The Defensive Midfielder – The Forgotten Man (pt.2)

After last week focusing on ex Chelsea DM dynamo Claude Makelele, I’ll now move on to two of the greatest teams in modern football. There is no doubt that both the Spain national side, and Barcelona FC are incredibly good attacking sides, they both have one key, defensive midfielder, who plays a massively important role in their wins, but both these men rarely receive the plaudits for their efforts.

A Rare Breed of Anchor Man

Barcelona have a rare breed of the anchor-man in their midst, one who seems to love controversy rather than a life in the footballing wings and has become a figure of hate for football purists all over the globe, Sergio Busquets. Love him or hate him, and as said above most seem to take the latter option, he is an incredibly important player for a side which is arguably the most successful of the last decade, and which contains players who will go down in footballing folklore.

Primarily known for his exploits that would be more suited to the swimming pool than a football pitch, Busquets is really a very effective defensive midfielder. He sweeps up any dangers, protecting the back line, while also at the same time distributing the ball towards the famous Barcelona forwards such as Messi, Villa and Iniesta. As I mentioned before, Busquets is a rare breed of the defensive midfielder in that he is more obviously technically adept than some of his peers, for example John Obi Mikel. I feel that this is simply because he plays for Barcelona, technically the best team in the world, and as such has to keep up.

For Spain, Busquets pushes forward and Xabi Alonso fills the hole between the defence and midfield. Spain are the best side in the world, and they too recognise the need to have a man filling that role, as all the best sides do. The man who does that for them is an exceptional footballer. One who is equally adept at cleaning up attacks as he is at scoring a 30 yard screamer, Alonso was also pivotal to Liverpool’s greatest success in the past 20 years, their Champions league triumph in Istanbul, 2005, further proof, in my opinion, that a successful side needs a good centre midfielder.

Domestic DM’s

Now to look at our own domestic league. I have already mentioned Chelsea in the Mourinho years; the other three big guns of the last decade are Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City. Arsenal in their “invincible” years had an engine room consisting of the French beast Patrick Viera. Manchester United were powered by the terrible yet brilliant Roy Keane but now each of these clubs are slightly off the pace this season. One of the main reasons behind this is that none of these sides have an outstanding defensive midfielder.

In Mikel, Chelsea have a capable player who can do the minimum required but nothing more. Arsenal have Song and Man United Fletcher, but neither of them can really take control of a game, stamp their mark on it like the very best anchor-men can. Manchester City have forged ahead due to not only their attacking prowess, but also their defensive stability game after game. This is mostly due to the presence of either Nigel de Jong or Yaya Toure in their starting eleven, both excellent defensive midfielders, but in the former’s case I feel he is relatively un-trumpeted.

Defensive Midfielders do Win Games

Here’s a prime example of a defensive midfielder winning a game almost singlehandedly. In the FA cup final last year Stoke’s main threat against Man City was considered to be Mathew Etherington. Nigel De Jong was assigned to mark him and shackled him so effectively that Etherington made no impact on the match whatsoever and was forced to come off before the 90 minutes were up. He was literally marked out of the game and as a result Stoke barely threatened, such was the impact of De Jong.

Somebody once said the position of the defensive midfielder is one which is only really noticed when they are not there. This is well illustrated in the case of Scott Parker. Considered to be one of the nation’s brightest hopes during his early days at Charlton, he languished on the sidelines during an unhappy spell at Chelsea before finally finding his way again through first Newcastle, then West Ham. Now at Tottenham and a key part of the England side, pundits and fans alike have commented on how much they have needed a player like him, and how much of a difference he has made. There is no doubt he is an exceptional player, but he like other men of his position throughout the game, has gone underappreciated for almost all his career.

Related Posts:

• The Defensive Midfielder – The Forgotten Man (pt. 1)
• Hardman XI