Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 117
January 17, 2019
With his ‘spygate’ PowerPoint, Marcelo Bielsa has enhanced his legend | Jonathan Wilson
Marcelo Bielsa’s first job in coaching was at the city university in Buenos Aires. He hadn’t made it as a player, too slow to make more than four appearances in central defence for Newell’s Old Boys. He had floated about the lower leagues for a while, studying agronomy and physical education. A university side was an obvious stepping-stone to greater things, but Bielsa didn’t treat it as such. Rather he watched 3,000 players before selecting his squad of 20.
The 63-year-old has always been meticulous. When he was given a job in youth development at Newell’s, he wondered whether clubs were missing out on players from the interior, so got a map of Argentina, divided it into 70 sections and arranged a trial in each. Because he didn’t like flying, he ended up driving more than 5,000 miles in his Fiat 147 to see the results, establishing a theme that would become familiar of human fallibility, often his own, banging up against his plans and principles.
Related: Leeds’ spying should be treated as a form of entertainment, not cheating | Paul Wilson
Related: How Leeds fell in love with Marcelo Bielsa, the man on a blue bucket
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January 14, 2019
Solskjær's joy of six, Liverpool's grind, Declan Rice and spies – Football Weekly
Melissa Rudd, Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Jonathan Wilson discuss Manchester United’s win at Wembley, Mike Ashley’s money, Declan Rice’s future, Burnley’s 2-1 win without a shot on target and Spygate
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We look back at the weekend of football just gone, starting with Manchester United’s 1-0 win over Spurs at Wembley, Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s sixth victory in his six games in charge.
Continue reading...Ole Gunnar Solskjær shows there is substance behind the smiles | Jonathan Wilson
He could smile, be gracious, look pleased to be there and deliver the letter U in a pleasing Scandi-Manc. He could make some of the best footballers in the world seem happy to be paid million of pounds a year to play for one of the biggest clubs in the world – a feat of psychological alchemy quite beyond his predecessor. But could Ole Gunnar Solskjær do it on a chilly Sunday evening in January, against one of the Premier League’s sharper tactical minds? It turns out, just about, that he could.
Related: United produced 60 minutes of pure, uncut Ole-ball and then: enter gloveman | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...January 11, 2019
Solskjær’s approach shows players are not sets of data, but humans | Jonathan Wilson
The Norwegian’s man-management at Manchester United has been top class – but the game against Tottenham will show whether he has the tactical nous to beat the best
Nobody realistically doubts that Manchester United’s game against Tottenham on Sunday represents a new level of challenge for Ole Gunnar Solskjær but equally it would take a particularly cussed soul – or Nemanja Matic – not to acknowledge the change of mood he has already enacted.
Perhaps his role is simply to be a palate-cleanser but Solskjær has United playing with a sense of enjoyment that arguably has not been there since Sir Alex Ferguson retired.
Related: Ole Gunnar Solskjær will build up United players, not break them down | Jonas Giæver
Related: Solskjær: Pochettino link with Manchester United ‘there for a reason’
Continue reading...January 4, 2019
11.7mm from glory: now Liverpool must brush off narrow defeat | Jonathan Wilson
The world moves on. Technology develops and evolves. The aesthetics of the spectacle, perhaps, to our wearily nostalgic culture, have less to recommend them than they did, but accuracy at least is guaranteed. Where once epoch-defining line decisions were taken by Azerbaijani men with silver hair and splendid moustaches, now we watch a digital representation of a yellow circle landing on a white line across a green background. What Tofiq Bahramov’s decisive nod was to the 1966 World Cup, so the Goal Decision System may be to the 2018‑19 Premier League.
Where the former remains contested (with good reason), there is no disputing what happened at the Etihad on Thursday. Or at least not beyond crazed conspiracists who within hours of the final whistle were already talking about shadows and angles and the grand anti-Liverpudlian plot that is geometry. Perhaps the technology is not perfect. Perhaps the reading that said the ball was 11.7 millimetres from completely crossing the line is affecting an impossible level of accuracy, but it is still much more likely to be right than a 41-year‑old former footballer from Baku.
