The English Football League is very much a closed environment when it comes to domestic player development. Few players venture to the continent for loan spells, let alone a whole career. Fewer still go on to show any success. Signed by Tottenham in 2014 for 4 million pounds, Eric Dier is a hard-nosed centre-half with all the qualities we associate with the quintessential English player.
Lewis Baker and the Modern English Footballer
Paired with the composure, technical ability, and tactical nuance from his time with Sporting Lisbon, he embodies the modern footballer. A terrific read about that upbringing by Richard Edwards can be found here. Dier is now an integral part of both the Three Lions and Spurs setups, whether anchoring the midfield or as a defender in a three-man defence. With 17 England caps to his name at only 23 years of age, Dier is a signal of the turning tide of English football. But he should not be the signal; that honour falls to the ever-ambidextrous Lewis Baker.
Heir apparent
Golden boot winner at the prestigious Toulon tournament this summer, Baker was the leader-elect of Vitesse Arnhem for the first trophy in the club’s history (ending Europe’s longest trophy drought of 125 years) and a whopping zero Premier League appearances. It seems an odd pick, but the Luton-born, Chelsea-raised midfielder is the right one.
Comfortable, confident and more than competent as a deep-lying playmaker, in a box-to-box role, or in a more advanced role behind the striker, Baker truly offers a multitude of threats. Terrific vision coupled with great longer passing, a tidy short passing game, strength, a good engine, and good height. Most noticeably he can score with both feet, and seemingly from anywhere.
Domestic development
Baker has all the makings of a great player, but it takes so much more than that. By all accounts his head is screwed on as straight as can be for a mercurial talent. His development at Chelsea saw him playing all three roles in midfield, and in different formations.
He dominated youth-level football prior to the formation of the Premier League 2, winning Chelsea’s Goal of the Year for a deft backheel against Arsenal. Since then, he has gone through a variety of different loan spells. So many technical players are sent to the lower leagues to rot, passed by in a game where big strikers battle bigger centre-backs for high balls.
He has done that, and been excellent in a half-season split between Sheffield Wednesday and MK Dons. Dons manager Karl Robinson called him “one of the hardest working players I’ve ever worked with” and said “he’s got the ability and work ethic to make the very best of his abilities”.
“The Continental Way”
Lewis Baker has spent the better part of the last two years in Holland at Vitesse Arnhem, learning football the “continental way”. In an average Vitesse team, Baker has been the shining light in Arnhem this year. 14 goals in 37 appearances from midfield are sensational numbers.
Almost single-handedly dragging his side to the KNVB Cup final, he has quickly become a cult hero. His play has improved tenfold from senior level matches, but the situations he has been exposed to as a professional are arguably as valuable. He has been the key man in a team involved in a European push; been the leader for a host of younger, more inexperienced footballers in Mukhtar Ali, Matt Miazga, and Nathan Ake; he has lived on his own in a new culture, and become more well-rounded as a person as a result.
Capped by a dreadful giveaway to Shane Long, his competitive debut ended 3-0 to Southampton. One of his last cemented him as a hero in Vitesse history.
What’s next?
Destined for a Premier League loan as his next stop, Lewis Baker is on the precipice of being the next big thing in English football. A gifted player, he has all the attributes for success in the modern game; bags of technical ability, physical prowess, an understanding and well-roundedness often lost at the younger levels of the game.
English football is transitioning, you see less and less of the Mark Noble’s (no slight on a terrific servant to West Ham) and Aaron Lennon’s (who should be afforded all the support in the world right now) and more Eric Dier’s.
Lewis Baker very well might be that next big name.
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