“Us old, solid right-backs don’t seem to be the way forward. Football’s going in the other direction. Five or six years ago I changed my game by making a conscious decision to get more involved in attacks. We’ve become more European in our thinking.” - Gary Neville

Some years ago at a stadium in Basel, I and some colleagues wanted to speak to the former Sunderland defender Bernt Haas. We collared our man. “So, Bernt . . .” someone began, and a five-minute interview ensued, our Swiss friend responding to questions about Peter Reid’s management, Michael Gray’s England prospects and his sorrow at Wearside fans having to experience yet another relegation fight. His expression did seem a bit quizzical. “Thanks, Bernt,” we said. “Ah,” grinned our interlocutor, finally understanding. “But I am not Bernt Haas. He is over there.”

Identifying the correct full-back is not as straightforward as it seems. Just ask Rafael Benitez. Every manager has their weakness in the transfer market. Sir Alex Ferguson’s may be goalkeepers, Arsène Wenger’s centre-halves. Benitez, such a defensive expert generally, has inexplicable difficulties finding good men to play on the flanks of his rearguard. On Merseyside money can’t buy you love - or, it seems, a convincing No 2 or No 3. Injuries to Fernando Torres and Robbie Keane make the striking department Benitez’s concern against Chelsea today but over the season the wide defensive areas are where Liverpool’s title credentials will be examined most severely.

Arsenal have the brilliant French flyers Bacary Sagna and Gael Clichy; United have Patrice Evra, Gary Neville, Wes Brown and the prodigious Da Silva twins, Fabio and Rafael. Chelsea have amassed the most expensive and possibly best stable of full-backs in club football history. None from Liverpool’s retinue - Fabio Aurelio, Alvaro Arbeloa, Philipp Degen and Andrea Dossena - would be close to starting for Chelsea, Arsenal or United. Only Arbeloa, perhaps, would even challenge for a place on their benches. Benitez bought Degen and Dossena to change things but first impressions are that Degen is injury-prone and let’s just say Dossena is an Italian left-back with apparently nothing else in common with Paolo Maldini.

Many of us have been in school teams or Sunday teams where the worst players are hidden at full-back, because at those levels it is where the ball goes least. Not in the professional game, not at the top level, not in the modern day. You could argue that Chelsea and Liverpool’s Champions League semi-final last season hinged on a left-back, John Arne Riise, and observe that in the final Brown created United’s goal and the key to Chelsea losing was their folly in deploying Michael Essien as a pseudo-right-back, up against Cristiano Ronaldo. Italy, the eventual winners, reached the 2006 World Cup final thanks to a last-minute goal against Germany from their right-back, Fabio Grosso.

The goal voted the greatest in World Cup history was scored in the 1970 final by another full-back, Carlos Alberto. Alberto’s Brazil did most to reinvent the position. Once it was the only purely defensive outfield berth (the centre-half was a midfielder) but as football evolved, an increasing number of attacking duties were added and the first true greats of the game to play at full-back, Djalma Santos, Nilton Santos and then Alberto, were Brazilians - and adventurers.

At the 1982 World Cup, one of Brazil’s most dashing footballers was a full-back, Junior, and 4-2-2-2 was the standard Brazilian formation, its narrow shape demanding that full-backs attacked and defended the entire length of the flanks. Then came the golden pairing of Cafu and Roberto Carlos. Gary Neville identifies them as the prototypes for young buccaneers, such as the Da Silvas, who bring a “new level of fitness and skill” to the role. “There’s always a case for keeping your back four as a unit, especially in English football, but modern full-backs are becoming more like wide players, with the midfielders there to cover,” Neville said.

Surveying last season’s Champions League, Uefa’s technical study group concluded that in elite football now, “everything comes from the back and in future the technical quality of defenders will become more of an issue”. Paul Parker, who a generation ago performed with distinction at right-back for England and United, says: “I was a defender primarily, when I attacked it was a bonus. If one of the back four came out with the ball it was rare and usually a centre-half - someone like Mark Wright. Now, you see the ball go straight to the full-back. Denis Irwin was ahead of his time and could have played as a modern full-back but I’m not sure I could.”