Related: Sergio Agüero, the man with the grey-blue rinse, shines as City’s beacon
Continue reading...January 3, 2019
All eyes on the Premier League – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, and Lars Sivertsen discuss a six-goal thriller in Bournemouth, early-window transfer moves, the Solskjær train rolling on, unpunished horror tackles and talent drain
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We look back at the weekend’s football action, starting with the six goals shared between Bournemouth and Watford, four of which came within the space of six minutes.
Continue reading...December 31, 2018
Liverpool have lift-off before showdown with Manchester City – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Jonathan Wilson, John Brewin and Gregg Bakowski discuss the dominant thrashing of Arsenal, players flying again at Manchester United, early kick-offs and Neil Etheridge saving penalties from presidents
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We look back at the weekend’s football action, starting with Liverpool’s 5-1 win over Arsenal, sending them seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table and Gregg into dreamland.
Continue reading...December 30, 2018
Liverpool’s raggedness in swatting aside Arsenal may yet give rivals hope | Jonathan Wilson
There was a moment just before half-time on Saturday, with Liverpool 3-1 up, when Jürgen Klopp strode to the edge of the technical area, eyes flashing behind his glasses, finger jabbing, fury written across his face. Sadio Mané had given the ball away cheaply and had failed to track back and Arsenal had briefly threatened. A couple of minutes later, Mohamed Salah was bundled over by Sokratis Papastathopoulos, converting the resultant penalty and Liverpool were 4-1 up. It was one of those days: however sloppy Liverpool were at times, Arsenal were much, much worse.
In the other technical area, a grimacing Unai Emery looked even more like Alan Partridge than ever, as though trying to give a speech to the sales conference of a firm specialising in coal-effect fires after piercing his foot on a spike. By midway through the first half, he had given up his guiding role on the touchline to sit on the bench: there is, in the end, only so much you can do with those players. The impact Emery has made at Arsenal, the change in style and focus, has been remarkable but sometimes the scorpion is going to sting the frog, however self-defeating it may be, because that is what a scorpion does.
Related: Roberto Firmino shows all Liverpool parts are now operating at their peak | Andy Hunter
Related: Jürgen Klopp: ‘We may be nine points in front but we have to go to City’
Continue reading...December 27, 2018
2018 in football tactics: France and Real Madrid did it their way | Jonathan Wilson
The same basics everywhere: it would be easy to believe that football in 2018 was about the victory of press and possess. Manchester City do it, Liverpool do it, Tottenham do it, Chelsea do it, Arsenal do it, Barcelona do it, Juventus do it, Napoli do it, Bayern Munich do it, Borussia Dortmund do it, even Paris Saint-Germain have been showing signs of doing it under Thomas Tuchel. Manchester United didn’t do it and José Mourinho was sacked after a grim opening to the season in which his ideas had seemed increasingly outmoded.
And yet the two biggest competitions of the year were won by teams that did not play in that way. Try to find a pattern based on France winning the World Cup and Real Madrid winning the Champions League and the only conclusions likely to be drawn are that you have has a better chance of winning if a) you have has Raphaël Varane in the team; b) your coach won the World Cup with France in 1998 and has an alliterative name.
Related: Real Madrid win Champions League as brilliant Bale sinks Liverpool
Continue reading...December 19, 2018
From defence to Sánchez, where did Mourinho go wrong? | Jonathan Wilson
There was a time when the prevailing attitude to José Mourinho was it might not be pretty but he got the job done. At Real Madrid that began to change. Why was he so obsessed by playing his “trivote”, his block of three holding midfielders, even against lesser sides? But still, the problem was at the back of the team: Mourinho sides did not concede goals. This United did: 29 in 17 league games this season, the fifth-worst record in the league. But the situation is even worse than that. David de Gea is widely considered to have surrendered his crown as the Premier League’s best goalkeeper but he has still made more saves than all but three. In other words, that defensive record could easily be even worse.
Related: José Mourinho sacked by Manchester United after worst start in 28 years
Related: David Silva sparks Manchester City’s precious derby victory over United
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