A big part of Erik Ten Hag’s philosophy to play positive football is to have inverted fullbacks in the team so let’s have a look at how United have and can implement this position better in the team.

What is an inverted fullback?

An inverted fullback is a player who moves into midfield to create more options to eventually play the ball to forward players, think of it as two number 8s who are fullbacks.

Johan Cruyff used this in his Barcelona side and Pep has evolved it to suit modern-day football, Erik Ten Hag also plays with inverted fullbacks learning how to get the best out of fullbacks under Guardiola when he was his assistant at Bayern Munich.

Formations- Normally when inverted fullbacks are in use the team will set up in a classic 4-3-3, 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 as this makes it easier when in possession to turn into a 2-3-5 with the inverted fullbacks part of that three in midfield with the defensive midfielder.

The job of an inverted fullback in possession is to pick up positions in the midfield to be able to receive the ball and look for the forward pass in order to outnumber the opposition’s midfielders and create an overload to keep as much time on the ball to progressive up the pitch and make a goalscoring opportunity through the attackers.

Out of possession especially in transition on the counterattacks of the other team the inverted fullbacks can get caught because of how narrow they are in the midfield, which means the use of wingers on the counterattack opposes a problem for the fullbacks. Being narrow in the midfield can sometimes benefit the team especially if the opposing team is trying to play past the press with options in their midfield being limited.

Examples of inverted fullbacks

Under Guardiola- Dani Alves at Barcelona, David Alaba and Philipp Lahm at Bayern, Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker at Manchester City.

Klopp- Trent Alexander Arnold

Arteta- Oleksandr Zinchenko

Ange Postecoglou at Celtic- Josip Juranovic

Ten Hag- Mazraoui at Ajax, Dalot at Manchester United currently

Hansi Flick when at Bayern- Benjamin Pavard

Ajax- Noussair Mazraoui

Mazraoui Under Ten Hag

Before Mazraoui’s move from Ajax to Bayern Munich this summer a lot of people compared him to Liverpool’s Trent Alexander Arnold in the way that he loves to attack and be in attacking areas to get assists and help the team, he likes to take on his man and supply the players who are higher up the pitch than him.

A good reader of the game the Moroccan has a range of tackling but when needed can come up with some vital blocks. The reason why many experts are comparing him to Trent is because in the outstanding Ajax 18/19 season with that special Champions League run he played in defence and in midfield with a lot of people calling for Trent to play in midfield for Liverpool due to his vulnerability in defence.

Very much like United with Dalot and Antony on the right in that Ajax team on the right side with Mazraoui and David Neres, Mazraoui would offer an option in midfield which would create space for a normal pass but an effective pass to the avaible Neres.

Ten Hag has gone on record and said “I believe Mazraoui is better than Sergino Dest.” – Ten Hag

As Mazraoui joined Bayern, Sergino Dest who was linked with United in the summer eventually went out on loan to last years Scudetto winners AC Milan to play under Stefano Pioli from his parent club Barcelona.

United playing inverted fullbacks under Ten Hag

One of the most recent examples of United playing inverted fullbacks was against Spurs in the 2-0 win.

United lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Fred being allowed to be positioned higher up the pitch due to how deep Tottenham sit in their defensive shape. Tottenham were in their 5-3-2 formation with Conte opting to go for three in midfield rather than three upfront which they adapted to in the second half with Lucas Moura.

When United were attacking and had possession of the ball they lined up in the 2-3-5 with Shaw, Casemiro and Dalot in the middle three whilst Bruno and Fred had the movement of going in between the lines.

Spurs tried to create overloads as Sancho and Shaw had the ball on the left with Casemiro always having a free man whether that would be Dalot having space in front and in between of Davies and Ivan Perišić.

As Antony cuts inside when trying to get past Perišić he comes back on himself which forms a three of Dalot backwards and Bruno coming from midfield which creates a passing triangle to move the ball quicker and not allow Spurs to create that overload.