Joao Cancelo is redefining what’s possible from a full-back. The Manchester City star is one of the team’s players of the season so far, and his fresh interpretation of what a full-back can do is proving too much for opponents to handle.
Pep Guardiola is, of course, not averse to manipulating the role of the full-back. At Barcelona he would push Dani Alves and Jordi Albi so high up the field that they were operating more as wingers than nominal defensive players; at Bayern he asked Philipp Lahm and David Alaba to move into defensive midfield to add positional flexibility to the defensive shape; and now at City he is helping Cancelo take the position to new heights.
The 26-year-old is a full-back who doesn’t play as a full-back, but is a very good full-back when he does. Sound confusing? Well, it’s proving just as befuddling for opponents right now too.
The Portuguese international’s ability to play on both the right and left flank gives Guardiola an extremely flexible starting point, allowing him to rotate his other full-backs – Kyle Walker, Oleksandr Zinchenko and occasionally Benjamin Mendy and Nathan Ake.
But that flexibility is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Cancelo’s positional fluidity. Against Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Champions League the extent of Cancelo’s new role was in full display. On the team sheet he lined up on the left of a back-four.
But that starting point is quite literally just Cancelo’s position on paper. The reality of his role is very different.
When City are in possession Cancelo operates as an additional creative presence in central midfield – not a holding player like Lahm was at Bayern, but more advanced and creative than that. And unlike Lahm or Alaba, Guardiola shows no sign of moving him permanently into that role and covering the gap he has left behind with an additional full-back.
Instead, when Cancelo moves forward and infield the City defence adjusts. The defensively minded central midfielder – often Rodri – sits to make sure there’s a shield, and the two centre-backs shunt across, with the other full-back effectively making the shape into a back-three.
It’s a tactical tweak that requires a superb set of footballers, but that is exactly what City have. And in his new role Cancelo has brought a whole new set of creative qualities to the Manchester City midfield, stepping into the gap left behind by the departed David Silva.
Against Gladbach that creative brief saw Cancelo set up both goals, the first with an inswinging cross that Bernardo Silva headed home, and the second coming in similar fashion but a stage earlier as Silva nodded Cancelo’s cross back across goal for Gabriel Jesus to convert.
Those contributions shone a light on Cancelo’s role, but his assist was just his fourth in all competitions this season, and the real impact of his fluid positioning is in freeing up his teammates. With Cancelo effectively operating in midfield it means that Ilkay Gundogan has license to push forward and become more involved in the final third – a freedom that has seen him score 13 goals in 26 games across all competitions this season.
And Cancelo’s presence also allows for greater fluidity in the front-line, allowing the other named central midfielder (which was Bernardo Silva against Mönchengladbach) to act more as an additional forward, creating overloads and offering the opportunity for constant positional rotation.
“He’s playing really well,” Guardiola said after the 2-0 first-leg win. “The quality where he plays there and especially when he drives with the ball and passes the halfway line and can drive to the central defenders, he is a player with a huge quality.”
So far the evolution of Cancelo’s position is seeing City overwhelm their opponents in midfield, and it has been arguably the standout factor in the club’s remarkable 19-game winning run. But it could also be the tactic that better opponents will aim to exploit.
Mönchengladbach’s occasional bright moments came from counter-attacks down that flank, and teams with multiple attacking threats (Bayern Munich spring to mind) will look to target that area and pull the adapted Man City defence further out of shape.
It’s a danger that Guardiola acknowledges, with the City coach telling reporters that “sometimes in that position, you have to control the risk”. And if Cancelo is forced by top-level opposition to actually operate as a full-back then it will have a knock-on effect on City’s overall play. But no team has been able to consistently do that and for now it is very much a risk worth taking for the Premier League and Champions League favourites.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3klaCbF
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