Are defenders in decline - and if yes: why?

In another thread a poster bemoaned the fact that in Serie A, defenders are in decline, while other posters stated that this is the case in other league, too.

So I wonder: Are defenders indeed in decline, or could it be that the modern way of playing (high pressing, high defense line, whole team defending, FBs expected to be more attacking...) simply needs a different style of defending and old school defenders are not that in demand anymore?

Or could it be that good players just don't feel like specializing in defense as midfielders and attackers are the guys who get more attention and bigger money?

1. The quality of defenders at the moment is not as high as it used to be. Technically, there is nobody currently playing who has individual skills like prime Nesta, for example.

2. Individual skills are important, but defending is done as a unit. There are no great CB partnerships at club level in the game at the moment.

3. The rise of the preference for the headless chicken attacking wing-back over the defensive full-back who doesn't expose his CBs on the flanks has probably contributed to this perception that defences are weaker. No matter how fast you transition back, gaps will be left behind those defenders that can be exposed by even the most basic of counter-attacking strategies.

Back in the day, the rules favoured defenders. Could go in with a rough sliding tackle, win the ball and that would be that. Could go in, studs up, win the ball wreck a guy's life and be applauded. Nowadays, a rough sliding tackle, even if the defender wins the ball, is interpreted as "a dangerous tackle" and penalized with a red in La Liga and yellow everywhere else. Hence, defenders are now more cautious and not as willing to go in to a challenge or tackle, giving attackers FAR more of an advantage

IMHO it's mostly down to tactics. Teams play high lines now, and defenders are expected to join the attack, which means they get less time to actually defend, less space to chase down attackers, and less room for error because they're covered less.

Which also means attackers now get more support, which makes it even harder for defenders. I'm not a huge believer in the meme that all defenders have dropped a level these days, there's still great ones out there, they just get ran at by well-supplied attackers more than they used to.

Bit of both probably. The quality of centerbacks isn't great nowadays but I also think many people exaggerate the greatness of DEM olden defenders.

Due to a combination of both rules and refereeing favoring offensive players, and an overall decrease in the quality of defenders, defenses are looking worse every year.

We do have some great defenders, heralded by T. Silva, but the game now favors athletic headless defenders over the smarter ones. The athletic walls decline with age and injury, unlike the wiser defenders.

Playing from the back is more important than ever (every team must have at least one ball playing CB) and high lines are becoming the norm. This leads to defenders that are also good outfield players rather than just physical beasts. Thus, defenders are expected to have a different set of characteristics than before, and one that favors them becoming more complete at the expense of some core defending ability.

I think a lot of football academies aren't teaching football fundamentals well enough. You become too specialized too early. The best defenders in the past were good overall football players first who then excelled at defending. These days, kids only focus on a specific position from a very young age.

As an extreme example, Laurent Blanc was a 10 until he was 24 years old. He scored 83 goals in Ligue 1 in that role and even got 3 France NT callups. It's only in 1989 when Montpellier had massive issues at CB that he moved there to help the team in an emergency situation... the rest is history.

Franco Baresi was considered too short, frail and skinny... but he had a knack tactically so Milan decided to give him a shot.

The academies don't learn to mark as before
in modern football a defender musto imitate Beckenbauer, but then you see errrors in marking almost disconcerting.it' is not just a matter of individual

Partially it's due to the awful reffereeing that's almost entirely in favour of attackers

The amount of challenges where defenders use their extra physicality to win a 50/50 that go punished is unreal

Basically, it's all geared towards the attacker getting advantages. Defenders just aren't allowed to enough nowadays. Then you factor in all the diving and simulating that actually gets rewarded by the reff.

Defenders themselves are not.

It's more about the tactics and rule changes being geared towards attacking as everyone says.

It's no coincidence the best defensive set ups make previously average looking defenders look quality. Jerome *cough* Boateng *cough*

Defending is all about structure and set up and always has been, it just so happens that due to the things mentioned that more or less teams are ignoring that in favor of as much threat going forward as possible.

Game has just evolved that's all.

sportsczy wrote:I think a lot of football academies aren't teaching football fundamentals well enough.  You become too specialized too early.  The best defenders in the past were good overall football players first who then excelled at defending.  These days, kids only focus on a specific position from a very young age.

As an extreme example, Laurent Blanc was a 10 until he was 24 years old.  He scored 83 goals in Ligue 1 in that role and even got 3 France NT callups.  It's only in 1989 when Montpellier had massive issues at CB that he moved there to help the team in an emergency situation... the rest is history.

Franco Baresi was considered too short, frail and skinny...  but he had a knack tactically so Milan decided to give him a shot.

Yeah, Barcelona is still following those principles. Alex Song centerback.

VivaStPauli wrote:IMHO it's mostly down to tactics. Teams  play high lines now, and defenders are expected to join the attack, which means they get less time to actually defend, less space to chase down attackers, and less room for error because they're covered less.

Which also means attackers now get more support, which makes it even harder for defenders. I'm not a huge believer in the meme that all defenders have dropped a level these days, there's still great ones out there, they just get ran at by well-supplied attackers more than they used to.

You hit the nail on the head. Fantastic post.

"Nobody grows up wanting to be a Gary Neville."- Jamie Carragher


This is one of my favorite football quotes ever and I think this doesn't apply to just fullbacks but the view of defenders in general. Kids grow up now wanting to be the goal scorer and the one who gets the credit and glory for a win. So the most talented kids almost always want to be attackers or midfielders because they can have more of an impact on the game. Defenders have to react to what the opposition is doing. So they can only be as good as their opponents let them in a sense. Where as midfielders and forwards are free to do whatever they want and can be as good as they want to be. Comparitavley defending is a much less desirable role

Tactics have a lot to do with it too but I think the decline in defenders has to do with that people don't value what defenders contribute to the game anywhere near the same level that attackers and midfielders do. So there is less interest in the younger generations to Persue it

Of course defenders are in a decline especially given defence has become a lost art long time ago. The priority in which all defence are tasked to contribute in attack not only comes in the sacrifice to their discipline but their defensive awareness. Traits such as intelligence, reading, awareness, textbook tackling technique etc etc are seldom taught anymore while utter clowns like David Luiz, Vertoghen, Boateng, Pique etc garner praise because they can make a through pass from the back while Samuel, Terry, Barzagli, Mertesacker etc are overlooked due to their ungainly stature on the ball. Same goes for fullbacks who are not reprimanded as harshly for their defensive consequences given how much they produce within the final third of their attacking end.

The game has shifted into a more modern stature in which light plastic balls have increased the pace of the game, anticipation and reading is evolved into pressing and pressure and mindless cavorts that is testament to how pace is so vital which is why teams must adapt within Europe, essentially the centre-piece of the trends in Europe.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Defenders themselves are not.

It's more about the tactics and rule changes being geared towards attacking as everyone says.

It's no coincidence the best defensive set ups make previously average looking defenders look quality. Jerome *cough* Boateng *cough*

Defending is all about structure and set up and always has been, it just so happens that due to the things mentioned that more or less teams are ignoring that in favor of as much threat going forward as possible.

Game has just evolved that's all.

Very much this   

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Defenders themselves are not.

It's more about the tactics and rule changes being geared towards attacking as everyone says.

It's no coincidence the best defensive set ups make previously average looking defenders look quality. Jerome *cough* Boateng *cough*

Defending is all about structure and set up and always has been, it just so happens that due to the things mentioned that more or less teams are ignoring that in favor of as much threat going forward as possible.

Game has just evolved that's all.

This is why he is a leader

In the premier league we're seeing a lot of thrashings this season, not just coming from Man City, the GD have also gone down. slightly less thrashings in la liga with Atletico Madrid, Osasuna, Bilbao and many other teams grabbing holding on.

Well this seems to be a good thing then definitely for us fans, football more entertaining as a result of teams more attack focused and taking more risks and emphasis less in pure defenders.

As Lex mentioned above, it sounds bad that in the past they can kick players and get away with it and even injuring them, surely this is a change for the good.

Tactically the game does not want good defenders. You want a high line, Defenders who can pass & build from the back. People want footballing Defenders.

That & the game has got diverse and multi-dimensional. No slow Counter Attacking system bar Seria A now.

That & the quality of defenders is definitely much poorer for some reason. Good Quality Defenders are just not born nowadays. Or maybe the older one's hyped due to nostalgia and mistakes of the current lot over-emphasized

Yes- too much emphasis on attack.

Bump.

Still not sure what to think about this.

No they are not. It's much harder to defend today than a few years ago as attacks are much better organized and defences are under more pressure. And more things are expected of defenders today, not just to defend.

VivaStPauli wrote:IMHO it's mostly down to tactics. Teams play high lines now, and defenders are expected to join the attack, which means they get less time to actually defend, less space to chase down attackers, and less room for error because they're covered less.

Which also means attackers now get more support, which makes it even harder for defenders. I'm not a huge believer in the meme that all defenders have dropped a level these days, there's still great ones out there, they just get ran at by well-supplied attackers more than they used to.

/thread

everyone is in decline for whatever reason imo. you hear statements on the madrid board like madrid can't sign a striker because there aren't many great ones available who are attainable. there seems to be a decline in attacking midfielders, most are masquerading as CMFs but play little to no defense, and now this thread about defenders. it makes you wonder is it a talent thing, or the copy cat nature of the game?