How to play as central midfielder?

Central midfielder is the position where fantasy meets magic. To succeed on this position you need to be the fittest player in your team. This is because you will be involved in almost every offensive part of the game. You must also have a good technical ability when playing on this position.

Distributing the ball is your job, and therefore anything that occurs in offensive will go through you. To accomplish this task well, you need beside speed; great footwork and strength, even good stamina and big vision of the field.

When your team does not have ball possession, you need to take responsibility in defense which means that you must drop back and pressure your opponents to make mistakes under their offensive attacks. When your team is attacking, you should be involved in the game by making runs towards the ball.

Before you receive and take control over the ball you should know what to do with it. There is simply no time to figure out what to do with the ball after you have control over it.

You must always be one step further and try to figure out what to do before you control the ball at your feet. This is probably the most important skill for a central midfielder because on the field pressure will always be high when you pose the ball, and because you will have the ball often, you must also think and react faster than other.

If you want to improve your game, I suggest you to watch top league soccer (e.g Spanish, Italian or English), monitor the players on your position and write down every move they make. Notice how these players move and what they do in some particular situations.

For example when do they shot, dribble, pass etc. Try then to apply this on the field and you will notice that your game has performed just by thinking soccer. However, if you really want to learn all the secrets behind this position I recommend you to check out The Ultimate Guide To Soccer Positions.