Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 73

Bayern Munich poised for 10th title in a row but how many is too many?

On Saturday Bayern could reach a mark untouched by any major European club but signs of change are in the air

Even at the moment of Borussia Dortmund’s greatest ecstasy, Hans-Joachim Watzke saw what was coming. It was May 2012 at the Olympiastadion in Berlin and Dortmund were blissfully tearing apart their rivals Bayern Munich 5-2 to seal their first league and cup double.

Robert Lewandowski scored a scintillating hat-trick. Jürgen Klopp got so drunk during the celebrations that he later claimed to have no recollection of them. But their famously pessimistic chief executive was more worried about what might follow. “The echo,” Watzke told his colleagues, “will be dramatic.”

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Misunderstandings and misalignment mar Lukaku’s season at Chelsea | Jonathan Liew

The striker could still thrive at Stamford Bridge with time and love but has not been afforded either in a turbulent campaign

There are games of football that feel like the inevitable product of their circumstances: system against system, the attacking and defensive patterns predetermined days in advance, the result telegraphed from the moment the first ball is kicked. Then there are the games in which Granit Xhaka runs the midfield, a mass brawl breaks out in the closing minutes and Eddie Nketiah scores twice against a team currently sanctioned by the UK government.

Chaos, farce, or high entertainment? Probably a mixture of all three. As shirtless Arsenal fans clambered over each other in the Shed End, as a fuming César Azpilicueta remonstrated with some of the few Chelsea supporters who were left in the ground, it was tempting to write this off as a classic slice of freak Premier League, a crunch London derby with all the logic and ambience of a Carabao Cup fourth-round tie.

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Sean Dyche gave us the gift of Peak Burnley – for that, we owe him thanks | Jonathan Liew

Wrongly typecast as a proponent of anti-football, Dyche gave the people of Burnley a team they could be proud of

For Sean Dyche the road to salvation would begin at Rock City in Nottingham. Liberated from the treadmill of management for the first time in almost a decade after being sacked by Burnley, Dyche enjoyed his first weekend of freedom having drinks with friends before taking in a bill of Manchester tribute acts. Camera‑phone footage from Sunday night shows him swaying along to a band called The Clone Roses.

Which on reflection feels about perfect. Given everything else going on at the moment, we may not have been ready as a society for the idea of a sad Sean Dyche. Dyche’s year-long New York sabbatical. Dyche’s lonely, penitent pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. A tearful Dyche addressing his adoring public one last time from the steps of Burnley town hall, as mourners lay scarves and candles at his feet. Nobody wants any of this. Dyche grooving along to (Song For My) Sugar Spun Sister on a shaky camera phone: nature has healed.

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Liverpool and Manchester City are running magnificently, but on fumes | Jonathan Liew

Exhaustion rather than elation or despair was the end result of an FA Cup tie between two teams pushed to breaking point

Everyone looks tired. Liverpool counterattack in the closing minutes and Trent Alexander-Arnold (41 games for club and country this season) can barely puff his way over the halfway line. In stoppage time, Riyad Mahrez (45 games) runs at Andy Robertson (46 games), who tries and forlornly fails to keep pace with him. Bernardo Silva (49 games) looks exhausted as he scores Manchester City’s second goal. On the touchline a world-weary Pep Guardiola – who has barely left his bench all half – grimaces as if suddenly contemplating the solemn and unappetising prospect of extra time.

Even as the final whistle arrives to seal Liverpool’s triumph, there is no great celebration, no great delight, and no great anguish either. John Stones and Phil Foden sink to their knees. Liverpool’s players gather each other into pained embraces: partly in satisfaction, partly in relief and partly just to hold each other up. Gingerly and groggily, both teams acknowledge their fans and trudge down the tunnel. An ice bath, a protein pot, a bus ride, a charter flight, and then bed. There’s training in the morning. Manchester United come to Anfield on Tuesday and Brighton to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. We move.

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Guardiola and Klopp have built a duel worthy of status as English clásico | Jonathan Liew

Manchester City and Liverpool are the two best club sides in the world and their new rivalry dominates English football

Jürgen Klopp says this will not be the title decider. OK, Jürgen. If you say so, Jürgen. Perhaps we can safely file that away with “every opponent is a tough opponent” and “we don’t look at the league table” in the catalogue of great managerial sleights of our time. The rest of us, meanwhile, are entitled to regard Manchester City v Liverpool for what it is: a fixture that has been burning a hole in the schedule since August, that as the weeks passed was anticipated first in hope, then in expectation, and now finally in a barely disguised longing.

