Is Antonee Robinson the best left back in the Premier League? What has so often been the forgotten role of any football XI, the place for kids full of effort and will, but undemanding when it comes to quality, has rarely been so complex. Between the midfield inversion, the part-time centre-back and the bombardment on the signing, asking the question posed at the start can seem redundant.
However, here is something we can say with confidence. When it comes to a player capable of holding down the flank in attack and defence, an orthodox full-back like Cafu or Ashley Cole might instinctively understand, there are few in England better than the USA international . The least that can be said of Robinson is that he is firmly in conversation with Milos Kerkez and Josko Gvardiol as the best pure left back in the league.
Even in a fairly ordinary performance, like the one he and Fulham delivered in beating Brighton 3-1 on Thursday night, Robinson manages to make his presence felt. Alex Iwobi’s assist grabbed the headlines, but Robinson will be the first to admit that all the work fell to his teammates after a simple pass. Still, he offered more than enough on the pitch to earn a place among the goal contributors.
In a 13-minute period where Kaoru Mitoma and Pervis Estupinan looked set to force an equalizer for the visitors, Fulham’s No.33 made five crucial clearances at the far post. When one of those deliveries came through shortly after Carlos Baleba’s goal, Robinson was on hand to block Matt O’Riley’s effort from close range. No one from either side finished this match with a better success rate in multiple duels than their 88.7%.
And then there were the crosses. The crosses. Invariably hit first time on the run, they fly off the boot with whip, lean and pace. It was remarkable that only one of the five he delivered met a Fulham header, especially as this was Robinson’s best season of crosses in the Premier League. Robinson leads the league in successful crosses into the penalty area and even after last night he has a cross success rate of 27.6%. However, he would advise you not to delve too deeply into these statistics.
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“I’m not sure what’s improved with my cross,” he said after Thursday’s 3-1 win over Brighton. “Just getting to the right areas, doing a lot of work after training to improve my crossing. Making the cross can be a bit deceptive, there were a lot of balls today that I placed in good areas where they got there first It goes down like an incomplete crossover and it makes my accuracy a little bad!
“But if I put them in the right areas I will be rewarded for that. My assist tonight came from a pass to Alex and he does some magic but I put the ball in good areas tonight and I just didn’t get it. I’ll keep doing that all season and guys will score eventually.”
Rolling the ball over for Iwobi to do the rest amounts to four assists for the season, the most for Fulham, seventh in the Premier League and the most for any full-back. Robinson wants more. “In my head I’m looking for 10 in total, goals and assists for USA and Fulham. Let’s see how it goes, that seems a realistic goal, but it’s mostly my overall game that I’m trying to improve. ‘improve.”
All he delivered on Thursday night and Robinson was not the toast of the town at the final whistle. He had been what he had been throughout this season, ultra reliable without the ball. As the Fulhamish fansite says, his was “constantly on, in possession and out of possession”, a performance from a player worthy of wearing the captain’s armband for the second time in a week.
Robinson may not see himself as the next Roy Keane. You won’t see him making his teammates laugh, even if they haven’t needed to lately. A team with a significant proportion of Premier League rejects – those who had fallen down the rankings at Arsenal, Manchester United and even Wolves – belies the pessimistic assessments of some before the start of this season. Their left-back is a leader among many in a group that know the Premier League, perhaps an underrated quality in many recruitment starts.
One of the longest-serving members of the first team, it still came as a surprise to Robinson when Marco Silva informed him that he would manage the team at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. “He kind of threw it at me,” he says. “We have a lot of guys in the team who are considered captains, and a lot of them were out. Reedy (Harrison Reed) is injured, TC (club captain Tom Cairney) is suspended and wasn’t starting this game from Tottenham.
“Marco will just watch, have you led the team the way you play? He felt like I had. It’s a bit of a reward for your efforts. Every time I’m captain, I’ll try to do the job, represent Fulham well and help lead the boys. If I’m not captain after this, I’ll still do my job.
“I never really saw myself as a captain, I just saw myself as someone trying to be unselfish, to pitch in for the team. As far as leading the boys, speaking out, I leave that to someone else. I try to keep my brain focused on other things.
For now, there is no need to include the USMNT, whose European contingent will not assemble until March. Mauricio Pochettino’s instruction after the CONCACAF Nations League victory over Jamaica that they are giving themselves the best opportunity to play regularly at club level probably did not need to be directed at Fulham, still present in Robinson, if that were the case.
It’s only a matter of a few games under new management, but it already looks like the left-back will be as fundamental a piece for Pochettino as it is for Silva. The Argentine has already tested Robinson’s chops by switching into midfield, it will be fascinating to see if Pochettino is tempted to return to a more Tottenham-style approach with two wingers flying down the flanks when Sergino Dest returns from injury , perhaps in time for the next round of international games.
“He mixed it all up,” Robinson says of Pochettino. “Last trip I went from left winger in the first game to inversion in the second. It’s just testing, seeing what I’m capable of and what the other boys are capable of.
“I enjoyed both games, going forward it’s nice to know that he sees me capable of playing a lot of roles. Whatever I’m asked to do…but I’d rather not do that !Stay in a straight line, run to the sidelines, that’s me. But like I said, I’ll play any role for the team.”
Between now and the next USMNT meeting, or even in six days to come, the small question of clashes with first Bukayo Saka then Mohamed Salah will arise. Merry Christmas Antonée. Then again, last season Robinson achieved his triumphs in what is always an uphill battle with the former, restricting Saka to a 20% success rate at Craven Cottage in a famous victory at Fulham.
“I enjoy our fights,” Robinson says of his clashes with Saka. “Even when I feel like I’m playing him well, he can come out of nowhere with a goal or an assist. I know I have to be in good shape. In games like this, against the best teams, you don’t get more motivation. I will face a top winger, I know I have to participate.
Based on the season so far, he almost certainly will be.
