Roberto Carlos spoke with Sky Sports about his brief spell at Inter and expressed the evolution of fullbacks:
“I had a little problem when I was at Inter. In Italy, we played with four defenders and full-backs could not attack or even go forward, but I’m a Brazilian and I enjoy pushing forward. Now the role of the fullbacks has changed.”
Bullshit! The role in Italy hasn’t changed since he played for us – the attacking pushing left back has been in Italy since Facchetti “invented” it plus Maldini was also quite clever at going forward!
Carlos was simply not good enough in his defensive work!
He also complained that the manager at the time, Roy Hodgson (terrible manager), was trying to play him as a defensive midfielder. That I can understand having a problem with, but to say you weren’t allowed to get forward as a fullback is ridiculous. Like you said, it’s not a new idea for fullbacks to get forward, in Italy or anywhere else! I’m assuming that being Roberto Carlos was only 22 at the time he joined Inter, fresh from Brazil, the manager didn’t trust him to track back when he pushed forward, and tried to teach him a lesson by instructing him to not get forward at all. Ultimately, we definitely missed out big time on an absolute legend, but I’m not so sure he could’ve been the same caliber of fullback in Italy with his play style.