The modern day attacking fullbacks – how important are they?
Not long ago football fans and pundits would cry out at the importance of having a box to box midfielder; a player who joins up in attacks and then runs back to fulfill his defensive duties.
Players like http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-Essien-c25294. Even he isn’t required to run up and down all the
time, it’s just that he is a natural and old fashioned midfielder and has bags of energy.
Interestingly, no one, now a day, is talking about such midfielders, as we have more specialized midfielders. The introduction of 5 man midfield has given central midfielders less to worry about. They have their specialized roles. Generally there is a destroyer,
a passer/playmaker, and then an attacking midfielder.
The ideal example of this formation was back in the days of Rafa Benitez at http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alonso-c5254 and Gerrard combo worked as effectively as any other across the continent.
Generally, it was the box to box midfielder covering most ground and running the most miles during a match. However, that has changed now and the question to be asked is that who is the new superman of modern football?
It is easily the modern day full backs. They run up and down the pitch all ninety minutes. At school level a player who does not fit any position is told to play as a full back. However, that will soon change as many pundits are coming to this conclusion
that, fullbacks are probably the most important players in the team, just like box to box midfielders used to be.
At Manchester United the traditional full backs http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Glen-Johnson-c15050 who operate in those wide defensive
positions.
Two full backs that probably set the tone for this change need a mention here. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-Carlos-c31317 and Cafu, the greatest full backs of all times, showed the world, how to work wonders by being an attacking full back.
It is difficult to understand, how this position suddenly became so important. It’s a fact the modern day football has too much technology and science involved. Coaches and managers have loads of data to analyze. They then use it to organize their own teams
in a perfect manner. Each player would know their roles.
This sometimes leads to teams canceling each other out as there is hardly a player in space and it all becomes too stagnant. This resulted in full backs having the most space in front of them. Moreover, this meant that they saw a lot more of the ball and
could move it forwards or pass it or cross it.
Different formations make use of the full backs in different ways. The defending logic is that a team needs three defenders against 2 attackers at all times. Taking Chelsea as an example who plays 4-3-3, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ashley-Cole-c6809 and Bosingwa/Ivanovic romp forward at
every given opportunity. Ashley Cole has actually put in more crosses, than the left winger http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Florent-Malouda-c13838, this season. This stat itself gives an idea of how the wide players move inside to create space for these attacking fullbacks.
All top fullbacks in the modern game have a vigorous attacking mentality; http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrice-Evra-c29231 and Glen Johnson are amongst them.
However, it is natural that these players will neglect their defensive duties every now and then. This is when the two holding/sitting midfielders come into play. They cover the space left behind by their fullbacks. This then becomes their job. For http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786
it is Essien and Mikel who perform the duties of the holding midfielder and for Liverpool, it used to be Alonso and Mascherano.
Fullbacks undoubtedly are becoming a much more important part of any team and the amount of money splashed on them recently suggests that modern day managers realize their importance, as they can eventually turn out to be their most potent attacking weapon.
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