Gylfi Sigurdsson at CB

[P!ssed Off]

In 2009 a group of young Icelandic football coaches travelled to England to study for their Uefa coaching licences. The trip involved a stop at Reading, where the Icelanders were excited to see at first hand the progress of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Iceland’s own 18‑year‑old creative midfield jewel.

Sigurdsson had moved to Reading’s academy three years before from the successful youth system at Breidablik, a kind of fun, flatpack Nordic La Masia just outside Reykjavik. It was in England that Sigurdsson would really bloom, becoming in the process a frontiersman for the great Icelandic experiment, that frankly quite bonkers investment in youth football enacted around the turn of the millennium by this spiky lump of mid-Atlantic basalt, and expressed most fully in the minor miracle of Euro 2016 qualification. A triumph powered, above all, by Gylfi’s goals and craft.

A heady moment then for Iceland’s bright young things in Berkshire. Albeit, a puzzling one too.

“When we got there Steve Coppell was trying to turn him into a centre-half,” says Dadi Rafnsson, now director of coaching at Breidablik’s academy. “We watched training and he was playing next to André Bikey. It was quite funny. Coppell was saying Gylfi wasn’t quick enough to be a midfielder. But he said: ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find him a position.’ So they played him as a centre-half.”

Happily for the modern history of Icelandic football, Brendan Rodgers arrived soon afterwards, took one look and moved him 30 yards up the pitch. “Thank God for us,” Rafnsson says. From there Sigurdsson would leave for Hoffenheim on a club record fee, and later score five goals as Iceland finished second in qualifying Group A. Although, you never know. He might have made a decent centre-half, too.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -lagerback

[P!ssed Off]

I'll never look at SSC the same way again...

[Lower West]

Sol Campbell made his Spurs debut as a striker off the bench. Then started to play left full back. Eventually became an international centre back.

One can never tell.

[elrey]

Sigurdsson wasn't a Coppell style player, you play kick and rush, what do you want with slow midfielders?

[Ian Royal]

Sigurdsson wasn't a Coppell style player, you play kick and rush, what do you want with slow midfielders?

I find this a little dubious given Coppell's fondness and use of Little. Who was also slow.

[KC Royal]

Not surprised by the revelation of Gylfi playing at CB at all. I remember when he played in the reserves looking at the match reports and he was down as a centre-back on at least one occasion. Obviously when I later discovered he was an attacking midfielder it seemed odd, but I assumed at the time it was because we were maybe short in that area and being tall he could fill in there.

Interesting that maybe it was part of a bigger plan.

[SCIAG]

Very strange story. Gylfi went on loan to Crewe a few weeks later and mostly played on the left wing, and he'd already made two appearances in midfield for the first team. I think Dadi (or the writer) might be exaggerating for comic effect. More likely we were shifting him between positions all the time.