NOW PASS MASTERS STEAL THE SHOW
IF YOU want a top striker, Arsene Wenger said last year, the first place you should look is South America.
Arsenal’s manager was making the point that Europe cannot currently match the quality of forwards from Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and beyond and when you look at the cast list at the European Championship compared to the Copa America, you can see where he is coming from.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, for Sweden, and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski stand out. Thomas Mueller would be another star but he plays out wide a lot, while Karim Benzema – who could have been France’s talisman – has been excluded from the action.
But if you want a midfield playmaker, someone who can effortlessly dictate the tempo of a game and cast spells all over the pitch, the only place you need to look is France. After one round of matches at Euro 2016, the stand-out performers have been the ones who have set the beat.
The stars have been Luka Modric, who drove Croatia to victory against Turkey, Toni Kroos, who was at the hub of everything and created Germany’s first goal in their win over Ukraine and, most of all, the magnificent Andres Iniesta, Spain’s conductor-in-chief.
Why is this? Have teams become so obsessed with stopping No 10s that they have forgotten about the orchestrators further back?
I don’t think people would dispute that Euro 2016 has been a slow burner, with games being tight and tending to be drawn or settled by the odd goal, but the performances of Modric, Kroos and Iniesta shone like beacons. Everything went through them.
It is also important to include Wayne Rooney for his performances against Russia, especially the first 45 minutes and the whole game against Wales. He used his experience and knew when the time was right to play a short pass or go long, something he’s not always got right when playing in that position.
The numbers have backed up what we saw. Iniesta, who is an underrated genius, touched the ball 107 times against the Czech Republic, the most he has ever had in a tournament game.
He made 93 passes, with 85 of them finding the intended target, including the cross to Gerard Pique that arrived in the nick of time. Petr Cech, the Czech Republic and Arsenal goalkeeper, was so moved that he labelled him as “one of the greatest in the history of the game”.
Not many people would argue with that assessment. How could you when his achievements in a haul of 31 major honours include scoring the goal that won Spain the World Cup in 2010, two European Championships and four Champions Leagues. He’s been man of the match in those finals, for good measure.
Iniesta doesn’t shout from the rooftops about what he has done, he simply gets on with things, but that only heightens his appeal. When I spoke to Xavi, his former Barca teammate, in March 2014, he used one word to sum up Iniesta: spectacular. That says it all.
This isn’t just a tribute to Iniesta, though. Look at Kroos, who hypnotised Ukraine at times. He found the target with 104 of his 112 passes in Lille, while Modric – the other half of Real Madrid’s axis – had 52 successful passes from 59 attempts, as well as scoring against Turkey.
How both players would enrich the Premier League. Manchester United dithered when they had a chance to sign Kroos, who also rejected interest from Liverpool. That enabled Real Madrid to take him for “just” £25 million.
It’s such a shame Tottenham could not hold on to Modric. He would have been a star of the Premier League had he stayed a little longer but, despite firm interest from Chelsea and Manchester United at times, he could not be stopped from going abroad.
Maybe as the tournament progresses, a striker will really grab the headlines but for the time being, the limelight is on the men who provide the service and it will be interesting to see how Rooney continues in his midfield role. – Daily Mail