The Art of Defending with Former Charlton Centre-Back Steve Brown
For Steve Brown, defending is an art form. So it’s only natural we start our conversation of that particular art, in the metaphorical world.
“You have to imagine the goal is your castle, and the box is your grounds,” the former Charlton defender explained to me with a smile, repeating the lecture he’s given countless times when coaching in recent years.
“You’ve got to defend it like it’s your castle. And quite a few defenders don’t these days…you look at some of the defending that goes on on a weekly basis and I scratch my head quite a lot. It’s about decision making in a moment. And the more decisions you get right, the better player you are basically. And the more decisions you get wrong, the lower down the pyramid you go, and that’s a fact.”
More than two decades earlier, Brown got a very famous one of those decisions exactly right, a decision that has helped him go down in Charlton folklore. It came in the 103rd minute at Wembley in the 1998 playoff final when a Sunderland player took a heavy touch as he looked to counter from a Charlton attack.
“I know what clip this is!” Brown laughs as I pull up the slightly grainy late-90s footage of that unforgettable moment. The clip ends with Clive Mendonca celebrating his third goal of the day, but it starts with a crunching tackle from Brown.
“If he keeps that ball tight, I probably can’t make up that ground,” Brown admits. “But because his first touch is poor, it allows me to make that ground up…and this is what I mean about making decisions. I’ve got a split decision where I can win that or not. And because of his first touch, that means my brain’s gone ‘go for that…he’s given you a chance.’ Now the second part of it is making a challenge that’s not a foul. And this is another great debate. They reckon that’s a foul now, and it looks quite naughty. I think I’d have to admit that if that was in today’s game, that would probably be given as a foul now. Which is a shame because we’d have lost!
“But yeah, it’s that split second. You’ve got that famous speech, ‘it’s a game of inches.’ And you know, six inches the other way, he toes that past me and I don’t make the challenge. My thought process is just to win the ball. I did that and it runs through to Mark Kinsella, who toes it…the rest is obviously history. But if you want to start wondering about luck and fate, that ball pops out to a position perfectly weighted for Mark Kinsella to come and toe it to Steve Jones. You know, there is an element of fate about that.
“We’re all very thankful that all those things worked for us. But yeah, the way I played, when you present me with an opportunity to make a challenge like that I’m gonna make it. So, as soon as that first touch comes away from him…the good thing about it is I’m on the front foot, I’m looking to make that challenge. We’re losing the game and bang, you can see I’m on the front foot. I’m not backing off. I’m not protecting territory. I’m on the front foot, hoping he makes that mistake, hoping I can make the challenge. And then it’s just a case of getting the timing of the challenge right. But yeah, it’s a career-defining moment. Everybody seems to bring that challenge up, which is lovely.”
Brown joined the Charlton academy at the age of 16, a decade before his crowning moment at Wembley. Now a legend around SE7, Brown’s career nearly ended before it had truly begun, with a serious knee injury at 18 forcing the defender to completely reshape his game and the way he played. From that point, decision-making had to become his strength because his body would be permanently affected.
“I had one draw-back, which everybody knew from an early age. I had a pretty bad injury when I was 18. I had a cruciate, the operation went wrong. I’ve got nothing left in the right knee now.
“I don’t think people appreciated how bad the injury was. I’d say from about 26/27 years of age…from that point onwards, I was icing front and back after training and after games. I wasn’t a pill taker on a regular basis, but I did get put on some quite strong anti-inflammatories. I’d finish a match and for anybody that ever sort of said ‘where’s Browny?’ I had an ice pack on the front of my knee and I had an ice pack on the back of my knee and I was laying on the floor of the dressing room!
“I think one of my biggest assets was that I could read the game pretty well…so I was a step ahead of most centre forwards. Don’t get me wrong there were centre forwards that caught me out all the time. I didn’t particularly like the smaller nippier forwards…Craig Bellamy, people like that…Michael Owen, who could spin and turn and get off the shoulder in a heartbeat. They were tough to mark. I didn’t mind the battles, I didn’t mind the (Alan) Shearers. But if you think about (Thierry) Henry, trying to mark Henry when you’ve got turning issues…it’s quite a thing!
