A new manager's arrival often excites fans around a new system, new players, a new model, a new philosophy. The real question, however, should be: How would interiors behave? What sort of relationship would they have? The best systems always answered that question.
Xavi-Iniesta, Kroos-Modrić, Gündogan-KDB, Kimmich-Thiago, Gullit-Rijkaard. The relationship of the interiors define the team's movements. “Tell me what your midfielder is like and I’ll tell you what your team is like.” (J. Lillo) Difference midfielders are to be noted.
In a world where there's much to talk about #6's — a rare breed, many forgot the others. How do they help progression? How does one behave in the second phase of progression, and what about late arrivals in the box? This is what defines the modern interior, and his/her team.
Interiors, with the #6, have the most difficult task. They, most probably, have the most *difficult* decisions to make. A thorough understanding of the game is needed, a high form of intelligence therefore. They decide. Everything. All channels will inevitable go through them.
When to slow down, and when to accelerate play? Everyone can do a pausa — but rare will be the impact of midfielders, especially in the second phase. For they can organize, orchestrate, or accelerate, and disorganize.
Recently, their trajectory has been define by higher technique, too. Ambidexterity for some, specialization for others. The Frenkies, the Bernardos, the Kimmich and the De Bruynes. Football has seen an evolution in interiors, and as such, in its game overall.
It's also interiors that often end up becoming managers. That's no coincidence: They needed the widest scope of analysis, and that helps the transition to managers — whilst attackers may fail to do so, or at least find the transition more difficult.
Every other players depends more on their midfielders than the other way round: Wingers can accelerate to a certain degree, but rarely will replicate the impact of progressive carries and pausa's from midfielders. Partly translated & inspired from:
martiperarnau.com/la-importancia…
