Makelele Spoils It
How he destroyed art of defending
DEFENDING across the world has become a lost art over the last few years. Gone are the days of Jaap Stam, Fabio Cannavaro and Tony Adams, figures who commanded their back lines and struck fear into opposing forwards. And I think I know why.
In fact, I think I can lay the blame on one person, or two at a push.
Claude Makelele was undoubtedly a superb player. He was so good they named him twice. No wait, that’s Eric Djemba-Djemba. Makelele was so good that he had a position named after him.
No player, before or after, has had that honour, but it is the ‘Makelele role’ that has ruined the art of defending and put a major cloud over the eyes of many football fans.
Take the El Clasico fixture from March 2014. A Lionel Messi (who else?) hat-trick gave Barcelona a 4-3 win. Some would say it was one of the games of the 13-14 season in all of Europe. I would disagree.
While the match at the Bernabeu was full of goals, it was hardly exciting. It seemed every time an attack was made that a goal would come at the end of it.
Brilliant if all you’re watching football for is goals. But that’s just like watching motor racing purely for the crashes.
While we all want to see the ball finding the back of the net, we have been spoiled over here in the Premier League in recent years with the number of times it has.
Makelele moved to the Premier League in 2003, signed by Claudio Ranieri but he became an integral part of Jose Mourinho’s match day XI as Chelsea took the title in successive years from 2004-06.
His role was simple. Sit in front of the defence and fill in should anybody go maraud-
ing forward on an adventure. Mourinho gave him this role, and it is the Portuguese that is the other person to blame for defending going down the pan.
In theory, this is a fantastic position, but it is surely what a midfielder should be doing anyway? Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira certainly did, although they seemed to cover every blade of grass in every game they played.
What Makelele has caused is over-attacking defenders. Defenders who wander meaninglessly forward knowing the protection is there. It’s not how it should be.
As a defender, you should be the last line before the goalkeeper. It shouldn’t be you and then someone covering. If you make a mistake as a defender, it leads to a goalscoring opportunity, not to the attacker running into Makelele, Michael Carrick or the likes.
England fans are beginning to realise that defender Glen Johnson is not good enough. Attacking wise, maybe – defensively, definitely not.
Remember that former England right back Gary Neville? The same Gary Neville who is now one of Sky’s leading pundits?
He was a very good defender but I’ve heard criticisms of Neville in recent times because he was too basic a player. Forgive me for being potentially naïve, but is it possible for a defender to be too basic?
In Neville’s position, your main job is to defend and stop the opposition attacking. If the opportunity arises for you to overlap and get into an attacking position yourself, then by all means go for it. But to criticise a defender for not creating enough, or for doing nothing spectacular is ridiculous.
Ashley Cole, Leighton Baines and, in the past 18 months, Seamus Coleman have changed the perceived role of a full-back. Everybody loves these players because of their ability going forward. Let’s remember that this is not what they are in the team for.
A lot of people agreed that Baines was the right choice for England in Brazil in the summer but he was found out defensively. I hate to say it but Luke Shaw seems to be going the same way, even so early in his career.
Would these players be pushing forward if a Makelele, Gareth Barry or James Milner was not there filling in for them?
It has come with pressure from the stands. Fans want to see goals. The majority of football fans tune in to Match Of The Day on a Saturday to watch goals.
The producers at the BBC
tend to oblige by putting on the games with the goals early. As soon as a tactical 1-0 is played out, it gets shafted down the order.
The statistics tell you more and more goals are being scored every year. The total tally for a Premier League season has passed 1,000 every year since 2010.
Go back to the 2006-07 season and just 931 goals were scored at an average of 2.45 goals per game. In 08-09 it was 942 at 2.47, and 944 at 2.48 in 05-06.
Don’t get me wrong, I love goals. But I also love good defending.
We have undoubtedly been spoiled with the amount of them though in the ‘big’ games in the past couple of seasons, by which I mean matches between teams in the top six or seven.
The 13-14 season saw 116 goals scored in the 42 matches between the teams that finished first to seventh.
Manchester City v Arsenal was the joint highest scoring game of the season with the hosts winning 6-3 while Tottenham conceded 11 in their two games against the champions.
Games between the top teams always used to be cagey defensive affairs, and I loved them. Not anymore.
Defending seems to be an afterthought to managers and players alike. Teams are fright- ened of losing but tend to play with much more freedom when a goal down.
I remember when 2-0 was a comfortable lead. Now it’s deemed the most dangerous score line.
This comes from the fact that as soon as a team goes two down, they just throw everyone forward. There is as much chance of pulling it back to 2-2 as there is to lose 4-0.
Why worry about how many you concede when already two down seems to be the mentality. It’s all about scoring.
It makes sense, but leading 2-0 being a dangerous score is ridiculous. Are teams thinking this and then not wanting to take a two-goal lead?
Perhaps if players focused on defending, going two down wouldn’t be a worry because you’d know a comeback is unlikely to happen.
But it takes me back to Makelele. His role has brought on this mentality for defenders.
When Rafael, Calum Chambers and, going further afield, Dani Alves lose the ball near the opposition box, they don’t worry about sprinting back to get in position. They know someone is doing it for them.
Louis van Gaal criticised Shaw early in his Manchester United reign because the former Southampton man lacked fitness. Could this be something to do with it?
It’s perhaps unlikely, but if he does not have to sprint 60 yards to recover whenever he loses the ball, why would he train his body for it?
Get rid of the defensive midfielder and I predict defending will improve. I live in hope.