Systems - the Full Backs

Posted by royhendo on January 24, 2013, 01:12:07 pm

So - on to the next piece of the ever-moving jigsaw. The full backs. Steven Gerrard, on last week's Goals On Sunday, said what we all knew - that we could use another top class full back in our fold. But who fits the bill? What does a top class player look like? This post will prompt that discussion. What does the full back do in our system?

The starting point on this has to be Yorkykopite's "This Season's Defence - An Attack".

A successful back-4 has to be able defend and attack equally well and to switch between the two without pausing, taking a mental breather, or acquiring an alien mind-set. This means everybody. If a single part of the unit is not happy on the ball that simply increases the burden on the others and reduces the potency of the whole.

In the modern game defenders spend a longer time with the ball at their feet than anyone else in the team. It’s a crime if they can’t use that time to cause the opposition problems... 

There are echoes here with our earlier thread about the goalie. The template for a Liverpool full back ought to exclude your average full back from consideration, full stop.

...we’ve had entrepreneurial full-backs. Lawler, Nicol, Neal, the criminally underrated Lindsay and the long-lamented Rob Jones. Rolls-Royce footballers in unglamorous positions, they were key to whatever success the teams they played in enjoyed. What other right-back has turned up in open play in an inside-left position to put a team 1-0 ahead in the European Cup final? For that matter what other left-back has blasted his way into the penalty box to fire his team 1-0 ahead in a European Cup final? The answer to both, of course, is our full-backs, Zico and Barney – players of varying talent, I think, but both holding a similar belief that the team they played for was flexible and ingenious enough to cover for an inspired moment’s walkabout.

So we know, intuitively, what's needed, don't we?

In 2009, Jonathan Wilson argued the case for full back being the most important position on the pitch, and it's a compelling case in the right system... but it depends on that system.

There was a reason Hodgson went for Paul Konchesky. And in the system Hodgson proposed, Paul Konchesky would have, given time, done just fine. Why? Well, he already understood where to stand in relation to where everyone else was supposed to stand in Roy's funnel web defensive setup. The manager's brief was simpler - more old school (despite there being a coaching trend arguing the case for control without the ball).


Attacking Attributes

If a side wants to impose its game, it needs to exploit the available space, and it's here that the full backs gain importance in the current Liverpool system. Wing forwards tucking in, that bowling lane of space is often free for the galloping beast to roam the luxuriant plains in search of big game. The system demanding passing options for everyone on the ball, the full backs will often provide that out during the build up simply by moving forward and backward in that space - team mates able, as the system beds in, to play habitual balls out wide in the knowledge their man will be there to receive (watch some of Swansea's play from last season and you'll see what I mean).

We want dynamism, strength and athleticism, but we also want class and guile. We're not that demanding, are we?

Harking back to PhaseofPlay's "Principles of Play" post, the four attacking principles that jump out in relation to the 'foto-fit' perfect full back in the current Liverpool system seem to be support, penetration, mobility and depth.

In transition, they'll be able to dribble the ball forward into space at speed, hare up in support of breaking team-mates, or switch play accurately to others in space (which ideally means players with enough intelligence to read the game, and the vision, technique and passing range to pick them out accurately and quickly).

When we're dominant, they'll know when to hold a wide position, or to sneak in behind. They'll be able to dribble into tighter spaces, committing defenders like a winger, and make the kind of runs that create openings.

In both cases, ideally they'll be aware of the players around them. The inside forward stays narrow? He'll tend to stay wide. The winger stays wide...

Ability in the air, blinding acceleration from a standing start...


Defensive Attributes

While spending a great deal of their time pushed forward into advanced positions, we also demand defensive awareness from our full backs. In this system, that involves athleticism, stamina, and tactical awareness, but most of all, it demands tenacity and competitiveness.

Harking back again to PhaseofPlay's principles, we need to pressure/delay the opposing side's build up, we need support for defensive cover (to ensure we're not outnumbered), we need the awareness of the opposing side's set up across the width of the park (balance), and we need the tactical awareness to participate in our 'block' when needed (consolidation).

Ability in the air, blinding acceleration from a standing start...

I personally think, we need to ideally demand a step beyond 'pressure/delay' (pressing individually and within groups). We need physically imposing players who dominate their zone. Or potentially their entire flank. That's greedy, I realise. But we're not that far from it, are we? 

[Of course it all depends on whether we're truly looking to impose that kind of pressure game - whether we'll look to press relentlessly from the front - there's debate elsewhere over whether that's in fact the case - something we'll revisit in future in this series.]


The Footballing Janus

Our system being what it is, we also need to take the following from Vulmea into account.

Me dad used to say a a good fullback defends, a great full back can attack and defend. The timing of their inclusion in the attack is similar to the same role in rugby union get it wrong and the whole side is exposed. They certainly need to be as fit as a butchers dog, up and down all game.

As such, there's an intrinsic duality to the ideal player in this role. He has Kelly's imposing physique, along with Enrique's pace. He has Aurelio's quality on the ball, along with Tommy Smith's ferocity. He is, possibly more than any other player in our system, a footballing Janus.

He's Glen Johnson, isn't he?

We have, you might argue, one and a half of these perfect players at the minute. Johnson is there, 100%. On the other side? Well, Johnson's there or thereabouts too, isn't he? But sadly we can't clone him. As a result, we tend to have one and a half of our foto-fit full backs at any given time.


The System's Demands

And 1.5 Glen Johnsons isn't enough, is it? The system relies heavily on the role, as Gnurglan says.

I think there's a case for saying fullback is, if not the most important position, so perhaps the most demanding one.

Gnurgan then introduces the notion of 'wing backs' - something we've talked a lot about since Rodgers came to the club.

There are the Cafu/Alves types, almost playing as wingers. Then there's the opposite, with a player like Babbel who could easily shift to a CB position. Wisdom? So now we have the whole range of types, from CB to winger, playing fullback. And these players still don't tend to be the most appreciated ones...

If we change "fullback" to "wing-back", I think we get a better description of what they need to be able to do.

Of course, it's all arbitrary. We tag players with labels, but the foto-fit player we're after has to have all the qualities we're after, and then some. The term 'wing back' conjures up a Degen in the mind. A Dossena. A player who can get forward, but who's a liability defensively. It's maybe safer to say we need 'modern full backs'. So who should we covet? Well, that depends on the system.

With each passing window, we'll increasingly see the club buy players that fit the system, rather than being forced to do the opposite. So what does the system demand, beyond these raw materials...

Over to you.

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