Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 77
September 4, 2021
Rise of the petro-giants: PSG, Manchester City and Chelsea eclipse old guard | Jonathan Wilson
The travails of the traditional European elite as new money dominated the transfer window suggest things have changed
In times of crisis, the winners are usually the rich. As clubs across Europe continue to struggle against the financial impact of the pandemic, the lesson of this transfer window is that the powerful are mopping up. Or at least they are if they are well-run, which rules out the two Spanish giants and several clubs in Italy.
The transfers of the two players who have defined football for a generation understandably generated great excitement, with fans camping out at the airport in Paris to welcome Lionel Messi and queuing round the block to buy a shirt with his name on the back while Manchester United’s share price rose by almost 10% on the news of Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing before falling back slightly. That will excite executives and seem to vindicate the outlay, although whether those upticks are sustainable enough to pay both players’ vast wages is less certain.
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September 3, 2021
Ugly scenes in Budapest and Ronaldo denies Ireland – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Anita Abayomi and Jim Burke to discuss the latest World Cup qualifiers
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email .
We begin with England’s 4-0 win in Hungary, as Gareth Southgate’s side tightened their grip on World Cup qualification. We also discuss the depressing crowd trouble in Budapest, with monkey chants directed at England players and objects thrown at both players and staff.
Continue reading...September 2, 2021
Jack Grealish does enough in efficient England display without fireworks | Jonathan Wilson
Questions remain about how well he uses his ability but £100m Manchester City signing played his part in comfortable victory
Messiahs in football tend to exist more in the mind than on the pitch. The clamour for Jack Grealish to start for England may have been answered but the pattern of the game was very familiar; he did not elevate them inexplicably to something transcendent. This was classic England under Gareth Southgate, holding an opponent at arm’s length before finally opening them up. Thrilling it was not, but it was effective.
Grealish was instrumental in the opening goal, surging down the left after Declan Rice had won possession, before releasing the overlapping Mason Mount to cross for Raheem Sterling to cuff into the bottom corner.
Continue reading...Edward Shires: typewriter seller who helped make Hungary a football giant
Englishman paved the way from Budapest for Jimmy Hogan’s transformative impact on football in Hungary and far beyond
When Hungary won 6-3 at Wembley in 1953 and so dispelled the lingering myth of English footballing superiority, their guest of honour was Jimmy Hogan, a former Burnley player who nearly became a priest but instead became the most influential coach in the history of the game. “We played football as Jimmy Hogan taught us,” said Gusztav Sebes, the coach of that great Hungary side. “When our football history is told, his name should be written in golden letters.”
But a vital part of that history is how Hogan got to Hungary in the first place, and the key figure in that story is another Englishman, Edward Shires, a typewriter salesman from Bollington near Macclesfield whose family story reads like an epic of 20th-century history.
Continue reading...August 30, 2021
Tottenham top the table as Arsenal hit rock bottom – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Ed Aarons after another weekend of Premier League action
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 Ed Aarons after another weekend of Premier League action.
Continue reading...August 29, 2021
Tactical corkscrew turns as Tuchel’s Chelsea keep Liverpool at bay | Jonathan Wilson
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea team can keep dangerous opponents at arm’s length, an unusual asset in the modern era
Step back from football and amid various ups and downs, backs and forths, check-backs and dead-ends, the first 100 years of its development after the modern laws were first drawn up in 1863 can be seen as comprising roughly linear development. We started with seven forwards and one defender and we slowly moved players back until we had four defenders and two forwards. We went from a chaotic charging game, through man-marking to zonal marking. By the mid-1960s, football was mature.
The changes since have been incremental. There is far less sense of forward momentum. A style of play or shape becomes modish and enjoys success, and then a system arises to combat it. At elite level in particular, tactical development can seem cyclical, although our knowledge of what has gone before means there is still forward momentum: football’s tactical evolution is perhaps best imagined as resembling a corkscrew – although one subject to the whims of geniuses and to technological advances in boots, balls, pitches, nutrition, physical training and, perhaps most pertinently today, data analysis.
