There have been several mysterious incidents that have transpired since this season’s inauguration such as Newcastle’s miraculous comeback from 4-nil down to draw 4-4 with Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s first public outburst this week when he stated: “Mourinho can say or do whatever he wants. In this [press] room, Mourinho is the fuc*ing chief, the f*cking boss. I do not have to compete with him in here.”
Although the usually reserved Guardiola’s verbal explosion raised several eyebrows amongst the audience for the Barcelona manager’s pre-Clasico press conference, perhaps the biggest mystery of the season, and one a little closer to home, has been the dearth of right-backs in the Premier League, a trend which perhaps began some two years ago and has evidently not improved since.
The role of the right-back has developed immeasurably since the likes of Gary Neville emerged, and Cafu’s influence encouraged a generation of offensive-minded full-backs, epitomized most recently by Dani Alves and Maicon. Interestingly, the Premier League hasn’t suffered the same paucity in quality left-backs over the same period of time, and in fact several left-sided defenders have flourished over the past two seasons, and a number of English left-backs have been afforded opportunities in Fabio Capello’s England set-up of recent.
Although Ashley Cole has maintained an impressive, almost inhuman, level of consistency over the course of his career, and probably deserves his place in the PFA Team of the Year for 2011, Leighton Baines’ rise to prominence in an erratic Everton side has seen his value soar. The former Wigan defender made his England debut in March last year but wasn’t selected for Capello’s finalized World Cup squad last summer, the Italian opting to promote Steven Warnock instead, but Baines’ contribution this campaign has seen him cement a place amongst the England squad this season.
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Joleon Lescott, Michael Ball, Nicky Shorey, Wayne Bridge and the developing Kieron Gibbs have all featured notably in the national team during a period when the opposite side of England’s defence has suffered. The problem is, Neville retained the right-back berth from 1995 right up to the 2006 World Cup and was rarely challenged for his position except in the case of injury. At that World Cup in Germany, Sven Goran-Eriksson deployed Jamie Carragher, Owen Hargreaves and even considered starting David Beckham at right back. Micah Richards and Wes Brown have appeared intermittently since, and it would seem Glen Johnson has confirmed his place as England’s regular number 2 for now, but they could all justifiably be questioned on their defensive reliability.
What’s more, the situation at most Premier League clubs reflect the deficiencies of the national side. Arsene Wenger bought Bacary Sagna to repace regular liability, Emmanuel Eboue, having played Kolo Toure, a centre-back, at full-back to cover for Eboue’s calamities. Chelsea took a while to correct their right-back dilemma after the failures of Glen Johnson, Juliano Belletti, Paolo Ferreira and the inconsistency of Jose Bosingwa. Avram Grant employed Branislav Ivanovic, who was purchased as a centre-back, at right-back, and the Serbian has kept his place there for the past two seasons, under four different managers. Manchester United have also tried several right-back options since the demise of Neville, and still rotate between Rafael, John O’Shea and Fabio. Despite this, Liverpool have arguably kept the right-back industry in business with the number of opportunities they have granted in the past few seasons. Jan Kromkamp, Josemi, Alvaro Arbeloa, Antonio Barragan, Steve Finnan, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Martin Kelly and John Flanagan have all appeared at right-back to varying degrees of success over the past six years.
On paper, this does seem a little worrying, but it is worth mentioning that a number of worthy right-backs have emerged during this period. Bacary Sagna, who was chosen as the right-back of this season in the PFA Team of the Year, is rightly considered one of the best in Europe, Vedran Corluka has performed with exceptional dependability during his four seasons in England with Manchester City and Tottenham and of course the aforementioned Ivanovic, who was selected in the Team of the Year in 2010. There is no immediately obvious explanation for the absence of world-class English right-backs, but it seems the position has also caused some consternation amongst Premier League managers.
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