The advent of The Squad Player

The advent of The Squad Player

The advent of The Squad Player

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By Amy Eustace, writing from Dublin

In the great, successful teams of the last few decades, it always seems to me that much care is taken, after due praise is given to the eleven on the pitch, to point out the names that sit on the bench. The now slightly worn out clichés of ‘strength in depth’ are bandied about. Abundance of quality is the mark of a truly good team. It’s become a given in football, a necessity, part of the landscape. In recent times, the real indicator of a team’s ability to succeed hasn’t been the starting XI, but the back up plan.

Whenever the issue of the 'strength and depth’ is raised I always find myself thinking of Aston Villa, and their oft-forgotten 14-player championship. In the 1980/81 season, Villa secured the English first division title, fending off stiff competition, having used only 14 players throughout the course of the year. Unfortunately, I suppose, it’s not the 1980s. Villa’s league triumph was the exception, rather than the rule. These days, clubs draw from a pool restricted to 25 (boosted, when needed, by a limitless number of youth players). Purely for illustration purposes, I counted 23 players having made appearances in 2010/11 for Aston Villa. Times really have changed.image

When Michael Owen happily announced his Manchester United contract extension via twitter, the reaction, at best, was mixed. Consciously resigned to occupying the same spot on United’s bench - or indeed, physio’s table - as he had the two seasons before, Owen accepted United’s offer of a one year deal and clarified his motivation for his online followers:  “Just to answer some of your tweets. Prefer playing less often in a top team than every game in a poor team. Been there a didn’t enjoy it”. Of course, this was gunpowder for the non-believers, the 'poor team’ supporters he had seemingly snubbed, and the Liverpool  and Newcastle fans he may or may not have had a dig at. There were, of course, questions raised by Owen’s  (perhaps ill-advised) tweet, and the terms 'mercenary’ and other, less publishable terms were bitterly tweeted in his direction. He’d be a welcome addition to many clubs as a star-player, yet he seems perfectly satisfied being United’s has-been fourth choice striker. It might not be a pleasant thought, but in today’s world, it’s the perennially sidelined, easily pleased Michael Owen types that keep the truly good teams ticking over.

Sir Alex Ferguson this year had the luxury of introducing the likes of Scholes, Giggs, Berbatov, and, to great effect, the young Javier Hernandez off the bench in many matches. Hernandez and Berbatov between them notched up a stunning 34 goals. Not bad for the bench, eh? And that, among many other factors, has been sounded out as key to United’s league victory. In total last season United used 24 players in the league - all of them, including Michael Owen, started at least one match.

It’s easier, it seems, to keep a large squad such as United’s happy as long as the players can see the results rolling in. Having a strong squad filled with quality players is every club’s ideal, but very few can strike the balance.  United have superbly managed to persuade decent players that would probably play week after week in any mid-table club, that they’re better off keeping the bench nice and toasty for Wayne Rooney and Nani. The light at the end of the tunnel for those players is a medal of some sort, almost certainly, without having to get all sweaty and tired and put in actual work every week. Similarly, Arsenal can often use the likes of Theo Walcott and Andrei Arshavin in the same vein, though few other teams would be in a position to leave players of their calibre out of the starting eleven.

But it’s not an arrangement open to everyone. Just like not every team can play like Barcelona (no matter how much Stoke City dream…), not every team can maintain the level of fringe-player-quality that United and Arsenal sometimes can. An example worth considering is the unfortunate manner in which Robbie Keane’s ('boyhood dream’) move to Liverpool came to an end.  In a team that was not engineered for two strikers, Keane found his appearances limited and soon returned to Spurs - where he would also find himself relegated to the bench, and later loaned out. Liverpool’s attempt to have a 'squad’ as opposed to a 'team’ failed, not because they had the wrong idea (in fact the 08/09 season saw Liverpool top the goal scoring table, having utilised Keane to some minor success for half of the season) , but because Keane was, at the time, not prepared to be a substitute; a back-up. Maybe Keane wasn’t the right kind of player, and perhaps he had a slightly inflated sense of self-worth for the role Rafael Benitez expected him to occupy. Then again, maybe Keane, and others like him, were just unconvinced that a club with little material success at the time was worth being a bench warmer for when there were opportunities to be had elsewhere. Not everyone has Michael Owen’s propensity to self-sacrifice for the cause, you know.

There are, of course, other more tangible reasons for players to be content with more time spent in the dugout than on the pitch. When Manchester City can afford six figure weekly wages for their 'squad players’, it’s difficult to entice their targets to play regularly for less wealthy teams (let alone play a less influential role). City can boast a star-studded set of substitutes week in week out, with faces on their bench as recognisable as those of Shay Given, David Silva and Adam Johnson. None of these players would have much difficulty becoming starters at most other teams across England and indeed the continent, but the pursuit of the well-rounded squad by the Premiership’s richest will trump the equal distribution of wealth and decent players any day.

Of course, it’s not just an English issue. Barcelona may be poised to off load the exemplary squad player himself, Bojan, to Roma, but they still have an embarassment of riches that includes former PSV Eindhoven starlet Ibrahim Afellay and Spain’s U21 European heroes, Thiago Alcantara and Jeffren Suarez. Real Madrid’s transfer-market game of Monopoly may be cooling off, but the likes of Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil, Gonzalo Higuain and even Kaka have only been in and out of the regular team since moving to the Bernabeu.

Having a strong squad will sometimes come at some ideological sacrifice, and those occupying a moral high ground (and I’ll admit to having been one of them) were quickest to point out the mercenary-esque images Michael Owen’s aforementioned tweet conjured up. There’s a common reluctance to accept that most footballers, Owen being a prime example, make decisions with their heads, as opposed to their hearts. It’s never a pretty sight, seeing a good player live out his days on a substitutes list, little more than the occasional cup game start or brief cameo appearance to his name. Particularly when his transfer fee, or indeed his wages, isn’t exactly pocket change. Sadly, to use an aged expression, that’s football, and the squad player is now more important than ever before.

Naturally, the strongest squads in any given league will struggle less during busy periods, or when plagued with injuries. Obviously, teams that rely too heavily on a small number of key players will struggle without adequate replacements should anything go wrong. It’s now elementary, as routine in the football world as pass completion rates and jokes involving Andy Gray and sexism; good squads go the distance, poor squads simply don’t.

But it seems to me as if this common notion is only reaching universal understanding now, and this summer’s transfer window will be the advent of 'The Squad Player’. Marquee signings will certainly abound, but as is evident from the signings of Henderson and Jones by Liverpool and Manchester United (two clubs well-endowed in those players’ respective positions), it’s all about having options. In the future, there will be fewer Robbie Keanes circa January 2009 and more Michael Owens circa summer 2011.

You’ve not heard the end of The Squad Player. His time is only just beginning…