If you’re going to read advice about how to become a great midfielder, it’s best that it comes from the mouths of the players who have been there and done it at the highest level.
We Make Footballer’s Sean Conlon (Chelsea youth coach and scout) recently invited Chelsea and England legend, Frank Lampard, to chat to us about ‘Project Lampard’ on the Project Footballer podcast. Sean’s trusty ex-pro co-hosts Paul Merson and Jamie Redknapp were also there to dig deeper into Frank’s mind.
Often referred to as ‘the engine room’ and the most difficult position on the pitch to master, central midfield is an integral part of every team. Centre mids are always involved in the game, and never out of it.
If you’re hoping your child will become the next dynamic, box-to-box superstar, then you’ll need them to follow these simple rules to improve their chances.
1. Study and understand the role
There are many types of central midfielder in the modern game. But the classic tactical positions remain: the number 4, the 6, the 8 and the 10.
A number 4 is a defensive-minded, holding or anchor midfielder. Their main aim is to protect the back line and break up opposition attacks, win the ball back and move it on in a simple way.
The number 6 is still primarily a defensive player, but with a little more freedom to dictate the tempo and spread the ball to more attack-minded players. They may even choose to join attacks in the final third at times.
A number 8 leans more on the attacking side, but still keeps in touch with defensive duties. Often described as a ‘box-to-box’ midfielder, they are high-stamina players that are expected to make themselves available for every team attack.
Frank Lampard was a fantastic example of this position and he said of it, “I didn’t want to be just an average midfield player, cosy in the middle of the park. The thing I felt I could do better was to arrive late in the box. If you’ve got the capacity, the want, the drive, then get in there.”
Number 10s play in behind the centre forward, they are the creative playmakers that are expected to provide both goals and assists. They have fewer defensive duties, and instead focus on finding pockets of space to exploit the opposition’s back line.
When you start to understand what your child’s own strengths and attributes are, you can begin to guide them in learning the craft of a particular midfield position.
Paul Merson puts it bluntly, “you can’t go to college and learn how to be a plumber in 20 minutes. Football’s the same, keep on playing that position, it takes years. You have to be exceptional in one position, you have to be the best of the best. Ajax do it. You learn a position and when you’ve conquered it, then you move onto another position.”
Jamie Redknapp believes in the value of understanding other midfield roles too, “learn different facets of the game, learn the number 10 role, learn how to give it off the back foot because you don’t know how your child is going to end up.”
To be a central midfielder, it requires a lot of game intelligence or ‘football IQ’. That’s why you should encourage your child to study and analyse top midfielders, to watch them operate and understand why and how they do the things they do.
Jamie Redknapp was brought up around professional midfielders, “being in and around the environment of football, no doubt had an impact on me becoming a footballer. I was watching tactics, I was watching training.”
Not everyone is lucky enough to have this level of insight, but what we do have is top quality coaching like We Make Footballers and plenty of YouTube videos of professional midfielders in their prime, to help young players improve.
Frank Lampard offers his own advice for a parent whose child may be struggling to learn, “as a parent, do the visuals, take a breath, talk after the game. Ask ‘what are you seeing? Why aren’t you running?’ Rather than just the impulsive shout from the sidelines. Try to be a bit more well-rounded. The harsh voice is not always the best one, to a young player.”
Playing midfield is difficult, but if you break it down into bite size chunks and focus on a particular role, then it’ll be much simpler for your child to improve their game.
2. Work with both feet
There are many great, one-footed players. True. But the most difficult to play against are the players who can take you either way, at any moment. The importance of having two good feet should never be ignored.
Jamie tells us about a legendary midfielder changing the culture at Liverpool, “when Paul Ince came from Inter Milan, at the end of training he would always do left foot, and he got everyone else doing it. It changed the culture because people weren’t afraid to make mistakes in front of their peers.”
