Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 48
July 1, 2023
Football clubs were born to represent communities and fans, not owners | Jonathan Wilson
As multi-club ownership shows, the game, especially in England, has lost sight of the notion of football as a civic good
What is a football club? It’s one of those questions that seem simple but turn out to be extremely difficult to give an answer to. Not all clubs are the same, and not all people will view a club in the same way, but – and this is perhaps especially true in an age in which it’s becoming more common for a single entity to own multiple clubs – it’s probably worth trying to define what a club is, or what we want it to be, as part of working out the direction it would be desirable for football to go.
The first clubs were established in the mid-to-late 19th century for members who wished to play. Gradually it became apparent that people were willing to pay to watch, but these were not neutral spectators as might be found at the theatre or the concert hall; rather they were partisan, exposing the enduring myth that football is an entertainment.
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June 24, 2023
The cockroach cadre: Argentina’s tough, resilient coaches are the toast of football | Jonathan Wilson
From Bielsa with Uruguay to Simeone at Atlético, managers from the South American nation are everywhere – except Brazil
When Uruguay appointed Marcelo Bielsa as coach in May, they joined a growing club. Lionel Scaloni led Argentina to glory at the World Cup. Chile are managed by Eduardo Berizzo. Paraguay are managed by Guillermo Barros Schelotto. Bolivia are managed by Gustavo Costas. Colombia are managed by Néstor Lorenzo. Venezuela are managed by Fernando Batista.
Seven of the 10 Conmebol nations have Argentinian coaches and although Peru have a Peruvian and Ecuador a Spaniard, both succeeded Argentinians. Argentinian coaches are everywhere in South America; only Brazil stands aloof.
Continue reading...June 17, 2023
Kylian Mbappé’s extraordinary gifts are being wasted at Paris Saint-Germain | Jonathan Wilson
PSG is a honeypot for glamorous hangers-on, but to blame the France superstar for his underachievement feels absurd
Europe, several years from now. A thin light strains through the cracked and grimy window. The air is gritty with smoke. The man wakes. He is stiff, cold, tired, afraid. Outside is devastation, the city in ruins. Everyone has fled. Even the sirens sound more distant now. With a trembling hand, the man withdraws his phone from his pocket. He must be sparing with the battery, he knows, but awkwardly he turns it on.
Perhaps this morning there will be signal. Perhaps this morning he will find out how far the crisis extends. The screen flickers. He hears the low ping before he sees the bars. A miracle. He has connection. There is a news alert. His fingers tremble as he taps. For a moment his weary eye can not quite take in the headline he sees. But then it shudders into focus: “Mbappé,” it says, “threatens to quit PSG.” Some things, at least, never change.
Continue reading...June 14, 2023
Mbappé on the move? And an end-of-season mailbag – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Jonathan Liew for an end-of-season Q&A
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
Today: was 2022-23 a memorable season? A good one? The panel look back on the last 10 months of football and assess.
Continue reading...June 11, 2023
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola enters his third age as all-time great | Jonathan Wilson
With his status confirmed, there’s no reason Spaniard can’t surpass Carlo Ancelotti’s record of Champions League wins
Would it have mattered to posterity if Pep Guardiola had not won the Champions League again? Would it have mattered if he had remained stuck on two European titles, his last triumph Barcelona’s sumptuous 3-1 victory over Manchester United at Wembley in 2011?
We can tell ourselves that we know what Guardiola is, how he had transformed football and our understanding of what is possible; that we know the magnitude of Arrigo Sacchi, who won two European Cups, and Rinus Michels, who won one, and Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who didn’t win any; but, still, it feels appropriate to have it confirmed, just as it was fitting to have Lionel Messi’s greatness confirmed at the World Cup.
