The English Football Thread

[DDA 9,731]

22 hours ago, Jason said:

You think Boris Johnson has done a decent job?

😤

 

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[Jase 43,479]

This must be the weakest starting XI Guardiola has ever put out in a League Cup game?

P.S. That Delap - Liam Delap - is the son of Rory Delap...

[Vesper 29,207]

Following the government announcement that plans to allow fans to attend football matches from 1st October would not go ahead, I thought it might be interesting to see how this could impact the revenue of Premier League clubs this season via match day losses due to COVID-19.

long thread, I will not post it all

[Vesper 29,207]

State of the Club, a new series from Tifo and The Athletic. Episode 1: Arsenal

https://theathletic.com/2084259/2020/09/23/state-of-the-club-tifo-the-athletic-arsenal/

What is Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal?

It’s a broader question than it seems, not least because of the subtle ideological conflict in north London. Arteta is a portrait of footballing modernity, very much Pep Guardiola’s 2.0. Surrounding him though, are the rigid confines of a club which can’t quite decide what it wants to be — or what it’s willing to stake in pursuit of that nebulous ambition.

From one angle, Arsenal are fixing to run. They’re full of ideas, energy and — ultimately — life. From another, they’re anchored by the many concerns that have come to define this generation. The silent owner. The bad deals. The frothing conflict and deadening myopia.

It’s that duality that makes them the perfect subject for State of the Club, Tifo Football’s newest content series, in which we’ll be combining our style with The Athletic’s finest journalists to apply as many lenses as possible to everything that matters in the game.

In this pilot episode, we talk to David Ornstein about Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s new contract and the reconfiguring of the club’s hierarchy. Matt Slater describes Arsenal’s commercial future and the shackling effect of deals agreed in the past. James McNicholas also drops by to talk to us about the boardroom, while we lean heavily on Amy Lawrence too — first to speculate on what the future of recruitment may look like and then, on a baking hot day, to lead us and Adam Leventhal around Highbury’s marble halls, to remember what once was.

But this is still Tifo: Alex Stewart casts his tactical eye over what Arsenal are and what they may one day become while, in a debut appearance, Jasmine Baba digs into Mikel Arteta’s past, to sketch the person beyond the former player and the Guardiola patronage.

So, we’ve been busy. We’ve been trying a few things which we haven’t done before and asking a couple of people to step beyond their comfort zones. Hopefully, the result is the right people answering the right questions and our cameras trained on what matters — an eclectic show in which there’s something for everyone.

Here is what to expect in our brand new video (below) 1. Introduction. 2. Who is Arteta? 3. Tactical identity. 4. Recruitment with David Ornstein. 5. Tifo Audit with Matt Slater. 6. James McNicholas on the boardroom. 7. Amy Lawrence & Adam Leventhal revisit Highbury.

 

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Cox: Jota will score goals, ‘press like a monster’ and… get opponents sent off

https://theathletic.com/2087584/2020/09/24/jota-liverpool-klopp-pressing-fouls/

Look up the statistics from Diogo Jota’s first two Premier League campaigns and you’ll be quietly impressed — 16 goals and six assists is a decent return for a young attacker (he was 21 at the start of the 2018-19 season).

What you won’t find among the usual statistical categories is a quality that remains undervalued: the ability to get an opponent sent off.

Over the last two seasons with Wolves, an opposition player has been shown a red card for fouling Jota on five occasions in the Premier League, and when you calculate how many minutes he has played over that period (4,670), it means he gets an opponent dismissed every 934 minutes — roughly once every 10 matches.

That tally probably should have been six red cards (more on that later). But what do all these incidents demonstrate about Jota’s game, and what he’ll now bring to Liverpool?

It’s clear that Jurgen Klopp wants his attacking players to be energetic and tenacious when pressing from the front — yesterday, his assistant Pep Lijnders said Jota is a “pressing monster, so he will fit right in” — which makes this first incident particularly intriguing.

Early in Jota’s Premier League career, Everton are hosting Wolves, and their captain Phil Jagielka is receiving a simple square ball across his defence. Jota doesn’t close down too early, for fear of the pass being played elsewhere, but as soon as it is played to Jagielka, Jota takes the opportunity to charge towards him.

Under pressure, Jagielka miscontrols, lunges in on Jota and is shown a straight red card (which could arguably have been awarded either for serious foul play or for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity).

