Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 91
November 28, 2020
José Mourinho back to his best now he is picking the pockets of the big clubs again | Jonathan Wilson
This season of two-a-week fixtures suits the Spurs manager’s attritional style and is why he seems to be enjoying himself
Ah, José, it’s good to have you back. It’s been too long since we saw this version of José Mourinho, and in that decade or so it had become increasingly hard to remember exactly what we ever saw in him. How had this sourpuss with the ideological aversion to possession ever charmed us? What on earth was it about this grouch who kept demanding “respect” and his almost unwatchable teams that had made his arrival in the Premier League in 2004 seem such a vital event in the history of football in England?
Related: José Mourinho is the right man to bring Tottenham the title, says Lucas Moura
Spurs have not won a trophy since 2008. You can be the Artful Dodger there so long as your marks are considerably richer
Related: Chelsea dig in to foil Manchester United in a game that felt out of time | Jonathan Wilson
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November 26, 2020
A tribute to Diego Maradona – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson, Philippe Auclair, Marcela Mora y Araujo and Asif Kapadia to celebrate the life of Diego Maradona, the footballing genius who died on Wednesday aged 60
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Diego Maradona went from poverty in Buenos Aires to lifting the World Cup at Mexico ‘86.
Continue reading...November 25, 2020
Champions League, yet more VAR and the return of fans – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Nicky Bandini and Jonathan Wilson to discuss Tuesday’s Champions League football
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Continue reading...Child genius Diego Maradona became the fulfilment of a prophecy | Jonathan Wilson
Blessed with sublime talent developed in the slums of Buenos Aires, cabecita negra went on to become everything that defined Argentina’s football principles
In the 1920s, as Argentina, a booming immigrant nation, sought a sense of identity, it became apparent that football was one of the few things that bound its disparate population together. No matter what your background, you wanted the team in the blue and white striped shirts to win – and that meant the way the national side played was of political and cultural significance.
The debate was played out in the pages of El Gráfico, and a consensus emerged that Argentinian football stood in opposition to the game of the British, the quasi-colonial power having largely departed by the beginning of the first world war. On the vast grassy playing fields of the British schools, football was about power and running and energy. The Argentinian, by contrast, learned the game in the potreros, the vacant lots of the slums, on small, hard, crowded pitches where there was no teacher to step in if it got a bit too rough; their game was about being streetwise, tight, technical ability – and cunning.
Related: Diego Maradona, one of the greatest footballers of all time, dies aged 60
Continue reading...November 22, 2020
Liverpool show they have resolve to retain title in season of trench warfare | Jonathan Wilson
This gritty win was as impressive in its own way as the 4-0 romp at the King Power that defined last season’s title charge
Retaining the title is hard, proverbially harder than winning it the first time – although that clearly to an extent depends on what you’re up against. But if Liverpool do become the 27th side in English league history successfully to defend their crown, they will have done so in conditions more different to the initial success than any of their predecessors. Quarter of the way through the season, their record unbeaten home run extended to 64 games, they are level on points with the leaders and, despite all their injuries, look by far the most likely winners.
Liverpool’s last game against Leicester was their signature performance of last season, a 4-0 win at the King Power Stadium on December 26 that was not just an emphatic dismissal of the team who, mathematically at least, were their closest title rivals at the time, but a distillation of everything that is best about the Jürgen Klopp style.
Related: Jota sparks record-breaking Liverpool's comfortable victory over Leicester
Related: Liverpool 3-0 Leicester City: Premier League – as it happened
Continue reading...November 21, 2020
No amount of Marcelo Bielsa’s genius can save Leeds from a bumpy ride | Jonathan Wilson
Just because his methods can elevate players to unanticipated heights does not mean his squad is not subject to strain
The temptation after a team, particularly a promoted team, has lost back-to-back games 4-1 is to suggest they need to go back to basics, rein in their exuberance and keep things tight. But Marcelo Bielsa will not do that. Leeds have lost three of their past four games and slipped down the table – albeit they went into the weekend with a four-point lead over the bottom five – but he has never compromised before and he is not about to start at home to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon.
