Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 82
June 13, 2021
Southgate’s England gain revenge on tired Croatia – Euro 2020 Football Daily
Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Paul Macinnes and Barney Ronay to discuss England’s opening game win in the Euros.
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When Raheem Sterling scores, England win. Kalvin Phillips and Tyrone Mings justified Gareth Southgate’s selections with excellent performances that quietened – a bit – the clamour for Jack Grealish to be unleashed. Barney Ronay was at the game, and we ask Jonathan Wilson if there was anything about England’s performance which couldn’t be attributed to the genius of Marcelo Bielsa.
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Denmark’s Christian Eriksen stabilised in hospital after collapse
Midfielder, 29, required urgent CPR on the pitch during match against Finland but is now stable
Danish international footballer Christian Eriksen was given chest compressions by medics during the Euro 2020 clash against Finland in Copenhagen on Saturday.
Eriksen, 29, collapsed face first into the pitch while running to collect a throw-in with no other player near him. His teammates and Finnish players nearby quickly signalled to English referee Anthony Taylor that Eriksen, a former Tottenham Hotspur favourite, needed urgent medical attention.
Related: Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand: ‘I can’t praise my players enough’
Simon Kjær was widely praised for his role in the immediate aftermath of Christian Eriksen’s collapse. The Denmark captain was seen securing Eriksen’s airway, guiding teammates to shield him from cameras, and consoling Eriksen’s partner, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, who stepped on to the pitchside as treatment was ongoing.
Related: Christian Eriksen ‘stabilised’ in hospital after collapsing in Euro 2020 match
Continue reading...June 12, 2021
Ukraine’s shirt maps out the message that Euro 2020 is about more than football | Jonathan Wilson
The draw makes meeting Russia unlikely, but Andriy Shevchenko’s united squad have a clear sense of purpose reflected in the political symbol on their bright yellow kit
Law four of Fifa’s 2020-21 Laws of the Game is explicit: “Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images.” It seems straightforward enough. Nothing political.
But of course, everything is political. A minute’s silence is political. Taking the knee is political – although not in the sense it heralds the Marxist apocalypse, as some of the more ludicrous pundits and spokespeople have suggested – and so is not taking the knee. Wearing a poppy is political, and so is not wearing a poppy. That’s especially so when national teams are involved, because nations are political. Every choice of image made by the representative of a nation is necessarily is political, even if that politicisation lies only in avoiding the more overtly political: flags, badges and kits.
Related: Euro 2020 team guides part 12: Ukraine
Related: Ukraine crisis: an essential guide to everything that's happened so far
Continue reading...Denmark coach Kasper Hjulmand: ‘I can’t praise my players enough’
The Denmark coach, Kasper Hjulmand, paid tribute to his players after they completed their Euro 2020 group match against Finland despite witnessing Christian Eriksen being given CPR on the pitch shortly before half-time.
The players formed a protective circle around their teammate as he was resuscitated, but then, after a suspension of more than an hour and half, agreed to complete the match, once word had come through that Eriksen was awake and talking in hospital.
Related: Christian Eriksen collapsed and the stadium fell silent in horror
Simon Kjær was widely praised for his role in the immediate aftermath of Christian Eriksen’s collapse. The Denmark captain was seen securing Eriksen’s airway, guiding teammates to shield him from cameras, and consoling Eriksen’s partner, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, who stepped on to the pitchside as treatment was ongoing.
Related: Finland’s win against Denmark overshadowed by Eriksen collapse
Continue reading...Finland’s win against Denmark overshadowed by Eriksen collapse
It was a game that felt simultaneously extraordinarily trivial and hugely significant. When Christian Eriksen collapsed four minutes before half-time, needing CPR on the pitch, it seemed inconceivable – unthinkable – that it could continue. As he lay, limp, surrounded by protective and clearly distressed teammates, there seemed a possibility the tournament might be cancelled.
And yet, an hour and 45 minutes later, they were back. The sight of Mathias Jensen coming on for Eriksen was hugely poignant, a mundane act lent profundity by context. The assumption, even as news came through that Eriksen was awake in hospital, was that this game at least would have to be postponed. Yet the players and coaches, after being consulted in the dressing room, agreed to play on.
Related: Denmark 0-1 Finland: Christian Eriksen awake after collapse – reaction!
