Vesper

Wow! I was surprised by the April news, but if this happens, the league might as well be a write off with the Euros around the corner. IF there even is a Euro 2020 that shit looks shaky AF atm

I think Levy may well sack Mou before the season ends, IF they completely collapse the rest of the season will probably wait till season ends though

Mou 8 CL knockouts games without a win on the bounce he is DONE clueless bitter twat

FT spuds crushed 3 nil 4 nil on agg

I just do not want to get routed in Munich I would take a 2 2 draw or even a 2 1 loss sore afraid of a 5, 6 goal pasting though

3 4 Atalanta FT Atalanta win 8-4 on aggregate

I think spuds players are already downing tools on Mou he RIPPED Dier a new arse just a few games back and he has looked like he would rather be washing his Benz at a car park since

oh my oh my Dier simply DREADFUL effort

weeeeeeee 3 nil Forsberg Swedish power

3 4 Atalanta Illicic with a golden sombrero

The making of Julian Nagelsmann https://theathletic.com/1664189/2020/03/09/julian-nagelsmann-leipzig-tottenham-hotspur-bundesliga/ It wasn’t the first time Julian Nagelsmann received bad news from the doctor. As a teenage defender at TSV 1860 Munich, he had been struggling with a congenital back problem for months. But that day, the prognosis was worse than usual. “Julian was told that he probably would not make it as a professional,” his then team-mate Christian Traesch tells The Athletic. “I remember he looked at me and said, ‘If I can’t make it as a player, I will become a Bundesliga coach instead.’” Nine years later, he did. Nagelsmann’s incredibly rapid career progression and his success as the youngest permanent coach in German top-division history has been well-documented. What’s far less well-known, however, is just how good a player he had been before a botched knee operation extinguished the last lingering hopes of pursuing an active career at the age of 20, and that many of his coaching principles were informed by his personal experiences. The key to understanding the RB Leipzig coach’s extraordinary ability to hit a chord with players lies in the maturity and empathy he had already shown as an adolescent. Nagelsmann was born in Bavaria and scouted by 1860 at the age of 15 in 2002. Munich’s second-biggest club were known as one of the best developers a talent at the time, a real hotbed of up-and-coming pros. Nagelsmann, a tall, elegant centre-back, shared a dressing room with top players like the future United States and Borussia Monchengladbach winger Fabian Johnson, the Bender twins (Lars and Sven) and Julian Baumgartlinger (now all at Bayer 04 Leverkusen). Traesch recalls Nagelsmann helping him to settle when he joined as a 16-year-old from his hometown club MTV Ingolstadt. “He was this incredibly funny, outgoing guy, with a wicked sense of humour,” he says. “He welcomed me to the team with real warmth. We immediately clicked.” The pressure to succeed can make for a pressurised, egocentric environment in academies but 1860’s ethos was different, says Benjamin Kauffmann, another of the club’s former youth players who would become a close friend of Nagelsmann. “The club put a huge emphasis on signing youngsters who had the right attitude and character. There were no divas and no troublemakers. We were a really tight-knit unit, a super-cool band of brothers.” Traesch (nicknamed “Trashy”), “Nagel” and Kaufmann, now a midfielder at fourth-division SV Pipinsried, all went to to the same class in the Rainer-Werner-Fassbinder-Fachoberschule, a comprehensive secondary school in nearby Giesing. Nagelsmann excelled, but not by virtue of hard work. “He had the knack of achieving maximum success with minimal effort because he could listen in class and take it all in,” Traesch says “He was a super bright guy.” Nagelsmann’s keen perception allowed him to take things easy and entertain the classroom with an endless array of jokes. “The whole class couldn’t help but laugh about his quips, and even the teachers didn’t mind when he was making fun of them — he did it in such a charming way that they never got angry with him,” Kauffmann remembers. “He could really win people over.” As they got older, the three of them often shared a ride in Nagelsmann’s banged-up black Opel Astra, singing along to Westlife at the top of their voice. “In town, the car was fine but as soon you got onto the Autobahn and pushed 150 km/h, the wheel would start shaking violently,” Traesch laughs. On nights off, they frequented Kunstpark Ost, a now defunct collection of clubs in an industrial area of Munich that catered to wide variety of musical tastes. “It was a different time then,” Traesch says, “you could do these