Wolves had a numerical advantage for 50 minutes and drew 2-2, scoring both their goals against the 10 men.

That could have been an isolated incident, but Newcastle’s DeAndre Yedlin — unusually, playing at centre-back in this example — found himself in an almost identical situation in the December of that season. Again, there’s a square pass towards the opposition’s right-sided centre-back, and Jota glances over his shoulder to check his team-mates’ readiness for pressing.

Yedlin plays the ball on to right-back Javier Manquillo, who is pressed from behind by Jonny Castro Otto, so Jota senses the ball will be returned to Yedlin…

…and the American does a Jagielka — he miscontrols under pressure from Jota, is caught in possession, and hauls him down. He’s dismissed by Mike Dean.

Wolves played the final 34 minutes of that game with a one-man advantage and won 2-1 thanks to a last-minute Matt Doherty goal.

Pressing was a fundamental part of Jota’s game at Wolves, particularly in combination with Jonny behind him. This incident doesn’t lead to a red card — it leads to a goal — but it’s another example of his intelligence and work rate. Away at Brighton last December, Jota leads the press in the inside-left channel, which leaves right-back Steven Alzate free…

…the ball is played forward to Davy Propper, and then out towards Alzate…

…but Jonny is following up Jota’s initial press and pounces on the loose ball…

…and slips in Jota to score.

He started the press and then finished off the move.

Jota’s tendency to close down high up the pitch was also in evidence at Anfield in a narrow 1-0 loss just after Christmas last season, when he caught Virgil van Dijk in possession…

…and ran in behind to fire a decent effort at goal, with Van Dijk a spectator.

But back to the red cards.

Two days before that Liverpool defeat, Jota earned his most “valuable” opposition dismissal.

It came in Wolves’ 3-2 victory over Manchester City and meant his side had the luxury of playing against the defending champions with an extra player for 78 minutes in the busiest period in the season. It proved crucial — Wolves came back from 2-0 down after 51 minutes to win, again with an 89th-minute goal from Doherty.

This was a simple move — one of Conor Coady’s typical long passes over the top into the inside-left channel…

…which allowed Jota to run in behind, forcing Ederson to sweep way outside his area. After Jota knocked the ball past the Brazil goalkeeper, he was bundled to the ground.

That run is a typical feature of Jota’s game and worked particularly well with the passing range of Wolves’ defenders and midfielders.

Here’s a fine goal Jota scored against Everton late last season, with Ruben Neves out on the right flank, and arrowing a long pass in behind…

…for Jota to run on to and finish excellently with his left foot.

That goal was familiar to anyone who watched Wolves’ 4-3 victory over Leicester City in January 2019, which featured a Jota hat-trick. Again, there was a long Neves ball into the left channel…

…which saw Jota streaking away from Wes Morgan and finishing coolly.

Jota also linked excellently with centre-forward Raul Jimenez, and that combination brought another of the red cards Jota earned — in a trip to Watford on the first day of 2020. This featured a bouncing ball that Jimenez got up above Christian Kabasele to nod in behind…

…Jota was first onto the ball, and Kabasele could only recover enough to haul him to the ground. On this occasion, Wolves couldn’t launch a fightback with their extra man.

Combination play between Jimenez and Jota became a familiar part of Wolves’ attacking moves, particularly when Nuno Espirito Santo played 3-5-2 rather than 3-4-3, allowing his forwards to combine more closely.

Wolves’ opener in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge in March 2019 was particularly memorable — Jota slipped in Jimenez close to the halfway line…

…Jimenez returned the pass…

…then Jota dribbled forward before slipping in the Mexican to dink home. The two forwards played one-twos all the way through Chelsea’s defence.

Sometimes, Jota’s capacity for one-twos features wall passes with different players in the same move. The opener in that 2-2 draw away to Brighton last December showed that — Jota received the ball deep on the left and swapped passes with Jonny…

…then played in Jimenez while continuing his run into the box…

…and then converted from Jimenez’s stabbed ball into the box.

Another outside-of-the-boot Jimenez pass created what should have been another red card earned by Jota.

It came at home to Bournemouth just before Christmas 2018, when this excellent through-ball found him in his usual position…

…and Bournemouth centre-back Steve Cook — already on a yellow, for a foul on Jota — somehow escaped punishment for this blatant push on him, when he was otherwise through on goal.

