Whatever happened to the midfield artist?

Calling all old ones to contribute to this one. I remember the word midfield maestro as the player who created much and set the pace of the game for the team. Teams were awash with them years ago, Ardiles, Alan Ball, Liam Brady, Paul Scholes, In the past decade most teams seem to have sacrificed the midfield artist, Barca being the exception, and has been replaced by one and sometimes two DM who while very great athletes and accomplished on the ball contribute very little to the creativity of the game. Do you think this is taking the artistry away from the game?

 

I'd suggest that Arsenal are an exception too. Often to their detriment.

 

Agreed Brendy!

 

Manchester United are the prime example of the DM philosophy. The emphasis is on the ability of their forwards creativity.

 

Mata.

 

Tadic, Juanmi, Oscar, Fabregas, Carrick, Arsenals midfield, Coutinho, Mata , Silva, Etc etc

They are still there, just because they don't stand still in the middle of the pitch pinging long passes about, doesn't mean they are not there.

The artistry is still there, people just don't always realise.

 

Most teams play two DM's to accomodate a 'midfield artist'. These days often that player is on the wing to escape the other teams double pivot. Or really good ones play at 10 still, more often in good teams that are expecting to control the game. So not really sure what you're getting at there. It sounds like you're more on about a deep lying playmaker type player, rather than a more advanced player that creates clear cut chances. Like Pirlo, Xavi, Kroos for example.

 

And Michael Carrick or Morgan Schneiderlin

 

The way I see it, there's two types. There's players like Fabregas who are play makers, often playing defense splitting passes and looking for one-twos. Then there's players like Schneiderlin, who sit deep and look to play long passes forward or spray something out wide.

 

Too much emphasis is placed on tactics in the modern game. Even the highly creative players have to operate within the overall tactics. Hence Mata not fitting in at Chelsea. Very few players can bridge the gap between these two demands. Those which can will often be difficult to manage - in the past they were revered as mavericks, now they would be condemned by the likes of Lawrenson et al. Hence fewer of them survive for long at any club, more's the pity.

 

In all honesty, I think these are tags used by the media to hype the darlings of the time.

Hoddle making 5 wonder passes a game would get the tag maestro, magician etc, Ward Prowse doing the same thing, goes largely unnoticed by the media

 

In our case, he was assaulted by Manchester City

 

Good win tonight Lapras....

 

Thank you. An excellent performance too, I honestly did not think Cook would have the impact that he has had

 

Pompey must have really fallen low when I find myself genuinely happy to see they have made a good start to the season. Maybe they'll join us in the prem by 2047?

 

I still wince when I think of what Ben Thatcher has been responsible for and largely got away with. He pole axed James Beattie while he was at Spurs. Beatts got the last laugh though. 4-0 Saints.

Pirlo is a genuine midfield maestro of the old variety. Runs about when he has to, but mainly walks or stands still. Pings arrowed passes and pulls the strings. Last of a dying breed.

 

He was a bit rubbish in the NY derby the other day though, kept misplacing passes and giving the ball away. As did Lampard.

 

I don't care about what he does now he's semi-retired. He has a great enough track record to prove my point.

 

Individuals get very little time on the ball in today's game; that's true everywhere on the pitch, but especially in the middle of the park. The midfield maestros of the past had a bit more time and space to play in. Remember Scholes coming on for man utd against us 3 years ago? He dropped deep to control the game, we gave him the space and he destroyed us. That was down to our naivety and wouldn't have happened had it not been one of our first games back in the PL; in the last couple of seasons we'd have pressed up and cut off his room to play.

On balance I agree; the game has changed, players are more athletic, tactics are more aggressive, and teams have to work harder to create opportunities for the stylish players to turn it on.

 

I've never seen us so destroyed by a single individual performance than when we played Chelsea at The Dell and Gullit completely and utterly owned us.