Who/Where are the Great Defenders of Today?

by Gil Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:24 am

2-3 years ago this question would have been pretty straight forward answer. John Terry, Rio, Vidic, Lucio, Samuel, Puyol slightly past their peak Carvalho & Nesta etc etc

Nowadays scrubs like Ramos, Mancienne and Pique are all considered great defenders and even the likes of Kompany and Pepe who I rate highly are both error-prone and have their own fair share of weaknesses.

Thiago Silva is probably the only defender these days you'd put in the same category as the likes of prime Terry, Rio, Puyol etc but he's wasting away his career in a League that manages to be even more insignificant than La Liga.

by The Sanchez Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:26 am

If Pique didn't have that offish season last season, he could still be considered as a great defender by mosts...

by McAgger Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:59 am

It's common knowledge that the lack of quality in defense has gone down considerably over the years.

by Le Samourai Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:03 am

Prime Terry had his FAIR share of weaknesses.

So did Prime Rio.

by Ganso Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:03 am

Kompany has been so disappointing,I used to rate him as the second best CB a while ago.For now only Thiago.As I said in the Pepe vs TS thread,defending has hit an all time low since someone like Pepe is rated top 5.

I do hope Pique comes back to his old self with a run of games, he was really good back in the 2010-2011 season.Hell, Barca's entire backline was amazing, scoring against tthem was a pretty special thing in those days.Now, not so much lol

by Valkyrja Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:05 am

You are talking about Terry, Rio or Samuel like they are Nesta or Maldini

by halamadrid2 Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:06 am

Silva makes mistakes as well Gil, goes to show you don't watch that league, more than Epep i dare say

Anyhow there are many great defenders these days but they are not paired with other good ones that would compliment them, like for me i don't think Epep-Ramos is a good pairing sure they play great together but they don't compliment eachother both rely on athletism i would personally get Garay to play with one of them...... oh wait

by Ganso Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:07 am

Kizu wrote:You are talking about Terry, Rio or Samuel like they are Nesta or Maldini

Idk about Rio and Terry,but Samuel used to be goat in his prime.Dat Inter backline of Maicon-Lucio-Samuel-Zanetti :bow:

halamadrid2 wrote:Silva makes mistakes as well Gil, goes to show you don't watch that league, more than Epep i dare say

i loled, more mistakes than Pepe?Thiago made like 5 mistakes max in his entire career at Milan and has been amazing with PSG

by Valkyrja Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:10 am

Ganso wrote:
Kizu wrote:You are talking about Terry, Rio or Samuel like they are Nesta or Maldini
Idk about Rio and Terry,but Samuel used to be goat in his prime.Dat Inter backline of Maicon-Lucio-Samuel-Zanetti

But neither of them are great... not terry, not rio, not vidic, not samuel, not lucio... maybe Puyol, but still not on the same level as Nesta or Hierro.

by Die Borussen Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:12 am

yes might be true atm noone stands to make the difference, we c many decent defenders but not ones -to affraid

-

but we see many youngsters with crazy potential that even now they r considered world class
so who knows maybe in couple of years we will see defenders as good as prime terry or vidic

by nandrolona Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:13 am

Jurgen Kohler getting no love in this thread? Sad

by urbaNRoots Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:14 am

Romanticizing the past... as usual.

by fatman123 Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:29 am

wait, who rates Mancienne that high?

by Valkyrja Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:34 am

The next generation is going to be great IMO... Varane, Nastasic, Kyriakos, Masi, Coates, Zouma, Masip, N'kolou will all be better than the Silva IMO

by urbaNRoots Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:36 am

Kizu wrote:The next generation is going to be great IMO... Varane, Nastasic, Kyriakos, Masi, Coates, Zouma, Masip, N'kolou will all be better than the Silva IMO

by Great Leader Sprucenuce Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:40 am

urbaNRoots wrote:Romanticizing the past... as usual.

This....

