John Terry is last of the traditional, powerful English defenders, believes Arsene Wenger

• e-mail

Arsene Wenger admits that the traditional, powerful English defender has become a dying breed – not just at Arsenal but throughout the Premier League.

Better pitches and a more cultivated approach to training in youth academies might have killed off the old-fashioned English centre-half in the tradition of Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Wenger’s current assistant, Steve Bould.

Indeed Wenger believes John Terry may be the last of a generation raised to defend aggressively – but he insists he still has hopes that his own troubled back four will eventually match the great Arsenal defensive teams of the past.

John Terry is the last of the traditional English central defenders, according to Arsene Wenger

Terry rises above Moussa Sissoko to head during Chelsea's 2-0 win over Newcastle on Saturday

Wenger, whose team take on Stoke today, having lost 3-2 in a particularly calamitous defensive performance last month at the Britannia Stadium, said: ‘Young boys practice well on quality pitches, whereas before it was muddy and you could tackle and throw your body in - it created opportunities for defenders to work naturally on their defensive techniques. Today it's all more standing up there is less physical commitment because the quality of the pitches are much better.

‘The game has become more technical. You find more players who may have good technique. Maybe as well our societies are less aggressive. In the football education

System, you cultivate that intense desire less. It's more about the quality of the technique and maybe that creates fewer defenders.’

Asked whether the likes of Terry were the last of that kind of defender, Wenger said: ‘John Terry is a coach on the pitch. He's a Tony Adams, basically, (who) organises the team, because he has huge experience now and because he reads the game well.

'Maybe Gary Cahill in five, six, seven years will be like that as well. He is the right age, and you do not find many any more. You had more before than you do today.’

Arsenal boss Wenger with former captain Tony Adams lifting the Premiership trophy in 1998

Wenger believes that Chelsea's Gary Cahill could also be on the same level as the likes of Terry and Adams

And Wenger concedes that developing communication between a multi-cultural back four has proved much more difficult than in the days when he had Englishmen Adams and Bould at centre half with Nigel Winterburn and Lee Dixon at full back.

‘Certainly, you had more (leaders) before,’ said Wenger. ‘If you look at the evolution of English football, when I arrived here, the back four all was English. They were not only English, they communicated because they had the same culture, the same way to see the game, they were educated together and communication is an important part.

‘With people coming in from different countries, communication has gone from the back four, much more than before, and you see less people who talk. It doesn’t mean there are no leaders but they do not speak always the same language, they are not the same way to respond to situations. That has a little bit gone in our game.’

Arsenal's legendary central defensive partnership of Steve Bould (left) and Adams

Wenger believes that current partnership Laurent Koscielny (left) and Per Mertesacker can reach their level

That said, Wenger’s greatest back four, in the 1998-99 season, which conceded just 17 goals, finished second to Manchester United in the Premier League. Wenger always remains peeved that no-one refers to his own creation, the Invincible back four of Lauren, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure and Ashley Cole, which conceded 26 goals in their unbeaten season of 2003-04. 

‘We had a great defence after that, nobody spoke about that: the Invincible team. They were physically fantastic. Lauren, Kolo, Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole was a top back four.’

And Wenger remains convinced that the current back four of Mathieu Debuchy, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker and Kieran Gibbs can still become a unit that could compare with those teams. 

‘I think we are not far. We are getting there. It’s not only [that], I think we have more offensive players in midfield than we had at the time. It’s not only the back four, I think the whole defensive unit, we are more offensively oriented than we were at that time.’