What the title race’s all-conquering full-backs tell us about modern football

Sometimes a statistic pops up that seems so unusual that it is hard to believe. In the big five European leagues this season - the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga and Ligue 1 - Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo has had the most touches of any player in the attacking third of the pitch.

Of the 2,825 players to play for the 98 best clubs in Europe this year, a defender has had the most touches of the ball in the attacking third.

Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is sixth on the list, with some of the usual suspects such as Kylian Mbappe and Mo Salah sandwiched between the two.

Cancelo, and to a greater extent Alexander-Arnold, are proof of how the role of the full-back has been completely revolutionised in recent years.

When the two Premier League title-challengers face off at the Etihad on Sunday, their two full-backs will be key creative outlets, as demonstrated by their influence on their teams' midweek wins in the Champions League.

Alexander-Arnold’s stats in particular this season border on the ridiculous.

Despite missing four games, the Liverpool right-back ranks in the top five players in Europe’s big five leagues in the following statistical categories: assists, expected assists, key passes, passes into the 18-yard box, progressive passes, shot creating actions and switches of play.

Dani Alves, thought of as arguably one of the greatest attacking right-backs in history, has three campaigns with ten or more assists in his 22-season career.

Alexander-Arnold has three years with double-figures for assists in his four-and-a-bit seasons in the Premier League and the Liverpool man already has more assists than Phillip Lahm managed in his entire career.

How have two full-backs come to be among the most creative and influential players to be found anywhere in world football?

Put simply, the space to be creative is starting to disappear from the middle of the pitch.

The days of number tens picking passes with all the time in the world are all but over.

Ten years ago, Arsenal had the most possession of any team in the 2011-12 Premier League season, with 57.7 per cent. Manchester City have had 68.5 per cent of the ball this year, with Liverpool not far behind on 62.5.

As the big two have ever more of the ball, teams sit deeper against them, reducing the space in central attacking areas for their players to operate.

Ironically, another major factor in the reduction of space in central areas is the pressing style that Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp championed in the early 2010s filtering down to other teams and being used against them.

But like all great coaches they have adapted their game plans, utilising the deeper wide areas more, where it is harder to get an organised press out to.

By asking their wingers to cut inside, the top teams have also opened up the space in wide areas for their defenders to attack.

Now, almost all of their forays forward flow through their full-backs.

Cancelo has attempted the most passes in Europe’s big five leagues this season - 2,584 - with Alexander-Arnold in fifth place.

This reliance on full-backs as the beating heart of teams is not confined to the top two either. Brighton’s Marc Cucurella, Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell and West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell are all in the top 20 for attempted passes in the Premier League this season.

In the full 2018-19 campaign no player was intercepted as much as Alexander-Arnold and Cancelo have been already this year - 89 and 86 times respectively.

These players are not just allowed but are expected to take risks, and with that comes the higher chance of being intercepted.

But with the counter-pressing styles of Manchester City and Liverpool, they expect to get the ball straight back.

At 23 years old, Alexander-Arnold is already fifth in the all-time rank of defenders for Premier League assists, just behind his clubmate Andy Robertson. At his current rate, and if remaining fit, the right-back will surpass Ryan Giggs's all-time Premier League assist record within ten years.

It remains to be seen if Gareth Southgate will pick the Liverpool player as his first choice at this year’s World Cup, but to fail to do so would be to ignore one of the most creative players ever seen in English football.

On Sunday, much will come down to the way in which Manchester City and Liverpool can mitigate the attacking output of their opponents’ full-backs.

Whatever happens, the changes that Klopp and Guardiola’s systems, and Cancelo and Alexander-Arnold themselves have brought about mean the position will never be the same again.

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