“I, unfortunately, wasn’t as talented as a lot of players in the team. So what I had to do was make sure that for me to be in the manager's eye’, I had to be ultra-competitive. I couldn’t afford to train at 50%…75%. I had to train at 100% because that was the way I got in the first team. And then when I got into the first team I had to play at 100% because that was just the way my career went. I didn’t have the luxury, unfortunately, of being somebody that could have a six out of 10 and five out of 10. If I did that I was out.”
“It’s just so simple as you can’t let it bounce.”
Just 48 hours before Steve and I connected over Zoom to discuss the ‘art of defending’, Charlton’s backline gave us yet more perfectly disastrous material to study 66 minutes in at Peterborough. Jason Pearce and Deji Oshilaja went up for the same ball, neither got it, and Sammie Szmodizs ran through to score a vital equaliser in his side’s eventual 2–1 win.
Despite his knee issues, Brown went on to play more than 240 times for Charlton in the Premier League and Championship and with that level of first-hand experience, he only has to see the goal once to come up with a verdict. In fairness though, with this particular goal, it’s likely the same verdict all watching Addicks came to.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s a really poor goal to concede straight away,” he says after the clip plays.
We watch the goal a couple more times before Brown asks me to pause on the image below.
“So we’ll go back to that and there’s not a bad press. We’ve got players in good positions. You know, there isn’t a ball out, really, they’ve got that square, I can see everything’s covered off.
“But if you go forward a little bit now…so this is the launch forward, here it comes. And if you pause there…”
“So it’s fallen in between the two centre-halves and they’re two for two,” Brown continues.
“It’s just so simple as you can’t let it bounce. One of them has to attack that. So we go back to the decision making and, and assessing the flight of that ball out quicker. So really, you need to assess the flight as it leaves his foot. You need to be on the front foot.
“You’d question, are they just a fraction too deep? You’d have to say yes because they’ve lost that. I mean if you leave your man like that, I think it’s Pearce, if you leave your man like that, then you have got to win that header. You know, if he stays with his runner, and he lets Deji go for that, at least if he loses, you’re stood in a covering position. But once you leave your man like that you’ve got to clean everything out, you’re better off causing chaos and giving a free-kick away.
“ But if they’re five yards higher up the pitch, and that ball clears everybody, your two centre-halves are running back towards goal, you can head it back to your keeper or you can volley it out. But because they’ve gone too deep, too early, and not been on the front foot, that’s what’s caused the chaos because it’s allowed the ball to bounce. And then obviously, now they’re thinking one of us has got to go for it, they both end up going for it. And I wouldn’t apportion blame for Pearce going for it. But Pearce coming in leaves his man free. Listen, every coach in the world would tell you just can’t let that ball bounce.”
At Peterborough, Oshilaja and Pearce were starting just their second game of the season together at centre-back, and in total Charlton have had 12 central defensive partnerships this season. I ask Brown if he thinks that had an effect on Oshilaja and Pearce’s moment of indecision.
“You’ve got to understand who you’re playing with,” he responds. “You’ve got to understand what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are. And, you’ve got to learn that you’re stronger as a pair than you are as an individual.
“You’ve got to win your individual battle, which if I’m up against Shearer, I’ve got a win that physically, I know if anything falls in a box, I’ve got to get tight quick because he can get shots off from anywhere. And then it’s about, working with your partners, working with your left-back…if it’s Chrissy Powell left-back, I’m working with Powelly, I’m working with Richard (Rufus) on the inside, I’m talking to (Mark) Kinsella and Keith Jones in centre-midfield field and we’re compacting ourselves centrally to make ourselves hard to beat.
