As highlighted Monday night by a rowing Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, there seems to be somewhat of a transition taking place when it comes to defending. What once made a defender great may no longer be what makes a defender great. And it was highlighted perfectly as Chelsea came unstuck against Everton at the weekend.
Chelsea, it seems, have two generations of centre back. The old school, no nonsense type in John Terry and the modern, total football type in David Luiz. Clips from Saturday’s loss away at Everton showed Terry operating in one small zone where you would expect a traditional centre back to play. He blocks shots, he heads crosses, he makes tackles. But highlights of the same game showed David Luiz filling in on the right wing and in the centre of midfield on more than one occasion. He intercepts, he closes down, he starts attacks.
Jamie Carragher, as you would expect a no nonsense centre back such as himself to be, was resolute in his beliefs. Your defenders are there to defend. As far as he was concerned David Luiz and his all action style had cost Chelsea the only goal of the game as he was caught out of position. Carragher claimed that given the choice he would rather play alongside Terry than Luiz, because “you’d never know what Luiz is going to do”.
But, despite being brought up with a similar philosophy to Carragher, Gary Neville was less certain that Luiz was in the wrong. Referring to what many see as a Spanish way of defending Neville claimed “they’re the ones winning Champions Leagues and World Cups, I’m not sure we’re right anymore”. It’s true, players on the continent are ultimately winning with what could be seen as kamikaze defending by a stalwart like John Terry or Jamie Carragher. Maybe our perspective that a centre back should be Bobby Moore or Tony Adams is dated.
Afterall, Manchester United were quick to move Gerard Piqué on, largely because he didn’t quite fit the mould of what we perceive a centre back to be. Now he is a huge part of what many consider to be the greatest club side of all time in the current Barcelona team.
Maybe this transition is already happening in England. Maybe the ‘English’ centre back is going the way of the dinosaur, the walkman and Frankie Muniz from Malcolm in the Middle. IE, disappearing off the face of the earth.
The number of centre backs of this ilk is going down all the time. Terry, Nemanja Vidić, Michael Dawson, Per Mertesacker and a few others are still plying their trade at the top of the English game, but they are becoming the exception to the rule. These defenders just aren’t being created anymore and our game is changing to reflect this, to the point where what a defender needs to do is changing.
Perhaps a Centre Back pairing of John Terry and Spurs’ Michael Dawson doesn’t have everything needed to play at the top level. The blocked shots, the tackles, the headers, it’s all there, but neither of them are going to drive forward and help create and play football like a centre back is seemingly expected to now. That’s why Terry is paired with Luiz and Dawson with Jan Vertonghen.
We are half way through the evolution of defending. The days of John Terry and John Terry at centre back are over. Currently it’s John Terry and David Luiz, one day soon it will be David Luiz and David Luiz. In my opinion this can only be good for the game as two things jump out at me when I think of a Luiz and Luiz partnership:
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That’s a lot of hair
And
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That is an exciting pair to watch
Maybe a traditionalist like Jamie Carragher would argue that it’s not so much fun if it’s your team that are being put in jeopardy. But I would much prefer to see a defender bring the ball down and play football with it than I would have them simply put his foot through it and get back in position.
And, don’t you think that it’s probably worth noting that other countries like Spain and Germany are producing better players than us because their young players (even defenders) are encouraged to play football rather than simply clear it?
We’re behind these countries in terms of ‘defender evolution’. But we’re slowly catching up. All we can do is embrace these changes, bid a fond farewell to the Terry’s, Dawson’s and Vidić’s and look forward to a future of total football.
Or, I suppose we don’t have to embrace these changes, we can always continue not winning world cups instead. Not much of a choice really is it?