The overlap's real job is to pin a winger who wants to be elsewhere

An attacking full back is often the most effective defensive instrument a team owns, because of who he prevents from leaving.

Think about the opposition winger for a moment. He is the fastest player on their team, he wants to be forty yards up the pitch the instant you lose the ball, and the only thing keeping him honest is the man he has to worry about behind him.

That is what a repeatedly overlapping full back does. Not crossing. Pinning. If your right back has been outside the winger four times in ten minutes, that winger cannot drift infield to join their midfield, cannot rest in a high position, and starts every one of your attacks fifty yards from where he wants to be. He is being defended by a player who is nowhere near him and is technically attacking.

I find this a more useful way to justify attacking full backs than the crossing argument, because the crossing argument is weak. Most crosses from deep are cleared, the numbers on this are grim and have been for years, and if you evaluate an overlapping full back on the end product of his own actions you will usually conclude he is not worth the risk.

Evaluate him on what happens to the opposition winger and the picture inverts. Their most dangerous transition player becomes a defender for long stretches, which changes what they can do when they win the ball back, which changes how brave you can be everywhere else on the pitch. It is a chain of consequences and the full back sits at the top of it.

The risk is obvious and I would rather name it than dodge it. Pinning only works while you have the ball in a settled phase. Overlap on a transition, or in a moment where possession is not secure, and the same run leaves your side exposed against exactly the player you were trying to contain, which is the worst version of the trade.

So the instruction should be conditional rather than general. Overlap when the ball is safe and the far side is set, hold when it is not, and stop rewarding the run by whether the ball arrived.

A full back who overlaps twenty times and crosses twice has probably had an excellent match. Nothing on the statistics sheet will say so.