Play to your strengths
Former Crewe Alexandra, Liverpool, Tottenham, Fulham and England midfielder, Danny Murphy, provides an insight into midfield play at the highest level, revealing the advice and guidance that helped him record 596 league appearances.
Know your strengths
It’s important to quickly work out what your strengths are; whether that is a tenacious tackler, an interceptor or a passer. I was never going to be a big strong boy of 6ft 2 who was going to put himself about. I’ve always been a passer.
From a young age, at Crewe, I was given a simple message: “stop doing what you’re not good at”. If they saw me dribbling and trying to take people on they wouldn’t be happy.
If you’re not a dribbler, why are you trying to dribble past people? Pass the ball instead. If you’re not particularly big and strong why are you trying to fight people?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
Young players shouldn’t worry about making mistakes. When you’re young you have to improve and you have to get good, brave and responsible at getting on the ball because that’s what will separate you from the other guy.
You might be technically just as good as each other, but your bravery will make you better than your opponent.
I could give you a list of players who I think had more ability than me, but never played the games I played or had the career I had because they didn’t have the courage to get on the ball and make things happen and try and run a game.
Analyse your performance
If your role in midfield is to create or attack, start analysing your performances.
Again this came from Dario, but is something I worked on a lot later in my career and something I judged myself on.
If you have the facilities available you should really look at your performances, or get somebody else to – someone from your family or whoever is watching the game. Find out what your contribution to the game is.
Look at how many goals you score, the chances you create and the number of forward passes you contribute. Ask yourself: what are you giving to that team?
A lot of young players go out and play and then afterwards think they either did alright or they didn’t – but do they ask themselves why?
Ball retention – take responsibility
Ball retention is really important because many midfielders are judged on it. After two or three years of working with the statistics I knew what were good percentages and good numbers.
Even if I was in a team having a bad day and who started whacking it long because they were under pressure, I would still consider it my own fault if I wasn’t getting on the ball a certain amount of times.
I knew my numbers and even when teammates were under pressure I should have been saying “give me the ball” and taking responsibility from them.
Players learn about good positioning through experience
Play out from the back
The key to playing out from the back is developing the experience in playing that way and being brave. It’s all about how mentally strong you are and how brave you are.
People who know football and see a midfielder always looking for the ball, actually don’t mind them making mistakes. They like seeing somebody who is brave rather than somebody who runs away.
You have to be brave, confident and aware. When I was at Fulham and we were getting joy playing out from the back, people would be put on me to mark me. I remember Everton’s Tim Cahill being the best, because he was like a second striker and he wanted to work and he could tackle.
It’s then that you have to be able to vary your game. When I played alongside Dixon Etuhu or Moussa Dembele at Fulham, they were more than happy to run behind me and let me run on for 10 minutes. The marker would sometimes follow me allowing them to get on the ball, before swapping back.
Playing with variety
The biggest key for me is having the capability to mix it up. At Fulham we had two options as 'get out' balls. Bobby Zamora, was a big huge strong boy who would hold the ball up. If teams came to Craven Cottage and pressed us I could pop a few blind first-time around the corner passes into him with the knowledge that the ball would stick.
It would mean the opposition midfielder would drop off – because what they don’t want to do after you’ve flicked it around them is run back 40 yards to help their defenders.
As a result the opponent would often stay in front of their back four, let you have the ball and keep their shape. It’s then that you get on the ball and play out.
The other option you need is pace and we had Andy Johnson. So, if a team is pressing you and you’re able to play a few hooks over the left back’s head, they will drop off again allowing you to receive the next pass to feet and play out from the back.
Don’t categorise yourselfYoung players shouldn’t categorise themselves as a certain type of midfielder: attacking, holding, right or left.
I was fortunate as a kid at Crewe because my position was moved around. Now you get players who say they’re a number ten or a number four. Young players shouldn’t think of themselves as only one type of midfielder, they should be encouraged to try and mix their game up.
I speak to so many young players and I ask where do you play and they say “I’m a holding midfielder” and I say “why aren’t you just a midfielder?”
Retain psychological focus
Even at 35 playing in the Premier League, I had many moments in games where I had to consciously have a word with myself and say “go and get on that ball. Stop resting, be brave and go and get it”. I used to have that conversation all the time.
When I was tired I would tell myself to “run more, to get on the move, stop walking” all little messages in my head. If I hadn’t touched the ball for a while and I thought my contribution was low I’d say “right I’m going to go and get on the ball”.
Young players shouldn’t categorise themselves as a certain type of midfielder. They should mix their game up
Cues, triggers and anticipating second balls
Players learn about good positioning through experience, but part of it is understanding the players you’re playing with.
If you’ve got a centre half who likes to drill balls to a front man, you know before the other team that he’s going to drill it so you can set off for the next pass before them - you can edge a bit higher.
It’s all about understanding the players around you. Bobby Zamora was the best example. If the ball went into Bobby from a full-back, I knew that 9 times out of 10 he was going to keep it so I could begin my run for the next pass as soon as I saw the full-back play.
Also as you get more experienced you learn where things are going to drop, Paul Ince was the best I ever played with at it. He was unbelievable, he always knew where everything was going to drop.
You also begin to realise what people can and can’t do. When the ball is played up to some forwards, I would be reluctant to run past my opponent because I just don’t know where it’s going to go - he might get a nudge, the defender might win it, and they might not have enough presence to ensure it drops somewhere near.
Manage the game
When you’ve played lots of games in any position, you start becoming more aware about how the game is going. You can sense if you’re being put on the back foot.
At Liverpool, Didi Hamann was brilliant at it. When we were under a bit of pressure he used to have this thing where he’d drag us all in - Steven Gerrard, him, me and Nicky Barmby or Vladimir Smicer - and he’d tell us to sit and hold our position.
He’d say “don’t you go anywhere for 10 minutes, you stay there right next to me, and you stay there”. He’d pull us all in narrow, the defence would be narrow and we’d get Heskey to drop in. We might not get out for 10 minutes, but nobody scored against us. You want to have an effect and you want to chase the left-back down and he’d just say “stay there”.
At Fulham I became a trigger for pressing. If there was a big long switch from full-back to full-back or a ball played into midfield and then back to a full-back. I would trigger it through words: “we’re going” and then the rest of the players would all go off me.
Now, that’s game management in one way, but another part of game management is being able to do what Didi did.
Danny Murphy currently works as a pundit and summariser on TV and radio. Article image courtesy of Marc Atkins/REX/Shutterstock.