Rock ’em, sock ’em fullbacks

I wrote a cautiously optimistic piece for this site prior to the Gillingham game, along the lines that it’s a pretty good time to be a Spurs fan and it would be interesting to see how our squad would be rotated and our manager would approach games against the league’s new cabal of super coaches.

Since then we’ve witnessed the coming of Marcus Edwards, a win away at Middlesbrough, a result to get the Champions League campaign off the ground and then, most recently and gloriously, a 2-0 win against Mensa’s Pep Guardiola. Not bad.

In that piece I speculated that, based on Pochettino’s approach against Guardiola’s Barcelona as manager of Espanyol, maybe we’d just try and do Plan A really well. I probably underegged that a bit – Sunday’s performance was Plan A turbocharged by a Jamie Vardy breakfast of three Red Bulls and an espresso.

[linequote]Both Kyle Walker and Danny Rose’s Spurs career had their highs and lows. More recently, it had tended to be lows[/linequote]

In the build up to the game, much was made of the fact that Pochettino and Guardiola come from similar schools – one a disciple of Bielsa who came to admire Cruyff, the other a disciple of Cruyff who came to admire Bielsa. In its most black and white, one who came through Barcelona’s famous 4-3-3 and the other whose managerial career has been based on flipping that midfield triangle into a 4-2-3-1.

There are, as always, nuances; to date, Sterling and Nolito (and Navas in his absence) have been encouraged to stay wider than our attacking midfielders would dare to, with our fullbacks often providing width. We also looked to be lining up in more of a 4-3-3 at the weekend. All of that said, we’re in a strange new world where our fullbacks somehow manage to cover as much ground as anyone else, provide width and move into the centre to link the play and provide the solidity that was a feature of Guardiola’s fullbacks at Bayern.

[linequote]Sunday’s performance was Plan A turbocharged by a Jamie Vardy breakfast of three Red Bulls and an expresso[/linequote]

Prior to Pochettino’s ascension, both Kyle Walker and Danny Rose’s Spurs career had their highs and lows. More recently, it had tended to be lows. Kyle Walker broke on the scene following a coming of age loan at a stable Aston Villa, which now seems like another lifetime ago, and won Young Player of the Year. Injuries and a loss of direction at the club, including a notable shift in central midfield against Chelsea, stalled that promising start.

Rose’s time at the club was punctuated by two games against Arsenal – a wonder goal on his debut, then a ricket away in the FA Cup under Sherwood. A low in a season of remarkable lows. Despite flashes of something, neither were getting any younger and it wasn’t necessarily a given they’d go on to the heights they’re reaching.

The two now work in tandem perfectly, as they do with the Belgian wall that separates them and whoever plays ahead of them – indeed, Walker to Sissoko and Vertonghen to Rose were our most common passes on Sunday.

Within my lifetime the role of fullbacks has shifted significantly, they’ve changed from the sometimes rotund hardman cloggers of the yearly Premier League years to a key part of any successful side (notable in their absence from any Pulis team). No one wanted to be a fullback at school, now it’s one of the positions where you’ll probably have most of the ball.

Walker and professional miserablist Rose seem the next step in that evolution – a blend of consistency, technical ability, athleticism and intensity. They have a toughness that was probably associated with neither of them in the earlier stages of the career, perhaps shaped by a manager who was pretty nasty on the pitch himself, his philosophy formed across the city from a more gilded rival.

Both are uniquely modern footballers, they might as well have been created in a lab. Both have ‘enjoyed’ far too many groans from their own fans and played in back fours which now read like the darkest of comedies – step forward Messers Naughton, Fryers, Fazio and latter-stage Kaboul – and have overcome.

[linequote]Walker and Rose seem the next step in that evolution – a blend of consistency, technical ability, athleticism and intensity.[/linequote]

This Spurs team have a solidity not routinely associated with the club since the double side, without sacrificing attacking fluency; it’s a blend I’m still not quite sure how to comprehend and one that Walker and Rose are vital too. Understudies Tripper and Davies have shown in games against CSKA and Middlesbrough that they’re ready to step in. Walker and Rose have set the bar high, it’s up to others to reach that level now.