The little centre-back of the future
In a post-Lisandro world, what happens? What small CBs could mean for the future of football —
I’ll preface this piece by saying, I wrote the bulk of this piece at the start of the season so you’ll be transported to September, October 2022 when you do read it.
I talk about the potential implications of a Lisandro Martinez in the Premier League (at a time where is height and heading was the main discussion).
I talk about the macro-micro trends that I thought could become more common place as a result of The Butcher.
Interestingly, a few of those early season thoughts did come to fruition in some form this season. I conclude the piece by reflecting on the original piece (in June 2023) and examples of where this has been seen.
Enjoy.
The butcher jumps, springy and with all of the aggression somebody half a foot shorter than some of the strikers he’ll come up against would jump.
It’s a highly contested topic and pundits, fans and loud voices alike have in unison picked a black or white side of the debate to defend.
Manchester United’s newest centre-back signing, championing a hefty fee, is either a complete liability at his height of 5 foot 9 against the behemoth strikers of the Premier League or he’s a freakish dueller who outcompetes the taller attackers he faces.
Of course the truth, like most things, probably lies somewhere in between.
Lisandro as this newer, unorthodox profile of central defender paves an interesting inroad for the future chapters of the game.
Success informs the trends of the future. If Lisandro doesn’t prevail as a success, sure this stint of central defenders that more closely resemble David Silva than Vincent Kompany might burn to a whimpering end but it’s not something I’d be willing to whole-heartedly bet on.
Erling Haaland plays as the most physically dominant athlete the league has to offer in attack, at least centrally (Adama is miraculously anomalous) but the Norwegian as a younger player, looks more comfortable playing a ball-on-the-ground game than one aerially, that would make use of his giant frame. It speaks to the shifting nature of the game, for the top sides anyways.
The physically and aerially dominant centre-forwards will probably continue to be born through the lower divisions of English football before graduating to the Premier League but for top sides’ academies with star talents that are ushered into the top divisions early, gaining an education that doesn’t place them by the lower rungs of the footballing ladder to begin with…well they probably skip developing into aerial specialist centre-forwards.
Future Mitrovics probably aren’t born in the new Manchester City academy.
Teams across the top leagues have began to move towards a sort of homogeny in their game models. Their 9s are complete, technical, ball-playing and adept in drop deep link-play.
Sure the landscape can change in an instant; it may only require one target man to shine bright and capture the main stage for it to spark a revolution and rebrand such a profile as the hottest commodity in years to come but in attempting to theorise and predict, the current game looks to be creating strikers that threaten Lisandro types a little less.
With increasing conversations around heading, in a decade’s time, heading itself might be a facet of the game retired. The trend (and snobiness) towards a purer, footballer game might lend itself to an outcome that bans heading, alongside the obvious negative medical implications of heading. Perhaps that’s a stretch, but it’s something to consider.
Many of the ideas here are highly conditional — if this happens then that may happen but a successful ten Hag lead Manchester United with the little butcher at the heart of the side, a pure footballing precision passer and lock-picker, inspires a generation. Manchester United are trend setters in the world of football given their status within the sport.
The next generation will play to be the new Lisandro like the current generation’s defenders picked Rio to emulate.
In a game that trends towards emphasising an unrelenting ball-playing ability by every member on the field, the move away from singular physical stopper profile of centre-back towards a greater arsenal of centre-back will be interesting to keep an eye on.
For traditional centre-backs to hold the defensive ability as a clear strength and their ball-playing ability contrarily as a weakness, they have been accommodated for through these transitional years. In that same vein, if the possession abilities of a central defender are wildly impressive, the aerial or raw physical abilities could (should?) be accommodated for.
Leaving your zone is not a thing we typically associate with central defenders in this heavily zonal, positional game of 2022 but an aggressive temperament whilst readily stepping up to engage in duels outside of your defensive line almost freely might suit this smaller centre-back we’re imagining. I take inspiration from Cannavaro’s game circa 2006. Different strengths, accomodate for weaknesses.
Perhaps with a aggressive roaming centre-back, who’d press and snap at a player a la a defensive midfielder (think Kante) you could have your actual imposing defensive midfielder be prepared to into the back line.
Perhaps with the little man centre back afforded freedom to step from his defensive line, he moves to form a double pivot with the traditional #6 and the ‘fullbacks’ move narrow to form a back 3.
Ultimately, you get a small, faster, more agile passing central defender who could very well have excellent dribbling too, making use of all of those traits from the very first post-goalkeeper action. There’s also probably an increased pace that would be useful in transition defence. It’s an uncommon profile that opens up new and unique dynamics and possibilities to an extend we have seen before. As long as theres balance, a focus on maximising strengths and minimising weaknesses, why not?
I am a fan of the new tool, the centre-back that physically more closely resembles a #10 or in function, probably the box to box midfielder. You probably need a physical presence somewhere else to accomodate for such a weapon in your arsenal, but progression of the sport is about novel solutions and this, like many others, I encourage.
I am going through previous drafts I have written given time has finally reopened up for me, to explore football.
In doing so I found this piece above, written in October, early into the season, hence the heavy Lisandro Martinez focus. I must’ve wanted to elaborate on it further because I can’t think of why I didn’t publish it otherwise. It reads fairly complete in retrospect.
I think what’s most interestiing about the piece is how some of the projections/predictions/suggestions for where the sport may trend manifested through the season.
This quote stands out in particular:
‘Perhaps with the little man centre back afforded freedom to step from his defensive line, he moves to form a double pivot with the traditional #6 and the ‘fullbacks’ move narrow to form a back 3.’
Not exactly the small centre back but the highly technical centre back type we’ve described, in practice in the form of John Stones, ended up enacting this role for Guardiola’s City at points through a league remontada founded upon novel ingenuity. This looked like John Stones moving up from right centre-back in a four out of possession into the double pivot (with Rodri) and further — left back Ake and right back Akanji forming an in-possession back three with centre-back Ruben Dias in the meantime.
De Zerbi’s use of his defenders in the build-up, as increasingly evident across the season, speaks to some of the themes postulated in this piece early in the season too.
‘Ultimately, you get a small, faster, more agile passing central defender who could very well have excellent dribbling too, making use of all of those traits from the very first post-goalkeeper action,’ is an excerpt that works well when imagining such a profile in those numerically busy first phase build-ups Brighton implement, founded upon technical, qualitative superiority.
The suggestion of a more roaming, Kante-like player but at centre-back to play aggressively and provide improvement for the team through qualitative defensive quality (defence is often spoken about in terms of collective shape and numbers, and individual qualitative brilliance is often highlighted in attackers’ contributions) is one that I don’t think we’ve seen actualised this season in the way I’ve described? Happy to be told otherwise, I haven’t watched as much football as I would’ve liked this season.
Eitherway, sure it inherently feels risky as a concept to use a centre back in that way but roles over positions is a truth I abide by and for the right player I don’t see why it is something that couldn’t work.
I would love to see it a little more. Perhaps the Butcher is the right player to show off that as a concept next season? Who knows?
Not me!
Umir.