The No 10s they talk about nowadays are rarely the orchestrators of old. Then, the player with 10 on their shirt would try to run the game. In today’s structured, high-energy world, the best creators still determine outcomes but less often own the spotlight, as Zico, Diego Maradona or Zinedine Zidane did.
English football won’t care about the distinction. A couple of decades after Trevor Brooking identified a lack of “10s” as a chronic flaw in player development here, creative midfielders are queuing for the role, whatever the modern definition.
Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers is precisely the type of young midfielder Chelsea have tried to sweep into their giant private equity net. They succeeded handsomely with Cole Palmer, whose departure from Manchester City was a rare blemish on Pep Guardiola’s record.
Palmer wanted to play more, Guardiola wanted him to be patient, as Phil Foden had been. Chelsea spotted a gimmie and gave Palmer the chance to be the creative hub of the post Roman Abramovich era.
That exalted status was tested when Rogers stepped on to the Stamford Bridge pitch in startlingly good form. Palmer has only recently returned from injury so the duel was forced on him. Rogers has been scoring art gallery goals in Villa’s run of 10 consecutive wins in all competitions and will have been relishing this chance to move within three points of Arsenal at the top and end Chelsea’s hope of winning the title. It was another Englishman, Ollie Watkins, who made all of that happen, with two second-half goals that gave Villa a remarkable 11th straight victory.
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Here was a game with juice: Rogers v Palmer as a private clash while Chelsea sought to end Villa’s ascent – not just for their own benefit, but for Arsenal and Manchester City, to whom Villa’s winning run has started to look more than mere impudence.
Palmer’s goalscoring has marked him out as a threat to Frank Lampard on Chelsea’s honours board of prolific midfielders. Returning to the starting XI, Palmer had 39 goals from just 77 league appearances. Lampard amassed 147 – but from 429 matches. At 23, and with his unflustered finishing, Palmer is a fair bet to become the club’s most lethal scorer in a non-striker’s shirt.
And his determination to improve those numbers after returning from groin and toe injuries was apparent as early as the second minute when he cushioned and lowered a scooped pass before whipping it wide of the post. It was the first statement by these two PFA Young Player of the Years and Rogers immediately answered by trying to gallop through the middle of Chelsea’s team. The intensity in Chelsea’s first-half play suggested a sharp awareness of their league campaign hanging in the balance.
It was all going well until Rogers encountered Reece James, an outstanding footballer whose body has too often sabotaged his talent. James’s nasty inswinging corner nine minutes before half-time looked to have curled straight into the net until replays showed glancing contact by João Pedro. Chelsea, with commendable energy, had heaped pressure on Villa’s defence,
Driving Villa back into their own final third of the pitch came with the added benefit of marginalising Rogers, who was shoved provocatively by Marc Cucurella and later pushed to the ground by Benoît Badiashile. Call it a compliment.
Palmer missed eight league games and returned with an hour against Everton and 70 minutes against Newcastle. Serving a suspension from the seats behind us in the press box, Chelsea’s manager Enzo Maresca observed what everyone in a grandstand seat saw: Palmer take possession between Villa’s s defence and midfield, and then make those floating, gently swerving runs of his towards shooting positions on the edge of the box.
Finding unmonitored space and then using it to build instant, unexpected threat is a trademark of No 10s down the ages. Rogers does less of it, in the conventional sense, because he trusts his own stronger running, more in the style of a No 8, and roams side to side across the pitch to find those channels.
He’s come a long way since losing possession 29 times in a Europa League game against Bologna. Scoring twice against both West Ham and Manchester United helped him to 10 “goal involvements” in 17 games (highest in the league) and made him the talk of the town this Christmas.
The real common denominator between Palmer and Rogers? Both have mastered exquisite finishing, a gift for Thomas Tuchel as he plots England’s World Cup campaign next summer. Before every tournament these days we enumerate the special young players and wonder how the manager is going to fit them all in.
It’s never that simple but at least the dearth of English players capable of playing No 10-ish is over. Palmer, Rogers, Phil Foden and of course Jude Bellingham are all candidates.
First, Palmer and Rogers have 20 more league matches to do what all great players do: shape the campaign in their own image, by deciding outcomes. Palmer left the field on 70 minutes with Villa fans singing: “You’re just a shit Morgan Rogers.”
Apart from the finishing skills, they share a vital attribute of players from the highest echelon: big game temperament. And this had the salt and hunger of a big one.
Photograph by Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images