Frank follows up on the importance of learning to shoot with your weaker foot, “I didn’t have a left-foot strike, so as I got to youth team age I started working on my left foot and it got much better. I wasn’t a trickster, so I needed the idea that I could go both ways on someone. I scored a fair few goals with my left foot in the end.”
It’s not just shooting that’s affected, kids should also work on a range of passing with both feet. Having the ability to hit accurate short, mid and long range passes with either foot can be hugely beneficial for their team.
Adding the ability to receive, dribble, pass and shoot with both feet offers a wider range of options for any central midfield player. It opens up all four corners of the pitch and will help them to find more space, and more success as a result.
3. Master your first touch
Paul knows what it takes to play at the top level, “I find some academies want you to be ‘alright’ at 15 things. Being ‘alright’ won’t get you anywhere. Work on something and master it, then we’ll move on.”
He could well be talking about the most important aspect of high-quality midfield play: first touch. It’s absolutely fundamental to finding space in a tight, competitive area.
Sean mentions his own philosophy at Chelsea, “the concept [at academies] is that children learn through touches of the ball, so the idea is to get them learning through touching it more.”
Build an understanding of both body shape and cushioning style for receiving the ball on the first touch. This will help your youngster to direct the ball into open space and relieve opposition pressure on their next touch.
The greatest midfielders of all time mastered this skill. If you watch any of them in action, they will appear to have acres of space and endless time on the ball. That is the direct result of an intelligent and controlled first touch.
Jamie is even an advocate of futsal for those wanting to improve their first touch, “I’m all for it [futsal], I think it’s great. You use different parts of your feet, you’ve got to use your sole. Whatever makes you better at honing your skills, that’s what you need to do.”
4. Arrive late and shoot quickly
Helpful for all midfielders, but particularly so for attacking 8s and 10s, arriving late and taking early shots are both skills which can be studied and practised. Nobody did this better than Frank Lampard.
He tells the panel he worked on it regularly, “it’s practice. I had a decent technique for as long as I can remember, I could shoot (like many a kid), but I would recreate sessions as I got older and if I missed shots in a game, I’d recreate those in the week.”
He continues this message around practising for perfection, “when you're trying to move the ball outside the box, there's not much time to get your shot away. I’d work on moving the ball quickly and getting it out of my feet, working on all different sorts of shots and developing. You make yourself lucky at the weekend by what you do in the week.”
Rounding up his point on shooting, Frank says “the majority of goals come from inside the posts out toward the penalty spot, and I realised a massive percentage of those are going to be first time [finishes].”
He then goes on to talk about how he improved his sharpness, “I didn’t do much quick feet stuff, but as I started to be affected by other coaches and ideas, I started to do more which gave me another edge. Now I see videos of my mates’ boys, who are 7 years old, doing quick feet. It’s moved on a long way.”
Looking back to his own youth team days, he says, “as a kid, I was so hungry to score goals and do well, it was my selling point. I would create practices around it.”
Jamie backs up Frank’s ability by talking about his technique, “Frank’s chest would always cover the ball, go on YouTube and find his goals, it was his chest position covering the ball that would get his strike. Body position is so important.”
Jamie’s son, Bo, is also in academy football and he wants him to look up to Frank as the example of how to arrive late and score goals, “when I’m trying to find the analogy of not staying in there and just playing, I say ‘be like Frank Lampard’. Watch videos of him. You’ve just got to gamble sometimes, because if you don’t run in there, you won’t score.”
Sharp shooting and timing runs late into the opposition box are skills that can be learnt. It wasn’t luck that helped Frank Lampard score over 200 senior goals at the elite level, it was practice and effort.
5. Keep it simple and stay composed
There are midfielders that can do special things with a football, of course. But the majority of a central midfielder’s game when in possession, will be about keeping that possession for their team.
Paul mentions another Paul, one of the greatest ever when it came to controlling the tempo of a game, “you’ve got to be short and sharp, move it quickly like a Paul Scholes, he’s not electric, but you can’t get near him. He’s always going to be one step ahead.”
