Antonio Conte’s wing-backs, especially the ones who play on the right, have a special place in his heart.
At Juventus there was Stephan Lichtsteiner, whose darts onto Andrea Pirlo through-balls became such a profitable route to goal; at Inter Milan, Conte kissed Achraf Hakimi after the Moroccan produced yet another assist last season; while at Chelsea the transformation of Victor Moses provided a vivid illustration of Conte’s tactical imagination and coaching skills.
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With his new employers Tottenham Hotspur? Well, that’s harder to imagine right now.
For a few weeks, we thought it would be Adama Traore, but after the move for the Wolves player fell through, the two candidates for the moment are Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty. Dejan Kulusevski has been mentioned as another alternative, but it would seem like an uneasy fit given his skill set and left-footedness.
Doherty was given the nod at the weekend against his previous club Wolves, where he had shone under Nuno Espirito Santo playing as a right wing-back.
Since moving to Spurs though, Doherty has not been able to recreate that form — initially as a right-back last season. The switch to a back three under Conte should, in theory, have helped him, but there are question marks over whether the now 30-year-old Irishman has the legs to really excel in the demanding head coach’s system. On Sunday, typical of Doherty’s 18 months at the club, no sooner had he been given a start than Conte switched to four at the back, which suits him much less, as Tottenham tried and failed to claw back a 2-0 deficit.
Royal, meanwhile, is fit enough for the role, but in his first half-season at Spurs has lacked Doherty’s ability to make things happen in the final third.
It’s an extremely challenging and specialised position, partly because not that many teams play with wing-backs — which is one of the reasons why Tottenham ended up empty-handed in their right wing-back search last month. After they failed to get Traore, it was still a position they hoped to strengthen, but nobody fitted the bill.
Nottingham Forest’s Middlesbrough loanee Djed Spence was looked at and is a possible target this summer when Spurs are expected to try again to solve this problem position.
Why then is the role so important to Conte? What is required to make it work? And given the failure to land Traore, coupled with Royal and Doherty’s struggles, is it time to abandon three at the back? Conte said on Sunday when asked by The Athletic about the possibility of doing so that the goals his team conceded against Wolves were not because of tactical issues. Or at least switch to a 3-5-2 to try and find some creativity from midfield and reduce the attacking burden on Doherty and Royal?
As has been well documented, Conte is the master of making three at the back work.
When he introduced the system to such devastating effect at Chelsea in 2016-17, there were many copycat attempts in the Premier League, but no one could make it work as effectively or for as long a period. It often acted more as a kind of shock therapy than a sustainable solution.
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For Conte, though, it is his default setting — and the wing-backs are a huge part of making it work.
There was a feeling at Inter that the difference between Conte’s side becoming Serie A champions last May at the end of his second season was the improvement at wing-back over what he got from the position in his 2019-20 debut year.
Ivan Perisic returned from a loan spell at Bayern Munich to fill the left wing-back slot (an indication of how attacking the role often is for Conte), and on the other flank Inter signed Hakimi from Borussia Dortmund. Hakimi was seen as the final piece of the jigsaw, and proved a revelation.
It was all a big step up from the previous year when a 34-year-old Ashley Young, a diminished Moses, Fiorentina loanee Cristiano Biraghi and another 30-something in Antonio Candreva competed for the two positions.
To make it anywhere in a Conte team, but especially as a wing-back, you have to be able to get through a huge amount of running.
When asked by The Athletic last week about the prerequisites to play there under him, the Italian laughed (perhaps in sympathy at just how challenging it is) midway through his response: “For sure, the wing-backs need to have a lot of running. You need to have resilience during the game because you become a winger when we are attacking and you become a right-back when we are defending. You have to run a lot, you can lose energy, you can lose a bit of quality during the game.”
Sergio Reguilon, who is a more natural fit for the wing-back position over on Tottenham’s left, consulted Hakimi about the demands of the positions when Conte was appointed in November. “He said I will have to work really, really hard, but I will improve a lot,” the Spaniard said after his first match under the new manager.
Reguilon added: “I’m enjoying the position a lot because I can attack more — but I have to run double!”
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The demands of playing as a Conte wing-back may be too much physically for Doherty, who it should be noted was originally sold to Tottenham by Nuno in the summer of 2020 because the then-Wolves boss didn’t think he could move the ball up the flank effectively enough.
It’s also worth considering that playing as a wing-back is even harder and more physically demanding when your club don’t have a central midfield who can dominate a game and give you some respite.
This is one of the issues Spurs are dealing with at the moment, and part of the reason for the clamour to switch to 3-5-2.
In December, Tottenham and Wales defender Ben Davies, who played wing-back for the club in the 2014-19 Mauricio Pochettino era, explained the importance of this in the context of the soon-to-be retired Mousa Dembele.
