Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 69
February 20, 2022
Premier League title race has finally regained its intrigue as Man City falter | Jonathan Wilson
Jürgen Klopp’s ‘greatest squad’ are closing in on Manchester City with Liverpool now just six points behind them in the table
As if from nowhere a title race has appeared. Manchester City’s 12-point lead is down to six which means that if Liverpool win their game in hand and if Liverpool win at the Etihad Stadium in April, the two clubs could be level on points.
City are still in the better position, particularly given they have not lost a league game at home against Liverpool under Pep Guardiola. But what had started to look like a procession has, quite unexpectedly, regained a sense of intrigue.
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February 19, 2022
Leicester must hold their nerve as Rodgers faces third-season syndrome | Jonathan Wilson
There are problems at the King Power but the Foxes’ poor form may not be due to suggestions that the manager is stagnating
There was a rumour this past week that Brendan Rodgers had been sacked as manager of Leicester City. It turned out not to be true, but the fact it seemed so believable was telling. The improved performance against West Ham – when they were denied victory only by a late equaliser that prompted one of football’s increasingly frequent epistemological debates: what is a hand? – has perhaps calmed the situation before Sunday’s game against Wolves, but the pressure is real enough.
Rodgers may have twice taken Leicester to fifth in the Premier League (with the ninth-highest wage bill) and won the FA Cup only last season, but the discontent at the King Power has been palpable. It was this week five years ago that Leicester sacked Claudio Ranieri, who had led them to the title the season before. Then perhaps a change could be justified as a sad necessity to head off the threat of relegation. But that is not a realistic possibility this season, even if Leicester’s run without a domestic win now extends to five games, including that humiliating FA Cup defeat by Nottingham Forest.
Continue reading...February 14, 2022
As Manchester United falter again, will Wolves go fourth? - Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Troy Townsend and Paul MacInnes after a busy weekend at both ends of the Premier League table
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On the podcast today; we look back at all the headlines from a busy Premier League weekend. Manchester United throw away yet another lead against an impressive Southampton. West Ham and Spurs also fail to register wins as Wolves emerge as a contender for the final Champions League spot.
Continue reading...February 13, 2022
Jiménez and Dendoncker feast on Tottenham’s gifts to earn win for Wolves
It always seemed likely to be a close-run thing whether Antonio Conte would break Tottenham or Tottenham would break Conte, but at the moment it is the Spursiness that is on top. Conte’s five league titles may have come in a perpetual frenzy of touchline fury, but he was reduced in the second half to wandering disconsolately around his technical area, giving the occasional bark of disappointment.
After a nine-game unbeaten run in the league after his appointment, three straight league defeats, the first time that has happened to Conte in 12 years, mean the honeymoon is definitively over. With familiarity, ingrained habits are beginning to grate. Why can they not put their trousers on the hanger? Why can’t they ever take the rubbish out? Why will they not do the absolute basics of defending? “There is a long path in front of us,” Conte said. “Supporters mustn’t be scared to face this but for sure there are many aspect to improve.”
Continue reading...February 12, 2022
Notorious match-fixer Solti’s game of fine margins echoes down the years | Jonathan Wilson
Liverpool’s meeting with Inter will conjure memories of 1965’s controversial semi-final – and the man behind that
For Liverpool, Wednesday’s Champions League tie against Internazionale will inevitably conjure memories of 1965. Leading 3-1 from the first leg of their first European Cup semi-final, Liverpool went to San Siro and lost 3-0 in a game that players insist was fixed. The first Inter goal was scored direct from a free-kick they believed to be indirect, the second after the ball was nicked from the goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence as he bounced it before clearing.
The evidence in that instance is circumstantial, although as Brian Glanville noted in an investigation into match-fixing in the Sunday Times almost a decade later, Italian sides did remarkably well when the referee who officiated that game, José María Ortiz de Mendíbil, was in charge. There had been some very strange decisions as well in the previous year’s semi-final when Inter had beaten Borussia Dortmund, but the first concrete evidence of fixing came the following year.
