Why is the Premier League the home of shambolic defending?

The Premier League season's first weekend was notable for the poor quality of defending on show, as 31 goals were scored, 13 of them in the first two games of the season and three of last season's top five shipping three each.

It appears that the Premier League has become "the global home of shambolic defending," says Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian.

But why?

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Early season woes

The season started earlier this year, so maybe that explains it.

"It seemed the defenders had an extra month off and some of them looked like they still had their flip-flops on," bemoans Phil Neville of Sky Sports.

The summer transfer carousel doesn't help. "A lot of defending is about drilling, about the same players – not just defenders – doing the same thing over and over and over again until they learn the patterns of interaction that maintain a shape that is difficult to break down. If there is constant flux in a squad, it becomes almost impossible to build up any level of familiarity," says Wilson of the Guardian.

It certainly didn't look as if the big clubs had spent the 81 days between the past Premier League season and this one working on defensive drills, says James Ducker of the Daily Telegraph.

"Watching Arsenal and Liverpool fluff their defensive lines, it is fair to wonder what exactly [Arsene] Wenger and [Jurgen] Klopp have been doing in pre-season, not least in terms of organisation and structure at set-pieces."

Crosses and marking

It was noticeable how teams struggled to deal with balls into the box.

"The worrying trend from this weekend was how badly crosses were defended," says Neville of Sky. "There was definitely an upsurge in terms of teams causing problems by getting early crosses in."

There doesn't appear to be an easy way to solve the problem and the tone was set from the very start when Arsenal beat Leicester 4-3 on Friday night, says Andy Naylor of the Brighton Argus. "Both teams conceded twice from corners. Arsenal use zonal marking, Leicester man-to-man."

Tactics and attack

If there are fundamental problems with the way players defend it's down to the modern game's emphasis on attack.

"We are totally obsessed with talking about attacking players and skills, but actually defending is an art that is just as important," says Neville of Sky.

But it's being sacrificed says Wilson of the Guardian. "There's not merely an expectation now that defenders should be able to pass, but a growing acceptance that if they can pass it may not matter too much if they aren't especially good at more traditional defensive skills such as heading, marking and tackling.

"The central defender as auxiliary playmaker is a core tenet of the Cruyffian line of thinking that has shaped the modern landscape… Almost all full-backs these days, meanwhile, are in effect wing-backs."

New laws

But it's not only the players who are responsible, says Wilson. "To an extent, the defensive chaos is the result of changes in the laws of the game."

The offside laws have changed, making it harder to spring the offside trap. This means teams often defend deeper, which allows midfielders more space in which to operate.

Fouls and mistimed tackles are more harshly dealt with by referees, while intimidation is all but gone from the game.

"Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher are paid handsomely by Sky Sports to analyse and dissect but it is easy to detect an underlying sadness at the demise of a trade they used to practise," says Ducker of the Telegraph. "And while it is true the game has changed dramatically since that pair's heyday, principles that were once cherished have eroded and the rule book is now stacked in favour of attackers."

Time for a change?

Watching teams try to outscore each other is entertaining, but will not help their wider ambitions.

"It is probably no coincidence that the richest period for Premier League clubs in the Champions League, between 2004 and 2009 when we boasted six finalists and 12 semi-finalists, also happened to be a time when the domestic top flight averaged fewer goals per game than any other point since its inception," says Ducker.