The concept of an inverted full-back has its roots in 1920s England, but, surprise surprise, it’s the great Pep Guardiola with whom we credit the modern popularisation of the tactic. When he arrived as manager at Bayern Munich, he quickly realised that his wingers Franck Ribéry and Arjen Robben were his most technical players. So he developed a system whereby they could get on the ball as often as possible, one-v-one with opposition full-backs. 

Inverted wingers were the fashion, but he didn’t want the wing pairing of ‘Robbery’ wasted on third-man runs, and so inverted his full-backs instead. That’s why Phillip Lahm is often referred to as the best example of an inverted full-back. More recently, we’ve seen João Cancelo and Oleksandr Zinchenko thrive in the role. 

Why are inverted full-backs so popular, then, and what benefits do they give to teams who use them? The first and most obvious benefit we saw was that it was unpredictable and difficult to track. Wingers didn’t know whether to follow them or to stay in shape.

Inverted full-backs create a midfield box when the pivot shifts across, and the rest of the defence shifts the other way to fill the gap left by the full-back. Also, since goalkeepers have become auxiliary outfielders in build-up, it helps to create that 4+2 base which proves so effective in the first phase. 

A midfield box is the most desirable feature of a set-up in all football at the moment, as it guarantees a central overload and helps teams dominate possession. The No8 and No10 can push higher within the box, knowing there’s still a double-pivot behind them. A team will therefore have players between the lines creating positional superiority higher up, but the opposition still have to deal with a double-pivot as well. 

A common response from teams defending against this is to scrunch horizontally to congest the centre of the pitch, rendering the midfield box redundant. However, the movement of the full-back inwards, tracked by the winger as seen below, can open up a simple pass from the wide-centre-back to the winger, which completely bypasses an opposition’s front-line and midfield. 

This is a massive trade-off for the defending team because the winger might instead decide to remain in position, but doing this will always leave the midfield outnumbered three-v-four. 

When attacking in the final third, having an inverted full-back helps a team to create a 3+2 or 2+3 rest defence. These two similar shapes are extremely helpful for defending against counter-attacks if the ball is lost. The tight structure forces counter-attacks wide, and every player has an area of responsibility to cover. It’s a zonal defensive structure, space-oriented, and it’s only made possible by an inverted full-back or by all of a team’s midfielders staying back during attacks (which, of course, has not been preferable for many teams besides Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp).