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Clean aggression and a keep it out mentality define a set of positions that are quickly being forgotten. The essential position was entirely absent from most of last weekend's games. Lately it feels as though defenders exist more as far back midfielders, teams like Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United Liverpool, Real Madrid, Porto, and even Bayern Munich all have found issues with their backline this season. In the case of Man City it has cost them many clean sheets and games in recent games. More and more true defenders are aging out of the game and while this has allowed for midfield control it also risks a lot of clean sheets.
Defenders haven’t been phased out overnight; it's taken a whole shift in play to leave us where we are now. The midfield has always been a much needed force but it wasn’t until positional play became so widely established where we really saw the midfield dominance. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has widely expanded the trend especially within the Premier League where a multitude of teams have adapted a style which involves playing from the back and rotating not set positions. There has also been a move by several high profile clubs to use a high backline. These things combined have created a defender position where they are expected to cover a lot of midfield jobs like pushing the ball up and being available to create passing and scoring lanes.
The push for midfield control started as a solid shift looking to capitalize on the then popular strategies weaknesses. The central idea behind midfield control is if you control the middle you control the most allowing a plethora of scoring chances that sway entire games. A midfield centric game can also be very visually interesting for viewers especially between two midfield strong clubs. Watching Guardiola’s City and Arteta’s Arsenal the duties have largely been shifted to the midfield, outside of super striker Halaand.
This new style has increased responsibility but also increased scoring chances. Playing up from the back and rotating creates boxes within the midfield always allowing for space to pass and an open teammate to pass to has crafted a strategy different from the previous eras possession based play but one that’s arguably more effective. As we’ve seen with clubs like Arsenal having the ball with nowhere to pass it doesn’t generate wins, strong passing lanes and open players however do. This is where defenders' new role comes into play.
An early issue Manchester City faced when trying to overload the midfield was opposing teams just shifting one or two players to give cover, the way they adapted this was by incorporating defenders and even the goal keeper. Forcing defenders to move up the wings further and further making themselves available keeps the advantage and allows for teams to be more involved in the opposition's half. This push up means teams can lose possession without risking much offensive attack as they make the other team have to go that much farther. It also helps with attacking as it gives the kind of over and over shots we’ve seen from many Premier League teams.
While there has been a strong positive shift in many aspects there’s a lot of harm coming from this move. Making defenders rotate and move up the field means other midfield players tend to be pushed back slightly or are placed in a better position to defend than the actual defender. These instances aren’t the most common but when they happen they allow opposing teams to get a clean breakaway and give the defenders even more room they need to cover. Positions exist for a reason and while rotating and zoning are helpful to create flow and a sense of unpredictability they shouldn’t take place to the extent where it leads to a team losing.
Manchester City last year's treble hot shots have lost a small handful of games this season and every time a loss has happened it can be attributed to a slow sloppy defense largely suffering at the hands of their once great strategy. Most recently Chelsea took full advantage of Man City’s high spaced backline and forward pushed defenders. City were pretty stuck on their strategy and so weren’t able to adapt at all throughout the game. Chelsea’s performance was aided ten fold by the front pushed defenders and highbackline.
While a highbackline keeps the opposition in their own half it also quickly becomes a trap for teams. Without many players deep all it takes is a careful pass and a quick striker for a team to go down. As these high back lines have become more and more prevalent teams have learned better and better how to play against them and it’s gotten to a point where any benefit offensively is massively negated from a defense perspective. High scoring may be nice but it’s not all that fun when your opponent zips past the defense with no one close enough to truly catch them. High backlines also highlight any small mistake a defender makes, there’s no room for the smallest mistake when the other team has already been handed an advantage.
Strategically the best clubs can and have all been able to cope with the decrease in defense by simply out-scoring them, this however is extremely risky and more importantly defeats a central aspect of the game. Sports evolve as time goes 0n but football has always been a low scoring game, with the entirety of both teams on the field and having a large space defense was built into the game from the start. Goals should be the product of fight and a hard one at that, the death of defense isn’t just a strategic fallacy it threatens the core of a game.
Having teams compete in all aspects is also more visually interesting to watch, fans enjoy seeing defenders really fight for the badge. The decline of defense is a troubling sign but one that will hopefully change as the midfield obsession files out. A solid defense can win a game and when teams see this hopefully a shift back towards true defense can be made or it can at least be considered.
