Cabaye – The Essential Playmaker?

The West Brom match confirmed to me one thing over everything else, not having your playmaker on the pitch can cripple your team’s play.

Some modern day teams might think they can do without a playmaker.

I suppose they can…in their own style(?), when they fill their team with athletes and boot the ball from one end of the pitch to the other.

What is a playmaker?

Up to a point they can mean all thing to all men but I would say that they are the person on a team who all the play goes through.

In some teams they can be a striker with a free role like Wayne Rooney or Peter Beardsley back in the day for us. In many ways Pedro was well ahead of his time as he operated in that free role behind the main striker which is common place now but back then was seen as a round peg in a square hole. Almost every other team playing a traditional two up front.

All the statistics tell us that this season Cabaye is the heart of our team, covering more ground and touching the ball more than every other player in almost every match.

Pass and move, pass and move, the only way to play.

Against West Brom the ball was repeatedly hit long to Best with predictable results, that idiot Jonas Olsson just having to stand there and head the ball. No surprise that our two goals and near misses came from keeping the ball on the ground.

Cabaye is back for Boxing Day, football will beat Bolton Wanderers, not dragging ourselves down to their level.

Who are your favourite playmakers down the years?