THE ROUND BALL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 264, 20 August 1936, Page 3

THE ROUND BALL

ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL NOTES.

THE CENTRE HALF.

(By K.R.G.H.) As I have already) stated, the chief objection to the wing-halves marking the outside forwards, lies in the fact that nowadays the latter are so far up the field that your wing-halves, to do their job properly, would have to lie very far back. On the other hand, this policy seta your backs free to cover their goal and it gives more freedom to your centre-half to go up in attack, and this latter is a very big advantage, because your centre-half should be the fly-wheel of the whole machine and around him the team should revolve. It is a case of doctors disagreeing, and each team must settle the question for itself, always remembering that the secret of success lies in mobility—that is, in the power of a team to adapt itself quickly to meet any form of attack. You must contrive as often as possible to have an extra man over and above those your opponents have, in the near neighbourhood of the ball and this is not difficult if a perfect understanding exists among your defence and they move quickly to one another’s support. While it is generally important that a half should tackle quickly and decisively, there, occurs in every game instances when he should play for time. For instance, he may see, or rather sense, the fact that his defence is out of position. If he goes in to tackle at once he may force the forwards to pass, and a good pass at such a moment, with his defence spreadeagled may lead to disaster. I

In such circumstances he should play a waiting game, blocking the pass if possible, but by his apparent hesitation inducing the forward to dally with the ball, so as to give the rest of tho defence time to consolidate. This is particularly the case where a wing-half is pursuing a forward on the touch-line. If lie can contrive to shepherd him towards the corner flag, content lor the time being to leave him in possession of the ball, the two or three seconds thus gained will serve for the rest of the defence to get into position.