Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 33

Football’s elite are tightening up – and Arsenal lead the pack

The Premier League has experienced a goal-scoring surge this season. But Mikel Arteta’s team have created an edge by eliminating chances

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Who said football was supposed to be fun? Sunday’s meeting between Manchester City and Arsenal was billed as an epic showdown between sorcerer and apprentice that might decide the league title. It produced a total of three shots on target – which is to say as many as Brentford had against Manchester United between the 53rd and 55th minutes. Admire the tactical machinations if you like, the levels of concentration and the planning that went into it, the obviously refined level of the lack of action, but this was shit on a stick for the TikTok generation.

In fact, in many ways it was worse. When the great former Argentina forward Jorge Valdano came up with his line in Marca to describe the second leg of the 2007 Champions League semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea – “Put a shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it’s a work of art. It’s not: it’s a shit hanging from a stick” – he was at least describing a knockout tie.

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‘We didn’t deserve to win’: Ten Hag asks for more desire after Brentford draw

United conceded 99th-minute equaliser after taking late lead‘My big disappointment was we didn’t bring it over the line’

Erik ten Hag criticised his players’ lack of aggression as Manchester United scraped a 1-1 draw at Brentford, but seemed unconcerned by the number of shots his side continue to concede.

United struggled all game but took the lead through Mason Mount after 96 minutes, before Brentford’s 31st shot of the game finally beat André Onana for a 99th-minute equaliser. “We didn’t deserve to win,” Ten Hag said, “but if you’re winning you have to take this. I would say normally we are very good in these circumstances.

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Ajer rescues point for Brentford in Manchester United thriller

It doesn’t matter what they did two weeks ago, this is still the modern Manchester United, and they are still dismal. A 1-1 draw hardly tells the story of the game. Brentford had 31 shots, four of which hit the woodwork. They didn’t score until Kristoffer Ajer equalised in the ninth minute of injury time, by which point they were mystifyingly behind, but really by then they should have won almost as comfortably as they did in this fixture last season.

The problem for United under Erik ten Hag has been that, while there have been decent performances and results, they have rarely been followed by anything approaching a consistent run. Quite what the win over Liverpool in the FA Cup was, other than thrilling, is unclear.

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Back to square one: why defenders at City and Arsenal are the middle men

There is a strong possibility that all four full-back roles at the Etihad will be filled by players usually deployed as centre-backs

In 1918, the Kyiv-born artist Kazimir Malevich painted White Square, a white square on a white field. It followed Black Square and Red Square and was the culmination of his project of “suprematism”, his belief that abstraction was a means of approaching a spiritual understanding of the absolute. By that stage, he had achieved international recognition, but it left him with a problem: where to go next? When you have taken abstraction so far you are painting in white on white, what remains?

And so, guided in part by the Soviet regime’s increasing hostility towards abstract art, particularly after the death of Lenin, who had been an admirer, Malevich returned to a more representational style. Some have detected a sarcasm in his later work, veiled criticism of the Soviet system, and it’s undeniable that a painting as overtly realistic as The Worker (1933) bears traces of the earlier stylisation but, still, after the floating colours and geometric shapes of 15-20 years earlier, he went back to images readily identifiable as people. Sometimes revolutions go so far that the only way forward is back.

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Xabi Alonso’s decision to stay put gives Liverpool tricky choices at time of flux | Jonathan Wilson

Spaniard remaining at Leverkusen shows laudable loyalty but with several big clubs seeking new managers, Liverpool’s task is not easy

Perhaps it was always too perfect: not just the idea of Jürgen Klopp handing over to a revered former player, the man who scored the equaliser in Istanbul, but of the baton being passed on after a Europa League final meeting in Dublin.

When Bayer Leverkusen came from behind to keep that narrative alive with two injury-time goals against Qarabag, the Kloppian nature of the comeback felt profoundly appropriate. But Xabi Alonso announced on Friday he will remain with Leverkusen for at least one more season and attempt a Champions League campaign with the side he is surely about to lead to a first Bundesliga title, and that means Liverpool must think again.

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Heartbreak for Wales, joy for Poland, Georgia and Ukraine – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson, Jonathan Wilson and Ben Fisher as Wales fail to qualify for Euro 2024

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today: Wales lose to Poland in their first ever penalty shootout – a missed Dan James penalty means Wales won’t qualify for Euro 2024. Poland will be joined by Georgia and Ukraine, who won their qualifiers respectively.

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Heartbreak for Wales, joy for Poland, Georgia and Ukraine - Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Paul Watson, Jonathan Wilson and Ben Fisher as Wales fail to qualify for Euro 2024.

Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.

On the podcast today; Wales lose to Poland in their first ever penalty shootout - a missed Dan James penalty means Wales won’t qualify for Euro 2024. Poland will be joined by Georgia and Ukraine, who won their qualifiers respectively.

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Should Xabi Alonso pick Liverpool, Bayern or Barcelona? | Jonathan Wilson

Jonathan Wilson answers your questions on Xabi Alonso, Gareth Southgate and whether penalties are the right way to decide knockout games

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If you were Xabi Alonso, would you pick Bayern Münich , Liverpool or Barcelona – or wait for the Real Madrid job to come open? Natalie

Reports in Germany at the end of last week suggested that Munich is now Alonso’s preferred destination, which feels a little disappointing. He’s almost certainly going to lift the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen this season and I’m not entirely clear why, having won the league on hard mode, he would now try to do it again on an easier setting. Yes, the way the Uefa coefficient works means that there’s likely to be a relatively straightforward passage into the quarter-finals of the Champions League, and experience in that competition is the one thing still missing from his CV, but it still seems an unambitious step. Leaving Leverkusen makes sense given his stock cannot really climb any higher there and repeating this season’s feat is so unlikely, especially with players probably going to be sold this summer. Barcelona seems an improbable destination given his Madrid connections and his assumed desire at some point to become Madrid manager. While there’s probably a little trepidation at being Jürgen Klopp’s successor. Liverpool looks ideal – and, unlike Bayern or even Madrid, it’s not necessarily a job that’s going to be available every couple of seasons.

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Premier League title race hinges on Etihad collision and the force is with Arsenal | Jonathan Wilson

The title is still up for grabs as the big three enter final turn and the last of the meetings between the contenders will be vital

After 10 games of the Premier League season, Tottenham stood top of the table with Arsenal and Manchester City two points back and Liverpool a further point behind that. But for the VAR snafu that cost Luis Díaz a goal at Spurs, the top three would probably have been the same as it is now, with 10 games remaining.

Which tells us what, exactly? That the top three are pretty evenly matched, that they have been consistent over the season and perhaps that, although the sense of this season has been of constant bubbling intrigue, modern league football doesn’t really allow for huge shifts of fortune.

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Ten Hag’s job is not safe, but Liverpool win will resonate for decades | Jonathan Wilson

The 4-3 win over Liverpool may not save Erik ten Hag’s job. But it has cemented lasting goodwill

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And in the next round, Mark Robins. Football has found itself assailed in recent years by states, oligarchs and private equity, the concentration of resources at a handful of clubs in a tiny number of western European countries destroying the balance that once sustained it, the potential of its soft power meaning that it has been preyed upon by regimes desperate to launder their image and secure influence. But, despite all that, the sport has retained its mischievous sense of humour.

It was Robins who scored the winner for Manchester United against Nottingham Forest in 1990 that saved Sir Alex Ferguson’s job, carrying them through the third round of the FA Cup to initiate an exhaustingly dramatic campaign that culminated in the trophy. At the end of his fourth season in the job, that was Ferguson’s first silverware at Old Trafford, the herald of 23 years of almost constant success.

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