Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 102
November 19, 2020
Phil Foden's freedom to flick depends on Southgate's England staying organised | Jonathan Liew
As showcased against Iceland, thrilling moments of individual expression can pay off in a clearly defined, well-honed system
The best moment of England’s marathon international week came right at its very end. In the 90th minute against Iceland, with England 4-0 ahead, Harry Maguire cleared the ball high and long towards the right touchline, where Phil Foden – already two goals to the good – gamely chased down an inevitable lost cause.
Instead, as the ball dropped from an astronomical height, Foden cheekily heel-flicked it along the touchline to himself, sending Olafur Skulason spinning through spacetime: a perfectly scandalous piece of skill whereupon, had it emanated from your own two feet, you would have been well within your rights to pick up the ball and never play again.
Related: Grealish, Foden and Saka offer Anglo tiki-taka that Southgate can build on
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November 18, 2020
Rice key to Southgate's new England: a team hard to beat and hard to love | Jonathan Liew
The West Ham midfielder has quietly become the linchpin of Gareth Southgate’s increasingly conservative England side
Anybody stumbling upon Wembley Stadium on Wednesday night after a long deep sleep would probably be wildly confused by the spectacle greeting them. And in a sense England v Iceland – a Nations League dead rubber played in silence in the midst of a locked-down city – is the football game as philosophical paradox, a fixture whose meaning essentially derives from having none. An ancient folk ritual whose true origins are long forgotten to history. Ask not why, child. As our fathers bequeathed to us, and their fathers before them: it is written on the Uefa website, and so it will be done.
Related: Southgate praises 'outstanding' Grealish after England's Nations League exit
Related: Harry Kane forced to multi-task in blunted, one-paced England attack | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...November 16, 2020
Mail on Sunday v Marcus Rashford: a sinister attack on a young black man | Jonathan Liew
The MoS has published an article that is entitled, nappy-grabbing rage, dressed up in sensible clothes. Rashford must sense that he is winning
Perhaps Marcus Rashford knew all along that this was how it might all play out. Or perhaps he will have realised it at some point on the journey: that there would ultimately be a price to pay for putting this many important noses out of joint, for doing so fearlessly and unapologetically, for making too much of a difference. After all, you don’t get to embarrass a Conservative government for free. And on Sunday, Rashford would discover the real consequences of speaking truth to power.
“School meals Marcus’s £2m homes empire,” read the headline in the Mail on Sunday, referring to five properties recently purchased by the Manchester United forward in Cheshire. The “campaigning football star”, we were told, had taken out “mortgages from the Queen’s bank, Coutts, for all five properties”. Meanwhile the authors of the article seemed particularly keen to inform readers that Rashford has begun the process of trademarking his name in the US, and that his own house is worth £1.85m and has six bedrooms.
Related: David Squires on ... Marcus Rashford v the Tory government
Ok, so let’s address this. I’m 23. I came from little. I need to protect not just my future but my family’s too. To do that I made a decision at the beg of 2020 to start investing more in property. Please don’t run stories like this alongside refs to ‘campaigning’. pic.twitter.com/coqla2i19d
Related: Rashford launches book club so 'every child' can experience 'escapism'
Continue reading...England's Nations League flop, Wales win and WSL drama – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Ed Aarons to discuss the latest Nations League action. Plus: Suzy Wrack reviews an exciting weekend of comebacks in the Women’s Super League
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Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Liew and Ed Aarons look over the weekend’s Nations League games as Belgium beat England despite Jack Grealish’s best efforts. Wales are closing on promotion to the top tier after inflicting another defeat on Stephen Kenny’s Republic of Ireland, and Scotland’s unbeaten run is over.
Continue reading...November 14, 2020
Belgium give Southgate chance to define England's big-game plan | Jonathan Liew
Forget the Nations League: this is a rare opportunity for the England manager to perfect his tactics against superior sides
There is a website called The Size of Belgium that for more than a decade has been dutifully tracking the Anglophone world’s curiously enduring habit of using the country’s area as a rhetorical unit of measurement. For example, “an area the size of Belgium” is lost globally to deforestation each year, according to the United Nations. The search area for missing flight MH370 was described in several media outlets as “the size of Belgium”. The Lonely Planet guidebook, meanwhile, refers to Yorkshire as “half the size of Belgium”.
How did Belgium ascend to this exalted status? Not, you have to assume, through any intimate or widespread knowledge of the precise area of Belgium (at 30,000 square kilometres, it’s barely twice the size of Yorkshire). Perhaps it is because, on some level, Belgium manages to convey slightness and weightiness in the same breath. It lies in the grey area between small and significant. It can, in other words, mean anything you want it to mean.
