Defense —— The Guarantee for Modern Football Victory
In the world's top competition project —— football matches, the most breathtaking and exciting part is undoubtedly goal-scoring. When Messi, Ronaldo, and Van Persie score goals, the jubilant celebration scenes of audiences in the stadium and in front of televisions are unforgettable. This is the charm of football and the greatest enjoyment it brings to people. Historically, footballers of the year have mostly been offensive shooters like Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, and Messi (Happy8 [http://www.2688pk.com/bocairibo/kaixin8_HAPPY8_kaixin8beiyong/]).
The development of modern football emphasizes more on overall teamwork. A team is not just one person’s team but a whole of 11 players: sharp attacks in the forward line, coordinated midfield play, and solid defensive structures form a high-level team. The most overlooked and pressured members are often the defenders who bear the heavy responsibility of defense. It's easy to concede a goal, but scoring is much harder, so goalkeepers, defenders, and even defensive midfielders must take on tedious defensive tasks (commonly referred to as "dirty and tiring work") (LeTianTang [http://www.2688pk.com/bocairibo/letiantang_letiantangbeiyong]). A team with weak defenses, no matter how sharp its offense is, will find it difficult to win matches.
This season, Arsenal has seen a significant decline in performance due to weak defenses. Despite Van Persie's brilliant performance with 25 league goals, the backline was fragile, leading to a humiliating 2-8 defeat against Manchester United and a 0-4 loss in the first leg of the Champions League away game against AC Milan. After Fabregas and Nasri left at the start of the season (Blog International [http://www.2688pk.com/bocairibo/bokeguoji_bokeguojibeiyong/]), Professor Wenger rebuilt the attacking and midfield lines, maintaining their original offensive level. However, neglecting the strengthening and reform of the backline led to a drop in performance, resulting in a heavy price being paid.
When young coach Andre Villas-Boas took over Chelsea at the beginning of the season, great hopes were pinned on him. But now, Chelsea ranks fifth in the Premier League, trailing leader Manchester City by 17 points. In the first leg of the Champions League round of 16, they lost 1-3 to Napoli. The reason lies in the obvious decline in Chelsea's defense. While Boas injected many technical elements into Chelsea's attack, diversifying the layers of attack, his fatal flaw was neglecting the importance of defense. Defense is not solely the responsibility of defenders; there needs to be emphasis on "mutual defense," where midfielders should always reduce pressure on their defenders. In modern football, where players need to be able to both attack and defend, midfielders are expected to be versatile. However, Chelsea's midfielders like Mata, Ramires, and Meireles do not participate in defense. When captain and center-back Terry was injured, Luiz, who excels in assisting attacks, frequently moved forward and neglected his responsibilities as a center-back, causing Chelsea's defense to collapse entirely. Their 1-3 loss to Napoli is proof of this.
In last week's Premier League match, Chelsea's backline almost collapsed, losing 0-1 to previous underdog West Bromwich Albion away. If it weren't for goalkeeper Petr Cech's heroic saves of several certain goals, Chelsea would have suffered an embarrassing defeat. Compared with data analysis from various aspects, Chelsea was at a disadvantage in their match against West Bromwich. The once mighty Chelsea is now easily defeated. The Chelsea official resolutely announced the next day after the match: termination of the contract with young coach Boas. Boas worked at Chelsea for less than nine months before being dismissed prematurely. Although Boas should be a good coach, his neglect of defense makes his achievements incomparable to those of his mentor Mourinho, and both he and his coached Chelsea paid a heavy price.
Let's look at last season's champions Manchester United. At the beginning of the season, Spanish young goalkeeper David de Gea replaced retired Edwin van der Sar. De Gea's unstable performance in the first half of the season caused Manchester United to lose several key matches due to critical mistakes. With the injuries of veterans Ferdinand and Vidic, Ferguson deployed too many young players in the backline, making the usually reliable Manchester United defense unstable. Being eliminated in the Champions League group stage and suffering a 1-6 home defeat against city rival Manchester City demonstrated that the stability of a team's backline is the guarantee for victory. The current Premier League leader Manchester City also has problems, but their outstanding backline composed of Joe Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy, and Richards is well-known. This backline can be considered the best-performing backline in this Premier League season, which has kept them at the top of the Premier League rankings for several months.
Let's take a look at the Italian teams performing well this season. Italian football used to focus on "concrete-style defense" and "chain-style defense," which succeeded more than twenty years ago but has been proven outdated today and is no longer viable. Nowadays, Italian defense has incorporated many modern football defensive concepts, such as multi-layered and multi-directional defense, instead of merely compressing their defensive personnel within their own penalty area and adopting "meat shield tactics." The transition between attack and defense is fast, enhancing the effectiveness of defense significantly. In the game where Napoli defeated Chelsea 3-1 at home, it was precisely through this advanced concept of rapid transitions between attack and defense and sharp offenses that they won the match and compensated for their defensive flaws.
In recent European football history, all top European clubs have had first-class defensive capabilities. Taking the European champions as examples: AC Milan's central defender pair was Nesta and Silva, Manchester United's central defender pair was Ferdinand and Vidic, Inter Milan's central defender combination was Lucio and Samuel, and last season's champion Barcelona's combination was Pique and Puyol. The existence of these core defensive players is the reason why these top clubs remain strong and is the solid foundation for their victories and invincibility! Reprinted from EShiBo http://www.2688pk.com/bocairibo/Eshibo[http://www.2688pk.com/bocairibo/Eshibo].