Manchester United and Everton Show Us How Not to Play Defense

Discussion in 'Manchester United FC' started by truebluefan, Jan 12, 2015.

  1. truebluefan

    truebluefan Administrator Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 15, 2010
    Messages:
    212,768
    Likes Received:
    821
    Trophy Points:
    113
    Defending is hard, and it’s often oversimplified. Blame frequently gets heaped on whoever is standing closest to the shooter when the ball happens to go into the net, when it should really be shared among the players responsible for two, three, or four steps in a chain of events.

    It makes metaphorical sense, then, that the best defenses operate like nuclear reactors, with numerous protections in place to protect against the ultimate meltdown: conceding a goal. Eden Hazard might skin your left back, but it’s OK because there’s a defensive midfielder waiting behind. There’s another defender waiting for the cross at the back post, and a midfielder tracking the late run of the player steaming into the box to get on the end of the ball. Fail-safes on top of fail-safes.

    Despite all the precautions put in place, though, defenses obviously still fail, and they do so fairly often. Those failures generally fall into one of two categories.

    Read more http://grantland.com/the-triangle/english-premier-league-defense-manchester-united-everton/
     

Share This Page