Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 19

Nuno’s remarkable Forest resurrection rests on charming simplicity | Jonathan Wilson

Back on his steed and charging again, the manager’s plan – amid all the background turmoil – is not especially complicated

When Tottenham sacked Nuno Espírito Santo at the beginning of November three years ago, it seemed like one of those sad but inevitable decisions that had to be taken. Spurs had just lost 3-0 at home to Manchester United, their fifth defeat in seven league games. As Spurs entered the purgatory of the Antonio Conte years, few gave much thought to Nuno.

With his quiet manner, sad eyes, bald head and long beard, Nuno had the air of a devout but disillusioned knight, his years of campaigning over, ready to retreat to a monastery. Give it up, old man, leave the field to those who understand the modern ways, those who will press recklessly high and believe in dominating possession.

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Summerville and Ings denied as Everton hold West Ham to goalless draw

Was that enough? The reports had suggested that West Ham would review Julen Lopetegui’s future over the international break if West Ham lost. They avoided that but, other than the fact they picked up another point, inching their way towards safety next May, was a featureless goalless draw really so much better?

This was, for long periods, a terrible game and, while West Ham will probably feel they had the better of the chances, certainly after half-time, when Jarrod Bowen curled a shot just wide, Crysencio Summerville hit the post and Danny Ings drew two fine saves out of Jordan Pickford but, still, nobody could call this a performance that made an undeniable case for Lopetegui to stay on.

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The overstuffed football calendar is reducing quality but increasing drama | Jonathan Wilson

There is an awful paradox at the heart of the modern game’s economic model: the toll on players’ bodies could make for a more balanced Premier League

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It was a very good weekend for Liverpool, and a pretty good weekend for the Premier League. It’s one round of games, and blips and quirks do happen. But that three of the top four on Saturday morning could lose felt not only invigorating – maybe this isn’t a league entirely predetermined by how much money you have – but also, perhaps, part of a pattern.

And that pattern is of football that is a bit patchy, a bit scratchy, a bit lacking the sort of fluidity and quality we’ve become used to, which is perhaps not so good. Moisés Caicedo’s equaliser aside, Chelsea’s draw at Manchester United in Sunday’s showpiece was an extremely limited game. The sense this autumn has been of a lot of sides packed with good players not playing particularly well.

This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email soccerwithjw@theguardian.com, and he’ll answer the best in a future edition

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Ruben Amorim has the Ferguson aura but will the United job eat the rising star? | Jonathan Wilson

Old Trafford’s muddled succession planning has seen a host of talents flop but the Sporting manager shares that outsider glow

Forget the details, forget the noise. Forget the specifics. Imagine you run a big club on a losing streak. You are looking to appoint a new manager. What do you want, ideally? You want a young manager on the way up, someone fresh, with vision and drive and personality. Someone who could perhaps still be leading the club a decade later.

At the very highest level, most managerial careers are relatively short. The notion of a “proven winner” is a consoling but meaningless shorthand. There is no such thing; everything is fluid, everything is contingent; there is always a context; every career has an arc.

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Rúben Amorim has the Ferguson aura but will the United job eat the rising star? | Jonathan Wilson

Old Trafford’s muddled succession planning has seen a host of talents flop but the Sporting manager shares that outsider glow

Forget the details, forget the noise. Forget the specifics. Imagine you run a big club on a losing streak. You are looking to appoint a new manager. What do you want, ideally? You want a young manager on the way up, someone fresh, with vision and drive and personality. Someone who could perhaps still be leading the club a decade later.

At the very highest level, most managerial careers are relatively short. The notion of a “proven winner” is a consoling but meaningless shorthand. There is no such thing; everything is fluid, everything is contingent; there is always a context; every career has an arc.

Continue reading...

