NOMINATED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2022
'Superbly insightful' FourFourTwo
'Hugely enjoyable.' Henry Winter, Chief Football writer, The Times
'A brilliant read.' Jamie Carragher
**
Complex, overlooked and misunderstood, football's centre-halves rarely
take centre-stage. Leo Moynihan's long overdue celebration of this
much-maligned position explores the unique mindset and last-ditch,
bone-crunching tackles of the traditionally bruising hard man, hell-bent
on destroying glory.
**
Football is often romanticised as 'The Beautiful Game'. If that's true,
then the game's centre-half might be considered the unsightly pimple on
the end of its otherwise perfectly formed nose. The stopper is the last
line of defence, the big man with small ideas, the lump who lumps it.
Thou Shall Not Pass (a command England captain Terry Butcher shouted
before every match) celebrates the football position where brutal
characters are loved for their hard-hitting tackles and bruising
mentality, and yet laughed at for their apparent lack of skill.
Covering the long and illustrious history of the centre-half, Thou
Shall Not Pass takes the reader into the muddy penalty area frequented
by our protagonists, into their domain. The places they head the ball,
the places where they tackle, the places in which they will stop at
nothing to stop a forward. What makes a defender approach the game the
way they do? What makes them different from those whose sole purpose is
flair?
Featuring exclusive interviews - including those with Virgil van
Dijk, Jamie Carragher, Terry Butcher, Mark Lawrenson,
Steph Houghton, Tony Adams, Frank Leboeuf and Dion Dublin - and
packed with rich and highly entertaining anecdotes, the book explores
all aspects of the position and investigates the mentality of those who
ply their trade there.
