Sweepers

[shrewinjapan]

Was just thinking, what happened to this position/system? A mainstay of late 80's and early 90's football, but you never hear of it anymore. One to make a comeback with the current Chelsea/England type deep ultra-defensive counter-attack based anti-football?

[Rusholme Ruffian]

Italy have been kind of playing it with DeRossi and across europe a number of central midfielders are being converted into centre backs - i'm thinking busquets, mascherano, Javi martinez.
Position slightly before my time though, although i do remember Lothar Matthaus playing it wonderfully with Germany.

Defensively i think that potential spare man has become a sitting midfielder with much less freedom and don't know how many players could play that role. Especially in English football.

[The Shropshire Tenor]

Jun 19, 2012 9:48:21 GMT 1 Rusholme Ruffian said:

Defensively i think that potential spare man has become a sitting midfielder with much less freedom and don't know how many players could play that role. Especially in English football.

Agreed, a position I played in the late 1960's and described by our coach as 'sweeping in front of the defence'.

He was ahead of his time.

[venceremos]

None finer defensively than Franco Baresi. Except perhaps Beckenbauer sometimes played what could be called a sweeper role.

Don't remember it being a negative position though - the best sweepers were good passers. England and English clubs struggled to use it because their defenders tended not to be good enough in possession. Defensive midfielders, like Ray Wilkins, seemed the best bet for the position. Bryan Robson might have become a great one if his shoulder stayed in.

I seem to remember reading that outlawing keepers picking up the backpass played a part in its demise - perhaps because teams played a higher defensive line and compressed the play?

[vanner]

Still used in South America!

[salop80]

Trigger used to be a quality one