They grew up and learned from the godfather of strong & modern defense P. Maldini and they become the greatest centre back duo ever . They were great here too, but FRA was awesome too. Still they did it in WC '06., probably the best WC defense of all time, with Zambrota, Grosso, Materrazi...and pure romance in the midfield (Alex, Andrea & Francesco).
Tommy Ibrahim well first of all, there aren't any defenders as good as them today, the best being thiago silva, but he is nothing compared to cannavaro. The difference between defenders today and back then is that defenders like cannavaro played with their heart on their sleeve, leaving nothing on the field. Yes, they may have used dirty tactics at times, but that shows their passion and determination to let nothing get passed them. Today you have people like ramos who are better at scoring goals than stopping them. I don't think that there will ever be defenders as good as there was also because the game has evolved and now it is more about outscoring the opposition rather than conceding less. I hope i explained it well enough for you
Ah, I understand your point very well and I agree, I feel the best defenders of all time were Baresi,Nesta, Cannavaro and Maldini etc What do you feel defenders need to do today to be as great as the defenders were before?
Tommy Ibrahim I'm not sure that they can be. It's a gift. But being taught from a young age to defend like those legends would be a good place to start. But these days it's a different type of game, based on attack, and defenders have to have different attributes to what they used to.
Manuel Manias Iam a big fan of trio Maldini-Nesta-Cannavaro and I like your point. But, Ramos is not a centerback just like Canna-Nesta, right? There are defenders who don't defend all the time, named fullback, just like Ramos. What I am trying to say is, comparing Cannavaro with him are not right, because their specialization is different. Another centerback is Chiellini or Puyol. I personally like Puyol, Spain defense was great when he was around. But, what do you think with that?
Os maiores zagueiros história são italianos, Baresi Maldini e Canavarrro e Nesta, os demais até hj pro enquanto estão pelo menos 1 degrau abaixo de qualquer um desses.
Cannavaro is a legend and everything but it was his mistake in defense that allowed for the equalizer for france in this match 2 minutes from end of full time. He doesn't usually make mistakes like that but this was a crucial error in the most crucial time in one of the most important matches and tournament. That's why that mistake to this day still hurts and makes absolutely no sense from a world class defender.
