With Lisandro Martinez needing extra recovery time following Argentina’s World Cup win, Erik ten Hag had a dilemma. Harry Maguire was the obvious option, the only other senior fit central defender, but there was a problem: Maguire was right-footed.
Instead, Ten Hag approached Luke Shaw in training and asked if he would play as a central defender in a back four for the first time in his career. Shaw agreed and coped so admirably that he stayed there until Martinez returned a little later than expected, fully recuperated. Maguire and Victor Lindelof sat on the bench.
Left-footed central defenders have always been valuable. Managers preferred to have a defender whose body shape was more comfortable when being attacked by a right-footed winger.
It is not just kicking the ball with your stronger foot that is more comfortable; tackling is too. Roughly one-fifth of all professional footballers are left-footed, so this became a question of supply and demand.
This season, perhaps more than any other, those left-footed centre-backs have become hyper valuable.
Gabriel Magalhaes has been one of the best defenders in the league, the only Arsenal outfield player not to miss a minute – they still bought another left-footer in January (Jakub Kiwior) in case anything went wrong.
Nathan Ake arrived at Manchester City as a supposed backup; no City defender has played more league games this season. Sven Botman’s arrival at Newcastle heralded a rapid improvement in their defensive record – he has arguably been their best player. Ten Hag succeeded with his Shaw experiment, but it’s Martinez who is the star of Manchester United’s defence.
At Fulham, Tim Ream can make a case to win a hypothetical Most Surprising Player award this year. West Ham would surely be higher up the league if summer signing Nayef Aguerd had not been injured all season, while Nottingham Forest fans think the same about Moussa Niakhate.
Others were signed, with a range of outcomes: Marcos Senesi at Bournemouth, Ben Mee at Brentford, Levi Colwill at Brighton, Benoît Badiashile at Chelsea, Max Wöber at Leeds.
To explain this ever-growing obsession, we must subvert the traditional evaluation of a central defender: this is less about being a defensive rock and more about being the first line of attack.
When Mikel Arteta joined Arsenal in December 2019, he knew that he wanted a left footer in his central defence. That season, Arsenal’s five most-used centre-backs were natural right footers: Holding, Sokratis, Luiz, Chambers and Mustafi. In Arteta’s first off-season in summer 2020, Arsenal signed Pablo Mari and Gabriel.
“Mari balances what I want to do from the backline,” Arteta said that summer. “He gives more options, more solutions, he opens up the pitch more.” Mari became Gabriel, but the point remains the same. With teams preferring to pass out from the back, inviting the press before quickly identifying the trigger pass that switches slow possession into fast attack, a left-footer is necessary.
Think of the angle of a pass from a left foot to a left-back: curled away from opposition players in the middle of the pitch, straightening to be aimed directly up the pitch.
From a right foot, the opposite; the recipient is always going to be facing their own goal when they receive it. That’s the difference between a left-back, wing-back or left winger having space to run into or being suffocated by pressure and having to turn back for their next pass.
But it also makes sense in a defensive context. Let’s take Arsenal again, for whom Oleksandr Zinchenko is a left-back on a technicality. Against Fulham on Sunday, Zinchenko was in central midfield as much as he was at left-back and had almost 40 per cent of his touches in the opposition half.
For teams who enjoy most of the ball and territory (read: elite teams), it is not atypical for a four-man defence to become a two when the team is attacking. When possession is turned over, a defensive midfielder often drops deep and allows one of the centre-backs to move out wide to stop the threat on whichever flank is being attacked.
Over the last decade or more we have witnessed the rise of the wide forward. Wingers still exist, but – particularly at elite clubs – there is a demand for those out wide to be goalscorers as much as they are creators.
Marcus Rashford, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are the best examples this season; Mohamed Salah made the role his own. With those goal threats operating out wide and with full-backs attacking more than ever, the left-side central defender must operate as both a centre-back and full-back as required.
Quite often, the threat comes near the touchline and you have to meet that danger. Against Fulham this weekend, Gabriel’s average touch position was wider than Zinchenko’s.
Suddenly a left-footed central defender is every Premier League manager’s must-have. Given the financial might of the division, you can predict the next raft of names in the gossip columns: Josko Gvardiol, Nico Schlotterbeck, Pau Torres, Piero Hincapié, Alessandro Bastoni.
And with demand outstripping supply (at least at the very top of the game), the prices are going to keep on rising. Once you paid a premium for attackers. Gvardiol’s release clause, which becomes active next year, is €110m. Someone might just pay up.
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