MyOnlySolskjaer
Creator of Player Performance threads
Naturally, a lot of the focus goes to attackers in the modern game but if you look at the defensive players out there in recent years I feel there's been a massive decline compared to 10/15 or so years ago where we were filled in a world with Lucio, Puyol, Nesta, Vidic, Rio, Terry, Carvalho, Campbell etc.
I understand defence is something that's quite hard to quantify, everyone has their own measures whether it be tackles, interceptions, headers and in the modern game distribution/ball playing ability. If we are to look at individuals you merely have to take one look at national sides to see if there has been a steep decline of talent. Is there anyone that matches to Rio, Terry for England, Puyol for Spain? Maldini, Nesta for Italy, Carvalho for Portugal etc.
It's been refreshing to see the likes of Van Dijk win the UEFA best player award if you're a neutral, he seems like a rare breed of genuine defensive talent as a CB in the modern game, by how much was paid to sign him it only illustrates how hard it is to get a quality center back. Nowadays if we were to state the top center backs we'd probably list Van Dijk, Ramos and maybe Pique? Why do you think the stock of center backs has fallen so much?
Share your thoughts.
I understand defence is something that's quite hard to quantify, everyone has their own measures whether it be tackles, interceptions, headers and in the modern game distribution/ball playing ability. If we are to look at individuals you merely have to take one look at national sides to see if there has been a steep decline of talent. Is there anyone that matches to Rio, Terry for England, Puyol for Spain? Maldini, Nesta for Italy, Carvalho for Portugal etc.
It's been refreshing to see the likes of Van Dijk win the UEFA best player award if you're a neutral, he seems like a rare breed of genuine defensive talent as a CB in the modern game, by how much was paid to sign him it only illustrates how hard it is to get a quality center back. Nowadays if we were to state the top center backs we'd probably list Van Dijk, Ramos and maybe Pique? Why do you think the stock of center backs has fallen so much?
Share your thoughts.
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