Tactical Analysis – Chelsea vs Stoke

Chelsea's current squad is an enviable one, not only because of the fact that the…

Double pivot, or what we usually know as Defensive Midfielders or Holding Midfielders, are two players in front of back four, and behind the attacking midfielders. These days, many top clubs in the world are using 4-2-3-1 formation. 4-2-3-1 is an advanced form of 4-5-1 with 2 Centre Backs, 2 Full Backs, 2 Defensive Midfielders (Double Pivot), 3 Offensive Midfielders (or Attacking Midfielders), and 1 Striker. I want to discuss about the double pivot role, which I think is the main role of 4-2-3-1 formation. Club with great pivots are great club We can see almost all of the big clubs have great pivot to balance the team. i.e Carrick for Manchester United, Sergio Busquets of Barcelona, Xabi Alonso of Real Madrid, Schweinsteiger of Bayern München, Gündogan of BVB , Pirlo for Juventus, and many more. These kind of players balance their team, defense and offense. Some of you probably don't understand about this role. This role IS NOT Centre Midfielder. DMF (Defensive Midfielder) plays in the deeper area than CM (Centre Midfielder). Players like Frank Lampard, Ramires, and Oscar are CM. They don't fit with 4-2-3-1 system, but they can be useful in 4-3-3 formation. Centre Midfielder types Box to box midfielder : This types of players are the most versatile of players. They are dynamic all-around and usually called as complete midfielders. They support both attacking and defense by their agility. Players of this type : Ramires, Lampard, Vidal, Yaya Toure, and many more. Playmaker : This type, as the name, has to create the chances and control the attack of the team. They usually have great dribbling skill, passing ability, and ability to read the game. Players of these type : Zinadine Zidane, Iniesta, Fabregas, Juan Mata and many more These types of player are not effective as double pivot. We need players who can run the pivot jobs if we keep using 4-2-3-1 formation. And those Pivot Jobs are: 1. Ball winner. They have to win the ball in midfield, tackle the opponents, and take the possession. 2. Cover the back four. DMF has to mind the gaps of full backs or centre back if one of them advance to support the offense. Or in free-kick or corner kick situation, when the defenders usually go forward. 3. Flow the ball. They have to distribute the ball from back four to front four. They can give it to 3 CAMs or pass it directly to Striker. 4. Play playing. A DMF has to control of the game, decide to play the game quickly, or slow the ball distribution. In Modern Football, there is one new role of DMF which it's actually  not defensive midfielder. This type of players are not pushed to do tackle and win the ball often. This role is Deep Lying Playmaker. Deep lying playmaker is different with Traditional playmaker or Advanced Playmaker. These players play in deeper role than traditional playmaker. These likes of Andrea Pirlo, Schweinsteiger, Xabi Alonso, and Michael Ballack are different with Zidane, ain't them? There is an article of another writer that will explain you the detail of Deep Lying Playmaker. Back to the pivots. For me, the perfect double pivot is one Defensive minded midfielder and one Deep lying playmaker. The Defensive minded MF has to more defend, cover the back four, tackle, intercept, and so on. The Deep lying playmaker has to play the ball, flow the ball to front four, and create the chance from deep position We have Mikel as defensive minded MF, and David Luiz who has impressed me, can fill this spot too. Though both of them are not really good on flowing the ball towards the attackers. Mikel is a decent DMF (apparently most of you don't think so), he tackles, intercepts, and mind the gaps of the back four well. The weaknesses are his contribution in final third, and his pace. That's why we need a deep-lying playmaker to play alongside him, and make it perfect combo of pivot. In his recent matches, David Luiz was getting better on playing the ball and creating chances, that's why Mikel-Luiz often worked in our midfield. But Luiz is not a class deep-lying playmaker that we need to win our trophies. Oriol Romeu is worth a shout. A discipline DMF, good pace, and young. But I couldn't see him making chances for Chelsea. Ramires and Lampard (box to box MF) couldn't fill this spot, since they were more in front of or even inside opponent's penalty box than creating chances. Oscar probably can do this job, but his poor strength and balance will ruin the pivot. We were having Raul Meireles to play this role, but someone's gone mad and sold him to a club in Turkey. And we need the replacement immediately. I quite like types of Makelele, or Pirlo, or Schweini for us. Joao Moutinho, Vidal, and Gündogam are my favorite players for Chelsea to sign. Though, Moutinho is going to AS Monaco, Gündogan likely stays, and almost impossible to sign Vidal. So, what's your opinions? Do we need to sign a DMF ? if yes, who? Or we can try the youngsters Oscar, Romeu, and Josh McEachran -Crissandy