Be the commander of the midfield by mastering these fundamentals
While the defensive midfielder has very important defensive tasks. A defensive midfielder will get noticed by scouts and other clubs for their offensive skills. Only a few defensive midfielders are known for their defensive skills, and many more are known for their offensive skills. That’s why a defensive midfielder needs to know which situations he has to master to become good with the ball. Everything can be described with one sentence, a defensive midfielder has to make progressive actions with the ball. He either has to pass or dribble past opponents, so that imbalances arise in the opponent’s defense. In this chapter, we will describe which fundamentals a defensive midfielder has to master to make progressive actions.
The first one is supporting your players, this means that as a defensive midfielder, you should always be ready to receive the ball. This means recognizing if there’s pressure on your teammate with the ball or if he has time. This asks for two different strategies, when there’s pressure a defensive midfielder should ‘help out’ immediately and come in a space close by to play out of the pressure. When there’s no pressure the defensive midfielder can position himself better so that when he receives the ball he can make a progressive action.
When one of your teammates is under pressure, it’s important to come and give him a way out of the pressure. The first priority here is to keep the ball and not necessarily to make a progressive action. That’s not always possible in these situations, but the next player is able to make a progressive action, because usually with an opponent pressing, a player opens up elsewhere on the pitch. It’s key to recognize who this is so the defensive midfielder can play out of the pressure to the free player.
When teammates are not pressed it’s important to position yourself as a defensive midfielder in such a way, that you can receive the ball in a good position to make a progressive action. Positioning yourself in the best way will result in more time, and more options, this again results in better decisions with the ball. Doing this right will first of all benefit your team hugely, and second it will show in your data. Because you will be able to make more progressive actions by positioning yourself the right way.
After you’ve positioned yourself right, it’s time to take progressive action. One of the possibilities of creating a progressive action is by passing past opponents. The best defensive midfielders are passing forwards and not sideways or backwards. This can be seen in statistics like packing, forward passing, and passes to the box. So let’s talk about how you can pass forward after positioning correctly. One of the most important things is the first touch. With the first touch, the ball should be ready to be played. This gives the player more time to make a decision about where to pass. Having to control it twice, takes too much time, which closes passing lines and gives opportunities for opponents to press you, this results in having to play backwards or even losing the ball. All these details will make a difference for your team and for your data as a defensive midfielder.
Another possibility is to make a dribble, a defensive midfielder can decide to make a dribble when there are no players available to pass to that are better positioned. It’s key to not the word, better positioned because the aim of a defensive midfielder should be progressive actions. So when this is not possible the defensive midfielder should keep the ball and dribble. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a defensive midfielder should immediately go on a solo raid, it can also be a small slow dribble of a couple of players to fix the opponent and open up space for your teammates. If the opponents stay with your teammates, then you of course have to accelerate and dribble past opponents. See for example Frenkie de Jong. He has mastered the art of dribbling and this is creating a lot of problems for his opponents.
