Monday night's victory for England produced an air of optimism around the national side, with Roy Hodgson declaring himself delighted and satisfied, as per Dominic Fifield of The Guardian, and the toughest game of the campaign safely negotiated.
Hodgson's deployment of a midfield diamond proved successful for the man at the attacking point of it, with Raheem Sterling a threat throughout, and the two men either side detailed to do most of the grunt work, Jordan Henderson and Fabian Delph, both also performed well.
However, at the base of the four, Jack Wilshere had a more uneven game. The Arsenal man was asked to sit in front of the defence and start attacks from there in the 'Pirlo' role, but while it's unfair to compare anyone with the great Italian, it's fair to say that Wilshere didn't reach anywhere his level.
While he showed a few moments of quality, Wilshere was a curiously peripheral figure for a man supposed to be at the heart of things, barely creating any chances and not influencing the game in the manner that Hodgson might have expected him to.
That said, one cannot perhaps judge him too harshly, given that this was an unfamiliar position. Wilshere told the Press Association after the game (via The Guardian):
It is the first time I’ve ever played there for club or country. I look at the game and there are some negatives, obviously.
I looked at the players who play that regularly in midweek, Pirlo,Mascherano, Gerrard – the best players in the world who play that position perfectly.
I will look at them over the next few months and look at this game. I’ll take negatives, there were some positives as well, and I will get better in that position.
The encouraging thing about Wilshere's words from England's perspective is that he is clearly willing to learn, and he should be, too, because he could carve out a niche for himself in the role.
I wrote on Bleacher Report in August that Wilshere faces something of a struggle to establish himself in the Arsenal team this season, largely because he lacked a definable role. At that point, he had made a couple of appearances in an advanced No. 10 role, but since then, the return to fitness of Mesut Ozil has edged him out of that position. Equally, if Sterling continues his current level of form, then it is not likely Wilshere will get a chance there for England. per Nick Miller,
Therefore, it seems logical that Wilshere should try to establish himself as a deep-lying midfielder, as that is the position that both his club and country lack a convincing option.
In theory, he has the tools to perform it well. When on form he has an excellent touch, can recycle possession at speed and can be tough in the tackle; indeed, he has occasionally been too tough, his temper being one of the factors that has slightly hampered his development thus far.
Wilshere is not the typical English holding midfielder, which conventional wisdom states is a spoiler, a tackler, a water carrier who can win the ball and give it to someone else to do something creative with. However, abroad his type of player is more typically a deeper man, the most obvious example being Pirlo, but the likes of Xabi Alonso and Marco Veratti also fill this role, and perhaps if Wilshere had been born Italian or Spanish, then he would have played there much earlier in his career.
However, there is still time for him to learn a new trade. Wilshere's debut performance in the "Pirlo role" may have been so-so, but he could still develop into a version of the great man, even if he may never hit his heights.
Source: Bleacher Report
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