It seems like Aaron Wan-Bissaka has seemingly been on the cusp of an England place for roughly around 2 years now. Ever since his breakout season at Palace back in the 2018-19 season, there have been calls from some that Wan-Bissaka should be in Gareth Southgates plans. That breakout year, he made as many tackles as any other player in Europe’s top 5 leagues. Only Leicester’s Wilfred Ndidi could match the tally of 109 that Wan Bissaka accumulated. Strangely enough, Wan-Bissaka and Ndidi matched each other's tallys at the top once more the next season too, both amounting 129 tackles each. This season Wan-Bissaka is at the top of the charts once more, alone this time as Ndidi has had his injury issues, managing 66 so far. With or without these stats, I think most will admit that Wan-Bissaka is one of the most defensively solid full backs in Europe, probably more so than those vying for one of the two or three spots to be in Southgate’s Euro 2021 squad. So why is he yet to receive the big call up? Well, the level of competition for the right back/right wing back role is quite possibly unrivalled anywhere else in the World right now.
Probably first in the pecking order is Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold. The 22 year old has been a phenomenon in the last few seasons, providing attacking returns unrivalled by almost any other defender in the league, regardless of nationality. This season he has struggled for form though, unable to keep up the level of assists and crosses he has in the last two seasons. Added to this, Sunday’s game against top 6 rivals Manchester City provided yet another reminder of the defensive shortcomings in his game. For City’s missed penalty in the first half, Sterling skipped past him with the simplest of shoulder drops. An almost carbon copy of this was seen early in the second half in the build up to City’s first goal. When you think of Wan-Bissaka’s now infamous battles with Sterling over the past two seasons and how the right-back has come out on top on every occasion, it really highlights the difference in their defensive capabilities. Saying all this, I think we can all agree that barring injury, Alexander-Arnold’s place in the squad is pretty assured.
So that leaves the rest of the competition to fight it out for one or two places. We start with 5 uncapped youngsters. Max Aarons has almost certainly forsaken his slight chance at a place in the squad by choosing to help Norwich with their promotion push. Tariq Lamptey stands an outside chance of making the squad too, but his lack of fitness leading up to the final friendly's before Southgate names his provisional squad and the fact that he plays for an “unfashionable” club means he’s unlikely to stand a chance.
Kyle Walker-Peters has impressed for Southampton with both his attacking and defensive contributions. The game against Liverpool in particular showed just how much he's improved defensively since he left Tottenham at the beginning of last year. Performing at a similar if not greater level is Aston Villa's Matty Cash. Cash made the jump from the existential crisis club that is Nottingham Forest this summer and has taken to the top tier like a duck to water. He's provided a constant threat on the flanks all season. Hus ability to counter quickly has been particularly impressive and he has that kind of 'Andy Robertson' level of stamina that allows him to get up and down without ever really leaving his centre backs too exposed. Third is a player who did choose to leave Norwich to pursue larger ambitions in Ben Godfrey. Everton signed the English centre back in the summer and he has forced himself into Carlo Ancelotti's plans with his good form and versatility. Due to the blossoming partnership between Michael Keane and Yerry Mina, Godfrey has found himself playing almost exclusively at right back. Although not a natural position, he has adapted to the role well and could provide Southgate with that option of playing either right back or as a right sided centre back, making him an attractive possible inclusion. It feels like with both of these choices though, you would need to see injuries to the other candidates for them to stand a chance.
The player who has probably played himself into the best chance of winning his first cap and sneaking into the side would be James Justin. With Ricardo Pereira's injury, Justin has taken his opportunity with both hands and been one of the stand out players in Leicester's Champions League push. With two goals and an assist to his name so far, Justin consistently popping up in the opposition box has become a more frequent sight this season and it's wonderful to see the freedom and responsibility Brendan Rodgers has allowed his young full back. Being able to play on the right, left, or the centre of defence will provide an invaluable tool for Southgate in what will no doubt be a squad already pushed to it's limits in terms of injuries and fitness in this Covid-hit season. There are not many reasons I can think of to deny Justin a call up for the squad if I'm honest. We'll have to see if he's in the squad for England's upcoming friendlies in March before we can gain much more of an insight into how Southgate views the former Luton lad.
