Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen: A New Breed of Attacking Libero

I published an article on Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen about three months ago, before he was officially signed by the club. In that article, I outlined pretty much all you needed to know about the young Belgian.

Even back then, there were several question marks regarding his size and his readiness to play for Arsenal in a physical league like the English Premier League.

Former Arsenal captain Tony Adams, after watching him on several occasions, advised Arsene Wenger not to sign Vermaelen.

"I think Thomas is a very good player but I don't think he's ready for Arsenal," he told Setanta Sports. "I don't think the punters at Arsenal would like another small one."

Wenger had been monitoring the player for a few years, and after receiving several positive reports from his chief scouts, he ignored Adams' input [collective sigh of relief] and decided to make a £10m offer for the player, which was accepted by Ajax.

Thomas Vermaelen has turned out to be an inspired signing by the boss. He's added much needed steel to the back four and made a mockery of those who questioned his credentials as a defender.

Not only is he top scorer with four goals so far, but Vermaelen is proving to be dominant, solid, and reliable at the back.

Goalscoring Ability

In the game against Wigan last week, Thomas Vermaelen's all-round game was there for all to see.

One of his best attributes as a defender is his proactive approach to defending—he is prepared to meet strikers higher up the pitch. The Wigan striker Hugo Rodallega was a victim of this and was on the wrong end of a series of crunching challenges early in the first-half.

Time and time again Vermaelen showed his excellent positional sense and awareness as he broke up the play, and then used his sweet left foot to distribute the ball out of defence.

With his battle with the strikers won, Vermaelen showed the punters at Arsenal that there's an extra dimension to his game—goals from set-pieces.

For his first goal, he rose high above Wigan defenders to crash home a header from a Robin Van Persie corner. This was his second header from a set-piece this season, the first was against Everton in his debut match.

Arsenal have lacked a goal threat from set-pieces since the departure of Sol Campbell back in 2006, and with Vermaelen's aerial ability, the Gunners have solved a long- standing problem.

Furthermore, his threat from set-plays is not restricted to heading as the following clip shows. He can improvise in tight spaces, like that wonderful backheel against Standard Liege in the Champions League recently.

However, for me, his most impressive attribute is his ability to advance from defence to exploit spaces that open up in midfield.

For his second goal against Wigan he moved into space vacated by Latics midfielders, played a one-two with Eboue, and unleashed a left-foot curler past the helpless Kirkland in the Wigan goal.

The way Vermaelen took his second goal reminded me of those old-school Liberos such as Franz Beckenbauer, Matthias Sammer, and Ruud Krol.

Libero Function

Tactics in football are all about creating space and exploiting it. Managers and coaches constantly change their formations and systems to allow their players to take advantage of space, or try to stop the opposition by limiting space.

For example, the withdrawn centre-forward role came about so that he could exploit the small pocket of space between the back line and midfield. These players wreaked havoc from midfield in the '50s and '60s. As a result, the holding midfielder role emerged to counter these dangerous second strikers.

However, it's not only strikers and midfielders who exploit spaces, defenders have also been utilised to take advantage of spaces vacated by the opposition team.

We all know about the overlapping full-backs of the Brazilian World Cup winning teams from 1994 and 2002. Players such as Cafu and Roberto Carlos in essence functioned as attacking wingers in a 4-4-2 system, the fullbacks are often the ones with space.

Even in 3-5-2 system, there's always space for at least one of the defenders, and there's no reason why the extra player should only used defensively.

There was an expectation that this Libero or sweeper would advance forward to become an extra man in midfield and attack. Matthias Sammer is an excellent example of this type of player as this video of his goals against Croatia in Euro 1996 shows.

By the 1990s, the use of 3-5-2 formation was in decline as the prevalence of single-central striker formations increased. This resulted in two spare men rather than one.

Furthermore, with wing-backs occupied by wing-forwards, the side playing 3-5-2 had a serious problem with width. By contrast, opposition full-backs (i.e. in 4-3-3 or 4-4-1-1) had plenty of space. 

Libero in the modern game

In the last decade or so there's been a clear shift in the use of formations from 4-4-2 to a variation of 4-3-3. This is because this is the most solid and stable formation both defensively and offensively.

This formation also gives the best chance to dominate midfield because in the modern game if you control the midfield, you control the match. This is why the 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 system is so widespread in Europe and also in the Premier League.

However, because there's only one central striker to defend against, there's an opportunity for the spare defender to exploit space in midfield. This is why we will see more and more of these new breed Liberos emerging and taking part in attack.

Gerrad Pique is a good example of this as his forward forays from the back have been a constant feature in Barcelona's treble winning team last season. Brazilian Lucio is another classic example of a dynamic Libero in the modern game.

Thomas Vermaelen is the Premier league representative and his rise as an attacking defender, and others like Daniel Agger at Liverpool and Rio Ferdinand at United, could mean that more and more coaches will recruit attacking central defenders.

And that, I believe, will be good for the game as a spectacle.