POLL-which country has the best defenders?

[afgrijselijkheid]

TAKE 2 LOL - for all explanations see the GK poll thread

[Harry Potter]

Korea?

Voted Italy.

[sinner78]

No team really stands out at the moment..
The italians can hardly claim to have the best defence when you look at their national teams results...
where was their defence in world cup 2002 and where has their defence been in the 2004 qualifiers????
wales cut through them easily.

[comme]

The Italians have always been the best. Of the current generation Maldini, Nesta and Cannavaro are all superb players, they do lack a rightback, and with Maldini's age soon a leftback as well.

England will definitely be up there soon (if they are not already the best). If Johnson fulfills expectations then Johnson, Campbell, Ferdinand, Cole will be quality for a few years. With Neville, Woodgate, King, Brown, Bridge, Dawson, Terry, Upson all knocking on the door, it does show England's defensive depth.

[Bauser]

Italia. Italia.

[afgrijselijkheid]

s korea, the honorary ABMOD defense - a largely unheralded, but a tough scrappy group - sure its a bit of an oddball selection but one im reasonably comfortable with LOL

by the way, here's france's selection:
lizerazu, thuram, desailly, mexes, pedretti, candela, boumsong, gallas, escude, sylvestre, sagnol, bernard, mendy - you could make three top units from that

[afgrijselijkheid]

cheesy bump

[billyireland]

I'd definitely go for Italy

England have amazing (mostly young) CBs (Rio, Campbell, Upson, Southgate, Dawson, Lescott, King, Terry, Woodgate, etc) and 3 very good leftbacks (cole, Bridge, Barry). They're a little dodgy at rightback, but Upson can play there I think (Gary Neville is stellar and I don't like Mills)

Ireland have fantastic fullbacks (Carr (EPLs best fullback), O'Shea (one of the most complete young defenders in the world), Finnan (great player, last years fullback of the year, hope he performs for Liverpool), Kelly (good player, and a workhorse), Harte (can't defend for his life, but good goign forward and on set pieces)). What a pity we're so thin at centreback (Cunningham is very good, the rest lack real ability although they are hard workers)

[Danks81]

I think GermanShepard fasley boosts Germany in these polls.

[miko]

Italy. They have a lot of good defenders because of their defensive league.

[sendorange]

After Euro 2000 I would have said Italy, but no longer. Defensively they've looked suspect over the past couple of years.

But saying that, I can't believe anyone would vote for Germany. Their defenders are poor, ask any of their sane fans and they'll admit that this is the weakest they've been defensively for a very long time, if ever.

This is the hardest poll. I've gone with England in the end, but I would be strongly tempted to go with France, particularly as England's fullbacks are not that great.

[toonarmy44]

Id say it is between Italy, England and France.
England have the greatest depth in the world at centre back with Cambell, Ferdinand, Southgate, Woodgate, Terry, Upson, glen johnson etc

Italy have fantasic defenders because of the nature of their league like cannavaro and nesta.

France has a good defence but it is ageing-desailly, lizarazoo, thuram etc

However id go with England overall because they have performed the best at international level recently

[afgrijselijkheid]

Originally posted by toonarmy44
France has a good defence but it is ageing-desailly, lizarazoo, thuram etc


aging or not, lizerazu and thuram are aces and france has plenty of quality depth, much of it young

[johno]

I dont believe Italy deserve to be favorites by that much, especially considering the age of their top backs... Nesta is prolly the best in the world, but I believe that to a degree Italy's national team is not as good defensively as they should be when compared to the club teams... this is because you can all but behead attackers in Italy, but they dont have such a free reign in international comp... but i love Serie A, nothing like a good hard tackle to put a pompous striker on his @$$ huh?
England will only get better and i think they are tops right now, France is very close if not tied with england...

[DutchFootballRulez]

Italy's defenders are old now. Who's left besides Cannavaro, Nesta, and Iuliano.

England has immense depth at Defence. People have mentioned it before. Why the HELL is Brazil on the list. The only good Defenders from Brazil are Aldair and Lucio, Cafu is not really a defender and PLEASE don't make me mention Roberto Carlos, who is only a defender by Default.

[Roel]

So having seen the polls, the Space Jam, all-Earth team would have

GK: USA
Def: Italy
Mid: French
Strikers: Dutch

One of these just isn't right. Change the mid to Brazil and I think we can take on planet X's best XI.

[rymannryan]

I said England. I think they have the most depth, and most of the defenders in that pool are very good.

[supersport]

Italy, I won't say the "C" word.

[Revelian]

At the moment I'd go with France, but in a couple of years' time, if the Neville brothers pissed off out of the picture, I reckon England would be outstanding.

Revelian

[Revelian]

Originally posted by Roel
So having seen the polls, the Space Jam, all-Earth team would have

GK: USA
Def: Italy
Mid: French
Strikers: Dutch

One of these just isn't right. Change the mid to Brazil and I think we can take on planet X's best XI.

What do you know about Planet X - tell me, tell me now, how much do you know? How much time does your miserable race have? (Evil Overlord Laugh) Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Planet X! Planet X! Planet X!
Everybody get up, its time to jam now!

Revelian