Tous les Articles écrits sur Jonathan Wilson sur WhoScored.com RSS

Team Focus: Guiltiest Culprits in Club-Wide Collapse at Chelsea

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Team Focus: Guiltiest Culprits in Club-Wide Collapse at Chelsea Chelsea’s collapse in the early part of this season has been remarkable, even if, in retrospect, the signs were there. Towards the end of last season their poor form, the way they rather stumbled over the line, was generally put down to fatigue, the result of Jose Mourinho’s insistence o...

Team Focus: City Collapse Highlights Continued Reliance on Old Guard

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Team Focus: City Collapse Highlights Continued Reliance on Old Guard The puncturing of Manchester City’s aura of invincibility has been remarkable. It’s not two weeks since they were cruising at the top of the Premier League with a 100% record and a lead of at least five points over the other realistic title challengers, and were 1-0 up against Juventus i...

Team Focus: Is this United Team Better than it Appears?

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Team Focus: Is this United Team Better than it Appears? Not for the first time this season, Louis van Gaal’s press conference on Sunday was baffling. Ronald Koeman, the Southampton manager, is habitually cautious about discussing the opposition, but he had no qualms about acknowledging Manchester United’s defensive “flaws”. But no...

Player Focus: Goals Will Come for Team Player Kane

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Player Focus: Goals Will Come for Team Player Kane Harry Kane didn’t score against Sunderland, taking his run of matches for Tottenham Hotspur without a goal this season to five. Inevitably it was pointed out and, equally inevitably, his fans produced the fact that he didn’t score in the league until November last season and he still end...

Player Focus: How Chris Smalling's Impressive Form is Now the Norm

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Player Focus: How Chris Smalling's Impressive Form is Now the Norm Amid all the chuntering about Louis van Gaal at Manchester United, there has been one undeniable positive: he has elevated Chris Smalling into the sort of player he looked like he might become when he moved to Old Trafford from Fulham in 2010. There was a time when the announcement that he was the s...

Team Focus: Palace Playing to Strengths Out Wide to Great Effect

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Team Focus: Palace Playing to Strengths Out Wide to Great Effect There is something engagingly simple, almost old-fashioned about Crystal Palace’s style of play. They sit two players in front of the back four, and have tremendous pace on the flanks. In three of their four league games this season, they’ve played with three of their four wide men &ndas...

Team Focus: What is Attack and are United Failing at it?

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Team Focus: What is Attack and are United Failing at it? “What is attack?” Louis van Gaal asked abruptly after a journalist had challenged how his Netherlands side played in beating Chile at the World Cup last season. It’s the sort of fundamental with which he enjoys punctuating press conferences. After his United side had been held to a...

Player Focus: Busy Fabregas Failing to Bring Balance to Chelsea Midfield

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Player Focus: Busy Fabregas Failing to Bring Balance to Chelsea Midfield The focus, understandably, was on John Terry being substituted for the first time ever in a league game by Jose Mourinho. That was the iconic symbol of Chelsea’s malaise: that even the captain, leader, legend couldn’t be relied upon. There are concerns too about Branislav Ivanovic, outpa...

Team Focus: Chelsea Draw Suggests Swansea Adopting More Direct Approach

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Team Focus: Chelsea Draw Suggests Swansea Adopting More Direct Approach Amid all the scratching of heads about how poorly Chelsea played on Saturday, all Jose Mourinho’s diversionary tactics about his physios and faux-controversy over the penalty and red card for Thibaut Courtois, just how well Swansea City played was rather overlooked.What was particularly impres...

Team Focus: Chelsea Striking Options Thin Beyond Diego Costa

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Team Focus: Chelsea Striking Options Thin Beyond Diego Costa Jose Mourinho’s sense of frustration was obvious. On Friday last week, he told a press-conference that Diego Costa would be fit to play in the Community Shield, despite suffering a hamstring problem in the friendly against Barcelona in Washington DC last week. Come Sunday, though, the striker ...