WHAT IS A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER? EXAMINING WHAT IT IS TO PLAY THE POSITION AND WHY MOST TOP TEAMS PREFER A MEDIOCENTRO

Ask most what a DM in football is and they most will reply you "defensive midfielder". This is true on the surface of it, but what most mean when they say defensive midfielder is a destroyer. Football is like a science. It evolves. From a tactical stand point, things change from time to time and can also be recycled from years gone into use in the present. Now the "destroyer" or "Makelele role" as some would say is from an era gone. We are in the era of a DM not necessarily being a bruiser who intercepts, tackles, hassle and does the work in the defensive phase or defensive transition, we are now in an era of a deep lying player maker or a mediocentro or regista (as they are known in Spain and Italy respectively).

It is for a fact that most top clubs in Europe (class A and B) employ a player of this profile. Barcelona (Sergio Busquets), Bayern Munich (Xabi Alonso), PSG (Thiago Motta), Juventus (before his ACL injury Marchisio). Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Manchester City are the only other clubs not mentioned here. Pep Guardiola will surely implement that with Fernandinho/Ilkay Gündogan. Atleti have a "special" way of playing so they are exempted from this. This leaves the current European champions, Real Madrid. It is a strange case. The club adopted the idea of having a mediocentro with Xabi Alonso contrary to popular opinion that the club hasn't had a "dm" since Makelele. Then after the Spaniard left, Toni Kroos was drafted into the role. The German is a cerebral player and he took to that role slowly and steadily. He played the role for a year under Carlo Ancelotti, played there a few times under Rafa Benitez. The other times he didn't play there under the Spaniard, Casemiro, a destroyer in every sense of the word, was drafted in. Under Zidane, Kroos returned to the dm role again, but after the Madrid derby defeat in late February, Casemiro became a starter for the club whenever he was available. At the time it was seen as Zidane trying to give the team shield while he worked on other aspects. The off season has come and gone, Real Madrid made no real efforts to sign a box to box or another mediocentro. Zidane was interested in Paul Pogba, but Florentino Perez wasn't willing to pay the asking price and that was that. It now seems that Zidane has planned for this season with the Casemiro has the holder. Most would agree that it is okay considering the club won the champions league with him as holder. This is true, but it is also true the club had a rather easy route through to the final. You could argue that, there's no 3rd midfielder in the current squad, but James Rodriguez performed that role well under Carlo Ancelotti. Isco started playing the role under the aforementioned Ancelotti and still plays there well enough. Mateo Kovacic although he doesn't play there often those have the attributes of one who will excel there. The issue now is, what type of DM Real Madrid should play with. A destroyer (Casemiro) or a mediocentro (Kroos). A club of Real Madrid's nature, it is essential, a mediocentro is occupying the deeper midfield role. Now I'll describe the basic responsibilities it takes to play the role.

* Build up: The player in the role must take charge of this phase and know when, to whom and at what pace to pass the ball to a teammate in order to advance the play in an organised manner. Merely passing it or hitting diagonals is not enough. Each pass must carry a meaning and an idea.

* Offensively: The player must offer/create a consistent passing lane to his teammates in order to add ball circulation at various points of the build-up 

* Defensively: The player must be able to do what a typical destroyer would, intercept, tackle (when needed), hassle and also form part of the defence when it becomes necessary to do so.

From the above description, most destroyers carry out only the defensive phase and do very little when it comes to the build-up & attack phase. This reason on the surface explains why most teams who play with a mediocentro play better aesthetically pleasing football, because they have one more player to facilitate and essentially be the brain of the 1st phase of the build-up.

Using the two players used as case study, we apply their attributes to the role.

* Casemiro: Getting this out of the way, the Brazilian exhibits most the traits you expect of a player of his profile. The player most times is over zealous and goes in for the ball aggressively which will tend to recover balls for his team as much as giving away free kicks. The Brazilian lacks the positional awareness to anticipate where the ball will likely be played and how best to place his body in order to win possession without going to ground. In the attacking phase and build up phase, lies the major problem with Casemiro and this position. Basic understanding of how to start or indeed facilitate the build-up in the first phase and at any other phase do not exist. Ability to also use the ball with or without pressure is also minimal for the player. You can see it in his game, that he avoids having the ball as much as possible. Although when forced to, he can pass it but there lies a sense of nervousness with the ball.

The graphic here shows Kroos deeper, after passing it to Casemiro, the Brazilian immediately knocks it backwards towards the centre backs

The graphic here shows Kroos deeper, after passing it to Casemiro, the Brazilian immediately knocks it backwards towards the centre backs

* Kroos: Toni in one word. Cerebral. He understands every phase of the pitch through years of playing as a number 10, a normal central midfielder and the times he played deepest. Match this to his incredible ability to give a pass from any area of the pitch to another to precise accuracy. Always trying to involve team mates as much as possible. From side to side, vertically, into the final 3rd. Left or right. Defensively is where the problem comes with the German. There exist a myth that when pressed, he loses possession easily. This isn't necessarily true, he has an excellent body shield on him which results in him winning fouls most times or finding an angle to pass off the ball whilst protecting the ball from the opponent. The defensive good traits of Kroos, is his pressing and interceptions (this is severely underrated). The German will barely go in for a slide tackle and his pressing comes off as passive at times. He also isn't fast nor is he aggressive and for this reason can easily be beaten in a 1v1 which could leave his back line exposed.

 At Real Madrid currently, there is a myth that Casemiro brings balance and frees up Luka Modric & Toni Kroos. This is true in the defensive phase only, but outside that, the Brazilian offers next to nothing in the build-up phase and offensive phase. It is clear at this point that in the face the does not offer the balance and freedom to his midfield partner but rather handicaps them as they drop often to perform duties meant for the Brazilian.   

The image shows how the two interiors (Kroos and Modric are deeper than the actual “dm”)

This problem seems clear to team as a whole, as the defenders now see to ignore the Brazilian in the build-up phase and try finding other team mates

Notice Kroos trying to help Sergio Ramos dictate by pointing to Casemiro, but he is ignored with the defender preferring the longer ball forward which is lost as shown below

The graphics used to describe these two issues may have been from one game, but this has been a reoccurring occurrence in the game play of Real Madrid. A lack of confidence from the team and the player himself to gain possession is a problem as much as having him in the team is "solution". 

An argument could be made it is better to play Casemiro as the safety measure as his flaws in the role are less harmful to the team as is Kroos' flaw in the position. This argument is not necessarily true because, in time, teams will notice this issue and try to offset it by applying a press in the their attacking and midfield zone which as shown by Real Sociedad & Celta vigo in the first two games, will need to be seen through by either dribbling or passing through, both of which instantly nullifies Casemeiro and makes Real Madrid handicap, with ones less player in such tight situations. Real Madrid won those 2 games, but neither would be called a vintage Real performance. Clearly the quality of players at the club mean games will be won regardless of this tactical handicap but there also will be days when the quality will have off days or the quality of players on the opposing side will be on par whilst having similar knowledge of how to stop this Real Madrid team. Those are the days when the club could suffer most by dropping points on off days or failing to beat teams that could harm them with quality too (in CL for instance)

To conclude this piece, the demands of the roles have been explained. Also, defending is not exclusive to the defenders and the DM. Football is a team sport should be done as a team. Not one position or more is limited to specific duties. Defending should be done as a team, as unit, with each player knowing doing their part for the collective good. Therefore, it is in my opinion that in this era, where the elite clubs want to play aesthetically pleasing football as well as win games,S having a mediocentro over a destroyer as your "DM" is absolutely paramount.