Carlos, still whirring up and down his wing for Fenerbahce, describes his role perfectly. “It’s mixed. It’s winger and full-back, it’s looking after a 60m area along the left. It’s probably the most exhausting position on the field.” With Ronaldo, he and the equally rampaging Cafu were the pivotal players when Luiz Felipe Scolari became world champion with Brazil in 2002. Scolari made Cafu captain at a time the player was pilloried in the Brazilian press. At Chelsea the manager has already demonstrated his belief in attacking, high-energy full-backs. His biggest signing is one such player, Jose Bosingwa, and Ashley Cole has been freed from the tactical manacles clamped on him by Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant. Benitez sees Dossena and Degen as more attack-minded than Steve Finnan and Riise, whom he jettisoned to sign them, though neither has yet to influenced a game positively in the manner of a Bosingwa. Liverpool can often dominate possession without making high numbers of chances and penetration out wide is an obvious deficiency.

Liverpool’s half-baked full-backs predate their manager. Gerard Houllier spied a bargain in Finnan, while Markus Bab-bel was a thoroughbred, but Houllier also bought Djimi Traore, Gregory Vignal, Christian Ziege and Abel Xavier. Jamie Carragher was forced to spend protracted periods at full-back to cover for deficiencies and has found himself doing likewise for Benitez on occasions. In his autobiography, Carragher describes how both managers deployed players who didn’t have sufficient technical ability to prosper. “Full-back is the one position on the park where you’ve so much time in possession that your passing has to be of a good standard. There’s no hiding place. Numerous players have been used [at Liverpool] who were shown to be dreadful passers. Look at Stephane [Henchoz]. He lasted a game in the position. What about Josemi? He struggled to find a teammate six yards away. Djimi Traore had the same weakness.”

ProZone statistics demonstrate the multi-disciplinary nature of the modern full-back: only central midfielders make more passes, only centre-backs do more heading, only wide midfielders make more sprints. No wonder prices have rocketed. “There was a big thing about me costing £2m,” said Parker, who joined United from Queens Park Rangers in 1991, “yet these days it’s ridiculous. Look at Daniel Alves - over £20m. Bosingwa - £16.2m. At £13.2m, Paulo Ferreira, who can neither attack nor defend, must be one of the game’s most expensive flops.

“Bosingwa, who looks to nick the ball and counter-attack, typifies the modern full-back, though my favourite is Clichy, he’s sounder defensively than both Bosingwa and Evra and has a better temperament than Ashley Cole. Gary Neville has been a fantastic player for United and adapted by getting forward more, particularly after David Beckham left, but when United replace him they won’t need another Gary Neville, they’ll need another type, and Rafael da Silva might be that player.”

Progress can trample things of value underfoot. “Defenders are at a disadvantage in the modern game and defensive skills are being lost,” says Parker. “One thing I notice in the Premier League is that full-backs don’t close down crosses. They don’t want to work their feet to get to an opponent.

They’d say that they don’t want to give away a foul but, for me, that’s an excuse for bad defending.”

In today’s blue corner we have the priest of modern full-backs, in the red a man trying unsuccessfully to convert. If Liverpool are to beat Chelsea, Benitez will have to use his considerable skills to outdo Scolari in other areas. Josemi was his first signing. Carragher writes in his book: “‘He’s like Carra,’ Benitez told Stevie Ger-rard when Josemi arrived. I took a look at him in training. ‘F*** me, how bad does Benitez think I am?’ I asked. Josemi made a decent start and some of our fans were saying they thought he looked the part. ‘Give it time,’ I told them.”

4
Rob Styles is the fourth official for today’s Chelsea v Liverpool game. He was sidelined after his second high-profile mistake of the season, awarding Manchester City a penalty at Newcastle last Monday and sending off Habib Beye