Fulham's incredible season continued over the festive period, with a stunning 2-1 win over Chelsea. But in amongst the praise directed at Marco Silva, one player in the squad is quietly marking themselves out as top-level talent. Adam Clery runs the rule over Antonee Robinson, and explains why he might well be the best left-back in the Premier League.
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00:00Right, hello everybody. Merry Christmas. My name is Adam Cleary and I am really, really
00:09not well. But nonetheless, I'm here to talk to you today because the only thing sicker
00:15than me is Fulham's Anthony Robinson. And that's obviously sick in the sense of like
00:22the American term for being really good, not that he's like under the weather. I've got
00:27no idea if he is or not. He's the best left back in the league is the point I'm trying
00:33to make. This is not the non-drowsy version. Right, I'm just going to pull myself together.
00:40So Fulham have been loads of fun in the Premier League this year. They lost João Paulinho
00:44in the summer transfer window and people wondered, would this be a massive problem for them?
00:48But they are now one of the most well-organised and also fun to watch attack leagues in the
00:53team, teams in the league. Now, just before we start, two very, very quick things. First
00:57of all, this video is dedicated to our editor, James Andrew, who has been asking us for two
01:02years, can you please do a Fulham video? And I've always gone, no, nothing interesting
01:07to talk about there. And there, there you go. There is something interesting now. So
01:11that's that's for him. He hasn't died. It's not like in loving memory or anything. Just
01:16he's been asking. And secondly, if you've already spotted the thing in the description,
01:19you've already sussed this, but it's our third HelloFresh sponsorship video. They've
01:23come back again because you guys are really good to them and they like the stuff we made.
01:27So there will be an advert for HelloFresh later in the video. And as ever, my promises
01:31to you, we don't endorse things that we don't actually like ourselves. We won't do it unless
01:36it's earnest. And two, we've turned off most of the other adverts. So you're not going
01:39to be bombarded from all sides with product placements and stuff like that. And also I
01:44try my best to make them entertaining to watch. So whatever happens, there's something funny
01:48coming for you in a couple of minutes. Now, it might seem weird to start a video about
01:52a left back talking about a defensive midfielder, but Gio Paolini's departure is actually what's
01:56brought Anthony Robertson to the force. And I'll try and explain very neatly for you.
02:01So last season with Paolini, spurs like this 4-3-3 shape, you've got one of the best ball
02:07winners in all of European football right there. You can sort of take the weight of
02:11responsibility off a lot of other players and let them play. And as a coach, Marco Silva
02:16loves the concept of attacking rotations more than I am going to love all the long,
02:21long lie-ins I have over the next week. Basically, with the relative safety of an excellent sort
02:26of single pivot, what he wants his five attacking players to do is to basically get into these
02:32triangles in the attacking end of the pitch and then rotate around through there. It helps
02:37you create space. It helps you get into space, helps you evade markers. It helps you create
02:41chances. Now, obviously, it's not that Anthony Robertson simply didn't exist last season.
02:45He did and he was still very good then. So they're quite happy for the fullbacks to push
02:48up and also get involved in these rotations as well. But that's kind of like a secondary
02:53option. They can provide an overlap when the opportunity is there, but they're not like
02:57the core thing making this attacking shape work. And they gave him a season that statistically
03:03looked like this. You can see he's one of the better attacking fullbacks in the league.
03:07He gets passes into the box. He gets crosses into the box. But he also clearly carries
03:11the ball really well. Look at these numbers. They're up there with some of the best players
03:15in the league. But this season, all of this has changed. So has he. So because João Paolini
03:20decided he would rather go and sit on Vincent Kompany's bench, that might be an unfair comment.
03:24I can't remember if he started getting games. He certainly wasn't at the start of the season.
03:28Fulham have now lost their sort of midfield anchor point, the thing that kept this whole
03:33attacking unit safe. So what he's gradually been forced to do instead is go to a double
03:39pivot of Lukic and Sander Berge. Berg? Berge? Berg? That's another one I can never get right.