3 further choices remain, and these are three that we have seen Southgate show a liking to. First we have the newest of the bunch, Reece James. Although only included in the last two England squads, James reportedly impressed Southgate greatly in training and he’s now said to be a big fan of the youngster. Quick, powerful and with a good eye for a pass, James has proven to be better defensively than Alexander Arnold and a more effective attacking outlet than Wan-Bissaka leaving him as the natural second choice. However, we’re yet to see how new Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel sees James and how he’ll fit in his plans. If James is used in Tuchel’s favoured rotational basis, with the new boss preferring the experience of Cesar Azpilicueta in the bigger games, then James may be in danger of losing out on his place.
Second, we have Kyle Walker. The experienced right back has been a favourite of Southgate’s since he took charge in 2016. The defender's versatility in being able to play at either right back or right wing back, along with the right sided centre back in a three gives him an edge on all the other capped players. Although he has proven to be a good servant for England, Walker does have his moments where his mind is seemingly focused on planning his next lockdown party. He has always had an incredible recovery pace which has allowed him to make up for certain mistakes. However with Guardiola seemingly preferring Joao Cancelo for the starting right back spot, will Walker’s lack of game time affect his chances? With Southgate having an obvious philosophy of promoting youth, will a 31 year old who is lacking match fitness be the answer for him?
Finally we have Southgate’s favourite, Atletico Madrid right back Kieran Trippier. Despite Alexander Arnold’s form over the last couple of years, he is yet to fully oust Trippier from the starting right back/right full back spot. Since his outstanding displays in the 2018 World Cup, Trippier has been an ever present, despite some patchy form and injuries in his final 6 months at Tottenham in 2019. However Trippier recently received a 10 week suspension for breaching betting rules. In the meantime, Marcos Llorente has been receiving rave reviews for his performances at wing back in Trippier’s absence. This means Trippier is going to face a battle to reclaim his place on his return. If he doesn’t manage to regain his place while being in Spain away from the Manager’s immediate eye, it may leave the door open for others to take his spot. Admittedly, I am probably reaching with this one. Trippier getting a two month break leaving him fresher than the others, his excellent set piece delivery, Simeone obviously loving him, and with Atletico about to capture their first La Liga title in 7 years, Trippier is likely going to find himself a spot in the squad come the summer.
So with all these right backs seemingly on a downward trend for one reason or another, Wan-Bissaka has a better chance than ever of breaking into the squad. He’s one of the few that is a guaranteed starter right now. His number of tackles along with his recovery pace are a good example of his defensive strengths and his excellent performance against Southampton last week shows the attacking part of his game is beginning to improve. This was the first time Wan Bissaka has managed to register a goal and an assist in the same game and he provided a constant problem for Southampton’s left side to cope with. We’ll not go into detail about the fact that it seemed like Wan-Bissaka did his best to miss the target with his goal, we’ll just say this was probably his best performance in a United shirt (A special mention to his performance in the win against Aston Villa earlier in the season and the aforementioned games against Raheem Sterling and Manchester City). Why is it then that Wan-Bissaka is still yet to receive his first England cap? Let’s explore.
Maybe the first reason is Southgate’s favoured three at the back formation. We’re yet to see much at all of Wan-Bissaka playing in the right wing back role. This role is a lot different from that of a traditional right back, in that the full backs are used to provide majority of the width for the team. This means that it takes a certain level of attacking talent to really excel in this position. Alexander-Arnold himself, in my opinion, has so far failed to consistently impress in this wing back role for his country despite being the best attacking talent of them all. He has yet to tactically adapt to the role, instead showing his best performances in Liverpool’s 4-man system. If Alexander-Arnold has issues adapting to this system, can we have much confidence in Wan-Bissaka being able to? We have to remember that before his debut, Wan-Bissaka was a winger in Palace’s youth system. He has done remarkably well to adapt to the right back position as quickly as he has, but his days as a winger have certainly left some tells in his game.
