Making a midfielder
Manchester United’s head of first-team development, Nicky Butt, discusses the skills and attributes that led to a celebrated career at the heart of the Old Trafford club’s midfield.
Making the most of the talents you have been given
I had a work ethic from the start - I stole that from my parents. Hard work gets you places whatever you do in any walk of life - that was the easy part, if you like. Then I got lucky with the manager that was at the club at the time. Sir Alex [Ferguson] knew a group of us from the age of 14 and gave us an opportunity to get to our dreams and to fulfil our potential. That’s important in life: you’ve got to be in the right place at the right time and you’ve got to have the right people helping you. I was fortunate with that. I was also part of an unbelievable group of players that helped me and things fell into place. I was never the most gifted of players, but I was one of the ones that worked hardest and got the most out of what God had given me.
Fittest on the pitch To play in midfield you’ve got to be the fittest, or one of the fittest, on the pitch. If you want to play in midfield you’ve got to be all over the pitch, especially at a younger age. I don’t think young players can say “I want to be a deep lying midfielder” or “I want to be an attacking midfielder” – they’ve got to be able to do everything. Then when you get your chance later on you can do both. So, from a young age you’ve got to get about the pitch, be the fittest on the pitch, try and score goals, try and create goals but try and stop goals and do the defensive side as well. It is a tricky job to try and learn how to do it all as a young player.
Playing in a midfield two helps you read the game In the Academy I tell all our coaches to help midfielders play as part of a two [man central midfield] at first, because I think it is easier to go from playing in a two to a three, rather than the other way round. In a two, you can be fit, you can get about the pitch and cover all the different spaces and you can learn to read the game better - then you can go into a three. Starting with a three then going to a two is pretty difficult to do.
Find a way to deal with more physical players I think the size of players does matter, if you’re bigger and stronger and powerful it helps. Year by year young players are getting bigger and stronger. For me, if I came up against Patrick Vieira for instance, who was 6ft 3’, physically stronger than me and quicker than me, I had to find a way of dealing with that. You’ve got to find out how to beat him in other ways.
You’ve got to be clever: don’t get caught on the ball, don’t allow them to tackle you and be quicker with the ball. From the defensive side: get there as quick as you can, don’t let them get set, don’t let them get their arms out, don’t let them get comfortable on the ball because they’re hard to knock off. Get as close as soon as you can and get tight in an area where they can’t use their elbows or their arms.
Learning what your niche is at an early age will help you get a good career in football
Know your strengths The sooner you develop the mentality of knowing what you are good at, and what you are not good at, the more effective player you’re going to be.
If you asked me when I was 25 or 26 to start trying to play 60 or 70 yard balls like Beckham, Gerrard or Scholes, I wouldn’t have done it, because I knew I couldn’t. You need to learn pretty quickly what you’re good at and what you’re not good at.
I think that’s what got me in the team at an early age before the other lads - I knew my role within the team. I knew what I was good at and I just tried to specialise in that. Learning what your niche is at an early age will help you get a good career in football.
I always knew I wasn’t great at passingI practised my passing against a wall. Passing small balls from 25 yards, 20 yards, 15 yards, 5 yards – it was never long passing because it was never really my job. I remember one day the manager saying to me “you’re the most improved passer in the club” and that was like heaven for me.
You always have to continue to learn, work hard and try and get better. I think you’ve got to keep trying and keep practising even when you’re 33, 34, 35 - you’ve got to still keep doing it. Certainly the lads that I played with never sat back on laurels, they kept training, kept practising and trying hard.
Roy Keane was probably the best midfielder in Europe for many years - he just did everything perfect, simple things perfect all the time
Eight or nine every week I wouldn’t say I liked or disliked playing against any opponent. I just enjoyed the challenge of whether it was Vieira, Gerrard, Zidane or if it was Dennis Wise – which was a difficult battle - or a Man City derby game. I was never really fussed who I played against. I just knew that I had to do what I had to do, and if I did and got 8 or 9 out of 10 every week my box was ticked. If five or six of us did that we’d get the result. That’s the mindset we had as kids and I had it all the way through my career.
Partnerships are key
If I was to playing in midfield with Scholesy I knew I’d probably be more likely to sit in and let him bomb on. If I was playing with Keaney it was definitely 50-50: he’d go and I’d sit and the other way round. If I was playing with Ronny Johnsen, I’d be the one going and he’d be the one sitting. So, it’s just a bit of football intelligence really and I think you get that the older you get.
Repeating the basicsCraft knowledge came from game time as well as repetition of training - doing the right things every day with good coaches. Eric Harrison (former Manchester United Youth Team coach) installed the basics into us at a very early age. It was just really basic football done at a high tempo, with a lot of hard graft. It was simple, there was no magic wand, it was just getting good players to work hard and do the rights things regularly and I was a big believer in that. We used to do a ball routine every single day for two years and it became a habit, it became the natural thing to do and you took that into the game.
Perfection is simplicity Roy Keane was probably the best midfielder in Europe for many, many years and he used to do everything well. He just did everything perfect, simple things perfect all the time. You’d never see him spray 30 or 60 yard passes, but every pass he did was perfect. I think that was the secret to it and that’s what I certainly tell the kids now. Do the simple things really well and the rest of it takes care of itself.
Nicky Butt is Manchester United’s head of first-team development.