Valentino Livramento: A Natural Right-Back Thriving as a Left-Back in Eddie Howe’s Newcastle
Valentino Livramento, traditionally a right-back, has found himself deployed as a left-back under the only British manager in the Premier League, Eddie Howe, at Newcastle. The question arises—why is he playing there in Howe’s system? He has featured in 28 of Newcastle’s 29 league games, starting 23 of them. His ability to cover space, move efficiently off the ball, and carry the ball progressively makes him a valuable asset. However, the key to understanding his role lies in deciphering what exactly he is doing in Eddie Howe’s system.
Analyzing football in England today inevitably brings managers and their tactical principles into focus. This diversity what makes the league so tactically intriguing, creating unique demands for different roles. Before delving deeper into Livramento’s scouting report, it’s crucial to understand how Eddie Howe’s system functions and why a player like Livramento fits into it.
Eddie Howe’s Tactical Approach
Eddie Howe firmly believes in a man-to-man marking system. While most managers prioritize structured build-up play, his system operates differently. Though Newcastle does start from the back, they don’t rely on slow, possession-based football. Instead, their approach focuses on quick passing sequences to exploit direct passing lanes, aiming for vertical progression rather than controlled build-up.
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Newcastle’s centre-backs, Fabian Schär and Dan Burn, tend to split wide, while Sandro Tonali drops deep to maintain control. Meanwhile, both full-backs—Livramento and Kieran Trippier in Howe’s man-marking setup, are responsible for locking down opposing wingers or wing-backs, preventing them from operating freely.
His defensive structure depends on opponents attacking structure, like against oppositions 3-2-3-2 they also shaped 3-2-3-2 (shape vs shape). But in attacking mode they commonly used 5-4-1 or 4-5-1 even 3-4-3. The most important thing about Howe’s formation is fluidity.
Valentino Livramento in Howe’s system
A perfect case study of this system in action is Newcastle’s game against West Ham this season. Livramento was tasked with marking West Ham’s right-sided wing back, ensuring he couldn’t drift inside easily. But how did he manage it?
Season heat map
Newcastle’s defensive structure remains highly compact, preventing West Ham from gaining an advantage through wide overloads. As a result, West Ham was forced to generate midfield superiority to progress the ball, exploiting the natural gaps that emerge in a man-marking system between the lines.
Tino mostly spent his time in middle third as most touches there (611) as compere to defence(469) and attacking third (308). While Livramento is enough mature in 1 vs 1 defending, soft tackling and interception. In many cases he has to overlap.
Attacking Attributes and Creativity
- Strech the defence – Livramento played a significant role in stretching the opposition’s defence. Pushing the field at the back, both fullbacks, and Adam Trippier forced them to cover more portion of the ground. That creates space for wingers to exploit.
- Progressive carries – Livramento has 50 progressive carries before his name while he covered 2001 yards as carrying the ball for progression. As he has good work rate.
- Short Creating Actions – Though he delivered 26 short creating actions (1.21 per 90), his goal creating action is 0. Though this type od data actually depend on the short taker also. So it works collectively, not singularly.
- Quick Passing and Link up play – Newcastle’s vertical progression relies on first passing sequence and Livramento contributes by linking up with Joelinton.
- Passing Accuracy – A good passer. He completed around 86.5% pass successfully.
- Take-ons – Till March 2025, he has 16 successful take-ons out of 37 (43.2%).
Livramento’s dashboard vs West Ham (as case study) [@adnaaan433]
Defensive Attributes
- Positioning and Awareness – despite being a natural right back, he has adapted well to left back role under Eddie Howe. His compact positioning helps Newcastle maintain defensive solidity.
- Duels – Not in arial but he is really good in ground duels. As he 52% ground duels he challenged.
- Ball recovery – He recovered almost 5.1 ball per game. While 0.3% in oppositions final third.
- Tackling Dribblers – Out of 39 times, he stopped dribblers for 23 times (59%). While 16 he loss in 1 vs 1.
More of a midfielder rather than the fullback
The portfolio he create under Eddie Howe, is quiet match with a midfielder rather than a full back. As I mentioned he has most touches in mid third (611) rather than defensive and attacking third. Even his numbers are not enough good in arial, as he made only 40% superiority in the air. Since Newcastle plays high pressing game, players seem to recover the ball in oppositions half most.
Though he recovered minimum 137 balls in 27 games as he barely recover in ball in opponents half. He mostly won the in the middle third while compacting with the back line. Concreting the report with the logic that he plays with low overlapping run or playing less wider compere to other full backs. Since he is instructed to solve tactical errors and provide numerical superiority to midfielder.
Weaknesses
His biggest weakness is making decision in the final third, as he went through some hesitation between crossing, passing or inverting into the attacking third.
Overall performance analysis
Yes, we have to admit he lacks in many occasion but bypassing all these things he is a good passer and more than everything, his work rate is so high. Solving problems with his positional sense, his off-the-ball movement is admirable.
Beside that, as previously mentioned his short creating ability is 1.21 per 90 per game where he starts in just 23 matches. Also his successful progressive passes where his success rate is around 10.6%, out of 960 overall passes. He provided 103 successfully, where 73 passes were received by his teammates. By carrying the ball and building the game, progressing the ball, he is fulfilling the requirements of Eddie Howe, and he’ll be crucial for the Magpies as they look to secure Champions League football.
By: Sumit Chakraborty
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Robin Jones / Getty Images