But Cook’s defensive colleague Simon Francis wasn’t so lucky in Bournemouth’s 2-1 defeat when the clubs met on the south coast last November.

Making his first Premier League start in nearly a year after injury, Francis slid in to halt Jota’s run on the edge of the box for his first booking. Joao Moutinho whipped the resulting free kick into the top corner…

…then later, Francis cynically pulled Jota back on the halfway line to receive his marching orders.

Through these various situations, Jota’s game becomes clear — he loves attacking the inside-left channel, he’s excellent at playing one-twos with opponents, he’s very useful in terms of pressing, and his speed terrifies opponents.

What it doesn’t demonstrate is how two-footed Jota is.

He made 32 per cent of his passes with his supposedly weaker left foot last season, the fourth-highest figure of attackers in the Premier League (behind Pedro, Max Meyer and Cenk Tosun, all of whom played the equivalent of less than eight complete games anyway, which represents a small sample size). That suggests Jota would be happy playing on either flank, making him a capable understudy for Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Although mostly used on the left of Wolves’ 3-4-3 — or left-centre in the 3-5-2 — he split his time more equally among the four attacking roles in Porto’s 4-2-3-1 in 2016-17, suggesting he can essentially play anywhere in attack.

Liverpool had the best disciplinary record in the Premier League last season — an impressive achievement considering their all-action, aggressive approach to regaining possession.

The next step can be offered by Jota, a player with a handy habit of racking up the cards for the other team.

[Vesper 29,207]

On 22/09/2020 at 10:01 PM, Fulham Broadway said:

Definitely gave them an advantage. Millwall decided to smash the place up in 1985

 

so wish we draw them some day again!!

or a miracle takes place and they get promoted

those fuckers even managed a pitch invasion at the new Wembley

 

[Vesper 29,207]

What next? Sissy Spacek and Jennifer Aniston to buy Solihull Moors?

THE GANG BUYS A NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL CLUB The Fiver’s downtime is usually spent slugging super-strength Tin while watching 2. Bundesliga matches with chalkboard in hand. Who needs Netflix when Talking Pictures shows old episodes of Budgie, Catweazle and the late Jill Gascoine in The Gentle Touch? Superhero films are also a no-no at Fiver Towers. Who needs caped crusaders when you have Paul Lambert and Phillip Cocu? Thus, the news that Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have been revealed as potential investors in Wrexham AFC required some frantic googling on our abacus. Isn’t Deadpool a Dirty Harry sequel? It is really Always Sunny in Philadelphia? And what comes to mind about Wrexham’s football club itself? Yes, Mickey Thomas thudding a free-kick past David Seaman in January 1992 and dumping league champions Arsenal out of the FA Cup when Wrexham had finished the previous season 92nd in the league. And yes, then Mickey T’s printing machine. Perhaps that lurid tale caught the eye of a 15-year-old Reynolds as he grew up in Vancouver or a 14-year-old McElhenney while he grew up in, er, Philly. Or perhaps the pull of a club that gave the world Dai Davies, Brian Flynn, Horace Blew, Albert Kinsey and Joey Jones did it. Either way, a wash of cold reality is required.

'This could be a game-changer': Wrexham prepare for dose of Hollywood Read more

Wrexham are in the National League, an entity for which there is no guarantee the 2020-21 season will be started, let alone completed. And the second wave of Covid-19 is likely to starve lower- and non-league clubs of access to the lifeblood of gate receipts for the foreseeable future. The club is fan-owned, a state of being that would have saved Bury and Macclesfield from their recent collapses, and the Wrexham Supporters Trust Board voted overwhelmingly in favour of allowing the interest to progress. There is palpable enthusiasm at the prospect of dollars and immaculate dentistry coming to Clwyd. “97.5% of voters (1,223 members) voted in favour of the resolution,” chirruped a statement. Reynolds is something of a magnate, having made decent coin beyond the screen from having stakes in designer gin and mobile telephony. He and McElhenney see something in a small club that has struggled on for years. Should they be successful at Wrexham then lower-league fans begging random north American actors to bail out their club may become a common sight to behold on social media disgraces. Matt Damon and Bryan Cranston to buy Boreham Wood? Sissy Spacek and Jennifer Aniston for Solihull Moors? Scott Baio and Bronson Pinchot to rescue Rochdale? Struggling provincial football clubs could soon become the new Hollywood A-list must-haves.

