England’s Greatest Defensive Partnership

With the retirement of John Terry and the continual absence of Rio Ferdinand from the national squad the end has now seemingly come for perhaps one of the most talented centre-back pairings England has ever produced. With qualifying for Brazil 2014 now well underway, it seems only fitting to look back over former World Cup partnerships to evaluate what exactly has just been lost.

England’s first World Cup outing came in 1950 at a time when, not only were they hot favourites, but having five strikers on the pitch was common place therefore leaving defenders to a minimal. Alf Ramsay and captain William “Billy” Wright were the men predominantly in charge of dealing with any opposition threats.

Although Wright was the first man ever to reach 100 caps, the 1-0 loss to the USA, a then amateur side, during the campaign, ending the presumption of English dominance on the international stage, meaning this pairing’s credentials are somewhat tarnished.

In 1954 England faired a little better with Wright still at the helm. The lifelong Wolverhampton Wanderers player led England to a 4-4 draw against Belgium, a 2-0 victory against the hosts Switzerland and a 4-2 loss in the quarter-finals against Uruguay. The other two defenders Ron Staniforth and Roger Byrne both only had three caps prior to the tournament, maybe one reason for the numerous amount of balls hitting the England net.

Don Howe of West Bromwich Albion and Tommy Banks of Bolton Wanderers were the two defenders in the 1958 starting XI that went to Sweden. However, draws against the Soviet Union (2-2), eventual winners Brazil (0-0) and Austria (2-2) meant the side failed to progress from the group stage. England also recorded their first ever dropped points in qualifying by only managing to draw 1-1 in Dublin.

In 1962 Chile hosted the World Cup in what turned out to be an influential tournament, changing the mentality of the game. For the first time the average amount of goals per game fell to below 3. England started with four defenders for the first time creating the central defensive partnership of Maurice Norman and Bobby Moore.

The new concept failed to add stability however as England still managed to concede 6 goals in 4 matches, going out once again in the quarter-finals to Brazil.
We meet the first potential greatest-ever English partnership unsurprisingly in 1966.

Jack Charlton and Bobby Moore were a constant fixture to Alf Ramsey’s team after Charlton’s introduction to the side in a friendly against Scotland in 1965. Moore is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, with even the likes of Pele saying that he was “the greatest defender I ever played against” and Franz Beckenbauer stating that he was “the best defender in the history of the game”.

With Charlton by his side the pair conceded only three times in six matches during the tournament. Moore became the first ever Englishman to lift the World Cup and was also picked as one of the two central defenders in FIFA’s all-time world cup team in 1994.

Charlton’s age however, meant that by 1970, he would be 35, making the partnership he had created with Moore was less likely to remain. Everton’s Brain Labone therefore played alongside Moore for three out of the four games in Mexico. However the pairing was less successful with England losing two of those games, including a 3-2 quarter-final loss to West Germany.

England’s exile from the World Cup scene until 1982 brought about the need for another formidable defensive partnership, enter Terry Butcher and Phil Thompson. The tough-tackling twosome conceded one goal in four matches in Spain. Yet, with two group stages in the 1982 tournament, goalless draws against West Germany and Spain, saw England eliminated without conceding a goal since the opening match in a 3-1 win against the French.

Terry Fenwick became Terry Butcher’s new partner as Phil Thompson lost his place at Liverpool to Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson. Mexico 86 was a topsy-turvy tournament with an opening 1-0 defeat to Portugal and goalless draw with Morocco followed by two 3-0 wins against Poland and Paraguay setting-up a quarter-final meeting with Argentina and Maradona. We all know what happened there.

However, given one goal was a handball and the other was perhaps the greatest goal ever to be scored at a world cup, England’s defensive record begins to look a lot stronger. Fenwick’s discipline may be of issue though, as he holds the English record of three yellow cards during one World Cup campaign.

Terry Butcher remained a defensive figurehead for England during Italia 90 playing alongside Des Walker and Mark Wright in an effective three man unit. All three men put in impressive performances during the tournament with Wright scoring the crucial goal against Egypt to progress to the next stage. Whereas Walker went on to become the fastest player in history to reach 50caps for his country.

England reached the semi-final of Italia 90, getting knocked out on penalties by West Germany. But given the fact England played three defenders, it feels slightly unfair to call this the greatest English central defensive pairing.

Another failure to qualify for the World Cup in 1994 meant England needed to form a dominate force at the heart of the defence for France 98. Tony Adams and Sol Campbell more than filled that void. The pair provided power, strength, fight and tactical awareness. Campbell thought he had scored the golden goal against Argentina with a determined header passed Carlos Roa yet the referee had already blown for a foul by Alan Shearer.

Campbell returned for the 2002 World Cup and once again contributed to England’s strong defensive performance, scoring the opening goal of the campaign against Sweden. With Tony Adams now retired, Campbell was partnered by an up-and-coming defender in the name of Rio Ferdinand. The pair kept three clean sheets but couldn’t prevent Ronaldinho’s free-kick looping over David Seamen’s head. Campbell was however named in FIFA’s squad of the tournament.

In 2006 the defensive pairing of Terry and Ferdinand was another success. England only conceded two goals during the tournament, one of which was when Ferdinand was no longer on the pitch. Eventually losing out in the quarter-final stage to Portugal on penalties England once more failed to meet expectations yet this was not due to defensive issues. John Terry was named in the squad of the tournament.

The latest World Cup saw England visit Africa for the first time. With Rio Ferdinand injured John Terry was partnered by no less than three different partners, Ledley King, Jamie Carragher and Matthew Upson. This lack of continuity perhaps was one reason why England had a higher number in the goals against column than the goals for column the first time since 1962.

It is clear that England has produced some formidable centre-back partnerships, Moore and Charlton, Butcher and Thompson, Campbell and Adams and Terry and Ferdinand. Whether Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka, Joleon Lescott or Ryan Shawcross are good enough to join this elusive club is debatable. Safe to safe though, whatever you think of Terry and Ferdinand, they certainly deserve the reputation of forming one of England’s greatest ever defensive pairings. However, Moore and Butcher, with perhaps Sol Campbell on the bench, would potentially have been the greatest ever England defensive partnership.