by Douglas
Playing from the backfield formation, defenders are the players focused on intercepting the final moves from the opponents which are attacking forwards.
In general, they are taller than the other players and in some cases it is very common to see them showing limited skills when controlling the ball, despite some of them being skillful as midfielders.
These guys have as their main characteristic the capacity of breaking a dribble, or changing pass to the other side, on an impressive accurate timing.
When they are really talented, capable to tackle most of the times, they are said to be safe harbor to the goal keepers, since they will probably share all the hard defensive work.
Nowadays, professional players from this position are bringing wonderful quality to the field, where it looks like they’ve evolved.
For sure it’s a concrete fact, and as example to prove this we can take the 16th match of Champions League, Chelsea 2 vs 2 Paris SG, at the Stamford Bridge stadium. To summarize this draw, PSG defenders David Luiz and Thiago Silva basically saved the team scoring one goal each one in a very exciting battle.
Their posture in this game was really brave, stopping Chelsea attack with an absolute concentration level, covering all defensive field and putting an extra contribution doing the attack service on corner plays.
On the other hand, in the next round, PSG confronted Barcelona and the scenario changed completely. Thiago Silva was out because of an injury and David Luiz was still recovering from an injury and wasn’t in 100 percent conditions. As a consequence, Barcelona imposed the high level as usual this season, where Luiz Suarez scored 2 goals performing incredible nutmegs over David Luiz before strike on both.
Of course there are uncountable well talented defenders around the world, we can name lots of them along the history. But the facts described above, in this specific situation, was a simple approach to showing how fast – sometimes unfairly – defenders are exposed to live days of heavens and hell.
They can be heroes in some moments but can the be found completely defeated in others. This is a fact completely understandable for the fans, as it’s part of the football magic. For this reason, good defenders will be always remembered for their glories as legends.
P.S. Nutmegs / Tunnel (UK) = Caneta / Rolinho (BR)
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