03:44Sander Berge or Sander Berger. You know who I mean. Now, that's fine. That's perfectly
03:48functional. The pair of them have been a really solid sort of double pivot now for Fulham,
03:52as you've seen in the Arsenal game and the Liverpool game. Teams don't just open them
03:55up for fun, but it does now leave them with a 4-2-3-1. So they're missing one of these
04:01attacking players. They've got four now instead of five. And the primary solution that Marco
04:05Silva has had to this has been Anthony Robinson. Primarily, we see somebody on the left-hand
04:11side, quite often Alex Iwobi, who is very happy to float into the middle. And you've
04:15got someone like Emile Smith-Rowe or Pereira there. They go the opposite side of the centre
04:19forward, and that leaves all this room for Anthony Robinson to get into this part of
04:24the pitch. So now their attacking five has him in it. Now, as a result, on a purely statistical
04:30basis, if you compare all his numbers from last season to this season, they are up in
04:34an attacking sense completely across the board. Now, there's one or two here where
04:38the percentile number is lower. That can trick your brain into thinking so. If you look at
04:42the actual number of things per 90 minutes, they're all up. Like passes into the final
04:47third. That's kind of an example. The percentage points have dropped because other players
04:50are doing this a lot more. But his actual number per 90 minutes, as you can see, is
04:55going up. But the thing is, these are the underlying numbers, right? None of them are
04:59probably going to jump out at you as being this enormous, dramatic leap forward. So why
05:04then has he gone from being a solid assists provider down that side to the leading defender
05:10for assists in the Premier League this season? Literally, his output here has doubled, more
05:16than doubled. And that is because, if you're a Fulham fan, this is not a revelation. You've
05:19seen this absolutely loads. His number of carries into the penalty area has, is that
05:26trebled? More than trebled? He does that all the time now, where he was getting sort of
05:31a run into the box maybe once every three or four games last season. You will have seen
05:35that virtually every single attacking contribution he has made this season hasn't come from deep
05:39crosses in this area or doing little one-twos into the box here. It's come specifically
05:44from this area of the pitch, which fullbacks almost never consistently get into. Now, it
05:50would be dead easy to use some examples from the Liverpool game as just sort of what he
05:53offers down that side. And don't you worry, we will be doing that. I simply adore a low
05:59hanging fruit. But even in the Brighton game, where he got a completely different type of
06:02assist to this, he has to give it to Alex Robbie and he jinxed between a couple of people,
06:05he could have still had that exact same, gets on the overlap, gets into this area, puts
06:11a cross in, collie, gets a tap-in assist, three or four times over. And it might sound
06:15like quite a small thing, like overlapping fullback gets into this area like big whoop,
06:19but I'll just show you a comparison. Right, this is Bournemouth's left back. Kerkess has
06:23had a great season for Bournemouth and they don't play massively differently. Obviously,
06:27a little bit more front foot and like to press from the front a bit more than Fulham,
06:30but the style's not like radically different. And he gets up into these areas and he does
06:34get on the overlap, but just look how rare it is to get into this area by the touchline,
06:39how sort of like he's only got two or three little contributions into the box. Lukas Dinier
06:43as well at Aston Villa, like just like Kerkess, he's had a similar number of starts, similar
06:47number of minutes and a similar sort of ish system to what Fulham are playing. And he
06:52virtually never gets into this area, almost never gets into the box for little cutbacks
06:58and things like that. But this is Anthony Robinson this season. He's got almost as many
07:03ball touches and stuff in this half of the pitch as he does in his own defensive half.
07:07But just look at sort of how deep red those drives into these areas for cutbacks are. It's amazing.
07:14Now, yes, granted, OK, Liverpool did play the majority of the game against Fulham
07:18with only 10 men. That is a disadvantage. I will acknowledge that. But they did not remove
07:24a player from that side of the pitch. They sort of like made the centre a little bit more sparse.
07:29So Robinson had the same job and the same responsibilities and the same challenges in
07:32that game than he would have had even if they had 11 men. And this is his total pass map
07:38from that match. He got into this area like the most opportune place for a fullback to
07:44create chances just time and time and time and time again. And he got two assists just from that
07:51exact same thing. And the Liverpool game really is a good example to illustrate, because it's
07:55not just like you can tell a fullback to get into that area. There's a reason you don't see it very
08:00often. You have to unlock it with a level of athleticism that most players do not possess.
