Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 94
September 21, 2020
Goals galore in the Premier League – Football Weekly
Max Rushden and co discuss a goal-rich weekend, how to interview Samuel Eto’o, the variable quality of footballs, and how Max would fare up front for Manchester City
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 Lars Sivertsen, Marcus Bean and Jonathan Wilson to discuss a goal-rich Premier League weekend, how to interview Samuel Eto’o, the variable quality of footballs and how Max would fare up front for Manchester City.
Kepa Arrizabalaga's confidence is shot and the way Chelsea play doesn't help him | Jonathan Wilson
Spaniard’s display against Liverpool sums up his struggles but there is a pattern of keepers saving fewer goals under Lampard
Kepa Arrizabalaga’s time as Chelsea goalkeeper, you suspect, will be remembered for two incidents. First there’s him on the Wembley turf, defying Maurizio Sarri and refusing to be substituted before the penalty shootout in the Carabao Cup final in 2019. And then there’s him on Sunday, playing the ball straight to Sadio Mané to concede a second against Liverpool.
Two moments 19 months apart in which the world’s most expensive goalkeeper went from self-belief that only he could get the job done to swigging awkwardly at his water bottle, apparently desperate to be anywhere but in his six-yard box having confirmed his side’s defeat.
Related: Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Related: Liverpool's peerless front three strike familiar tone to overwhelm Chelsea | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...September 20, 2020
Wolves' haunting Adama Traoré is the bad dream Pep Guardiola must tackle | Jonathan Wilson
Manchester City kick off against a side that beat them twice last season and a player who exploits their weaknesses ruthlessly
When Pep Guardiola was a little boy growing up in Santpedor, they warned darkly of such things. There would come, they said, an opponent too terrible to contemplate. It would be huge, yet quick. It would have prodigious strength, yet the most delicate feet. It would devastate its enemies with its power, yet practise also the most sublime skill. It would be a chimera, crafted both by La Masia and by Tony Pulis. Its mighty arms would drip with oil so no man could hold it. It would know Guardiola’s weakness and exploit it ruthlessly. On the nights when sleep comes hardest, Guardiola’s dreams are, you imagine, haunted yet by Adama Traoré.
There he is, surging through the City defence twice at the Etihad last season. There he is again, at Molineux, hammering a shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area. And there he is again, bumping Benjamin Mendy off the ball before crossing for Raúl Jiménez. City do not like balls played in behind them. They do not relish players who run directly at them. And, in the popular imagination at least, they don’t like it up ’em. Traoré is everything City hate.
Related: Wolves v Manchester City: match preview
Related: Ilkay Gündogan believes Manchester City need 100 points to top Liverpool
Continue reading...Gareth Bale escapes wilderness with every chance of redemption at Spurs
The Real Madrid reject should still have explosive pace and looks suited to Harry Kane and José Mourinho’s tactics
Football loves nothing more than a redemption myth. While there are many who will tell you to never go back, there is more rejoicing in the kingdom of football over one player who returns home than over nine and ninety who never leave.
The narrative appeal of Gareth Bale at Tottenham is clear. He was the protagonist of their first side to compete in the Champions League, the explosive forward who scored a hat-trick at San Siro and obliterated Maicon at White Hart Lane, Tottenham’s first global superstar since Paul Gascoigne left for Lazio.
Related: Why I can't wait to see Gareth Bale in a Tottenham shirt again | Max Rushden
Mourinho, of course, spent the end of the week complaining
Continue reading...September 14, 2020
Liverpool hold off Leeds and Arsenal show a ruthless side – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Philippe Auclair on the Premier League openers, Barry’s past life, Damien Delaney’s Dream Dinner Party and the return of a Jonathan eating challenge
Rate, review and share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email .
Max and the pod discuss new and exciting Premier League things: a fearless Leeds, a ruthless Arsenal and an Everton side playing as well as they really should be. Jamie Vardy and Wilfried Zaha are on target, while José Mourinho delivers a performance of stultifying, energy-sapping pain.
