Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 75

Manchester United rout had been coming: nobody has a clue what they are doing | Jonathan Wilson

Press, discipline and fluency were woefully lacking against Liverpool, with inadequacies of Solskjær and Ronaldo exposed

What have Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Alan Partridge got in common?

Both need help constructing a press.

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Back to the future for Liverpool as control gives way to constant clatter | Jonathan Wilson

Is the tactical wheel turning for Jürgen Klopp, the manager whose guided chaos changed the modern game?

‘Something,” Jürgen Klopp said in February 2019 after Liverpool had drawn 0-0 at home against Bayern, “changed in the world of football – everyone adapted to it and we have to make sure we adapt.”

He was talking about a new-found willingness from top teams to defend. In as far as it has been possible to trace anything in the vastly changed environment of Covid-19, he was probably right – and yet watching Liverpool beat Atlético Madrid 3-2 on Tuesday, nobody could have believed football has entered a new age of attrition. And in that, perhaps, lies one of the two doubts that lurk behind Liverpool’s broadly excellent start to the season.

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New era but same old Newcastle and Solskjær in the spotlight – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Nick Ames and Louise Taylor to discuss 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.

On the podcast today: Newcastle’s first game under new owners ends in defeat.

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Rafa Benítez’s efficient Everton may not be entertainers – but they are working | Jonathan Wilson

Everton manager’s rice-and-vegetables approach is not to all tastes but who better to lead the club to the game’s high table?

What we want and what we need are often very different things. You get home weary in the evening and look around the kitchen. You probably could knock something reasonably tasty together from the vegetables and the brown rice, but you feel the urge of the delivery. Perhaps you go for the familiar pizza, the comfortingly big easy flavours. There’s the greasy satisfaction of feeling full, but in the morning you feel bloated – and then a glimpse at the receipt provokes another wave of regret.

Or maybe you try the fashionable new German or Swiss place everybody’s raving about. It arrives and you don’t really get it. You pretend you’re sophisticated enough to appreciate it, but you don’t enjoy it and it doesn’t fill you up. You’ve wasted your money.

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Solskjær cannot continue to survive on goodwill and fond memories | Jonathan Wilson

Not for the first time this season, Manchester United’s tactical shortcomings were ruthlessly exposed by Leicester

It was an afternoon to stir the soul, a thrilling game of three outstanding goals and a Leicester performance that suggested their injury problems may be behind them and their season may be about to begin.

Even in the context of recent successes, this was a game that will take an exalted place in the collective memory of the King Power. But beyond that excitement, this was another glum day for Manchester United and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. How long can this drift be allowed to go on? How long can nostalgia insulate against the recognition of mediocrity? How long can the same problems be allowed to keep recurring?

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England fail to ignite at Wembley and Scotland leave it late – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan after England’s 1-1 draw with Hungary at Wembley

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

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Jordan Jarrett-Bryan after England’s 1-1 draw with Hungary at Wembley

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Louis van Gaal may be rude and stubborn but his vision should be celebrated | Jonathan Wilson

Look past the Netherlands coach’s truculence and you see someone of integrity who cares for football and how it’s played

The 70-year-old walks over to the 24-year-old and peers at what he is watching. His hands flick out in a shrug of incomprehension. “Are these cars racing now?” he asks, bewildered. “Do you really enjoy watching this? I don’t like it. It’s just, ‘Mieeeeuv, Mieeeuuv’ [the sound is majestically Dutch] all the time.” And so Frenkie de Jong’s love of Formula One is dismissed.

The 70-year-old shakes hands with the 20-year-old. “I’m vaccinated. You?” “Yeah, me too,” Jurriën Timber replies. “Thank goodness. Not a wappie.” Wappie is a Dutch word roughly equivalent to “nutjob” that tends to be used for conspiracy theorists.

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Newcastle fans speak of suffering but what about actual suffering in Saudi Arabia? | Jonathan Wilson

Supporters sang about getting their club back but it is hard to imagine a way it could be more profoundly taken away

There used to be a sport over there.

Football has never been pure. There have always been the rich looking to improve their reputations by investing in clubs. Even in its amateur days, football was rotten, amateurism itself by the end a carapace to try to stop the working classes taking over the game.

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Magnificent Mo Salah and Manchester United stumble again – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Troy Townsend to review 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.

On the podcast today: Liverpool and Manchester City draw 2-2 in the best game of the Premier League season so far with Mohamed Salah, Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva all sensational.

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Matt Targett gets his aim wrong to hand Spurs nervy win over Aston Villa

For Tottenham, the rot has stopped and that for now is perhaps the most important thing. After three successive league defeats, culminating in the embarrassment at Arsenal, any win is a good win – this one delivered when Villa’s Matt Targett turned the ball into his own net under pressure from Lucas Moura. But the result aside this was an uneven performance in a game that lacked quality before half-time, the occasional poverty of the football highlighted by the grandeur of the stage.

There were flickerings of promise, especially in the second half. Oliver Skipp continues to grow into a role at the back of midfield. Son Heung-min looks as lively as ever and played a key role in both goals. “The only difference between the two teams today,” said Dean Smith, “was Son.”

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