The Evolution of the Centre Back Role

A centre back used to have one job: defend. They were menacing, tough-tackling and hard as nails. Were they good with the ball at their feet?

It hardly mattered.

Would you want to meet them down a dark alley?

Absolutely not.

But much like the role of a goalkeeper, the job of a centre back has evolved rapidly, particularly in the last decade, seeing desired traits change and prices sky rocket.

The most celebrated central defender from the 60s was Bobby Moore. But the cool, calm, composed centre half who recorded two assists in the World Cup final thanks to his quick thinking, vision and ability to pick a pass was ahead of his time. His patience and ball-playing ability were not reflective of centre backs of his era.

Norman Hunter of Leeds, Chelsea's Ron Harris and Liverpool's Tommy Smith were the players who characterised the centre half position during the 60s and 70s.

Harris was nicknamed 'Chopper', Hunter was affectionately called 'Bites Yer Legs' and when discussing Smith, Liverpool boss Bill Shankley said: "He wasn't born, he was quarried".

These are the no-nonsense, uncompromising hard men who stood at the heart of back fours up and down the country. They lived to defend. Cut them open and they bleed... tackling.

And this is predominantly how the role would remain throughout the 80s and 90s: Terry Butcher was celebrated for playing on despite a bloodied head for England against Sweden in 1989, typifying what it meant to be a brave, courageous centre half. Tony Adams was the rock in the Arsenal backline for nearly two decades, renowned for his commitment, tackling prowess and aerial dominance. 1-0 to the Arsenal, thank you very much.

As the millennium hit and the Spice Girls broke up, a new breed of centre half was emerging. Their job was still to defend, first and foremost, but they possessed a real calmness and ability to read the game. To be tough tackling was not a necessity if you boasted an astute awareness.

The legendary Paolo Maldini is famously attributed the quote: “If I have to make a tackle then I have already made a mistake.”

Centre backs were also blossoming into competent ball players. Their primary skill was still defending, but the ability to play out from the back was an added string to their bow. Italy typified this growing trend. The classy Fabio Cannavaro is considered one of the finest centre backs of his generation, while Maldini shifted from full back to centre back towards the latter stages of his career. Defending had suddenly gone from the aggressive to the elegant.

This was not to say the defensive hard man was dead - he was very much alive and well. But now a tough tackler would usually find themselves a more composed, ball-playing centre back partner: alongside every Nemanja Vidic, there was a Rio Ferdinand.

Although famed for their tenacious defensive abilities, Terry and Vidic were still both vastly intelligent footballers capable of playing with the ball at their feet. And slowly but surely, the centre backs who lived simply for the muck and bullets elements of defending were being filtered out.

Ryan Shawcross was one of the most dependable top flight defenders during the 2010s with Stoke, but the Potters played a very non-possession based game. Despite being a key cog in one of the Premier League's meanest defences for nearly a decade, he never earned another top flight move following Stoke's relegation, and only played once for England.

As with a lot of things in football these days, the role of the centre back started to change because Pep Guardiola said so.

The former Barcelona manager's tiki-taka style requires every member of the starting XI to be exceptional in possession. As a result, sometimes not even a centre back can be trusted to be a centre back.

During Barcelona's Champions League triumphs in 2009 and 2011, the Catalan giants played with makeshift centre halves. First it was Yaya Toure (later a 20-goal a season midfielder with Manchester City), then it was Javier Mascherano. Suddenly physicality had become secondary to intelligence.

Guardiola would attempt to do the same with Javi Martinez at Bayern Munich two years later.

Turning intelligent, composed, ball-playing footballers into central defenders has since become common place. Dean Smith converted left back Tyrone Mings into a centre back, and he has earned more England caps within four months of playing in the top flight than Shawcross did in ten years.

It is the same in the women's game too. Two of England's first choice central defenders - Steph Houghton and Leah Williamson - both began their careers further up the pitch before being shifted to centre half, where their vision and ability to build from the back is evident.

And as the role of the centre half has developed, so had the price you have to pay to land one who ticks all the boxes.

In the past, the record fees paid for centre backs coward in comparison to the lofty fees being paid for forwards.

However, since Liverpool spent £75m on Virgil van Dijk, the floodgates have opened. The Reds knew how vital it was to land a defender of his quality - with leadership, composure, awareness and (as a last resort) supreme tackling and physical attributes in equal measure. The Netherlands international is the full package and has proved to be one of the final pieces of Jurgen Klopp's jigsaw, winning the PFA Player of the Year and UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards in 2019.

Manchester United made Harry Maguire the world's most defensive defender 18 months later. It's hard not to see a new record being set again in the near future.