Lucky Strike

Lightning never strikes twice, or does it? Most football stars are unique, so that it’s usually impossible for one player to step seamlessly into the shoes of another. But it can happen. I’m trying to think of examples, and the first thought that springs to mind is that of Dalglish replacing Keegan during Liverpool’s glory years. Incredibly, it can also happen three times in a row, and I’m thinking Costa stepping into the shoes of Falcao at Atletico Madrid, after the Colombian had filled those of Forlan, who had perfectly stepped in for Torres. Hold on, that’s actually four times isn’t it?

Yet these seamless transitions are generally the exception and not the rule. After all, it takes a bit of time to repeat a winning cycle with a different set of players after one has just ended. Best thing you could probably do, once the cycle is over, is tear out the old spine and freshen things up. Just like Barca have done. It’s not necessarily going to work overnight, but it’s better than clinging to the tried and trusted for years on end for nothing.

AC Milan had an irritating habit of clinging to also-rans for too long, holding onto a player well past their sell by date. One department they have managed to replenish successfully, however, is that of the midfield anchorman.

 

Ours is a celebrity-obsessed age, where fresh-faced pin-up boys like Messi and Ronaldo take up all the limelight. I guess there’s nothing glitzier than a goal-getting, zippy forward, and the kids and girls go nuts for them. But give me a grizzled, word-weary destroyer anytime, one who’d rather do his dirty work in the shadows, with the occasional goal to remind us that he can play too. I’m thinking the likes of Vieira , Deschamps, Keane, Davids, Makelele, Cambiasso and - last but certainly not least - the modern day phenomenon that is Yaya Toure.

Many of today’s football managers often bemoan the paucity of world class strikers and central defenders. But I think that a world class midfield enforcer has become an even rarer species. Despite finally having the cash to splash, Arsene Wenger still finds himself restricted to the dubious choice between Flamini and Arteta, whilst Van Gaal would probably give his kingdom for a world class workhorse right now to shore up his side, given that Manyoo’s centre of midfield is still pure mush.

Sir Alex Ferguson once said that ‘the game is won in midfield’ at the highest level, and I couldn’t agree more. And midfield ball-winners are crucial to this, since they are the engine room which props up the fancy float. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I can tell a great side from the chaff by their midfield enforcer.

 

The most famous exponents of this role are always tremendous athletic specimens, who can also dabble in the dark arts whenever this is required. A bit of stamping on a tall player’s foot the moment the cross is taken, taking out the nippy striker early in the game to clip his wings a bit, harrying the temperamental winger so that he gets sent off, etc etc. Graeme Souness was a fine embodiment of this ruthless streak, and his handiwork when ‘looking after himself’ was simply jaw-dropping. Sir Alex Ferguson coached Souey when the former was Scotland manager, and said of him in his autobiography: ‘he could be cruel’.

Coming from a tough nut like Ferguson, that really says it all. But it is true that players were afraid to even get close to Souness, let alone take him on. This was partly the reason for Liverpool’s rampant success of the late 70s to mid-80s, but they also profited from Souey’s great leadership and quality. Which is why the ‘tigerish’ (to say the least) Scot was snapped up by Sampdoria in the Serie A - then the best league in the world - and played a big part in helping the blucerchiati to become a top side in both Italy and Europe.

People say that today’s footballers are no longer as tough as Souey’s generation. This is understandable when you think that most fans are bombarded daily with fresh-faced pics of metrosexuals like Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Mario Gotze. But the great tradition of midfield hardmen has hardly been broken, with the likes of Davids and Gattuso firing up the Serie A in the noughties, and the Premiership dominated by the likes of Keane, Vieira, Makelele and Steven Gerrard.
 

The A-League also had its own hardmen, with the most infamous amongst them being Kevin Muscat. Never one to shy away from brutality, he made world headlines during his Socceroos days for a horrible, career-ending tackle on France’s Christophe Dugarry. After retiring from Australia, Muscat’s cruelty brought his glittering Australian club career to a premature end, when he hurled himself into the air with all studs up, all but ending the career of high-flying 20 year old and fellow Maltese-Australian Adrian Zahra (who subsequently required knee surgery and now plays with Maltese club Valletta, where he is not even first choice).

So it’s clear that these nutters are never confined to a single nation, although of late Holland appears to be the producer of the best exponents. The now retired Mark Van Bommel was the last great midfield destroyer, and he was pure filth on the pitch, resorting to anything to give his side the advantage. The first non-German to captain Bayern Munich (a Dutchman?!), MVB was a veteran of the ‘battle of Nuremberg’ which was fought (more than played) between Portugal and the Netherlands at the 2006 world cup in Germany, where the referee issued four red cards and sixteen yellows.

MVB somehow managed to earn a yellow in the eighth minute, signalling that the game wasn’t going to be a meeting of dainty feet. An injured Cristiano Ronaldo in fact left the field in tears, afterwards claiming that a Dutch defender had fully intended to injure him. Yet the most amazing thing about the ‘game’ was that MVB managed to avoid being sent off until he was substituted on the hour! All throughout his career, it was a feat that he managed time and time again, constantly committing the unspeakable and yet still managing to avoid being sent off. His audacity was quite something, and there’s also available footage of him pinching the privates of another player right under the nose of the referee, and still managing to escape sanction.
 

He was a fierce competitor and a huge athletic specimen, which is why Galliani was so desperate to bring him to AC Milan when Gattuso kept on breaking down to injury. In the first year that MVB joined them, AC Milan managed to win the their last scudetto, and following another season with them they offered him an extension, although he was already 35 years old. Despite his love for AC Milan, MVB moved back to Holland for family reasons, spending one last year with PSV, and was incredibly sent off during his last game.

But Milan were quick to secure an able deputy for MVB following his departure. Who was none other than his little sidekick in the Dutch national side’s midfield. Step forward Nigel de Jong, also a fearsome competitor and midfield anchorman, who has admirably filled the shoes of his evil mentor, and proved to be full of pace and strength in the tackle. He is also no retiring wallflower when it comes to cold-heartedness, as evidenced by his infamous ‘kung fu’ strike on Xabi Alonso at the 2010 world cup final, which left fans worldwide stunned by his luck at not being sent off.

Roll on four years, and de Jong is now a glorious veteran of the Dutch national side that reached the semis in Brazil 2014. He’s also the kingpin in Inzaghi’s midfield at AC Milan, following a summer of transfer speculation in which Man United’s new manager Van Gaal (who was Holland’s manager in Brazil) must have been desperate to reunite with NdJ at United, despite all the headlines about Juve’s Vidal and Pogba. Holding onto de Jong was probably AC Milan’s best business of the summer, and there is already talk of them offering him a new contract (which is a sign of immense estimation when you consider how stingy the club has become).

 

Following his last outing against Parma (where NdJ was a constant point of reference in AC’s midfield and chipped in with a coolly taken strike) you can be sure that the chequebook will already be waving in his agent’s face. And whilst Milan desperately seeks to shore up its woeful backline (they narrowly beat Parma 5-4, albeit away), head coach Inzaghi will at least be comforted that MVB’s shoes in midfield have been filled so amply by his compatriot. After all, every bit of de Jong’s quality will be needed in the impending clash against Juventus, when he should provide a sturdy challenge to the Old Lady’s powerful central midfielders.

Indeed lightning rarely strikes twice. Yet when it comes to filling the role of their midfield destroyer, AC Milan are certainly fortunate that it did.