In football, nothing surpasses the prestige of the number 10. The worlds most famous players, such as Pelé, Diego Maradona, Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi, all have worn the number 10 shirt. Every childs dream is to become a number 10, being the focal point of the attacking team by creating and scoring goals. Many have viewed the number 10 position as the most influential on the pitch for many years. Now, as we enter a new phase of football that is focused on rapid attacks and structured midfielders, the number 10 is becoming less influential than ever before.
What we are seeing is the death of the number 10 role as we know it. In the past few seasons, the emergence of the 8/10 hybrid has overtaken the value of a creative number 10. This tactical analysis and tactical theory piece will examine why the death of the number 10 is already upon us in modern-day football tactics.
The number 10
In order to understand why the traditional number 10 is becoming less impactful in modern football, it is important to understand the commonly known characteristics of it. A number 10 is going to be one of the most creative players on the pitch who will have exceptional vision, technical ability, passing ability and a tendency to transform a team with their performances. Number 10s find pockets of space behind the strikers but ahead of the more defensive midfielders. This creates major problems for opposing teams as it becomes incredibly difficult to mark the attacking midfielder. For this reason, clubs who face a dangerous number 10 will either try to man-mark them or could even change their formation to nullify the attacking threat of the key player.
The team below shows how a manager may set up to utilise their number 10, which will be a 4-2-3-1 formation with the opposing team playing in a 4-4-2. Please note that another common formation while playing with a number 10 is the 4-1-2-1-2 formation (yet is less commonly used in todays tactics).
The number 10 is highlighted above and it is clear to see how this position can be so effective when combining the advantageous position on the pitch with the skills he or she possesses. When playing against a 4-4-2, the attacking midfielder can find space in between the two lines of four. This will allow them to have time to affect the match with their creativity. Similarly, if the defending team (blue) decided to change their shape to two defensive midfielders to eliminate the space for the number 10, the two other deeper midfielders on the attacking team (red) would become available.
This brief overview shows how a number ten can be important to a team. The tactical theory report does not aim to say this position and type of player is not relevant in todays game. However, there has been a trend to suggest that this is the way tactics are heading. The main reasons will be discussed during this tactical theory piece.
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