Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 87

Derby defeat exposes old weaknesses in Guardiola's Manchester City | Jonathan Wilson

Despite City’s 21-match winning streak, Manchester United were able to rattle their neighbours with balls in behind them

It is one defeat. It does not change the fundamental fact that Manchester City will win the league and look probably as well-positioned to win a quadruple as any side has at this stage of a season. There comes a point at which the precise number of wins in a row is irrelevant – the run ended at 21, but whether it had been 18 or 24, it would be a lot, far too many for most sides even to begin to contemplate. They remain a formidable team but they no longer appear invincible.

That happens. All teams have games when the breaks don’t quite go their way – although United were deserved winners on Sunday. All sides have bad days. After three months of good days, perhaps City were simply due one. But still, the manner of United’s victory at the Etihad will cause concern. We’ve seen this before: City rattled by a concession, vulnerable to balls in behind them, looking at a wall that opposes them with no real concept of where the door may be. When Pep Guardiola teams lose games, this is how they lose them.

Related: Manchester United 'suffered' to end City's winning run, says Solskjær

Related: Enduring Luke Shaw plays his own game to eclipse Cancelo

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Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are costly albatrosses weighing their clubs down | Jonathan Wilson

Willingness to believe in the cult of the winner is worsening the plight of Barcelona and Juventus

On Tuesday, Juventus might overcome a 2-1 deficit against Porto in the Champions League. On Wednesday, Barcelona almost certainly won’t come back from 4-1 down to beat Paris Saint-Germain. Both clubs were comprehensively outplayed in the first legs, both are burdened by an ageing and expensive superstar, both have found the cracks in their financial planning exposed by the pandemic. At some point the narratives of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will decouple, but not now, not yet.

Football deals badly with mortality. It can be brutal in dealing with those with whom it has finished. Bill Shankly couldn’t even tell Ian St John to his face when, after eight years, the time came to drop him. After 11 golden years, Nobby Stiles wasn’t given a testimonial by Manchester United. West Ham reneged on a deal to let Bobby Moore leave on a free transfer. As the former Coventry and Derby manager Harry Storer once told Brian Clough, in football “nobody ever says thank you”.

Related: The season when Genoa nearly took over European football

In 2009-10, Messi averaged 2.1 tackles and interceptions per league game; this season he's on 0.7. Ronaldo's on 0.4

Related: Police arrest Josep Maria Bartomeu after raid on Barcelona's Camp Nou

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Ian St John was key to Liverpool's emergence as a football superpower | Jonathan Wilson

The forward’s signing by Bill Shankly in 1961 proved money well spent and he became a gifted broadcaster after his playing days

Ian St John was a gifted broadcaster. He was the perfect straight man for Jimmy Greaves: he clearly found him hilarious and his chuckle was infectious. It seems almost incredible that Saint and Greavsie ran only between 1985 and 1992; to those of us of a certain age, it seemed eternal, ITV’s light-hearted sibling to the BBC’s more earnest Football Focus. But the oddity of those sportsmen who have successful second careers is that what made them famous in the first place is often obscured.

Say Ian St John today and, for most who know the name, the picture that will come to mind is of a clubbable grey-haired man in a sports jacket, but it shouldn’t be forgotten either what a good player he was or how important in the emergence of Liverpool as a superpower of English football.

Related: Ian St John, Liverpool forward and TV personality, dies aged 82

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Gareth Bale is back, Arsenal impress and Glenn Roeder tributes – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jordan Jarrett-Bryan and Jonathan Wilson 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 .

An occasionally challenging weekend for Premier League fans focuses on Arsenal’s fine victory over injury-depleted Leicester. Meanwhile, Gareth Bale is back, bagging two goals for a much-improved Tottenham against Burnley.

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Pep Guardiola and City have eased back to take a huge leap forward | Jonathan Wilson

Manchester City have changed the way they press and, though West Ham did offer some hope to the chasing pack, a quadruple suddenly looks possible

It is a measure of how well West Ham played at Manchester City that for a time it felt like a contest. City won in the end – of course they did – to take their run of successive victories to 20, but there were perhaps 10 minutes before half-time when they were unsettled. But by the end, the only question was how this run can ever be stopped: City at the moment feel relentless.

The Premier League title is as good as done, they’re 2-0 up after the away leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, they’re in the quarter-final of the FA Cup and the final of the Carabao Cup: a quadruple suddenly looks distinctly possible. And it is sudden: it is only 74 days since City drew at home against West Brom, a game they had kicked off while ninth in the table. The suggestion then was that this might be the weakest side Pep Guardiola has ever managed.

