The central defenders club

For the lovers of the beautiful game, today’s central defenders don’t paint much of a ‘beautiful’ picture. In their prime they all resemble the hard elements of the society. Maybe it’s the job they do; destructive by nature, violent in spirit and vitriolic at the best of times. The art of defending nowadays is an ‘art’ only to a certain extent.

I shudder to think of especially the diminutive strikers who on paper are meat and fodder for the aforementioned species. However, as things stand, it is these very diminutive strikers – Tevez, Messi, Rooney, Aguero and co. who survive the butchering by skipping past these hounds of men with an impish grace. The brunt of the beating is taken by strikers of a similar built; as they arouse the physical instincts of these defenders like no other.

Nemanja Vidic, Vincent Kompany, Martin Skrtel, Pepe, Giorgio Chiellini, Carlos Puyol, Marco Materazzi etc are all apparently soft spoken and gentle guys outside the football pitch. But once inside, one look at them and you know they are baying for blood!

So what makes these men the way they are. Tattooed all over, shining scalps with little or no hair, builds that would put professional wrestlers to shame and cold blooded eyes that reek of hatred for anyone inside their half. I guess intimidation might be an answer; especially in the English Premier League where the physical attributes at times rule over the technical aspects. Case in point would be Stoke City. Their defensive line up at times resembles a group of hard liners on their day out. Robert Huth, Ryan Shawcross, Andy Wilkinson represent the sort of challenge that is unique to the English game.

In Spain Puyol and Pepe lead the baton. Though with Pep Guardiola’s insistence on starting the attack from the defense, Puyol’s days certainly look numbered as Mascherano and Busquets slowly but surely take over. Even today, Puyol represents a visual treat – a flowing mane of hair and a hardened look during a match. Pepe at Madrid, on the other hand makes up for the absence of the mane with a more active participation in ‘stamping out attackers’ from the beautiful game. His track record at losing his cool with opposition attackers is probably the benchmark for all those in the central defending industry.

I guess the platform was set by Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal as Tony Adams, Sol Campbell and Martin Keown all looked to be a minute away from exploding on the pitch. With Tony Adams it may be the hangover of another booze filled training session, but Campbell and Keown genuinely looked to crush any opposition surge with merciless grace. The abiding sight of the ‘Invincibles’ era was probably Martin Keown performing his own imitation of the tribal sacrificial dance in front of Ruud Van Nisterlooy when the gentle Dutch missed a penalty against Arsenal in a league game.

Back at Manchester City, Kompany and that man mountain Richards in the back force, De Jong ‘the player kicking machine’ and Yaya Toure screening the back four and complemented by Balotelli (a man with pseudo-authentic Italian mafia connections) and Tevez (forever coming straight from a brawl) leading the lines, have a fearsome presence on the pitch.

So here’s a silent prayer to all those gullible attackers who dare to trespass in the opposition frontiers and greet these ‘thugs’ with an eye for an eye.