Real Sociedad have a problem that looks small until it is yours. Jon Aramburu, the Venezuela international, felt discomfort in training and will undergo tests to establish the extent of the issue. With Hector Fort still bothered by his own problem and Alvaro Odriozola already injured, the club suddenly has no healthy, recognized right back.

This is the kind of thing that happens during and around international breaks, when players return carrying knocks and a squad that looked fine on paper is exposed in one position. One injury is bad luck. Three at the same spot is a depth-chart failure that a season can turn on, because you cannot cover right back with effort the way you sometimes paper over other gaps.

For a US coach, this is a cleaner teaching case than almost any tactical point. Full back, and especially right back, is the position youth programs chronically under-build. Everyone wants to play forward or center mid. Nobody shows up to tryouts wanting to be the backup right back. So when your starter rolls an ankle in the week of a big game, you are improvising with a kid who has never trained there.

Build the position before you need it

The fix is boring and it works. Identify your right back situation now, in the fall, and make sure at least two and ideally three players can do the job at a passable level. That usually means teaching a central midfielder or a winger the role in training long before you ever need it in a match. The time to develop a backup is when everyone is healthy, not the Thursday before a Saturday game.

There is a developmental bonus here too. Teaching a player a second position makes them better at their first one, because they understand the game from a new angle. A winger who has played right back presses smarter and tracks back with better timing. A midfielder who has covered the flank reads overlaps differently. You are not just building insurance, you are building smarter players.

Real Sociedad will find a way through, probably by shifting a center back out wide or pushing a midfielder into the role, which is exactly what they are being forced to figure out. That is the professional version of the same scramble you would run, and it is far less comfortable than having planned for it.

Take the warning. Pull up your roster this week and ask a simple question: if my starting right back got hurt tonight, who plays there Saturday, and have I actually trained that player in the spot. If you cannot answer confidently, you have found your session priority.