Arsene Wenger’s recent comment that attacking full backs win games highlights the rise and rise of the position. Players like Djalma Santos and Nilton Santos in the Brazil team in the late 1950s and later Roberto Carlos and Cafu set the trend for the multi tasking defender and it is a position that has been built upon greatly. Take the top English teams for example: Man Utd have Rafael and Evra, Man City have Richards and Clichy, Chelsea have Cole and Bosingwa, Arsenal have Santos and Sagna, Tottenham have Walker and Assou-Ekotto and Liverpool have Johnson and Enrique.
How many of those players’ defensive abilities would have warranted them a place in the famous Arsenal back four of the nineties, or Liverpool’s defence in the eighties? Perhaps Evra, Cole and Sagna but the rest have sacrificed defensive solidity for attacking prowess. That is not to say they are not good players, far from it: they are all good players, but the style of their play is indicative of what is now expected from full backs. If Wenger was looking for a defender whose main asset was his defending then he would not have bought Andre Santos; however that does not detract from his usefulness – he has already scored against Chelsea in the league and Olympiakos in the Champions League.
Integral
The rise of full backs has coincided with their role as a tactical necessity for many teams in world football. Take Dani Alves for example. The right back spends more time in the opposition half than he does in his own. Why? Because every time Barcelona line up against a team that isn’t a real threat (so most of the time) the opposition half will play the game with ten men behind the ball. Subsequently the need for extra men to break down the opposition defence for Barcelona requires players like Abidal and Alves to get forward.
Not even Barcelona can break down opposition defences all the time Alves plays a crucial part in making sure that it happens more often than not. The same can be said for Marcelo at Real Madrid, or Maicon at Inter or Phillip Lahm at Bayern Munich. In fact how many young brilliant full backs coming through academies do you hear of these days that do not have the extra weapon of going forward as one of their attributes? It has become a necessity.
When all is said and done EVERY player on the field should be able to get that ball into the net when they are in a good position to do so.
Too sweeping a statementfor me. On any given day, any player, from GK to STR, can get hot and save or win a game. I didn`t appreciate Sammy Nelson,s upfield charges for yonks but with a proper Arsenal defence to cover for him, he was very effective. Whose idea was it for him to become one of the earliest wing-backs?