Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 116
February 19, 2019
Chelsea fans don’t often have time to turn on a manager – this felt decisive | Jonathan Wilson
Maurizio Sarri is serving up predictable, sterile football and some choices are hard to fathom but Chelsea share the blame for this mess
Chelsea fans don’t often turn on their manager. They don’t usually have time. But there, distinct in the cool February air, just six days before they play in a cup final, it was: “Fuck Sarriball! Fuck Sarriball! Fuck Sarriball!” Add in the booing at the final whistle and the chants for Callum Hudson-Odoi throughout the second half and it’s fair to say the Matthew Harding Stand has made its mind up about Maurizio Sarri.
Fans are not always right, of course, as a notorious Old Trafford bedsheet of the late eighties makes clear, and boards must make their own decisions, but this nonetheless felt a decisive moment. Stamford Bridge turned on André Villas-Boas and it didn’t like Rafa Benítez from the start, but outright revolt against a manager is unusual.
Related: Chelsea stick with Maurizio Sarri for now but manager on thin ice
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February 13, 2019
Did Neymar’s absence help PSG to prosper at Manchester United? | Jonathan Wilson
Whisper it – and try at least for a while to ignore the enormous Brazilian ego that has temporarily vacated the room – but might Paris Saint-Germain finally have worked it out? The difference between their performances at Anfield in September and at Old Trafford on Tuesday could hardly have been more pronounced. Perhaps this PSG are contenders after all.
Certain issues, it’s true, remain. Gianluigi Buffon is 41. However agile and dominant he remains, he has the feet of a goalkeeper who grew up in the 90s; a sweeper-keeper he is not and, in a world in which almost everybody presses, that restricts how high the defensive line can play while in turn making PSG susceptible to opponents who press them.
Related: Kylian Mbappé’s teleportation device leaves Manchester United floundering | Barney Ronay
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Related: Manchester United 0-2 PSG: Champions League player ratings
Continue reading...February 11, 2019
Chelsea struggle with the long term and time looks nearly up for Sarri | Jonathan Wilson
For the Italian to work as manager would take time and there have always been doubts as to whether he will get it
How bad is too bad? What level of defeat forces a club to change its long-term plans? Is there even a long-term plan at Chelsea? Chelsea’s worst defeat in 28 years cannot but lead to serious questions and all precedent suggests those inquiries will end with the departure of the manager, Maurizio Sarri.
There always seemed something a little uncomfortable in Chelsea’s appointment of Sarri. This, after all, is an impatient club that has thrived on chaos in recent years. Sarri is the 11th permanent or semi-permanent manager Chelsea have had in the 11 years since the end of the first José Mourinho era, and by far the most idiosyncratic.
Related: Maurizio Sarri admits concern over Chelsea but sidesteps query on future
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Related: Sergio Agüero hits hat-trick in Chelsea’s humiliation by Manchester City
Continue reading...February 8, 2019
Sarri needs to compromise or risk Chelsea suffering at Manchester City | Jonathan Wilson
Sometimes things in football just happen. The most extraordinary victories can be achieved by teams whose tactical schemes have slipped, forgotten, from practicality within a few minutes of kick-off. Everybody has a plan until Raheem Sterling runs in behind.
As Manchester City prepare for the arrival of Chelsea on Sunday, the temptation is to go back to that Saturday evening in December when Maurizio Sarri’s side became the first to beat Pep Guardiola’s in the league this season. What did he do then to unsettle the league champions?
Related: Liverpool slips have given Manchester City mental lift, says Bernardo Silva
The three-way gallop to the line
Continue reading...February 4, 2019
Super Son, Manchester City, the WSL and more – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Suzy Wrack discuss Manchester City winning ugly, the brilliance of Son Heung-min, Ole Gunnar Solsjkær, intransigence and gnocchi
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We look back at the weekend of football just gone, starting with Manchester City’s 3-1 win over Arsenal, with three goals of the same making, yet different finishes.
Continue reading...Could Manchester City be tripped up by Pep Guardiola overthinking? | Jonathan Wilson
Football can be a confusing world at times, when narratives clash to leave an outcome that seems to mean two entirely different things simultaneously. Manchester City are a team that lack the personality to handle setbacks, runs one theme; Pep Guardiola is too intense, too controlling, and the result is a highly skilled but neurotic side who cannot think for themselves when the going gets tough. Arsenal are a team that lack the backbone for big away games, runs another. Praise City for getting out of trouble on Sunday, then, or wonder how they got into that position in the first place?
