I wrote a post last year which put forward the notion that James Milner could be our Wesley Sneijder. As it turned out, I missed the mark somewhat, but only because he’s not ours any longer. I still think he would have done very well there for us last season and maybe, just maybe, things might have panned out differently.

C’est la vie.

Now that we’ve received confirmation that a Reo-Coker shaped hole needs filling in the centre of midfield, I found myself wondering whether it’s something that Ciaran Clark could do. Well, we know he can, we’ve seen him do it, but with tonight’s Champions League final in mind, I was struck by the similarities to a certain Sergio Busquets. I wondered whether there was any potential to borrow a little from the Barcelona system.

Just for fun y’understand, nothing too serious.

First of all, the similarities:

• They’re of comparable build, both around 6’2″, and appearance.
• They’re close in age, Busquets is a little older; turning 23 in July. Clark turned 21 last September.
• Busquets is a defensive midfielder who is very comfortable at centre back. Clark is a centre back who, as we saw last season, is extremely comfortable in midfield. Surprisingly so as it goes.
• Both players are products of their teams’ academies.

Okay, they weren’t separated at birth, but there’s definitely some potential there, no? All right, just humour me.

The Barcelona system

So, besides strangling opponents into submission with possession football, how do Barcelona play exactly? Technically, it’s generally a 4-3-3 system, but the reality is that they spend so much time with the ball in their opponent’s half that it would be more accurate to describe it as a 2-1-4-3.

The ‘1’ is Sergio Busquets. He can drop in between Pique and Puyol to form a three man back line if required, he can push further forward to support Xavi and Iniesta in the middle.

The full backs, Dani Alves on the right, usually Maxwell on the left, provide the width going forward. At the front, David Villa on the left, and Pedro on the right, squeeze into the box in a pincer movement as Lionel Messi tends to drop out of his central position.

The Argentinian Bannan is fond of looping through the right channel, possibly with some sort of invisibility cloak, before popping up on a diagonal run across goal that provides him the best opportunity to unleash his left foot.

That invariably leads to the net rippling and that sound 100,000 people make when they don’t quite believe what they’ve just seen, but they know they like it.

In pictures

In the following illustration, I’ve shown the system collapsed into its most defensive shape on the left, a more neutral version in the middle and the full-on attacking mode on right. I’ve colour-coded the roles, you can use your imagination to put some names on those circles. I’ll give you an idea of mine on the other side. (Ciaran is the light blue circle) [Click image to embiggen].

In words

This system unleashes, and actually requires, full backs who like to get forward. Kyle Walker is a full back who likes to get forward. Eric Lichaj is also a full back who likes to get forward. Luke Young is quite fond too for that matter.

Another one just like those three, but on the left would be a good idea; I quite like Newcastle’s José Enrique, or maybe Leighton Baines. A left footer who isn’t rubbish or overly mardy.

We’re obviously going to see some changes at centre back, let’s imagine for this exercise that we have Carlos Cuellar and, I don’t know, how about someone like Christopher Samba? Okay then, him.

Obviously Ciaran Clark is playing the defensive midfield role.

Ahead of Clark? How about two from Jean II Makoun, Fabian Delph and Barry Bannan. Some pretty tasty pairings in there, right? Who knows, maybe Stephen Ireland can get his act together. No, I’m not serious.

Obviously we’re looking at Darren Bent to lead the line, and that’s the key difference to Barcelona as he’s never in a million years going to be playing the Messi “false nine” type of game.

On the outside, I suppose you could call them “wing forwards”, but they’d have to be playing most of the game on the “wrong” side; Marc Albrighton and Stewart Downing. Yes, Downing. Or someone like Downing. A leftie anyway.

I know a lot of fans don’t like inverted wingers, but too bad, this is my Villalona side and this is how we play.

In terms of options/rotation, it would depend on who stays at the club, but we’d have some from James Collins, Richard Dunne, Nathan Baker, Shane Lowry, Jonathan Hogg, Chris Herd, Stiliyan Petrov, Nathan Delfouneso, Gabby Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey. Possibly Michael Bradley too, we’ll see.

Of course, this is just one system; a 4-3-3 of sorts, we could always keep the old 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 as alternative options. In fact, a Plan B and Plan C is extremely advisable.

“Villalona”: stretching things a bit far?

Well, yeah. Of course. Although we’re clearly attempting to transition to a more a fluid, possession based game, I’m not suggesting that we have the tools to implement the Brummie tiki-taka any time soon. I also don’t believe there’s an appetite among the fans for such a thing, but that’s a different matter.

Nevertheless, installing Ciaran Clark as our first choice defensive midfielder would solve a number of issues. Firstly, it effectively replaces Nigel Reo-Coker for nothing. Secondly, although this may change, we do have a veritable glut of centre halves in the squad and, when all fit, getting them all on the pitch enough to keep everyone happy is a challenge. Thirdly, it would allow Clark to continue his development into a bona fide first team player in a position that’s less likely to lead to a confidence destroying, goal-gifting mistake.

So that’s my somewhat tongue-in-cheek case for Ciaran Clark in the Sergio Busquets role. If you’re watching the Champions League final later, keep your eye on him and give it some thought. While you’re doing that, I’ll be thinking about how Isaiah Osbourne could have been our Xavi if he’d only been given a chance.

I like a challenge!