The one defensive area of Wan-Bissaka’s game that is still causing concern for Man United fans and I imagine his National Manager is his defensive positioning. Defensive positioning is often something that improves greatly with experience, though we do of course see exceptions to the rule. Wesley Fofana of Leicester springs to mind in the positive aspect. His positioning for such a young player is that of someone twice his age. Kyle Walker is the negative example unfortunately, still suffering from positional issues over 12 years since his first team debut. We’ve seen a number of examples of Wan-Bissaka being caught out of position this season. Most notably of course was that horror night in Istanbul back in November where Wan-Bissaka was caught out of position for both goals. The blame can admittedly be shared for that extraordinary Demba Ba goal, where every Man United player seemingly forgot that there was another half of the pitch. LOL-e Gunnar Solskjaer. But for the second, Wan-Bissaka was nowhere to be seen as Basaksehir broke down United’s right hand side to hand United their most embarrassing defeat of the season. If this was late in the second half and United were desperate for the win then maybe I could be seen as a little harsh, but you’ve got to remember that both goals were in the first half. There are very few excuses for this level of shoddy positioning. There are times when Wan-Bissaka is caught inexcusably too far up the field and other times when he’s caught too deep and not keeping up with his Captain’s defensive line. This does at least say to me he is trying to work on it, but he has a long way to go yet.
Now we’ll touch on Wan-Bissaka’s attacking abilities. As mentioned previously, Wan-Bissaka was originally a winger while at Palace. It was Roy Hodgson that took the decision to put the youngster at right back. So really you would expect attacking to be the strongest aspect to his game no? Wrong, I'm afraid. Compared to the other 10 (that's right, a full team of right backs) right backs mentioned, Wan-Bissaka is the least talented in an attacking sense, with the exception of Ben Godfrey. He has this very strange tendency of looking afraid of the ball whenever he has it at his feet. Jackie Weaver has more authority and a closer control of the situation than poor Aaron. I don’t mean to go in too hard on the guy, but hearing he was a winger in a Premier League club youth system up until the age of 21 made me wonder how I myself never managed to make it to a professional level. Now I have the looks and the ability of a poor man’s Peter Ramage, but I still would have fancied my chances if that was the level of winger I would be facing. To be positive now, we are seeing some improvements. He was excellent against Southampton and if Edison Cavani had been more clinical against Arsenal, he could have added to his assist tally for the season. But in comparison to the rest, it just isn’t enough at the time being. Time is fast running out for the sort of attacking return that may well catch Southgate’s eye.
The final possible option left for Wan-Bissaka would be that right sided centre half role that Walker has filled for a number of years. Sure it is a position that we haven’t seen Wan-Bissaka in as far as I’m aware, but could he adapt to such a role as quickly as he adapted to the right back berth? I personally think that in time he could fill this role, but with issues in his positioning already, I doubt Southgate would be able to get him tournament ready. With the resurgence of John Stones this season and Harry Maguire turning his season around since his red card against Denmark late last year, I have a feeling that Southgate may feel his defence is strong enough to refer back to the 4 man defence that led England to the semi-finals of the inaugural Nations League. Ultimately, this probably does mean that Wan Bissaka would be in that category of not being quite good enough to break into the national side, which is of course no slight considering the level of competition. But I do fear we could yet see him pledge his international future to DR Congo in the not too distant future.
Before the season began, I was a staunch believer that Wan-Bissaka was probably the 5th or 6th best right back in the country. My opinion on him has certainly changed in a positive way, but not quite enough to convince me that he would be one of the three best options for Southgate’s squad come the summer. Much like the third goal against Everton this past weekend and the thumbnail for this piece, I think we'll see that Wan-Bissaka is going to fall just short once more.
Commenti