The centre of midfield is possibly the most important area of a football team. It operates almost everything and if the midfield have an off-day, then so do the entire squad. Here, we focus on the attacking midfielder and those who enjoy pushing forward to assist their more offensive colleagues, or to grab the goals themselves.
Tottenham winger Gareth Bale is on flames right now, so much so that he has drawn comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo. He is not in the same bracket as the great Portugal international, not yet, but he is setting the Premier League alight with his powerful surges through the middle of the pitch, the sprints down either flank and his lengthy shots the smash the back of the net.
What does every manager look for in a right winger? Perhaps they look at the speed. Perhaps the strength and the willingness to try and beat a player. Maybe they concentrate on the final ball and the accuracy of the delivery. Whatever it is, managers focus on different attributes and in this list we look at a mixture of the above.
The defensive midfielder. The anchorman. The deep-lying midfielder. However you describe the position, the chances are that you do not appreciate the importance of the individual(s) that are deployed there.
The centre-back – The giants of the team. The bruisers, the warriors and the ones who are supposed to get their face in the way of any danger and carry on like nothing has happened when they get smashed for their troubles. The central defender position is not one for the weak, mentally or physically, nor is it suitable for someone with low levels of concentration.
The left-back position is often seen as the least appealing on the field. Whether the reason for this is because it is often that the one kid from school who could kick a ball with his left foot was stuck there, whether the non-existantant glory that you get from playing there, or simply the old joke ‘so-and-so is left-back – left back in the changing room’, it is seen as something of a chore to play there.
The modern-day right-back is expected to bomb forward at every opportunity, hold the ability to whip dangerous crosses into the danger-are and also act as a brick wall at the back to deter any opposition attacks. Although it is the normal procedure for players to either have the attacking side or the defensive capabilities but rarely both, the list that I have put together holds 5 of the greatest at both in the Premier League era.
‘You have to be slightly mad to be a goalkeeper’ is often being blasted around by many different commentators despite not having much meaning to it. Sure, you take a lot of stick for conceding goals or failing to collecting a ball from a set piece of a cross, but there are many perks to being a goalkeeper.