Midfield matters: Who is a defensive midfielder?

Barcelona have Sergio Busquets and Javier Mascherano . Liverpool have Lucas Leiva. Chelsea have John Obi Mikel. Real Madrid have Sami Khedira or Lassana Diarra alongside Xabi Alonso. The Italian sides generally have plenty of options. As do Manchester City, who have Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure and Nigel de Jong, with Owen Hargreaves now thrown into the mix as well. And Arsenal have Alexandre Song, Emmanuel Frimpong and, unfortunately for them, and the young lad himself, Sebastian Coquelin in the mix as well. Having made his debut in his side’s worst defeat in over a century, a few words of quiet prayer should be directed to the man upstairs in the young lad’s favour. Hopefully that baptism of fire won’t burn a hole into his confidence. But I digress. You don’t need extraordinary deductive skills to spot the common link between all these players from these illustrious clubs: They are all defensive-midfield players.

Claude Makelele: Premier midfield enforcer

Sure, their modi operandi may vary greatly, and they may bring plenty of other skills and attributes to the table as well. But all of them have plenty of unifying characteristics. Which gives rise to the question: What exactly constitutes the right combination of attributes for a player to be classified as a holding midfielder? This is a fairly difficult question to answer, as different people classify players using different terms. For example what you may call a defensive midfielder, I might call a midfield destroyer, or I could contend ‘holding midfielder’ should not be used interchangeably with ‘defensive midfielder’. Irrespective of what information you might publish to support the same, it’s all a matter of personal perception. Everyone, for example, would agree that Nigel de Jong is a defensive midfielder, and more precisely, a midfield destroyer, but is Xabi Alonso a defensive midfielder? You might find a few more people willing to categorize him as a holding midfield player, calling him a deep-lying playmaker, and then, of course, everyone will be in consensus.

So, for the purpose of this article, I’ll categorize them as such: I’m going to employ the term “defensive midfielder” as an umbrella category, due to its accompanying ambiguity, and employ the use of ‘midfield destroyer’ and ‘deep-lying playmaker’, and the neither-here-nor-there hybrid that is the term ‘holding midfielder’. Players in the latter category play a more subtle, and often highly influential role. Note that I’m not implying that midfield destroyers are overly aggressive apes incapable of hitting a pass in a forward direction, or anything along those lines. I am only referring to their primary role/task.

The midfield destroyer went from being a prevalence in the late nineties and early noughties, to near-universal adoption over the last few years. In a manner not dissimilar to the British striking partnerships for most of the latter part of the 20^th century, where the big man-little man combination became the norm, so did the midfield destroyer-attacking midfielder axis become all-conquering. While other European nations, particularly Italy and Germany, constantly experimented with different formations and strategies, England remained fairly unadventurous in terms of tactical experimentation. 4-4-2 was the standard formation, and the central midfielders were generally charged with box-to-box responsibilities (barring a few notable exceptions, for example Nobby Stiles). The advantage of having midfield players make penetrating late runs into the opposition box slowly gained more recognition, and managers counter-balanced the risk of being short on numbers in the event of a loss of possession by deploying a deeper-lying midfielder. The latter’s primary task was to break up play and move the ball on to the more creative players. In addition, they covered gaps in the back-line left vacant by overlapping full-backs. Simple passes were the order of the day. How often did anyone see Claude Makelele or Rino Gattuso launch 60-yard passes or bulldoze their way into the opposition penalty area?

Moving on to more recent times, a more refined version of the defensive midfielder has been seen increasingly frequently: that of the holding midfielder. A holding midfield player, in my eyes, is one who is the most frequent outlet for the center-back pairing, barring the full-backs, as well as long punts forward. This is especially important in the modern game, as applying pressure high up the field became commonplace. Square passes across the defense can be extremely dangerous, as a slight mis-hit, or anticipation on the part of the opposing forward, could lead to concession of possession in a dangerous area of the pitch. When possession is retrieved, the holding midfielder receives the ball, often exchanging passes with defenders until they have sufficient room to turn comfortably and move the ball forward. In a nutshell, they have to ‘hold’ their position, and should not be too adventurous. It must be noted that defensive ability is of secondary importance. Andrea Pirlo, Sergio Busquets and Michael Carrick are fine examples of players who play in this role.

Perhaps the most comparable tactical craze that has swept over Europe in the last few decades was that of the ‘sweeper’. In today’s era, center-backs are growing more comfortable and more mobile in possession, a la Gerard Pique and David Luiz, thus making them more attacking in nature. In such a scenario, the role of the defensive midfielder has become more exemplified, given that he drops in at the back and covers the tracks of the attacking centre-back, ensuring solidarity at the back.