The Luxury Player Fallacy
The attacking midfielder or Number 10 shirt is often the most decisive and important player on any soccer team. Having a true Number 10 gives a team a player who can decide the game with one inspired or magical play. In major tournaments, having a gifted playmaker gives a team an edge over a team without one.
Often this type of playmaker is labeled a “luxury player” by many people. The accusation being that this type of player is surplus to requirements for not being a player who contributes much defensively or one who puts the ball in the back of the net. The problem with this mentality is that this supposedly luxury player is vital to linking the midfield to the attack and creating goals. Goals are the most important thing in soccer, and having a playmaker puts the primary goalscorer in the position to have more scoring opportunities.
Players like Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Zinedine Zidane, Diego Maradona, and Pelé have always separated their team from the others. At the highest levels of soccer, every team has technical and athletic players at every position, and only the magicians and grandmasters can break the deadlock. Besides the Number 10 players, a prolific center forward like Brazil’s Ronaldo is the other most valuable player. Of course, every position is vital and valuable, but finding a Number 10 and a Number 9 is the hardest thing for a coach.
In the last two World Cup Finals in 2010 and 2014, we saw two Number 10s decide the game with goals themselves. Andrés Iniesta, an absolutely legendary Number 10, scored the winning goal in 2010 for Spain. In 2014, Mario Götze, another Number 10 who is often left on the bench by coaches for being a luxury player, scored the winning goal for Germany. It was a goal that only an absolute master could have scored. There was no time to think before he struck the ball and no angle to beat the goalkeeper, but he scored anyway. So the last two World Cups were decided by Number 10s, and we still hear these players called “luxury players.”
With eleven players on a side and normally almost seven players designated as defensive players, it makes little sense for one of the remaining four players to not be an attacking midfielder or playmaker. How else will a team unlock the defense, connect the midfield to the attack, and score goals? You can’t really expect the ball to make its way to the striker or strikers with a midfield stuffed with defensive midfielders.
Too many coaches and teams continue to push this mentality of the “luxury player” and the game of soccer suffers as a result of it. There is a direct connection between technical skill and winning.