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?
Yes I’m todays have where pressing from front is so important the lazy number 10 types rarely fit into modern systems
Yeah, pretty much, the midfield 3 is such a big part of modern football, you can’t really have one of those 3 not having defensive responsibilities unless they are Messi level. You saw it with Isco and James at Madrid, coutinho at Barca and bayern, really good sides don’t seem to fit these players in.
Everyone knows there can only be one number 10 between Argentina, Brazil, and England.
Dude Bellingham is literally getting called a “false-10”
Not dead just has adapted, you need to be able to press and defend.
If you’re wasting so much energy chasing the ball, thats not a 10 then
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.
Plenty of players still wear 10 on their shirt. How could a shirt number be ″dead″?
They are talking about something very specific. The trequartista in Italy, enganche in Argentina. Basically a genius playmaker behind 2 strikers that does absolutely no defending at all. A Platini, Baggio, Riquelme type. They are certainly romantic types of players, but all it really says about the game is that the level is so high now a team can’t entirely carry 3 guys defensively who don’t even provide width.
Jude is doing it for Madrid though. Carlo knows.
Ehhh Bellingham is not a #10
He wasn’t. Carlo is playing him like one.
I like how people on here think they know more than a manager who won 3CLs in a row, like people he is talking about a different type of number10, no de bruyne doesn’t play the same way messi or Zidane do.
Ian Wright Wright Wright wore number 8
Zidane himself wore 5
Vieira wore 4
Idk what this post is tbh?
By 10, OP is referring to attacking midfielders. Same way a 9 is a striker or 1 a keeper.
Nah OP literally states “it seems like the number is being handed to”
So he does think only “10s” should have 10 on the back of their shirt
In Germany it seems it somehow stays afloat. But as. Expected when they leave he league, they flop. I think that’s the next thing that will happen to Wirtz. Great player, but will struggle to find his place
I think Mesut Özil was the last true world class out and out 10.
Yeah I can agree with that
Yes, it’s been dead since about Zidane days…mainly because football has become a lot faster and 10 no longer has that time they use to. They become a tackling liability. However, football does evolve itself. It will be back in some form sooner or later.
Love that video. I hope they’ll be more collab like that with any of the top 10 players in the world for the past decade or two.
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.