The State of defending in current world football

[shravi]

Nah, I think Johnson fell off his defensive game last season after a good years where he had improved immensely defensively. He is back to his pre-world cup 2010 levels of looking nervy when defending. With pool signing a few full-backs & young Flanagan around - will be interesting to see if he maintains his starting XI spot.

Next full-back i should mention is Ivanovic.

haha, i love how you dignified that with a response. i was kidding. glen johnson is awful. he was good for 2 seasons. it's ridiculous that he was bought for 20mil or something ridiculous like that.

 

[War]

haha, i love how you dignified that with a response. i was kidding. glen johnson is awful. he was good for 2 seasons. it's ridiculous that he was bought for 20mil or something ridiculous like that.

Ha ok cool. Well in GJs defense it not his fault that the premiership market dynamic always over-prices every English talent that seems good. One of the many problems of the league for local players.

 

[War]

Are today's central defenders worse than their predecessors - ESPN FC

Timely article, Marcotti raises some excellent points here @Simon @MasterBlaster76 @Auwais @ste_mc_efc @Lee1981 @m_vaughan @Haarithan @StinkyBoHoon @thedon5 @Epic @shravi @ncfclee

But I would still lean more to the view that the quality of defending has declined. Even with all the rules changes that support attackers more, fact that teams defend more as a unit and full backs bomb forward a lot more than back in the day.

In recent years when I watched certain teams defend it reminded me off the old school ways although they were few and far between:

For example Chelsea last season with Cech or Cortoius/Ivanovic/Terry/Cahill/Azpelicueta The Atletico team that won la liga and got to c league final - Cortoius/Juanfran/Godin/Miranda/l Felipe; Juventus with Buffon/leichesteiner/Chellini/Barzagli/Bonnuci/Asamoah; Dortmund circa 2013 when Weidenfeller/Subotic/Hummels/Pizceck were playing out of their skins under Klopp; 2008 United Van der sar/Ferdinand/Vidic/Evra/Neville

 

[SiriusBlack]

edited

 

[Epic]

Are today's central defenders worse than their predecessors - ESPN FC

Timely article, Marcotti raises some excellent points here @Simon @MasterBlaster76 @Auwais @ste_mc_efc @Lee1981 @m_vaughan @Haarithan @StinkyBoHoon @thedon5 @Epic @shravi @ncfclee

But I would still lean more to the view that the quality of defending has declined. Even with all the rules changes that support attackers more, fact that teams defend more as a unit and full backs bomb forward a lot more than back in the day.

In recent years when I watched certain teams defend it reminded me off the old school ways although they were few and far between:

For example Chelsea last season with Cech or Cortoius/Ivanovic/Terry/Cahill/Azpelicueta The Atletico team that won la liga and got to c league final - Cortoius/Juanfran/Godin/Miranda/l Felipe; Juventus with Buffon/leichesteiner/Chellini/Barzagli/Bonnuci/Asamoah; Dortmund circa 2013 when Weidenfeller/Subotic/Hummels/Pizceck were playing out of their skins under Klopp; 2008 United Van der sar/Ferdinand/Vidic/Evra/Neville

You left out Bayern 12/13 under Jupp, the side statistically speaking, if my memory serves me right is the best defensive side ever among all the treble winners.

 

[War]

You left out Bayern 12/13 under Jupp, the side statistically speaking, if my memory serves me right is the best defensive side ever among all the treble winners.

Ye good call forgot about them, shows how good defensive units are so few and far between in the modern game ha..