Most significant in terms of the title race, perhaps, is that City did what they failed to do last Tuesday. Facing fragile opposition a day before Liverpool play, they won, cutting the gap so the nervy leaders can feel the pursuing breath on their necks for 24 hours before they kick off, breath made all the more unsettling by a quirk of the calendar – City’s game against Everton initially scheduled for the weekend of the Carabao Cup final rearranged for Wednesday – that means if Liverpool fail to win at West Ham, the champions could be top before the next weekend’s fixtures.
Related: Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Continue reading...January 26, 2019
Simple tweak to Lukaku's role keeps charmed prince Solskjær's reign alive | Jonathan Wilson
Playing Romelu Lukaku on the right wing meant Ole Gunnar Solskjær created the space to get the most out of Alexis Sánchez in the win over Arsenal
Easy game, this management lark. So easy, you wonder what on earth Ole Gunnar Solskjær was doing during his first stint in the Premier League: it didn’t seem this straightforward with Cardiff City. These days, though, it seems he can do no wrong. Not only did he allow Alexis Sánchez to invoke the immutable law of the ex by scoring against Arsenal but, far less expectedly, he deployed Romelu Lukaku to dismantle Arsenal from a position on the right wing.
Related: Arsenal fear Laurent Koscielny has broken jaw in Manchester United defeat
Related: Alexis Sánchez the incredible sulk comes good at his old home | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...January 24, 2019
The Carabao Cup semis and Scottish drama – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Faye Carruthers discuss the tragic Emiliano Sala news, the Carabao Cup, the return of fitba, Barcelona making moves in the transfer market and the Whyteleafe Curse
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We look back at the last few days, starting with the desperately sad news and the search – since called off – for missing footballer Emiliano Sala and his pilot, after their plane disappeared on Monday night.
Continue reading...False nine: ancient tactical curveball still retains the power to shock | Jonathan Wilson
It is 125 years since the first false nine and its history since is fascinating as much for its failure to become a dominant tactic as for its many successful applications
At times it feels in football there is nothing new, merely the reinvocation of old ideas. It is well over 100 years since GO Smith started operating for the Corinthians as what we would now term a false nine and yet still the idea of a team operating without a fixed focal point in the centre of their attack can cause chaos. It is 63 years since the England centre-half Harry Johnston spoke of the sense of “utter helplessness” he felt in facing the deep-lying Nándor Hidegkuti as England lost 6-3 to Hungary at Wembley. And yet, as Jesse Lingard proved recently for Manchester United against Tottenham, the false nine, used well, still has the capacity to take opponents by surprise.
What is striking about the use of the false nine over time is that it has never taken root. Nobody in England copied Smith. There was a period in the 1920s in Argentina when the centre-forward as “conductor” became popular but that style of play, with a V-shaped five-man forward line, was in effect obliterated by the emergence of Bernabé Ferreyra, a brilliant centre-forward of monstrous proportions.
Related: 2018 in football tactics: France and Real Madrid did it their way | Jonathan Wilson
Continue reading...January 20, 2019
Chelsea have a good manager and players – so why are they in a mess? | Jonathan Wilson
In September 2016, after Chelsea had lost limply away to Arsenal, Antonio Conte laid into the “bad attitude” of his players. They went on to win their next 13 league games and by the end of the season were Premier League champions. Perhaps Maurizio Sarri, whose attack on the “mentality” of his players after Saturday’s limp defeat away to Arsenal was, if anything, even more ferocious, hopes for something similar. Perhaps there will be a reaction. But Conte, at half-time in that defeat, also made a major tactical shift, adopting the back three Chelsea would play for the rest of his tenure. Sarri seems unlikely to change anything.
Related: Maurizio Sarri says Chelsea’s players are ‘extremely difficult to motivate’
Just because José Mourinho shouts a lot doesn’t mean there isn’t sometimes a wolf
Related: Alexandre Lacazette shows Chelsea the value of a no-nonsense No 9 | Barney Ronay
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