That is Bielsa’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness. His style is high-risk and that means his sides are never entirely in control and that in turn renders his football, even more than most, open to multiple interpretations.
Related: Finding Jack Charlton review – touching portrait of a footballing hero
Leeds came up with the Championship's seventh-highest wage bill. There are restrictions no amount of genius can overcome
Continue reading...November 19, 2020
Pep Guardiola gets chance to build his second great Manchester City team | Jonathan Wilson
A contract extension gives the manager time to revamp, adapt to new challenges and address unfinished business
Manchester City’s longest-serving manager was a tactical innovator born far from England who pioneered the use of a withdrawn centre-forward. Pep Guardiola will still have a long way to go to match the 13 years the India-born Les McDowall, who won the 1956 FA Cup and devised the Revie plan, spent in charge of City but if he sees out his new contract he will have been there for seven, more than anybody else other than Wilf Wild, who saw the club through the second world war.
Seven years at any club represents a remarkable achievement in the modern game, particularly at one so historically prone to volatility as City and especially so for the 49-year-old Guardiola, whose intensity was supposed to restrict the time he could spend at any one place. That may yet become a problem but equally no club have ever been set up quite so precisely to meet the demands of a manager as City were for Guardiola.
Related: Pep Guardiola commits to Manchester City by signing new contract to 2023
Related: The Fiver | Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi and a gruelling episode of Taskmaster
Continue reading...November 14, 2020
Southgate’s pragmatic shaping of England is recipe for success at international level | Jonathan Wilson
Critics wanting a team built around a great creator ignore that successful national sides tend to play without risk
They’ll tell you football is a simple game, but it’s not, not really, not at the very highest level. It is still just about possible to win games by telling nine of your outfielders to stay behind the ball and whacking it long to the big bloke or the quick bloke up top, but not often and not consistently.
Top-level club football these days is about complex structures, about pressing at the right time and in the right disposition, about disrupting the internal dynamics of the opposition while keeping your own varied enough that they are hard to disrupt.
Related: Liverpool blow as Joe Gomez suffers knee injury in England training
Related: The great European Cup teams: Ajax 1971-73 | Jonathan Wilson
Given the disruption of this season, it has made sense for Southgate to attempt to instil solidity
Continue reading...November 9, 2020
Why is football so blind to the injuries caused by a remorseless schedule? | Jonathan Wilson
Steps could have been taken to soften the demands on players but greed has stretched exhausted muscles to breaking point
Just after the hour, Trent Alexander-Arnold, as he had done all game, chased back from inside the Manchester City half, tracking Raheem Sterling. The City attack broke down, and Liverpool went again to launch a counterattack. Sterling, trying to regain possession, fouled Joël Matip and earned a booking. Just behind him, Alexander-Arnold, surging forward again, pulled up and sank to the pitch, his calf gone.
Human bodies, even those of athletes, are fragile. Pulls and strains and tweaks happen. But in context, it was hard not to see Alexander-Arnold as the victim of the remorselessness of Covid football’s schedule.
Related: Klopp blasts Liverpool scheduling after Alexander-Arnold's injury at Man City
Continue reading...November 8, 2020
Torment and catharsis: Sunderland's David Corner and the 1985 League Cup
An error at Wembley in the 1985 final led to years of bullying. But a play about his life has enabled David Corner to share his experiences
The second half was a few seconds old. Dave Watson, the Norwich centre-back, pumped a long ball into the corner. There seemed little danger. The 18-year-old Sunderland centre-back David Corner tried to shepherd the ball out for a goal-kick but John Deehan nipped round him, kept the ball in play and cut it back to Mick Channon. He was tackled but the ball broke for Asa Hartford and his shot flicked off the chest of Gordon Chisholm, wrong-footing the goalkeeper, Chris Turner, and scuttling in at the near post. It was the only goal of the 1985 Milk Cup final and would come to define Corner’s life.
Related: 'It's had a lasting impact': students on being bullied over their accents
I could take the verbal stuff – and some of it was nasty – but then it got physical
There’d be outrage now at what happened to me, but at least I didn’t have social media to deal with
Continue reading...Jonathan Wilson's Blog
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