@dmishra has started a thread about midfield passers a while ago - somehow I missed it at the time, but I want to write down some thoughts and respond to his point that we need to get someone like Xabi or Sahin in midfield to partner Keita. First of all, I have to mention that DLP (deep-lying playmaker) is my favorite position to watch in football, my favorite player of all time is Pirlo and Xabi was not far behind. I’ve been banging the Romeu drum for a while and I also try to follow players in this position throughout Europe, your usual Weigls and Verrattis.
However there are different ways to construct a football team and while the skill of long-range passing and controlling the tempo is as valuable as ever, some managers and some systems take a different route. Nowadays, one of the big tactical trends is playing a midfielder as a CB - Guardiola started this with Mascherano at Barca, then Javi Martinez at Bayern, Pochettino with Dier at Spurs, Klopp did it with Lucas here and Sven Bender at Dortmund, etc. The reason for this is that in a possession-oriented team, the job of a CB has become in many ways similar to the job description of a midfielder - they need to cover a lot of ground (as opposed to CBs in a defensive team like Burnley who barely leave their penalty area), be very comfortable on the ball, good passers (including long-range) and pro-active rather than reactive.
The flip side of this is, if you have 1 or better 2 CBs who can do all that with aplomb, then maybe your actual midfielders can assume a slightly different role, to focus more on “close combat,” short passing and most importantly pressing. You see, an Alonso or a Pirlo kind of handicaps you in this area; they lack mobility, so in a pressing game they need hard working “body-guards” on both sides (as Pirlo had in Gattuso and Ambrosini/Seedorf), because if you only have one such player next to the “passer” the shape is going to be lopsided and you won’t reliably win midfield battles. So one possible idea is to combine the jobs of a DLP and a CB, thus leaving the 2 energetic midfielders to do their hurrying-pressing jobs in front of the defensive line. CBs have a big advantage here - they are the only players who always receive the ball facing forward, so they don’t need to turn and evade pressure before launching the ball - they already have the field of play in front of them and those CBs who are comfortable in their ability on the ball can even carry it forward to roughly the same areas that a DLP would operate.
I’m not saying that’s the only worthwhile idea or that midfield playmakers are obsolete - far from it! Modric and Kroos set the standard at Real, Alonso played at top level until retirement at Bayern, etc etc. However, for those teams who bet their game plan on winning the midfield battle most of the time, work-rate and physicality seem to be the primary requirement for midfielders, while the importance and value of ball-playing CBs continues to increase.
As more teams (even Barca!) are switching to the variations of modernized 4-4-2 (or 4-2-2-2 if you like to be fancy), with clear distinction between the “attacking 4” and “the defensive 6,” I expect the trend towards “defensive CMs” and “offensive CBs” to continue. With this in mind I wouldn’t be surprised if Klopp opts for a midfield partnership like Keita + someone like Ndidi, but buys another CB in Van Dijk mould (like De Vrij) so that whenever the ball comes back to our defenders they can always launch it with precision towards our front 4 players who will either get on the ball immediately or turn on the high press and try to win it near the opposition’s goal. It’s only natural that managers like Guardiola or Klopp - who have if not invented, then perfected the tactic of high press - are constantly thinking about the best way to beat their own creation and bypassing the midfield press by the way of a precise long ball from defense (or even from GK as in Ederson’s case) seems to be the most promising route.
However there are different ways to construct a football team and while the skill of long-range passing and controlling the tempo is as valuable as ever, some managers and some systems take a different route. Nowadays, one of the big tactical trends is playing a midfielder as a CB - Guardiola started this with Mascherano at Barca, then Javi Martinez at Bayern, Pochettino with Dier at Spurs, Klopp did it with Lucas here and Sven Bender at Dortmund, etc. The reason for this is that in a possession-oriented team, the job of a CB has become in many ways similar to the job description of a midfielder - they need to cover a lot of ground (as opposed to CBs in a defensive team like Burnley who barely leave their penalty area), be very comfortable on the ball, good passers (including long-range) and pro-active rather than reactive.
The flip side of this is, if you have 1 or better 2 CBs who can do all that with aplomb, then maybe your actual midfielders can assume a slightly different role, to focus more on “close combat,” short passing and most importantly pressing. You see, an Alonso or a Pirlo kind of handicaps you in this area; they lack mobility, so in a pressing game they need hard working “body-guards” on both sides (as Pirlo had in Gattuso and Ambrosini/Seedorf), because if you only have one such player next to the “passer” the shape is going to be lopsided and you won’t reliably win midfield battles. So one possible idea is to combine the jobs of a DLP and a CB, thus leaving the 2 energetic midfielders to do their hurrying-pressing jobs in front of the defensive line. CBs have a big advantage here - they are the only players who always receive the ball facing forward, so they don’t need to turn and evade pressure before launching the ball - they already have the field of play in front of them and those CBs who are comfortable in their ability on the ball can even carry it forward to roughly the same areas that a DLP would operate.
I’m not saying that’s the only worthwhile idea or that midfield playmakers are obsolete - far from it! Modric and Kroos set the standard at Real, Alonso played at top level until retirement at Bayern, etc etc. However, for those teams who bet their game plan on winning the midfield battle most of the time, work-rate and physicality seem to be the primary requirement for midfielders, while the importance and value of ball-playing CBs continues to increase.
As more teams (even Barca!) are switching to the variations of modernized 4-4-2 (or 4-2-2-2 if you like to be fancy), with clear distinction between the “attacking 4” and “the defensive 6,” I expect the trend towards “defensive CMs” and “offensive CBs” to continue. With this in mind I wouldn’t be surprised if Klopp opts for a midfield partnership like Keita + someone like Ndidi, but buys another CB in Van Dijk mould (like De Vrij) so that whenever the ball comes back to our defenders they can always launch it with precision towards our front 4 players who will either get on the ball immediately or turn on the high press and try to win it near the opposition’s goal. It’s only natural that managers like Guardiola or Klopp - who have if not invented, then perfected the tactic of high press - are constantly thinking about the best way to beat their own creation and bypassing the midfield press by the way of a precise long ball from defense (or even from GK as in Ederson’s case) seems to be the most promising route.
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