Premier League Power Rankings: 5 Best Box-to-Box Midfielders

 The box to box midfielder. The engine. The driving force of his side. It seems that these terms are synonymous with a role that football managers christened the  "box to box role". The earliest use of this specific terminology was when then-Leeds manager Terry Venables less than eloquently summed up the talents of his midfielder Lee Bowyer by saying, "The lad's got a good engine. He goes from box to box." And so was born "the box to box midfielder."

However, the role did exist before Bowyer (obviously), and the archetypal (and many agree the greatest ever) box to box midfielder was the West German Lothar Matthaus. He had all the necessary attributes: a scorching long-ranger of a shot, a deft touch and a technique belying his role as a holder, a tackling sense that left players bereft of balance, and an almost surgical, incisive pass.

Since the days of Matthaus however, football in Europe  has seen the box to box midfielder decline in the face  of new tactical paradigms, to be replaced by midfielders with specific duties or central midfielders with different kinds of all encompassing talents. In England, still, the box to box midfielder remains alive. Indeed, the country is a production line of box to box talent. The cream of  English midfielders today are essentially box to box players. Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard and the like are talismans for their clubs and some of the best the game has ever seen in their respective roles.

This slideshow is a look at the box to box players who light up today's game. 

Frank Lampard

Comedian Chris Cohen, and famous Chelsea fan once wrote a couplet for Frank Lampard: "Super Frankie Lampard never puts a foot wrong, except when he puts an England shirt on." While it is true that Lampard, like many great English players, has performed better for his club side than for his national team, he has been a great player for both.

Lampard is a different, stranger take on the archetypal English box to box midfielder. He is widely regarded as an attacking midfielder with a goal scoring edge. He occupies a role in the Chelsea midfield that would have you believe that he is their main creative influence. However, far form being the fulcrum he is but a cog in Chelsea's periods of possession,and this leads to them requiring more intelligent players than Lampard, Joe Cole, Deco and Matthaus's natural successor, Michael Ballack.

Lampard's role in the Chelsea midfield has two main subsets to it. One of them is to keep possession and distribute the ball accurately to the more creative midfielder/striker/winger. The other, is what gives him his widespread fame, it is his finishing of moves by late runs into the box. This is where he gets his goalscoring edge as well.

Lampard is a brilliant passer of the ball, as many have admitted. His long passes and distribution are impressive. His passes are more "spraying the ball about" than they are incisive killer balls that can open up a defence and make it look all too easy. Lampard's touch is also not that of a Kaka, or a Fabregas. No, his style has more of a bustle than a hustle about it.

Indeed, as must be admitted whenever discussing Lampard, the most underrated aspect of his game is his defensive work, which is essential even when playing with another box to box player, Michael Essien, who is mainly a defensive player (but more cultured than Lampard).

Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard is a talisman. That is what anyone who knows English football well will agree. He has carried Liverpool for the past few years as they have remained a club in Inertia. The club's manager during many of Gerrard's best days, Rafael Benitez, once exclaimed that Steven Gerrard was half the team on his own. And after his performances for the Merseyside club, people had no right to ridicule the Spaniard's lofty admission.

Gerrard has been subject to extravagant praise from most for his never say die, no holds barred, tiger-ish, English attitude. Some eloquent Liverpool fan stated that this appealed to the English Liverpool fan's deeper nature, to see a player really never giving up, playing till the final whistle. Much of what gives Gerrard his cult figure status at Liverpool FC are his Intangibles.

There has been times when Gerrard has seemed to win games by sheer force of will, inspiring the entire Liverpool team to do things previously deemed utterly beyond them. The best thing about Gerrard's status at the club is, he leads by example. If you look hard enough, you will find myriad pictures of him rushing in for a last ditch , perfectly timed tackle. You can also watch him blast a long-ranger into the net as he arrives late in the box, looking for a rebound.

Like his erstwhile England midfield partner, Gerrard is an exceptional passer. His distribution of the ball in the short range is impeccable. What adds to his appeal with an English crowd are his tackling abilities and his industrious nature. This makes him a brilliant presence in the center of midfield, though it is advisable to have a more cultured, creative player alongside him and and another specific holding player to provide some tactical balance. 

Jack Wilshere

Jack Wilshere has recently had a breakthrough season. The English youngster, a native of Stevenage, has had his entire football education at Arsenal, under the Arsene Wenger regime. And accordingly, his incredible skill has developed. He was always considered a great prospect, but among so many others of his kind at Arsenal (Lansbury, Freeman, Afobe, Watt), it could not have been imagined that Wilshere would be at the level he is now. 

All his strengths highlight his box to box talents and Arsene Wenger knows this. That is why Arsenal can play a 4-2-3-1 formation so effectively, when they have an effervescent Wilshere in the middle of it all, making positive runs from a deep-lying position and breaking up opposition plays. He is not as well built as some defensive midfielders, but he dives into tackles often.

What separates Jack Wilshere from other English midfielders is his technique. His touch, the quality and accuracy of his passing make him a delight to watch. The aforementioned, combines with his defensive qualities, which a Premier League crowd demands to see in one of it's idols, will make him an Arsenal fan favorite for years to come.

Wilshere plays in a double pivot with the Cameroonian defensive midfielder at Arsenal, Alex Song. This system allows Wilshere and Song to share their deep-lying playmaking and holding responsibilities. The premise of the system , however, is that Wilshere plays a little bit higher up the pitch than Song, and this allows him the creative freedom to express himself and exploit his defensive abilities to the utmost.

Yaya Toure

The Ivorian defensive midfielder is a stalwart for both club and country. He is primary remembered for his time at Barcelona, where he featured in their sextuple season and was key in the holding midfield role. He acts as sort of a driving force for the team.Yaya Toure is one of the most in-form and in-demand midfielders in the world.

The Ivorian is famous for playing a holding role at the heart of that famous  Barcelona midfield. He started his European career at Beveren in Belgium (the same as Emmanuel Eboue) . He became famous fro combining his imposing frame with technique belying it. At Beveren, he did not win anything, nor at Russian club Metalurh. His first silverware came at Greek club Olimpiacos, with some domestic success.

His style is hustly and bustly, a 50-50 divide of technique and that African-style physical presence. Toure is a gifted tackler and strong in the air, great qualities for a defender. But what makes as good at holding midfield as he is, it is attributable mainly to his impeccable distribution. He uses his passing ability to his advantage when he makes marauding runs, showing technique you might not expect, seeing the other side of his game, and this caught opponents completely unawares back when Toure was still unknown.

He now plays a role in the Manchester City midfield which properly capitalizes on his talents. Alongside the brilliant Dutchman Nigel De Jong plays a "driving force" box-to box role, rather than the holding man role he played at Barcelona.Both of these role did allow him to get forward; however, the former more so than the latter. 

Michael Essien

The Ghanaian is the pulsing heart of the Chelsea side. His shot is incredible, as are his passing abilities. He tackles players brilliantly as well. His position in the Chelsea midfield is along side Frank Lampard, as the more creative box to box midfielders.