things — within reason.” In the dressing room, too, Nagelsmann understood things more quickly than most. “He was a real joker but he knew to cut it all out when things got serious before games,” Kaufmann says. “He hung on the lips of the coach and took it all in. Because he was so switched on and focused, he solved problems before they truly arose. I hardly ever saw him make a tackle. He was always in the right position, with plenty of time to win the ball. His confidence enabled him to marshal his team-mates, shouting out orders from the back.” At a time when German football was weaning itself off its age-old dependency on the sweeper system, Nagelsmann was looking like the perfect modern centre-back. “His build-up play was outstanding,” says Traesch. “He played these fine vertical balls to the midfielders and oozed class. Most of all, he was incredibly solid and reliable. He never had a really bad day and was often brilliant. I remember him gliding through midfield against VfB Stuttgart once and scoring a fine goal with his head. That was him.” While Traesch tried to emulate Arsenal’s Patrick Viera, Nagelsmann modelled himself on John Terry. “Those were the players we most looked up to. One day in training, we called each other ‘Patrick’ and ‘Johnny’, and were cracking up. Our team-mates had no idea what was going on but it was one of those perfect sessions when everything seems to come off.” Traesch, who now plays for Al-Wasl in Dubai, and Kauffmann were convinced their friend was destined for a career in the Bundesliga but a persistent back problem kept him out of the side for extended spells. “He was a real leader but sadly, also a prisoner of his injuries,” Kauffmann says. Having been promoted to the under-23s at the age of 19, Nagelsmann never managed to play a competitive match again. “He would join in for the odd game on one of the artificial pitches at the academy but it was basically over for him,” Kauffmann continues. “He tried to deal with it as best as possible, keeping up his spirits, but when he was away from the group, the tears would flow. Juli is a very emotional person.” Shortly after his career was officially over, fate delivered an even worse blow. His father Erwin passed away, aged 56, following a short illness. Traesch says: “We tried to help him as best as we could, being there for him, but we were essentially out of our depth. How do you deal with such an event? You can’t, really.” Nagelsmann’s two friends believe the tragic loss of his father forced him to grow up quicker than his peers. “He was always more mature than most but the extra responsibility he had to take on on behalf of his family had a huge impact on his development,” says Kauffmann. “It’s little surprise to me that he was able to get ahead in coaching so quickly. Coaching is dealing with people. Due to the disappointments and pain he had suffered, he had the ability to relate to players’ feelings in a way that few could — especially at such an age.” The combination of his keen intellect, a larger-than-life persona and his strong emotional connection with players was unique, TSG Hoffenheim’s sporting director Alexander Rosen tells The Athletic. After a spell as an opposition scout for FC Augsburg’s second team under the auspices of Thomas Tuchel, now the Paris Saint-Germain coach, Nagelsmann had become part of Hoffenheim’s academy coaching staff in 2010. He was quickly made the under-16s coach and then kept steadily progressing, winning the club’s first under-19 championship in 2014. “The under-19s championship reinforced our belief in him but it wasn’t that important,” says Rosen. “We were already sure that he was excellent by then. We had seen from the outset that he was very special. He’s loud, extrovert and very funny. Infectious. Rhetorically, he’s fantastic. He gets the team and the whole staff to buy into his ideas. The moment he enters the room, you know he’s around. Whether it’s on the training pitch, during dinner with the team, or in the changing room — he has a huge effect on people, thanks to his tall frame (6ft 3in) and his aura.” Rosen describes Nagelsmann as a fastidious worker who is “obsessed with details” and sports an “incredible knowledge of the game”. While some felt that his appointment as head coach in 2016 in the midst of a relegation battle smacked of desperation or a PR campaign, the club claim they were assured of his suitability. “You can never quite know if something works out in football. There are no guarantees,” Rosen concedes. “But having seen him at work at the club for six years, we were totally convinced that Julian was a highly talented coach with a great personality. His way of working — a focus on