Beauty and the Beast

Every once in while a player or coach comes up with a tactic or style that revolutionizes the game of football. Whether it's the introduction of the "back four" by the Brazilians ,the idea to have the full back bomb forward to act as wingers as introduced by Alf Ramsey,or even the unique Dutch "total football" developed by Rinus Michels and perfected Stefan Kovacs at Ajax,they've always had lasting effects on football.

One that has stood the test of time is the “beauty and the beast” combination at center back. Essentially, the more skillful player, comfortable with the ball at his feet (the beauty) acts as the sweeper and plays behind the other, the more physical of the two. This gives him a bird's eye view of movements on and off the ball, thus he can read and stop opposition attacks, as well as instigate counter attacks for his team. Better still he can bring the ball out of the defence so that his midfielders do not have to receive the ball with their backs to the opposition.

The beast, the more physical of the two, adept to dealing with the aerial threats and more forceful in his approach, is the penultimate line of out field defence and depending on the tactics adopted, could also man mark a dangerous opponent.

The sweeper or libero as the Italians will have him, has also being employed as the lone man behind a central pair, either as a defensive cover, as was used by the Italians in catenaccio or as a deep lying attacking defender cum midfielder as used by the great German teams of the 1970s.

German great Franz Beckenbauer is often credited with developing this role. He launched his teams' attack from deep as they (Bayern Munich and Germany) dominated Europe.

Without really making any noticeable alterations to the basic principle, most teams have used this concept to create some formidable defensive partnerships.

Rio Ferdinand(beauty) and Namaja Vidic(beast) at Man Utd; Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry(Chelsea) and Márquez/Puyol at Barcaelona have perfected this act. At international level Rio/Terry(England), Nesta/Canavaro(Italy) and Blanc/Desailly(France) have also been very successful.

If we go back in history the stylish Gaetano Scirea combined with the ruthless, Claudio Gentile, to form perhaps the best defensive partnership in FIFA World Cup history, helping Italy to win the cup in 1982. The ironically named Gentile, which is Italian for Genteel or kind, was neither of these attributes as he kicked, pinched, nudged and tackled his opponents into submission, while the more graceful Scirea mopped up play.

Further back in history, Leeds United's hard man Jack Chalton was available to form another great partnership with the great Bobby Moore as England won the WC in 1966. The list is endless really.

In Nigeria,Keshi was always paired with a "muscle man"- Okechukwu Uche,Bright Omokaro and Ajibade Babalade all played successfully with him.

Yobo and Shittu who are the first choice partnership for the Eagles at the moment are too similar in style, in my opinion. Their "no nonsense" approach is also similar to those of Sam Sodje, Onyekachi Apam and Obinna Nwaneri. That leaves Adeleye whose approach is much more subtle. He should provide the foil for any of the other players.

At the Olympics last year, Adeleye and Apam perfected this role and conceded just two goals from open play (due to goal keeping errors, I might add). Also while Apam “the Beast” earned five yellow cards at the tournament, the more classy Adeleye’s record was as clean as a whistle.

In the future, depending their form, this will no doubt be the long term partnership, but at the moment, based on form, experience and ability, a Yobo and Adeleye partnership should be the first choice.

PS: This was written before the last two international matches, so bear with me if it seems a little bit dated.