HTs on Global/Defence

The outcome of these discussions are also very interesting in a way, because most ppl just claim "defence doesn't matter" like an old mantra over and over again. Which of course sooner or later will be known as the "truth". Well, is this "truth" really the truth then?

No, of course not. Defence does matter. Just as there are proof for "offence is more important than defence" there's proof for the opposite situation. Many of Lokomotivs Lund's matches have been shown as great examples of how the offensive is so much more important than defence lately, but not that many posts tells you when he lost by 10-0 or the two losses against EM Tigers, who actually won both these matches because of a strong defence.

Isn't it a problem at all then?
Well, there is a problem in a way as many teams tend to put more effort in their team's offense than their defence. Out of two reasons I guess:<be> - It's generally more fun to play in an offensive way, no matter if it's good or bad.<be> - The "truth" above, which makes team put even more effort in their team's offence.

The result of this is that more teams will have a stronger offence than defence, and when the offence becomes better than the defence overall the better part is logically the winner. This will of course encourage more teams to think that "defence" doesn't matter, which will make things even worse of course.

So the real problem is, if there is a problem, that many teams put much more effort in their offence than their defence. But that doesn't make the defence useless, because many teams show how important a good defence is. Like EM Tigers for instance.

it starts with a declaration to amend something wrong between midfield-defence-keepers, but the actual amendment it states only corrects issues between defence and keepers.

Good point. However, you cannot skip your goalie, but you can skip one of your defenders and put him as a midfielder, and this is what many have done, creating the once-almighty-now-just-dominant 3-5-2, and also other common tactics like 3-4-3 with two repositions.

By improving the weight of defenders (backs) (rather than defence which includes goalies and the defensive contribution of midfielders) in the game engine, we encourage those who wish to go from a 3-back defence to a more IRL-like 4-back defence, because defenders now pay slightly more off than before.

Dude, I am not crazy enough to rely on people to only draw the logical conclusions from what I write! ;-))) Quite often it is the exact opposite, so if we had indeed wanted to change the winger (or playmaking) effect of defenders, we certainly would have specifically said so.

I should clarify my previous statement (new stuff in italics):

By improving the weight of defenders (backs) (rather than increasing the weight of defence which includes goalies and the defensive contribution of midfielders) on the defence ratings in the game engine...

My statement is now a lot more unwieldy and bureaucratic, but strictly speaking more correct. :-)

Nope, au contraire.

Ah, didn't think of that possibility really, but you're right. If you had a very good keeper and lousy defenders you might end up with worse defense ratings.