The job description has rarely seemed less appropriate. Full-back?
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson fly past the midfielders to complete a front five for Liverpool. Joao Cancelo is the playmaker disguised as a defender for Manchester City.
They are three of the most creative players in the Premier League and they meet on successive weekends as revolutionaries. Alexander-Arnold tops the division’s assist charts, one ahead of Robertson. Either could break the right-back’s record of 13 Premier League assists in a season.
Cancelo has played the most passes in the top flight this season. It is a table that is normally topped by a centre-back or a holding midfielder.
Cancelo the anomaly
He has had the most shots for the leaders this season, with 61. It is 20 more than any other full-back has had. The next, perhaps inevitably, is Alexander-Arnold.
Cancelo has had the 13th most shots in the division and averages more per 95 minutes (2.16) than strikers such as Romelu Lukaku, Raul Jimenez, Danny Ings, Chris Wood and Callum Wilson. If that reflects his fondness for long-range efforts, it is still the case only 18 players have had more shots on target.
Nevertheless, their games revolve more around passing and creating than shooting. They spend much of their time muscling in on the territory of wingers and attacking midfielders.
Cancelo has played the most passes into the penalty area this season, with Alexander-Arnold second and no other full-backs until Robertson, in 14th place. The Englishman leads the way for progressive passes, with the Portuguese second and the Scot fourth.
Alexander-Arnold has made the most crosses, with Cancelo fifth and Robertson sixth: yet again, they are the top three full-backs.
When it comes to touches, Cancelo is first, Alexander-Arnold second. Perhaps more remarkable is that the City player has touched the ball the most in the final third this season, with 1091.
Alexander-Arnold only lost second place to Mohamed Salah because he did not play against Watford on Saturday. Apart from Brighton’s Marc Cucurella (754) and Robertson (732), no other full-back has had more than 524 touches in the final third (by Reece James and, but for injury, he might rival the City and Liverpool players).
A comparison with their peers illustrates how different they are.
Indeed, part of the contrast comes with the fourth full-back likely to play on Sunday: Kyle Walker has eight shots, 27 crosses and an expected assists of 1.31 this season. He is the odd man out, the more defensive full-back in the quartet. In his own way, he is the anti-Cancelo, staying back to give the Portuguese the freedom to advance and pass.
Cancelo’s 2584 attempted passes (completing 2172) is 357 more than Aymeric Laporte. Then comes Alexander-Arnold, on 2163. Apart from Robertson and Cucurella, the next full-back is Aaron Cresswell (1608).
Once again, the gulf is huge. Their dominance of the crossing charts is interrupted by Matty Cash, with 84 to Alexander-Arnold’s 102.
Their pivotal place in their respective managers’ gameplan is shown by the fact that Cancelo is the intended target of most passes, some 251 more than anyone else (Laporte again). Alexander-Arnold receives the second most in the Liverpool side, after Virgil van Dijk.
Team-mates are primed to find them, and in relatively attacking areas. They have had 478 and 485 touches respectively in their defensive third, far behind Marc Guehi’s 1145 and, among their team-mates, Van Dijk’s 1091 and Laporte’s 877.
Cancelo has had the second most, behind just Laporte, in the middle third. While he ranks 42nd for touches in the penalty area, he is first among defenders, followed by Robertson, Cash and Alexander-Arnold.
Alexander-Arnold excelling in end product
They are not just on the ball, but doing plenty with it. Alexander-Arnold leads the league for shot-creating actions, with 128. The next defenders are Cancelo (81) and Robertson (78); they are the only full-backs in the top 32. Alexander-Arnold is third for goal-creating actions. There are three full-backs in the top 27: no prizes for guessing which three.
It is worth pointing out they have relatively low pass completion rates. They risk losing the ball in a bid to fashion openings.
Cancelo has completed 84.1 percent of his passes; 17 City players, 13 of whom have played fairly regularly, have a higher ratio. Alexander-Arnold’s 74.4 percent completion rate is the lowest among the 21 players with most Premier League passes this season and the third lowest at Anfield, with only Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas behind him.
It shows the type of passes he plays – his 360 long passes is the fifth most in the league – and that he aims forward. The two players with the greatest progressive distance in passes this season are Nick Pope and Alexander-Arnold, who have very different ways of moving the ball upfield.
Trent Alexander-Arnold still leads the way for Expected Assists (xA) per 95 in the Premier League this season, ahead of Kevin De Bruyne & Bruno Fernandes: pic.twitter.com/aYgIufeAvZ
— Sporting Life Football & Infogol (@InfogolApp) March 18, 2022
The right-back’s 14,584 yards is 1502 more than any other outfield player. Cancelo is 12th in that chart, behind only goalkeepers, centre-backs and Alexander-Arnold.
Unlike Pope, whose expected assists this season remains at 0.00, Alexander-Arnold has an xA of 10.93, much the highest in the league. Cancelo can be involved earlier in moves, but his expected goals chain (xGChain) of 19.24 is the best among defenders this season. The second best, unsurprisingly, is Alexander-Arnold, with Robertson third.
They are attacking phenomena and so, when they take the field at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, part of their jobs will be to stop some of the opposition’s most dangerous attackers: each other.