08:06The first goal, case in point, Mo Salah, I'm sure will agree he's not the most defensively
08:10minded, but he's certainly no slouch. When the ball is turned over by Fulham, Robinson and Salah
08:15are right next to each other. And it's not me saying, oh, he doesn't track him. But look at the
08:20gap, the gap that Robinson manages to create to Mo Salah in the space of two seconds. Like before
08:28that ball has even reached Alex Iwobi, it's not even worth Mo Salah trying to track back. Liverpool
08:33just have to reorganise defensively. Except again, this is another major strength of Robinson's pace
08:38and his desire to get into those areas. He doesn't leave them time enough to do that. We're
08:42literally talking three or four seconds here. Robinson's running has managed to turn this
08:46situation from Liverpool having possession down the left to Fulham now having a 2v1 on their own
08:53left in the final third. And Trent Alexander-Arnold actually does the right thing here. He realises
08:58there's going to be an overlap so he doesn't get suckered in to try and challenge Iwobi. He allows
09:03a teammate to come over from the centre to do that and he starts to back away to make sure the
09:08space in behind isn't available for Robinson to run into. But there's simply nothing he can do
09:13about that because Robinson is too quick into that area and the system Fulham have, they know to find
09:19him. Iwobi doesn't dally on the ball, he doesn't hesitate. He gets straight into that space because
09:23he knows where he's going. And then from there, and this is something I think does kind of get a
09:28little bit lost in there, isn't he such an impressive runner and athlete comments, the
09:33delivery of this ball at pace is top, top tier. So huge news, I've just got my first job in actual
09:47football management. Now yeah, haters will say that it doesn't count because it's just me playing
09:52as Newcastle on FC 25 career mode, but answer me this, if it isn't real, then why am I crying
09:58actual tears when I can't give Isaac Hayden the game time he's after? And he sends me stuff like
10:05this. Heartbreaking. Anyway, while digital me eats exclusively at high end boujee restaurants
10:11when he's finally selling the dream to Mark Gay, actual me is so engrossed in it all that he
10:16occasionally forgets to get any food in. You know what that whole like Christmas to New Year time
10:22off gap is like but thanks as ever to our great pals at HelloFresh I need not suffer. HelloFresh
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10:44I am not doing anything this week New Year vibe. As a total aside, they're also the reason I asked
10:50my mom for a new Teflon pan for Christmas because my current one absolutely ruined this superb sea
10:56bass and tarragon potatoes I was making for this video. Like honestly I can't even show you what
11:02it's done to the fish here, I'm too ashamed, but rest assured it still tasted class and look
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11:35the face right now to get this frankly absurdly generous offer. But yes anyway if you'll excuse me
11:40now I'm about to hit some fat rails with digital angpastacoglu so toodles!
11:48There is enough curl on it that Alison believes mistakenly that he can potentially come out and
11:53get that which completely destabilizes his position, takes him off his line, forces it to fly
11:58over his head, but there's also enough pace and just directness on the delivery that it lands
12:03on Pereira's foot. Now it's an absolute fantastic finish like do not get me wrong but the delivery
12:08on that takes not only every single defender out of the equation but forces the goalkeeper into
12:13the wrong position. Like yes he flies through the air and he gets it with his foot and that's
12:17amazing, really amazing actually, but without that cross being that good the chance to score isn't
12:24there. We'll get to the second goal in a second but there was another chance Fulham had which is
12:27like not just sort of a good Robinson cross, although it is a good Robinson cross, but shows
12:32his defensive qualities as well because this situation develops from him reading the game,
12:38intercepting the pass into Mo Salah and he's very good at that. So obviously after he wins it back
12:43he exchanges passes with Awobi and again such is his drive and his quickness that it's not a case
12:48of Alexander-Arnold and Salah not tracking him, he just takes them out of the picture entirely
12:53with how much distance he puts between them. And from his crossing position I don't think anybody
12:57would blame him if you try to do the exact same delivery again, like get it high, get it curling,
13:02see if you can draw Alisson away from the goal line and then give him something at the back post
13:06because he's got that little bit of space on Virgil van Dijk. But he's not a one-trick pony,
13:10he's not just run fast, kick it hard, he gets his head up, he assesses the options and he plays a
13:17pass that just absolutely flummoxes Liverpool. Like from here if you told Arnaud Slot he's going
13:22to try and give this to Pereira you'd probably be absolutely delighted because Jones is in close
13:27attendance, there's not really any sort of threat there, it's actually moving the ball backwards,
13:31but it is just perfecto. The timing of it is perfect, so he's just got the right amount of
13:36distance away from Curtis Jones to receive it cleanly and then again a little bit of improvisation
13:40lets it run through his legs and that should probably be 2-0 Fulham. Then from there the
13:45game's absolutely insane, it's totally frenetic, Liverpool get even more stretched as it goes on,
13:50he keeps finding himself in positions like this. But he gets it in this position and what does his
13:55brain tell him to do? It's not sort of like come back in field, assess for some options,
13:59get straight to the byline, something like that, he drives directly into the box. Which,
14:04and I hope it was clear for the fact I showed you the Villa or the Bournemouth ones, is not
14:07something full backs really look to do, like they don't like being in that position, it's scary to
14:13them. Yet there he is, every single chance he gets he runs directly into the box and I'll bring up
14:19the stat again, that gives him like the most direct carries into the box of any defender in the league.