[Unionjack 7,531]

Cant imagine how Leyton must feel nt getting their Spuds game re sorted.

But you can see Mous face light up thinking about us!

[xPetrCechx 13,565]

Spurs will play 3 games in 5 days 

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Friday September 25 2020 Football Nerd

How Crystal Palace's attacks have been the fastest in the Premier League By Daniel Zeqiri   Exploiting attacking transitions is crucial in modern football. Thanks to the exhaustive use of data and ever more forensic video scouting, teams have never been more well organised and attuned to their opponent's strengths. The few seconds after possession changes hands when defences are disorganised is a precious chance to launch an ambush. No team has been more impressive in this regard than Crystal Palace, who collected maximum points from two difficult opening games against Southampton and Manchester United. Palace have recorded the fastest attacking sequences of any team in the Premier League so far this season. With the important caveat that the season is only two games old, I analyse those numbers here.

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Should City have signed Thiago or can they replace Silva from within?

https://theathletic.com/2090519/2020/09/25/manchester-city-aouar-foden-thiago-bennacer/

For all the centre-back hokey cokey, the striker enquiries, the left-back wait-and-sees and the Lionel Messi rollercoaster, Manchester City have been clear on one thing this summer: there will be no new midfielders.

No Denis Zakaria, no Ismael Bennacer, no Houssem Aouar, no Thiago, not even Douglas Luiz, who could have been re-signed from Aston Villa with a buy-back clause.

Despite David Silva’s exit, and his importance not just to this City team but to every City team of the last decade, the club’s decision makers believe they have everything they need already.

“At the moment we have enough players in this position,” Pep Guardiola said last Friday.

But do they?

Phil Foden is supposed to be Silva’s successor, of course, and that is something Guardiola himself has said many times. A year ago, had it been suggested that City would buy a replacement for Silva they would have been criticised for putting an obstacle in Foden’s path, and there would’ve been some justification for that criticism.

A lot has changed in that time, however, as it has become increasingly clear that Guardiola is reluctant to play Foden or Bernardo Silva in Silva’s left-sided No 8 role. In the past few months, it has been more common to see Foden playing in the front three, and Bernardo’s appearances in midfield have generally been in place of De Bruyne.

That’s because, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Foden, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne are different players to Silva, and Guardiola wants one “De Bruyne-type” and one “Silva-type” when he plays two No 8s.

Foden, Bernardo and De Bruyne will carry the ball and probe for openings, whereas Silva is a “take the ball, pass the ball” kind of player. By using the ball quickly and efficiently, it helps dictate the tempo of a game, and it gives an element of control. Ilkay Gundogan is the only similar midfielder in the squad, which is why the German has filled in for Silva far more than anybody else.

But while Silva and Gundogan are the same type of player, Silva is far more effective in the final third. Even so, Silva was often left out last season because of his lack of physicality and energy, so in an ideal world City would need a mobile, hard-working, creative No 8 who can also dictate the rhythm of a game, which is obviously not easy.

It seems a no-brainer to many of us to simply play Foden or Bernardo next to De Bruyne given they are all mobile, hard-working and creative, but without that element of control it’s just not a Guardiola team.

Instead, one of the ways he planned to replace Silva and retain that level of control heading into this season was to play four central players in the team instead of three — for example Rodri, Gundogan, De Bruyne and Bernardo — and that is what we saw on Monday at Wolves.

In Gundogan’s absence, Fernandinho returned to midfield alongside Rodri in a double pivot, which seemed to be Guardiola’s preferred mechanism for protecting his defence last season. De Bruyne floated around on the left, where Silva would normally be, and Foden dropped in from the right wing, making it a midfield four at times but still managing to provide an outlet out wide, which is bound to be very useful.

It worked well enough and it is easy to imagine Bernardo slotting in somewhere (either in Foden’s position or even De Bruyne’s) and Gundogan being used basically anywhere, given how much Guardiola values him.

So there are clearly ways to live without Silva, and in Rodri, Gundogan, Fernandinho, Foden, Bernardo and De Bruyne you would sound a bit spoiled to suggest City need another player, but… there’s a very good argument that they do.

