All managers have a favourite: a poster child for the revolution. Brendan Rodgers is stuck with Joe Allen. Rafael Benitez’s might be Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres or even Steven Gerrard. But what of Rafa’s great foe? José Mourinho’s teams are famously relentless, rather than unbridled; mechanical rather than mystical.
Ignore the obvious, because it is not the blunt force of Didier Drogba or the wiles of Ricardo Carvalho that should be synonymous with Mourinho. Neither should it be his jellied eel captain Frank Lampard or his cream-suit fullback Ashley Cole. No, if any player represents the distillation of Mourinho’s effective, no-fuss football, it is the whirring functionality of Claude Makélélé.
A Zaire-borne threat patrolling the strip between defense and midfield, for half a decade his suffocating metronomy was the platform for the most-Mourinho of Mourinho teams. Indeed, Makélélé was so effective that he would come to have an entire ‘Role’ named after him, his protective qualities inseparable from his position. In Makélélé arrived not only the foundations for Chelsea’s modern empire, but also the Premier League’s own tactical deus ex machina.
The man was an island, his shores absorbed crashing waves and moored ships; he suffused tranquillity. To the clandestine few who knew his role, he was special. But like all well-kept secrets, it only takes one stranger to leave behind a hastily-scrawled map and quick the tourists flock. At once Makélélé would no longer be special, but normal. Not just normal, but the norm.
For years Makélélé had remained an ‘unsung hero’. “We will not miss Makélélé” laughed Real Madrid President Florentino Perez as he pushed him towards Stamford Bridge, “ninety percent of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways” he said. It was a terrible misstep from Perez and- after a patchy start under Ranieri- Makélélé became the ‘engine’ Zinedine Zidane would miss so greatly.
Somehow the tagline of ‘unsung hero’ endured, though Makélélé was now ‘unsung’ in the way ‘Nessun Dorma’ was at the Turin Winter Olympics. The ‘Makélélé Role’ soon became part of Premier League culture, and destruction became the fashion. Thanks to Claude Makélélé, the Premier League now rarely strays from a formation built around a dustbin, and Makélélé- the very embodiment of Mourinho’s contrariness and anti-football- became the mould for a thousand clones and a thousand clone teams.
Even now grass roots football adopts the Makélélé four-five-one, clinging to the abstract luxury of a defensive midfielder. Surely it’s easy to be ‘tireless’ when the whole right brain gets a nap? Sunday League’s moments of inspiration are rare enough without entirely relieving a player of his creative duties.
Claude no longer plays the role. He had his way with European football and was gone before breakfast. The kids don’t really know who Claude Makélélé is: football moves too fast; the internet moves too fast. Each transfer rumour has chipped away at his epitaph, and now only two letters remain: ‘DM’. ‘DM’ is the most annoying legacy of Claude Makélélé, and it’s the one we see the most.
‘DM this’; ‘DM that’; ‘D Emancipation Proclamation’ freeing any football fan from the shackles of knowledge. Why form an opinion when you can throw two initials around? ‘DM’ (Defensive Midfielder, if you hadn’t guessed) is a scourge of modern fandom. Anybody can be one: Mohamed Diamé’s a ‘DM’; Jordan Henderson could be a ‘DM’; Joe Allen was a ‘DM’ for a while; Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano are both ‘DM’s, making it a wonder Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool ever got past the halfway line. The position is now an obsession, and a lazy one at that. Roy Evans scratches his head ruefully as Twitter’s football managers boot two letters around.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, and as lazily as the term is treated, the importance of the ‘Makélélé Role’ remains. The beach is now spoiled with revellers, burnt tents and used jonnies, but whether you like it or not there is no going back to pre-Claude football. It may be irrelevant as to whether Lucas Leiva is a ‘DM’, but whether he can play the ‘Makélélé Role’ is definitely on the agenda.
Can he do it? The blue-eyed Brazilian doesn’t have a bad bone in his body, and it continues to niggle away at Liverpool’s future. To be Makélélé you have to be a footballing fireblanket. You have to ruin the fun for everyone else. There are those who worry whether Lucas has it in him. Certainly, his injury-hit time at the base of Liverpool’s midfield has hinted at a lack of cleverness, and of understanding the Dark Arts. Rather than Mascherano’s malice he displays a clumsy exuberance: he is a Terrier rather than a Foxhound.
For now, Lucas can be afforded patience. He may never be Makélélé’s kindred, but his form before a serious knee injury was as disruptive as anyone in the League’s. Furthermore, if Liverpool fans should thank Alex Ferguson for one thing, it’s that his Jurassic devotion to a constructive midfield has showed that the ‘Makélélé Role’ is not absolute in England. Until they get back into Europe, Liverpool will have some leeway.
But make no mistake, Brendan Rodgers will need better if Liverpool make Top Four. Whether that comes in the shape of an improved Lucas, or an entirely new player, will largely be down to the Brazilian. These days Makélélé has been superseded by the more cosmopolitan Busquets, De Rossi and Matuidi, but the same core evil streak is what Liverpool will eventually need to find. It is a subversive win-at-all-costs attitude necessary for the position. Perhaps the team.
And so Makélélé can sit back and survey the damage he still wreaks. We are doomed to obsess over the destructive, rather than the creative, and Claude Makélélé is still playing his Role from afar. No more of the ‘one sits and the other one goes’ midfield tandem we grew to cherish in our British four-four-twos. No more do we classify players by qualities and characteristics: two simple letters suffice.
The solution? Liverpool have no choice but to find their own Makélélé. We wait for someone who does the ‘Makélélé Role’ so well we forget what’s wrong with it. We get mean and hope Lucas does too. If occasionally we upgrade our descriptions from two letters to four, so be it: Claude started it. Makélélé spoiled football for us, we need to start spoiling it for everyone else.