developing teams and players — was a perfect fit for our club. A newspaper wrote (appointing him in 2016) was a ‘marketing gag’ but it had been our plan to promote him all along. It just happened more quickly than anticipated. “Some felt we were crazy to appoint a coach with no first-team experience and said there was a danger his career prospects would be hurt. The opposite was true. Julian went into the relegation battle in a very relaxed and happy mood, telling his players that the point was not ‘to fight more’ but to play football.” Hoffenheim survived and shot up to fourth spot in his first full season the year after. Nagelsmann, Rosen adds, is “brutally” ambitious. “He always wants to do better and to win. That sets the tone for his team. I remember when he said that he wanted to be a contender for the championship with Hoffenheim. Some thought he was being unrealistic but he wanted to push his players.” Making players play well, the very essence of coaching, is a theme that comes up frequently when you talk to those who know him best. Nagelsmann is a tactics buff and an enthusiastic early adopter of new technology, such as giant video screens and drones in training. But when it comes down to it, his work is rather old-fashioned, closer to teaching. “Julian is able to explain to players what they do right and what they do wrong — and he always gives them concrete solutions. They respond to that,” says RB Leipzig sporting director Markus Kroesche. “The key thing is: every player knows exactly what they’re supposed to do on the pitch. Julian issues very clear, effective instructions in a very concise manner that’s easily understood.” Serge Gnabry, the Bayern Munich and Germany forward, credits Nagelsmann with fine-tuning both his mentality and the technical aspects of his game when they worked together at Hoffenheim in 2017-18. “I had heard that he improves players and that’s what happened to me,” says Gnabry. “He kept pushing me. All the time. He said, ‘Serge, you have to do more. You have so much potential. You need to take control of the game more. You need to force it more’. There was an enormous amount of feedback and the training was great. He showed me many situations on video, telling me that I should make runs between and behind the lines rather than come deep that often, for example. He really changed the way I saw the game and he taught me to analyse myself much more.” Kroesche adds: “Football teams have a good feel as to whether a coach can help them perform and overcome their problems. With Julian, nothing is put on. He’s very straight and honest with his players. Authentic. And it comes down to four things: he has a tremendous amount of social capital, he can recognise and maximise a player’s potential, he can make players better and he can effectively intervene during games. His changes at half-time against Bayern Munich (in the 1-1 draw at Leipzig last September) were a good example of that.” Having been outplayed in the first half, Nagelsmann took off wing-back Lukas Klostermann for defensive midfielder Diego Demme and changed to a back four. Leipzig were able to defend higher and put more pressure on the ball. By the end of the game, they were unlucky not to have won it. Rosen homes in on the same point. “One of his greatest qualities is the ability to read a game. It doesn’t take him long to recognise patterns of play and the spaces that appear — and more importantly, he’s able to change things, implementing ideas that his team will have prepared for during the week. He’s the complete package.” Paul Mitchell, Red Bull group’s technical director of international soccer, is also sold. “I just think he’s a highly, highly talented coach,” the former head of recruitment at Southampton and Tottenham told The Athletic last month. “He’s got great charisma, very relatable, very open, and he’s got a really high ceiling in terms of where he could go in his coaching career. “I think he’s a natural fit to Red Bull. We like to invest in talent. Julian is as talented as they come in terms of coaching. He knows that he has learning to achieve. The (Spurs) game and the knockout stages will be great for his own personal development. We are just as excited about his talent here as we are about our young squad.” A first Bundesliga title might just be beyond him in light of Bayern Munich’s strong form this spring but Rosen is certain that Nagelsmann’s managerial career is inevitably heading towards the kind of glory that was so cruelly denied to him as a player. “Julian once said that he wants to coach one of Europe’s best clubs and win big trophies,” says Rosen. “There’s not a shred of doubt in my mind that he’ll achieve that.”

