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?

  • Dizzy_Regret5256BEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    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.