Football FanCast columnist Matt Williams explores the importance of the ‘Makelele role' and wonders why so many clubs fail to adopt it within their formation.

It seems strange to consider someone who has won the Champions League, La Liga (twice), the Premiership (twice), French Ligue 1, the FA Cup, European Super Cup and Spanish Super Cup as an underrated player, yet still people rarely give Claude Makelele the plaudits he deserves.

Now don't get me wrong, everyone recognises that he's a fantastic player, but ask someone to name you their top ten, even top twenty players to have graced the Premiership in modern years and he'll barely get a vote.

This all seems to come down to Makelele's position. So good at it, the position has even been dubbed ‘the Makelele role', used as casually as you would use the term ‘goalkeeper' or ‘winger'.

The role basically consists of sitting behind the midfield, yet in front of the defence, picking up the pieces and playing the obvious and simple pass to the creative master in the team.

Championship Manager addicts would liken the role to the ‘defensive midfielder' term used in its game, but you have to be very careful not to categorise what Makelele does to the nostalgic idea of a midfield battering ram employed to simply kill any opposition player with long hair and a bit of flamboyancy.

No longer does this role require a tough-tackler in which Paul Ince, Roy Keane and Vinny Jones made their name. Now the ideal attributes include composure, excellent distribution, and admirable unselfishness.

Makelele had abundance of this, which helped him define this role, and Euro 2008 produced a number of imitators, including Marcos Senna (arguably the player of the tournament), Turkey's excellent Hamit Altintop and Jeremie Toulalan, Makelele's expected successor in the French national side.

Domestic clubs are also recognising the desire to have a player to fill the ‘Makelele role'. Chelsea have the man in question, but also Michael Essien and John Obi-Mikel, who are both able to do the simple work. Manchester United have Owen Hargreaves, who revels in the engine-room role, whilst Liverpool possess Javier Mascherano, another who rarely gets on the score sheet but is so important to the way the team plays.

And Arsenal have.....well nobody really. Gilberto Silva used to fulfil this role quite nicely but he's slowly being frozen out, and a replacement is needed soon. Despite an excellent start last year, the Gunners seemed to fade away because every team could quite simply believe that they had the ability to score against them. They identified that space in front of the defence and exploited it accordingly.

Outside the top four however, Arsenal are not alone, and it seems that many managers are unwilling to embrace this formation. Is it because there are simply not enough good players available to play in this position? Or is it because many English clubs are still unwilling to alter their 4-4-2 formation and withdraw a striker?

Brazilian football legend Carlos Alberto remarked that in the not too distant future strikers may even be made completely redundant, with a 4-6-0 formation being the way to go. This formation would include four rotating ‘attacking midfielders' and a couple of players sitting deep, in what is a more intense version of how Man Utd set themselves up last season - Hargreaves and Carrick sat back whilst letting Rooney, Ronaldo et all switch positions further up-field.

Euro 2008 was an exciting mix of flair, skill and positive attacking play. But the holding midfield player in each side was frequently the man making it all possible. The role requires a special type of player - not least due to the fact that in a celebrity-inspired world the player will have to settle for less of the plaudits - and if future teams are to be successful, they will almost certainly need a Claude Makelele of their own.