14:25Well, almost anyway, you're not blind, you can see that says 95 and not 99. I had a look at those
14:30numbers, Keane Lewis-Potter who plays as a very attacking, very attacking left wing back for
14:36Brentford is top and everybody else isn't really a defender, they're just listed as one and they're
14:41played somewhere else, so for me it's him. And actually I was going to show you the second goal
14:45in the Liverpool game but you could probably do this part of the video now if you want. Fulham
14:50turned the ball over, here is the proximity between Anthony Robinson and Mo Salah and Trent
14:55Alexander-Arnold, he gives it to Alex Iwobi and what do you think he does? What do you think he
15:00runs to? Now the Premier League have said they will take one of my fingers if I show match footage,
15:06you just have to trust me on this, this is not Trent Alexander-Arnold not tracking back, he is at
15:12full sprint trying to go with him here and he just can't. Salah's already gone, forget Salah,
15:18as soon as he turned the afterburners on that's him out of the picture entirely but he flies past
15:22Trent Alexander-Arnold, not a slow player by the way, like he isn't even there. But this time it's
15:28slightly different because Alex Iwobi has all the width on the left hand side, he's in the position
15:32where Robinson is normally told to be. Now this could be quite confusing, this could be a little
15:36bit of a mix-up, he might try and stay a little deeper, effectively play the Iwobi role in this
15:41situation, see if it can give him a one-two to get to the byline and get into this position,
15:46but he doesn't do that, he just keeps running, he wants to be in that box, regardless of whether
15:53or not he's got to drive from the outside of the touchline in or whether he can get there direct.
15:57Iwobi finds him and then he shrugs off Gerald Kwanzaa, not a small man by any stretch of the
16:03imagination and that's how Fulham get their second goal. But alright, okay, we've seen this kind of
16:07thing before, like player plays for quote-unquote smaller team in the Premier League, they've got
16:12one thing they're really good at, in this case running dead fast and having nice crosses,
16:17is that all there is to him? Well, no. If you go back to that earlier chance in the Liverpool game,
16:23the one from which they did not score, I said it started with Robinson correctly intercepting
16:28the ball as it goes into Mo Salah, and just to explain this as easily as I possibly can, right,
16:34through both his big brain and his quick, quick legs, Anthony Robinson is probably one of the
16:40finest interceptors of a pass in the Premier League. Don't get me wrong, his tackling's good
16:45and he is strong and his defensive positioning is pretty okay, but when it comes to basically
16:50jumping out of a sort of structure into a passing lane to a point where the team can't anticipate
16:56him doing it, amazing. And that's, that is in the numbers by the way, if you look at his defensive
17:02stats from this season, he's making a really high number of tackles, he's winning the ball back
17:06loads, obviously this one is dead low, his tackles in the final third because Fulham don't really
17:10press teams all that high, so they're not really looking to win it back in that area, but the
17:15interceptions and the ball recoveries are just stunning. Just to put those numbers side by side,
17:22right, if you look at his shot and his goal creating action, as well as his overall defensive
17:25stats, Anthony Robinson is in the top three percent, so like literally the top one or two players in
17:31this entire division for both regaining the ball when it's sort of like loose in his own defensive
17:36third and creating goals for his teammates. Nobody else can say that, the ones who are good at one
17:43tend to not be so good at the other. And you know me, I simply love to oversimplify something for
17:47you, but the attacking weapon, when you boil it down for Fulham, basically ends up looking like
17:52this. You've got a winger who Robinson is marking and they've got a fullback who was also marking
17:57Awobi, right, and this is just John's central midfielder. Because of his pace, because of his
18:01directness and his ability to read the play, combined with the fact that Awobi, or whoever's
18:05on that side, likes to drift into the middle, right, if this pass here gets intercepted, by the
