The least defined part of David O’Leary’s insurgent millennium team was the midfield. Olivier Dacourt came from Lens with transformational quality and a bad temper, and his best partner was David Batty. When Batty wasn’t available, though, it’d be Eirik Bakke, whose energy made him a Premier League player sooner than O’Leary expected; or sometimes Lee Bowyer, although often he’d be out on the right wing. That was part of the tricky business. The formation was sort of 4-4-2, with Harry Kewell on the left wing, but he wanted to be a striker, and on the right wing, Bowyer was not a winger. It sort of became 4-3-3 by default, but then you were ending up with Batty or Dacourt on the left touchline. Not ideal.

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