DEFENCE: OLD STYLE v. NEW
— James W. Crabtree | 06/12/1902 —

It is always a difficult task to compare styles of the present and bygone generations of footballers. Insensibly we cling to the idea that the besr football we have ever seen is either that which was played by us when we were at our best, or that which wetched at the period when our enthusiasm our enthusiasm for the game was at its zenith. It is this weakness — and few people are free from it — which brings about so many conflicting ideas upon the subject of football, or for that matter, any other pastime. I should be shorry to compare too critically the play of the present with that of the past, unless, indeed, I were in a position to go into the matter thoroughly and exhaustively. No game has witnessed more changes during period of at the most thiry years, than football. No game has been more fostered more carefully and unselfishly. The conditions under which the game is played have altered so completely that it would be singular indeed if strking changes had not been about.

Originally we had the fast, dashing tearaway kind of forward play, supplemented by big kicking on the part of the halves and bigger kicking on the part of the full backs. I am told that some of the backs whom I was never privileged to see — notably L. Bury (of Cambridge), and C. J. S. King and C. W. Wilson (of Oxford) — used to kick a temendous length. Gradually, however, the theory of combination asserted itself, and various fine teams existed some years before Preston North End brought the system in the highest pitch of perfection. Blackburn Rovers, Old Carthusians, Renton, Vale of Leven, and Queen's Park all seem to have had a splendid idea of the value of combination, but it was mainly confined to the evolutions of the forwards. The great difference, I presume, between the semi-modern footballer and the purely modern footballer is that prior to the advent of North End was comparatively little combination in defence. Now there is as much combination in defence as there is among the forwards.

THE DECAY OF INDIVIDUALISM.

There is no royal rule in football. Everything is more or less a case of cause and effect. When half-backs and backs had strong, dashing forwards to contend with, men of the type of Arthur Cursham and E. C. Bambridge, they naturally opposed individual effort by individual effort. They felt pretty sure that the man they saw with the ball was the man they had to stop, and they did their best to stop him. Now it is still the duty of a half-back or a back to look carefully after the man with the ball, but he also has to keep more than half an eye upon at least one other individual, and possibly more. The wonderful skill and dexterity with which men like Bloomer and G. O. Smith habitually slip the ball across to an unmarked comrade represents on of the greatest advances which has been made in football. With a perfect understanding existing among the forwards, and an almost equally perfect understanding existing between the forwards and the halves, and the backs, it behoves those who have to break up forward combination to adapt their methods to those which are for the time being their opponents. Therefore it comes about that we possibly see less brilliant play so far as individual fort goes than we used to see.

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT UNITY WILL ACCOMPLISH.

Only those who have played full back against teams like Sunderland, Everton, and Blackburn Rovers at their best realise how absolutely essential it is that the halves in front of you shall not only take their full share of the work, but shall also act in unison with you. It can be accepted as a football axiom that a clever half and a clever back will beat the cleverest forward that ever dribbled a ball. If, after a skilful dribble, the half-back is eluded, and the back, just as he seems likely to stop the forward movement, is swarted by the man with the ball parting with it advantageously, then the defenders may be beaten, but with the halves and the backs acting with a perfect understanding, it is necessary for the combination of the forwards to be ultra-skilful for genuine progress to be made. The way in which Preston North End, whose whole team possessed a unity which has never been surpassed, used to make hacks of strong elevens, accostumed to play the individual game, proved how superior their methods were to those which ad previously been in vogue.

A FULL-BACKS DUTIES.

A very fine full back is better appreciated by spectators than a half-back of equal ability. The value of a sabe will always depend upon the possibility of scoring there was about the attack which it artested. Therefore, when a full back acquits himself skilfully in a hazardous position, he gets a more generous burst of applause than the man who, with equal skill, pulls a forward up and so nips an attack in the bud. The full back has to be bold and fearless, lithe and active, and if he's fast so much the better. A full back's judgment should be almost immaculate, too. He must know when to go for a ball, and when to leave his half-backs to go for it. He must learn to play up the field without risking his goal, and he must learn to defend at close quarters without hampering goalkeeper. You can often tell a first-class back from a second-class defender by the way in which he defends at close quarters. A goalkeeper wants room; plenty of room. A thorough understanding between a pair of backs and the man guarding the sticks is all-important.

Of course, a back should be sure-footed, and he should always be two-footed. There are backs who can only volley well with one foot, but I always tried to be equally sure with either foot, and if a back finds that he prefers to kick with one particular foot, he should use every opportunity for practising with the other. My ability to play either at right or left back has been of the tmost service to me in the course of my football career. A back should be careful not to kick too hard. Kick to your forwards, not a yard further, and keep the ball in if you can by constant practice you will be able to kick accurately along the touch-line, whereas a reckless kick means the ball going out. I always like to keep the ball in; I believe it is the game to do so.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A HALF-BACK.

Half-backs are privileged persons. It is quite as much their duty to attack as to defend; they should have a slight leaning in favour of defence; the robbing of an opponent is the cardinal point in a half-backs football faith. Give the ball to the man on your own side who is best place to receive it, if you can by all mean look after your forwards. The halves are the connecting link between the backs and the forwards; they are the most vital part of a piece of complex machinery; and if anything goes wrong with them the whole mechanism is thrown out of order. Generally speaking I have never known a team attain to any real eminence which had not an intelligent and powerful half-back line. The essential qualifications of a good half-back are multitudinous. He must be a skilful tackler. He must be up to all the wiles and dodges of a clever forward; nay, he must be up to all the tricks which a clever wing pair can spring upon him. He must have almost unnering judgment; he must divine what a forward's intention is before that intention can be translated into action. He must know when to cover a hard-pressed comrade without leaving his own wing — the wing it is his positive duty to hold in check — too dangerously open. And when he has tackled a man, and estalished a clear success, he must be able to place the ball to a comrade with unfailing accurary

SHOULD SHOOT MORE.

Then a half-back should be a good shot; if he is a deadly shot, so much the better for his side. Few half-backs shoot as well as they ought to do. William Groves was a splendid shit; so was Hugh McIntyre, of Blackburn Rovers. A half-back's duty is to keep the game going. How finely Groves used to play behind Groves and Smith, and how grandly Needham combined with Wheldon and Spiksley in that international at Glasgow in 1898. The old North End halves were always extra forwards when their side were attacking. What a power Archie Goodall has been to Derby County! J. R. Auld, the Sunderland captain, was another of infallible judgment. Some people imagine that forwards cannot drible now. They can if they like; at any rate some of them can. They would dribble more if it paid to do so; the secret is that combination in defence has rendered the dribbler's art anything but easy.