What does Matty James bring to the team?

This was a question posed by (I think) BlackStarr on another thread, but I thought it would be deserving of its own as James isn't a player who invokes a lot of discussion generally.

For me, James's contribution to the side can be summed up in one word: Engine. He gets around the pitch, doesn't shirk tackles and works hard to keep momentum in our play. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have his faults, of course. Technically, he's not as good as two midfielders on the bench in King and Drinkwater. Neither does he usually put in the kind of thundering tackles that Hammond will. But what he brings to the side is something more subtle, and it's something that we saw last year in the Championship too: His energy can get a two-man midfield to be competitive against an opposition three-man midfield.

The King/Drinkwater partnership has come under fire during their time here as being ineffective (despite the win ratio often suggesting otherwise - at least in the Championship). Much of the reason for that is because they can be overpowered and overrun when they're outnumbered. However, when James is one of the midfield duo, that is rarely the case and that reasonable complaint goes away. This season, if we take it that we want to play our best player (Cambiasso), and that we want to play him in a 2-man midfield to give us more forward options, then James is the player who has to partner him, simply because he has the legs required to cover for Cambiasso, to put up a fight to control the centre of the park and to free him up a bit from constant defensive responsibilities.

That's why I think James has to start in this formation. If you want another central midfielder in there as well as part of the formation then that's fine - there's a good argument for starting Hammond alongside them when we play Chelsea, for instance. But despite the fact that he can be ponderous on the ball, often requiring too many touches before making his mind up, and the fact that his shooting is typically woeful, I believe the unceremonious energy that he brings makes him an easy selection for this system.