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Professional footballers have a short career but do not let that take anything away from the decades of intensive training and unwavering focus that goes into the making of a player. Football players are analyzed from an early age and their strengths and weaknesses are assessed before a plan to extract the best out of them is drawn.
This will involve finding the right position for a player. However, owing to a variety of reasons a player might need to adapt to a new position. This is quite a difficult task because different positions have their own unique requirements and a footballer's instincts are hard to circumvent.
But some football players have shifted positions with aplomb and let's take a look at 5 of them who pulled it off successfully this season.
#5 Marcos Llorente - Defensive midfielder to Attacking midfielder
Atletico Madrid had been desperate to bolster their attack last summer and were linked with the likes of James Rodriguez, Edinson Cavani, Rodrigo Moreno and Mauro Icardi. They ended up signing then defensive midfielder Marcos Llorente from Real Madrid for £35 million.
It seemed like Llorente's signing was a bid at solving a different problem at first. However, his transformation from a bustling defensive midfielder to a creative outlet has been quite captivating.
At Deportivo Alaves, Llorente had earned the reputation of being an able ball stealer and made more ball recoveries than the likes of Casemiro, Illaramendi and Roque Mesa in the 2016-17 season.
Llorente, however, after joining Atletico Madrid has gone back to using his extra pair of lungs and his energetic presence on the field has become an asset to the Rojiblancos. He also broke that initial image everyone had of him as this rigid destroyer.
He then burgeoned into a technically proficient and aggressive number 10 for Diego Simeone, dispensing his duties in and around the final third like a fine craftsman. Llorente is a great dribbler of the ball,and is now unfurling a bag of tricks as he is getting more and more comfortable in his new role.
#4 Juan Cuadrado - Right-winger to Right wing-back
Juan Cuadrado is not entirely a stranger to the right-back role and has played there, albeit very rarely, in the past when a change in formation has required him to. However, he transformed into an out and out right-back last season for Juventus following the departure of Joao Cancelo and has done so with aplomb.
Cuadrado was one of Juventus' most consistent players in the 2019/20 season. Starting out in a deeper role, the Colombian international is given the freedom to be adventurous and foray into the final third to provide support to the attackers. His skills down the wing are obvious and contributed 5 assists and scored a goal for Juventus in the Serie A from the right-back position this past season.
It is quite surprising that Juan Cuadrado has been an upgrade on Joao Cancelo as he has offered great defensive solidity in addition to his obvious attacking prowess. Former Juventus manager Sarri who is responsible for fielding the 32-year-old in his new role was all praise for him earlier this season. He had said,
“Cuadrado is defending and attacking in the right way, he never left us unbalanced,”
“The only area where he can improve in this role is in one-on-one situations, as he goes to ground too easily and gets booked with unnecessary tackles. I am sure that working with Andrea Barzagli, he’ll improve on that too.”
#3 David Alaba - Left-back to Centre-back
David Alaba had been one of Europe's finest centre-backs for a long time at Bayern Munich. Niklas Sule tore his Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and this forced the Bavarians to look for alternatives and they subsequently transferred the calm and composed Austrian international to a central role at the back.
Alaba changed positions so successfully that now he is considered as one of the best centre-backs in the world after winning the continental treble with Bayern Munich.
Alaba's passing range which had benefitted him greatly during his time as a left-back has enabled Bayern to entrust the duty of progressing the ball with the Austrian and he has contributed greatly to Bayern building from the back.
Both Boateng and Alaba advance high up the pitch and into midfield and are responsible for kickstarting most of their attacks. Alaba has been excellent at passing the ball through the lines and his versatility and flexibility are his greatest virtues.
#2 Alphonso Davies - Left-winger to Left-back
Shifting David Alaba from left-back to a centre-back obviously left a void on the left side of the pitch. In a team packed with talented wingers, Alphonso Davies, despite all his talent, was going to find it hard to become a regular starter.
However, his work was cut out for him as a vacancy opened up at left-back and he slotted in seamlessly. Though he does start at left-back, Bayern Munich's high-line and relentless attacking approach gives Alphonso Davies the opportunity to join the attack quite consistently.
The 19-year-old has been immensely impressive for Bayern Munich and scored 3 goals and racked up 8 assists across all competitions from the left-back position. His exceptional assist after dribbling past several Barcelona defenders in Bayern's 8-2 thumping of the Catalans caught everyone's attention.
Davies' pace enables him to join the Bayern attackers just as efficiently as he drops back to help out in defence.
#1 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - Striker to Left Forward/Winger
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was tipped to have a difficult time in the Premier League after joining Arsenal at the age of 29. However, he has gone on to silence the critics and has now become the most important player for the Gunners. He wears the captain's armband for Mikel Arteta's men and has been delivering on the big occasions quite consistently.
But the most interesting thing about his good run is the fact that he has played a vast majority of this season's game from the left side as opposed to his favoured no. 9 role.
The Gabonese international loves to cut in and shoot and has been phenomenal in Arsenal winning the FA Cup after beating the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City. He scored a total of 30 goals across all competitions and 21 of them came when he started in his new position.
