What Happened to Sweepers?

[Satchmo Distel]

Was the sweeper system destroyed by the speeding up and pressing that followed Italia 90? Is anyone still using it? Could it make a comeback at some future time?

[Sits]

If I remember my Inverting the Pyramid correctly, yes I think it was pressing and acceleration of the game.

[Sporting]

Neuer and co took over these duties.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Sweepers still exist, it's the second stopper that has disappeared. Most centre half partnerships involve someone whose job it is to attack the ball, and the other is there to cover, and move the ball deftly. (Think Bruce and Pallister, Vidic and ferdinand, Terry and carvalho, carragher and Hyypia... Laporte and stones, matip and van dijk, Pique and Mascherano... The improvement in technique, and the backpass rule meant that the second stopper effectively moved into defensive midfield, and the centre half duties of the sweeper and the second centre half merged. You also don't really need to have wingbacks a little further up the pitch, because your full backs are capable of doing all that from a back four. Indeed most teams effectively play with three at the back in possession, given that a full back usually up there getting involved.

[ursus arctos]

Which version are we talking about?

I can see Messi becoming a Beckenbauer type libero at the end of his career, but that is a different interpretation of the role than the classic "sweeper"

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

One of the most striking things about the 1966 world cup final is the energy of Ball, and Beckenbauer, (Though Franz tapers off long before alan ball) and how it makes them look like footballers from the future. The second striking thing is the sheer number of times Beckenbauer just gives the ball away. but at that point in time, what he is doing is so new that people are still focusing primarily on all the times it works.

It's really hard to try and compare past tactical roles to current ones, simply because players all cover at least twice as much ground over the course of 90 minutes, Everyone is technically capable of playing in midfield ( and now the expectation is that young Goalkeepers should be aiming for this) and the level of coaching and organization has risen so radically. It would seem that modern players are less told to play in a position which has a set number of tasks, but that the position is merely their starting point and what they are given is a set of instructions on how to move around relative to the rest of their team mates.

[Patrick Thistle]

As Sporting said, "sweeper keepers" have replaced them. Yesterday Ederson was clearing the ball 45 yards out from his goal line.

A midfield anchor is more use if you're playing a high defensive line as well.

And then you also have 5-3-2 which looks more like 3-5-2 or even 3-3-4 depending where the wingbacks end up.