Defender - Center back

A centre-back, also known as a central defender or centre-half defends in the area directly in front of the goal, and tries to prevent opposing players, particularly centre-forwards.

Centre-backs accomplish this by blocking shots, tackling, intercepting passes, contesting headers and marking forwards to discourage the opposing team from passing to them.

The common 4–4–2 formation uses two centre-backs.
With the ball, centre-backs are generally expected to make long and pinpoint passes to their teammates, or to kick unaimed long balls down the field. For example, a clearance is a long unaimed kick intended to move the ball as far as possible from the defender's goal.

Due to the many skills centre-backs are required to possess in the modern game, many successful contemporary central-defensive partnerships have involved pairing a more physical defender with a defender who is quicker, more comfortable in possession and capable of playing the ball out from the back; examples of such pairings are John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho with Chelsea, Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand with Manchester United, or Giorgio Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Barzagli with Juventus.