The blurred lines between positions – a look at the versatility of players
In recent times it seems more and more players are becoming able to play further up the pitch, out wide or in the heart of defence, i thought I’d run through just a few names of the players who have pulled it off to different degrees of success.
Firstly, in my opinion, the evolutionary change in football is partly the cause of the decline in the “traditional” centre back, it used to be you’d always need 2 strong centre halves to block everything and tackle anything that moved, but in the latter years of the noughties it seemed to dwindle out and the game hugely about ball retention and if you’ve got two plodders in your team who would rather hit row Z instead of playing a ball into the midfield, it upsets the entire philosophy of the team. As a recent example, I shall use the Barcelona under Pep Guardiola, with two Spanish internationals as his ideal centre back partnership, who no doubt can play incredible short passes and are all about movement, they would sometimes not be used and instead would have Mascherano, Sergio Busquets or Yaya Toure playing in a back 3 and they would be phenomenal. It wasn’t like the opposition would have the ball enough to test the defence due to Barcelona’s incredible work ethic and high pressing up the field, but Barcelona seemed immortal at times during Pep’s tenure.
Now in the case of a defender to a midfielder, I cannot think of really anyone in recent times except David Luiz, and that’s recently under interim boss Rafa Benitez he has been deployed as an almost deep lying playmaker, much like a Pirlo and can maraud up and down the pitch all day with wonderful technique of a number 10 but blended with a hint of an old school centre back, and when it pulls off, it looks really good. With an emulation of Italy’s De Rossi about him, not as good as of yet in my opinion but has all the tools to be a complete midfielder, Luiz looks like he may have found his niche in a central midfield role at Chelsea.
The most prolific conversion from a winger to a centre forward in my eyes is a Thierry Henry at Arsenal. With him being deployed as a left winger at Juventus, he was brought in by Arsene Wenger to replace Nicholas Anelka AKA Le Sulk, and replace him he did, with nearly 300 goals for Arsenal in all competitions. As an Arsenal fan, I could watch Henry closely and obviously through slightly rose tinted spectacles, he and the original Ronaldo are the two best strikers of my generation in my eyes, Henry would drift to the left wing and with his pace that he had to burn, would always slip in behind the defender or off their shoulder and one of the best one-on-one with the keeper finishers I’ve ever seen, would score or happily assist his team mates and had 24 assists alongside 32 goals in the 2002-2003 season.
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