Playing Out Of Position - Part Two

Reading, I love it. I was sitting down the other day in one of those neat straw made deals in a conservatory in Salford and for the best part of an hour or so I was just chilling and reading the Michael Foot biography. Kenneth O. Morgan (I wonder if he get upset if we miss that crucial O.) did a fantastic job on the book in making it engrossing reading, I hope I get round to doing a review of it when I’ve finished it.

So whilst I was on the throne recently and had an opportunity to read more about Foot it reminded me of a text I’d sent to a dear friend of mine. By the way as a small diversion, isn’t it a privilege to have dear friends, you know the sort to whom there is a connection and a repartee on a given subject. I love those kind of dear friends. I haven’t always had them and I thought my brother would be the only one at one stage, but God in His kindness allowed me to link with some others, really nice of Him.

Anyway, so I text this dear friend earlier before my stint on the throne and I said to the friend that Foot was the right man at the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact what I should have said was that Foot was a good man in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no era in the 20^th Century or any stage of the Labour movement when that brother would have been the right leader. Sure things may have been worse if Healey or Shore had taken over in 1980, but seriously what kind of message are you sending in letting a scruffy, old, rhetorician anywhere near the keys to power?

As I reigned on the throne, however, I saw that point as the ideal way to get us back on where we were and the links between part one of this two part series. Quick recap – we can play players in their best positions and hope for the best, or we can have a system for which we select certain players at certain times even if it’s not playing the brother at his best position. We linked that with the current Liverpool malaise and the less we say about that the better.

So here’s the link. As you may recall back in April I made a Statement of Intent which was basically reiterating a phrase I’d come across at the beginning of 2009 – In my element for my season. Rooted in Psalm 1:3 this was all about a renewed commitment to being planted exactly where God wants me to be physically, socially, spiritually, vocationally, relationally, etc. etc. Making the statement is one thing, living up to it is another thing. Uncovering what that costs is an even more tricky thing when we consider it in greater detail. As I have discovered and continue to discover this can be a very costly business.

It’s costly, but it is worthwhile and here’s my contention on the issue. I’m sure some people are predestined to be misfits and malcontents – their role in the larger scheme of things is to make people uncomfortable by asking awkward questions in awkward ways and appear somewhat on the fringes of the mainstream. Thankfully God gives us biblical dudes who fit that bill like Elijah and John D. Baptist (is it the only biblically acceptable denomination? You decide. OK actually God does, but you can have a good guess, as a hint it doesn’t start with ‘y’).

This calling, though, is pretty specific though and you’ve got to be very well equipped emotionally, mentally and relationally to deal with the flack, rejection and abuse that comes with it. In a very real way you have to be designed for the task. That leads neatly into another underpinning scripture behind the desire not to see people play life out of position. Ephesians is a book in the bible worth serious study – when you’ve read it once, read it again and then one more time to even begin to comprehend what on earth Paul is saying and its vast implications. One little verse in there gets to the heart of what I’m all about with the playing in position deal.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

First thing that I notice about this is that it is not an individual call – it relates to a corporate call to be about the business for which we’ve been made. Implicit within this and to further explained later on in the letter if the corporate is going to be effective in getting on with its business, the individual parts need to be in their place functioning as they need to function. Or as Paul puts it

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:15, 16 emphasis added)

Now for each part to be working properly and with the recognition that we’re different parts of the growing organism there is great importance on discovering what our place is. That discovery process is not superficial but gets to the core of who we are as defined by God not by personal experience, friends, family, denomination, etc. although these can contribute to the process.

The deal then is about going back to the Coach to discover what our best position is, because He would have the best idea of where we fit in the team. Everyone wants to play up front and hog the headlines, but thankfully the Coach knows best. He plays us in different positions, sure, but He knows that you’re a right back or a left winger or a tough tackling midfielder or a commanding defender or a creative maestro just behind the front two, or the goal-poacher.

