Steve McManaman: What Makes a Midfield (part two)

SIGNING FOR Real Madrid would change everything for Steve McManaman. The move turned him into a league champion and Champions League winner, but it also transformed the way he played the game. In part two, McManaman talks about reinventing himself as a holding midfielder to better serve a team which included the likes of Luis Figo and Fernando Redondo - a player McManaman still considers a great, even though injury crippled the Argentine’s career. There is also an appreciation of the roles performed by Ronnie Whelan at Liverpool during the 80s, and Sergio Busquets in the current Barcelona side; fine support acts to some of the biggest stars in the game. Zinedine Zidane gets a mention, too, although not as you might expect. Listen to how this World Cup winner often looked lost during the early days of his Madrid career - before finding himself emphatically with a certain goal at Hampden - and why Claude Makelele was regarded as the most important player at the Bernabeu. When Makelele left it was the...

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