I Am Arsenal Till I Die wrote:
Tevez and Rooney played wide so that Ronaldo could do his thing. And his thing he did.
Indeed, and if Tevez or Rooney were the type of footballers that couldn't play anywhere apart from number 9, United would have been handicapped and Ronaldo wouldn't be able to do his 'thing'.
Players that can only play one role are just not as highly regarded, unless they're exceptionally good like Makelele or Inzaghi, because they are limiting.
Biggus wrote:
But at other clubs where immediate success is necessary there are other views on how to play the game and they involve specialists, giving rare examples of players being slotted in to positions for expediency for a 1- off game is neither here nor there.
It's not rare examples.
I think I'm making a fairly uncontentious point: Assuming that their impact on the game is equal, managers would rather work with well rounded players rather than players that need to have their individual strengths and weaknesses taken into account.
