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?
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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.
Frank Lampard surely?
I feel like Bellingham is the new 10. Creativity, finishing, and being box to box. Roaming in the spaces and not playing defense isn’t viable in the modern game.
box to box
Very contradicting statement there, a box-to-box midfielder can never be a number 10. If that is the case he’ll be 6 which he played at Dortmund. He is now playing more upfront role but definitely not box-to-box.
Lmao
Are you talking about the role or the shirt number ?
Because you mention in the first paragraph the place and position but that has never being stable really. Many great number 10s haven’t played in the pocket. Messi was deployed on the right or as a False 9. Zidane at Madrid played on the left with Guti being the guy in the traditional number 10 slot. Ozil a modern example played often on the left of a front 3 instead of as a CAM. KDB has played as a winger, CAM, F9 and CM for Man City but very much is the primary playmaker when on the pitch.
If we are talking about the number that has never really being a thing. Historically 433 and 442 have being the most dominant formations and neither have at traditional number 10 in them. Often many iconic number 10 played off the left or as part of a front 2. This means lots of 10s throughout history have not being the primary playmakers of their teams. Man Utd for example - Rashord, Sherringham, Van Nistelrooy, hell even Keane and Scholes have worn it. The number 10 doesn’t really stand for anything but it is an iconic shirt number that some of the greats have worn and therefore kids growing up wanted to wear it. Those kids inspire more kids to wear it and so on.
Yup Pessi position is dead and he’s cost his team so much. 👻 of Paris. 8 years of UcL ghosting and a rigged winter cup of pens. Now his position is back on 🍔 thanks Pessi!
Totti is my 10
The number 10 still exists… just than now he must defend and run without the ball…
For me a number 10 plays centrally between the number 6 and the CBS, where the magic happens in football… its also the most difficult part of the pitch to play… you must control and pass really well…
Then you have more classic number 10, more score oriented, or assist oriented, or messi oriented
The Meta will always be changing. In this current edition, the 10 just isn’t as useful/necessary as it used to be. As the game evolves, it might come full circle where having a solid 10 will be the best way to counter the Meta of that time.
10 isn’t dead exactly, it’s evolved in my opinion.
Out of possession, a lone striker on his own is easy to pass through, so ideally you want a 2 or 3 player front line out of possession.
The De Bruyne + Haaland link was originally formed with De Bruyne playing as a ‘10’. However, Haaland would cover the Left, De Bruyne the right. So out of possession it formed a 442. This made it seem like he wasn’t playing as a 10, as he was playing most of his time on the right, trying to whip that back post pass in to Haaland.
It was more like a false 9 role given how he was positioned in the press, but more or less a 10 in possession, which is effectively what a false 9 is.
No, it’s just changed. People act like players like Maddison, Bruno or Bellingham aren’t 10s because they come back on defence nowadays. That’s not the role dying, that’s the role adapting to the game changing. No one is saying the classic 9 is dead because they’re expected to come back on defence, it’s just an expectation of the modern game.
It is true it’s less common than it was. Formations like 4231 or the 442 diamond have seen a rapid decrease in favour of formations like 433. But saying it’s dead just isn’t true.
Yes I’m todays have where pressing from front is so important the lazy number 10 types rarely fit into modern systems
That was an awesome watch
Don’t suppose you’ve got a link? (Lazy, I know)
The T of Truth, the E of the Elegance in their EQ, and the N of their Natural Nimbleness define them both as the perfect 10s to have such a conversation (that Ronaldo could never, as he would trip over his Superiority, Ego, Vanity & Exaltation Neediness, in short: over the number he does on himself). Truth always carries the h of real, unique, true humbleness at the end (radically undoing tormented haughtiness).
The ease and confidence with which Zidane delivers brilliant assists and tricks and shots and dribbels in a language that was foreign to him in his youth is impressive. He carried the conversation and was the one who got Leo to open up and engage while wholly in flow and letting down his guard. He brought out the real Leo. It’s not many soccer players who are good convo couch material. They tend to eye a different type of couch.
I’d like to see follow-up meet-ups with different participants, but alas for many great pairings you’d need an interpreter, which would take away quite a bit of the potential for rapid vibe creation and convo flow. For example with Messi and Weghorst (/s). And after this they’d all become forced exercises and attempts at premeditated emulation of what happened here, in an effort to look good. Such efforts are subliminally frantic and spasmodic, but present as cool and in control. The players got too much to lose, when they’re out of their league. In their quest to match, they’d fix (or will be heavily coached, lead on and chaperoned to fix) the match and turn it into a slick p.r. show with only few and brief piercings of the BS clouds, if at all.
So this was a unique one-off; a seldom masterclass.
We’re not going to see anything comparable for a long, long time.
10/10 would watch again.
Shit on eioioe
why do you write like that nerd
This a copypasta?
You are aware this isn’t Rugby right? There are loads of different ACM type players and they’re not exactly the same. Thomas Muller is different to Bernardo Silva for instance. Messi is different to how Lampard played
By Zidane and Messi’s description, Thomas Muller would not be a 10. In Germany, it was Ozil.
This is why it’s a stupid description, you can’t say something is dead and then whenever someone brings up an example say “nah that ain’t it”
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.
Came here to say this, but you worded it way better than I would have!