He knows and once you know He knows and He lets you know then not only do you find out but on playing in that position you feel at your best. Each position requires discipline and an understanding of what the position demands, but these demands are not imprisoning and confining, indeed these are Garden of Eden opportunities where you can eat the fruit of any tree – you get to enjoy all the garden and then discover that it contributes to others also being released to do what they’re called to do. Before you know it, everyone is in their place, everyone functions out of love and joy in Christ rather than dictation or obligation. Then you’re pinging the ball around and playing the lovely football of life enjoying sharing and serving each other, setting each other up for goal scoring opportunities whilst covering for each other to prevent break-aways.

It’s a joy. It’s a delight. It’s a pleasure. It’s an honour. It is no longer mind-less routine or ritual. It is no longer drudgery or confusing hypocrisy as you kid yourself with the fake-it-till-you-make-it psychology. It is being in your best position and enjoying Christ in it. It is then having an impact on the lives of others by doing that.

I am convinced in my brief time on planet earth that far too many people … far too many Christians … far too many eager well-meaning followers of Christ are playing out of position. Far too many accept their circumstances, background, institutional and inhibitive or deceptive doctrinal demands from work, home and church without any consideration to where God actually has placed them to be as His workmanship.

I know only too well how soul-destroying it can be. I know only too well how real it seems at the time and how it appears to be all there is your life and it’s a status quo you can live with, when in actuality it takes the love of God to break through to help you move on with your life to be rooted and grounded in Him. I know only too well how miserable and unfulfilled and unfruitful this kind of living can be. So it’s no surprise that I have a desperate desire to see people awake to who they are in Christ and then join Him in the steps towards real freedom, real service, abundant living by fruitful serving by the character of Christ being formed in us.

It’s not a utopia that gives us our selfish gratifications, but it is a real godly Kingdom in which who we really are becomes further revealed in us as we give our lives completely to Him. That won’t necessarily help Liverpool win the Premier League, but it will certainly help followers of Christ to enjoy the Kingdom that we’ve been translated into.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd

Playing Out Of Position

I don’t usually write about football on this blog. I know I did earlier on in the days of this blog, but since the other blog’s come along I’ve tended to share my comments about the sport to that site. Bear with me over this two-parter, if you’re not that way inclined, there is method in the madness behind bringing this subject up on this blog at this time.

I love football, I love watching the game and having conversations and reading insights and views on the game. I have read quite a number of books on the game, more on the characters of the game and some of the big clubs and important developments particularly in the English game. One aspect of it that can be over-played or under-played is the role of systems and tactics in the game. Some argue that for all the talk about formations and player positions, it is still about 11 guys on the pitch doing what comes instinct win the game. It’s about a ball and those guys trying to score as many as goals as they can whilst trying to stop the opposing side from doing the same thing.

I appreciate this simple analysis of the game and can understand that with regards to some teams they have been assembled because they are good at what they do. The coach/manager recognises that and just looks to utilise that in the game by getting the players to play as they can play and hopefully they will work as a cohesive unit to achieve the aforementioned goal.

There is, however, another perspective on the game that says that the coach/manager plays a more influential role in setting a playing culture with a system that follows based on getting players to understand their role in that system and who can play to that system. The thinking being that if all the players do what they have trained for over the week then they will be able to counter-act the opponents and express themselves in a way that allows them to achieve that goal.

For fans of Liverpool Football Club it’s pretty obvious that Rafa Benitez subscribes to the latter view of the game. This has its merits. The system can make the best of certain key pieces of the jigsaw, so the spine of the team – Reina, Carragher, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres – when playing in their favoured positions can help see the way Rafa wants to play work effectively. It’s not just a case of neutralising a player in the system, you would have to stop them all from playing.

To make the system work, the accompanying players must also be disciplined in their contribution to the team. This means that certain players who some think may deserve a run in the team don’t get it, because they don’t fit Rafa’s view of the system for the particular game. It also means that certain players may not play either in their favoured position or in their favoured style.

A typical example is Dirk Kuyt who came to the club with a prolific goalscoring record from Holland and was expected to be one of the guys up front knocking them away. As it’s turned out, Rafa has virtually converted the player into a hard working, toiling wide midfielder who comes inside from time to time and can support the attack play when called upon. Dirk has done a tremendous job in applying himself to this task. No one faults his effort and the tireless way he scampers across the park looking to break up opposing attacks and show himself available for the attacking forays of his own team. He is committed and dedicated to his task and as a result, without being as big as Gerrard or Torres, he is also a virtually automatic selection in the team. He fits the system that Rafa’s worked out.