“But the one factor about that team was nobody got given a game. You had to work your socks off to beat us. We were very, very competitive. The majority of the time, obviously, we did have off days, don’t get me wrong, we did have poor days at the office. But the majority of the time you had to outwork us, you had to be more physical than us. Otherwise, we’d just steamroll you. And that was the beauty of that team. It was a very, very united side. And it was a very good dressing room.”
After playing a crucial role in Charlton’s 1998 promotion, scoring in the decisive penalty shoot-out after helping make it 4–4 with his tackle in extra time, Brown was at the heart of another Charlton promotion two years later. This time, there was no thrilling playoff finale as Alan Curbishley’s side stormed into the Premier League as Champions.
Brown played some of the best football of his career alongside Richard Rufus at the heart of Curbishley’s defence helping his side to the still-standing consecutive Charlton wins record (12). But a partnership that proved to be the backbone of Charlton’s title victory was truly only created by necessity.
“I have one thing over my career, which I wish would have happened a lot sooner. I wish I’d got alongside Richard Rufus as a partnership much sooner. Because me and Richard complimented each other. Richard didn’t read the game like I read the game. But what he had was this raw pace, aggression. And so he could take care of top top strikers because of the way that he was physically.
“But Curbs, I remember him saying, and he was quite right to put Richard in the team before me because he was a very, very good centre half. But I just wish he would have trusted me to play alongside him a bit sooner…I think he basically said, it’s a very, very young centre half partnership. And actually, I think, looking back, he could have done it.
“I do fully understand that perspective. But it’s just something I look back at and I just wish it happened earlier because the year that I finally got to go next to Richard, I think it was an injury to Eddie Youds away at Huddersfield. I went in the side around Christmas, and we won 12 straight games…it’s still a club record, it will continue to be a club record for many, many years. And it was the favourite period of my career, that Championship winning season where I got to go alongside Richard. We played ever so well together, nobody could break us down. It was a wonderful partnership. And I just wish I could have got alongside him a bit sooner in my career.”
“I can’t explain that one to you…”
As our conversation returns to present day, “recovering from disaster” quickly becomes an inescapable theme, never more so than when analysing the next clip I pull up.
The background shows the familiar red seats of The Valley as Accrington Stanley launch an attack from their goalkeeper’s hands. Tracking back, Pearce gets to the long ball first, but his header lands awkwardly in an empty patch ahead of the oncoming Ben Amos. Colby Bishop gets there first, touching the ball over the Charlton keeper to score the game’s opening goal. On initial viewing, it seems an almost carbon-copy of the first goal conceded at Peterborough. But Brown looks at them completely differently.
“So they’re two completely different goals actually,” he explains to me. “The second one’s a technical mistake, whereas the first one, I think, is a tactical mistake. The first one, they should have been higher up the pitch, the second one I think that’s a technical mistake. You know, it’s no different than passing the ball sideways, it doesn’t find its target and someone intercepts it. It’s as simple as that. But defensively, yeah, he read the kick, dropped into position, but just didn’t get the connection on the header that he wanted. I can’t explain that one to you, we’ve all made mistakes like that, all of us…every centre-half that plays the game, will at times try to cushion the ball to somebody or head a ball somewhere, it doesn’t come off, and it will lead to a goal. But again, unfortunately, you know, it goes down as a poor goal to concede.”
It’s a frustrating reality that much of Charlton’s season so far has been built around recovering from their own mistakes, something Brown simply had to learn to do deal with in a decade-long career.
“I’m sure I made mistakes like that, I’m sure of it,” he says. “I used to find the hardest thing for me was when my distribution was poor. I prided myself on distribution, I was not bad at playing out from the back of all types of balls; long, short, didn’t matter. I’d hit them all. But there are games when you look up, and you actually can’t see a red shirt, you can just see opposition shirts and they seem to be running around three times faster than your team. It happens from time to time.
“So what I used to do was I’d go back to almost really basic football, I’m a defender…defend the goal. Don’t worry about all the other attributes that you might need to stay in the team, you’re not playing very well, you’ve made a mistake, don’t make another one. Don’t compound a mistake with another mistake.
