Transition to new positions often take place in football. They may be due to tactical reasons, forced by injuries/suspensions or by a sudden insight into a player's extra dimensions. Though not all of them go on to enjoy the same level of success as say Lionel Messi or Bastian Schweinsteiger, they remain a fundamental success strategy in the modern game. With the staggering amount of analytics and player performance data up for grabs, there are new possibilities and experiments with each passing game.
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Here are 5 players who successfully transitioned to a new position in 2016-17:
#1 Adam Lallana
Even after being nominated for the PFA player of the year, 25 million pounds was considered an inflated price for Lallana. Liverpool were chided on the social media for yet another folly in the transfer market. When Lallana donned a Liverpool jersey and had a relatively tough debut season, the detractors were in full swing.
He was not quick, he did not have a deceptive turn of pace, he did not have a Brazilian bag of tricks to show off – why was Lallana so expensive? Why was he so valuable for Southampton? It would take the arrival of a messy-haired German with thick glasses and a booming laugh to show us why.
Lallana has been moved to a deeper role in midfield this season. Previously used in the attacking front three, the aforementioned limitations hindered Lallana. He could not outpace the fullback or beat the centre-back in a one on one situation.
With his deeper role in midfield, however, Lallana has been able to make full use of his ball control in tight situations; beating the opposition press with a two-footed turn and setting his team on the front foot with his incisive passing.
Now Lallana is an essential cog of Liverpool's playing 11, so much so that fans have been eagerly awaiting his return from injury for weeks. He sets the team on the front foot with his passing, he sets the opposition on the back foot with his pressing.
#2 Alexis Sanchez
Having scored 29 Premier League goals over the last two seasons, not many would have thought Sanchez's potential wasn't being utilised properly at Arsenal. But Arsene Wenger did, due to a combination of untimely injuries and his admiration of the Chilean's talents. Promptly, he decided to try Sanchez in the centre-forward role, moving him inside from the wing forward role.
The move has been a huge success. Though Wenger has tried a few other formations and combinations of players over the course of the season, the team enjoyed its best spell when Sanchez was the undisputed central striker.
With his ability to shoot from anywhere around the box, expose an opposition's high line of defence with his pace and press the opposition centre-backs to submission, Sanchez has been a revelation in his new role.
"He has all the ingredients to be a top-class striker," Wenger said back in December. "He's quick, he's quick to close down, he can dribble, he has a short back lift, he has a killer instinct."
He sure can. He sure has.
#3 Victor Moses
Victor Moses was in danger of being yet another casualty of Chelsea's "stockpile young talent" policy. For all the FA youth cups they have won in recent years, too many promising Chelsea youngsters have been left in the wilderness after a series of loan spells.
With loan spells to Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham since his arrival in 2012, Moses' career looked destined to be along the same lines – until Antonio Conte took charge at Chelsea and deployed him at wing-back.
Conte's 3-4-3 formation has been lauded for a myriad of reasons, and rightly so. N'Golo Kante has been colossal, Eden Hazard magical and Diego Costa clinical. Yet the key to the success or failure of the formation lies on how effectively the wingbacks provide balance. Brendan Rodgers' 3-4-2-1 formation was found out after its initial success precisely because opposition teams started to exploit Liverpool's lack of cover in the wide areas.
Moses has been a natural fit in the role. With his pace and strength, he has played more like a winger than a wingback, with Alonso on the other wing adjusting his position accordingly. Moses was always going to fall short in the fight for the forward positions with Hazard, Willian and Pedro. But now the manager and the player have found a win-win solution. No wonder Chelsea is winning too.
#4 Cesar Azpilicueta
The reinvention of Moses has been so successful precisely because of Azpilicueta's presence to cover him. Deployed as the right-sided centre-back in the 3-4-3 setup, this is Azpilicueta's second positional reinvention at Chelsea. Naturally a right-back, he was preferred as a makeshift left-back over the considerable talents of Felipe Luis by Jose Mourinho.
"Azpilicueta is the kind of player I like a lot. I think a team with 11 Azpilicuetas probably could win the Champions League because football is not just about the pure talent. Football is also about character and personality and Azpilicueta has all those traces of a winning personality," Jose Mourinho had said in February 2014.
They don't have 11 of him – but one Azpilicueta seems well on course to helping Chelsea win the Premier League. With Chelsea's failure to sign Kalidou Koulibaly or Leonardo Bonucci in the summer, Azpilicueta has ensured missing out on them didn't matter.
His performances as an auxiliary centre-back have been mature, composed and dominating – you wouldn't really know it isn't his natural position if you are watching him for the first time.
#5 James Milner
As the days ticked down in the transfer deadline day of summer 2016, Liverpool fans were bewildered. The Reds were haggling with Leicester City for Ben Chilwell over a few million pounds difference in valuation. Jurgen Klopp seemed relaxed. Then came Moreno's erratic performance in the season opener against Arsenal. Liverpool fans were truly terrified by now, Jurgen Klopp seemed nonchalant.
Over the next few months, Liverpool fans and the rest of the league would find out why. James Milner as a footballer has never been able to nail down a position of his own; he has been too versatile for his own good. Having made his name as a midfielder, he has also proven himself to be a solid winger and an emergency right-back.
But left-back? On his weaker foot, on the weaker side? Yes, Milner has proved himself yet again. A true Mr Dependable if ever there was one, the former England international has diligently covered the length of the pitch in his fullback role.
He is a vital wide outlet in Liverpool's narrow attacking formation, not to mention his impeccable penalty record. Klopp came up with a way to field his vice-captain on the pitch even with all the midfield and forward positions already taken up by other players – and boy, has the decision worked well.