CIES Football Observatory n°286 - 09/03/2020 Demography Most precocious players: Donnarumma and Hazard at the top https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2019/wp286/en/ The 286th CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post ranks current big-5 league players according to the age at which they have reached 50, 100, 200 and 300 caps in these competitions. The Milan AC goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma leads the 50 and 100-match tables, while the Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard is at the top for the 200 and 300-match rankings. Gianluigi Donnarumma played his 50th game in the big-5 even before his 18th birthday, and the 100th at 19.2 years of age only! In both cases, he outranks another goalkeeper, the French Alban Lafont (FC Nantes). The Basque Iker Muniain (Athletic Club) is the outfield footballer having reached the earliest the 50 and 100 caps in the big-5: at 18.2 and 19.8 years of age respectively. Eden Hazard holds the records of precocity for both the 200 and 300 big-5 league matches. The Belgian was only 23 years old when he played his 200th game in the five major European championships. He is the only player currently in the big-5 who reached his 300th cap before 26 years of age. Five additional footballers played 300 games before their 27th birthday: James Milner, Moussa Sissoko, Iker Muniain, Miralem Pjanić and Cesc Fàbregas. Age of the player at the time of the 50th, 100th, 200th or 300th match in the big-5 Big-5 leagues players, 02/03/2020 more at the link

