Is Antonee Robinson the best left back in the Premier League? What has so often been the forgotten role of any football XI, the spot for kids who are full of endeavour and willing, but light on quality, has rarely been as complex. Between the inverting into midfield, the part-time center backing and the bombing on to the byline, asking the question posed at the outset can seem redundant.
Here's something we can say with confidence, however. When it comes to a player to holding down the flank in attack and defense, an orthodox full back of the kind Cafu or Ashley Cole might instinctively understand, there are precious few in England better than the US international. The very least you could say of Robinson is he is firmly in the conversation with Milos Kerkez and Josko Gvardiol as the best pure left back in the league.
Even in a fairly ordinary performance, one like he and Fulham delivered as they beat Brighton 3-1 on Thursday night, Robinson manages to make his presence felt. The assist for Alex Iwobi was the headline moment, but Robinson will be the first to acknowledge that all the work was his teammates to do after a simple pass. Still he was offering more than enough across the pitch to earn a spot among the goal contributors.
In a 13 minute spell where Kaoru Mitoma and Pervis Estupinan seemed bound to force an equaliser for the visitors Fulham's No.33 made five crucial clearances at the back post. When one of those deliveries did get through soon after Carlos Baleba's goal Robinson was on hand to block Matt O'Riley's effort at close range. No one on either side ended this game with a better success rate from multiple duels than his 88.7%.
Then there were the crosses. The crosses. Invariably hit first time on the run, they fly off the boot with whip, dip and pace. It was remarkable that only one of the five he delivered met a Fulham head, all the more so given that this has been Robinson's best crossing season in the Premier League. Robinson leads the league in successful crosses into the penalty area and even after last night is at 27.6% cross completion rate. He, however, would counsel you not to read too deeply into those statistics.
"I'm not sure what's improved with my crossing," he said after Thursday's 3-1 win over Brighton. "Just getting in the right areas, doing a lot of work after training to improve my crossing. The cross completion can be a bit misleading, there were a lot of balls today I put in good areas that they got to first. That goes down as an incomplete cross and kind of makes my accuracy look a bit bad!
"But if I'm putting them in the right areas, I'll get rewarded for it. My assist tonight comes from a pass to Alex and him doing a bit of magic but I've put the ball in good areas tonight and just didn't get it. I'll keep doing that all season and the lads will end up scoring from them."
Rolling the ball for Iwobi to do the rest makes it four assists for the season, the most on Fulham, the seventh most in the Premier League and the most by any full back. Robinson wants more. "In my head, goals and assists for the U.S. and Fulham, in total, I'm looking for 10. Let's see how it goes, it seems a realistic target, but mainly it's my overall game I'm trying to improve."
All that he delivered on Thursday night and Robinson was hardly the toast of the town at the final whistle. He had been what he has been throughout this season, ultra reliable without the ball. As fan site Fulhamish put it, his was "constantly switched on, in and out of possession," a performance of a player worthy of wearing the captain's armband for the second time in a week.
Robinson might not think of himself as the next Roy Keane. You won't see him rollicking his team mates, not that they have needed it of late. A squad with a sizeable proportion of Premier League cast offs -- those who had dropped down the depth charts at Arsenal, Manchester United and even Wolves -- is belying the doom laden assessments of some before this season began. Their left back is one leader among many in a group who know the Premier League, perhaps an underrated quality in many recruitment departs.
One of the longer serving members of the first team squad, it was still a surprise for Robinson when Marco Silva informed him he would be leading the team out at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. "He kind of just threw it on me," he says. "We have a lot of lads in the team who are seen as captains, and a lot of them were out. Reedy's [Harrison Reed] injured, TC [club captain Tom Cairney] is suspended and wasn't starting that Tottenham game.
"Marco will just be looking, have you been leading the team in the way you play? He felt like I had been. It's a bit of a reward for your efforts. Whenever 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'd never really seen myself as a captain, I'd just seen myself as someone trying to be selfless, put myself out for the team. In terms of leading the boys, being vocal, I'll leave that to someone else. I try to keep my brain focused on other stuff."
For the time being that other stuff does not have to include the USMNT, whose European contingent will not meet up again until March. Mauricio Pochettino's instruction after the CONCACAF Nations League wins over Jamaica, that they give themselves the best opportunity of playing regularly at club level, probably didn't need to be aimed at Fulham ever present Robinson, if it was.
It is only a matter of a few games under new management, but it already appears that the left back will be as foundational a piece for Pochettino as he is for Silva. The Argentine has already tested Robinson's chops inverting into midfield, it will be fascinating to see whether Pochettino is at all tempted to return to a more Tottenham-esque approach with two wingbacks flying up the flanks when Sergino Dest returns from injury, perhaps in time for the next set of international games.
"He has mixed it up," Robinson says of Pochettino. "Last trip I went from being high left wing in the first game to inverting in the second. He's just testing out, seeing what I'm capable of and what other boys are capable of.
"I enjoyed both games, going forward it's nice to know that he sees me being able to play a lot of roles. Whatever I'm asked to do... but I prefer not to do that! Stick to being straight line, running on the touchline, that's me. But like I said, I'll do any role for the team."
Between now and the next USMNT meetup, indeed in a six day period in the coming , the small matter of match ups with first Bukayo Saka and then Mohamed Salah. Merry Christmas Antonee. Then again, last season Robinson had his triumphs in what is always a tough battle with the former, holding Saka to a 20% take-on success rate at Craven Cottage in a famous Fulham win.
"I enjoy our battles," says Robinson of his run ins with Saka. "Even when I feel like I'm playing him well, he can come out of nowhere with a goal or assist. I know I have to be on form. Games like this, going up against the top teams, you don't get any more motivation. I'm going up against a top winger. I know I have to be on it."
On the evidence of the season so far, he almost certainly will be.
