GREATEST FULL BACKS: MARCELO

Continuing our series analyzing various left backs as Real Madrid look at add one, we look at Marcelo, one of the greatest full backs in football history.

Marcelo was among the best dribblers to ever grace the game, particularly in his position. His tricks and flicks were unparalleled for a player coming out of the left back role. While most great full backs, even those with excellent dribbling skills, often relied on their engine, timing of runs, and acceleration to achieve progression, Marcelo approached the left back position like a winger or even Neymar, capable of breaking through pressure with simple turns, deception, and incredible technique. His skill set was truly unique.

In this analysis, we compare Marcelo to a variety of full backs, including Ferland Mendy, Alphonso Davies, Jordi Alba, Andy Robertson, and (unfortunately) the infamous Dani Alves.

Due to limited data on Marcelo’s career on Football Reference, we will also be using Whoscored’s data for all players to provide a statistical context. While there are slight differences between the Whoscored and Opta datasets, and while WhoScored only covers Champions League and domestic league games, we will assume that they capture the relative statistical differences between these players effectively.

Previous entries in this series:

• Comparing Breakout Fullbacks: Miguel Gutierrez v Fran Garcia
• Ferland Mendy: The Defensive Dynamo
• Alphonso Davies: Left Back Galactico?

DRIBBLING:

Dribbling is the area where Marcelo shone the most, making him a generational talent. From 2009/10 to 2016/17, Marcelo consistently completed over 2 dribbles per game, peaking at 3.4 dribbles completed from 4.2 attempts in the 2016/17 Champions League.

In comparison, Jordi Alba only completed more than 1 dribble per game in the 2012/13 Champions League during his first season at Barcelona.

Dani Alves, widely praised for his all-round attacking play, peaked at 1.6 dribbles in 2010/11 La Liga and was usually between 0.6 and 1.2 dribbles completed for most of his career, not even close to Marcelo’s numbers.

Andy Robertson, the quintessential modern left back, has never completed more than 1 dribble per game during his Liverpool career.

Interestingly, Ferland Mendy achieved 2.4 completed dribbles in the 2019/20 season and maintained around 1.8 completions in the following two seasons. Alphonso Davies at Bayern has taken it even further, consistently averaging 3.3+ dribbles per game, peaking at 4.1 completions in the 2021/22 Bundesliga and 5.1 in that season’s Champions League.

However, it is crucial to consider the context of Marcelo’s dribbling style. Unlike a winger, he didn’t always aim to square up his man 1v1 and beat him. Instead, he would receive the ball in challenging situations and routinely carry, dribble, or pass through the entire network of pressure without allowing the opposition to get too many challenges on him. He could evade challenges and had burst, but wasn’t utilized like an isolation winger.

Marcelo’s specialty was using one-touch move to evade his marker and control a long ball simultaneously, small flicks that allowed him to control a switch, change direction, and leave his marker in the dust. He was also exceptional at dribbling into pressure and releasing the ball, whereas Davies seems to act more as an outlet.

The main difference between Marcelo and Davies is that the latter is more likely to beat a defender an extra time per game due to his pace against more open Bundesliga defenses. It’s important to note that Marcelo’s 2017/18 season registered a considerably higher end product than any season of Davies or Mendy, and he also received more progressive receptions in advanced areas. His dribbles occurred in situations and demanded technique that was quite difficult.

Mendy’s case is intriguing. He has completed plenty of dribbles, but they often happen haphazardly or in extremely conservative situations. Unlike Davies, he is less progressive with his carrying and less creative. Mendy’s high dribbling figures are some of the most interesting in football. He appears to be one of the most efficient ball progressors in the world statistically because he objectively doesn’t make too many mistakes on the ball. However, this doesn’t often stem from creativity, but rather from technical insecurity. He’s better than most players of his technical level in terms of ball retention, but he’s hardly a dynamo who can dribble past an entire team on his own. This is an extremely fascinating case of how a player’s usage can impact their metrics.

Marcelo was fouled 1.4 times per game, a rate similar to Ferland Mendy, Alphonso Davies, and Dani Alves. Jordi Alba was fouled 0.9 times per game, while Andy Robertson only 0.3 times (possibly because he took the most conservative dribbling approach of them all?).

PASSING:

During the peak years of his career, Marcelo completed around 52 passes out of 65 attempts per 90 minutes, resulting in an 80% completion rate.

Alphonso Davies is comparable, but this is lower than Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, and most seasons of Andy Robertson’s career, except for 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Alba, Alves, and Robertson in those years racked up between 70 and 80 pass attempts at high completions, acting as high-usage engines that routinely provided options to receive.

While Marcelo was also capable of acting as a high-usage engine, he aimed to ‘unlock’ defenses elegantly and would dribble more than the others, and was less involved in recycling possession through high tempo side to side passes for the purposes of control.