Continue reading...June 10, 2023
Guardiola vindicated as Stones thrives in ‘Barnsley Beckenbauer’ role | Jonathan Wilson
Some tactical tweaks are not overthinking – they’re just thinking, and the Manchester City manager’s decisions paid off
Not all tactical tweaks are the result of overthinking. Pep Guardiola did not simply pick the obvious starting XI. He did not pick the starting lineup that had propelled City through the Premier League run-in. He is criticised readily enough when he makes changes and City don’t win; this was an occasion when the change paid off. Guardiola made the necessary adjustment, and was rewarded with his third Champions League.
Until mid-February City, by their own remarkable standards, had not had a particularly great season. There were questions – entirely reasonable questions for all the subsequent sneering – about what Erling Haaland did to the balance of the side. When a player doesn’t involve himself in the play, when he has only 20-30 touches in a game as standard, how can he contribute to the maintenance of possession that is so necessary to providing the control that Guardiola prioritises? Yet Haaland, obviously, is a magnificent goalscorer and offers a major threat on the counter.
Continue reading...Postecoglou has no time for ‘Spursiness’ – this may be his one Premier League shot | Jonathan Wilson
A history of ruthlessness will put the former Celtic manager in good stead as he faces up to player power at Tottenham
One night in May 2009, Frank Farina, the coach of Brisbane Roar, sat down to play board games with his family. He worked his way through a bottle of chardonnay and then had a couple of glasses of red. When he got in his car the next morning, he was still over the limit. As a consequence, 14 years later Ange Postecoglou was appointed manager of Tottenham.
It was Farina’s second drink-driving offence in under three years. The Roar sacked him and, in their scramble for a replacement, turned to Postecoglou.
Continue reading...June 9, 2023
Champions League final tactics: how Inter can trouble Manchester City
It may be a small sample size but statistics from the Premier League season suggest Italian side could have a formation to frustrate City
Inter’s deployment of a front two is not an unknown issue for Manchester City to combat but it is an unfamiliar one. Lautaro Martínez has spells when he cannot score – as happened in the World Cup – but when he is hot he is hot, and he has scored 11 times in his past 13 games. He will probably be partnered by Edin Dzeko, now 37 but still an effective, intelligent and underrated target man. Romelu Lukaku then offers an unpredictable element from the bench.
Continue reading...June 7, 2023
Fitting celebrities into systems is the challenge for modern, elite managers | Jonathan Wilson
An extract from the 15th anniversary edition of Inverting the Pyramid charts the rise of superclubs and all-powerful players
Football is dominated now as it never has been before by a handful of superclubs. For many of them, winning their domestic title has come to be regarded almost as a formality. There are vast imbalances within leagues and that, of course, conditions the tactical approach teams take.
If you expect to win most games comfortably, everything becomes focused on attacking – which can cause problems for the superclubs on the rare occasions they come up against a team at around their level: they forget not merely how to defend, but also how to fight. The standard of defending has declined alarmingly among elite clubs, something that’s not just to do with a shift to a more attacking focus. In the eight seasons of the Champions League from 2009–10, 21 of 104 games in the quarter-finals or later finished with a winning margin of three or more; in the eight seasons before that, there were only eight. Never has a three-goal lead seemed less secure.
Continue reading...June 4, 2023
Jack Grealish ruling in FA Cup final further proves absurdity of handball | Jonathan Wilson
Jack Grealish was penalised for inadvertently touching the ball with his fingers, giving United the chance to equalise
As it turned out, it didn’t affect the destination of the FA Cup or deny Manchester City a chance at the treble, but it might have done. Manchester United had created very little when suddenly VAR gave them a penalty for something almost nobody appealed. Assuredly, under the laws, as they are now interpreted, the decision was correct. Jack Grealish’s hand was raised almost to shoulder height as Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s header struck it, and that these days is an offence. But really, why should it be?
Why should games be decided not by skill or heart, by organisation or improvisation, but by 75% chances of a goal handed out because of random bounces and bobbles? Grealish was not cheating. He did not seek to gain an advantage. He just jumped and, in twisting to see where the ball went, his arm went out to balance him. This wasn’t a Peter Schmeichel-style star jump, spreading himself to make a block; it was just a man jumping, his arms doing what arms do when somebody jumps.
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