![]() Then in the late 1960’s, substitution became a part of the game. The number described the position in a quick easily understood manner. 8 and 10’s had excellent passing skills, great vision and the ability to construct offense moves and so on with the rest of the 11 players on the field. #7’s and #11’s were fast, very good 1 on 1 dribblers and defense was not a needed skill for them. A #9 was a big player, very good with headers and possessing a powerful shot. Each position became associated with each number and the physical traits needed in each position became attached to the number describing the position. The formation became known as the WM from the letters which can made by drawing lines from one position to the next among the top half of the team and among the bottom half. The insides job was to feed the outside players or the center forward. Although the center half was no longer a “halfback” and the position became a primarily defensive one, the name stuck and even today some commentators refer to central defensive players as “center halves”. The center halfback was moved back to increase the defensive strength of the formation and the insides were also moved back to increase depth on offense. So the numbers could be used to describe player positions just as well as the names of the positions.ĭuring that decade (1930’s) Arsenal started using a variation of the 2-3-5, and since they had become one of the most winning clubs of the time, the formation was copied by many (of course). The numbers were labeled defense to offense, right to left, starting with the goalkeeper as #1 and going from there. Remember, the non-playing members of the team did not need numbers (or uniforms for that matter) since they weren’t going to participate at all in that game. So the number 2 (right fullback) might be worn by one individual in one match and different person in the next. The numbers were used to indicate the players position for each game, not the individual player himself. In the 1930’s player numbers did finally became fashionable, but there was a need for only 11 of them. ![]() The starting 11 players were the only 11 players to participate in a game, therefore there was no need to differentiate starting players from substitutes by using unique jersey numbers. In most competitions there were no substitutions allowed until the mid 1960’s and not in the World Cup until 1970. It was the substitution rules……or actually the lack of them. There is a reason that this custom, of such obvious need to modern sports fans, was slow to come into use. During this time, the use of numbers on the players jerseys began to become popular, not having been used during the first 50 years or so of the sports formal development. Sometimes, like in Italy, the 5 forwards were staggered to add depth. In the 1920’s and early 1930’s, the most popular formation in use was the 2-3-5.Īs seen above, the formation has 2 defenders with 3 midfielders and 5 forwards. To understand the use of numbers for positions, one must be familiar with the history of soccer development, especially considering historical formations and substitution rules. After checking with an instructor for the USSF coaching courses I discovered that, yes, standard position references are preferred and are being used in class and that numbers are considered superior to position names in this regard. Recently the Soccer Yoda came across an article about the USSF attempting to standardize the manner in which player positions are referred to in this country. ![]() The Numbers Have it…….Or Do They? Posted: Aug| Author: socceryoda | Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments ![]()
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