I was watching a Messi and Zidane interview on YouTube. Zidane said the number 10 is not as important as it used to to be. The place and position of the number 10 are gone. He used 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 as an example, which are perhaps the two most used formations in football. Messi then agreed by saying there aren’t many 10 left and the position that shows such player is the leader, the midfielder, and the link player is gone.
It seems like the number is being handed to the superstars and to promote and advertise such players. Ansu Fati had no business wearing 10 for Barcelona. While Mabappe wears 10 for France, Griezmann is actually their 10. Rashford in Man United is not a 10. I could go on.
When Messi and Neymar retires from national team duty, Jude Bellingham seems to be the only young player to fill that void.
What do you guys think?
You must log in or register to comment.
Football is always changing and certain things come and go out of fashion. The 10 will be back before we know it. Honestly the only real 10s I can think of now are Musiala and Maddison. Its a shame but you just can’t waste a position there now with so much focus on full backs out wide.
Yes I’m todays have where pressing from front is so important the lazy number 10 types rarely fit into modern systems
I agree. Mostly back then the “10” is a free role that doesnt do much defending. It is a position where the guy free roles and mostly attack, in addition to linking play and other roles.
Ozil is one of this, as well as Coutinho, Hazard to a certain extend. Alexander Helb. And you know what Pogba too. I dont agree with KdB because he is more well rounded, can play deep as well as ST during that one season.
Reason being tactics nowadays on top of demanding all players to attack and defend (which 10 can no longer free role and chill), it has changed. All players are expected to be in certain position in all phases of play. All players “attack” or fill in the space now so the burden of playmaking is no longer on the 10 to like “beat his man” or so on. Football has evolved sadly.
But still, as much as that bald fraud love to tinker and chop and change, his team still defend using a good old 442. Perhaps the old days are coming back one of these days eh.
I think football is less positional in the sense it was 20 years ago. If you view a 10 as a position on the pitch any team playing 4231 plays a 10. If you view it as a role then there’s a number of players who qualify, de bruyne and Maddison are creative hubs that link the midfield to the attack.
I actually think it’s about to have a big resurgence. Football tactics and formations tend to go through a boom-bust cycle where dominant set ups get adopted by a lot of teams before being displaced by the next thing. The key to scoring goals in football is unpredictability, the best defence in the world is vulnerable to attacks it can’t predict will happen and confused defenders make mistakes which lead to goals.
The straight 4-3-3 seems to be in its death rattle, defences know how to stop it, (unless you have genuinely explosive wingers like Doku, Leao, Mbappe). The big discourse around how ‘wingers don’t run at defenders anymore, they just pass it back’ is a result of defenders knowing and understanding the way in which a 4-3-3 team attacks and how to stop it.
Contrast this to some of the most effective attacking teams atm and the players at the heart of their midfield: Bellingham for RM, Musiala for BM, Maddison for Spurs, Greizmann for AM. These are the 10s for the team and orchestrate a lot of attacking moves from a deeper and less set position on the field.
The big move in formations can be seen in Man City, Spurs, and BM as they are returning to a more creative 4-5-1 where the wingers are charged with being proper midfielders and share defensive and attacking duties with the more advanced CM(s), or in a return to playing with a front 2 or 10 at false 9.
Bellingham isn’t a 10 type of player at all, not similar to Zidane or Messi at all.
Musiala is by far the closest to that type or player? Amazing dribbler with sublime tecnique