The 21st of April 1999 lives strong in the memory for most football lovers. It's not often nowadays you see an inspiration amongst the tantalising workers on display at various football stages across the lands, however this has not always been true. Being an inspiration in football means leading, albeit at times by lifting your team by the scruff of the neck and carrying them through sheer passion and determination, thus reflecting on those around you. Traits that many can only aspire to. Roy Keane performed this against European giants at a certain Turin stage. Far from possessing the exotic turns and shimmy’s of other greats around him, nor the ability to turn a whole team inside out Keane brought forward, in perfect demonstration, a supreme showcase of will and grit to revive a struggling United side on the night.
I write this piece, not as some sort of commemoration of the match itself but as evidence to back my ultimate point. For players such as Keane are no longer existent, or rather needed on the world stage. It was true to say that on the night Keane made even Zinedine Zidane (a man who only the previous summer had rocked the world stage and crushed Brazilian hearts in the world cup final) look almost average. Biased as I may be, Keane was magnificent as a player even when he produced moments of unrivalled controversy (see: 'Alfie Haaland') he also produced pure passion.
For that is possibly what the old midfield general was built on, love for the game, for his club, and thus the on-going persistence to perform and lift the team they played for. The premiership would simply not be a world leader if the unparalleled rivalry between Keane and Patrick Viera was not ever present. They were two similar players, absolute midfield engines who collided like two locomotives on many occasions. It was this beauty in the positions involved that made the role of the 'midfield general' itself so entertaining for the game. I imagine even the most ardent of 'beautiful' football worshippers would agree that football has always needed it's 'grafters' that is, until recently.
Xabi Alonso recently spoke about the use of tackling, claiming it is not a skill, or for that matter an attribute in itself. Is he right, is he wrong? I'm sure many have their own opinions and yet it's true to say that in essence tackling has almost be removed from La Liga itself, possibly at reason for his comments. He proceeded to note that instead teams should defend by keeping the ball; something easy to say when you're included in a line-up that harbours Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and other such galacticos. Yet the fact still remains, at the very top level of football, there is currently no space for what we once perceived as the 'midfield general'.
Bryan Robson did it, Paul Ince too, Keane was to follow, Gerrard capitalised on it and now it remains only slightly in rare amounts with players such as Scott Parker at top levels. It's true to say even now that the old style midfielder, box to box with a desire to win the ball with a tantalisingly crunching tackle cannot exist amongst our current football climate. It has henceforth become apparent that this 'midfield general' has now been replaced with a generic building block structure to suit the current climate of football. This entails a defensive midfielder, take a certain Claude Makele for instance, who instead of being a box to box ball winner is simply a bulldog ball winner. Nipping ankles and consistently collecting the ball to offload to the next block, the playmaker. Barcelona pull this off to dazzling effect. Busquets is hardly a world class player and yet his role allows him to be forever fitted into the best team to currently grace the planet (possibly ever). In this case it is either Xavi or Iniesta who receive the ball and create, darting runs or ghosting through the opposition and providing full game assistance to the strikeforce. The art of this, of course, comes from having the stability of a defensive midfielder who is always present and thus can break an onrush of a counter attack or possibly produce one from his own half.
Claude Makelele brought this defensive role to centre stage with his performances amongst the galacticos at Real Madrid, being an essential link in a midfield that boasted Zidane himself. His move to Chelsea then allowed him to produce this on a Premiership stage, allowing Chelsea, under Mourinho, to become title winners for two successive seasons. It was true that his ability in the position allowed Lampard to go forward and grab his (quite phenomenal) twenty plus goals in a Premier League season. He was then replaced with a similar player, one Michael Essien who did very much the same role, rarely venturing out of the midfield third; instead simply winning and giving whilst providing consistent cover for his back four.
It's true that the defensive midfielder may be better for football, but by no means can it create better entertainment. It's also true that the breed itself of a 'general' figure has all but died out. It's saddening to realise once great figures may never be replicated, and that far from the Premiership as a supposed 'English' global superpower being able to influence with its previously English roles, it is now quite the opposite. It has been subdued by Platini and Blatter's endless concordance to deliver what Europe wants and this instead has rubbed off on the English game with the influx of different owners wishing to buy what the European game requires. Not that this is bad, mind, if you were a certain Sheikh oil baron wanting to buy Football's most coveted club competition then why not simply invest in what everyone else considers to work? Not everyone can replicate Barcelona, and ever more evident it seems is that there shall never be a true English team at the peak of European football anymore. No treble winning master class, no Liverpool of the eighties, instead of the bacon, hash brown, eggs and black pudding it's all gone a bit continental.
Even a certain Steven Gerrard, the man who almost single handily defeated a marauding AC Milan side in the Champions League cannot muster up enough to produce the sort of form that led him to be one of the most desirable centre midfielders of his generation. Although more attacking minded, he was quite possibly the last of a generation in terms of motivational midfielders. Although he did have cover in his role in the form of Xabi Alonso and more recently players such as Lucas, his finest shows of performance came when he took control of the game itself, note also the FA Cup final versus a very surprising and resilient West Ham side.
Evolution happens, I bet thirty years ago it probably seemed improbable that the 'inside out winger' would be so popular in the modern game so it's only natural, therefore that the midfield has progressed towards its current state. It's ironic though that a game that requires so much in the way of energy has appeared to have removed one of its most energetic roles.