“Obviously, it’s a lot of running if you play wing-back, but knowing that if ever you were stuck, you could just roll the ball to him (Dembele) and he’d always get you out of trouble was a real blessing to have on your team,” Davies told The Athletic. “There would be times when I’d have maybe two defensive actions the whole game. The rest were up in the opposition half and you could look to him to drive out and get the ball to you.”
Spurs don’t have that luxury at the moment — though it’s hoped January buy Rodrigo Bentancur will provide a bit more security — and it’s often the wing-backs who are expected to lead the press under Conte.
At Inter, he could often be heard during the games played behind closed doors because of COVID-19 restrictions screaming at Hakimi to harry the opposition. There was a game away to Parma last March when he was so pleased that Hakimi had carried out his instructions in second-half stoppage time that he pulled the wing-back close to him and screamed words of encouragement in his face.
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Of Spurs’ contenders for the role, Royal looks better equipped for the running and pressing side of things than Doherty. But then you remember how important being an attacking threat is for a Conte wing-back.
The manager expanded on this when he was asked whether he was disappointed with Royal’s poor crossing display in the New Year’s Day win away to Watford.
“For sure, we need to improve in this aspect, because when you play with this system, with this formation, the wing-backs are very important,” said Conte. “When the ball arrives there, we must be more effective.
“I know very well that this is a role where you expend a lot of energy. You become a striker, a winger, when we are in possession, and then a right-back or a left-back when we are without the ball.”
Having both wing-backs pushed high and playing as wingers is the platonic ideal of a Conte team.
The moment mentioned above where he kissed Hakimi last season came in April after he had sprinted past the Cagliari defence and set up his opposite wing-back Matteo Darmian to score. That move was Conte-ball writ large, and one of 11 assists Hakimi registered in all competitions last season to go with his seven goals.
Hakimi is also blessed with searing pace — tracking data from SkillCorner, a platform Liverpool, AC Milan and other elite clubs consult for physical metrics, showed he was the quickest player in Serie A last season — something Conte was hoping to recreate by signing Traore from Wolves. Moses was also rapid while playing for the Italian at Chelsea, and as The Athletic revealed earlier this month Conte had been interested in signing Traore as an additional right wing-back option while in charge at Stamford Bridge.
Having someone like Hakimi, who started out in football playing as a forward, or Traore who can open up a game with their speed is something Conte, and indeed most Premier League coaches, are after.
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“Sometimes you need that maverick player — someone who can go past someone, take players out of the game,” says one former Premier League manager who has pitted his wits against Conte.
“Everyone in the Premier League is looking for those sort of players, because every team is so well set up and you need someone who can do something to take people out of the game. If they can’t, they’re playing against a shape or pattern that will stay pretty solid. As soon as you take someone out of the game in those situations then, obviously, that brings someone else out and that opens the space out.”
Doherty and Royal are not such players, and it’s interesting hearing from someone who knows what it is like to be in the latter’s position of being asked to play as a wing-back when you are more comfortable as a full-back.
Stephen Warnock, a left-back with, among others, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa and, on two occasions, England, was at various times asked to play further forward as a wing-back. He has some sympathy for Royal.
“What you often get with wing-backs is a full-back who can’t take people on,” he says. “I never liked to take people on in a one-v-one situation.
“What you need when you play that system is pace, because often what you’re doing as a wing-back is you become the highest point on the pitch, and the widest player. Your job essentially is to get ahead of the opposition winger and push them back as far as you can.
“But as a full-back, you’re used to passing the ball to a winger and then making a decoy run — an overlap or underlap. You might get played in, but you’re not under that much pressure to deliver whereas when a wing-back gets the ball he’s under pressure to take someone on all the time, to beat someone and get that half yard.
“It’s completely different. It’s so much more difficult from an attacking perspective.”
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Royal, it should be said, did play as a wing-back at times while on loan at Real Betis from Barcelona last season, during which time he registered a goal and four La Liga assists — more than any other defender in the division.
And at times over the last few weeks, the 23-year-old Brazilian has shown decent attacking instincts.
The own goal he forced against Brighton in the FA Cup, for instance, started with a charging run from deep in his own half.
He kept on going…
…eventually forcing his way to the byline and hitting a cross in that took a huge deflection off Solly March and looped in.
When he came on for Doherty on Sunday, nominally as a right-back but expected to get forward as Spurs chased the game at 2-0 down with less than 10 minutes of normal time remaining, Royal picked out Harry Kane with a cross that was too close to the striker and had been hit with a bit too much pace (image below).
The problem often comes for Royal when he is asked to take someone on, as Warnock describes above.
Our next example, against Southampton last Wednesday, shows Royal in possession up against Mohamed Elyounoussi — a forward rather than a full-back, and someone he should back himself to beat.
Royal receives the ball in a dangerous position…
…moves forward and has plenty of grass in behind to try to run into…
…but instead, he opts to cross with Elyounoussi essentially alongside him and the ball is easily cleared.
