Achraf Hakimi: The Perfect Incarnation of the Modern Wing-Back

There are some things in football that - even if you know they're going to happen - you can do little to prevent; Arjen Robben cutting onto his left foot, Thierry Henry shifting the ball onto his right, the unstoppable force that is Adama Traoré.

Last season, Borussia Dortmund concocted their own footballing cheat code: Achraf Hakimi would dart in behind an unwitting back line, collect a pass slipped between two defenders and cut the ball back for a teammate to convert.

Of Hakimi's ten league assists in 2019/20, half came from such a move. By the end of his loan spell with Dortmund, the 21-year-old had blossomed into one of Europe's most exciting and well-rounded talents, despite the fact that he has only played three seasons of senior football.

Born in Getafe to Moroccan parents, Hakimi grew up as a Real Madrid fan, idolising their attack-minded full-back Marcelo. After joining the club aged seven, Hakimi made his first team debut in October 2017.

Zinedine Zidane's Madrid would go on to win a third consecutive Champions League title but Hakimi later described the campaign as 'a difficult year' given his lack of game time. The then-teenager only made nine La Liga appearances that term - all but one of which against sides in the bottom half of the table.

To compound Hakimi's plummeting status in the pecking order, Real signed fellow right-back Alvaro Odriozola for €30m that summer.

Two years on and Odriozola - another promising talent unable to displace Dani Carvajal - had been forced out on loan to Bayern Munich where he has also struggled for minutes. Hakimi, on the other hand, has flourished since joining the Bundesliga in 2018.

Hakimi opted for Dortmund after manager Lucien Favre wooed him with his ideas of attacking football. Having started out as a forward at youth level, Hakimi arrived in Germany as a right-back. Throughout his first season in black and yellow, the Madrid loanee split his time between his natural side on the right and at left-back as Dortmund almost exclusively used a 4-2-3-1 formation.

However, Favre had little desire to curb Hakimi's instincts, and as Dortmund tended to dominate possession, the full-back would often find himself stationed high up the pitch. Although, he was always wary of the Bundesliga's infamous status as the land of counter-attacks where - as Hakimi puts it - 'full-backs are needed to go up and down for that back and forth football that is played here'.

Despite being predominantly right-footed, Hakimi thrived on the opposite flank and was even named as the best left-back in the division by German footballing royalty Lothar Matthäus.

The game after Hakimi's debut campaign was ended prematurely by injury Dortmund were dealt a 5-0 pounding at the hands of Bayern Munich as the Bavarian behemoths displaced their yellow-shirted rivals from the top of the table in the full-back's absence.

The start of the following domestic campaign for Dortmund was punctuated by a flurry of points dropped from winning positions, another mauling off Bayern and a leaky defence. After 12 Bundesliga matches they had slumped to sixth place.

To counteract the team's slow start, Favre changed system in favour of a 3-4-3 formation in late November. The seeds of this idea may have been planted during a Champions League tie against Inter earlier in the month.

After going into halftime 2-0 down, Dortmund switched to a three-man defence as they stormed to a 3-2 victory - two of the goals were scored by Hakimi from his new wing-back role.

When was asked by the BBC his favourite position, Hakimi came up with a jumbled answer: "I think I like the right-back role - but I like to go on the attack all the time. I like to play as a winger too, and sometimes I feel as if I want to play as a striker."

The right-sided wing-back in an attacking 3-4-3 is somewhere between a full-back, winger and striker. This position has produced the best form of Hakimi's embryonic career.

Dortmund's former number five netted nine goals and laid on ten assists across all competitions in his final campaign for BVB, becoming intrinsic to the side. He ranked third in the Bundesliga for touches of the ball and only Bayern Munich's David Alaba drove further towards the opponents goal while in possession.

Hakimi's influence was such that he would seemingly cover the entirety of Dortmund's right flank. In January, he was clocked tearing across the pitch at more than 22mph, at the time, the fastest speed ever recorded in the Bundesliga. That he averaged 33 sprints per game - the third-best rate in the division - also points towards his remarkable stamina.

The raw bundle of energy which arrived at Dortmund has been moulded into one of Europe's most-sought after talents. Yet, as so often is the case, the Bundesliga runners-up cannot reap the rewards of their development after Inter poached Hakimi - who will slot seamlessly into Antonio Conte's 3-5-2 - in July.

The sight of Hakimi relentlessly barrelling up and down the touchline is one which will strike fear into the heart of the most parsimonious defence. However, an even more worrisome thought for opposition backlines is the fact that - at just 21 years of age - Hakimi is only at the precipice of what will surely be a wonderful career.