Football is a cyclical game as much as any, trends appear, are immediately hailed as the best thing since sliced bread, then disappear when a tactical shift is found to counter its effectiveness. The latest role which appears to be going out of fashion is one that may surprise a few people – the holding midfielder.

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini was initially criticised upon taking over the club over a perceived defensive style of play considering his resources and a somewhat negative outlook in tense, big games. However, as ever, it appears as if we’ve judged the man more on his passport as opposed to his managerial acumen, a casual and lazy stereotype often trotted out because Italy was once the country that gave Catenaccio.

Instead, last term saw the gradual evolution of City into a free-flowing side built around the diminutive talents of Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri with Yaya Toure the all-action one-man machine providing ample support. The result saw Nigel De Jong’s role seriously reduced in the first team as he went on to start just 11 league games and feature as a sub a further 10 times, with Gareth Barry often preferred instead.

De Jong is clearly one of the best holding men in world football and while the club have clearly spent a lot of money, their strength in depth in various positions is hardly world-beating, so it’s rather surprising to see the Dutch international marginalised to such an extent, because he clearly has something to offer.

Over at Manchester United, manager Sir Alex Ferguson has repeatedly ignored calls to strengthen the side with a destructive defensive shield, instead often opting for the ball-playing stylings of both Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes instead, and they haven’t ever really bothered replacing Owen Hargreaves.

At Arsenal, Alex Song is often tasked with performing the holding role, but his lack of positional discipline borders on the negligible, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he managed to finish last season with 14 assists as he continues to develop the creative side of his game superbly.

While the club may have initially looked close to moving for Rennes holding man Yann M’Vila, they appear to have put that deal on the back-burner for now after his disciplinary problems at Euro 2012 with France, with Wenger stating that he’d prefer to wait on the fitness of both Jack Wilshere and Abou Diaby (good luck with that one) instead, which again points to a top four manager feeling that there is no pressing need for one in his squad.

Nevertheless, from an outsiders perspective, it would appear at least like both Manchester United and Arsenal are absolutely crying out for a recognised holding man, somebody to hustle the opposition, keep their position, and distribute the ball simply to their more illustrious team-mates – is it merely that they are too limited for top-level teams at the moment?

At Barcelona, Sergio Busquets is a defensive midfielder of sorts, he covers the ground fairly well, he’s decent if unspectacular in the tackle, and he can be said to ‘hold’ his position in front of the back four, but his game is built more upon his awareness and ability to time interceptions and close space as opposed to the more conventional tough-tackling player of yesteryear. Meanwhile, Javier Mascherano has been converted into a sweeper as the club look to plan beyond the ageing legs of Carles Puyol.

Sami Khedira at Real Madrid is another example of a player that plays a defensive role, but again, his game is built around being busy rather than destructive in the middle and he’s a lot better on the ball than people give him credit for. Lassana Diarra, who fits the mould a lot more, started only 15 times last campaign for the Spanish champions.

There are, of course, some excellent examples within the top flight of brilliant holding players, such as Cheick Tiote at Newcastle and Lucas Leiva at Liverpool, but it appears when it comes to the top four, to play in that position now, you have to have something more about you than just being a rampaging tackler, you have to be able to combine it with a degree of finesse on the ball, with Bastian Schweinsteiger the perfect example of a middle ground being found.

It may have just been a blip last season, whereby none of the top teams on the continent or in the Premier League featured what we would normally term a traditional ‘holding man’, and De Jong could well be set for a more key role this coming campaign at City, but it appears as if the importance of the role has greatly reduced recently, with managers now looking for players that can perform multiple roles and tasks well, as opposed to one set discipline superbly.

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