Marc Bola

Bola was spotted playing Sunday league football as a boy rather than coming through a traditional academy pathway from the very start, and that slightly unusual route seems to have left him comfortable adapting rather than expecting a fixed role. He has been used across the back line by more than one club and even filled in further forward when injuries left a manager short, which is not something asked of a defender unless his positioning and reading of the game are trusted well beyond his own position.

Several loan moves and a spell abroad before eventually returning to English football suggest a career that has never quite settled into the straight upward line his early promise implied. That willingness to play wherever he is needed can look like versatility or like a lack of a true settled position, depending on how a particular week goes. Watch which role he actually nails down over a long run of games, because that answers the question either way.