Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 115
March 12, 2020
Criticism of Diego Simeone's Atlético methods rooted in football snobbery | Jonathan Liew
Drilling a team to be totally secure in defence is no less an art form than producing one that relentlessly attacks, despite what Klopp might say
The acid reflux of defeat was rising in Jürgen Klopp’s throat, and you could tell he was trying to swallow it down before it went any further. “I realise I am a really bad loser,” he admitted. “They beat us, and we have to accept that. We accept that, of course.”
Given what else the Liverpool manager would say following Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Atlético Madrid on Wednesday night, you have to wonder exactly how Klopp defines not accepting it. Shock, disappointment, a sense of smouldering injustice: all these are accepted and acceptable tropes for the manager of a team who have had 34 shots at goal, won the xG 3.52-1.18 on the night, and nevertheless been dumped out of Europe at the first knockout stage.
Related: Liverpool's season threatens limp end after missed European opportunity | Jonathan Wilson
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March 11, 2020
Spurs ponder where it all went wrong but this is as vital a moment as ever | Jonathan Liew
Tottenham’s future is hazy as players and fans pick over the post-mortem but no one factor lead to the failure in Leipzig
One by one the Spurs players filed past, clutching their vanity bags and refuelling snacks, politely spurning all interview requests. “I don’t want to talk,” Érik Lamela said with an apologetic expression as he bit into a cream cheese bagel. “Sorry,” whispered Japhet Tanganga, taking a swig of his energy drink. Even Harry Winks, normally such a keen and fluent talker, simply burrowed his face into his hooded tracksuit and looked straight ahead.
To a man they looked bereft, distraught, stunned. As if they had just lost a final in injury time, rather than been pinged 4-0 on aggregate by a far superior team. Which on one level felt slightly surprising, given what they must have suspected would happen here in Leipzig after losing the first leg at home. Given also that for weeks their manager has been telling everyone who will listen how weak they are.
Related: All players on Leipzig bench would play in my Spurs team, says José Mourinho
Related: Leipzig leave Lloris squirming and hurry Mourinho's stale Spurs to the exit
Related: Farewell not just to a Champions League campaign but also a Spurs era | Jonathan Liew
Continue reading...March 10, 2020
Farewell not just to a Champions League campaign but also a Spurs era | Jonathan Liew
Only 10 months after Tottenham reached the European Cup final they hit the buffers in Leipzig – it looks like a long way back
So farewell then, Tottenham. Who knows when our paths will cross again? A fixture they embarked upon with a puncher’s chance and plenty of underdog spirit ended merely in crippling defeat and more questions. A broken team that under the joyless stewardship of José Mourinho has been broken still further, they looked here exactly what they are: the eighth‑best team in the Premier League, exhausted and error-prone, bad in defence and bad in attack, with no discernible long-term strategy and no identifiable short-term plan.
Related: RB Leipzig leave Lloris squirming and hurry Mourinho's stale Spurs to the exit
Related: Champions League return a tall order for Tottenham, admits José Mourinho
Related: Josip Ilicic scores four as Atalanta beat Valencia to continue European dream
Continue reading...March 9, 2020
Marcelo Bielsa: a method actor in football's theatre of the absurd | Jonathan Liew
Leeds are homing in on a Premier League return, and it is hard to know just what the top flight will make of their unique and brilliant manager
It’s happening. Mateusz Klich plays a delicious back-heel to Pablo Hernández. It’s definitely happening. Hernández plays a first-time pass into the space that will shortly be occupied by Jack Harrison. This is not a drill. Harrison takes a look, doesn’t like what he sees, takes a touch, takes another look, crosses. The cross is deep, sailing over a sea of bobbing heads to the far post where Luke Ayling, having sprinted 60 yards from right-back, calmly smashes a volley into the roof of the net. You know, as you do. It’s happening. At this exact moment, the only able-bodied person at Elland Road not on their feet is Marcelo Bielsa. While his substitutes and coaching staff storm the pitch, while grown men scream “WHAT A GOAL! WHAT A GOAL!”, Bielsa remains perched on his bucket, takes a slow, measured sip of his coffee, as blank and expressionless as if this were a film he’s seen before.
In a way, he has. A few hours after Leeds had beaten Huddersfield 2-0 on Saturday, the club’s social media people put out a video of a recent training session at Thorp Arch, in which Ayling scores a near-perfect replica of that volleyed goal. Perhaps this is the curse of the obsessive: once you’ve seen all the tapes, logged every data point, mapped out every possible occurrence, reality itself must seem like a replay of something that everyone else is watching for the first time.
Continue reading...March 8, 2020
Bernd Leno makes amends as the Arsenal repair job picks up pace
Keeper’s fine display against West Ham crowned a madcap week but the story of Mikel Arteta’s reign is quiet consistency
It was another great Arsenal No 1, David Seaman, who always claimed that the real gauge of a keeper’s worth is not in the mistake itself, but the reaction. Dropped crosses and fumbled shots are an occupational hazard. Nobody is immune. But if you want to judge a goalkeeper, Seaman argued, watch their next game.
