Full-backs have been very important to the style of play employed by Manchester City in the last few years, under both Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini. Rotation has been a key factor in the effectiveness of full-backs, keeping them fresh fitness-wise and on their toes as the left-out player becomes acutely aware the alternative is just as good. This tactic worked very well at left-back in the 2013-14 season with Aleksandar Kolarov and Gaël Clichy regularly swapping around in a season that saw two trophies lifted.
Now Pellegrini looks to be trying to replicate that on the right-hand side of defence too, with Bacary Sagna having joined from Arsenal on a free transfer earlier in the summer to challenge fan favourite Pablo Zabaleta for his place. Zabaleta is likely to still retain his starting position but the arrival of Sagna will put more pressure on the lionhearted Argentinian than Micah Richards has in the last few seasons.
Full-back has been an area where City have been somewhat blessed for quality for some time now. Before Richards kept getting injured he was undeniably first-choice – still in the Mancini era – and succeeded in helping City to their first silverware under the new owners, the FA Cup back in 2011. On the other side they have had Clichy and Kolarov for some time now and Wayne Bridge before that (however he never really showed his best in sky blue).
Exhaustion is something that even the supreme fitness and medical techniques in modern football can’t eradicate. In his first couple of seasons in England, David Silva started to look burnt out towards the end of the season purely because of how much football he was playing. Rotation of full-backs goes some way to stem this problem. Recently Pablo Zabaleta has been playing pretty much every competitive game due to the lack of alternatives – with Richards not really up to the standard anymore – yet with Sagna on the scene he doesn’t have to. The same goes for Clichy and Kolarov: before last season Kolarov wasn’t highly-considered amongst most City fans. However after last season it’s safe to say he is, meaning that both left-back options are more than adequate.
Having two full-back options also eliminates the threat of complacency. If there is one stand-out player in any given position in the squad, they are guaranteed to play most/all games even after bad displays, and as a result may start to become sloppy because they don’t have as much of a threat of being dropped. This problem could be seen in Joe Hart when Costel Pantilimon was his only real challenger; signing Willy Caballero means this won’t happen. Zabaleta, Sagna, Kolarov and Clichy are all good enough to play for City and therefore the threat of being dropped is there whilst it might not have been before.
The interchange of full-back options works tactically in City’s favour as well. Keeping one player as a constant makes it easier for opposition managers to predict how City would set up in one given game; however, if they don’t know which full-backs they’ll be facing until an hour or so before, there’s less time in which to prepare a response. That works in City’s favour due to the different threats posed by the attacking full-backs.
City’s squad is shaping up well ahead of the new season. Not only are the full-back areas looking strong, but so is midfield with the additions of Frank Lampard and Fernado from New York City and Porto respectively. This season is a big one as City look to retain their title with José Mourinho’s Chelsea look increasingly menacing and Manchester United in the hands of Louis van Gaal look to recover from their well-publicised 7th place finish last season, and the full-backs (an always under-appreciated role) will play a big part in what colour the ribbons on the trophy are in May.
