“Defensive tactics have changed drastically over recent years. In the 1970s the sweeper was a key feature in a lot of top European sides. Franz Beckenbauer was the archetypal sweeper, great technique and vision as well as a wonderful range of a passing. The sweeper would not only literally ‘sweep’ things up sitting behind the other defenders, but would also look to create from deep. With a movement to the modern day version of the off-side rule in the early 90s the role of the sweeper became redundant, the almost deep-lying play maker had no purpose now as teams opted to push defenders up the pitch in order to play rival forwards offside.” Think Football (Video)