Mystifying culture of entitlement has left Arsenal unable to ride out adversity | Jonathan Wilson

Defeat at Newcastle latest example of defensive laxity and attacking bluntness that is undermining title challenge

Is that, then, it? On the first weekend of November, is Arsenal’s Premier League title challenge over for another season? Perhaps not quite, because Rodri’s absence and Arne Slot’s inexperience in the Premier League mean this could be an unusual campaign even before the possible consequences of the charges against Manchester City are taken into account. But if Arsenal are to win the league for the first time in 21 years, it is going to take a monumental improvement and, at the moment, they look a side who have lost their way and self-belief.

As a rule of thumb, in this era it takes a minimum of 90 points to win the Premier League. That means teams can only afford to drop 24; Arsenal have already dropped 12 – which is to say half what they can lose with a quarter of the season played. It’s true that the fixture list has not been kind, that they have already played their away games against Manchester City, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle, but still, their margin for error in the 28 games that remain is extremely limited.

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Taking Manchester United job would be an enormous risk for Ruben Amorim | Jonathan Wilson

Club’s preferred candidate has a stellar reputation but rebuilding incoherent squad and culture is an almighty task

At least there isn’t a recent example of Manchester United gazumping Manchester City to sign a 30-something Portuguese and it turning into an expensive farrago. The Sporting manager, Ruben Amorim, had been heavily touted to join City next summer should Pep Guardiola decide to stand down, particularly after the club’s director of football, Hugo Viana, was named as the successor to Txiki Begiristain at the Etihad Stadium.

On Monday, though, Amorim emerged as the preferred candidate to replace Erik ten Hag after the Dutchman was dismissed.

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Taking Manchester United job would be an enormous risk for Rúben Amorim | Jonathan Wilson

Club’s preferred candidate has a stellar reputation but rebuilding incoherent squad and culture is an almighty task

At least there isn’t a recent example of Manchester United gazumping Manchester City to sign a 30-something Portuguese and it turning into an expensive farrago. The Sporting manager, Rúben Amorim, had been heavily touted to join City next summer should Pep Guardiola decide to stand down, particularly after the club’s director of football, Hugo Viana, was named as the successor to Txiki Begiristain at the Etihad Stadium.

On Monday, though, Amorim emerged as the preferred candidate to replace Erik ten Hag after the Dutchman was dismissed.

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Don’t let Arsenal v Liverpool fool you. Elite teams are evolving away from all-out attack

After its harum-scarum years, the game is now about denying the opposition and keeping possession in dangerous areas

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It finished 2-2. Twice Arsenal had the lead and twice Liverpool pegged them back. By the end, Arsenal had a back four that contained not a single first-choice element in its usual place and yet had still seemed oddly untested late on. Set it out like that and it sounds like a madcap thriller and yet, somehow, it all felt slightly flat.

Arsenal even had what many in the ground celebrated as an injury-time winner ruled out, although it turned out the referee Anthony Taylor had already blown for a foul by Jakub Kiwior, something that really should have been obvious from Gabriel Jesus’s body language as he poked the ball over the line. This is Arsenal, and so there had to be a conspiracy theory, which beyond the incontrovertible fact that Taylor is from Greater Manchester (like, you know, Manchester City: coincidence? Really?), seemed to focus on the fact that the referee had paused momentarily before giving a fairly straightforward decision. Waiting to see if there might be an advantage? Or getting his orders from the shadowy anti-Arsenal forces that run the game?

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Jean-Philippe Mateta sinks Tottenham to give Crystal Palace first win

Oliver Glasner does not believe in magic. He is an admirably pragmatic man who trusts his principles. He trusted them at the end of last season when Palace looked like world-beaters and everything was going right, and he trusts them now when Palace look like relegation candidates and everything is going wrong. Give it time and equilibrium will return; the principles will have their effect. Or you could just wait for the visit of Tottenham.

Trust the principles all you like, Spurs will still be Spurs, a paradox that suggests there is some deeper process that ultimately matters far more than the surface processes that can be seen and analysed. They are a club with a fragile soul, capable always of a dreadful performance.

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