Continue reading...September 13, 2020
Leeds bloody Liverpool's noses but frenzied defending will alarm El Loco | Jonathan Wilson
Bielsa’s side were fun to watch and wildly entertaining but the champions were far more dominant than 4-3 scoreline suggests
On his first day in his new prison, Marcelo Bielsa walked into the yard and, following the time-honoured precedent, approached the biggest fellow convict he could find – and smashed him in the mouth. He may have lost the fight that ensued, but he landed sufficient blows for the wider point to be made. El Loco hasn’t changed. There will be no tempering of the approach – not that anybody should ever have thought there would be. Leeds are dangerous and demand respect.
Or at least that was how it felt during Liverpool’s breathless 4-3 win at Anfield on Saturday. The spectacle, the assault on the sense, the feeling of things happening, constantly, everywhere, was overwhelming. The former Boca Juniors centre-back Juan Simón once described the experience of. playing against a Bielsa side as like being run over by a tractor; so, frankly, is watching them, particularly against another team as determined to press and attack as Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Related: Marcelo Bielsa pleased with goals in defeat at Liverpool but asks for more
Related: Magical Marcelo Bielsa transforms Anfield into a delirious dreamscape | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...September 12, 2020
Arrival of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner raises stakes for Frank Lampard | Jonathan Wilson
Chelsea’s big summer spree means there can be no excuses about the manager’s inexperience or the need to learn the job
Last summer, a host of clubs had begun to express an interest in Kai Havertz. He seemed the model of the modern German attacking midfielder: powerful, quick, intelligent and with a capacity for scoring goals. That a year later he has chosen Chelsea is significant, not just for what he may bring on the pitch but because of what it says about the developing project at Stamford Bridge – particularly given Havertz was so keen to join he waived his signing-on bonus. This feels like a statement signing in the best possible sense and with that will come expectation.
Related: Premier League 2020-21 preview No 5: Chelsea
It has been an extraordinary summer, with the most exciting array of signings since the very start of the Abramovich era
Related: Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend
Continue reading...September 9, 2020
England produce more drama off the field than on it – Football Weekly
After another stodgy performance against Denmark, what does Gareth Southgate need to change to get the best out of his talented England team? Max Rushden is joined by Jonathan Wilson, Jordan Jarrett Bryan and Ed Aarons to discuss the latest round of the Nations League, Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood’s Icelandic misadventure, and the latest transfer news ahead of the start of the Premier League season.
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 Jonathan Wilson, Jordan Jarrett Bryan and Ed Aarons to discuss England’s underwhelming form, the latest round of the Nations League, Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood’s Icelandic misadventure, and the latest transfer news ahead of the start of the Premier League season.
Continue reading...September 5, 2020
Can Lost Boy James Rodríguez break the mould at free-spending Everton? | Jonathan Wilson
The allure of players allowed to leave by the elite proves too great for a stepping-stone club but the Colombian’s reunion with Carlo Ancelotti may be a gamble worth taking
Potential can be a curse. Show too much too early and it will define you, so you are measured not by what you have done but against the future that once seemed within your grasp. And when age finally takes its toll, when the world stops waiting for you to become what it seemed you once could be, when you are written off with a dismissive shrug as a could-have-been then, in England at least, there are really only two places you can go: West Ham or Everton.
They are populated by the Lost Boys of the global game. When the elite will take you no more, there will still be a place in these Neverlands, clubs who will pay the wages of a player at their notional peak, even as time saps at them and reduces their value, even as hunger is spent and the drift into retirement has become inevitable.
Related: Premier League preview 2020-21 No 7: Everton
Related: Allan heads to Everton and hails influence of 'Professor Ancelotti'
Continue reading...September 3, 2020
The Nations League and WSL return, plus Bale's hair – Football Weekly Extra
Faye Carruthers is joined by Barry Glendenning, Lars Sivertsen and Jonathan Wilson to discuss all things Nations League, Gareth Bale and James Rodríguez, while Flo Lloyd-Hughes previews the new WSL season
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts , Soundcloud , Audioboom , Mixcloud , Acast and Stitcher , and join the conversation on Facebook , Twitter and email .
Faye and the pod preview the forthcoming glut of Nations League action, discuss trophy design, Gareth Bale’s hair and James Rodríguez’s probable move to Everton.
Continue reading...Jonathan Wilson's Blog
- Jonathan Wilson's profile
- 502 followers
