The better your team, and the higher they press, the more important it is to have ball playing CBs. It's revealing, though, I think, that the last two PL teams that bought a title built those teams around a traditional CB (Terry and Kompany). The one that just won one has two of them. Though we may have other names for Terry and Huth than traditional CB.
It's also revealing that the last two title winners didn't actually play amazing football, nor did they press high up the pitch, whereas the one team who has tried to win the title by playing the 'right way' (Arsenal) have failed miserably every single time.
Ball-playing CB's are all well and good but they have to be world class to win you things. I've said it before and I'll repeat it as it does worry me but we cause too many heart-in-mouth moments because of all the piddling around at the back between Hugo's terrible distribution and Toby/Jan insisting on playing everything on the floor. As someone who plays as a CM (albeit at a
very amateur level!) I can say that there was something very reassuring and calming about having a no-nonsense player at the back to just mop up and get on with it. Teams are paranoid about conceding possession to the opposition (we were almost bored to death by this paranoia under AVB), but the reality is that - like the football you people play over there but to a lesser extent - territory does count towards overall success. Having the ball 80 yards down the pitch but at the feet of their keeper is often more liberating than having it at your own defender's feet with 2 opposition players hunting him down 20 yards out from your own goalmouth.
It's why I feel that, given time, Wimmer could well blossom into the more effective foil for Toby. I like Jan, dot get me wrong, but as a ball-playing CB he simply isn't in the same league as Toby. The latter' impressive ability to spray Dawsonesque diagonals is the crucial difference in my opinion, as one of those opens up the field of play and renders opposition pressing redundant.
Towards the end of the season in particular when the mental strain was really getting to us, I think having a player like Wimmer as the last line of defence actually helps settle the nerves tremendously, as the rest of the team - fatigued after a gruelling season - can rest assured that they don't need to form intricate triangles to tippy tap the ball up the pitch whenever we get the ball in our own half.
Anyway I'm waffling here. Fact is Stones + Kompany has the makings of a class partnership, but the latter is barely fit.
