Give Urby a Hand

By: Matt | November 26th, 2008

…by sorting out this mess. Once upon a time he was the obvious successor to Gio van Bronckhorst at Oranje left back. But then Gio never retired, and Urby never developed adequate defensive skills. Now Gio is still at it, and Urby is no longer picked. And at Ajax, Jan Vertonghen has moved in at left back, marking and tackling where Urby could not. Now Urby is without a position, appearing sometimes in the midfield and sometimes up on the wing. And he is not happy about it. Now, if we here on the offside can just figure out where to play Urby, this whole situation can have a happy ending.

The arguments:
For left back>>>
This is where I really want to see Urby play at Ajax. I know he has shortcomings as a defender, but he more than makes up for these by supporting the attack with outstanding technical ability and a great left foot. We have all seen matches where he was so effective in pinning down the other team’s right side, forcing them to defend, that he never really was threatened on the defensive side. There is more than one way to cover your position at the fullback, and Urby is terrific at keeping the game in front of him. As far as his defensive skills, this is Ajax we are talking about. When was the last time we had a great defensive fullback? Urby is just the new Maxwell, right?

For midfield>>>
So, as an average defender at best but a great player on the ball, why not put Urby in the midfield? He could his his defensive shortcomings with a “strength in numbers” three man cluster, using his passing and dribbling to build and support the attack. This makes less sense at Ajax, where we have plenty of left-footed midfielders (and Urby’s right foot is shady). And physically, Urby is not a real commanding presence. If we ran a 442, I can see him playing a left-midfield spot. But in a 433, there are better options for Urby. Like left back or …

For winger>>>
This is intriguing. Forget defending (as Urby is prone to do) and attack (as Urby can). Cross the ball, run down the wing, and whatever defensive help you can pitch in is pure gravy. This probably appeals to some part of Urby’s subconscious, but other areas of his game need to develop first. He is not a threat in the box nor is he a threat from range. He is just not comfortable there yet. Could he ever be? I dunno. The time to learn new tricks is likely ticking away. If Urby had been a winger for several years, he could be a real performer. If Urby cannot cut it at left back, he needs to get pitch time here.

Urby could have perhaps solved all this by developing into an average defender. And here we can see the true culprit in the Urby Emmanuelson saga: AFC Ajax. In recent years, Ajax has been absolutely incapable of training true fullbacks. We buy them from Romania or we just plug the whole with a player who we had been training to play somewhere else. This is the case with Vertonghen and van der Wiel, and our failures with Slingjard and Supusepa make it more clear. Training defenders is an afterthought for the most part, and there was even a time when John Heitinga was being molded into a midfielder (see also: Hedwiges Maduro, Robert Schillder).

Now, I appreciate the folks at the academy. Heck, I love them. They are a big reason I support the club. But not every academy graduate is going to be an attack minded midfielder or a winger. Ajax needs defenders, and Urby has been done no favors in this department. I think he can still help the team at left back, but we need a coach who can teach him how to mark and tackle. Or we just need to quit training those positions and buy them all.

Now it is your turn. Where would YOU play Urby?