How full-backs evolved from utility men to become key players
By Ryan Wrenn
There are countless examples in the past few seasons of such marauders rising to prominence.
Barcelona’s Jordi Alba is the most natural example, the Spaniard being brought into the club as a way to supplement Alves’ contributions from the opposite flank.
Ricardo Rodriguez at Wolfsburg finds himself the subject of rumor and speculation every transfer window, but as yet the German club seems determined to keep hold of him.
Just this past January, Crystal Palace spent nearly £25 million on a pair of players — Leicester’s Jeffrey Schlupp and Sunderland’s Patrick van Aanholt — who previously occupied left-back roles at their respective clubs. Both will be expected to double down on their attacking bent under Sam Allardyce.
There are two players that better inform the modern, post-Alves definition of full-back however. In the early part of the decade, Serie A experienced something of a tactical renaissance with adventurous full-backs.
Walter Mazzarri — currently at Watford — took charge at Napoli and implemented a return to a long-out-of-fashion 3-4-3 formation. While Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamšík and Edinson Cavani stole headlines, also key to Mazzarri’s success was the less well known Christian Maggio.
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The veteran right-back adapted wonderfully to the more advanced wing-back role demanded by Mazzarri, and in many ways it was his efforts that allowed this Napoli side to tick as well as it did.
Napoli and Maggio’s success bred imitators, as so often happens in football. By far the most successful were Juventus, just recently returned to Serie A. Antonio Conte took what Mazzarri accomplished with Napoli and turned it up to 11.
The Bianconeri owe much to the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Arturo Vidal and Giorgino Chiellini, but one cannot discount the efforts of their own version of Maggio: Stephen Lichtsteiner. Like the Italian, Lichtsteiner was an established and experienced right-back before Conte thrust him further up the pitch. He adapted quickly and, despite approaching 30, energetically embraced his new role as an auxiliary winger.
Both Maggio and Lichtsteiner enjoyed the freedom lent to them by their teams’ implementation of a three-at-the-back formation. The extra centre-back allowed for more robust defending through the middle, but also meant that the wing-backs could count on added support as they tracked back.
In short, Napoli and Juventus’ evolution helped flip the traditional understanding of full-back. Whereas once the position was three-fourths defender and one-fourth attacker, now full-backs were a crucial component of their teams’ efforts in the opposition’s half.
One need look no further than the top of the Premier League table for evidence of this effect in full bloom.
Chelsea — unsurprisingly under the guidance of Conte himself — line up in a 3-4-3 formation with adventurous wing-backs in the form of Marcos Alonso and once-winger Victor Moses.
Though they didn’t begin the season with the same tactics, Mauricio Pochettino is finally building his Tottenham team to the strengths of full-backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker. Since switching to a broad 3-4-2-1 formation in December, Spurs have rocketed up the table and now find themselves second.
Such trends show no signs of abating anytime soon. The organizational principles of Barcelona demanded full-backs, and every other position, become multi-faceted and adaptable. Mazzarri asked the same of Maggio, and Conte of Lichtsteiner, then built tactics to wring the absolute most of out them.
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To paraphrase Jonathan Wilson, the pyramid is slowly finding itself re-inverted thanks in large part to the always-evolving understanding of full-back play.