Size doesn’t matter

by Liam Blackburn

There’s an advert on television at the minute for the video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution which uses a memorable Darwin quote in its opening sequence.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

Football is a game which frequently changes, swinging from one tactical revolution to another. It is of course a game which rewards the strong and the intelligent. But at the top of the domestic and international trees at the minute lies the ‘tika-taka’ ideology used so effectively by both Barcelona and Spain.

The proponents of this system are neither the strongest (in fact they are some of the slightest figures) nor does the system require the most intelligent, indeed its beauty is in its simplicity.

Yet what Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Cesc Fàbregas and David Silva have proved is that with the advent of 4-5-1 and with coaches focusing on being harder to break down, the swift, fluid passing motion they rehearse so well, can shred anyone to bits.

It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who are surviving now, but those who are best adapting to a form of that slick passing carousel that has brought Barcelona 12 trophies in three years and made Spain the reigning European and World champions.

Everybody wants to play like Barcelona and Spain, from the depths of League Two to the two Manchester giants currently lighting up the top flight.

United were impressive in patches when they took the Premier League title last season and reached the Champions League final, but that night in May they were completely schooled by Barcelona. Their formation came across as stodgy and unyielding. They were an effective unit built to grind out results rather than tear teams apart.

Their ‘noisy’ neighbours were frequently lambasted for their persuasion towards solidity rather than the spectacular. The naysayers claimed such vast investments should reap exciting rewards rather than the all-too-prevalent turgid affairs which manager Roberto Mancini masterminded.

The duo continued their fine form this season but both sides are virtually unrecognisable from those who tasted silverware in May. Sir Alex Ferguson has breathed fresh life into Manchester United. Buoyed by the arrival of Ashley Young and the returning Tom Cleverley, United are revelling in a fast-paced, short passing style which was almost alien to them last year. City too have emerged as an entirely different proposition, with Samir Nasri, Silva and Sergio Agüero carving out chances at will.

Across Europe’s elite, it is those who are adapting to this style rather than the strongest or the most intelligent who are flourishing.

And there is a reoccurring theme running throughout, take the measurements of those already mentioned:

Xavi (5’7”), Iniesta (5’7”), Fàbregas (5’9”), David Silva (5’7”), Young (5’9”), Cleverley (5’9”), Nasri (5’9”), Agüero (5’8”).

Elsewhere in Europe, the intoxicating Mario Götze (5’9”) is the Bundesliga’s most exciting prospect and he looks set to follow the golden path which already bares footprints left by Nuri Şahin (5’10”) and Mesut Özil (5’11”). Luka Modrić (5’8”) and Wesley Sneijder (5’7”) were the most desirable commodities during the summer and it would be remiss to put forward such a point without mentioning the planet’s finest footballer Lionel Messi (5’7”).

Throw in Luis Suárez (5’11”), Carlos Tévez (5’8”), Jack Wilshere (5’7”), Rafael van der Vaart (5’10”) and Wayne Rooney (5’9”), all of whom had impressive years, plus the much vaunted Neymar (5’9”) and many of the game’s greatest players share a collective trait – they all measure less than 6 foot.

Sport, particularly in the professional era, has also rewarded the strongest, the fastest and the biggest. No NFL starting quarterback from the 32 teams measures less than 6 foot, and that is a position which supplants strength and power for pose and intelligence. You see very few rugby players (both codes) who could be considered “fat” and that is perhaps a marked difference from 20, 30 years ago. Even in a sport such as golf, there has been an emphasis on fitness and muscle growth. It would be wrong to assume football hasn’t followed a similar path in terms of physical development. Fitness is valued incredibly highly today and there has been a stark change from the booze culture which ran through the domestic game a few decades back.

When Chelsea won the double under Carlo Ancelotti in 2010, physical power was a key ingredient to their success. Michael Essien (5’10”), Frank Lampard (6’0”), Jon Obi Mikel (6’2”), Didier Drogba (6’2”) and Nicolas Anelka (6’1”) simply overran teams. Stoke’s success under Tony Pulis has hinged on their aerial dominance (although Matthew Etherington and Jermaine Pennant deserve credit). And how often are we told that certain players are too small to deal with the physical demands of the Premier League? Yet the league is littered with contradictions to that very belief.

You do not need to be a mighty specimen to succeed. Size, it would seem, does not matter.

Perhaps this will be the next step of evolution which the English national side quickly takes. This nation has produced many fine central midfielders in the past 30 years or so, but few capable of flaunting the riveting flair that comes as second nature to Iniesta, Nasri, Götze et al.

The three maestros who seem most capable of leading the next generation, Jack Wilshere, Tom Cleverley and Chelsea’s Josh McEachran, all fit the physical and technical stipulations. The gloom reported on this very site recently about England not producing players of a certain ilk was warranted. But at three of the very best clubs in the country there are three players who are ‘typically un-English’ in the way they play, there are three players who play the game in a style similar to the one which is currently proving so fruitful, and there are three players who are of the type which England hasn’t even threatened to produce for many, many years. It’s funny how these things come round in cycles.

A few years ago, the Claude Makelele type was all the rage. Now it appears that the Xavi is this season’s must have accessory. Not the strongest, not necessarily the most intelligent, but certainly the most adaptable.

Liam Blackburn is a new columnist for Just Football. He also runs the highly commendable blog Same Name, Different Games.

(photo credit: Sergio Béjar on Flickr)

Andres Iniesta, Jack Wilshere, Xavi