Related: Stones strikes against West Ham as Manchester City make it 20 in a row

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Will the dotage of Roy Hodgson, English football’s tourist, be haunted by regret? | Jonathan Wilson

Crystal Palace’s manager has enjoyed extraordinary longevity – but if these are the final months of an impressive coaching career, how should he be remembered?

The whole dynamic of the game was Brighton attacking. Everything was about whether they could find the goal they so clearly deserved. When Christian Benteke then volleyed a winner for Crystal Palace, it felt so implausible it was impossible not to pause. It didn’t feel right: was that allowed? Had the whistle already gone? On the touchline, a huge grin broke across Roy Hodgson’s face, he gave a little skip, and he turned instinctively to hug Ray Lewington.

These are the best wins, particularly in a derby: stolen against all odds, against all justice. Analysis and fretting about midfield shape can wait: first you just have to enjoy the euphoric implausibility of it all. “It’s a wonderful feeling,” Hodgson beamed afterwards, and you could see that it was. He may be 73, he may have been coaching for 44 years, but he still feels an ignition of glee at a moment of the most preposterous larceny.

Related: Roy Hodgson warns Crystal Palace fans about the dangers of overambition

Related: Christian Benteke volleys Crystal Palace to smash-and-grab victory at Brighton

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Good news for Ozan Kabak: it cannot get much worse than this | Jonathan Wilson

Liverpool’s new centre-back has had a difficult start at Anfield and struggled again in the Merseyside derby

Poor Ozan Kabak. He is only 20, but he has already become a player to whom bad things happen. Most of his career has been spent in failing sides, but that can happen to a young player on the rise. In that context, a Merseyside derby was an opportunity to really make his mark. Three minutes in, it had already begun to go wrong.

The wind made it difficult. His initial clearing header did not get much distance, but that was understandable in the conditions. The problem was then his apparent lack of awareness as Richarlison got behind him. The defender’s body shape meant there was no chance for him to get back as James Rodríguez slipped the ball through for Richarlison to score. Five minutes later, Kabak misjudged a long pass in the wind and Richarlison nearly got in behind him again. That would be a recurring pattern.

Related: Hudson-Odoi feels full force of Tuchel wrath in Chelsea's draw at Southampton

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Juventus beware: Milan derby finally signals the end of one-club Serie A | Jonathan Wilson

It is is a sign of how bad things have got that the clash of Italy’s title-race frontrunners is greeted with relief and celebration

Across Europe a spirit of competitiveness has broken out. Not in England, perhaps, where Manchester City’s excellence looks sure to win out. Nor in Germany, where Bayern Munich remain inviolable. But elsewhere revolution is in the air. Paris Saint-Germain are not top in France, neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona are top in Spain and Juventus are not top in Italy. The elite are being challenged in a way they have not been for almost a decade.

The temptation is to blame the pandemic for this spirit of revolution, to see Covid as the explanation for everything. It is true that the unusual conditions of this season have added an unforeseeable element of randomness, disrupting the usual patterns and forcing clubs and coaches to improvise on the fly. But still, the suspicion must be that Serie A in particular was drifting towards a shake-up even before everything changed last March.

Related: Milan v Inter: the five best goals from the derby this century

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Mbappé's brilliance shows Barcelona chose the wrong French wonderkid | Jonathan Wilson

Barça got Dembélé days after PSG signed forward whose three goals, allied to Pochettino’s tactics, secured Camp Nou triumph

Presnel Kimpembe slipped. Twenty-nine minutes had been played at the Camp Nou. Two minutes earlier Lionel Messi had put Barcelona ahead. Now, as the Paris Saint-Germain defence lurched open, he advanced a couple of steps and nudged the ball left to Ousmane Dembélé. He was 18 yards out with a clear shot in goal. The opportunity was on his stronger right foot. Destiny took a deep breath and considered its options.

Imagine if Dembélé had scored: Barcelona 2-0 up with Messi rampant. PSG, on the site of their bitterest trauma, in disarray. PSG, without Neymar – who remains, for better or worse, their leader. PSG, having suffered an unthinkable five defeats in Ligue 1 this season so they’re not even top of the table. Perhaps they would still have come back, but 2-0 in those circumstances would have felt like more than double 1-0.

Related: Kylian Mbappé's brilliant hat-trick for PSG leaves Barcelona in tatters

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Are Leicester City Premier League title contenders? – Football Weekly

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Anne-Marie Batson and Jonathan Wilson to discuss the latest round of Premier League fixtures including a 3-1 win for Leicester City over Liverpool that Jürgen Klopp admitted ended his side’s title hopes

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, Anne-Marie Batson and Jonathan Wilson to discuss the latest round of Premier League fixtures including a 3-1 win for Leicester City over Liverpool that Jürgen Klopp admitted ended his side’s title hopes.

Continue reading...