Holding Midfield: What does Willian offer?

[Holding Midfield]

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Overnight, Willian appeared to have gained the attentions of English football. The rapid collapse of Anzhi Makhachkala’s future at the whims of Suleyman Kerimov triggered a scramble between Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea for the Brazilian despite him being relatively unheard of days earlier. But why? Other than it being fashionable, what do Chelsea have to gain from spending £30 million on a Brazilian attacking midfielder fond of dribbling and flicked through balls when they already have Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, Victor Moses, Andre Schurrle and Kevin De Bruyne? Although dribbling and flicks are the stereotypical practices of selfish, undisciplined wingers, there’s more to Willian’s play than that, even though he doesn’t do a whole lot else. He mainly uses his dribbling to draw players to him and create space for his teammates, forcing defenders into confronting him or risk him going past them, before laying the ball off for those teammates. There’s not really a whole lot to it, but many players don’t have the technical ability, or at least the confidence, to try.   It’s a basic play that can be seen in these examples: 1) 2) 3) He’s a player unique in that he actually wants the opposition […]

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