After watching the world's most expensive defender on display against Manchester City earlier, I came to a realisation. Nowadays it's hard to find decent defenders like the great ones that were around a decade ago for example. A whole new breed of young defenders has risen, but none will amount to the legends of the past and the legends that are finishing off their last years such as Maldini, Cannavaro, Thuram, Stam, Cafu, Sensini...

I may have missed many but you get what I mean. The question now is who will be the next Maldini? Carlos? Or for that matter the next big time defender?

Looking at the current players, I really feel that they are not as disciplined as the old timers. That really is a scary thought, because we will no longer see great defending..I dont even want to start with the legends such as listed below:

1- Franz Beckenbauer (Germany)
2- Nilton Santos ( Brazil)
3- Bobby Moore (England )
4- Carrizzo ( Uruguay )
5- Franco Baresi (Italy )
6- Elias Figueroa ( Chile )
7- Domingos da Guia ( Brazil)
8- Djalma Santos ( Brazil)
9- Gaetano Scirea ( Italy )

Anyone on the same frequency please comment...

I feel u men. The era of great defenders is going by (and exactly y my Milan cant see a world class defender in the market to buy ) At times i wonder if the caliber of defenders that we used to have can ever be replaced. Going back even just ten yrs ago (not even mentioning the beckenbauer era), or the invincible italian backline of the late eighties and early nineties), the likes of Maldini, Stam, Thuram, Cannavaro, Nesta, Cafu, Carlos, Fernando Hierro, Paulo Montero and many no-nonsense style defenders have come to an end or slowly coming to an end.

If i ask somebody now to pick out what will be the worlds tightest backline, its now very difficult to do. Its hard to see who is extremely standard 4 each wing.

Now lets go back or maybe just 5, 6 yrs ago to the late nighties, if u had told somebody then to write out an almost invincible back 4 ul readily have

Thuram(Cafu)--- Nesta(Hierro)------------Stam(Desaily)---------Carlos(Maldini)

Now i realy dont know whatz happening to all the defenders

Gray is a shadee of black or white depending on which side of the fence you're on

yeah true.

to me the golden years of football were the 90s. Defenders, Midfielders, Attackers. This topic just makes me think back to the eastern european players (boban, prosinecki, suker, jugovic, hagi, illie (shoot on sight)). the general quality of football now has dropped.

noticed most teams in italy are still holding on to their older defenders probably due to lack of enough talent of the younger ones. chiellini does seem to have a good future ahead, but who knows. the french have totally lost it (desailly, blanc - never replaced), the so-called most expensive defender, ferdinand (if i'm right), is a gentleman. i can't trust that guy when it matters most.

even with our national team, we have hopeless defenders compared to back then.

Ferdinand is the world's most expensive defender, yes. And he isn't worth it at all. As Martin Tyler said: No attacker would be afraid to be marked by Ferdinand.

I think that says it all about all current defenders under the age of 29.

true talk Chxta, i think man city's cntral defenders were under 24 or so. Maybe it's the way defenders are being trained nowadays. Maybe, there's no emphasis on robostness (physical and intimidating presence) ie. making the opposing attacker feel intimidated. I think the emphasis is more on awareness. Hope you get what i mean

Rio Ferdinard isnt the most expensive because he is the best or among the best, its probably because of the ££££ pounds and the fact that he was still very young.
the italian and spanish league wont pay as much as the english league
having said that most of the teams are grooming strikers n attacking midfielders


my rambling piece

Chxta:

Gray is a shadee of black or white depending on which side of the fence you're on

The gray shades represent the dark colurs of Milan, then the white and black in the Milan jersy too .


Anyway, i feel its like that because the mode of defending is now changing. Its now done more colectively rather that depending on single individuals as was the case b/4

sage:

Anyway, i feel its like that because the mode of defending is now changing. Its now done more colectively rather that depending on single individuals as was the case b/4

don't agree with you there. a good reason might be because of the ever-evolving FIFA rules regarding tackles. red cards are easy to pick up these days.

our yobo is very good

[flash=200,200]http://(shoot on sight)).[/flash]
Thats hilarious

What I think is that most players don't want to be defenders, they would rather try to play upfront cause of the great differences in the sign on fees of the positions

Why don't you have Keshi

@ menike

I don't understand wat you mean. pls can you be more explicit?

@yeepa

You can't understand cuz ur brain ain't reasonin' properly

Why do we Nigerians like to abuse people so much? it's like some people derive pleasure from. Well, I won't take any offence. All I was trying to say was that KESHI cannot be compared with the names mentioned.

So menike don't be quick at picking on people like that. Shootigbo

it's true the era of hard defenders is coming to an end.now what is more important is how good the defender is with the ball rather than without the ball. it should not be viewed as change in quality,rather it is a change in style and attitude.these days football is more like "total football" with attackers that mark well and defenders that shoot well too.defending these days is more about the tactics of the whole team rather than the technique of an individual defender. that is why we see less goals being scored these days with the so called weaker defenders than in the days of moore,beckenbauer,scirea,and paco gento. P.S @ menike, , refrain from insulting people when arguing a point.u may go polemical but never denigrate.if u are really intelligent u will score points and convince people without behaving like a common peasant

afro:

it's true the era of hard defenders is coming to an end.now what is more important is how good the defender is with the ball rather than without the ball. it should not be viewed as change in quality,rather it is a change in style and attitude.these days football is more like "total football" with attackers that mark well and defenders that shoot well too.defending these days is more about the tactics of the whole team rather than the technique of an individual defender. that is why we see less goals being scored these days with the so called weaker defenders than in the days of moore,beckenbauer,scirea,and paco gento. P.S @ menike, , refrain from insulting people when arguing a point.u may go polemical but never denigrate.if u are really intelligent u will score points and convince people without behaving like a common peasant

Nice words .

@yeepa
Cat I was only fuckin' wit U . But I'd like to kno Whu told U I was African or Nigerian cuz U lost it dude