It is more than five years since Klopp and Pep Guardiola first clapped eyes on each other across a crowded Premier League technical area. In that time they have built a rivalry that in terms of sheer brutish footballing quality may be the finest English football has seen. The game is fitter and faster, more complex and refined than it has ever been. The Norwich City of 2022 would wipe the floor with Manchester United’s class of 1992. And at the vanguard of the revolution, these two coaches, these two clubs: a duel worthy of being anointed as England’s clásico, a buffet of the very finest fare this sport has to offer.

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Real Madrid and Karim Benzema offer the comfort of continuity | Jonathan Liew

It was like looking through a window of the past at a squad full of familiar faces. They were still too strong for Chelsea

The world, we are told, is in a state of chaotic and unprecedented flux.

Technology is changing our lives at a frightening rate. All across the globe, societies are fracturing and falling apart. The destruction of the planet is accelerating before our eyes. Every passing week seems to bring new ruptures, new shocks, new disfigurements.

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Street-fighter Phil Foden finds the touch to undo Atlético’s dogged defence | Jonathan Liew

Foden started on the bench but after little more than a minute on the pitch his dribble and pass led to Manchester City’s goal

Kevin De Bruyne scored the only goal of the game, and Manchester City’s players gathered by the corner flag in front of their fans. “Celebrated” would probably be pushing it a bit. For the curious thing about City’s winning goal was how deeply unimpressed they all seemed about it. De Bruyne’s features were contorted into a growl. Bernardo Silva bellowed defiantly into the stands. Nathan Aké, to be honest, just looked buzzing to be there.

On the touchline Pep Guardiola angrily hurled a water bottle to the ground, furious at himself for feeling such relief.

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The European Super League has returned – Uefa is just calling it something else | Jonathan Liew

The new Champions League expansion plans could offer extra places to historically successful clubs who fail to qualify

It is probably a source of minor encouragement that the Ricketts family – currently on the shortlist of potential buyers for Chelsea – have promised sceptical fans that they will not join a European Super League. Perhaps, by way of further commitment, the Ricketts will spurn other competitions that do not exist. Chelsea will never play in a future Anglo-Italian Cup. Chelsea wants no part of the Makita Trophy. Chelsea will never enter Pop Idol.

Of course, prospective owners always arrive with a lavish manifesto of pledges and blandishments, lest anybody guess what they actually plan to do once they get through the door. Mike Ashley arrived at Newcastle promising “fun and trophies”, although crucially he never actually specified who for. Meanwhile, Ken Bates would probably have received a far cooler welcome from Chelsea fans in 1982 had he disclosed that within a few years he would be plotting to electrocute them with barbed wire fences.

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Celtic firm favourites to reclaim title after Carter-Vickers’ winner at Rangers

At full time a deathly hush seemed to descend over Ibrox: the realisation that a season’s efforts had come to nothing, that the title they spent a decade craving and coveting and finally claiming last year has now all but slipped from their grasp. For, after a performance of extraordinary maturity and resilience in the most hostile of settings, Celtic are six points clear in the Scottish Premiership. Their 700 fans, whooping and celebrating in their cramped little corner of Ibrox, knew as well as anyone that the game is up.

Ange Postecoglou was asked afterwards where this left the title race. “We’re three points closer, mate,” was all he would say, but on this evidence Celtic look like worthy champions in waiting. Tom Rogic and Cameron Carter‑Vickers got the goals but it was at the other end of the pitch that they really distinguished themselves: endless blocks, endless clearing headers, discipline and cohesion and naturally a little gamesmanship when it was required. Their midfield, written off before this game as too slight and technical for a game such as this, was a superb second line of defence, never allowing Rangers to take control of the game despite Aaron Ramsey’s third-minute goal.

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How can we define what Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané are worth? | Jonathan Liew

Calculating the value of Liverpool’s attacking duo is impossible, but they are certainly better together than apart

Naturally, the lasers lent the scene a certain pathos. As Mohamed Salah stepped up to take Egypt’s first penalty against Senegal on Tuesday night, the swarm of green laser beams dancing across his face were a reminder of football’s capacity to render even its greats temporarily powerless. Here was one of the biggest stars in the world’s biggest sport. But he couldn’t make his team win. He couldn’t get his country to a World Cup. And now he didn’t even have the use of his own eyes.

“I was luckier,” Sadio Mané said afterwards. This was his second consecutive triumph over his Liverpool teammate, Senegal’s two-leg World Cup playoff victory coming after the Africa Cup of Nations final in February. And yet for all the advance billing of the encounter as “Mané v Salah”, there was perhaps a wider lesson from the Senegal v Egypt trilogy, one with a particular and pressing relevance to the club they both play for.

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