Paul Pogba and the rise of the ‘Transitional Midfielder’
Paul Pogba had departed the Old Trafford turf by the time Romelu Lukaku struck Manchester United’s fourth goal in their 4–1 win over Newcastle on Saturday evening, but the French midfielder had already stamped his authority on a game which was effectively won by the time he was substituted for Marouane Fellaini just after the hour mark. It had been 63 days and 12 games since Pogba had last pulled on a red shirt — his season punctuated by a thigh injury sustained against Basel in early September — and United had undeniably suffered in his absence. In the early weeks of the season, Jose Mourinho’s team had been regularly swatting teams aside, often by three- or four-goal margins. Since Pogba’s injury that early-season swagger had slowed to a stumble, as convincing victories were replaced by dogged, defensive wins or damning defeats.
Whilst this cannot be attributed entirely to the absence of United’s record signing — injuries to Fellaini, Eric Bailly, Michael Carrick, and Phil Jones deprived Mourinho of crucial tactical flexibility — it was made abundantly clear to those watching the Newcastle game that Pogba is the man who makes this United side tick. United may contain a comparative abundance of riches in both attack and defence, but no player in the United squad knits the two together in the same manner as Pogba.
He is what I would term a ‘transitional midfielder’: a midfielder who shares many of the characteristics of a traditional box-to-box midfielder — the ability to cover the ground between both penalty areas, pass the ball effectively, and provide a threat in the final third — but whose primary value to the team is his ability to switch play from the defensive third to the offensive third effectively, and at speed. Whilst a box-to-box midfielder is often a jack-of-all-trades who may be better at defending than attacking, or vice-versa, a transitional midfielder’s most important attributes are usually their physicality and ability to carry the ball at pace.
The transitional midfielder is currently in vogue, particularly in the Premier League, where physical, imposing, but technically-gifted midfielders have always been admired — think back to Roy Keane, Patrick Vieira, Michael Essien, and, more recently, Yaya Toure. Variations on the theme can be found at most of England’s current top clubs, as an emphasis on counter-attacking breeds a concomitant need to move play from one end of the pitch to the other in an efficient manner.
Pogba achieves this with his leggy stride, his dazzling range of passing, and his physical stature, which makes it incredibly difficult for opposition players to knock him off the ball. It is the search for similar qualities which prompted Antonio Conte to make Tiemoue Bakayoko a central summer signing at Chelsea: Bakayoko is a rough diamond whose end product remains inconsistent, but his ability to ferry the ball from defence to attack at speed is undeniable. The growing importance of the transitional midfielder is also what, presumably, drove Mauricio Pochettino, usually a fine spotter of talent, to splurge thirty million British pounds on Moussa Sissoko, a man whose only discernible quality is his powerful running.
Without pace and power at their heart, counter-attacks are more liable to break down, as players pick the wrong pass, or opposition teams slot back into their defensive positions. Not all transitional midfielders have the shape and build of a Pogba or Toure — Kevin de Bruyne, possibly the league’s best player, is no hulk, yet operates effectively as Manchester City’s transitional midfielder due to his ability to make incisive forward runs, his lack of physical presence offset by his transcendent technical ability — but given that the ability to maintain possession over distance and at speed are critical to the effectiveness of a transitional midfielder, it is hardly surprising that many examples of this type of midfielder are players who are difficult to stop (within the laws of the game) once they build up a head of steam.
Of course, not every team deploys a transitional midfielder, particularly those who eschew the popular tactical systems which employ two deep-lying midfielders. Jurgen Klopp’s emphasis on interchangeability means that there is no room for a prototypical transitional midfielder at Liverpool (although Naby Keita may well fill that role next year), and Arsene Wenger persists with the lightweight duo of Aaron Ramsey and Granit Xhaka at Arsenal.
Despite these exceptions, the transitional midfielder is a player type very much in demand within the current tactical milieu of the Premier League. As Paul Pogba’s return to action has demonstrated, the importance of players of his ilk to the current cream of the Premier League crop cannot be underestimated.
