Jose Mourinho has been officially appointed as the new manager at Chelsea and several newspapers suggest, including ‘The Mirror’, ‘Daily Mail’ and ‘The Sun’, that a player Mourinho wants to bring to Chelsea is the 27-year old Croatian central-midfielder, Luka Modric. However, the interest of Chelsea to buy the Croatian playmaker existed longer. AVB desperately tried to lure him to Chelsea two years ago, and even a £40m offer was rejected by Spurs chairman, Daniel Levy.
It’s not a secret that a deep-lying playmaker is needed at the bridge for a long time. We’ve also been interested to sign Moutinho, Cabaye, Modric and a few more other CM’s last year. However, what role does the deep-lying playmaker play and why is Modric an ideal option?
Here’s a short summary which function the deep-lying playmaker has:
The main duties of a deep-lying playmaker are to dictate, structure and organise the build up, open spaces and support other players from a deep-lying withdrawn position. A deep-lying playmaker has to have a great vision and long passing skills to pick out strikers/wingers from the own half. Strong short pass and dribbling abilities are also required as a mistake can easily end in a counterattack from the opponent.
You can read the more detailed article about the deep-lying playmaker here:
http://chelseafc360.com/2013/06/01/the-missing-deep-lying-playmaker/
I have the feeling that many see Modric as a similar CAM player to Mata or Hazard. They have very similar attributes, indeed, but the role Modric plays, particularly in the time at Tottenham, is nevertheless very different. The Croatian was sometimes used as a CAM in Madrid and rarely at Spurs. However, the best position Modric plays is in the double pivot, as a deep-lying playmaker.
It’s nearly a year since Modric joined Real Madrid for a fee of £33m. The 27-year old Croatian midfielder struggled to settle in Madrid, and was also voted as the worst signing of the season by the readers of the Spanish paper Marca, as the fans probably expected more spectacular from a £33m transfer.
A vital goal away at Old Trafford helped Modric to slowly regain his form and he’s slowly establishing himself in the Real Madrid team, his performances getting better and better every week. It hasn’t been a terrible season in the end at all, having the second most appearances (52 games) at Real Madrid behind Ronaldo.
Many people believe that Modric is overrated and overhyped by media. However, his true abilities are overshadowed by his struggling start this season and lack of goals. Modric showed what he’s capable in the BPL. Whether it’s Sir Alex Ferguson or Kenny Dalglish, both managers named him as their player of the season 2010/2011. His 3 goals and 2 assists in 32 BPL games in 10/11 aren’t impressive at all, so why is Modric such an important player and how does he justify the praise from others? The answer is that his strengths don’t lie in the statistics.
Luka Modric, the intelligent strategist
As mentioned before, his strengths don’t lie in the statistics. So what is his hype all about? The secret of Luka Modric’s popularity, especially by his managers, is his work without the ball, his strength to hold the ball and to press at the right moment. The Croat loves to dictate and influence the game from the deep and his vision, long pass and key pass abilities are his magnificent tools to create great chances.
He’s very alike to Andres Iniesta in open spaces for other players, organize the build-up and he even can switch to the wings. He was actually often used as a left-midfielder at Dynamo Zagreb in a 4-4-2 because of his strengths in 1-vs-1 dribbling, work rate, good crossing and versatility.
At defending, Modric uses his agility and positioning to enforce an error by making the space tighter for the opponent and he loves to intercept with his very intelligent movements without the ball. His slight stature is probably his biggest weakness by having a disadvantage at tackles and aerial duels.
Age
Modric is surely not the youngest by turning 28 this summer. For me, he definitely still can bring performances on the highest level for another 4-5 years. I know that we have the philosophy to bring young and potential players in, but we need some new finished and more experienced players while we have too many talents at our club. The positive thing about his age is that he won’t stand our young player in the way, and the young players can also learn from him, for example Josh, Chalobah or even Oscar.
There aren’t a lot world-class deep-lying playmakers on the market. Moutinho just went to Monaco; players like Gündogan, Pirlo or Xavi don’t intend to leave their clubs. However, a deep-lying playmaker is what we need immediately, and with Modric, we can’t think of a better deep-lying playmaker to join us.
What is your opinion on the deep-lying playmaker? Who would you get? What’s your opinion about Modric? Leave me your thoughts in the comment! Jonny (@jonny9fan)