Even Frank, who was capable of special things, backs up the importance of staying composed and picking your moments, “in football, the best things are often the simple things, repeated and done well.”
Paul rounds off his advice by giving his nod of approval toward a modern example, “Man City are the best team in the world and if one player doesn’t play, it isn’t clicking. And that’s Rodri. He gives and goes. Get it, give it, pass it, move.”
6. Learn about your teammates
A right-back will rarely interact with a left-winger. And the goalkeeper might pass the ball to the centre forward once per game. Central midfielders will pass to everyone, at some point.
Helping your child to understand their teammates’ habits, strengths and weaknesses can make them a better midfielder. Does their winger like the ball in behind? Is their centre half left-footed? Does their right-back leave himself exposed by bombing forward?
Knowing the answer to these questions can help them to build a better picture, whether they’re off the ball or on it. It will help them to make better decisions during the game.
Frank says, “even as a kid, I always had a decent awareness of where to move the ball.” And what he means by that is he understood where his teammates liked to receive passes and how he could exploit opposition players.
7. Repetition, stamina and self-discipline
Every central midfielder needs incredible stamina. They cover the most ground of anyone on the pitch in every match, without fail.
Without this reserve of energy, they aren’t able to impact the game to their full ability. It takes self-discipline and repetition to build up both technical skills and fitness.
Frank opens up about his own journey, which had support from his dad, “project Lampard was ‘get more stamina’. You’ve got to be up and down getting yourself in the box, don't be content just to be on the halfway line.”
He leaves Sean, Paul and Jamie startled by claiming, “I don’t think my natural talent was that stand out. I was never the best kid at school or my team at Heath Park, even in the West Ham youth team. I had an innate obsession to train and try to make up gaps. My biggest talent was my work ethic and my drive.”
Following up, Frank says “hard work and training is the answer. It is dedication and application on repeat which is what it takes to be that good at it. So it becomes something that you don’t even think about. My inner voice when I was younger was always one of wanting to be better.”
Finally, he compares his own experience to that of modern academies, “when I was a kid, ‘can he get around the pitch enough?’ Would always be a question mark. With what I see at the academies now, it would’ve been more of a problem. The game’s moving further in that direction, in terms of athleticism.”
On the point of athleticism, Paul is seeing the same changes in the modern academies, “I find now the first tick in the box is: athlete. Then we’ll go from there. If you’re quick and you’re strong and you’re an athlete, bang. We’ll then go and make you pass the ball.”
It’s clear to see that all of our ex-pros agree on one thing: hard work and dedication is guaranteed to take a young player’s game to the next level.
Paul delivers some tough advice to ambitious youngsters though, “I always say it, the one thing you’ve got to have if you want to be a professional footballer, and if you haven’t got it then you won’t be one, is hard work. If you don’t work hard, you won’t make it, it’s as simple as that.”
Jamie jumps in with a similar view, “what does it take to become a professional footballer? The truth is, I can’t come up with a better answer than: work hard.”
He finishes his opinion with home truths, “how much do you want to sacrifice? How much do you want to be like Frank Lampard, and do the other bits that make the difference? And not worry about what anyone else thinks of you. That’s what it takes.”
8. Decision making under pressure
Centre midfielders must make the team tick. They can set the tempo. They can build the attack if they’re chasing a game, and they can keep possession when their side is in the lead.
The middle of the park is a crowded area at all times, and midfielders will find themselves under pressure constantly. Swift and sharp decision-making is an attribute that all top midfielders possess.
Paul puts an emphasis on football intelligence, “brain beats everything, in my opinion. That’s not luck when Frank arrives late in the box and scores goals, it’s brains. Football brain wins. Frank will see the build-up, he’ll see where players are.”
He goes on, “Frank went in [the box] expecting to score, I think a lot of people go in because they’re told to go in.”
Sean gives some coaching context as to why Frank is so good at making decisions, “he’s done all that work in the background, he’s got that shot, he knows in his mind he’s getting in that position and he’s going to get that finish. We’re talking about the result, but it’s the practice hours that are creating the result.”
