Robin van Persie's Footballing Evolution Is Complete With New Position

Often when attacking players are reaching the end of their playing days, they drop back into a midfield role - the likes of Alessandro Del Piero, Wayne Rooney and Dwight Yorke spring to mind.

You can even count Paul Scholes, as prior to being the player who would dictate games and effortlessly spray passes all over the place, he played behind the striker in his younger years.

WATCH: Scholes features in Zidane's star-studded Premier League XI...

In the 2002/03 season, he would play off Ruud van Nistelrooy on a regular basis for Manchester United and netted a career-best 20 goals in all competitions.

It now seems as though we've got another esteemed player to add to the list of attacking players to have switched to a deeper role in their old age.

That's because Robin Van Persie, now in his second spell with boyhood club Feyenoord in what will be likely be his last career move, was deployed as a central midfielder against Heracles on Saturday.

Image: PA

With a front three of Steven Berghuis, Nicolai Jorgensen and Jean-Paul Boetius selected by manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, it meant van Persie dropped into midfield alongside captain Karim El Ahmadi and Tonny Vilhena.

The 34-year old made his name as a predatory and complete No.9, going on to score 144 Premier League goals for Arsenal and Manchester United respectively as well as becoming the all-time top scorer for the Netherlands.

But with how gifted a player he is, you always felt he had the capacity to play in a deeper position with relative ease and he's well on his way to making the transition with ease.

Evidently, his goalscoring instinct is never going to leave him as van Persie scored in his first start back at Feyenoord when he netted the solitary goal in a 1-0 win at the weekend.

His first goal in 14 years for his beloved Feyenoord came just 50 seconds into his second debut and it was a typically wonderful left-footed effort from the edge of the area.

We're well onboard with van Persie's new 'veteran gimmick'...

Topics: Football News, Football, Manchester United, Robin van Persie, Eredivisie, Netherlands, Arsenal, Feyenoord, Holland

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

@https://twitter.com/JoshLawless_