Continue reading...Christian Eriksen collapsed and the stadium fell silent in horror
The events brought to mind Fabrice Muamba and Marc-Vivien Foé, but with Eriksen in hospital, Denmark v Finland restarted
There was something in the banality of the scene that made it especially horrifying. A late afternoon sun shone on the pitch at Parken, where the stands were as full as they can be given Covid restrictions: the majority from Denmark in their red and white, but also behind one goal 3,000 from Finland in white and blue. But the game had stopped. The ground was silent. The match officials stood on one touchline with the managers, and in one corner of the field, Danish players gathered round medics, providing a shield as they attempted to resuscitate Christian Eriksen.
When, after around 10 minutes, the game was formally suspended, there was reason to fear the worst, but a little under an hour after the former Tottenham midfielder collapsed, Uefa released a statement explaining that he had “been transferred to the hospital and has been stabilised.” That is the Rigshospitalet, which stands on the opposite corner of the park to the stadium, just five minutes’ drive away.
Related: Denmark v Finland resumes with Christian Eriksen awake after collapse – updates
Simon Kjær was widely praised for his role in the immediate aftermath of Christian Eriksen’s collapse. The Denmark captain was seen securing Eriksen’s airway, guiding teammates to shield him from cameras, and consoling Eriksen’s partner, Sabrina Kvist Jensen, who stepped on to the pitchside as treatment was ongoing.
Continue reading...June 9, 2021
Attacking rarely wins international prizes now so what will Southgate do?
Functional football has broadly brought success since Spain’s more proactive European Championship triumph of 2012
International football is different. It’s not like club football. It has gone from being the highest form of the game – the stage on which the average level of the players was greatest – to lagging behind the club game, to being barely the same sport. Elite club sides now are sourced from the very best available parts and fine-tuned over weeks and months of training. National managers have neither the luxury of signings nor time, and so the priorities are different.
The best club sides over the past decade – the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, the Bayern Munich of Jupp Heynckes, Guardiola and Hansi Flick, Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool and Guardiola’s Manchester City – have been aggressive and fluent. They have operated with a high press and played largely on the front foot, prioritising the cohesion of the unit. As Real Madrid keep proving, it is still possible to succeed by – and this is an oversimplification – having brilliant individuals doing brilliant things at key moments, but their comparative lack of league success suggests the unreliability of the approach over a sustained period.
Related: Harry Kane and the beer garden that made England his No 1 priority
Continue reading...June 7, 2021
Southgate selections, booing and Euro 2020 ones to watch – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Jacob Steinberg and Jonathan Fadugba to discuss England, Wales and Scotland’s final friendlies before the Euros, booing of the taking the knee and the National League play-offs
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email .
The panel discuss England’s final international friendly ahead of the Euros as well as Scotland beating Luxembourg and Wales drawing with Albania. The panel also discuss the booing of the taking of the knee and what should be done about it, if anything.
Continue reading...June 6, 2021
Joachim Löw’s flawed planning leaves talented Germany at the crossroads | Jonathan Wilson
That four of the squad have not played a minute for the coach in three years suggests how badly wrong his planning has gone for his final bow
At least now there is no future to work towards. After 15 years as Germany manager, Euro 2020 will be Joachim Löw’s seventh and last major tournament. There is no need for him to have an eye on the next cycle: his only job is to get the best result possible in the here and now – and to rescue a reputation that took a battering in Russia.
Löw is a World Cup winner who helped to oversee the great stylistic transformation of German football and for that, he deserves enormous credit. But he also led Germany to their worst World Cup in more than eight decades and, given the extraordinary quality of players available, it is hard to avoid the sense that he has underachieved in recent years. These Euros will help determine his immediate legacy, but he occupies a curiously ambiguous place in football history.
Related: England are not in shape to throw caution to the wind at Euro 2020 | Jacob Steinberg
Continue reading...June 5, 2021
Euro 2020 draw puts England’s high hopes of a festival of relief falling flat | Jonathan Wilson
A talented squad’s involvement could end before a euphoric momentum to match 1996 and 2018 has a chance to build
International tournaments are only tangentially about the football – which is probably just as well given how unsophisticated it often is beside the very best of the club game, how sluggish it can appear. They are about the stories and the mood, about the scandal and the drama and, most of all, the sense of shared experience.
Russia 2018 was a very good World Cup and an enjoyable tournament to cover, but watching England’s victory over Colombia alone in a drab flat in Samara, surrounded by another journalist’s drying laundry, and seeing the scenes of jubilation from back home, there was a distinct sense of being bypassed by something significant. As the Irish columnist Con Houlihan observed of Italia 90: “I missed it … I was in Italy at the time.”
Related: Jack Grealish ready to ‘take the kicks’ to help England to Euro 2020 win
Related: Euro 2020: your complete guide to all 622 players
Continue reading...Jonathan Wilson's Blog
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