The role and importance of a modern-day fullback is very much changing before our eyes, with quotes such as “no one wants to be a Gary Neville” beginning to lose their meaning.
Top sides and coaches, largely because of Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, are beginning to use their full-backs in a variety of ways both on and off the ball, often becoming wingers, central midfielders or even attacking midfielders (number 10s) on the ball to aid their team.
Tactical flexibility is becoming more important, and with this, the importance of having high-quality and versatile fullbacks is becoming a key factor for elite sides to operate.
Guardiola has led the charge for using his fullbacks in midfield, and he could well be getting another special player this month with the skill set to do this.
Man City looking at their new Cancelo
According to reports from Football Insider, talks have been advancing in recent days between Manchester City and Juventus for their versatile defender, Andrea Cambiaso.
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The feeling is that an agreement for the 24-year-old will be reached either this month or in the summer.
The Italian can play a range of different positions, playing as a right and left fullback, inverting into midfield zones from this position, and even starting as a right-winger on a few occasions this season for Thiago Motta’s Juventus side.
Cambiaso has made 26 appearances for the Italian giants this season, scoring two goals, providing two assists, contributing to 12 clean sheets and totalling 1,859 minutes played.
Cambiaso vs Cancelo comparisons
One player Guardiola has had in his time at Manchester City who played a similar role to Cambiaso, is João Cancelo. The Portugal international signed for City in 2019, joining from Juventus for a fee of around £60m.
Cancelo made 154 appearances for City in his time at the club, scoring nine goals and providing 21 assists. Whether he started at left-back or right-back, the Portugal international offered Guardiola tactical versatility, tweaking his position on the ball in order to set his team up as he liked.
That’s exactly what he could now with Cambiaso, a player who has been compared to Cancelo by Peter Young of Football Italia.
|
Andrea Cambiaso vs João Cancelo (2020/21) comparison |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stats (per 90 mins) |
Cambiaso |
Cancelo |
|
Goals + Assists |
0.19 |
0.24 |
|
Progressive Carries |
3.68 |
2.88 |
|
Progressive Passes |
4.75 |
7.86 |
|
Pass Completion % |
88.8% |
85.7% |
|
Key Passes |
3.04 |
5.79 |
|
Passes into Pen Area |
1.27 |
2.51 |
|
Crosses into Pen Area |
0.39 |
0.37 |
|
Shot-Creating Actions |
3.33 |
3.07 |
|
Tackles + Interceptions |
2.60 |
4.34 |
|
Ball Recoveries |
4.71 |
6.32 |
|
Stats taken from FBref |
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When analysing both players (Cancelo’s 2020/21 season at City) you can see both players ooze class on the ball, offering excellent progressive numbers, being key creators despite being fullbacks for their sides, and still making high numbers of defensive actions per game.
Cambiaso has been described as “uber-press resistant” by Ben Mattinson, due to his ambipedal qualities (two-footed) and small turning radius. This allows him to receive the ball in all zones of the pitch, playing line-splitting passes with both feet, having no angle bias and therefore making it hard for defenders to trap him to one side.
City could finally replace Cancelo with an extreme technician in the form of Cambiaso, who, alongside Rico Lewis, could give Guardiola the wide defensive pairing he wants in order to dominate games and make tactical tweaks at his own leisure.
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