In the three matches against Chelsea last month in the league and Carabao Cup semi-finals, this was a recurring theme.
In the next example, Royal does get to the byline, but isn’t far enough away from Chelsea defender Marcos Alonso to find the angle to play a decisive cross.
If you don’t have searing pace to beat a full-back with, the other way to make it as an attacking wing-back in a Conte side is to have the knack for making runs in behind and latching onto through balls.
This was how Lichtsteiner worked his way into Conte’s affections, linking up so effectively with Pirlo that his reliance on the Italian playmaker for assists became a running joke at Juventus. The pair even acted out a (pretty painful) skit whereby Pirlo passed his team-mate various items.
The video does also show the kind of out-to-in run Conte wants his wing-backs to make.
To be fair to Doherty, this is exactly how he made his name at Wolves, and was what he did to good effect after coming on against Leicester City last month — including for Steven Bergwijn’s equaliser (images below).
Doherty’s run causes panic in the Leicester box and the ball drops for Bergwijn to smash it home.
At Wolves, the Irishman was effective at playing one-twos and then running on to the return ball to score…
…as in this example against Manchester City from December 2019…
…where he links up very effectively with striker Raul Jimenez.
It is the same combination in this next example, against Crystal Palace in October 2018.
Then there’s the option of Kulusevski, who has the engine for the role and could be seen as more of a Perisic equivalent, albeit on the other side.
But while Conte said last week that Kulusevski could play as a wing-back, it’s questionable whether the 21-year-old Juventus loanee would have the defensive and tactical nous for the role. Which, and apologies if this is starting to sound like the most daunting job spec ever, is another requirement for Conte.
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In November 2020 for instance, he took Hakimi out of the Inter team for a few games to get him up to speed with his tactical demands. “We’re talking about a young kid who has had only a couple of experiences,” Conte explained. “I repeat, they play a less tactical game in the Bundesliga. They study up on you less. Hakimi is working, he is beginning to understand the differences between playing in Germany (and Italy).”
A few months later, Hakimi described to The Athletic the tactical education he had received from Conte: “He does not give you loads of instructions but he does work a lot on tactical elements. As I was new, he wanted to polish that aspect so that I could adapt as quickly as possible to the team and the style of play he wanted, so we have worked quite a lot on that.”
Hakimi also told Spanish radio station Onda Cero in May that Conte “is a very demanding coach who does a lot of tactical work. He got me working on the defensive side of my game.”
The defensive side of the game is critical for Conte wing-backs — even those who are lapsed wingers. As Moses put it in November 2016 soon after his conversion at Chelsea: “My first option is always to be offensive, but at the same time I’ve got to do my defensive work — which hopefully I’m getting good at.”
“We worked on things like concentration, positioning. Some basic aspects but also the not-so-basic, like when I need to come out of the line, what I need to do in different situations,” Hakimi adds. “Especially when we are playing with a (back) line of five.”
The “not-so-basic” aspects of a Conte wing-back’s life include considerations like your spacings from both the closest central defender infield of you and the winger further up the pitch.
“A really important thing is you have to get distances right — between the centre-back and your winger,” Warnock says. “You have to make sure they’re in close proximity as well, and that the distances between you are all correct or it’s far too easy to play through.
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“When you play in the wing-back position, you often find yourself really deep and caught in between positions — because players don’t know whether they should be the one closing or it should be someone else. What I will say though is that Conte makes it very clear who does what. He understands the system perfectly and he’s able to relay that message to the players so they know exactly what they’re doing on the pitch.”
Warnock also says it makes a big difference as a wing-back if you have a centre-back helping you along.
In this regard, the return of Eric Dier from injury and subsequent replacement of Davinson Sanchez as the right-sided centre-back with Cristian Romero should make a big difference. Sanchez and Royal seemed to only make the other more uncertain during that 3-2 defeat to Southampton last week. Generally, Royal defends well — leaving aside that uncertain display against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side.
Interestingly, Doherty identified staying close to your centre-back as one of the biggest challenges of switching from a wing-back to a full-back shortly after his transfer from Wolves.
“When you play as a wing-back for so long, you pick up a few bad habits. You probably don’t get in as tight to your centre-back as much as you should and it’s about your body position,” he said in September 2020 when asked by The Athletic about the differences between the positions.
Clearly then, the wing-back role is an exceptionally hard one to make work, especially under a coach as demanding as Conte. Though the flipside is that if anyone can make the system work, it’s him.
But three months into his Tottenham project, neither Royal nor Doherty has really looked like nailing it, while Kulusevski has yet to be tried there.
Which leaves Conte with a dilemma — keep persevering with a 3-4-3, tweak to a 3-5-2, or abandon playing with wing-backs altogether.
The latter feels unlikely, and so Spurs’ top-four hopes could hinge on Royal’s ability to step up over the next three months.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
