Why has Premier League defending become so bad?
With Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all suffering defensive frailties in the opening weekend of the season it could be said that the Premier League has become the home of awful defending.
There were 13 goals scored in the two games before the traditional Saturday 3pm kick offs and a total of 31 scored in the opening gameweek of the Premier League. Some may say that this makes the Premier League better than any other in terms of excitement and value for money. But this goal-fest does come at a price.
While it could be argued that in this sense the Premier League is the best in the world, the results of English teams in the Champions League and the success of the national side would suggest otherwise.
The fact that in recent years the so many high-quality managers and players have been attracted to the English top-tier is testament to the exciting and competitive nature of the league. However, the exciting nature and number of goals is ultimately down to the inability to defend, as seen with many of the opening day fixtures, particularly involving the top teams.
To a certain point, the defensive chaos can be attributed to the change in the laws of the game making it more difficult for the modern defender. The change in the offside rule means defenders can't just push up knowing that anyone behind them is offside. For example, in previous interepretation's of the law Shinji Okazaki's goal against Arsenal would not have stood as he was standing in an offside position when the original cross came in. This means defenders have to be much more astute and ready to react to specific situations.
Additionally, tackles and fouls are being punished much more harshly than ever before, again making it harder for defenders to do their job. Defenders are often scared to make a tackle and can no longer make up for a mistake by committing a tactical foul, as they may have done in the past.
These law changes have certainly been positive for the game in general, allowing attacking play to thrive but it has come at a cost to defending.
Recent tactical ideas are also linked to the decline in quality of Premier League defending. The increasing importance of a 'ball-playing' centre back means players like John Stones are asked to focus more on their passing and distribution than actual defending. Full-backs are now all more or less considered as wing-backs with attacking and crossing becoming more important than tackling and providing defensive cover.
The shambolic defending is part and parcel of the modern Premier League but the top teams will need to try and resolve these problems if they want to achieve success on a higher stage.