How to defend like England: an overview

In a series of articles, we look at how our England national teams defend and explore how you can use this approach to prepare your players for the modern game. Here, we introduce our principles of defending.
What does a skilful player look like to you? Are they the ones who bring the crowd to the edge of their seat as they glide seamlessly past the opposition?

Are they the ones that make you hold your breath in anticipation as they prepare to bend the ball into the back of the net with laser-like precision?

Perhaps they’re the ones who can pick out a pass that’s out of this world?

Whoever they are, you know they have the skill to make something magical happen. Paul Gascoigne. David Beckham. Wayne Rooney. Kelly Smith. Ellen White. Nikita Parris.

But what about great defenders? The ones who dominate within their own box. Or the ones who force the opposition out wide and delay their opponent long enough for their own team to get back into shape. Are they not skilful too?

For us, defending is an art. It involves intelligent craft and skill behind each action, which can take time to refine. As a coach, it’s your job to help your players develop the tools they need to do this.

Introducing players to defending early on in their development helps them prepare for the modern game. But you need to be prepared too. Understanding the principles of defending will help you recognise the individual roles and responsibilities required for defending, alongside the key skills they entail.

If we take the way our England teams defend as an example: they aim to delay, deny and dictate the opposition attacks – a key part of their out of possession strategy. This involves players having the skill to deny space and dictate the direction and speed of play, alongside being able to prevent the opposition from using their preferred attacking method.

Let’s take a closer look in this video.