Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 75
March 12, 2022
Matthijs de Ligt: ‘The dirty work is so important. I find it really nice’
The Juventus defender has found his feet in Italy after his £70m move from Ajax, and now hopes to take his game to the next level
Matthijs de Ligt was not happy. The Juventus defender had, by common consent, been one of the best players on the pitch against Villarreal in their Champions League last- 16 game. His recent form had been outstanding. A 1-1 draw put Juventus in a strong position ahead of Wednesday’s second leg. But as he left the field, De Ligt was still thinking about the Villarreal goal. Replaying the cross from Étienne Capoue, the run from Dani Parejo, the decision to step up instead of hold the line. Furious with himself.
He’s still thinking about it almost a month later, which gives you an idea of the Dutchman’s mindset. “I always want to be the most critical about myself,” he says over a virtual call from Turin. “I know exactly when I did something wrong. To grow, sometimes you have to accept you made the wrong decisions. And yeah, in that situation I could have done better.”
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March 8, 2022
Lewandowski’s 11-minute hat-trick puts Bayern on course for 7-1 rout of Salzburg
As Bayern’s red shapes rampaged around the Allianz Arena, running rings around their traumatised opponents, it was easy to forget that this was a fixture they had approached with a certain foreboding. Salzburg are a dangerous team, and had played well enough in the first leg to raise the spectre of a calamitous defeat. By the time Leroy Sané was slamming in the home side’s seventh goal from a tight angle, all that seemed a very long way away.
Instead it was a night simply to purr and to appreciate, and for Bayern’s prospective Champions League opponents to ponder on how they might be stopped. Sané was excellent, Kingsley Coman too, Thomas Müller burgled a couple of goals in the second half and Serge Gnabry showed flickering signs of a return to form. But for all Salzburg’s impressive industry and intent, they were ultimately beaten by a player currently without equal in world football, who at the age of 33 still seems to be honing and sharpening and adding new edges.
Continue reading...March 7, 2022
Shane Warne died as he lived, leaving a hurricane of emotions and memories | Jonathan Liew
He achieved greatness but never pretended to be perfect, and perhaps we all loved him a little bit more because of that
There is a scene in the 2001 Channel 4 documentary Shane Warne’s English Summer in which the Australian leg-spinner is shown in the Hampshire dressing room a few minutes before play is about to begin, wolfing down an enormous plate of chips. The interviewer suggests that perhaps this is not the nutritional regimen normally associated with the world’s top athletes.
“Well,” Warne replies through a mouthful of ketchup and deep-fried matter, “if I don’t have my chips, I’m not happy. And if I’m not happy, I don’t bowl well. A piece of lettuce or fruit doesn’t make you feel good, does it?”
Continue reading...March 6, 2022
Should it take a war to show that sport and politics are forever linked? | Jonathan Liew
‘Happy Thursday everyone!” the official Uefa Europa League account tweeted on the morning of 24 February, looking ahead to another crucial round of matches in Europe’s second most prestigious men’s football competition. Alas, not everyone was in quite as festive a mood. For, just a few hours earlier, Russian artillery had moved into Ukraine bringing up the curtain on a bloody and avoidable war in mainland Europe.
It’s easy to forget it now, amid the breathtaking speed with which the world of sport has closed ranks against Russia, but in the hours and days after the fighting started Uefa on Twitter was hardly the only sports authority to monumentally fail to read the room. For example, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) eventually banned Russia from the Paralympic Winter Games but only after first announcing an unsatisfactory compromise in which Russian athletes would have been allowed to compete in neutral colours. Fifa only kicked the Russians out of this year’s World Cup qualifying after other European teams made it clear they were not prepared to play them.
Continue reading...March 5, 2022
Manchester City’s post-Pep planning must avoid United’s failures | Jonathan Liew
City’s rivals, still in limbo after bungling the task of replacing Alex Ferguson, are proof of the pitfalls of a poor succession plan
Many years afterwards, Pep Guardiola would joke that the reason he never took over at Manchester United was because he couldn’t understand Alex Ferguson’s accent. The pair went for dinner in New York in September 2012, when Guardiola was on sabbatical and pondering his next move. Over a luxurious meal and fine wine – all paid for by Ferguson – they talked falteringly about football and life and the future.
“My English is not so good,” Guardiola later said, “and when Sir Alex spoke quickly I sometimes had a problem to understand him. That’s why maybe I didn’t understand if I received an offer or not.”
Continue reading...‘Show respect’: Thomas Tuchel hits out at Chelsea fans for Abramovich chant
Thomas Tuchel has criticised the Chelsea fans who interrupted a moment of applause for Ukraine by singing about their billionaire Russian owner Roman Abramovich.
“It’s not the moment to do this,” the Chelsea manager said of the chants that were heard from a significant contingent of the travelling support before the Premier League game against Burnley. “If we show solidarity, we should show solidarity together.”
Continue reading...Chelsea and Kai Havertz turn on style after half-time to easily topple Burnley
For 45 minutes, Chelsea’s wounded players jogged around the pitch as if wondering what was the point of it all. To be fair this is a question many of us have been pondering of late, but given recent events at Stamford Bridge the problem felt particularly acute. What exactly are Chelsea playing for these days? Pride? Escapism? Third place? Thomas Tuchel’s job? Who would even fire him at the moment? Is anyone safe these days?
Naturally, this suited Burnley just fine. They had troubles of their own to contend with and after a reasonably solid first half harboured genuine hope of an unexpected point in their struggle against relegation.
Continue reading...March 3, 2022
What will be Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea legacy? – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Katie Shanahan and Jonathan Liew discuss the latest at Chelsea and more midweek FA Cup fixtures
Rate, review, share on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud, Acast and Stitcher, and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and email.
On the podcast today: Roman Abramovich confirms Chelsea are for sale, but who will buy and what legacy does he leave on English football?
Continue reading...March 1, 2022
Jack Grealish shows what he can do for Manchester City – if he gets the ball | Jonathan Liew
Victory was secured at Peterborough, but not without the visitors learning that a playmaker needs possession to make their plays
You had to feel for Peterborough in a way. Make it through to the last 16 of the FA Cup for the first time in 36 years, bravely hold off one of the world’s best teams for an hour, and your reward? To get schooled by half a billion pounds’ worth of talent on your home turf.
But if the skilled resistance of Grant McCann’s team finally crumbled in the last half-hour, in many ways the real reward was simply to be here: in the shop window, live on primetime ITV, bumping Emmerdale off the schedules.
Continue reading...Only now is football beginning to wake up to the stench of its own money | Jonathan Liew
Roman Abramovich’s move to step aside at Chelsea highlights the issue of omnipotent foreign owners in the English game
As the old romantic saying almost goes: if you love something, let stewardship and care of it go – naturally, while retaining possession of all the relevant deeds and liquid assets. The news that Roman Abramovich is apparently giving up day-to-day control of Chelsea to the trustees of the club’s charitable foundation has been interpreted in wildly different ways which, with the benefit of a little reflection, seems to have been the entire point of the exercise.
For some it is the ultimate sacrificial act of devotion: Abramovich’s way of insulating the club he adores from the threat of sanction, censure, even seizure. Big surprise: the billionaire oligarch has feelings! For others it is a cynical sleight of hand: the act of very grandiosely doing nothing at all, a solemn legal statement with no legal import whatsoever. For some it is a sign that nothing will be the same again. For others it is a sure sign that Abramovich is intent on ultimately making everything the same again.
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