What do England, Denmark, Italy, the Czech Republic and Slovakia all have in common?
A rudimentary online search suggests not a lot, but at Euro 2020 there’s been a common thread linking them: they’ve all started a right-footed left-back. Jan Boril (Czech Republic), Joakim Maehle (Denmark), Kieran Trippier (England), Leonardo Spinazzola (Italy) and Tomas Hubocan (Slovakia) all started for their national teams on what would be considered as the “wrong” flank. When Denmark shifted to a three-man defence for their game against Belgium, the game featured two right-footed left-wing-backs in Maehle and Thorgan Hazard.
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Trippier is the landmark name in that group, given the attacking quality of the more natural left-backs in the England squad, with Luke Shaw, Ben Chilwell and Bukayo Saka kept on the bench. His surprising starting berth was mainly because he’d only started four games at left-back in his professional career before England faced Croatia at Wembley, with three of those for his national team within the last 12 months.
Looking at the macro trends, right-footed left-backs shouldn’t be that uncommon, and they’re not.
Overall, 74 per cent of players playing in the top five European leagues were more dominant passers with their right foot than their left in 2020-21, so before even looking at positions specifically, there’s always going to be more right-footed left-backs than left-footed right-backs.
Digging deeper, there were 266 starts by right-footed left-backs in 2020-21 in total, which made up roughly 12 per cent of all starts at that position. Left-footed right-backs are a far rarer breed, with only 10 starts in total in 2020-21, making up just 0.5 per cent of all player starts.
So in the grand scheme of things, the appearances of Trippier and Spinazzola aren’t too out of the ordinary. They both played very different roles though for their countries, which warrants further analysis.
Italy might not produce rampaging, overlapping full-backs compared to other elite European nations, but tend to produce the most adaptable, versatile players around. Paolo Maldini was a world-class left-back, despite being right-footed. Gianluca Zambrotta was the same. The likes of Gianluca Pessotto and Moreno Torricelli were more than comfortable when positioned there too.
The latest entry in Italy’s pantheon of right-footed left-backs is Spinazzola. He wasn’t destined to play as a left-back — he was more of an attacker in his younger days, and in the tradition of adaptable Italian defenders says he’s entirely content to be fielded anywhere from centre-back to centre-forward. He enjoyed a brief stint at right-back towards the end of the 2019-20 campaign with Roma but Spinazzola has generally operated at left-back throughout his career, and is now entirely comfortable there.
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That position was arguably the main question for Roberto Mancini coming into this tournament, with Emerson Palmieri — third choice at Chelsea — often used there because of his natural overlapping skills. Spinazzola, though, has proved extremely effective bombing forward down the left.
That’s crucial, because Mancini’s system depends upon forming an effective front five in possession. Ciro Immobile leads the line, with Domenico Berardi staying wide on the right, and opening up a gap for Nicolo Barella to fly into. On the other side, Lorenzo Insigne cuts inside into an inside-left role, opening up space for Spinazzola on the outside.
The graphic below shows all of Spinazzola’s touches in the 3-0 demolition of Switzerland. Note how many he gets in the final third, and how he looks to get on the ball either on the inside of Insigne or by drifting closer to the touchline too.
The latter move has been particularly notable throughout Italy’s two matches so far. Here’s the build-up to their second goal against Turkey, with Spinazzola positioned high on the left flank. Eventually, Berardi’s cross would find its way to him at the far post, and his shot led to Immobile putting in the rebound.
It was the same thing in the 3-0 win over Switzerland. Immobile constantly cut inside from the left, always with Spinazzola as the fifth attacker on the outside.
And Spinazzola was more than simply a decoy runner on Wednesday night against Switzerland. In fact, despite him constantly hitting the byline in his opening match, Switzerland seemed to think he was completely uncomfortable going down the line, and often showed him onto that left foot. Here, Nico Elvedi approaches him in a way that opens up space down the line, Spinazzola exploits it, and sends a cross into the box which Immobile heads over.
Spinazzola’s usual opponent was right-back Kevin Mbabu, who endured a hugely difficult 58 minutes before being substituted, and did exactly the same thing for another early Spinazzola cross.
Spinazzola’s ability to move inside onto his right foot, though, means he often makes unusual runs. Here, when he plays the ball up the line to Insigne, he makes an underlapping run into the channel, and as their combination play continues up the flank, his next pass to the forward is from inside to out.
Even more unusual, though, was this run in behind Roman Freuler and Granit Xhaka, who are busy pressing Jorginho and Manuel Locatelli, and leaving space between the lines. You might expect Immobile to be dropping into that space, but instead it’s Spinazzola who roars forward from left-back to briefly become Italy’s trequartista. On this occasion, the pass doesn’t come, Spinazzola ends up on the right flank, and Insigne has to sprint back to follow Mbabu and cover the right-back zone.
