With all four having been crucial parts of title-winning defences in the Premier League, Betway Insider recently sat down with Premier League stars Nigel Winterburn, Gary Pallister, Mikael Silvestre and Lauren to discuss how the core skills of the position have changed since their careers at the top level.
"If you switch off, you are done, you can't rest like strikers or midfielders can," said Mikael Silvestre, who spent a nine-year spell with Manchester United under Alex Ferguson.
Having won the Premier League title on four occasions between 2000 and 2007, the 40-capped Frenchman knows what it takes to defend at the highest level, but in the modern game, with centre-backs and full-backs playing hugely different roles, this has changed hugely.
With defenders now expected to play a much higher line to help the team press much further up the pitch, and equally targetted for their ability to get on the ball and trigger attacks, it is widely argued that the traditional art of defending have been somewhat lost, with aerial dominance and sacrificing your body no longer a top priority in most cases.
Former Arsenal left-back Nigel Winterburn, who won three top-flight titles between 1987 and 2000 went on to say: "When I played, you had to be an outstanding defender or you wouldn't get into one of the top four teams," an achievement that Winterburn managed, as he went on to make 440 appearances in a side constantly chasing the trophy and prevailing in 1989, 1991 and 1998.
The change in desirables for top-level defenders has certainly been reflected in the Premier League's passing statistics in the last decade, with at least one defender ranking among the top three for the highest pass completion rates in the last five seasons.
That became a clean sweep in the 2020-21 season, as Manchester City duo John Stones and Ruben Dias made up the top three alongside Chelsea centre-back Thiago Silva.
Consistent title challengers Manchester City have a defender present in all but one of the previous five campaigns, giving an insight into how the world's top clubs look for and deploy defenders in the modern game.
In an era defined by a completely different style of play to the one that we see today, Winterburn played eight seasons under George Graham, a manager renowned for his defensive discipline and solidity.
"The way that teams are playing out from the back, modern defenders and full-backs have got be very comfortable on the ball because they're often in advanced areas," he said.
"But we were always judged by what we did defensively under George, down my side I could go and play, but you knew that Lee [Dixon] would have to tuck round alongside the other two centre-halves and vice versa if Lee went."
Speaking on the differences between generations, Winterburn would continue: "Yes, we did play it out from the back at times when Arsene Wenger took over, but as soon as the goalkeeper got the ball, it's up to the halfway line and you'd play from the knockdowns.
"I think the whole ethos of the game, particularly how quick it is, has changed, when I first started, the game was a lot slower. You think about the conditions, very rarely would you get a green pitch after Christmas."
Undoubtedly a factor in the change in setup of elite football teams, the quality of pitches has hugely boosted defenders' ability to play the ball out from the back, promoting the movement of the ball along the floor with quick build-up play through the lines.
This point is further supported by Gary Pallister, who won four titles with Manchester United between 1993 and 1997, and was known for being comfortable in possession, but felt that he was hampered by the poor playing conditions of the time.
"A lot of the issues were to do with the pitches," says the former centre-back.
"If you look at the pitches I played on in the early part of my career, they looked like rugby pitches. Nowadays they're like bowling greens and you can take more risks if you trust the pitch."
With pitches now at the highest quality they have ever been, it seems more than understandable that modern training focusses on the ball being on the ground, compared to the previous priority on pragmatism and work off the ball.
"I think if we were to go out and walk through some of the training sessions that George [Graham] put on for our back four with a modern player, they might look at you in disbelief," says Winterburn, further proving the changes that have taken place in the approach to defensive training.
"We used to go out a couple of times a week and it would just be the back four with the manager on the training pitch. There wouldn't even be a goalkeeper and we wouldn't have the ball on the floor.
"He would be jogging through positions that we would have to react to, imagining there was a piece of rope in between each player so the lines always stayed the same and you move in sync," he would go on to say.
The general challenges that defenders come up against has also changed over the years, with the majority of sides deploying a pair of strikers in the first 20 years of the Premier League era compared to the new varying systems with focus on roles such as false nines and high wingers.
That means defenders would previously be tested physically in every game, often having to deal with two strong and imposing forwards.
"You think about some of them – Mick Harford and John Fashanu, for example. It was the job of these guys to mess with the centre-half and intimidate them.
"Physically, you'd have to be up to that kind of challenge, and it was something that I found hard when I first started in football because I was very slight.
"You got pushed around by some of these bigger guys and it's something that I had to try and learn to deal with. That included weights and maybe a few glasses of Guinness to try and beef myself up."
Ultimately, elite footballers would be unable to get away with that today as the game has changed and with it, so has defending, as the focus has never been so firmly on speed and ability with the ball at your feet.
This certainly was not an immediate change though, and former Arsenal right-back Lauren, who originally arrived in North London in 2000 as a midfielder, is fully aware of that.
"I had to change my position and I had a few problems defending in the beginning, especially when the ball was on the other side I was caught ball-watching a lot," he said.
"But now, they are asking defenders for more things. We have to re-adapt ourselves to the new era."
Silvestre, a talented player known for his huge recovery pace that would suit a modern team wanting to defend high up the pitch, believes "it wouldn't be a problem for me to play now", but also says that it's harder for defenders to flourish nowadays.
"The game is not in their favour," he said. "Some people would go as far as saying the art of defending is gone."
Lauren tends to disagree though, saying that "Not everything from today's game is fantastic, but to be the best now, you have to combine the best of the most traditional skills and the best of the modern-day skills."
"Evolution is good."
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