The role of Jon Greening

Jonathan Greening was on our radar for some time over the summer, and when he eventually arrived, on a poorly disguised loan agreement (he’s ours after the season), some were concerned that we had paid too much for an ageing player with no re-sale value.

For one thing, re-sale value is nice, but how often do we actually find players we can sell on for big money these days?   The next Saha is probably at Arsenal already, and if he’s not, he’s going to cost big money.  Roy Hodgson seems to value a degree of certainty in most of his signings, so this kind of speculative “high upside” player doesn’t seem likely to head our way any time soon (unless it’s via the youth setup, which is another discussion).

Jon Greening was surely signed as a Premier League ready (Greening has, since 2002, over 150 Premier League games to his name) squad man.  The sort of player who is good enough to slot in, but not so good that he will demand to play every week.   I’m sure Hodgson saw someone who could slot in quickly, do a job, and add to the squad.  And it seems to have worked.

I’ve pulled off his last four chalkboards, as well as those of Danny Murphy:

Greening:

What we see there is someone playing Roy’s conservative midfield plan.   We know that Hodgson plays two forwards, then expects his wide men to get into the area, with width from the full-backs.   This places less emphasis on the central midfielders to attack, and frequently you’ll see our midfield pair sit in the middle third of the pitch all game.    This is perfectly illustrated above:  Greening’s playing a very safe game, holding a position, keeping the ball moving and not doing anything risky.

Now Murphy:

It’s a slightly more aggressive version of the same thing.  We see two home performances when we dictated the game in the middle of the park, and that, I think, is what Murphy offers over Greening.    He’s operating slightly further forward and playing a few more attacking passes.   It must be noted that few of them are really making much happen, but people have to respect Murphy’s passing:  if they stand off he can pick them apart, so they have to close him down which means they risk losing shape.   With a player of lesser ability it’s easier for an opposing midfield to sit off and hold their shape.

It places greater emphasis on our wide men, and this is where things have come together nicely.    With Bobby Zamora’s good form coinciding nicely with Duff and Dempsey’s excellent play, we now see a much different attacking look than we did last year, especially with Joe Kamara playing.

A year ago we had Zamora and Johnson, with uncertainty out wide (Davies injured, Gera finding his feet, Dempsey not yet established as he is now), so there was much more of an onus on our central midfield pairing to make things happen.  Bullard tried – how he tried! – but it was much easier to defend against.   Now the work of the wide men cutting inside, playing off Zamora, is working a treat.  Joe Kamara brings expert unpredictability to the mix too.  Again: it’s a different look, but it’s another dimension, an evolution.  We do miss Murphy, but we don’t suffer particularly by employing Jon Greening in the middle of the pitch.    As we see above, he’s more than capable of taking the ball and moving it around.  He’s sound defensively and can – as the assist at City showed – provide a good cross when he needs to.

All of which is a long-winded way to say that he’s been decent value and a good signing.   He’s not an exciting signing, but I think Roy will be very pleased with how he has settled in.