18:10time he's got the ball under control, he's already here and Awobi will be moving into this area. And
18:18if you are him, he ain't gonna catch up, he's just lost the ball, you are. And it's just such an
18:24effective thing to have in your locker, if you're a team, because either he's got to make sure
18:29Robinson can't get to the byline and get one of those cutbacks, so he just becomes completely
18:33locked onto him, which, if so, leaves Awobi in the centre and now Robinson can play the ball in there
18:39and Fulham will have an overload somehow. Or, as is more likely, in the split second the defender
18:46will have to make this decision, he will initially get dragged out with Awobi before deciding he
18:50should probably do something else, and by that point he's gone, he's around the back, he's playing
18:54in those balls and Fulham have a chance. And, as a result, this is a really fantastic graph that is
19:01in a really, really good Opta article, just about how good Anthony Robertson is. Shout out Opta,
19:06I love you guys. This is how Fulham's attacks have sort of broken down by area of the pitch,
19:12they're massively, massively weighted down the left-hand side, because right now nobody has an
19:18answer for how to deal with him. And there are some just mind-blowing numbers about Robinson in
19:23that article, if you get a chance to read it, just about like how much of his running is done as
19:27sprinting, like how much he sprints in a game, how he's somehow doing this despite playing every
19:32single minute this season, he's on like a 40 or 50 game long consecutive selection streak, he's a
19:39really special player, really, really special player, he's going to have a great World Cup,
19:44I think. And you will notice this video is not, Anthony Robinson should move to a bigger club,
19:49I think he's great at Fulham, this system really, really, really suits him. If he was going to move,
19:54which he may well do, then he'd have to go to a team that will do something similar. And Liverpool
19:59are being linked right now, and this ain't them, this is not them. But anyway, yes, that's why
20:04Anthony Robinson is sick, and so also am I, so I'm going to go lie down. If you have enjoyed this
20:10video, please do let us know in the comments below, and if you haven't enjoyed the HelloFresh
20:14integration, I worked really hard on those, you know, I like that brand, they send me really nice
20:19food, and then I eat it, and then I hope that you guys enjoy it as well. So if you are tempted to
20:23treat yourself this Christmas, and get like a 60% off box or whatever the offer was, go and do that,
20:29honestly. Like I know people on the internet and especially YouTube are like, hey, I've actually
20:34really endorsed this thing that I've actually totally never used, but I have, I like that,
20:38I use that, it's good, you'd like it. Elsewhere though, you can get me across all the social
20:42medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, and I just, you should do that, you really, really should do that,
20:47because a lot of fun stuff happening over on my social medias, and I think it would be of relevant
20:53interest to you, a person, my brain is starting to go to the 442 socials there in the corner of
20:58the video, and I'm not sure when this is going out. It's supposed to be that gap between Christmas
21:03and New Year, so if it is, I hope you had a lovely Christmas, but if it's gone out before that,
21:08I hope you have a lovely Christmas in the future tense. As for me though, this is the last time I
21:12can physically get into the studio at the office this year, so there'll be no fun tactical analysis
21:19or me just being delirious across the festive fixture period, and I know, I know, I know exactly
21:24how you feel because I feel exactly the same way about that, but I was reminded by my family and
21:29my friends that they haven't seen me in about 18 months, so it might be nice for me to get a break.
21:34So provided that doesn't kill the channel, I'll see you next year. Until then though,
21:37that has been Anthony Robinson, the best left back in the Premier League, in my opinion. This
21:41has been 442, the best YouTube channel about football on YouTube, in my opinion, and I've
21:47been Adam Cleary, which isn't an opinion, that's a fact, and I'll see you soon. Lemsip.