However, as many Liverpool fans may also observe, the optimism that we had at the end of last season has somewhat been deflated like a balloon. Funnily enough it’s because there’s no evidence that we’ve improved on the performance of the latter part of last season and there’s nothing convincing about the way the team and the system operates now. So whereas we lost two games in all of last season, we’ve already doubled that before mid-November and looked nothing like convincing in a number of games. The latest draw with Birmingham virtually throwing away any chance of us winning the Premier League. As pundits often point out, you may not win the League before Christmas, but you can certainly lose it and with the current gap between Liverpool and the league leaders, Chelsea and the unconvincing performances at home and away, there is nothing to suggest that the situation is going to be overturned.

The reasons for this are numerous, including not replacing a vital part of the system – Alonso – and instead playing a rather stultifying system of two anchor midfielders too similar to each other. As well as that we’ve had the injuries to Gerrard and Torres with no ready replacements for them in either position or in alternative system. There is also continued frustration in the sense that certain players are being under-utilised and not played in their best positions. The latter point is understandable if the prevailing system is working, but as it’s patently not the plan B is notable by its absence. In the meantime a number of players of outstanding worth are being somewhat wasted whilst a number of other players are being utilised who with the best intentions in the world are not good enough even for the system, let alone the club.

Thus Liverpool fans suffer another frustrating season of seeing any promise of success drain away to be replaced by the odd resilient performance and the knowing capacity to put a good unbeaten run together only to discover once again it’s too little too late. It is not the fault of the board, as has been used before, neither is it the fault of the players, necessarily with a few exceptions. The responsibility lies at the manager’s door.

Meanwhile it is fascinating to look at the concept of players playing out of position. One who has particularly been highlighted in conversations I’ve had recently is Yossi Benayoun. For West Ham he was a mercurial creative force who would play behind the strikers and gained a reputation for being unpredictable, tricky and a flair player of great ability. His signing for Liverpool was interesting because as well as the excitement of having such a creative player in our midst, there was also a question of where would he play to get the best out of him and allow that to be to the benefit of the team.

As it turned out over the few seasons that he’s been with us he has put in the best effort he could and scored some crucial goals and especially this season has really been a key player in terms of creating things where others around him lack that capacity. In all that, though, it’s been clear that he’s not been playing in his best position. Sometimes this has meant that his contribution has been limited and somewhat frustrated, but like Kuyt he still digs in and does his best. Yet you can’t help but wonder what would happen if he played more often in a place where he could really cause damage to the opposition. So it’s not to say he’s not playing well or playing his part, but it is to say that as long as he’s playing out of position he is not being at his best for the team and the team is somewhat the weaker for it.

Yes, there is the argument of the way the system would have to be rearranged for that to take place, but doesn’t that bring it back to the whole point of a way of team-building? Rather than try and fit players not a system where their best isn’t realised, surely it’s a case of identifying players and flexible systems that allow them to express themselves in a disciplined manner that still brings out their best and bring about the results.

It seems to work for Chelsea where even Joe Cole, who is another you could argue who hasn’t always played in his best position, contributes significantly to a system of play in the Mourinho era, Hiddink season and currently with Ancelotti. You look at the Chelsea team as a whole and it doesn’t look like any of the players are playing out of position, they appear to thrive in the positions they play in and the system promotes their abilities so that they are as prepared to scrap out a result as they are to completely dominate and overpower the opposition. The players fit the system and the system works as the players still play in their favoured position.

What this has to do with anything beyond football analysis and a sense of disillusionment about the team I love will be explored in the next part of this two-parter.

In the meantime, consider the following. What the football picture brings to mind is the question of fitting in a place and system. Which is more important, the individual or the system? Can individualism be allowed to blossom without hindrance and create an effective and developing society? Can a community with a strong sense of overriding purpose truly appreciate and bring out the best in the individual? Especially in the context of being relational beings is there something in recognising who we are not just as an individual but in the larger context of family, community and society as a whole?

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

dmcd