The Weekly Take, Issue 6: The Great Wall of Turin

Juventus have advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals after beating Tottenham Hotspur 4-3 on aggregate. The Bianconeri won the second leg at Wembley by a score of 2-1.

Naturally, as the scorer of the winning goal, Paulo Dybala will receive the majority of the attention and command the most headlines.

However, he was not the Juventus player most responsible for their victory.

Juve defender Giorgio Chiellini had an absolute masterpiece of a game to lead the Italian club to victory.

In an utterly dominant defensive performance, he had four successful tackles, three blocks, and 13 clearances, and also won all four of his aerial duels.

His man-marking and positional play was on point all night long, and his outstanding defensive play almost completely shut down the likes of Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, and Dele Alli.

On top of that, even though last week I railed against intentional fouling, in the context of the current rules, even his yellow card was a positive play, as Alli was about to launch a dangerous counter-attack before he was ruthlessly chopped down by Chiellini.

In his 13 years at Juventus, it is unlikely that Chiellini has produced a better individual performance.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that his performance against Tottenham was one of the best individual displays in a football match that I have ever seen, whether offensive or defensive.

This is why it’s such a shame that, because of his defensive role, his immense contributions will largely be overshadowed.

Defenders will often receive much criticism if their team concedes many goals, and rightly so.

However, if the team wins, the defenders almost never get the praise they deserve – that often goes to the “glamour” positions: attacking midfielders, wingers, and, of course, centre-forwards.

Unfortunately for clubs like Juventus, who pride themselves on being a defensive powerhouse, this works against them in the eyes of the public, as their defense-first approach does not predispose them to public acclaim, regardless of the tremendous skill displayed in their defensive play.

Many people will criticise defensive-minded teams for playing “ugly football”, but this is an unfair categorisation.

Why shouldn’t a defensive approach be held in the same regard as an offensive one?

Great defense can be equally as exciting to watch as great offense.

Think of a last-ditch goal-line clearance, a fingertip save from a difficult position, or a ferocious, clattering tackle.

Are those not entertaining to watch?

Furthermore, some of the greatest football teams of all time favoured a defensive approach.

Think of teams like Italy’s 1982 World Cup-winning team, the AC Milan team that won three Champions Leagues between 1989 and 1994, and, of course, the godfather of defensive-minded teams: Helenio Herrera’s legendary Grande Inter team of the 1960s, which won two European crowns by pioneering the iconic playstyle that came to be known as “catenaccio”.

But more important than that, defense is half the game. It’s not as if it takes more skill to excel in attacking play than defensive play.

No team in their right mind would say that attack is more important than defense.

Yet, that’s how the vast majority of fans act.

The more fans heap credit upon goalscorers while at the same time ignoring defenders, the more this situation will be perpetuated.

FIFA is guilty of this too.

Not since Fabio Cannavaro in 2006 has a defender been named the world’s best player.

However, dominant defensive performances like Chiellini’s against Tottenham deserve to be lauded just as much as an outstanding offensive performance.

Chiellini set the tone for a dogged, determined Juventus team as they ground down a talented but tactically-lacking Tottenham.

His play clearly got into the heads of the Tottenham players, with players such as Harry Kane missing chances they normally would have had no problems converting.

Ultimately, that’s what great defenders do. It’s not about directly preventing opposing strikers from scoring, as much as it is about sowing the seeds of doubt in their minds every time they touch the ball.

That is exactly what Giorgio Chiellini did.

It’s time to rethink what is considered “entertaining”, “beautiful”, or even the cliché of “good football”.

An approach that prioritises defense can easily be all those things and then some, as Giorgio Chiellini and Juventus have demonstrated.

It’s time for the unsung heroes of football to start getting their due.