Why Wilshere should mould his game around Modric, not Alonso. by KJ
Jack has just completed another game for England and was easily MOTM for anyone who watched it. He played the deepest midfielder and was pinging long balls all game to Rooney with good success. He should’ve easily ended up with 2-3 assists if Rooney was half decent. He mentioned in an interview recently that he’s modelling his game off Alonso and that’s great, but I think there’s someone who’d he benefit more from watching and that player is Luka Modric.
I’ve always liked the Croatian even when he was at Spurs. People would always go on about Bale but he was ultimately the player that kept them ticking and made them a top 4 team. It’s no surprise that Tottenham have been in turmoil ever since his departure – he’s a world class central midfielder.
Modric is similar to Alonso in that he’s got a phenomenal passing range and has an immense long ball technique. But he’s more of a box to box player and knows how to use his agility to dribble past players. That’s my favourite part of Wilshere’s game – his ability to constantly ride challenges as he dribbles through an entire midfield before laying it off to Özil or Cazorla to play that final assist.
Jack emulating Alonso is perfectly fine by me. He’s been one of the best midfielders in Europe over the past few years but I feel Jack has a different skill set in his locker. He’s able to beat opposition players so easily that it wouldn’t be utilised much at all if he was played as the deepest midfielder.
The young Englishman is finally back in form and whatever route he eventually decides to take to mould the player he becomes, I’m sure he and Wenger will pick the right one and he’ll turn into that world class midfielder that we’ve all been waiting for.