Free defender in football - the affairs of years past

A free defender in football, he's a libero, he's also a "cleaner" - a defensive player who does not have a defensive position before the match. In fact, he chooses this position with the same calculation in order to insure his team-mates, "wiping" their flaws, and, if necessary, "takes out" the ball away.

Today, it is widely believed that an intelligent defender is the enemy of the team. Part of this is true - the one who thinks less and plays simply, as a rule, is unlikely to help organize his own constructive attack, but also protect his own gate as much as possible. Most often, and had libero behind the partners' backs as a security for more advanced defenders. It would seem that a free defender in football performs simple and even slightly primitive functions, but in practice everything is not so. Players like Paolo Maldini or Franz Beckenbauer were good at choosing the right position, because they had an excellent vision of the field.

The position of "free football defender" appeared around the 1970s. The game at that time was most often based on the principle of "not to miss and try to score", that is, the original task was to not miss, secondary - to score. On the one hand, this logic is justified: did not miss - did not lose. On the other hand, the spectators are interested not only in the result, but in the quality of the game itself, roughly speaking, the people want a spectacle. In turn, the presence of the position of "free defender" involves a game with five defencists, which means that football in the style of catenaccio, the ancestors of which are Italians - a purely defensive football.

The second reason why "cleaners" have ceased to be in demand is the fixation of offside by one player. Or rather, the transition to a game with a new rule. Earlier, when the "offside" position was fixed on two enemy players, the defense could advance far enough forward, leaving behind the libero. Today, offside fix one player, and most of the world's teams play with defense in a line. As a rule, these are four defenders. Less common is a variant with three centrobes and flanking laterals, acting across the edge of the field. In order to create an artificial position "out of the game", the entire defense line must act synchronously and at the right moment go forward.

Thus, the position of "free defender" in football was abolished as unnecessary. Club and national teams gradually switched to the game "in line". However, the transition took place smoothly, and for a long time a free defender in football was associated with a personal defencist, who was "attached" to a distinguished and formidable attacker, if such was available to the opposing team. In general, the history of football knows a lot of examples when (in addition to traditional defenders, midfielders and attackers), football functionaries and coaches invented individual positions on the field to increase the effectiveness of the game. Such examples can be a winger, playmaker, center forward, "false ten", etc.