“Let’s not get carried away and say that the day of the tough, tackle-happy enforcement presence in the holding midfield spot is dead. It’s not,” writes Steve Davis of MLSnet.com.
Davis, however, diagnoses a trend in the MLS toward favoring more deep-lying playmakers over traditional tacklers. Winning the ball and covering ground remains a priority,” Davis writes. “But hard tackling isn’t their specialty. Passing is. So once possession is won, these guys can do a little more than just move the ball along to the creators, slashers and crashers.”
Many MLS teams have adjusted their lineups to cater to midfielders who can spray passes around from a deep position. In Kansas City, Santiago Hirsig replaced Jack Jewsbury in the middle of the field as more of a deep-lying distributor, with “more sophisticated” vision. Albert Celades, paired with more rugged Seth Stammler, plays a similar role for the New York Red Bulls, dictating the pace of the game from in front of the back line. And in Dallas, Dax McCarty has found an ideal duty as a withdrawn playmaker in a 4-1-4-1. A number of other teams employ “something of a combo man” at that spot. New England’s Shalrie Joseph, for example does a little bit of everything. And Carl Robinson has shown that he can supply incisive passes from his screening spot in front of the back line.