Analysing and learning from mistakes in training and games will improve overall decision-making. Your child will end up with a bank of things they should and shouldn’t do, in certain situations during a match. It will build their confidence.
Jamie alludes to the big stage and how decision-making is heavily scrutinised, “if one day [academy players] are playing at Anfield or Stamford Bridge and they make a mistake in front of 50,000 people, do you not think they’ll shout at them? You need to be resilient in every single situation.”
9. Positioning, movement and scanning
Whether your kid is aiming to be a number 4, a 6, an 8 or a 10, positioning, movement and awareness are all going to play a huge part in how they can impact a game.
Tchouameni, Rodri, Lampard and Messi. Some of the best in each of those positions. They understand where to be, when to move and what is happening around them at all times. They never switch off, they’re always scanning the pitch.
Hitting the nail on the head as to why dynamic midfielders are tough to play against, Paul says “there’s nothing worse than chasing someone who hasn’t got the ball, it’s the worst feeling in the world. Nobody wanted to keep on chasing Frank.”
Frank then chimes in with the reason behind it, “one for young midfielders, once you make that run, that action might not be the one that gets you the goal. It could be the next one, or the next one. So don’t just stand in there, you’ve got to move, come back out, go back in. That’s when your numbers start jumping up.”
The panel then goes on to discuss the idea of ‘scanning’ and why it’s important. Jamie gives his view, “this has become a new word: ‘scanning’. I hear parents talk about it now. A good player has figured out 10, 15, 20 seconds ago, where it’s going next if it comes to them.”
Frank says, “in our day, we had pictures of the game in our head. These days they call it ‘scanning’. I was a relentless scanner, it became such a natural thing for me.”
Paul agrees, “if there was a throw-in, I’d be scanning around, looking where everything is. I knew what I was going to do before I got the ball.”
Sean brings in his coaching perspective, “I think as a parent or a coach, you have to tell the children ‘why’ they’re scanning. What are you looking for? Space? Pressure?”
He follows up by giving Paul’s son a mention, “he is doing so well in the Chelsea under-9s, and one thing people tell me about is his intelligence and his awareness. Paul has had a massive influence on it.”
Finding pockets of space and understanding the surroundings at all times, are both key to intelligent midfield play. Knowing when to sprint and use energy is also a skill which comes with practice.
Frank goes into more detail about his Chelsea role and how he made those decisions, “as a left-sided number 8, my mantra was when we were building low or near the halfway line, I liked to be a bit deeper. As we moved up the pitch and the ball was on my side, I would stay connected to that. If the ball was on the other side, I’m ready to go and get in the box.”
In summary
There are plenty of nuggets of advice for you to digest from Frank Lampard and our other seasoned pros, so here’s our quick round-up:
Learn a midfield role
Knowing the different roles can help your child to hone their skills and focus.
Improve your weaker foot
Having a stronger ‘weak foot’ opens up the pitch and offers more options.
First touch is king
Owning a trusted first touch that shifts the ball into space is an important tool.
Time runs and shoot on sight
If they gamble and get the first-time strike they’ve trained, your kid will add goals to their game.
Do the simple stuff
“In football, the best things are often the simple things, repeated and done well.” - Frank Lampard.
Know teammates’ habits
Learning what their teammates prefer on the pitch means decisions will be made quicker.
Get super fit
High-level stamina means more movement, sprints and quicker decision-making.
Learn from mistakes
Knowing when not to do certain things will improve decision-making by process of elimination.
Scan, scan and scan some more
Get youngsters checking over their shoulders and their next move will become more obvious.
If you want to start your child on the journey to becoming the next Frank Lampard, We Make Footballers hosts weekly training, holiday camps across the UK and our Project Footballer podcast.
If you would like a free session at We Make Footballers to see what we’re all about, sign up today at your nearest football academy.
