The Death of the tackle?

"Get stuck in son, let him know you're there" advice you hear from the grassroots pitch all the way through to the terraces of your favourite team. A bone crunching tackle excites the crowd and reaffirms the player's passion and dedication to give all for his team. But with referees seemingly clamping down on tough challenges and dismissals being issues for "intent", it appears the FA are trying to make tackling a much smaller part of the game - and in my opinion rightly so.

Tackling is a part of defending, and it should continue to be so, but that is all it is - a part. Tackling is a last resort, it is something that complements a good defender. Young players need to be able to tackle, but they need to have so much more to their defensive game than simply being able to get stuck in.

Young players need to understand how to defend without taking the ball, that slowing an opponent down and forcing them away from danger until frustration leads to a mistake still constitutes good defending. That applying pressure and making opponents panic in possession can lead to winning the ball. That reading the game and understanding the oppositions style of play, waiting to pounce at the opportune moment to make an inceterception is extremely effective. To summarise, they need to be more intelligent and less brute.

Paolo Maldini is the epitome of the intelligent defender; in his 24 year career at AC Milan he played over 900 games, yet only averaged a tackle once every two games. This was down two his superb positioning and superior understanding of the game. Maldini did not need to make tackles because he outplayed opponents, he frustrated them until they gave him the ball, he pressured them into going away from his goal. He is the type of defender young players should try to emmulate.

With the pace of the modern game, getting close enough to tackle is becoming more difficult; meaning greater understanding and the ability to read the game will become paramount for defenders of the future - and the way to encourage this to develop in players is high tempo, technique based work in small and tight areas.

Lets hope that we learn to appreciate the intricasies of defending instead of thinking it is simply a matter of tackling.