2022-07-29, 10:06 AM - Word count:
They're good for a lot of things but I'll get to that. Next week I'll be back to my breaking the triangle series but for various reasons I'm doing this on my phone and I will need to break out pictures to illustrate various things like the massive difference between inverted wingers and inside forwards. Idk if this will reach 300 words but I'm going to swing as hard as I can with what little brain power I have atm.
Anyway onto the meat. The first thing we need to talk about is the terminology. A centerback is the player that sits in the center of the field but in the back of the formation. I have to be obtuse like that because the British parlance for the spot is centerhalf. I don't know why they named it that because it makes no sense but if you see that said anywhere this is what they're talking about.
Now offsides is where you need two players from the other team between you and the person you are passing the ball forward to. That wasn't so hard now was it? What this boils down to in most situations is that the center back is the one holding the striker offside or holding them onside. Wide defenders go forward a lot more so more than often they're inconsequential to offsides.
Having a break here because I'll need to do an article on "a shielding the defensive line aka 442 does not work anymore" article. Just safe to say that offisdes is a center back thing.
What you'll also have a lot of is that these center backs are the last line of defence and play a lot into the pressing game. Again explaining the concepts of pressing and their geometrical implications, pay attention in math class kids shapes are important for soccer, will need to be another article. Short tease is that basketball and hockey have had a larger influence on modern pressing than the Soviets or Germans. I say Soviets by the way because it's harder to tell where the Ukrainian influence comes in and the Russian influence ends but when they invented pressing it was all soviet.
The major shism in center back setups is 3 back vs 2 center back 2 wideback setups. I will address 3 backs first.
The major difference between the two is a usage of the wide center back role and a center centerback that is either a libero or a ball playing centerback. Wide centerbacks are just center backs that play laterally. Yes there is the concept of underlapping center backs but we don't need to worry a out that now. The biggest difference between concepts comes from what to do with that center centerback. You should have a sweeper keeper on defend and ask no more questions until you can answer them on this topic. BUT if you're playing with a superstar goalie then you can play them aggressively by having them on support or attack. The sweeper part of the name comes from the sweeper position that used to be around that would come behind the centerback line to sweep up through balls and then bring them forward. This is basically the libero role in the game today, it all but died out as a German super keeper got board one day and decided he wanted to be a soccer player too. However with the revival of the 3 back system in soccer it has also come back into style.
The libero and the ball playing centerback are a lot alike. The bpd will take the ball and move forward with it. However the bpd won't go back behind the center back line to get the ball first. The libero will take the ball and then move forward with it, going forward in possession and being the first one that gets backpasses. If you have that superstar goalie then play a bpd otherwise a libero is best for a 3 back system.
No nonsense center backs are bad for your team. They're for a center back you don't trust to ever have the ball and want to minimize their agency in the game as much as possible. They will pass the ball immediately to someone else and won't try to do anything to go forward. This however makes them weaker to players that like to break offsides.
One thing that needs to be mentioned about center backs are half backs. Back before the more recent fms you had to have a defensive midfielder as a half back in order to induce your two center backs to shift out wider so your sweeper keeper could shine more. They're like libero's but they start further up the field and stay more defensible there.
Center defenders are a managers best friend. They do a little bit of everything I've described so far but care more about being a center defender than anything else. Which is super good for a spot that is probably the most important to have at the least good personnel there. I should know my teams as a gm were very bad because the previous gm wiffed so hard on that spot that we ended up being the worst team in the league for the start of this league.
Centerbacks being tall and strong usually tend to be great at set prices. Set them to attack the near and far post for corners.
Alright let's hope my internet puts this through and happy s6 everyone?
Anyway onto the meat. The first thing we need to talk about is the terminology. A centerback is the player that sits in the center of the field but in the back of the formation. I have to be obtuse like that because the British parlance for the spot is centerhalf. I don't know why they named it that because it makes no sense but if you see that said anywhere this is what they're talking about.
Now offsides is where you need two players from the other team between you and the person you are passing the ball forward to. That wasn't so hard now was it? What this boils down to in most situations is that the center back is the one holding the striker offside or holding them onside. Wide defenders go forward a lot more so more than often they're inconsequential to offsides.
Having a break here because I'll need to do an article on "a shielding the defensive line aka 442 does not work anymore" article. Just safe to say that offisdes is a center back thing.
What you'll also have a lot of is that these center backs are the last line of defence and play a lot into the pressing game. Again explaining the concepts of pressing and their geometrical implications, pay attention in math class kids shapes are important for soccer, will need to be another article. Short tease is that basketball and hockey have had a larger influence on modern pressing than the Soviets or Germans. I say Soviets by the way because it's harder to tell where the Ukrainian influence comes in and the Russian influence ends but when they invented pressing it was all soviet.
The major shism in center back setups is 3 back vs 2 center back 2 wideback setups. I will address 3 backs first.
The major difference between the two is a usage of the wide center back role and a center centerback that is either a libero or a ball playing centerback. Wide centerbacks are just center backs that play laterally. Yes there is the concept of underlapping center backs but we don't need to worry a out that now. The biggest difference between concepts comes from what to do with that center centerback. You should have a sweeper keeper on defend and ask no more questions until you can answer them on this topic. BUT if you're playing with a superstar goalie then you can play them aggressively by having them on support or attack. The sweeper part of the name comes from the sweeper position that used to be around that would come behind the centerback line to sweep up through balls and then bring them forward. This is basically the libero role in the game today, it all but died out as a German super keeper got board one day and decided he wanted to be a soccer player too. However with the revival of the 3 back system in soccer it has also come back into style.
The libero and the ball playing centerback are a lot alike. The bpd will take the ball and move forward with it. However the bpd won't go back behind the center back line to get the ball first. The libero will take the ball and then move forward with it, going forward in possession and being the first one that gets backpasses. If you have that superstar goalie then play a bpd otherwise a libero is best for a 3 back system.
No nonsense center backs are bad for your team. They're for a center back you don't trust to ever have the ball and want to minimize their agency in the game as much as possible. They will pass the ball immediately to someone else and won't try to do anything to go forward. This however makes them weaker to players that like to break offsides.
One thing that needs to be mentioned about center backs are half backs. Back before the more recent fms you had to have a defensive midfielder as a half back in order to induce your two center backs to shift out wider so your sweeper keeper could shine more. They're like libero's but they start further up the field and stay more defensible there.
Center defenders are a managers best friend. They do a little bit of everything I've described so far but care more about being a center defender than anything else. Which is super good for a spot that is probably the most important to have at the least good personnel there. I should know my teams as a gm were very bad because the previous gm wiffed so hard on that spot that we ended up being the worst team in the league for the start of this league.
Centerbacks being tall and strong usually tend to be great at set prices. Set them to attack the near and far post for corners.
Alright let's hope my internet puts this through and happy s6 everyone?