Related: England sink Belgium in Nations League thanks to Mount's lucky break
Related: Quarterback Kane offers England's forward thinking a new dimension | David Hytner
Continue reading...Belgium clash gives Southgate chance to define England's big-game plan | Jonathan Liew
Forget the Nations League: this is a rare opportunity for the England manager to perfect his tactics against superior sides
There is a website called The Size of Belgium that for more than a decade has been dutifully tracking the Anglophone world’s curiously enduring habit of using the country’s area as a rhetorical unit of measurement. For example, “an area the size of Belgium” is lost globally to deforestation each year, according to the United Nations. The search area for missing flight MH370 was described in several media outlets as “the size of Belgium”. The Lonely Planet guidebook, meanwhile, refers to Yorkshire as “half the size of Belgium”.
How did Belgium ascend to this exalted status? Not, you have to assume, through any intimate or widespread knowledge of the precise area of Belgium (at 30,000 square kilometres, it’s barely twice the size of Yorkshire). Perhaps it is because, on some level, Belgium manages to convey slightness and weightiness in the same breath. It lies in the grey area between small and significant. It can, in other words, mean anything you want it to mean.
Related: England sink Belgium in Nations League thanks to Mount's lucky break
Related: Quarterback Kane offers England's forward thinking a new dimension | David Hytner
Continue reading...November 12, 2020
For football greed, vanity and narcissism, there's no beating pointless friendlies | Jonathan Liew
Even during a second wave of Covid-19 and its inherent dangers, football is gripped by an abusive self-addiction
England’s game against Iceland could be played in Albania because of a mutated strain of coronavirus found in Danish mink farms. There you are: a perfectly normal English sentence.
As a result a number of Premier League players, including Andreas Christensen and Kasper Schmeichel, pulled out of the Denmark squad for the international break, because of government regulations that would have required them to quarantine for two weeks on their return.
Related: Why is football so blind to the injuries caused by a remorseless schedule? | Jonathan Wilson
Related: Women footballers left in dark during Covid pandemic, survey reveals
Continue reading...November 9, 2020
Pandemic football suits José Mourinho, a man at home in sinister circumstances | Jonathan Liew
In this new and fearful landscape anything seems possible, even the notion that Tottenham are genuine title contenders
As a coach who prides himself on being at the cutting edge of new trends and ideas within the game, José Mourinho joined Instagram in February 2020. We soon learned that this would not be an account dedicated to the classic Instagram tropes of good vibes, fabulous sunsets, body-positivity and paleo-breakfasts. Instead, in among the adverts for watches and credit cards, Mourinho’s main source of content appears to be his own face, captured in various states of cheerlessness. On the team bus, looking grumpy after a defeat. On a sofa, glumly eating crisps out of a plastic tub. Forcing his staff, including a stony-faced Ledley King, to watch Formula One on a Sunday afternoon.
Even the more sincere posts carry an unnerving import. Last month, for example, Mourinho wrote on behalf of the World Food Programme, pointing out that “842 million people in the world do not eat enough to be healthy”. Curiously, though, the post was accompanied by photographs of Mourinho himself eating, as if demonstrating how it should be done. Three Premier Leagues, two Champions Leagues, one bowl of food: respect, man, respect.
Related: Why is football so blind to the injuries caused by a remorseless schedule? | Jonathan Wilson
Related: Premier League highs and panenka lows – Football Weekly
Continue reading...November 8, 2020
Mikel Arteta laments worst defeat after Arsenal are thrashed by Aston Villa
Mikel Arteta described Arsenal’s 3-0 home defeat by Aston Villa as the worst of his managerial career but was at a loss to explain a performance in which – as he put it – “I didn’t see my team out there”. Arsenal were second best in every department and Arteta was scathing about his team’s attitude as well as their execution.
“They wanted it more than us,” he said. “I’m struggling to find the reason, but obviously there was something there. If you can’t defend your box, it’s a really complicated way to win matches. We haven’t been scoring a lot of goals and today we looked open in transition, and if you don’t put chances away you have no chance to win. I take full responsibility.”
Related: Ollie Watkins punishes woeful Arsenal as Aston Villa run riot at the Emirates
Continue reading...Ollie Watkins punishes woeful Arsenal as Aston Villa run riot at the Emirates
The pivotal period of this game, you felt, came around an hour in. Arsenal were knocking on the door in search of an equaliser. Chances whistled past either post. For a while, it felt like Aston Villa might have to settle in for a long and painful rearguard action. At which point, Dean Smith’s team seemed to come to a crucial collective realisation: they were better than Arsenal. Not better organised, or better drilled, but better in stark and absolute terms. And so in a crushing climax, they set about proving it.
As Jack Grealish and Ross Barkley began to run the game, as Ollie Watkins picked off the two goals that would turn a victory into a rout, Arsenal were stripped bare again and again, beaten not just in deed but in thought. Marshalled by Tyrone Mings at the back, orchestrated by Douglas Luiz in midfield and driven forward by the superb front four, Villa won their duels, won their second balls and left Arsenal choking in their dust.
Related: Mikel Arteta laments worst defeat after Arsenal are thrashed by Aston Villa
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