“So really simplify your game. If there’s somebody 10 yards from you, who’s playing better than you, give it to him. Until you get a strong foot in, go back to your strengths, getting tight, winning the first ball up, you know, stuff like that. But, it’s interesting, you show the clips, and that one I wouldn’t worry about funny enough. That one wouldn’t have bothered me because I know I just made a mistake on the header. The first one, as a team, you’re pressing well, they’re on the edge of the box, there isn’t any reason really to be backing off, you should be on the front foot. So the Peterborough goal for me is a little bit worse than that one. Because that’s just an honest error.”
“If you’re in a V shape…you’ve had a disaster…”
Moving on from a pair of catastrophic errors, the clip changes from one night game at The Valley to another, this time Charlton defending the opposite goal as MK Dons come barreling towards them. Brown leans forward to take it all in.
“If you go back a little bit on that clip and stop it there, that’s a great position, the centre-half has done nothing wrong, he’s touch-tight…he couldn’t get in front, the pass was in the right side.
“The centre half’s job now is to get back into that hole. And the right-back needs to start tucking in much tighter. Because you don’t mind this ball going outside the right back to the left side. Say that right-back is inside the striped line next to the centre-half that ball’s going to go outside to the left. Now you defend the cross. If he’s there, there’s no way he’s gonna try and pass that ball through. So he slides it out to the left wing, or he has a shot.
“So if he (Lasse Sorenson) slides it out to the left-wing, then the right-back (Matthews) comes back out to engage with the cross and you’ve got four players that will drop into the penalty area to defend the cross. Two things: centre-half should never stop there and look at the ball. It’s not his job. It’s not his job to come out to this guy (Sorenson). His job now is to drop in to say where the D hits the 18 yard box. So if you take that back a few frames… If he now just drops, drops, drops, drops, drops, ignores everything.
“There’s a gaping hole in the middle of our defence, a gaping hole, there’s 30 yards between our left centre-half and our right back, which is an error. So if he now drops back just ignores the centre forward and ignores the ball, if the centre-half drops back into his backline, you’ve got a back four in place and you’re not going to be beat. They’re not going to slide that ball through. You’ve got four players behind the ball, there’s no gaps.
“But it’s Famewo that’s come out of the pocket…there’s as American football term for you Benjy,” Brown says laughing. “He’s come out of the pocket and he should just drop back into it and not worry about the ball. But if you ever look, he gets caught in two minds because he thinks he’s got to go to the ball. I would have ignored the ball at that point. You never ever stop. You never ever stop. When there’s as I call it sort of, it’s a V shape, if your back lines in a V shape, there’s a gap in between your full back and your centre half. And if you’re in a V shape…you’ve had a disaster.”
Brown asks me to rewind the clip and what’s particularly noticeable on our next viewing is the positioning of Charlton’s midfield. Darren Pratley, Jonny Williams, and Alex Gilbey all on the wrong side of the ball as MK Dons cut right through the heart of Bowyer’s side with ease.
Unfortunately, the midfield’s anonymity in moments of transition to defence is not a new concern for those who have watched Charlton get picked off all season on the counter.
“The game I watched against Plymouth, the one thing I sort of came away with from that game was how open the midfield was,” Brown recalls from December’s 2–2 draw. “It was extremely easy to get from backline to frontline, we had not a lot in between. And I was saying that Johnny Williams was in the front line, Forster-Caskey was breaking into the front line. And Ben Watson was dropping into the backline. There was huge areas of expansive space, where if you lose possession, it was one pass from back to front and nothing could intercept it.
“But yeah, I still don’t like that gap between fullback and centre-half, I don’t care. I don’t care who scores the goal. I still don’t like that gap. You just shouldn’t have a gap like that in your backline. But give MK Dons a little bit of credit, it’s a good ball up, it’s a wonderfully weighted pass and a great timed run from the midfielder. But from a defensive point of view, I would hate to see a gap that big between my right back and my left-sided centre-half.”
