There is a trend going on in football, especially in midfield, where passing and maintaining possession rather than tackling and winning of possession is the art of defence in midfield. The former is the current trend in football which makes Barcelona the dominant team in Europe and Spain the dominant team in the world while the latter is exactly what makes national teams like France, Argentina and Brazil lag those teams.
Notice the change in relationships in midfield over the years at Chelsea as well. We went from being set up as having a destroyer (Makelele) to versatile box-to-box CM/DM (Tiago/Essien) and Lampard CM/AM to a midfield composed of a ball-winning/interceptor-passer (Mikel), passing midfielder/CM/Box to Box (Ballack), and CM/AM (Lampard).
The Community Shield game was an illustration of the old midfield composition versus the new midfield composition. Nigel De Jong (destroyer) vs. Anderson (Ball-winning passer), Milner (Box to Box midfielder) vs. Tom Cleverley (Passing Midfielder). Yaya Toure (AM) vs. Rooney (AM). De Jong won some ball and had no clue what to do with it or misplaced the passes because of pressure from Manchester United.
Anderson, on the other hand, was not only winning and intercepting balls but initiating attacks from deep quickly. Tom Cleverley was miles ahead of Milner in the game having created numerous chances for Manchester United. Pressing is becoming a big part of everyone’s game in Europe which is exactly why you need more midfielders who can release the ball quickly. It looked like we spent years getting the ball out of our own midfield area and by the time we reached opposition, they was absolutely nowhere or spaces to attack.
Ballack and Deco (in his few games) dealt with this problem. How did they deal with it? Simple. Rather than passing the ball sideways to full-backs (slowing down game) or box to box players (who run with the ball), they will easily hit 20-40 yard passes to the forwards on the flanks or striker or attacking midfielder who were all in motion already.
Think about the effect of this. Opposition may not have regrouped in defence by then giving Chelsea an advantage whilst attacking. Signing an AM like Sneijder does not tackle this problem. Sniejder will be operating in the final third of the pitch. The problem was getting the ball there quickly for them to exploit their vision and passing. They will continuously drop deeper than usual to look for the ball, allowing opposition to set up against you.
Remember the cries about Anelka and Malouda dropping too deep last season rather than focusing on attacks. Statistics will never justify the needs of a passing central midfielder, but their effects are multiple. It liberalises the forwards to focus on attacking, movement and finding spaces especially those with pace; it frees up AMs to get into the box to assist in scoring or providing an additional pass in the box if needed; it allows our attacking full-backs to make their runs up front and deliver crosses if the need arises while.
Imagine all this happening, but the passing central midfielder still has the ball at his feet. The multiple effect is it allows our team to hit you with various forms of attack and not be dependent on one form, method or person i.e. predictability. We were the former in 2009/2010. We were the latter in 2010/2011 season.
For Chelsea, Josh can fill this role easily. However, Thiago has gone far in terms of development, but Pep Guardiola is not depending on him to carry the Barcelona midfield given the amount of competition they have in La Liga and Europe. Besides him, they have 2 passing midfielders in Iniesta and Xavi and are looking to add Fabregas. If you also look at our injury list today, imagine Josh being on that list. The equivalent will be like last season without Ballack or 2nd half in pre-season against Aston Villa. It completely makes sense why Chelsea is chasing Luka Modric.
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