Midfielder#Defensive midfielder

Vorstopper called an unusually become player position in football. In the classic 4- 3-3 system is the Vorstopper the player, which shields the center forward of the opposing team in man coverage. The role of the pre Oppers evolved from the role of the center runner in the WM system. For the Vorstopper there was a hedge by the Libero, on the other hand, secured the Vorstopper the libero from when this attack intervened in the game.

In the usual today 4-4 2 system ( all defensive player moves on a line ) is not played with Vorstopper, but with central defenders who do not act in a rigid man coverage, but also take the foremost points of the opponent, depending on the game situation.

The term Vorstopper came on in the 1960s, when the classical center-half position, also called " stoppers ", became the libero position and now still playing a defender in front of the stopper. The Libero played in space, the Vorstopper in man coverage against the center forward. In the 1966 World Cup in England Willi Schulz was still in as the stopper with purely defensive task behind the man covering Vorstopper Wolfgang Weber use. The transition to the Libero was completed by national coach Helmut Schön at the World Cup 1970 in Mexico, when he appointed Karl -Heinz Quick Inger chief of the defense - but still stood on the defensive when Libero 1970 in the DFB - Elf in the foreground - and before that with Klaus Fichtel played as Vorstopper. With the European football championship in 1972 and the Football World Cup in 1974, the transition to play decisive defensive organizer was with the Personnel Franz Beckenbauer final of the DFB field completed, in conjunction with the defensive specialist on the pre- Opper position - now Georg Schwarz Beck - was the center of the defensive game, but in addition also major impetus for the construction game made ​​. In the 1986 World Cup in Mexico the German team arrived with a clear defensive -oriented alignment with Ditmar Jakobs as a stopper and Karl -Heinz Förster than Vorstopper to the final and won in Italy in 1990 with the Libero Klaus Augenthaler and the playing as Vorstopper Jürgen Kohler the World Cup. The position designation disappeared with the introduction of the back four in the 1990s, the language usage.