I was looking at Sunderland's squad vs Swansea earlier, and they had Colback and Gardner, two midfielders, playing as fullbacks. This has been something that I have been thinking about for a while now. Basically, I think the skills are transferrable, and it's something I discussed in the 'how to stop Barca' thread. Just like MCs are being converted to CBs what with the greater emphasis on ball-control and interceptions rather than pure strength, a similar conversion could be made at FB, with Bender, Milner, Schweinsteiger and Ramires as good examples. Lass, Coentrao, and Essien have all played both roles under Mourinho as well, so I'd guess he has similar inclinations.
These are players who are good defensively, have mobility and decent strength, great stamina and good technique who can also offer a lot going forward. Those are skills required at both FB as well as B2B roles. The main difference is that generally fullbacks are either stronger and more solid defensively, a la Ivanovic, or good dribblers and crossers, a la Evra, which are not qualities usually found in Box-to-Box types.
But I think football is evolving in a way that could see B2Bers adapted more and more to FB and consequentially, the reverse will also be true. IMO, the best FB around is Lahm, who moreso than being a crosser or dribbler, is an excellent passer, moreso than most FBs. Azpilicueta has also emerged as a top FB prospect and that's true for him as well. Crossing is an overrated aspect of the game. Most crosses are inaccurate and the general evolution of STs has favoured Shifty*ble, tricky ones over big men, so more and more there are worse targets in the box for crosses anyway. I think that with time, more FBs like Lahm will emerge and crossers of the ball will fade, which would allow b2bs to better fit into the new role.
Also, as players like Milner, Schweinsteiger and Dembele have shown, there is a lot of potential in converting wingers to MCs, with the ability to break defensive lines by dribbling from deep as the defining trait that makes Dembele so special (interestingly, O'Neill has used Larsson at MC recently, and pushed Sessgnon inwards, thus utilising both conversions in the same match). Ultimately, you'll have more and more players like Ramires or Milner who could be used at MC, as wingers or as attacking FBs.
Just thought it's interesting. In the future, we'll have more and more CB/MCs (Mascherano), DM/AMCs (Yaya Toure), MC/WFs (Ramires) and MC/FBs (Bender), and since we already have false 9s, MC/STs will appear sooner or later as well (I'd consider the false 9 as a AMC/ST).
In this sense I do give Pep more credit than I usually do. He strove to dominate play with lots of MCs, and sooner or later, I think every position will have its basis there. You can also see just how smart Mou is, since, if I'm not mistaken, he was the 1st to make the FB/MC transition.
