Wilson

For all their attacking vim Chelsea are vulnerable to rapid counterattacks, and José Mourinho’s Spurs can take advantage

When José Mourinho arrived at Tottenham a month ago, his side trailed Chelsea by 12 points. Six league matches later, Spurs will go above Frank Lampard’s side if they beat them at home on Sunday. The turnaround has been remarkable, not only in the way Spurs seem to have rediscovered their edge but in the withering of Chelsea. From apparently clear skies a crisis is approaching and the next two months feel critical for Lampard’s managerial future.

Nobody at Stamford Bridge is grumbling too much yet. Lampard, as one of the club’s greatest heroes, was always going to be indulged more than some grumpy Italian in an ill-fitting tracksuit who chewed cigarette butts on the touchline. He has promoted youth and while, as Mourinho observed on the opening weekend, that can be a handy means of lowering expectations, it has also produced some thrilling football.

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Published on December 21, 2019 12:00

Champions League last 16 draw: tie-by-tie analysis

PSG may have got it right at last, Frank Lampard returns to Munich – and it’s now or never for Cristiano Ronaldo and Juve

Could this, finally, be Paris Saint-Germain’s year? Although their domestic form has been indifferent (they lead Ligue 1 by just seven points), the 3-0 evisceration of Real Madrid in their opening group match suggested the balance of the midfield – with Idrissa Gana Gueye joining Marquinhos and Marco Verratti – may at last be right. The big question is whether that cohesiveness can be maintained as Neymar returns. The PSG manager, Thomas Tuchel, has the advantage of knowing numerous Dortmund players from his time at the club. The form of Lucien Favre’s side, meanwhile, remains oddly patchy although the fact they ousted Inter in the group stage suggests they shouldn’t be underestimated.
Prediction: PSG

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Published on December 16, 2019 07:01

Arsenal are a reminder no one can take a place in the elite for granted | Jonathan Wilson

Arsenal’s downward drift means they could be one of the biggest casualties should a European super league be formed

There is a danger always in football, perhaps in life more generally, to assume certain attributes, certain virtues, certain values are eternal. They are not.

We talk now of a Big Six in the Premier League but it’s not so long ago it was a Big Four. In truth, once the group of the Big had grown beyond the number of sides who could qualify for the Champions League, it was never likely to be as self-perpetuating as it had been. That particular hegemony was broken by Sheikh Mansour’s investment in Manchester City and the remarkable rise of Tottenham – for which Daniel Levy deserves enormous credit, whatever responsibility he must take for the wobble of the last few months.

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Published on December 14, 2019 12:00

The Premier League's Champions League stroll, Fifa, Kinder eggs and more – Football Weekly Extra

Max Rushden, Philippe Auclair, Nicky Bandini and Jonathan Wilson discuss Salah’s precise finishing, Chelsea’s transfer targets, the unbearable dominance of the group stages, a Hungarian talent among others waiting to be scooped up by bigger boys and a home without Kinder eggs

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We start by discussing the Champions League group stages as a whole, and whether the concentration of knockout teams from the “big five” leagues is a bad thing for the competition as a whole.

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Published on December 12, 2019 08:37

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City should shift their focus to Europe

The failure to replace Vincent Kompany, the habit of conceding goals in clusters and the strain of the manager’s intensity are taking their toll on the Premier League champions

And with that, surely, Manchester City’s title race was run. Only the most astonishing of all collapses, Kevin Keegan riding Devon Loch across the line of every Greg Norman putt at Augusta – or possibly Leicester City – can stop Liverpool now. Jürgen Klopp’s side can go off to Qatar for the Club World Cup and play the eight games in 19 days that the schedule absurdly demands of them not only with a cushion but in the knowledge that the champions are fallible.

That was said of City last season as well, of course, when away at Newcastle they lost a fourth game of the season at the end of January.

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Published on December 08, 2019 09:21

Super rich versus the rest: Champions League groups hampered by inequality | Jonathan Wilson

Despite the efforts of Dinamo Zagreb, Club Brugge, Slavia Prague and Olympiakos, group stages are still all too predictable

What have we done to deserve this? The last round of Champions League group fixtures is on us and only half the qualifiers are already known. There will actually be something to play for, intrigue on both nights, which is rare enough by this stage. Football is spoiling us.

Liverpool, the holders, could conceivably go out. There’s a head-to-head showdown between Shakhtar Donetsk and Atalanta. There are complicated permutations to determine which two of Chelsea, Ajax and Valencia go through. It has been a better group stage than most. And yet it remains easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for an outsider to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

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Published on December 08, 2019 01:00