Football styles tend to go in phases. Normally it seems to be a couple of years behind the most successful club of a given era which dictating the assumed successful style of the time. Often this is expressed as the ebb and flow of attacking versus defensive football. Right now, World Cup and Champions League winners are the tactically astute and well-0rganised Italians who are prevailing and those teams with less of a stylistic identity desperate for European glory see the prevalent style as the best route to success. Hence those clubs you don’t often see in the Champions League are likely to be organised and defensive.
In the Premiership, Chelsea have shown similar style in their recent dominance. Again, many of the other clubs whose style is less linked to their identity also display similar traits (Liverpool, Bolton, Everton, Blackburn, Reading).
Also within the Premiership, there is something of a slower but longer-term revolution; that of the goalscoring midfielder.
Goals from midfield have always been at a premium but in recent years with the emergence of certain notable players the need for not just ‘the odd goal’ but a genuine, late arriving midfield goalscorer is gradually infecting the minds of many Premiership managers. So much so that the position can be named in several teams:
Liverpool – Steven Gerrard
Chelsea – Frank Lampart
Bolton – Kevin Nolan
Newcastle/Manchester City – Joey Barton
Manchester United – Christian Ronaldo
Tottenham – Jermain Jenas
Everton – Tim Cahill
Arsenal – Gilberto Silva (though his count is supplemented by being his teams designated penalty taker
Aston Villa – Gareth Barry
It is likely that the first two names on the sheet – regular 15-20 goal a season players – provide the template for others to follow. Particularly Gerrard who provides positional defence, tackling and passing in addition to his (often timely) goals.
Whereas previously it was enough to ask for “ten goals from midfield”, now a dedicated player is given that task.
Clearly it has taken two such obvious proponents such as Lampart and Gerrard for the role of the advanced, late arriving midfielder to gain a role in the modern 442 although there are examples from the past; David Platt, Paul Scholes (not now) and Matthew le Tissier especially (though the latter could be termed a deep lying striker for all the help he gave when not scoring).
It could also be argued that such has been the success of Frank Lampard, that Chelsea’s formation is built around his play more than it is Didier Drogba (certainly, Lampard’s form pre-dates Drogba’s). Indeed, if you were to pack the midfield to allow Lampard licence to roam and make late runs, then a 451 demands the sort of physical hold-up player that Drogba has been.
The acquisition of Michael Ballack makes more sense given Lampard will not be able to play 60 matches a season forever. Fitting Ballack into the team and the addition of Andrei Shevchenko with an assumed 442 makes less sense.
Perhaps the advent of the high-scoring midfielder is a reflection of one team position (well, two actually) in decline – the striking partnership. With large squads required for any team involved in Europre, no two strikers can assume to play every week. Certainly not if you are at Liverpool (absurd rotation), Chelsea (wrong formation), Manchester United (no decent partner) or Arsenal. The chances of two players developing the sort of team-enhancing understanding becomes smaller and smaller if they cannot be sure of playing together every week.
There are precious few Premiership striking partnerships of note in recent times – Cole-York, Shearer-Bellamy for a season. So hard is it to find two players who ‘gel’ that almost all teams place no stock in it any more. Finding an advanced midfielder who can score goals is clearly easier than finding two top quality strikers who complement and enhance each other.
Indeed the only genuine strike partnership in the Premiership at the moment is Robbie Keane and the astonishing Dimitar Berbatov. Which is interesting since Martin Jol continually asks for more goals from midfield, more goals from Aaron Lennon and hails Jermain Jenas who might have got twice as many goals last season had it not been for injury.
Maybe the wheel is about to turn back to attacking football again? Let’s hope so, for the Premiership’s sake if not England’s.