think it might be played with no fans is that possible? I honestly do not know

How Thierry Henry is trying to resurrect his coaching career in MLS https://www.espn.co.uk/football/major-league-soccer/story/4071276/how-thierry-henry-is-trying-to-resurrect-his-coaching-career-in-mls

Mou needs to go to MLS not joking the yanks will lap up his bollocks and hate

I am so afraid you are right

Atalanta scored again 6 2 on aggregate can't believe we lost top to shit Valencia

Nordi Mukiele has developed into a badass RB, been on him for years

I really think, for some bizarre reason that Pep is a SHIT coach of fullbacks at Shitty he brings in players who were superb or at least solid as hell before and most go to pot at Shitty then they leave and go back to really good Angeliño in this game is good example maybe it is just his system atm it is not just the EPL, no way do I believe that at all

wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 2 nil

What Ian Maatsen’s new deal tells us about the future of Chelsea’s left-backs https://theathletic.com/1666825/2020/03/10/what-ian-maatsens-new-deal-tells-us-about-the-future-of-chelseas-left-backs/ At the end of a week lit up by Billy Gilmour, another exciting talent from the academy has given Chelsea cause to celebrate. Ian Maatsen, signed from PSV Eindhoven in July 2018, marked his 18th birthday on Tuesday by signing a new contract until the summer of 2024 – and sources have told The Athletic that the club have an option to extend his stay for a further year. The agreement is partly an indication of the faith Maatsen has in Frank Lampard’s youth movement, which has already yielded senior debuts for him and seven other Cobham graduates since August. But it is also a reflection of the Dutchman’s optimism that he will get a chance to compete for significant first-team minutes as early as next season. Maatsen was due to enter the final year of his contract this summer and could have chosen to go the same route as Tariq Lamptey, who ran down his first professional deal at Stamford Bridge in order to increase his leverage before eventually opting to join Brighton & Hove Albion in January rather than take Chelsea’s offer. Lamptey left primarily because he couldn’t see a route to the starting XI at right-back past club captain Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James, who is expected to take the 30-year-old Spaniard’s spot sooner or later. The landscape that confronts Maatsen over at left-back is nowhere near as intimidating. Many around Chelsea believe neither of Marcos Alonso and Emerson Palmieri are in Lampard’s plans beyond the rest of this season. Each has endured prolonged spells out of the team at the expense of the other, while Azpilicueta has been deployed at left-back ahead of both at times in order to make space for James on the right. Alonso has returned to prominence in in recent weeks, with three goals in two matches against Tottenham Hotspur and Bournemouth giving fresh impetus to Chelsea’s stuttering top-four chase, while Emerson has struggled with injury. But neither has been consistent enough to earn Lampard’s trust in a defence that has only rarely achieved stability this season. Sources told The Athletic in December that Leicester and England left-back Ben Chilwell is Chelsea’s No 1 target to fill the position, though there was always an acceptance that any deal to sign him would have to wait until the end of the season. Porto star Alex Telles has also been widely circulated as an enticing – and cheaper – alternative. But regardless of who Chelsea end up going for, there is a distinct possibility that their summer transfer dealings will leave an opening in the squad for an understudy at left-back. If this proves the case, Maatsen would prefer to stay on to challenge the man who comes in rather than take one of what are expected to be a wide range of potential loan options. Keeping him around next season would also benefit Chelsea beyond what he can offer them on the pitch: one more year on the books at Stamford Bridge would see Maatsen qualify as a ‘home-grown’ player by both Premier League and Champions League squad rules, making him more valuable and giving the club more flexibility in recruitment elsewhere in the coming years. Maatsen has not featured for the first team since making his senior debut as a substitute in the 7-1 rout of Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup in September, though he was included in the group Lampard took to Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier in the same month, watching the team’s 5-2 win at Molineux in the Premier League from the stands. He has also trained regularly with the seniors at Cobham. His skill set is a good fit for Lampard’s style. Much like James on the opposite side of the pitch, Maatsen is a modern, attack-minded full-back who is technically accomplished enough to thrive in central midfield, where he played for the duration of Holland’s run to the semi-finals in last year’s Under-17 World Cup in Brazil. Speaking to The Athletic after the Dutch were eliminated by Mexico in a match that went to extra time, he said: “At Chelsea I play different positions and it’s good for my experience, but I focus on left-back and the left side. I have to improve there a lot more. If I get a chance from [the manager], I will take it with two hands, impress him and show him what I can do.” Chelsea have some big decisions to make with the left-back position this summer, but Maatsen’s decision to renew is a positive start. At the very least, Lampard can now factor in a player with a viable chance to become a good long-term option into his squad planning.

