The travails of the traditional European elite as new money dominated the transfer window suggest things have changedIn times of crisis, the winners are usually the rich. As clubs across Europe continue to struggle against the financial impact of the pandemic, the lesson of this transfer window is that the powerful are mopping up. Or at least they are if they are well-run, which rules out the two Spanish giants and several clubs in Italy.The transfers of the two players who have defined football for a generation understandably generated great excitement, with fans camping out at the airport in Paris to welcome Lionel Messi and queuing round the block to buy a shirt with his name on the back while...
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea team can keep dangerous opponents at arm’s length, an unusual asset in the modern eraStep back from football and amid various ups and downs, backs and forths, check-backs and dead-ends, the first 100 years of its development after the modern laws were first drawn up in 1863 can be seen as comprising roughly linear development. We started with seven forwards and one defender and we slowly moved players back until we had four defenders and two forwards. We went from a chaotic charging game, through man-marking to zonal marking. By the mid-1960s, football was mature.The changes since have been incremental. There is far less sense of forward momentum. A style of play or shape becomes modish and...
Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea team can keep dangerous opponents at arm’s length, an unusual asset in the modern eraStep back from football and amid various ups and downs, backs and forths, check-backs and dead-ends, the first 100 years of its development after the modern laws were first drawn up in 1863 can be seen as comprising roughly linear development. We started with seven forwards and one defender and we slowly moved players back until we had four defenders and two forwards. We went from a chaotic charging game, through man-marking to zonal marking. By the mid-1960s, football was mature.The changes since have been incremental. There is far less sense of forward momentum. A style of play or shape becomes modish and...
Thomas Tuchel’s side were forced outside their comfort zone but stood firm during Liverpool’s second-half onslaughtThe chaos descended shortly before half-time. Andrew Robertson’s corner from the right precipitated a series of events that would result – roughly several dozen ricochets, a goalline handball, a VAR referral, a full-blown ruck and five minutes later – in Liverpool’s equalising goal. By the time the two sides had finally disappeared down the tunnel, still angrily chirping at each other, the complexion of the game had changed entirely, irrevocably.It wasn’t just the goal or the contentious dismissal of Reece James, either. It was a tonal shift: the point at which, having played with a cool, implacable detachment for 45 minutes, Chelsea were violently thrown...
Thomas Tuchel’s side were forced outside their comfort zone but stood firm during Liverpool’s second-half onslaughtThe chaos descended shortly before half-time. Andrew Robertson’s corner from the right precipitated a series of events that would result – roughly several dozen ricochets, a goalline handball, a VAR referral, a full-blown ruck and five minutes later – in Liverpool’s equalising goal. By the time the two sides had finally disappeared down the tunnel, still angrily chirping at each other, the complexion of the game had changed entirely, irrevocably.It wasn’t just the goal or the contentious dismissal of Reece James, either. It was a tonal shift: the point at which, having played with a cool, implacable detachment for 45 minutes, Chelsea were violently thrown...