A Portuguese problem: Portugal's imbalance in the full back department

Portugal are a footballing nation with a national pool to rival any other country in the world, with strength in depth in almost every position.

It’s an impressive feat for a country of their side, and it’s testament to both the importance Portuguese clubs have placed on their youth academies, and their ability to sell their stars to some of the biggest clubs in European football.

Look in defensive midfield as an example - Ruben Neves, Danilo Pereira, Florentino Luis, Sergio Oliveira - some would put William Carvalho in there too, though he typically plays further forward for Portugal nowadays.

What about their forward options? Bernardo Silva, Rafa Silva, Diogo Jota, Joao Felix, Goncalo Guedes, Daniel Podence, Gelson Martins - and Cristiano Ronaldo, of course. And that’s not to mention some of their capable out and out strikers, such as Andre Silva, Goncalo Paciencia, Rafael Leao, Dyego Sousa… the list of attacking options goes on.

Centreback always used to be perceived as Portugal’s main position of concern, but even that seems to be in a decent state right now, with Pepe and Jose Fonte both still going strong, while Benfica’s duo of Ruben Dias and Ferro, added to Ruben Semedo, Domingos Duarte, Ruben Vezo, Paulo Oliveira, Daniel Carrico and Diogo Queiros, just to name a few, means that there is more than enough cover at centreback to be very confident for the immediate future. Even Bruno Alves is still playing week in, week out to a high standard with Serie A outfit Parma!

But the position that most clearly illustrates the strength in depth Portugal currently possess is undoubtedly right back. On the right side of defence, Portugal are absolutely thriving, with a wealth of top-quality options to choose from.

Their list of options at right back includes, and is by no means limited to, Ricardo Pereira, Nelson Semedo, Joao Cancelo, Cedric Soares, Andre Almeida, Diogo Dalot, Ricardo Esgaio, Wilson Manafa and Thierry Correia.

It means that Portugal currently possess the undisputed starting right-backs at some top clubs in European football, such as Barcelona, Leicester City, Benfica, Porto and Braga, while they have other first-team players plying their trade at other big sides on the world stage, such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Valencia.

There’s a great deal of excitement for the future in this department too, with both Diogo Dalot and Thierry Correia still just 20 years old, while there are high hopes for Benfica’s Tomas Tavares and Porto’s Tomas Esteves, who are both just 18 and 17 years old respectively.

And there’s absolutely no need to be looking at the next generation of talent anyway, with Joao Cancelo (25), Ricardo Pereira (26), Nelson Semedo (26) and Ricardo Esgaio (26) still very much in the peak of their footballing careers, with many years still ahead of them of playing football at the very highest level.

Portugal’s right back situation is in a very good place indeed, and is already pretty secured for the 10 to 15 years - and that’s without any new talents emerging within that time, which is an inevitability considering the factory-like nature of Portuguese football in the modern game.

Running completely counter to Portugal’s right-back luxury, though, is the situation on the opposite defensive flank. While Portugal have a handful of top options to choose from at right full back, it is at left-back that the situation is a little more disconcerting.

There are options, of course. Good ones, too. Raphael Guerreiro is the obvious one; the left-sided Borussia Dortmund star was Portugal’s starting left back as Portugal emerged as Euro 2016 champions in France, and stood out as one of the top performers too. But he doesn’t come without his problems.

Firstly, Guerreiro is an incredibly versatile player. In virtually every scenario, that can be seen as an exclusively positive trait. For Portugal, though, it’s very much the opposite. Due to his footballing ability and attacking prowess, Guerreiro has almost exclusively been playing further up the field for Dortmund this season, used as a left midfielder rather than a left back.

That’s not a disaster, of course. Just because he often plays in a more advanced role doesn’t mean he’s going to become a poorer left back, but it certainly isn’t ideal.

But perhaps more pertinently, Guerreiro is also incredibly injury prone. That hasn’t so much been the case this season - yet, anyway - but his track record is quite telling. Regularly over the years he’s been forced to the sidelines through niggles and knocks, sometimes his injuries being even more significant than that.

And if he gets injured, what other options do Portugal currently possess? Mario Rui is the most obvious option, Guerreiro’s current deputy for Portugal who has served Portugal well when called into action. He’s far from a spectacular footballer, but the Napoli left-back is a more than capable option if required on Portugal’s left side.

He too is far from ideal, though. While he is exclusively used at left back, he has struggled for game time somewhat this season, even if he has had a good run out for Napoli in recent weeks. Hopefully he keeps that up, because in total he played just over half of Napoli’s 22 league matches this season, having also had some injury issues of his own.