Guardiola’s two most successful seasons at City came with one holding midfielder and two No 8s, and of the four players who can play there (Foden, Bernardo, De Bruyne, Gundogan), three are effectively vying for the same role, with Gundogan the only one who can do close to what Silva did. That’s not ideal because even those around Gundogan believe he is better in a deeper position.

It is obviously difficult to find another Silva in the transfer market, but there simply isn’t one in the City squad at all and that makes it very hard to return to the system that delivered so many trophies between 2017 and 2019.

And clearly there were some options in the market this summer. It’s hard to make the argument that City need another deep-lying midfielder urgently, given Rodri is entering his second season, Gundogan is a very good option and Fernandinho is very capable cover even at 35, but… City are using the double-pivot quite a lot and sometimes a player becomes available that is worth going for.

“That 20 to 25-year-old category, that’s the spot that we like,” City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak says of potential signings, “but at the same time, sometimes opportunities come up that fit with what the manager wants and with what we need for the squad that might be out of that box, and if that’s the case we’re pragmatic enough to make that move.”

He was talking more about Kalidou Koulibaly and Messi, but surely that also goes for 29-year-old Thiago?

There’s an element of fantasy football about this but given City would move for older players if they’re what’s needed, the relatively low transfer fee (£20 million) and his sheer suitability to the squad, then surely the Spaniard would have been perfect?

It would have been harder to justify a move for Bennacer, the highly-rated Algerian at AC Milan, or even Douglas Luiz who improved so much at Villa last season. Thiago, on the other hand, may just be the best “control” midfielder in the world so it’s hard to think of an especially good reason why he would not have been of interest to City. If anything, it would have stopped Liverpool getting him and, with the benefit of hindsight, had City taken that approach with Virgil van Dijk, then history would have looked very different.

And then there’s Aouar, a player City like a lot and one who played so well against them in the Champions League in August. With City short of options to play Silva’s No 8 role, the Frenchman would have been perfect. He is the same type of “control” player, but one who is creative in the final third. Lyon seem to be willing to sell for under £60 million, the type of figure City have spent on players in the past two summers, and going by the enquiries they have made in other positions, they have that money available.

In fairness, Guardiola’s first attempt to crack life after Silva looked promising at Wolves, and if Foden’s ability to play in midfield and out wide at the same time is what it takes to help City move on then he will be, in a way, the Silva successor after all.

But if the plan is to get four central players into the team instead of three, there’s bound to be a shortfall somewhere else eventually. There will be games when City need a right winger who can destabilise the opposition with a dribble, when somebody like Riyad Mahrez or new boy Ferran Torres will be needed to help unpick a deep defence, and Guardiola will have to come up with alternative arrangements in midfield. Perhaps that will be what he tried last season, with Rodri and Gundogan next to each other and De Bruyne further forward. The prospect of the “Rodrigan” pairing, rightly or wrongly, will not fill many fans with confidence.

There is something to be said for trying to find solutions within the current squad. From within the City bubble it’s easy to say that the defence, midfield and attack all need new signings (and from my point of view, they do) but, at the same time, outside observers could surely argue that a squad filled with such quality and expensive players, coached by somebody as good as Guardiola, should not always rely on the transfer market.

So it will be both interesting and refreshing to see Guardiola and his players come up with the solutions themselves.

But you don’t win extra points for degrees of difficulty, and in terms of squad planning it does seem to be a risk for a club as prepared as City not to address the situation.

They’re still trying to replace Vincent Kompany’s unique influence, after all. It would be a real achievement if they can get by without Silva.

[NikkiCFC 8,084]

5 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Should City have signed Thiago or can they replace Silva from within?

Foden is natural replacement. 2 goals and 1 assist this season in 2 games. I really rate him.

[MoroccanBlue 5,320]

Has Foden really done anything other than score or assist a goal in a game that finishes 4 or 5-0?

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3 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

Has Foden really done anything other than score or assist a goal in a game that finishes 4 or 5-0?

Mount did very well in his first season in epl and so did Tammy, yet all you hear is foden rashford greenwood etc......biased bums.

[Vesper 29,207]

2020-21 English Premier League

Brighton & Hove Albion
Manchester United

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/premier-league-brighton-hove-albion-vs-manchester-united-s1/

https://www.totalsportek.com/manchester-united-matches-stream/

[Special Juan 27,541]

Brighton should give this United side a tough game here.

[Special Juan 27,541]

Brighton hit the post there, unlucky.