Jonathan Northcroft

England

Football Correspondent at The Sunday Times

Football Journalist of the Year 2024. Perennial trier. Sunday Times since forever and @jnorthcroft.bsky.social, https://t.co/3hbk5D7oYm

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Articles

Thomas Tuchel: I want ruthless England to suffocate Andorra

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

Thomas Tuchel wants England to “suffocate” Andorra and be merciless with their tiny opponents, resisting suggestions he should rest players or experiment in his team’s latest World Cup qualifier. The Andorrans, many of whom are part-time footballers, are 173rd in the Fifa rankings, one place above Nepal, but Tuchel is emphasising the importance of going all out and putting in a statement performance at the RCDE Stadium in Barcelona.
World Cup will be a dugout joust with Carlo Ancelotti the headline act

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

It was the same Carlo Ancelotti. The blazer, the tie, the chewing gum, the eyebrows that can say a thousand words. But the milieu was different: the Estadio Monumental in Guayaquil and an opposition manager marching over to shake his hand, whose Wikipedia page you definitely had to look up to get a handle on him. The guy was a young Argentinian, Sebastián Beccacece, who — like Carlo — had managed in Spain’s La Liga, but only for 12 games before being relegated with Elche.
Gareth Southgate brought in the Marines, Thomas Tuchel prefers Pilates

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

What hits you — well, what gently brushes your cheek — about La Camiral Golf & Wellness is its stillness. When sounds come they are just mild departures from the quiet. A whirr of a golf buggy, the twitter of birds, chirruping insects, a rustle of leaves in the breeze. The music of moneyed relaxation; and from this, England hope to build a soundtrack ending with Sweet Caroline.
England stars take ‘digital pills’ to measure how bodies react to heat

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

It is the goal of every manager to know what is going on inside their players — and Thomas Tuchel has taken his famous attention to detail to new levels by giving England’s stars biometric pills to swallow which measure the internal temperatures of their bodies in extreme heat.
How foundations of Thomas Tuchel’s England were forged at Yeovil Town

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

Their last game of this season was a defeat by Aldershot Town and they finished 18th in the National League, but few clubs boast richer chapters in the modern England story. Yeovil Town, of course; the little Somerset team whose quirky history includes once announcing a star signing by using Tinder. The Glovers have their fingerprints all over the Thomas Tuchel era. For a start, there are as many former Yeovil players in Tuchel’s squad as Manchester United ones.
PSG showed us how game can be played but, sadly, how it’s funded too

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

So there I was in the Allianz Arena, Doué-washed, Vitinha-washed, swept away by a team playing the game I love like no one has played it in years. The morning after is like a hangover. Uneasy, with a tired head full of questions. Like, is the fun worth it? What’s the damage? Is there another way to live? This is where it feels football stands in the wake of Paris Saint-Germain’s spectacular evisceration of Inter Milan.
Champions League rewards may flow to tiny clubs who develop a Dembélé

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

When Ousmane Dembélé was a child he always had a ball with him. He would descend from the second floor of his apartment block in the deprived Quartier de la Madeleine d’Évreux, round up some mates and enjoy a kickabout on the concrete outside for hours. His idols were David Beckham, Steven Gerrard and Lionel Messi and he dreamt of becoming as celebrated a footballer as them. He took another step towards that in Munich.
PSG conquer Europe at last with record-breaking humilation of Inter

3 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft

If this is the future, sign me up; hand us the pen, all of us who love the essence of football. No game is like it for producing collective, athletic movements that come close to art. No other game seems able to throw up young geniuses in quite such a way. And no team plays the game, right now, like Paris Saint Germain. This was their prom, their coming-of-age party, this team of the future, this kid side coached with such brilliance by the eternally youthful Luis Enrique.
Dominik Szoboszlai: I can be braver with the ball

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft
The 16 goals that defined 2024-25 Premier League season

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Jonathan Northcroft