The Evolution of Football: Specialization and the Death of the Box to Box Midfielder
Football has witnessed a trend towards specialization as the sport has evolved over the decades. Nowadays a good box to box midfielder is a rare sight. The most prominent figures among box to box midfielders these days include Steven Gerrard of England and Liverpool’s famed Darren Fletcher, who plays for Scotland and Manchester United. Other than these teams, clubs which line up with a box to box midfielder in their starting XI probably don’t exist. The reasons for this are quite varying.
Modern football has become very demanding for players as the game of soccer has evolved in to a sport that requires team players to ‘specialize’. Players are now molded to either play at break neck speeds, or run in short bursts; they are trained to perform their jobs specifically. For example, Sneijder from Inter Milan plays as an attacking midfielder, as does Kaka for Real Madrid, Ozil for Werder Bremen and Frank Lampard at Chelsea. Then there are defensive midfielders, Mascherano at Liverpool, Cambiasso at Inter Milan, Lassana Diarra at Real Madrid, Obi Mikel at Chelsea and Alex Song at Arsenal. There are passing midfielders who play as ‘quarter backs’ in their respective teams, for example Xabi Alonso for Real Madrid, Scholes and Carrick for Manchester United, Fabregas for Arsenal and Xavi for Barcelona. This specific classification of footballers and their talents show that there is no room for a box to box midfielder in the modern game. People such as Alonso, Mascherano and Kaka have divided those responsibilities into their games and perform them arguably better than a single individual going out and making an effort to play as a three-in-one player i.e. passer, tackler and goal scorer.
If one has a look at the success rates of these teams during the past decade i.e. 2000-2010, one would realize that a large amount of that success has been gifted to the teams that employ the combination of attacking/ defensive or passing/ defensive midfielders in their starting lineups. In the year 2000, the galacticos of Real Madrid won the champions league with Zidane as the attacking midfielder and Makelele as the defensive midfielder. In 2001 Bayern Munich won the tournament against Valencia, by playing Hargreaves and Effenberg as defensive midfielders and with their front three (Scholl, Salihamidžić and Elber Giovane) performing the attacking duties. In 2002 Real Madrid won the tournament once again with the exact lineup.
In 2004 it was Porto’s turn under the leadership of Mourinho to win, with Deco playing an attacking role and Pedro Mendes performing defensive duties in the midfield. In 2005 it was Liverpool who came up against the mighty AC Milan and came back from three goals down to win, in the penalty shootout. For Liverpool it was Gerrard who was playing the box to box role and Alonso playing as a passing midfielder, but it was due to this combination that Kaka played fantastically in the first half. In 2006 it was Ronaldinho and Deco playing as attacking midfielders while Edmilson and Van Bommel playing as defensive midfielders for Barcelona. These players led their team to victory over an Arsenal team which had Fabregas as their attacking minded midfielder and Gilberto Silva as the much more defensive minded of the two.
In 2007 it was AC Milan again with their combination of Pirlo’s passing and Gattuso’s tackling. Then in 2008 it was Manchester United’s turn when they started the game with Hargreaves, Carrick and Scholes. In 2009 Manchester United played Barcelona, while the later came out on top this game signified the importance of playing a defensive midfielder as United fielded Giggs, Anderson and Carrick in the middle of the park and Barcelona played Busquets , Xavi and Iniesta. Iniesta being the attacking midfielder, Xavi being the playmaker and Busquets as the defensive midfielder. In the 2010 champions league final Inter Milan played Bayern Munich, in a game where Cambiasso played as a defensive midfielder and Sneijder as an all out attacking midfielder ending the game with a 2-0 win for Inter Milan.
This trend of deploying defensive and offensive players in the middle of the field instead of all rounder midfielders is quite critical to the success of the specialized foot-balling ideology, as it not only brings about a level of balance to the team but also results in effective distribution of responsibilities during game play.
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