Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 120
December 5, 2019
Sol Campbell: ‘Trouble is people got the wrong end of the stick about me’
Six weeks in and the Sol Campbell regime at Southend has already claimed its first victim. On taking charge at the League One club in October, he quickly identified the players’ diet as one immediate area for improvement and banned ketchup and fizzy drinks from the canteen. At training, a plethora of fitness and conditioning tests sort the greyhounds from the gourmands. Campbell may still be relatively new to the coaching game but he means business.
The data doesn’t lie but then nor does the league table. It shows Southend in 22nd place, with one win and an alarming 53 goals conceded. This is the sort of form that did for Campbell’s predecessor, Kevin Bond, and unless Campbell can turn things around in a hurry – ketchup or no ketchup – relegation awaits. There are plenty out there who would not mourn this in the slightest.
Related: Macclesfield preparing to boycott League Two match with Crewe
Continue reading...
December 4, 2019
For Liverpool, rivalry with Everton is matter of history not current concern | Jonathan Liew
Home team rested key players, underperformed all over the pitch and treated game like a perfunctory training session
A rivalry is only really a rivalry if both protagonists want the same thing. They don’t have to be evenly matched, but they do need to share a target. Think Richard III and Henry VII. Ali and Foreman. Girls Aloud and One True Voice. Alas, it’s been a while since this was the case on Merseyside. Liverpool v Everton may be a treasured heritage fixture. But as these 90 skittish, uneven minutes demonstrated, it’s no longer much more than that.
The game ended with Liverpool eight points clear at the top, 11 points clear of Manchester City. With Everton in the bottom three, still two decades without a win here. But you didn’t need to know any of that to grasp the divergence in priorities. It was in the tone and feel of the game, the suck and blow of the Anfield atmosphere, who wanted the ball and who didn’t. Liverpool wanted to win. Everton just wanted to compete.
Related: Divock Origi leads Liverpool feast to raise pressure on Everton’s Silva
Continue reading...December 3, 2019
Amazon creeps into football’s broadcast jungle with stream designed to drown us | Jonathan Liew
One of the lesser known but more frequently thumbed tomes on my bookshelf is something called The Premier League Handbook. Published in the summer of 1992 before the launch of a zippy new competition called the FA Premier League and competitively priced at £3.99, it’s a nostalgic and richly comic artefact, a sepia‑tinted window into the hoopla and razzmatazz that greeted English football’s brave new dawn.
And so in among the usual season previews (Dean Saunders and Jason Dozzell were among the “players to watch” that year) was a six-page feature on an upstart young broadcaster called Sky Sports, which was promising to reinvent the way we watched football and not the least reticent about it. Sky, we were told, would bring with it “space-age gadgetry” and “computer graphics”. Tension would be heightened by – and I quote – “a clock running constantly in one corner of the screen”. It was, in so many ways, a more innocent age.
Related: Amazon’s Premier League arrival comes with a hefty price tag for fans | Barney Ronay
Continue reading...December 2, 2019
Unai Emery fails to clear language barrier in era of manager-storytellers | Jonathan Liew
Spaniard did not fail at Arsenal because of his poor English, but for a modern Premier League manager language is a weapon to be used with precision and nuance
The first question of the press conference was about Petr Cech. The veteran Arsenal goalkeeper had just announced his retirement from football at the end of the season, and as Unai Emery was asked to offer some words of tribute you could see the cogs whirring in his head as he composed his response. A short pause. “Good afternoon,” he began with his customary courtesy. “First, I think he’s a very big person.”
Certainly there could be no qualms about the factual content of the statement, given Cech’s height of 6ft 5in. Yet the suspicion remained that this was not quite the glowing tribute to his outgoing stalwart that Arsenal’s manager had quite intended. And as Emery departs north London, the suspicion remains that it is little comic vignettes like this – as much as anything he achieved on the pitch – that will be the true legacy of his time at Arsenal.