So Portugal do have two strong options at left back - but just one injury could mean problems when it comes to Fernando Santos selecting his Portugal squad for the European Championship this summer, as after the duo of Guerreiro and Rui, Portugal’s options begin to become a little thin.

So, who are their other options at left-back? Who could Santos turn to if either of his regular duo get injured? Here, we take a look at some of the leading options.

Ruben Vinagre (20). The Wolverhampton Wanderers left-wing back has thrived for Portugal at youth level, and has shown great promise for Wolves when he has been given a chance - but he’s still not quite the finished article. Excellent going forwards, Vinagre still has some improving to do defensively, and before he becomes a genuine option for Fernando Santos, surely he’ll need to cement more regular game time. This season, he’s played just 340 minutes of league football across 10 matches. He’s not a viable option right now.

Pedro Rebocho (25). Playing for Besiktas on loan from Guingamp, on paper the former Benfica full back is playing at a suitable level to be considered for a Portugal call-up. Unfortunately, though, Rebocho is by no means a starter at the Turkish club, having player just 9 Super Lig matches this season. If he gets some more game time under his belt between now and the summer, he’s likely to be 3rd of 4th on Fernando Santos’ list of options at left back. Right now, though, he’s more likely 5th or 6th.

Nuno Sequeira (29). Now, Sequeira is absolutely best placed to be Portugal’s third choice left back at this current point in time. The Braga left back is a solid performer week in, week out, and is an undisputed starter at the in-form Portuguese outfit. He’s a very good footballer, both defensively and offensively, having even been used at left midfield occasionally this campaign. But, he’s never played for Portugal before, despite now being 29 years of age - and the only international experience he has to his name is 3 outings for the Portugal U18s back in 2008. Far from ideal, and he’s certainly not an option for the long-term.

Antunes (32). He has been an option used by Portugal in the past, with 13 senior international caps to his name, having made his debut for the Selecao back in 2007, but he’s not even an option for Portugal anytime soon, his cruciate ligament injury meaning he’s seen just 5 minutes of La Liga action all season.

Kevin Rodrigues (25). Rodrigues is the man Fernando Santos has regularly turned to as an option at left back when Guerreiro and Rui have both been absent, his 3 caps for Portugal all coming under the stewardship of Santos. And he’s been decent this season, playing 14 La Liga fixtures since the start of the campaign for Leganes, 9 of which have come in Leganes’ last 9 La Liga games. But having a player plying his trade for a side in the relegation zone of the Spanish top flight in the Portugal squad is not what we’ve become accustomed to when watching Portugal over the last decade, and should Santos have to call upon Rodrigues again, it would say a lot about Portugal’s left back situation.

Yuri Ribeiro (23). After a lengthy absence from the Nottingham Forest team midway through the season, Ribeiro is back in the Forest team sheet, having started their last six Championship matches. And he’s been doing a good job too, particularly going forwards from his deep starting position. If he stays in the Forest starting lineup between now and the end of the season, strange as it sounds he may well have a strong outside chance of making Portugal’s Euro 2020 squad should one of Mario Rui or Raphael Guerreiro get injured, and Nottingham Forest earn promotion to the Premier League. Again, though, in a similar vein to Kevin Rodrigues, having a player from the Championship get called up to the Portugal squad is not something we’re used to - even Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota were overlooked for Portugal’s 2018 World Cup squad while playing for Wolves in the Championship - so Ribeiro certainly faces an uphill task of breaking into Portugal’s squad anytime soon.

Some may be wondering what ever happened to Fabio Coentrao. The former Real Madrid left back is currently without a club, having been a free agent since July after his contract with Rio Ave came to an end. Despite being linked with a range of clubs across the globe, he remains unattached, putting him well out of the picture of ever playing for his country again.

There are then a couple of exciting options for the future of Portugal at left back - Ruben Vinagre, as mentioned previously, is definitely one of them, while Benfica’s Nuno Tavares, who’s just 20 years of age, has everything needed to be a future international. This tournament, and perhaps even the one after that, seems a step too far for them currently, though.

All is not lost, of course. If the worst comes to the worst, Fernando Santos may well opt to call up an additional right back for Euro 2020 - so 3 right backs, one left back, safe in the knowledge that several of Portugal’s options on the right of the backline have also proven themselves capable of covering on the left.

But would Santos be comfortable with that, relying on a right-footed player playing slightly out of position at a major tournament? We’ve not really seen him try it yet, and if he doesn’t test it in the friendly fixtures in the build-up to the European Championship, it seems highly unlikely.

In any case, Portugal have an issue which doesn’t look likely to be resolved anytime soon. The striking contrast between Portugal’s right back strength and left back frailties could be their Achilles’ heel, and it doesn’t look like going away anytime soon.