What Position Idoes Beckham Play

England's problem: Are wingers midfielders or strikers?

I wrote in my previous blog about the importance of central midfielders possessing specific skills in order to fulfill the role of either destroyer, facilitator or creator. Most Premier League clubs have realised the importance of having a deep lying midfielder to screen the defence and initiate counter-attacks. After years of yo-yoing between England’s top two divisions, West Bromich Albion finally accepted that attacking football had to be supplemented by two holding players and since the introduction of Paul Scharner and Youssef Mulumbu they have looked far more like a Premier League outfit.

There remain however, two key problems in Premier League in terms of allocating the positions of ‘attacking players’. There is firstly, a tendency to push creative midfielders out to the wings because a 4-3-3 system seems attacking enough without one of the three in midfield also forward-thinking. This tendency has been the plight of certain players’ careers, most notably Joe Cole’s. It is widely accepted that Joe Cole is one of the most creative players of this generation. It is why, after almost a full year out due to injury, he was taken to last year’s World Cup in South Africa. He has the ability to change a game with a single pass or a moment of magic. However, throughout his career, no manager has known his best position. He has played off a striker, in the hole behind two, wide right, wide left and central midfield to varying degrees of success. However, as Cole sits on the fringes of the Liverpool side, out of the England set-up and continuously dogged by injury he must wonder whether his versatility and rare creativity have hindered, rather than enhanced his playing career.

Cole is unlike either of the two types of wide player England tends to produce. He cuts neither the Walcott/Lennon figure that tries to beat the full-back and get to the by-line; nor does he assume the Milner/Beckham role that looks for the perfect early cross. Andres Iniesta, who surely Cole is most like at Barcelona, faced a similar problem until very recently. Frank Rijkaard would regularly play him as the right striker in the iconic 4-3-3 as a reserve for Ludovic Giuly or Thierry Henry. Luis Aragones played Iniesta in the right-central attacking midfield position of the 4-2-2-2 that won Spain the 2008 European Championship. However, it is now decided that Iniesta will play the creator in a three-man midfield for both club and country. This has been the case for two years. Nevertheless, I suppose having eight Catalans in the starting line-up for Spain helps the selection of the system.

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