Jonathan Liew's Blog, page 99
January 4, 2021
Alisson's rush of blood sums up jaded Liverpool and weary wider world | Jonathan Liew
Jürgen Klopp’s side lacked efficiency at Southampton and their early-season injury crisis may be catching up with them
A few minutes from the end of this game, with Liverpool chasing an equaliser, James Milner fell over in possession. Centre-half Jack Stephens recovered the ball and, with no Southampton teammate prepared to make a run, ended up reluctantly dribbling the ball out of defence, as if being forced to do so at gunpoint.
Eventually Stephens punted a hopeful long ball over the top to for Yan Valery to chase. At which point, enter Alisson: sprinting heroically out his goal to clear. Except, as Alisson quickly discovered to his horror, he was not going to reach the ball first. And so, having advanced 45 yards, the Liverpool goalkeeper now simply stopped dead in his tracks, like a man who has just stepped forward to receive communion only to remember that he is not a Catholic.
Related: Southampton's Danny Ings finds early winner to deflate former club Liverpool
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Brentford's focus on the human touch belies Moneyball reputation | Jonathan Liew
Team facing Tottenham in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final has several overlooked players who have found their true home
Rasmus Ankersen, the director of football at Brentford, often likes telling the story of his first meeting with Matthew Benham, the club’s owner. It was 2013 and with Brentford third in League One, Ankersen decided to make some small talk. “Do you think you’re going to go up?” Ankersen asked. Benham turned to him. “Well,” he replied, “at the moment we have a 42.3% chance.”
This is the sort of story people like to tell about Brentford: a club bought by a gambling tycoon with a lust for numbers, staffed by a small army of analysts and disruptors applying regression curves and game theory to the EFL on a rainy Tuesday night. The frequent refrain you will hear is that Brentford’s most successful era since the 1940s is based on a “data-driven”, “Moneyball-style” approach: both of which evoke the notions of shortcuts and magic recipes, of success generated painlessly by computer code.
Related: José Mourinho typically primed for his 'biggest game' as Spurs manager
Related: Érik Lamela will not play against Brentford after Christmas Covid breach
Related: Brentford happy to do it their own way in quest for promotion
Continue reading...January 3, 2021
Gerwyn Price sweeps Gary Anderson aside to clinch first PDC world darts title
The result itself was no shock. What nobody could remotely have foreseen – with the possible exception of Gerwyn Price himself – was the jaw-dropping manner in which it occurred. In becoming world champion for the first time, the 35-year-old Price produced one of the most complete, most emotionally draining, most implausible performances ever seen on the Alexandra Palace stage.
His 7-3 destruction of Gary Anderson was notable not just for what it was, but for what it portended: the birth of a new superstar of darts, the first player to seriously challenge the supremacy of Michael van Gerwen, the first new world No 1 since van Gerwen took over from Phil Taylor seven years ago. As Price steamrollered the two-times world champion Anderson, what stood out above all was the sense of utter certainty: a display of brawn and bottle and unerring brilliance that at times genuinely defied belief.
Related: Gerwyn Price v Gary Anderson: PDC World Darts Championship final – live!
Continue reading...January 2, 2021
Gerwyn Price sets up PDC world final showdown with Gary Anderson
If they handed out world championships on the strength of talking, it would be no contest. Sunday’s final between Gerwyn Price and Gary Anderson pits Wales against Scotland, a first-time finalist against a two-time champion, insurgent brawn against world-weary indifference. While Anderson is an all-time great who speaks of himself as a run-of-the-mill pub thrower, Price finally stands on the verge of cashing the cheques his mouth has merrily been writing for years.
When he awakens in his hotel bubble on Sunday morning, the 35-year-old from Markham will know that he stands one game away from claiming it all. A first world championship. The No 1 world ranking. And most importantly of all, the fulfilment of a promise that has sustained him ever since he gave up a career in rugby union to chance his arm on the travelling sideshow of competitive arrows.
Related: 'What a numpty': Anderson takes aim at Mardle after PDC worlds cruise
Related: Dave Chisnall thrashes Michael van Gerwen to reach PDC semi-final
Continue reading...December 29, 2020
Mauricio Pochettino an odd choice for PSG, a club where the individual is king | Jonathan Liew
A coach who has built his reputation as a team-builder will have to find a way to harness players unlikely to be willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause
The first thing you need to know about the six-day underground Christmas disco that Neymar is allegedly hosting for 500 people in the soundproofed annexe of a mansion outside Rio de Janeiro is that Neymar denies its very existence.
