The "Makelele" role - Probably the most underated position in football

Football Food For Thought / Mike Norman / 14 February 2008 / 5 Comments

"Mystical" Mike Norman talks about the role of the holding midfielder and how Makelele, Mascherano and Hargreaves in particular have mastered it

To this day, I still believe that Real Madrid won the 2002 Champions League because of one man, and one man only. In a team that had such attacking prowess, aided by the likes of Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane and Roberto Carlos, it was Frenchman Claude Makelele that won plaudits for his outstanding performances as their holding midfielder throughout the competition.

Going forward, Real Madrid were something else. They attacked in droves and were outstanding on the eye - but when the attack broke down, Makelele was left like a rabbit in the headlights as the opposition came at him. He never once buckled though, and his ability to break up the play and slow the game down was what won Madrid the trophy in my opinion. From that moment on, the 'Makelele' role was born in the eyes of many.

Of course, we all know that the role of a holding midfielder isn't really a new one (Dunga excelled in it as part of Brazil's 1994 World Cup winning team) - it just seems to have become more fashionable since Makelele demanded an improved contract at Madrid, after his team-mates made it known that the job he did was pivotal to the club's success. Amazingly, Madrid flatly refused Makelele's request and he was sold to Chelsea for £16.6m, while David Beckham was brought to the Bernabeu as another attacking option. That sequence of events brought about this famous remark from Zidane:

"Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?"

So why is it that the role of the holding midfielder goes largely unnoticed and has many detractors? If I told you that three of the top midfielders in the Premiership have a combined cost of over £50m, have played over 900 games at club level, and yet have scored just a paltry 22 goals between them, what would you think? How would you feel if I told you that these three 'top class' midfielders have played over 140 games for their country - and scored just twice?

If I said that one is a French World Cup & European Championship winner, another is regarded as one of Argentina's most valuable players, and the last one was voted England's best player in the 2006 World Cup, then you will begin to realise that I'm talking about Makelele, Javier Mascherano and Owen Hargreaves - three of the best holding midfielders in our league today. The fact that, as midfielders, they don't score goals is totally irrelevant - it's not their job.

Have a look at how many goals George Boateng or Dietmar Hamann scored in their prime. Or glance through the scoring charts to see if Lee Carsley, Gilberto Silva or Mathieu Flamini figure prominently. Granted, some score more than others, but the role of the holding midfielder is simply to break up the play when the opposition has possession, to pick up the pieces, and to distribute the ball to a more attack minded team-mate stood five yards away.

The role can only be adopted successfully when a team has plenty of flair in it, hence why it is successfully employed at teams like Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. If you can sit deep, win the ball, and look up to see a Ronaldo, Gerrard, Fabregas or Wright-Phillips to pass to, then you don't need to do anything else apart from play the ball to them - let them do the dribbling or the defence splitting passes.

So being patient and disciplined, having awareness, the ability to tackle and pass the ball a few yards, are all key attributes required for such a role. It sounds easy, but it's a role that has huge importance, yet gets very little recognition when the awards are handed out - fairly or unfairly? I'd love to know your thoughts.

There shouldn't really be a need for a holding player to be used by the Premiership teams when Liverpool take on Barnsley and Chelsea entertain Huddersfield in the FA Cup at the weekend. Liverpool will win at odds of [1.19] and Chelsea will have no problems seeing of their opponents at [1.13], but that won't get us very rich. I will be having two bets, and it's for both matches to have 'Over 4.5 Goals' at odds of [4.3] and [4.5] respectively - though don't expect Makelele or Mascherano to be amongst the scorers!

Comments (5)

1. Bomber | 15 February 2008

   A great read. I think the role your talking about is just important as a role of a striker.

   As much as a forward can score goals a defensive midfielder can prevent goals... and win you matches

2. Ian | 15 February 2008

   Wow, you must be the first person to have realised the value of this 'unrecognised', 'unnoticed' 'underated' role.

   Or could it be that this is a rehashed summary of all the prominent coverage that this position has received over the last 5 years? EVERYBODY knows that the role is important. EVERYBODY recognises, notices and rates the role and the good players that fill it.

   Your "insight" is at best tedious and at worst plaigiarism.

   Bore off.

3. Jamie Carl | 15 February 2008

   To be fair to Mike, he didn't say he was the first person to discover the importance of the role - all he's done is highlight certain players who have excelled at it and listed the skills you need to carry it out. Maybe it's tedious because it's not your cup of tea but it's hardly plagiarism. Seems to me he's given his own views on it, not just re-iterated someone else's...

4. Ian | 15 February 2008

   To be fair to Mike, he hasn't just "highlighted certain players who have excelled at it and listed the skills you need to carry it out".

   The article does indeed contain these details (which are reiterated every week by Lee Dixon on match of the day as if they're new information) but it also contains the following comments:

   "Probably the most underated position in football"
   and
   "So why is it that the role of the holding midfielder goes largely unnoticed".

   It's these particular comments that I find the most annoying. The position may have been relatively underappreciated during that Real Madrid season he mentions but since then it has been one of the most closely analysed positions on the pitch.

   I can't wait to read his next article about how scoring more goals than the opposition can really help you win matches. Perhaps that will be more revelatory.

5. Mike | 15 February 2008

   Thanks for your input Ian - all comments are welcome whether they are critical or complimentary.

   One of the points I made above is that this role does go un-noticed and is under valued, especially by fans.

   The Liverpool Echo have their own online forum and a recent thread debated the 'holding midfielder' in detail. At a guess, I would say about 70% of the comments were to say that the role is not important at all - and these comments were from fans who have Mascherano in their side.

   When it comes to awards being handed out, I can't even remember these type of players winning a 'Player of the Month' award, nevermind the more prestigious, end of season awards.