Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 121
October 6, 2018
Liverpool and Manchester City full-backs hold key in top-of-table clash | Jonathan Wilson
It is all about the full-backs but these days it is always all about the full‑backs. From a tactical point of view Sunday’s meeting between Liverpool and Manchester City is likely to be settled by Trent Alexander-Arnold against Aymeric Laporte and Andy Robertson against Kyle Walker – and, if it is not, it will be because Pep Guardiola has chosen not to take on that fight. Jack Charlton’s observation after the 1994 World Cup that full-back had become the most important position on the pitch seems wiser by the day.
Full-backs, Louis van Gaal insists, are the key to Guardiola. The biggest difference between the football he practised with Guardiola in his midfield at Barcelona in the late 90s and that played by City now, he said in an interview for The Barcelona Legacy, “is that a lot of times he has two full-backs in front of the central defenders. Guardiola takes a big risk and that’s why he can lose. The space behind is too big for the central defenders and he doesn’t have such fast central defenders.
Related: Relief for Pep Guardiola after Manchester City overcome fear factor
Related: Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge hits back after Eden Hazard’s Chelsea strike
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October 3, 2018
Manchester United are a mess – a team without a pattern or a plan | Jonathan Wilson
United fans want ‘attack, attack’ and Moyes and Van Gaal tried, even if it was dull. There was no attacking against Valencia but somehow it is never Mourinho’s fault
“Attack, attack, attack!” roared Old Trafford, but Manchester United did not attack. Perhaps they tried to attack. To be honest, it wasn’t easy to know what they were trying to do. It is possible it was attacking. But they did not attack.
Attack, attack, attack.
Related: José Mourinho feels let down by Manchester United over Pogba situation
Related: Alexis Sánchez embodies drift of a ghost ship of a sporting giant | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...Yuri Semin: the man who can’t say no when Lokomotiv Moscow call | Jonathan Wilson
He has been both a player and a president of the Russian club, and the 71-year-old is now in his fourth stint as manager which included last season’s remarkable title triumph
Never go back, they say, but Yuri Semin has never been somebody to place too much store by conventional wisdom. He is 71 now, his eyes more watery than ever, and this is his fourth stint in charge of Lokomotiv Moscow. In total, he’s managed them for more than two decades. To a large extent, Semin is the club and that they are playing Schalke in the Champions League on Wednesday is to a large degree down to him.
Semin first became manager of Lokomotiv in 1986. He had a year away in 1991, managing New Zealand’s Olympic team – a typically unconventional move for a coach who manages to combine supreme practicality and the dress sense of a maverick 70s TV cop with the sense that he spends half his life gazing into another realm – before returning for 15 more years at Lokomotiv.
Related: Olivier Giroud looks the part but Chelsea would welcome a goal or two | Jonathan Wilson
Related: The farcical case of Virtus Entella: a 'ghost' club without a league to play in
Continue reading...September 30, 2018
Olivier Giroud looks the part but Chelsea would welcome a goal or two | Jonathan Wilson
A centre-forward who works hard but doesn’t score is still a costly luxury for any club
There was a moment in Maurizio Sarri’s post‑match press conference on Saturday when, having eulogised Eden Hazard and spoken of the way he has challenged him to score 40 goals this season, the Chelsea manager was asked about the danger of being dependent on one player. Pedro and Willian, he replied, could score 10.
Which is fair. Pedro has three league goals this season and Willian one. There is no reason at all why one, or both, couldn’t get up to double figures in all competitions (which was, Sarri had stressed, what he was talking about; he was not anticipating Hazard scoring 40 in the league). But what he didn’t say seemed just as revealing. How many, you wonder, does he think Olivier Giroud and Álvaro Morata will muster this season?
Related: Brilliant Eden Hazard sparkles to win personal duel with Mohamed Salah | Barney Ronay
Related: Jürgen Klopp backs out-of-sorts Mohamed Salah to overcome tough spell
Continue reading...September 27, 2018
Sarri’s Chelsea are match for Liverpool but Kanté poses midfield puzzle | Jonathan Wilson
Saturday’s league meeting offers another chance to see two sides with similar setups but Jorginho’s arrival has pushed N’Golo Kanté out of his comfort zone
Press against press, 4-3-3 against 4-3-3, wide forwards who cut in against wide forwards who cut in, attacking full-back against attacking full-back: Chelsea against Liverpool on Saturday, Maurizio Sarri against Jürgen Klopp, will be a meeting of two very similar conceptions of football. Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup meeting, even with significantly altered line-ups, highlighted those similarities, and also the fact that the main difference lies in midfield. Chelsea may have won at Anfield, but it is in the centre that Liverpool perhaps have an edge.
Related: Chelsea’s Eden Hazard fires spectacular winner to knock out Liverpool
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