Related: Freddie Ljungberg must change lack of commitment in Arsenal’s DNA | Jonathan Liew
Related: Raul Sanllehi must get it right for Arsenal after Unai Emery mistake
Continue reading...December 1, 2019
Freddie Ljungberg must change lack of commitment in Arsenal’s DNA | Jonathan Liew
Perhaps it was unfair to accuse Unai Emery of having no vision for Arsenal. On the contrary, he had dozens of them. Three at the back, four at the back. Two up front, one up front. A diamond midfield, three in midfield, nobody in midfield (or Granit Xhaka, which very often amounted to the same thing). Pressing, not pressing. A high defensive line. A low block. And, of course, their signature tactic: gormlessly gawping while a spirited opposition team cut straight through them before standing with hands on hips, deciding who to blame.
There is a particular pathos to Arsenal in the seconds after they have conceded a goal. It’s like a scene from an Alan Ayckbourn play: all wounded looks and outstretched arms, wild accusations and smouldering treachery. In a way, this is a trait that long pre-dates Emery, and on this early evidence will outlast him too. As Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell imperturbably slotted home Norwich’s two goals, the cantankerous debrief could begin in earnest. What was that? And where were you? Me? I was over there, covering for him. Hang on, is it our kick-off?
Related: Arsenal hit back to draw at Norwich in Freddie Ljungberg’s first game in charge
Related: Norwich City 2-2 Arsenal: Premier League – as it happened
Continue reading...November 26, 2019
Salvation for Tottenham after flat start to José Mourinho’s welcome party | Jonathan Liew
Olympiakos looked like wrecking Portuguese’s first home match until air-shot helped Tottenham back into the game
It was just after the half-hour mark that the mood in the stadium began to take a distinctly sour turn. In retrospect, you might wonder why it hadn’t turned sooner, given Spurs were already 2-0 down and giving a passable impression of a team running off the effects of a heavy meal. But remember, they have seen plenty worse here. When you’ve grown up watching the likes of Moussa Saïb and Stuart Nethercott, perhaps you develop a certain resilience.
Then again, everyone has their limit. And for this crowd, it came not with Tottenham losing the ball, but with the dawning realisation that they hadn’t the faintest idea what to do with it. As they began to flounder around the edges of the Olympiakos penalty area, pointlessly recycling the ball in between long, ponderous pauses, a bouquet of boos began to descend on the pitch, modest at first and then louder. It was a howl borne not of anguish but of boredom: the sound of a crowd that has grown tired of going nowhere.
Related: Tottenham hit back to secure progress after poor start against Olympiakos
Related: José Mourinho apologised to Eric Dier for first-half substitution
Continue reading...November 25, 2019
Abuse of Jofra Archer a reminder that racism remains ingrained in cricket | Jonathan Liew
Perpetrators even within the game have been tolerated, indulged and celebrated so, yes, it is a problem
Jofra Archer has been an international cricketer for just over six months and has been racially abused twice. Those are just the two incidents we know about. As many people of colour will tell you, for every comment that comes to light, there will have been dozens more that go unheeded: ignored or shrugged off so as not to cause an unseemly fuss, internalised and rationalised as simply the price of doing business as a non-white athlete in 2019.
Related: Jofra Archer says he was racially abused in England's defeat to New Zealand
Related: England resistance ends as New Zealand wrap up crushing first Test win
Continue reading...The new Mou, Emery on the brink and a question of fish – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Barney Ronay and Jonathan Liew discuss Mourinho’s humility, a ding-dong at the Etihad, depleting patience at Arsenal, Everton and West Ham, Antonio Conte’s special advice and Fish Or Not A Fish?
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
We take a look back at the weekend’s football, starting with José Mourinho’s first game in charge of Tottenham, where they ran out 3-2 winners against West Ham – a flattering scoreline for the losers.
Continue reading...Jonathan Liew's Blog
- Jonathan Liew's profile
- 2 followers
