I wish to develop a protocol to regulate the way we acquire right backs. Whenever I develop a protocol I start by searching the web to see what guidance is already available. No point re-inventing the wheel.
Fortunately, when it comes to acquiring a full back, my work has been done already. Just recently another manager (by chance, also named Anthony Haynes) has just published his guidelines for finding a left back. The piece is published until the title ‘How do you scout for a left back?’ and is available on the Higher Tempo Press website.
The guidelines strike me as excellent, so I propose to adhere to them quite closely (making the necessary adjustments so that they apply to the case of right backs, obviously).
I will, though, need to make some modifications. The guidelines were developed for application in the Israeli Premier League, which I think is higher level than Moldova’s Divizia Nationala, so are somewhat over-ambitious for my purposes. They identify three tiers of attributes. Such is the dearth of talent available to use, I think I will focus on the first tier (tackling, acceleration, determination).
