PROTECTING PLAYERS WHO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

BRIAN CLOUGH advocated that a decent goalkeeper, a decent centre back and a decent centre forward just needed eight decent pairs of legs around them to form a decent team.

Is it any real surprise, that with Suarez out, Sturridge injured and Balotelli in, it appears to have hugely affected Liverpool? Certainly not to me.

There is no question that major players create a signifi- cant impact on a team’s performance and on an opposition’s mentality.

At every level of football, there are players that can make a difference. Man Utd with Roy Keane were always a much stronger force than without him.

It isn’t always the obvious goalscoring attributes of a Suarez that count. It can be the menace and drive of a Keane. Or just the aerial domination of a Jaap Stam. Certain players give their team-mates an extra 10 or 20 per cent belief. They spread confidence.

Finding those players and harnessing them in your own team is critical. Knowing the heartbeat of an opponent is a common way of tactically dominating a game. You would know that Terry, Fabregas and Costa are huge to Chelsea right now. So much depends on them down the team’s spine (not that you can forget Hazard!) that strategies aimed at disrupting their influence will inevitably form part of any top level game plan.

Those old enough will recall how Johann Cruyff was disrupted before the 1974World Cup final and, of course, Bobby Moore found himself at the heart of a similarWorld Cup ‘scandal’. As the stakes rise, the tactics evolve.

Strategies to protect and sustain the influence of those top players will be essential to any successful team.

So as you read the Press and assess the approach to a game being adopted by any team, it always pays to think about those who might be at the core of the match and just how they are being built up or shut down to affect the outcome. Try it; it makes for a fascinating watch.