Tactics and defensives shapes aren't just dreamt up by the captain during games. They spend weeks training that sort of thing before matches and by the time a game comes round, any good team knows where they should be based on that practice.
You've sort of missed the point I was making: captains aren't tacticians. They don't give out tactical instructions or come up with strategies. They just need to lead and nothing more. What BSM said above is about right: all a captain really does nowadays is talk to refs.
I beg to differ PLT.
I don't believe I've missed your point at all - in fact I'm arguing against your stated assertion that captains do not/should not get into tactical decision making on the field during a game.
I was also presenting my opinions as to why central defenders are best positioned to fulfill a captains role, which should, in my mind, involve tactical awareness and communication thereof to team-mates from their ideal positional vantage point. I quote you - (
"I don't really get this thing of centre backs making good captains because they can see what's going on in front of them" . Centre backs do not necessarily make good captains, with that i agree, but a centre back is IMO ( I attempted to explain) the best position on the field for a good captain to play.
Of course, as you stated in your response, strategies and tactics are drilled into players during the many hours of training by their coaches & managers.
A coach or manager needs one player (the captain) he can trust to completely understand the various blueprints of the strategies/tactics he has hopefully drilled into all team members. The manager will expect the captain to fully buy-in to those strategies/tactics.
This captain is, on the field of play, the
voice of the manager/coach, and one of his major roles should be to ensure that the other players do not forget or waiver from their given roles within those management designed blueprints. They clearly vary during the cut & thrust and changing dynamics throughout any given game. A good manager will rely on a trusted captain to re-enforce (not dream-up new ones - your words - not my suggestion at all) the strategies/tactics defined by the manager/coach. Footballers are forgetful, sometimes lazy, sometimes outright awkward in attitude and may stray from the "game-plan". A captains job is to steady the ship and let them know when they are falling short in their individual roles/responsibilities within the overall "plan".
Clearly it helps immensely if the captain is vocal, persuasive, able to coax and unafraid to give his team-mates a bollocking when needed. Above all, he has to have the respect of his team-mates, both on and off the field.
I really do not understand your statement - I quote
"They just need to lead and nothing more". Exactly what does "lead" constitute ? If, as you and others may be implying, leading involves just chatting to the ref., there are some crap managers & captains out there no ?
