Midfield

- The midfield position in soccer is central and pivotal.

- Midfielders hold significant influence over the dynamics of the game.

- Midfielders are positioned between the defensive and offensive lines, they act as the team's engine.

- Midfielders facilitate the transition between defense and attack.

- Their central location allows them to play a dual role.

- They support defensive efforts by breaking down opponent's plays.

- Midfielders initiate attacking movements by distributing the ball to forwards.

The midfileder role has to posses a lot of unique skills and teqnuiques to be world class in football. In this case were going to look into scanning, ball control and positioning. These are arguably the most important features a midfielder should have, in order to become better.

Scanning

Scanning is when a player's continuous visual assessment of the surrounding field during play. It involves quickly analyzing the positions and movements of teammates, opponents, and open spaces to make informed decisions. This is important because you give yourself good conditions to exploit the spaces the opponent gives up. Let's say for example you are about to receive a pass from your centre back, and as you're receiving the pass you look over your shoulder seeing the opposite cdm anticipating the pass and pressing you. This makes you prepared for an opponent from behind and you can calculate what the best move is, in addition you can take into account that the cdm has left an important space, which is in between the midfielders and defenders. Therefore you can pass to the striker who is in the empty space and can turn facing the defenders closer to the goal. A player who succeeds in this department is Martin Ødegaard. Martin Ødegaard uses his scanning to see the closest defender near him and take the best first touch after reading his positioning.

Ball control

Ball control in simple terms is how good you are at controlling the ball with your feet, with the use of touches on the ball. Good control of the football is an essential skill to maintain possession of the ball from the opposition and, if done accurately, gives the player more time to make the correct next decision.

it becomes easier to create an imbalance on their team, because then the player becomes better at dribbling and passing players, catching the opponents off guard.

Some important teqnuiques that are assosiated with ball control are:

- First touch

- Close control

- Ball protection

Positioning

Positional play in football is defined as a style of play where the football pitch is divided into zones and each player is assigned to a zone. Regarding a midfield role, positional play is located more towards the center of the field, but not in all cases. Positioning has a lot of correlation with scanning aswell, as your scanning your assessing the field and where the room is, therefore plays a big part in the ability to position yourself in the right place at the right time. Its important to be unique in your movement, don't be locked to a position. This makes you easy to mark and more predictable. Ideally you should move out wide, behind the defense or drop down on the field. This makes you more diverse and less predictable making it harder to defend against you.

How to improve

Improving skills significantly hinges on striking a balance between the quantity and quality of training. To enhance the quality of training, it's imperative for players to grasp the expectations placed upon them, fostering self-awareness to regulate their efforts before, during, and after each training session. This self-regulation empowers players to fine-tune their approach, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately optimize their skill development journey. Lastly hard work. To get succesfull in any sport you have to put in more work than your competition outside team training. This takes a lot of dedication and commitment to work hard.

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