Nevertheless, CNN Brasil has reported that in recent days an unusually high number of cars have been seen pulling up outside Neymar’s home in the small beach town of Mangaratiba. Local hotels have been registering a surge in bookings, despite rising coronavirus cases in the region. A source for the municipal government has described the alleged gathering as “a sanitary disrespect”. And a representative for a Brazilian folk band called Vou Pro Sereno has confirmed that they have been booked to play an underground Christmas disco that Neymar – and we really can’t stress this part enough – insists is not actually taking place.
Related: Path cleared for Pochettino after PSG confirm Thomas Tuchel's dismissal
Related: Lille, Lyon and PSG will fight it out in a three-way title race in Ligue 1
Continue reading...December 25, 2020
Wonderful yet wasteful: Chelsea must unlock the best of Timo Werner | Jonathan Liew
The German arrived with a big reputation but his style is complex and Frank Lampard is still trying to work it out
Naturally the Germans have a word for it. They call it chancentod: literally, “chance death”. Being described as a chancentod doesn’t necessarily make you a bad player. It’s not a tag you’re stuck with for life. All it means is that at the moment, you possess an unerring and uncanny ability to squander whatever goalscoring opportunity is presented to you. Which, for all his manifold qualities, feels like a pretty good way of describing Timo Werner at Chelsea right now.
To watch Werner of late is to be torn between pity and disbelief. The £52m summer signing has now gone nine club games without a goal in all competitions. But this isn’t your regular dry patch. Werner isn’t just not scoring. He’s dramatically, spectacularly not scoring.
Related: Premier League: 10 good and bad surprises of the season so far
Related: Lewandowski out on his own while Liverpool have most players in top 100
Continue reading...December 22, 2020
Newcastle out as Josh Dasilva sends Brentford into Carabao Cup semi-finals
Still, at least Newcastle can concentrate on the league now. On a dank and dreary night, they were handed a lesson in invention and ambition by a Brentford team who can now celebrate the first major cup semi-final in their 121-year history.
They got there by believing in their plan, by having a plan, by wanting the ball: traits that have not defined Steve Bruce’s side for a good while now.
Related: Arsenal v Manchester City: Carabao Cup quarter-final – live!
Continue reading...Jan Vertonghen case shows concussion is all part of the sporting capitalism system
The defender, like many others, played through headaches and dizziness because his career depended on it
It was around the end of last year that people began to notice Jan Vertonghen was looking decidedly off the pace at Tottenham. He was slow off the mark, slow to the ball, slow to react. Occasionally entire passages of play seemed to pass him by. And so, naturally, as an underperforming player in a popular ball game, it felt only right that he should be subjected to the same pitch of ridicule and abuse as anyone else in his position.
I went back through social media during some of his poorer games last season and pulled out a few of the more representative comments from Spurs fans and others. “Legs gone.” “Sad, but hasn’t got a clue what day it is.” “Get this clown out of my club.” “Finished.” “Past it.” “Utter disgrace.” “Sell.” “Dead wood.” “Stealing a living.” “Happy if I never see him in the shirt again.”
Related: Jan Vertonghen reveals head blow led to nine months of dizziness and headaches
Perhaps this is a moment to consider what we owe the people risking their safety for our entertainment
Related: Steve Thompson: 'I can't remember winning the World Cup' | Andy Bull
Continue reading...December 21, 2020
Manchester United hit six, Liverpool get seven and 100 top players – Football Weekly
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Flo Lloyd-Hughes and Jonathan Liew to discuss free-scoring Liverpool and Manchester United, the deepening crisis at Arsenal and the Guardian’s top 100 male footballers
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Max and the pod discuss Liverpool’s and Manchester United’s huge wins over Crystal Palace and Leeds United, respectively, plus the worsening situation at Arsenal and Leicester City going second in the Premier League.
Elsewhere, Watford sack Vladimir Ivic after four months in charge, Celtic complete a quadruple triple in last season’s Scottish Cup final and Marcus Christenson drops by to discuss how the Guardian’s top 100 male footballers for 2020 has been collated.
December 20, 2020
Manchester United expose flaws in Leeds' attack-at-all-costs mentality | Jonathan Liew
Stretched thinly across the pitch and playing without a back-up plan, Marcelo Bielsa’s men could only plough-on into oblivion
Perhaps, when we think about some of the great Marcelo Bielsa teams, this was the sort of thing we had in mind. Feverish attacking football played at a breakneck pace, with courage and verve and runners peeling in all directions. Players seamlessly switching positions and assuming each other’s roles. The problem for Leeds United was that for most of the game they were on the receiving end.
Not that you would have known it to look at them. Normally you get some sense of how a game is going from the demeanour and tactics of the two teams: the hunched shoulders and crumpled body language, the nonchalant rondos, the vague sense of deflation. But for most of this breathless farce, the only dead giveaway was the rapidly mounting scoreboard in the corner of the screen.
Related: McTominay shines as Manchester United put six past leaky Leeds
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