woot woot I hope Spuds are crushed

How ‘little boy’ Gilmour is making a huge impression at Chelsea https://theathletic.com/1662484/2020/03/08/billy-gilmour-chelsea-little-boy-jorginho/ Ross Barkley had two assists, Mason Mount scored his first goal since December and Willian and Pedro sliced infield from the wings like it was 2016 — but Chelsea’s clear man of the match against Everton was the 18-year-old at the base of midfield that Olivier Giroud affectionately referred to afterwards as “the little boy”. Billy Gilmour’s other nickname could be “the scourge of Merseyside”. Five days after making Fabinho go viral for all the wrong reasons in a 2-0 FA Cup win over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, the slight Scot left Everton chasing shadows with pretty, probing passes that powered Chelsea’s most convincing performance at home all season. Watching him scamper around and between established, highly decorated professional footballers at Stamford Bridge this week, it is staggering to remember that Gilmour was signed from Rangers’ youth academy less than two years ago. He went into this season expecting it to be a consolidation year with Chelsea’s development squad. Even when Lampard told him to move permanently into the first-time building prior to the March international break, no one thought his breakthrough was this close at hand. First Premier League starts are not supposed to look this composed. Gilmour completed 74 of his 80 attempted passes, more than anyone else on the pitch. Many of them were short and simple and a good number were forward. Every one of them helped Chelsea move the ball with pace, precision and purpose around Everton’s half-hearted press and into their front three. “He’s receiving the ball in difficult areas on the pitch,” Lampard said of Gilmour after the match. “If you don’t move it quickly, firstly you don’t get the rhythm in our play and it breaks down from you, and secondly if you give it away in those areas it’s dangerous. You need confidence to do that. “I was going to say a rude word then. Yes, let’s go with balls. Jorginho has it, Billy has it too. One of the most pleasing things for me with Billy was that he showed those balls in the first half, but then when he stepped up and played one of the higher positions in the second half he instantly took it on board — arriving in the box, playing passes higher up the pitch. “He showed he can do both, which is a great thing for me when I’m thinking about how the midfield looks.” Gilmour didn’t claim an assist, but his positional intelligence and passing vision were key to both of the first-half goals that blew the game open. For the first, he receives the ball in front of his back four with time to turn and quickly slides it into the feet of Mount, who has drifted into the space between Tom Davies and Bernard. Mount drives into the final third and finds Pedro on the left flank, continuing his run into the box where he receives the return pass on the turn and lashes a shot beyond Jordan Pickford at his near post. It’s fundamentally great play from Mount, but the ball does not end up in the net if Gilmour is even marginally slower to realise that his team-mate has taken up a good position — on the half-turn inside the Everton half — to get Chelsea on the attack, and then find him with a pass ideally weighted to help him control, turn and run in a single motion. Gilmour’s role in Chelsea’s second goal is even more impressive. Once again, he has possession just in front of his back four, but this time closer to the right side of the pitch than the left. As he deftly turns away from Richarlison’s pressuring run, he manoeuvres himself into a position where he has an opportunity to play a short, sharp pass into the Everton half. Andre Gomes moves towards Gilmour, while being careful to make sure he still cuts off any passing angle to Barkley behind him. The most obvious progressive option would be to play a short pass into the feet of Willian, who is showing for the ball on the right wing. Lucas Digne, however, is in close proximity, and the Brazilian would likely be forced backwards on receiving the ball. Gilmour recognises this, and finds a more elegant solution that takes Everton’s midfield line out of the game. He shapes his body to pass to Willian, getting Gomes to lean to his left, but then whips a short pass slightly across himself into the feet of Giroud, who has only shown for the ball a split second earlier. It’s a subtle fake, but it’s enough to fool Gomes into giving him the passing angle. Giroud immediately lays it off to Barkley, and suddenly Chelsea again have the ball at the feet of one of their midfield creators with time and space between Everton’s lines. Barkley needs just one touch to slide an excellent pass in behind the visiting defence and meet the kind of run that Pedro has been making his entire career. He provides a clinical finish to a slick move, and the lead is doubled. Gilmour’s brilliance in the lead-up to this goal is easy to miss in real time, but offers an insight into why so many people are so excited about him. It takes real talent to recognise what an opposition defence is giving you and exploit it, but the next level — manipulating opposing defenders into giving you what you want — is a special gift that very few possess. The fact that Gilmour misplaced just five of his passes into the opposition half while playing with this degree of imagination and ambition is hugely promising for his future. Carlo Ancelotti paid a steep price for not emulating the tactical ploy of Marco Silva at Stamford Bridge last season, when Richarlison was tasked with ensuring that Chelsea couldn’t play through Jorginho. Everton’s commitment to 4-4-2 this time around ensured that Chelsea had a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch, and Gilmour took full advantage to run the game. He didn’t do it alone. Barkley produced arguably the best all-round display of his Chelsea career against his former club, while Mount worked tirelessly with and without the ball beyond simply ending his goal drought. Both tracked back diligently, gaining possession a combined 12 times and snapping into tackles either side of Gilmour. On a day in which Chelsea’s three most established central midfielders — N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic — were all unavailable due to injury or suspension, their individual performances and collective balance indicated that at least in one area of his squad, Lampard is not short of depth. Jorginho may come to regret the unfortunate confluence of his Premier League and Champions League bans. In addition to producing similar stats with the ball at his feet, Gilmour was also solid defensively for the second time in a week against high-level English opposition. The closest we got to a Fabinho-level gif from this Gilmour masterclass was a short clip of him losing the ball to Gomes on the halfway line, then immediately chasing down Richarlison, shepherding him into pressure by the touchline, and then calmly picking his moment to time a clean tackle that left the Brazilian tumbling on to his backside and Cesar Azpilicueta dribbling the ball upfield. In 60 minutes as Chelsea’s deepest-lying midfielder against Everton, Gilmour was not dribbled past once. That is partly a mark of the protection he received from Barkley and the tireless Mount, but it’s also testament to his own positional discipline. For context, Jorginho has only achieved the same feat twice in the Premier League this season — both times against a very defensive Newcastle. Last season, following the January sale of Cesc Fabregas to Monaco, Maurizio Sarri lamented that he had no one in his Chelsea squad capable of playing the Jorginho role. If he had taken a walk over to the academy pitches at Cobham he might have spotted Gilmour — though to be fair, perhaps Gilmour wasn’t ready a year ago. He clearly is now.

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