“Stay inside the width of the posts.”
No study of Charlton’s defensive issues would be complete without an entry from their disastrous 4–2 defeat at Burton Albion in November.
The clip I pull up shows the two teams preparing for a corner, Charlton defending as they look to recover from a 2–1 deficit.
Brown looks at the clip a few times taking it all in.
“This here, two go out. Why did he stop?” Brown says, pointing to Adam Mattews behind Chuks Aneke at the front post.
“So if you look at this there’s three Burton players…the edge of the box guy I think that’s Maatsen, 22, when that ball goes out to the wide player, he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. ‘Do I go to the ball and pressurise and stop the cross? Or do I stay with my man?’ And then what that does is the wide player will probably drive into the box.
“So let’s play that forward. Now he’s got all the time in the world to pick the cross.
“Again it’s only small details, but they’re important. So it’s recognizing they’ve got three v two. So if you can just get your cursor and circle the two players at the front post,” Brown asks, focusing on Aneke and Matthews as we watch the goal once more.
“If Matthews at the back encourages Aneke at the front to not worry about his man and go pressurise the ball, we get a much different outcome.
“Because then Maatsen doesn’t go, he doesn’t have to go. So Maatsen doesn’t then get caught between a rock and a hard place two v one. And then the fella out wide has to cross it, he’s got no other option. He delivers from a much wider area, he delivers under pressure, there’s less time for them to make movement in the box. Because if you look at the moment, they are matched up pretty well in the box. Four for four. Right? So if Matthews encourages Chuks to go pressurise the ball, he probably swings it in first time, or at least takes a touch and swings it in and we’re much better off.”
As the cross eventually comes in completely undeterred with Burton’s numerical advantage out wide, Charlton’s players seem to panic slightly. Ben Watson and Adam Matthews come racing towards the ball but get nowhere close, while at the back post, Burton are left with three attackers to Charlton’s two remaining defenders.
“I always say, when I’m coaching, I say stay inside the width of the posts. If your centre-halves and your fullbacks stay inside the widths of the posts because that’s where most goals are scored from. If you look at analysis, if you look at the history of goals from crosses, most are scored from inside the posts, the width for the posts, so protect that area first. If you’re all at sea, and you’re not sure who you’re marking and there’s been some good movement and you’ve lost your man, get yourself inside the width of the posts. It’s hard to concede a goal…if you put a cross in and I’ve got players inside the width of the posts, you can have five attacking players in there if you want, you won’t score many goals. But its movement, its decisions, and you react off of other player’s movements and that’s what kills you, affects your decision-making process.”
The goal conceded against Burton is a perfect example of something Brown tries to get across throughout our conversation; defending isn’t easy. It relies on split-second decisions made based on how you think the rest of your team will react. While individuals have to win their personal battles, defending is a complex machine and if one piece of that machine malfunctions, your keeper could well be picking the ball out of the net.
With a clean sheet on Saturday against Rochdale, Bowyer will be hoping Charlton’s defensive machine is starting to turn a corner after their recent glut of errors. Battling for a playoff spot, mistakes have held Charlton back this season. But sometimes, as Brown makes clear, those mistakes can be necessary.
“When you’ve thrown together a team, as Charlton have, you’re very much coaching this team, after the mistakes it makes. Because they’ve not been together long enough.
“And again, everyone thinks Lee (Bowyer) can go in, and he can make this team gel and be brilliant. But individuals make decisions in a split second. And actually, it might take you this season, to get messages through to this squad about how you defend in individual situations. And they might have to go through 10 of these videos. Quite a few things happen like this where you go, right, if that ever happens again, this is what we’re going to do. So you have to make the mistake to be able to correct them.”
Charlton have made enough mistakes this season to fill a small book (or a lengthy article). But as Brown explains, in the long run, that could prove necessary. Only time will tell if Charlton have truly learnt from their errors, but it is clear that their ability to correct them will define this season.