That was an unusual run, but then Spinazzola is playing an unusual role — asked to be Italy’s fifth attacker, as a permanent overlapper, despite being predominantly right-footed.
Spinazzola will never be regarded as anything like as accomplished as Maldini, Italy’s ultimate right-footed left-back. But Maldini never won anything at international level and, by this time next month, Spinazzola might have made it 1-0.
Trippier’s role compared to Spinazzola’s is far more reserved. He got up the pitch far less than the Italian, and the touches he did have around the box came from situations originating with a throw-in that he took, instead of from supporting runs in open play. With 84 touches in total, Trippier was extremely important to England executing their game plan on the day.
Being stationed deeper, Trippier’s role was more as a ball progressor from deep, with his right foot opening up some passing angles that would be unavailable to the left feet of Shaw and Chilwell.
Here’s the first example, which followed a simple pass down the line to Sterling from Trippier, with the left-back picking up the ball again a few seconds later. Sterling comes infield off the wing, creating a passing lane for Trippier to fire the ball into his feet.
Sterling then lays the ball off to Mason Mount, whose run is too late for the first-time pass, but the intention is clear about how England can use this left-sided trio to progress the ball, a group of actions that wouldn’t be possible without a player comfortable with their right foot at left-back.
There’s a similar example in the second half, with Trippier positioned in Croatia’s half this time. His body position is pointed infield because of his right-footedness, creating a passing lane directly into Harry Kane, which Trippier takes.
Kane receives under pressure, but is able to turn away and continue the attack deep into Croatia’s half.
Trippier’s right foot is also useful for longer balls in behind Croatia’s defence, with him first looking to do so in the eighth minute.
With Sterling occupying left-back Sime Vrsaljko, there’s space in behind for Mount to run into, dragging Domagoj Vida out wide. Twenty seconds after this pass, the move ends in a Sterling shot inside the box.
The advantage of a right-footed ball down the line here is that it will curve more towards the touchline, away from Vida, giving Mount a higher chance of bringing it down and retaining possession in the final third. With a left-footer, it’s curving more infield, giving the defender the advantage to either clear the ball or nod it back to the goalkeeper.
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That same run is one Mount looked to replicate in the 21st minute. Sterling again is keeping Vrsaljko busy, and Trippier’s body shape is set for him to play the ball in behind. Again, as a right-footer, he can aim for the corner and exploit the massive space left in behind. In this instance though, Trippier is too slow to clock Mount’s run, passing backwards to recycle the ball instead.
There were a couple of long throw-ins against Croatia from Trippier which helped instantly get the ball forwards, but there was a less exciting example which showed why a right-footer on the left can even help retain possession from these restarts too.
It’s a fairly standard throw-in with Trippier throwing the ball to Mount (1) with the ball coming straight back with Mount’s first touch (2).
With Trippier controlling the ball with his right foot, he has an open body position giving him plenty of passing angles upfield. This wouldn’t always be the result with a left-footer, as their first touch forces them to face infield or backwards. For Trippier though, he’s able to look to chip the ball infield to Sterling — who is again being closely marked by Vrsaljko.
There are some downsides to Trippier playing this sort of role though. For a start, the more simple passes down the line that a left-footer would complete with ease come with an added complication when made by a right-footer.
Take this example early in the second half against Croatia, a simple ball down the line from Trippier curves towards the touchline, whereas for a left-footer it’s curving inwards allowing the wider player to receive with their body open to the pitch.
With Trippier’s pass though, if it’s overhit, then Sterling needs to move backwards to receive it, and will do so with a body shape that’s not facing forwards, making the next movement or pass forwards difficult, and makes this a situation that could invite a press from the opposition. In this instance, the England winger struggles, and his team concede a cheap throw-in.
Turning the focus to Scotland, having a full-back that can’t overlap high up makes less sense given how Steve Clarke’s side favours attacking down the left instead of the right: Andy Robertson created six chances against the Czech Republic, Stephen O’Donnell on the right created just one.
For this game, a more capable defender on the right who can also get forward and attack paired alongside an attack-minded left-back would be the most sensible choice for Southgate.
With some exceptions — Southgate’s use of Trippier, for example — the use of right-footed left-backs is generally not a deliberate decision by the managers. Indeed, there’s something of an unequal distribution of top-quality left-backs at the moment.
England and, more surprisingly, Scotland have two top-class options apiece. France have so many left-backs that Ferland Mendy and Theo Hernandez don’t even get into their squad, while a couple of versatile performers often used at left-back for their clubs, Oleksandr Zinchenko and David Alaba, are needed elsewhere for Ukraine and Austria respectively. Obviously, other left-backs are excelling for top European clubs — Alphonso Davies and Alex Sandro aren’t European, and therefore aren’t at this competition.
Managers have put a square peg in a round hole. But that’s what international football is all about — coping with the limitations of your squad, which often produces a tactical trend you wouldn’t necessarily witness at club level.
(Top photos: Getty Images)