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All Jonathan Wilson posts on WhoScored.com Articles RSS

Team Focus: Have Sunderland Actually Improved Under Poyet?

by Jonathan Wilson at Monday, Dec 9 2013 17:10
Team Focus: Have Sunderland Actually Improved Under Poyet? The nightmare run is over and Sunderland can perhaps, at last, begin to contemplate a brighter future. After facing Fulham on the opening day of the season – a game they lost after conceding to the only corner Fulham had – their next seven home games were against Arsenal, Liverpool, Manc...
Categories: Team Focus

Player Focus: Is Tom Cleverley United Material?

by Jonathan Wilson at Thursday, Dec 5 2013 14:08
Player Focus: Is Tom Cleverley United Material? Tom Cleverley has a distinctive style of running, something that was particularly noticeable during Manchester United’s 2-2 draw at Tottenham last Sunday. Again and again, he spreads his arms, waddling with them outstretched so he looks like a confused penguin. Presumably he’s gesturing ...
Categories: Player Focus

Team Focus: The Problem With Tottenham's Attack

by Jonathan Wilson at Tuesday, Nov 26 2013 15:05
Team Focus: The Problem With Tottenham's Attack There is no side in the Premier League whose attack has so failed to live up to expectations this season as Tottenham’s. Only Crystal Palace and Sunderland have scored fewer than Spurs’ nine goals in 12 games so far, and that figure becomes even more worrying when it’s considered t...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: The Evolution of Liverpool Ahead of Merseyside Derby

by Jonathan Wilson at Thursday, Nov 21 2013 11:48
Team Focus: The Evolution of Liverpool Ahead of Merseyside Derby Brendan Rodgers, the theory went, was the king of possession, a manager who prioritised having the ball almost above all else. There was even talk at times last season that he cared more about possession than goals, and that his side was great at moving the ball sideways but not so good at putting i...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: Manchester City's Troubles on the Road

by Jonathan Wilson at Wednesday, Nov 13 2013 09:15
Team Focus: Manchester City's Troubles on the Road Sometimes football is so wrapped in its own conventions that we take for granted things that actually defy explanation. It’s a given that the vast majority of teams will be better at home than away, and soit’s accepted that some teams will, for reasons that are never quite explained, suf...
Categories: Team Focus

Team Focus: Stopping Swansea's Build-Up Play at Source

by Jonathan Wilson at Tuesday, Nov 5 2013 14:42
Team Focus: Stopping Swansea's Build-Up Play at Source Marcelo Bielsa spends hours watching videos of football. When he was appointed manager of Velez Sarsfield in 1997, he made only one demand: that a television and video recorder be installed in his office. He was asked once what he had planned for Christmas: he was going back to his parents’ ho...
Categories: Team Focus

Player Focus: Is Frank Lampard Showing Serious Signs of Decline?

by Jonathan Wilson at Monday, Oct 28 2013 16:15
Player Focus: Is Frank Lampard Showing Serious Signs of Decline? At Chelsea last season, there were two basic narratives: firstly, the fans hated Rafa Benitez, who it seemed won the Europa League almost to spite them; and secondly, Frank Lampard’s contract expired at the end of the season and there seemed little prospect of a new deal, despite a series ...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Jordan Henderson Now Of Huge Value To Liverpool

by Jonathan Wilson at Monday, Oct 21 2013 17:30
Player Focus: Jordan Henderson Now Of Huge Value To Liverpool The gulf between the very best players and those dismissed as useless is never as vast as people would like to make out. Gervinho has shown this season that even players who have been derided can, when fully fit, look like world-beaters when confident and playing in a tactical system that suits them...
Categories: Player Focus

Player Focus: Cole & Baines' Contrasting Styles Causing Hodgson Headache

by Jonathan Wilson at Tuesday, Oct 15 2013 10:57
Player Focus: Cole & Baines' Contrasting Styles Causing Hodgson Headache If England were a club team, it’s a safe bet that they wouldn’t have 
both Ashley Cole and Leighton Baines. Anybody with the capacity to 
transfer players looking at the England squad would sell one or the other,
 reasoning that Kieran Gibbs is more than adequate back-up, and look to
 us...
Categories: Player Focus

Team Focus: Pochettino's Positive Effect at Southampton

by Jonathan Wilson at Tuesday, Oct 8 2013 14:25
Team Focus: Pochettino's Positive Effect at Southampton In their book The Numbers Game, Chris Anderson and David Sally, while evangelising for the use of statistical analysis in football, acknowledge that the use of data in football is in its infancy: if the discipline were medicine, they say, we would still be at the stage of leeches. While statistics h...
Categories: Team Focus