At the moment there is lack of quality defenders in the world of football most teams look at improving their midfielders and strikers but the defense is the back bone of any team and although it is great having a strong attack a team will always concede if their defense is poor.

In the current English game defenders such as Mica Richards and Daniel Aggar where once the talk of the sport with their powerful physic and great ability at going forward these guys were set to be very popular but suffering injuries and falling down the pecking order has seen them struggle and lose the hype that once surrounded these players.

For me the current defenders in the world today who are still performing include.

• Rio Ferdinand
• Sergio Ramos
• Pyoul
• Vincent Kompany
• Chivu
• Lucio
• Fabio Cannavaro
• Metzelder

Sport was once described as brutal and lawless affair frowned upon by the middle classes, but the Victorians changed all that.

Before the 1800s, ‘football’ was a pretty rough pastime the laws of the game would have read something like this:

Rule one - there are no rules.

Bone crunching tackles were literally that with injuries commonly occurring during games this did not help the situation having no referees, blind, biased or otherwise, to offer protection.

During the period of the Victorians saw a drive towards a more civilized and controlled society. In sport this manifested itself by a desire for rules and regulations, changing the emphasis from manly physical activities to moral and spiritual exercises with disciplinary value and a spirit of fair play.

The Victorian period was the start of Industrial Revolution which dominated the economy and led owners and bosses to mount a campaign against violent sports like football which left men injured and unable to work, as the bosses were more interested in the new-found desire for material wealth.

How ever it was the Victorians who introduced rules and principles to abide by maybe if it was not for them setting the example will would all still be out on the pitch breaking legs!!