You are all acting like defenders of the past did not make mistakes not to mention the past was a lot more defensive driven game....

Now we have fullbacks acting as wingers, wingers have become inside forwards, Destroyers have become Deep lying playmakers, traditional 10s have become wide midfielders or in some cases False 9s.

There's a lot more ideas to geared towards attacking, teams are built to attack from the back instead of in the old days teams were built to defend from the front.

Is there any defender as good as Nesta still around? No but Nesta was a once in a generation defender just like Messi is one a generation footballer.

The average individual skill of defenders has not really gotten any worse just the tactical plans of teams are more geared towards attacking so defenders as individuals can be exposed.

Even Terry when deployed in such a system does not look half the player he does when he did under Mourinho when they defended deep and the fullbacks hardly got forward.

The game has changed the Neville's and Irwin's of this world have been replaced by Alves and Maicon etc etc.

Players like Adams who were legends in years gone past would not have survived in today's game because the more attacking style teams employ would have left him exposed.

All a massive myth.

by Le Samourai Tue Nov 13, 2012 8:48 am

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:
urbaNRoots wrote:Romanticizing the past... as usual.

This....

You are all acting like defenders of the past did not make mistakes not to mention the past was a lot more defensive driven game....

Now we have fullbacks acting as wingers, wingers have become inside forwards, Destroyers have become Deep lying playmakers, traditional 10s have become wide midfielders or in some cases False 9s.

There's a lot more ideas to geared towards attacking, teams are built to attack from the back instead of in the old days teams were built to defend from the front.

Is there any defender as good as Nesta still around? No but Nesta was a once in a generation defender just like Messi is one a generation footballer.

The average individual skill of defenders has not really gotten any worse just the tactical plans of teams are more geared towards attacking so defenders as individuals can be exposed.

Even Terry when deployed in such a system does not look half the player he does when he did under Mourinho when they defended deep and the fullbacks hardly got forward.

The game has changed the Neville's and Irwin's of this world have been replaced by Alves and Maicon etc etc.

Players like Adams who were legends in years gone past would not have survived in today's game because the more attacking style teams employ would have left him exposed.

All a massive myth.

Post of the century.

This requires a re-implementation of the rep syststem cheers

so I can give this man a tangible +1.

by Onyx Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:15 am

Defenders in the past never made mistakes?

by RED Tue Nov 13, 2012 9:37 am

I firmly believe Chris smalling will be the best cb by the time he reaches his mid 20's(couple of years). He has everything- pace, great reading of the game, aggression. Mix rio and vidic and you will get smalling. Under the guidance of both of them, he is progressing well.

So to answer the question, smalling is amongst the best cb's coming up, and will be in the near future.

by Tomwin Lannister Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:10 am

RED wrote:I firmly believe Chris smalling will be the best cb by the time he reaches his mid 20's(couple of years). He has everything- pace, great reading of the game, aggression. Mix rio and vidic and you will get smalling. Under the guidance of both of them, he is progressing well.

So to answer the question, smalling is amongst the best cb's coming up, and will be in the near future.

That's a pretty bold statement, I don't see him being as good as old Rio or Vidic.

by the xcx Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:25 am

Not sure about TS in the league of Puyol, Carvalho, Terry when he has been dissapointing for PSG so far imo.

by Kaladin Tue Nov 13, 2012 10:41 am

This topic needs more Ogbonna, Mbiwa and Dede

by ErPupone Tue Nov 13, 2012 11:32 am

Germany

by rwo power Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:07 pm

Well, considering the fact that Bayern currently only got 4 goals against in the BL (in 11 matches, that is), it looks as if their defenders are somewhat better than their reputation. ^^

by norton Tue Nov 13, 2012 1:34 pm

The last of the great defenders was Nesta. Mourinho on Football FC just a week or so ago through Charlie Stillitano said that Nesta, if played only once a week, was still the best defender in the world.

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