How’s their confidence? How’s their mettle? Do they shrink? Do they hide? Here, nine days after the error that helped eliminate Arsenal from Europe, was Bernd Leno’s answer. Left out of the squad for Arsenal’s FA Cup game last Monday, Leno will have had plenty of time to contemplate his hashed 119th-minute clearance against Olympiakos: to watch some of the scathing media reaction, to dwell on his misjudgment. Then he stepped out against West Ham on Saturday and produced a performance of nerve, resilience and outstanding reflexes that was probably the difference between three points and none.
Related: Moyes rues VAR after Lacazette and Arsenal punish wasteful West Ham
Continue reading...March 7, 2020
United and City ensure Manchester derby is not just about the football | Jonathan Liew
Manchester United’s huge social media following means that, in lucrative data terms, there is only one winner against City
A couple of weeks ago, at 8am New York time, Manchester United plc held its quarterly earnings call, in which senior board members talked through some of the club’s recent successes. For instance, the last week of January saw the club’s second-highest social media engagement ever, with more than 300,000 mentions of the new signing Bruno Fernandes on Twitter, and 38 million interactions in total. Odion Ighalo was the top trending topic worldwide, beating both Brexit and Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Meanwhile the Chinese New Year product line had performed well, and the megastore was experiencing what the managing director, Richard Arnold, described as “strong increases in average basket size”.
The following night, at the Bernabéu, Manchester City beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the Champions League, a competition in which United are not playing this season.
Related: City’s Pep Guardiola wary of rejuvenated United in Manchester derby
Related: Manchester United v Manchester City: match preview
Continue reading...March 5, 2020
Diminished Wayne Rooney still able to serve up flashes of his glorious past
The former England striker is a throwback to the ITV Digital age but can still caress a football like few have in this country
Give me the ball, he says. He doesn’t need to say the words. There’s an opening of the hips, a broadening of the chest, like a bird unfurling its plumage, that makes it clear exactly what is wanted, and who wants it. There’s a little glance over the shoulder to make sure he’s in as much space as he thinks he is. Now the eyes widen, the arms spread. Give me the ball, he says again with his body. And Max Lowe gives him the ball.
Related: Odion Ighalo ensures Rooney's unhappy reunion with Manchester United
Related: Wayne Rooney: 'As a kid every half-time I argued with Ferguson'
Continue reading...March 2, 2020
Spectre of a cancelled Olympics belongs to a different, scarier world | Jonathan Liew
For many of us, encased in our idyllic little sporting snow globes, is this the moment the full gravity of coronavirus hits home?
It’s OK, everyone: I’ve checked the official Tokyo Olympics website, and everything seems to be fine. The main news story on the homepage is about how the Tokyo 2020 mascots, Miraitowa and Someity, have been having a lovely time in Barcelona on the latest leg of their promotional tour. Then there’s a nice heartwarming tale about Panasonic signing up to sponsor the torch relay. Then an announcement for something called the “Tokyo 2020 Open Innovation Challenge”. Nothing at all about deadly viruses or global disease outbreaks. Nothing about precautions for spectators or athletes. Certainly nothing about calling off the Games altogether, and frankly they would know best. So that’s a relief.
Nevertheless, the malignant rumours persist, driven not just by the continuing spread of coronavirus but by the growing swathe of sporting events succumbing to it. We could probably live without Ireland v Italy in the Six Nations. The Chinese Grand Prix always felt expendable in a calendar already swollen to grotesqueness. But the Olympics? The actual, real-life Olympics? Perhaps for many of us, encased in our idyllic little sporting snow globes, this was the moment when the full gravity of the situation finally hit home.
Related: Will the Olympics be cancelled? The sports events coronavirus threatens
Related: Sport in 2020 calendar: your month-by-month guide to the year ahead
Continue reading...March 1, 2020
Aston Villa take seat at top table but leave with worry they'll never belong | Jonathan Liew
The idea of a Villa seriously challenging a City feels more remote with every passing year – perhaps avoiding a trouncing is their trophy
The pivotal scene in the wonderful Oscar‑winning film Parasite comes about halfway through, with the impoverished Kim family gathered in the living room of a luxurious mansion they do not own, glugging expensive whisky they have not bought, enjoying a life that is not theirs. Through various nefarious schemes they have all managed to worm their way into the confidences of the fabulously wealthy Park family and, with their hosts away on a camping trip, they can simply spread out on the opulent chaise longue, look out over a perfect manicured lawn and imagine this all belongs to them. For a few crushingly fleeting moments they can taste what it feels like to be rich. They’ve crashed the party. They belong.
Related: Manchester City sink Aston Villa to win third successive Carabao Cup
Continue reading...February 29, 2020
Indispensable Jack Grealish offers hope for Villa against City machine | Jonathan Liew
Admired by Pep Guardiola and coveted by Manchester United, can this season’s revelation drag his hometown club to an unlikely Carabao Cup triumph on Sunday?
This week the last man to lead Aston Villa to major silverware met the man who hopes to be the next. These days Andy Townsend is better known as a pundit and broadcaster, but when he sat down with Jack Grealish, it was he who ended up fielding the questions. Grealish may barely have been born when Townsend captained Villa to victory in the 1996 League Cup final, but as a lifelong Villa fan he has watched all the tapes and knows his history. And as the current Villa captain, there was one thing he wanted to ask Townsend above all: what it felt like to lift the trophy.
Related: Guardiola has Paisley record in his sights as City seek League Cup treble
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