Graphic:
Battle to control the middle ground when England face Croatia
Presented with the challenge of keeping Luka Modric quiet at Stamford Bridge
on Sunday, Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Chelsea manager, knew what to do: he
moved his third-choice right back into his space.
Juliano Belletti, late of Barcelona reserves and behind José Bosingwa and
Paulo Ferreira in the Chelsea pecking order, was detailed with the task of
playing the holding midfield role and snuffed Modric out of the game. He had
not played in that position for many seasons and was drafted in only as a
result of injuries, but he did it very well.
Modric, the Croatia playmaker whose wit and invention is credited with
knocking England out of the European Championship and who stands in the way
of the World Cup ambitions of Fabio Capello and his team, did not create a
chance of note for Tottenham Hotspur. Even their equalising goal was a
fluke, set up by accident when Frank Lampard won the ball from Modric, only
for it to run into the path of Darren Bent, the Tottenham striker.
Now, if Belletti can convert to this position so easily, why is it that almost
four years after Nicky Butt's last appearance for his country, England are
floundering in the search for a player who can do, not the hard part, but
the easy one.
In comparison to goalscoring or creation, even when set against Belletti's
most typical duty, which may involve keeping Lionel Messi or Cristiano
Ronaldo in check, holding midfield is a straightforward discipline. It
requires intelligence, yes, but not a leap of imagination and invention, not
anything that causes brain freeze or hours of lonely dedication on a
deserted training field. Bottom line, it demands self-control, restraint,
the nose to sense danger and the coolness to cope. These are basic skills
for a professional footballer.
Most of all it necessitates self-sacrifice, the willingness to put the team
above personal glory. It says something about English egos, not just English
tactical awareness, that so many have struggled to make it work.
Gareth Barry, of Aston Villa, is the latest to be tried in the role, with only
partial success. Had Owen Hargreaves been fit, Barry would have probably
lost his place, so unimpressed was Capello with his wandering performance
against the Czech Republic at Wembley. Barry would claim mitigating
circumstances in that he is not a holding midfield player at Villa, where he
has the freedom to operate more as Lampard does for Chelsea, or Steven
Gerrard for Liverpool, but the test of international football is that
players are forced to adapt to unfamiliar roles.
A club can buy their way out of trouble - they can spend money until every
square peg is tucked safely into its square hole - but the limited pool of
international players offers no such comfort. England have half a dozen
central midfield players who like to get forward and play box to box. Tough.
There is not room for them all.
So some are discarded and some are on the bench and one has to play a
different game. He has to be Javier Mascherano for the day, or Claude
Makelele, or Marcos Senna, or Dunga, or Didier Deschamps, or any one of
those marvellous foreign players who do the easy job so well that it becomes
almost an art form.
All of those are, or were, fine footballers. Every one could have carried out
a more demanding role for the team. Their greatest talent was unselfishness.
When Barcelona played José Mourinho's Chelsea in the Champions League a second
time, the match at Stamford Bridge was memorable for its furious pace. The
centre of midfield was a pinball table of whirrs and flips and sudden,
unexpected changes in direction. There were some of the finest footballers
in the world on the pitch that night, but in the maelstrom two stood tall:
Deco for Barcelona and Makelele for Chelsea. Both men could bring the ball
under control and move it on with a speed that was awe-inspiring; they were
never caught in possession, never even close.
Deco's ability came as no surprise, but Makelele, clearly, was an outstanding
technical footballer who played within himself and operated instead as the
gateman for the back four, breaking up the play, winning the ball and giving
it simply, better to serve the needs of his team. The first season Chelsea
won the league title under Mourinho, the Frenchman should have been
Footballer of the Year.
It is this altruism that England lack. Too many players need to be seen to be
involved, or get bored, or cannot concentrate for long enough to execute an
uncomplicated tactical plan. Do not go beyond the ball. Do not get in front
of your midfield partner. What is it with the English game that we feel that
we are too good to be the water-carrier? If the holding player lacks
discipline, the whole system falls apart.
It is no coincidence that Lampard also had a poor game for England against the
Czech Republic, if Barry did not stick to his role. The key to Lampard's
success at Chelsea is that he is free to surge into the opposition penalty
area knowing that Makelele (or a replica) would always - always - be
covering the back four. If Lampard is unsure that the gate is locked,
however, he does not go because it risks leaving a point of weakness, and if
he does not go he ends up operating in a midfield no-man's land, which is
what happened at Wembley last month.
Barry, meanwhile, advances only so far because he knows that his job is
primarily defensive, so ultimately the two central midfield players are
neither one thing nor the other, not protecting the defence, but not
supporting the forwards either.
It is harsh on Barry that he is the man who has to limit his game for England,
but if he is not as effective as an attacking midfield player as Lampard or
Gerrard, the logic is obvious. Would we want Gerrard, if available, guarding
the defence? No. Would that make the best of Lampard's strengths? No. But
someone has to do it, yes? Then, if Hargreaves is unfit, surely Barry, with
his background as a former centre half and left back, is England's best man.
“It is a position in this country that has not been around for as long as it
has in foreign countries,” Barry said at England's Hertfordshire
headquarters yesterday. “They've been playing that position for a long time,
so there are plenty of players who can do that job.”
For Capello, the problem is that the match against Andorra tomorrow provides
little preparation for the visit to Zagreb next week. In the first match
England's midfield could get away with a cavalier approach as the opposition
concentrate on massed defence and, from previous experience, foul play.
Against Croatia it will require discipline and restraint to shut out Modric
and, again, experience has foretold the consequence if that does not happen.
Asked about Belletti's display against Tottenham, Scolari said that he knew
that he had played as a midfield player early in his career and had switched
to defence, so could take on the role. Bosingwa, too, or Ferreira, he added.
He made it sound so simple. So why is it such an ordeal for England?