Related: Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel criticises referee over Reece James red card
Related: Chelsea show resilience to survive Anfield’s medieval battle scenes | Jonathan Liew
Continue reading...Tactical corkscrew turns as Tuchel’s Chelsea keep Liverpool at bay
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea team can keep dangerous opponents at arm’s length, an unusual asset in the modern era
Step back from football and amid various ups and downs, backs and forths, check-backs and dead-ends, the first 100 years of its development after the modern laws were first drawn up in 1863 can be seen as comprising roughly linear development. We started with seven forwards and one defender and we slowly moved players back until we had four defenders and two forwards. We went from a chaotic charging game, through man-marking to zonal marking. By the mid-60s, football was mature.
The changes since have been incremental. There is far less sense of forward momentum. A style of play or shape becomes modish and enjoys success, and then a system arises to combat it. At elite level in particular, tactical development can seem cyclical, although our knowledge of what has gone before means there is still forward momentum: football’s tactical evolution is perhaps best imagined as resembling a corkscrew – although one subject to the whims of geniuses and to technological advances in boots, balls, pitches, nutrition, physical training and, perhaps most pertinently today, data analysis.
Related: Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel criticises referee over Reece James red card
Related: Chelsea show resilience to survive Anfield’s medieval battle scenes | Jonathan Liew
Continue reading...Ole Gunnar Solskjær has a title-winning squad – the time for excuses is over | Jonathan Wilson
This season will be a test of whether he is up to the United job, but the draw at Southampton exposed the same old failings
All teams have off days. No side, no matter how great or how much money has been spent on it, plays to its maximum every week. A draw at Southampton is no disaster, but what must concern Manchester United was the manner of the points dropped last Sunday. It all felt very familiar.
They should beat Wolves on Sunday afternoon. United have better players and that is often enough. But already there is doubt and pressure: champions rarely drop more than 20 points over a season these days and already United have squandered one-tenth of that. Drop more at Molineux and the thought of a realistic title bid would seem fanciful.
Related: Cristiano Ronaldo held Juventus back: just what do Manchester United see in him? | Jonathan Wilson
Related: McTominay to miss Manchester United and Scotland games after groin surgery
Related: Ronaldo returns to Manchester United: how the deal was done
Related: Champions League 2021-22 draw: group stage analysis and predictions
Continue reading...August 28, 2021
Cristiano Ronaldo held Juventus back: just what do Manchester United see in him? | Jonathan Wilson
Returning superstar will certainly score goals, but his chief use to Old Trafford will be that most modern of roles: a celebrity content provider
Welcome to Unitedland! With an array of nostalgic installations and familiar faces, there’s something for everyone to enjoy! Gawp at the scorer of the winning goal from the 1999 Champions League in his very own technical area! Gaze on the goalscorer from the 2008 Champions League final grazing just outside the penalty area! Even the roof has that retro feel! Season tickets start at just £532.
There was a time when clubs found jobs for former players gladhanding in corporate hospitality. Manchester United have gone much further. With Ole Gunnar Solskjær installed as manager and Cristiano Ronaldo up front, you wonder which other former greats can be brought back to the Old Trafford theme park. Martin Edwards in the boardroom? Gary Bailey back in nets? The toothpick-chewing ghost of Billy Meredith on the wing? A labyrinthodon who once roamed Newton Heath let loose on the shabby concourse?
Related: Ronaldo returns to Manchester United: how the deal was done
Related: ‘Welcome back’: Manchester United agree €20m deal for Cristiano Ronaldo
Continue reading...August 26, 2021
Champions League 2021-22 draw: group stage analysis and predictions
Manchester City are in the toughest group, United’s is tricky and all the teams in Liverpool’s have reached the final
Group A is by by some distance the toughest, featuring the defeated finalist of the past two seasons, plus RB Leipzig, who reached the semi-final two seasons ago. There will be a repeat of last season’s semi-final, in which Manchester City comfortably overcame Paris Saint-Germain in a battle of two mega-rich petro-clubs. City’s problem tends to come later in the competition as Pep Guardiola overthinks a major tie, but for once progress will not be straightforward against a PSG now bolstered by Lionel Messi and, perhaps more consequentially, Achraf Hakimi, Sergio Ramos and Gini Wijnaldum. Leipzig may not quite be so strong this season, in transition after Jesse Marsch replaced Julian Nagelsmann as coach, while Dayot Upamecano and Ibrahmim Konaté have left. Club Brugge have never made it through the group stage.
Related: Champions League: Manchester City draw PSG, Liverpool land in tough group
Related: Pep Guardiola has built City’s legacy but both still want the Champions League | Will Unwin
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