GOAL THREAT:

Returning to Football Reference for the xG data, Marcelo’s 2017/18 season saw him achieve 0.08 xG + 0.25 xAG for a total of 0.33 xG + xAG per 90 minutes.

Mendy’s best season was 0.17 xG+xAG at Lyon, while at Real Madrid, he peaked with 0.03 xG + 0.11 xAG90 in 2019/20.

Robertson has consistently averaged around 0.04 xG and 0.20 xAG for Liverpool, making him quite productive.

Alphonso Davies’ best season was 0.08 xG + 0.21 xAG per 90 minutes during his first season on the treble-winning team.

Although Dani Alves’ Barcelona career isn’t available on Football Reference, according to Understat, he was relatively less productive than Marcelo in 2014/15 and 2015/16, scoring slightly lower in xG90 and xA90 on both occasions. However, he was likely higher in his previous seasons under Guardiola.

Alves and Robertson were high, but in this list Jordi Alba also stands out as a consistently productive full back, with 0.06 xG and 0.23 xA90, including an impressive 0.38 xA90 in his last season at Barcelona in 2022/23, albeit in limited minutes and often against weaker opposition.

Alves and Alba are classic elite attacking full backs, and the only other full back of the last decade that comes to mind who routinely matches or surpasses Marcelo is Trent Alexander-Arnold, with 0.07 xG90 and 0.29xA90 for his Liverpool career.

Out of these full backs, Trent and Marcelo seemed to rely least on their ‘motion’ and ‘arrivals’ into space and were more purely protagonists based on their on-ball actions. Alves was right behind them, though not the same dribbler as Marcelo and same long-distance playmaker like Trent, he had a little bit of both to his game.

Marcelo’s receptions, compared to Alba, Davies and Mendy:

Marcelo’s touchmap, compared to Alba, Davies and Mendy:

DEFENSE:

In his prime, Marcelo averaged around 2 interceptions per 90 minutes, similar to Dani Alves at Barcelona. Apart from the 2018/19 Bundesliga season, when he averaged 2.4, Davies has been stuck at around 1.2 interceptions. Ferland Mendy is also only at around 1 interception, and Andrew Robertson averages only around 1 interception for Liverpool. Some of this likely has to do with Marcelo (and Alves’, for that matter) playing style, as he would often find himself camping in higher areas and would have to gamble in many defensive situations, resulting in a higher interception rate.

In terms of fouling, Marcelo, Davies, Alba, and Mendy all committed around 1 foul per game.

Dani Alves committed 2 full fouls a game, largely due to being coached to perform “tactical fouling” by Pep Guardiola to break down transition attacks if he got caught out. Andy Robertson is the cleanest defender of the bunch, with only 0.6 fouls per 90.

Tackling-wise, Robertson had 1.6 successful tackles out of 2.4 attempts, Alves had 3.1 tackles out of 4.2 attempts, Marcelo had 2.4 tackles out of 3.5 attempts, Davies has 2.2 tackles out of 3.1 attempts, Alba had 1.8 tackles out of 2.5 attempts, and Mendy had 1.3 tackles out of 1.7 attempts.

Per those figures, Marcelo, jointly with Alves, was dribbled past the most every game, but Davies isn’t too far behind, and strictly speaking, neither is Robertson. Mendy has been imperious, only getting dribbled past 0.4 times per 90 minutes and hardly getting challenged in the first place.

There is no doubt that Marcelo’s aggression with the ball in higher areas played a role in making him a higher volume tackler and a risky transition defender.

However, the same reputation applied to Dani Alves, and it’s interesting to see that they have similar metrics (high volume tackling and interceptions).

The main difference is that Alves was far better at tactical fouling. Pep Guardiola teams have some of the highest fouling rates per 90 minutes without possession in football history, and Luis Enrique followed suit when he was at Barcelona. It’s a very intelligent way to approach a leaky transition defense, and something that Marcelo did not get coached fully to exploit to the same degree.

CONCLUSION:

Marcelo was a unique and generational talent at the left back position, with unparalleled dribbling skills and technical ability that allowed him to break through pressure and create opportunities for his team. In many ways, he can be characterized as the Neymar of left backs.

While his defensive metrics may not be the best among the compared full backs, his offensive contributions and ability to unlock defenses set him apart and made him a central protagonist for Real Madrid’s offense.

During the threepeat, Real Madrid’s offense was extremely reliant on Marcelo’s dribbling to break down deep blocks.

His playing style, which involved camping in higher areas and gambling in defensive situations, contributed to his higher interception and tackling rates, as well as his susceptibility to being dribbled past and giving up transition opportunities, but this has also been true of other great attacking full backs like Dani Alves.

All things considered, Marcelo’s impact on the game and his role in Real Madrid’s success cannot be overstated, he is one of the greatest left backs in football history.

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2024-03-28T22:57:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd