Todas las publicaciones de Jonathan Wilson en WhoScored Artículos RSS

Player Focus: Sunderland Profit from Infectious Defoe Enthusiasm

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Player Focus: Sunderland Profit from Infectious Defoe Enthusiasm After Jermain Defoe scored what turned out to be Sunderland’s winner against Newcastle last month, he wept. He broke down again in the post-match interview. At the time it all seemed a little odd – after all, it’s not as though Defoe was brought up in the north-east or has Sunderla...

Team Focus: Motivation the Key as Carver Fails to Arrest Newcastle Decline

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Team Focus: Motivation the Key as Carver Fails to Arrest Newcastle Decline It’s almost impossible not to look at John Carver and feel sad. He is a man disintegrating before the eyes of the world, a man who has woken to the realisation that he might be about to lead the club he keeps on reminding us he loves to relegation.In January, Carver was still bright-eyed. He h...

Team Focus: Have Jose Mourinho's Chelsea Actually Been Boring?

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Team Focus: Have Jose Mourinho's Chelsea Actually Been Boring? Last week I wrote a piece for the Guardian in which I described Jose Mourinho as a “fallen angel”; an extraordinary number of top-level modern coaches worked at Barcelona in the nineties – not only Mourinho but also Pep Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Louis van Gaal, Julen Lopetegui, Rona...

Player Focus: Was This a Season Too Far for Gerrard at Liverpool?

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Player Focus: Was This a Season Too Far for Gerrard at Liverpool? It turns out that the biggest obstacle to Steven Gerrard fulfilling his destiny of winning the FA Cup in his final game for Liverpool on his 35th birthday was Steven Gerrard playing in the semi-final. Perhaps it was unfair to expect him to play a leading role in such a big game when he hadn’t ...

Player Focus: Reborn Young Thriving In Run of United Form

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Player Focus: Reborn Young Thriving In Run of United Form Four years ago, Fabio Capello’s England went to Cardiff for what looked like an awkward European Championship qualifier against a Wales side showing signs of improvement under Gary Speed. They went 2-0 up inside quarter of an hour, thanks to a Frank Lampard penalty and a goal from Darren Bent ...

Player Focus: Mesut Özil Working Hard to Make Arsenal Time a Success

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Player Focus: Mesut Özil Working Hard to Make Arsenal Time a Success There’s something about languid players that seems to divide opinion. Effort, industry, passion: these are the eternal virtues of English football, the sense that players need not merely to be trying but also have to be visibly trying so they end the game red-faced and sweat-soaked when perhap...

Player Focus: 4-3-3 Suited Welbeck Should Retain England Place

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Player Focus: 4-3-3 Suited Welbeck Should Retain England Place To some, perhaps, even the fact there is a debate seems ridiculous. Harry Kane is a forward who has scored 19 goals in the Premier League this season and has registered 3 assists. Danny Welbeck is a forward has scored 4 league goals and registered 3 assists. The Kane story is an extraordinary one: h...

Player Focus: Could Carrick be as Integral to England as he is to United?

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Player Focus: Could Carrick be as Integral to England as he is to United? Two strangely similar stats clashed at Anfield on Sunday. Since Liverpool had switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation against United at Old Trafford in December, they had picked up 2.36 points per game as opposed to 1.6 in matches before that. And, before kick-off, in league games in which Michael Carrick h...

Player Focus: Is Eden Hazard Fouled A Disproportionate Amount?

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Player Focus: Is Eden Hazard Fouled A Disproportionate Amount? Jose Mourinho has said repeatedly that he thinks Eden Hazard has been targeted by opponents this season – and, sure enough, he was fouled four times in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Southampton, more than any other Chelsea player. That follows a pattern that has seen the Belgian fouled more tha...

Player Focus: Outstanding Coutinho Thriving in Liverpool Formation Change

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Player Focus: Outstanding Coutinho Thriving in Liverpool Formation Change When I first saw Philippe Coutinho, he was winning the Under-20 World Cup with Brazil in 2011. He seemed, to be honest, something of an indulgence, particularly given that his inclusion at the tip of a diamond midfield in that tournament meant that Oscar, who at the time looked a far more complete f...