Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 74

It is absurd to dismiss Eddie Howe but he faces a tough task at Newcastle | Jonathan Wilson

Manager’s Bournemouth stint raises questions about whether he can tighten defence and getting players’ buy-in will be tricky

And after all that, it turned out it was Eddie Howe all along. When the Saudis took over Newcastle United on 7 October, Howe was immediately mooted as a realistic short-term appointment. He is young, likable, plays attacking football and has recent experience in the Premier League. Perhaps he wouldn’t be the ultimate long-term choice, the manager to take Newcastle to Champions League glory, but then perhaps he would. He is only 43, and there was plenty of promise in his time at Bournemouth. He would, at the very least, have been a viable short-term solution.

And Howe may yet thrive. It’s absurd to dismiss him, as some have, as the man who took Bournemouth down. He was also the man who took the south-coast club from the fourth tier into the Premier League and kept them there for five years despite a limited budget, while playing football generally considered attractive.

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West Ham burst Liverpool’s bubble, plus Smith and Farke out – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Troy Townsend after a busy weekend on and off the pitch.

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On the podcast today we ask: has David Moyes turned West Ham into genuine top four contenders? The Hammers are third after their 3-2 win over Liverpool at the London Stadium. Meanwhile his former club Manchester United were humiliated once again, this time by local rivals Manchester City.

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West Ham display the virtues of manager Moyes to shock Liverpool | Jonathan Wilson

West Ham are well organised, resilient and incisive, and even the London Stadium now feels like a football ground

As Pablo Fornals ran on to Jarrod Bowen’s through-ball midway through the second half, the London Stadium fell into one of those pregnant silences that were probably the greatest loss of the time without fans. Over the course of what can only have been two or three seconds but felt far longer, you could almost hear the thought processes. First, was he going to get his shot in? Yes. Then, was he set to measure his finish? He was. Then, was his shot going to beat Alisson? It did, just about, carrying on into the net despite a hefty touch by the keeper.

Is the London Stadium still disliked by West Ham fans? Perhaps it is. It is not, and never will be Upton Park, and there remains something deeply odd about having to edge past the Sunday afternoon shoppers in Westfield to get to a Premier League game. But in that moment, as anticipation became realisation became delight, the London Stadium felt like a football ground.

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Manchester United have regressed and derby defeat was painfully predictable | Jonathan Wilson

Key players are out of form or on the bench and Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s tactical setup feels more hopeful than thought out

Football is a game that only occasionally follows the script. Before every big game everybody prognosticates, looks at the form and the history, considers the tactical match-ups and tries to read the way the historical wind is blowing. Even when the predictions are largely right in terms of the pattern of the game, the score doesn’t always follow. Which was what made Saturday’s one-sided Manchester derby so remarkable: it was utterly, dully predictable.

You didn’t have to be Paul Scholes, the toe-sucking seer of Salford, to see what was going to happen. Ole Gunnar Solskjær had United sit deep in the 3-5-2 shape that last week looked as though it might serve as a short-term fix, to keep crisis at bay for another couple of months. City, as they had against a far better-drilled Chelsea side attempting a similar approach, would pick their way between the bollards, dominate the game and win. The level of comfort would not quite be matched by the scoreline because of the visitors’ weird inability to take their chances in certain games. And, lo, it came to pass.

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Marcelo Bielsa’s first signs of Leeds fallibility is a test for fans’ devotion | Jonathan Wilson

Granted there is an injury crisis, but it has not been a great start and the beloved manager needs to steer between extremes

The problem with any discussion of Marcelo Bielsa is the tendency immediately to speak in grand broadbrush terms; everybody already knows what they think about him. It’s the curse of our age that positions so rapidly become entrenched, even when it comes to the ostensibly trivial issue of how football should be played.

Nobody can ever simply question the way Ole Gunnar Solskjær structures a midfield or his organisation of the press or ask whether the inclusion of Cristiano Ronaldo might have made those issues worse, without immediately being cast as anti-Ole or anti-Manchester United, revelling in every goal conceded.

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Grealish and Sancho could be thriving if each were at the other’s club | Jonathan Wilson

Evidence before Manchester derby suggests system-based City and structureless United signed the wrong player last summer

With Manchester City desperate for an equaliser against Crystal Palace last weekend, Jack Grealish was taken off. He was also taken off as City sought goals against Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool. Grealish has started nine of City’s 10 Premier League games since his move from Aston Villa and registered two assists – in the 5-0 win over Arsenal and the 4-1 win over Brighton – and one goal – in the 5-0 win over Norwich. It’s a crude measure and the season is only a quarter gone, but Grealish is yet to deliver game-turning moments in the biggest games or when the pressure is on.

But he is at least doing better than Jadon Sancho, who has started only three league games for Manchester United since he joined from Borussia Dortmund and completed none of them. He hasn’t scored and he hasn’t registered an assist. Worse than that, if the switch to a back three is more than a short-term fix, it’s very hard to see where he has any place in a side that have suddenly done away with wingers.

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Crystal Palace stun Manchester City and Nuno sacked mid-pod – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan to discuss Manchester City and Liverpool dropping points at home – before they react (mid-pod) to Tottenham’s sacking of Nuno Espírito Santo

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We begin at the Etihad, as Patrick Vieira’s Crystal Palace produced one of the shocks of the season so far to beat champions Manchester City by two goals. Why did we all underestimate the former Arsenal midfielder’s managerial credentials? And is this result a blip for Pep’s men, or maybe indicative of a wider issue?

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Spurs have one of the great stadiums and all it cost them was the team | Jonathan Wilson

Fans’ fury at Daniel Levy is understandable – the on-pitch stagnation is only highlighted by the luxury surroundings

There were always going to be boos from one end of the ground or the other and, as Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side pulled off another of those increasingly familiar job-saving victories, they came from Spurs fans. At half-time, at full time and, probably most significantly, when Lucas Moura was taken off for Steven Bergwijn. By the end there were chants against the chairman, Daniel Levy. Saturday’s defeat proved to be the last of Nuno Espírito Santo’s short reign as Spurs manager as Levy took decisive action.

Manchester United were more solid than they have been. There may be problems ahead if Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, Jadon Sancho and Paul Pogba have to go without regular football for a protracted spell, but for now the 3-4-1-2 has brought short-term relief. Solskjær at least has the fallback of good players who can do brilliant things – Nuno was not so fortunate.

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Using artificial intelligence to rule on handball is a tantalising possibility | Jonathan Wilson

Comparative judgment used in marking essays could improve decisions in football and help restore common sense

How should an essay be marked? You might think a teacher should simply read it and make a judgment based on the impression it makes: logically coherent, offers evidence to back up its case, reads well, is original – feels like an A. But that, obviously, is risky. It’s subjective. What stirs one assessor might not appeal to another.

So maybe there needs to be an agreed rubric. The essay must cover certain key points, achieve certain goals. But the danger then is that essays become box-ticking exercises, that a student could doggedly go through the checklist and achieve top marks despite making little sense: or a brilliant essay might omit one point and so be marked down.

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Liverpool demolish Manchester United. Plus banners and toes – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Barney Ronay to dissect Liverpool’s demolition of Manchester United at Old Trafford, and review the rest of the weekend’s Premier League action

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

We start with Liverpool’s brilliant 5-0 win at Old Trafford, as Mohamed Salah becomes the first opposition player to score a hat-trick at Old Trafford since Ronaldo (the original) in 2003. We ask why Ole Gunnar Solskjær is beyond scrutiny in some quarters, and why United’s pressing is so disastrous.

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