Dani Alves: The Complete Player

Footballingbrain.wordpress.com 05/01/2011

First things first, I’m not trying to say Dani Alves is the best player in the world. That honour clearly belongs to Lionel Messi, with cases possible for Ronaldo and Xavi. None of them, however, are as complete as Dani Alves. As outlined by Jonathan Wilson here, the full back, and especially the modern attacking version, has come to be one of the most important players in the game. Due to the rise of the 5-man midfield and the subsequent specialisation of midfielders, full back is now the only position where players have large attacking and defensive responsibilities. To say Dani Alves is a key factor in both Barcelona’s defence and attack portrays his incredible ability. It is also a testament to his incredible stamina, and in the current Barca team he is almost playing as a right back and right winger simultaneously. A common misconception about Alves is that because he is so attacking he is poor defensively. This is simply not true. Occasionally he is caught out of position, but with Busquets dropping into defence Barca can cover for him. One on one he is very rarely beaten and his defensive awareness and reading of the game are excellent.

His link-up play (especially with Messi) is amazing to watch and on his regular lung-bursting forward runs he finds the killer ball with incredible regularity.
He bombs forward to such an extent he often scores with his head.
His technique is excellent, especially striking a dead ball.
And sometimes he can produce moments of genius.
There are arguments for Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard being complete footballer’s, and both do have the ability to defend as well as be instrumental in attack. However they are both primarily attacking players and are hindered by too much tracking back. Due to his position and dynamism Alves is able to do both excellently, seamlessly switching between defence and attack. Blessed with seemingly super-human speed and stamina combined with an all round footballing ability, Dani Alves is surely the world’s most complete player.