Developing the 'art of defending'
- The Boot Room
- 31 August 2017
England U18 coach, Neil Dewsnip, stresses the importance of developing players who relish the ‘art of defending’, highlighting the benefits of introducing defensive topics at the beginning of the player journey.
In your time working in club and international football have you seen a different type of player coming through in recent years?Neil Dewsnip: I think the onus over the last ten years has very much been on creativity and possession of the ball. What we’re finding with some of the players coming through in the England youth sides are players who are quite comfortable in possession of the ball, but maybe lacking some of the craft of defending – the ‘art’ of defending.
Things such as defensive heading is a rarer commodity than what it once was and players who understand the art of 1v1 and 1v2 defending concepts: when to try and immediately regain the ball and when to drop and provide cover and support. Of course, some players still have this, but the quantity of players with those skills is a bit of a challenge.
Why do you think this is the case?There have been lots of strides made with encouraging teams to play out from the back and some players do that very well. We needed to produce defenders who were better in possession of the ball, there’s no doubt about that.
But, as a priority and by definition, defenders are there to defend and so we mustn’t ignore the art of defending. When developing young players it is absolutely vital. As players progress through the age-groups and the game gets tougher and more mature then some of these aspects of defending become really crucial to the game.
Somebody has to defend against the best attacking players – and that is not only the central defenders and full-backs but often one, or even two, holding midfield players.
Defensive heading is a rarer commodity than what it once was
When should we start to introduce defending skills with young players? In my past life, when I was with Everton for 17 years, as part of the technical programme defending was in from the very start of the player journey.
The boys as young as nine would have an all-round education, not just part of an education. The programme was focused on both in possession and out of possession themes.
Within the out of possession work there was a lot of 1v1 defending. In fact, we thought 1v1 defending was so important it went all the way through the programme for all age-groups right up to the U21 group.
Do you think there's a problem that young players don't want to be defenders? If you put it in the context of the England U18 team that I currently work with, you’ve got a variety of different players with different skill sets, but many who love defending.
Reece Oxford, from West Ham, is one of them and has a particular talent for defensive heading.
Then, there’s Ro-Shaun Williams, from Manchester United, who genuinely loves regaining the ball for the team and stopping the opposition scoring. Tom Davies, who made his debut for Everton last season, also sees that as part of his role.
It’s important to say that every player has to defend – it’s just the area of the field that changes. There are lots of examples in both club and international football of teams pressing effectively from the front – with attacking players proving hugely effective at regaining the ball.
It’s important from a team point of view that the defending aspect functions efficiently in all areas of the field otherwise it’s most likely we’re going to concede goals.
Defenders are there to defend and so we mustn’t ignore the art of defending
How important is it for coaches to highlight and value these aspects of the game? It takes all things to produce a very talented team. If we’re talking about developing a talented team for England in the future we’re going to need players with a variety of skill sets.
We’re going to need outstanding defenders and that’s got to start at the beginning of the journey. The players have got to fall in love with being outstanding defenders.
It’s important to say that every player has to defend – it’s just the area of the field that changes
What's your 'take-home message' for coaches on the theme of defending? The take home messages for coaches who are just starting out in the game, and those coaches who are involved in the design of coaching programmes in both the grassroots and professional game, is that it’s an all-round education that players need.
We’ve got to help players learn all the techniques and skills of the game, not just part of the game. Otherwise, we’ll only produce part-footballers instead of whole footballers.
