Full-throttle full backs will rev up City’s attack MARTIN KEOWN
PEP’S SPENT CRAZY MONEY... BUT IT SHOULD BE SPECTACULAR
The best full back I ever played with was Ashley Cole. he was an athlete who played like a frustrated centre forward; his instincts were to get into the other box, try to score goals and add to the attacking drive of the team. Defending came second.
So buying raiding full backs is nothing new. What is new is how much a team is prepared to pay for them. especially a team like Manchester City. It makes me wonder how much Ashley would be worth if he were at his peak now — it really is quite frightening. £60million-plus?
We had elegant speed machines at Arsenal, with Ashley and Lauren. It could leave you feeling vulnerable as a centre back when both of them suddenly charged up the field. I would sometimes ask Lauren to ignore the manager and give it a rest and tuck in for a while, to stop teams exploiting the space behind — and to give me some help!
City don’t seem to care about that. They are building a squad packed with outrageous pace.
New flying full backs, to play with flying wingers — money no object. It really is a delicious prospect — they will come at teams from all angles. I am very excited to see how it works and how rivals try to stop it.
Their full backs will join in up front out wide, taking runners with them, creating space for more advanced players or using the space for themselves. Think of it — the best wide forwards, such as Alexis Sanchez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and City’s own exhilarating wide man Leroy Sane, now come off the line and go inside either with, or without, the ball. They are either dribbling with it or hunting for space without it.
Then a high-speed train comes hurtling up into the space created down the touchline to add further bodies to the attack.
The defending full back doesn’t know whether to follow him or deal with the onslaught. expect plenty of this from City this season. Guardiola will overload in these attacking wide areas.
They have already signed Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo — total cost £133m — to play in the full back positions and it gives them serious wide weapons of mass destruction. And we are led to believe they want to sign one more.
Walker (right) is the best english right back in the Premier League. I like him, but I hope the fee does not suffocate him as it seemed to with centre half John Stones, who cost ‘just’ £47m last summer. Of course the money is crazy and no other club in the Premier League could afford to do what City have done. Guardiola wanted to buy four full backs so he can rotate his selections and maintain a level of intensity from that position. Nobody can claim they are tired. If one right back plays on the Saturday, another may play in the midweek game. There is a theory that playing full back is easy. When Paul Ince joined Manchester United, Alex Ferguson played him at right back to allow him to settle in. When Steven Gerrard made his debut for Liverpool, they kept him out of the pressure cooker of the midfield battle and played him at right back.
But the modern game has changed — it’s not an ‘easy’ role to play at all.
When I went to Brighton early in my career I was a centre back, but they played me at right back. I didn’t enjoy the experience. You can block a shot, but it’s hard to stop a cross when the attacker can cross early and doesn’t even need to beat you. I was happy to be back at centre back, dealing with a cross rather than trying to stop it.
Lee Dixon and Nigel Winterburn, who were also Arsenal team-mates of mine, were very good at defending and attacking. They reinvented themselves as wing- backs, although when one attacked, the other would stay back.
Guardiola’s mentality, however, is not ‘how do we stop the opposition?’, but ‘how do we win the game?’, which is why he sees the full back areas as a chance to add more attacking firepower. Stand by... it could be spectacular!