When Mitch Nichols scooped a cross to Brendan Santalab, crafting a chance that would end Sydney’s historic run, it was an act that had been preceded by vigorous industry, and would be followed by it.
Just as striking as Santalab’s poised swivel-and-shot, Nichols hard running – which began in the first minute and continued until his substitution after the 85th – hallmarked a raucous victory for the Wanderers. Nichols has been Western Sydney’s best player this season, just about, and while his team has laboured at times, his energy hasn’t.
Nichols made and won more tackles than any other Wanderer in the derby, buoying the collective spirit with every lung-busting effort, helping to see out a tense victory. He was the captain that night. Santalab, the next day, called him a “legend”, saying his workload was “incredible”.
Nichols is one of a number of all-action playmakers, advanced midfielders expected – and willing – to fulfil a physical and defensive demand not usually expected of players in their position. Versatility is a virtue that has increased in value over the past two decades, in nearly every athletic realm.
Brook Lopez, an NBA centre for a very bad Brooklyn team made six three-pointers, and blocked eight shots in a game last week, the first player ever to do both of those things so very well. Hyper-specialisation has withered away generally; you don’t see any non-batting wicket-keepers, or many purely defensive full-backs – we even saw Pep Guardiola coldly dispose of an excellent, beloved goalkeeper this season because he didn’t have the feet of Andrea Pirlo.
The reason these specialists have faded largely from view is that when there is an alternative that does most of the same things, but pairs them with the sort of supplementary skills or industry these new hybrids can, then the choice seems obvious. Only the very best playmakers, in the old mould – Mesut Ozil, for example, and he certainly isn’t good enough to avoid the lazy tag – have survived.
How many modern Riquelme’s are there in the elite teams now? In the A-League, there is obviously still a role for the most sumptuous attackers, even if they don’t charge around pressing and tackling like Nichols does; Diego Castro and Thomas Broich are still vital to their teams. But when Milos Ninkovic manages to crop up in his own half, making some vital defensive intervention, or when James Troisi chases back to his own box one moment, then silkily slips a teammate through on goal the next, these new versatile playmakers shine a little brighter than the rest.
Ninkovic has made 32 interceptions this season. That’s only two fewer than Neil Kilkenny, the Melbourne City defensive midfielder, has managed. Nichols has won 23 tackles this season. That’s only one fewer than the Brisbane Roar centre back Luke de Vere has managed. When Troisi robbed Central Coast’s Jake McGing on Sunday, racing away to bloot a thunderous shot into the roof of the net, it was the second time in the match he’d created a chance purely from hustling McGing off the ball.
It’s a fine thing, to have a player as talented as Troisi playing at the best-supported club in the country, propelling them, in his own vigorous way, to success.
It’s no coincidence that this brand of Herculean playmaker has ascended in tandem with prevalence of heavy-pressing, high-intensity tactical philosophies in world football. Holding midfielders and defenders are expected to graft, even wingers – surrounded as they are by the expanses on the flanks – have come to terms with their increased physical workload. But when an advanced playmaker, or a striker, chips in, extending the press all the way up the pitch, it can turn the system from uncomfortable into suffocating.
With Ninkovic – in tandem with the indefatigable Alex Brosque – contributing not just a Johnny Warren-medal leading amount of goals and assists, but a smorgasbord of defensive play, Sydney have run away with the league. Would Ninkovic still be the best player in the competition if he slacked a little more? Probably, but the fact he doesn’t sets him even further apart.
But it was Nichols that overshadowed the Serb in the derby, covering a staggering amount of turf in the process. His heatmap is dotted across the full width, and most of the length, of the pitch. Nichols provides so much for the Wanderers, doing the legwork for Nico Martinez, offering oblique runs that aren’t always rewarded, dropping deep to start attacks.
The Wanderers had to defend for huge portions of the match on Saturday; there were spells in which the match resembled a drill, with Sydney stroking it around with pedestrian ease. Josh Brillante, an excellent passer from his deeper position, might have been much more significant a factor in all this possession, were it not for the diligent attentions of Nichols. On form, the Wanderers had no right to win that game, and they might have wilted under the heat of the occasion, and the early Sydney pressure.
Nichols, band around his arm, simply would not let them, leading by shining example, more often without the ball than with it.
The more you can do, and are comfortable doing, the better. The drive to exert to an elite degree is part physical, part mental. These all-action playmakers have to want to offer more, as well as be able to. The conversion of the full-back has already occurred; they are now as much wingers as they are defenders, with Rhyan Grant and Michael Zullo perfect examples in the A-League. And now, with Nichols, Ninkovic and Troisi tearing through the league, the playmaker is evolving in front of our eyes.
With each passing year, the achievable athletic ceiling is raised, with sports medicine and training techniques squeezing even more hustle out of every sinew. Versatility is king, and these players are the devoted subjects.
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