Continue reading...February 7, 2022
Africa Cup of Nations review: sorrow, anger and Mané’s redemption
Our writers relive their highs and lows of a tournament completely overshadowed by the Olembe Stadium tragedy
This Cup of Nations was played under a shadow from the moment eight supporters died outside Olembe Stadium a fortnight ago. There is no excusing what happened at a venue surrounded by vast spaces and the depressing sense remains that its causes will be swept under the carpet. After driving back to Yaoundé the following day and speaking with Romaric, who had been in the ground and encountered people who had been caught up in the crush as he left, the horror of what had occurred started to become clear. A subsequent visit to the emergency hospital brought some harrowing testimonies; these are, sadly, the words and images that linger. NA
Continue reading...Boreham Wood, Boro and Afcon glory for Senegal – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Simon Burnton, Jonathan Wilson, Ben Fisher and Suzy Wrack as they discuss the FA Cup, the Afcon final and the WSL
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; in a weekend of close-run FA Cup games, Boreham Wood provided the upset that Kidderminster Harriers and Plymouth Argyle came so close to delivering. There were also a pair a big scalps for Championship sides as Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest beat Manchester United and Leicester City respectively.
Continue reading...February 6, 2022
Mané scores decisive penalty as Senegal beat Egypt to win Africa Cup of Nations
It was a dreadful final to end a largely dreadful tournament but in the end it came down to a moment of the purest drama and the great redemption of Sadio Mané. He had missed a penalty in normal time. Senegal had wasted chance after chance. They had twice lost in finals before. Egypt are the kings of penalties. They had won their last six shootouts and had played for penalties from the off. But Mané, unexpectedly, was left with a penalty to win it.
It was not just that Abou Gabal had saved his earlier penalty, apparently after Mohamed Salah, Mané’s Liverpool teammate, had told him which way to dive. Mané had also missed against Kenya and Uganda in 2019 and, more consequently, the decisive kick in the quarter-final shootout against Cameroon in the quarter-final in 2017. And Abou Gabal had already saved five penalties in the tournament.
Continue reading...February 5, 2022
Querulous Queiroz and his histrionic Egypt have the smarts to outwit Senegal | Jonathan Wilson
Billing Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final as a clash of Salah and Mané misses the wider point in a shambolic tournament
Mohamed Salah against Sadio Mané, two great Liverpool forwards going head-to-head in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations final. It’s the headline clash of Egypt against Senegal, the meeting of the most successful side in African history and a team that has never lifted the trophy. But to focus on them would be misleading: although both have had an influence late in games, neither Senegal nor Egypt could be said to be teams based around their attacking talent.
There is an unavoidable sense that even to focus on the football is itself uncomfortable, given the tragic events of a fortnight ago when eight fans were trampled to death outside Stade Olembé, where the final will be staged. The quarter-final at the venue was moved, but after a review it was decided Thursday’s semi-final should be played there.
Continue reading...February 2, 2022
Sadio Mané seals Senegal’s passage to Afcon final as Burkina Faso blown away
For a long time it wasn’t pretty, but with this Senegal side it rarely is. Not that they will mind. Senegal are the great underachievers of the Africa Cup of Nations and if they beat Cameroon or Egypt on Sunday to lift the trophy for the first time, nobody will much care how they did it. Aliou Cissé’s job is not to entertain but to win.
This was a game that followed the classic Cissé pattern: rugged solidity to start, gradually squeezing the opponent into mistakes before late strikes: eight of the nine goals Senegal have scored in Cameroon have come after the hour. The breakthrough here came on 70 minutes, a corner dropping in the box for the Paris Saint‑Germain centre-back Abdou Diallo to hook in. The second was knocked in by Idrissa Gueye after Sadio Mané had outmuscled Issa Kaboré before cutting the ball back. Mané then got the decisive third with a deft finish on the break.
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