A great defender will be very athletic, fast, have good anticipation etc.... the same skill set that any position benefits from. But most teams don't have the depth to have players like that play defense. Typical trickle down has most teams with the very best players and atheletes playing midfield. I would also agree with previous posts that it it much safer to hide a weak player on attack. Your team can control the action run through an attacker, but an opposing team will target a weak defender and exploit her. But some of the very best players will be attack as well. Most defenders on the college level will be converted midfielders. The hardest part of it all is convincing the athletic and skilled kids to even want to play defense, especially when a team has plenty of talent depth.
Fair statement of the situation.
Agreed 100%. It can also be argued that your best athletes would play defense for all of the reasons you named plus one more...ability to change direction quickly (along with the anticipation you mentioned). Also add very high lax IQ...ability to read the offense and anticipate picks and rubs. As you can guess, my daughter was (is) a defender. She's also played some middie in high school and now playing some attack (left-handed attack), although she'll always be a defender at heart. And you're also correct that it's hard to convince a kid to try defender, especially if they are used to scoring. But, once one of them makes that game saving interception or stops a game-winning attacker they may be won over. It takes a special mindset to play the position at a high level. My hat is off to all career defenders.
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