What is False 9 and why the others failed
In the most laymen of terms, a false 9 is a forward given the free-role one would normally give to a playmaker. A false 9 is allowed to go to the wings and play like an inside-forward/winger or drop deep and act like a playmaker. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? But if only it was as easy as it sounds like, there wouldn’t have been so many failures in that role.
There are many requirements to play as a false 9. First and foremost, a player must be good at judging where to be and when to be as well as having lethal finishing abilities. Obviously, as the one pseudo frontman, if you can’t score, there is no point playing there. It is for this reason that players with incredible ball-control and mobility, like Angel di Maria, failed there when tried.
Creativity is another criterion. When dropping deep, the false 9 becomes a playmaker and is responsible to feed the inside-forward cutting in. Cesc Fabregas had both creativity and the ability to score, that’s why he lasted longer the others.
However, what Fabregas didn’t have—which became the reason for his downfall—was speed and methodical ball-control while dribbling. When Lionel Messi runs with the ball, it is as though the ball is stuck to his feet.
He can get out from any number of sticky situations through any number of defenders—and this is why he was just as equally effective when he shunted wide. Cesc Fabregas dropped deep to become the extra playmaker, but he rarely zoomed towards the wings and when he did, he almost always lost out the battle for possession as he isn’t nearly as good at Messi—who is?—when it comes to dribbling out of trouble.
So, in short, to be a false 9, a player needs to be a good dribbler, visionary passer, and efficient scorer—and only Lionel Messi is the only player in the world who has all these qualities combined in him.
Lionel Messi back on the right; the fall of false 9
With the signing of Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi was shifted back to the right, a move which instantly brought a treble of trophies at the club—and, as one can deduce, that is the best for Barcelona. However with Messi’s transfer to the wing, the fall of false 9 was completed.
Since the Messi revelation, many players were tried in a similar role and after a period of time, all of them failed—apart from Lionel Messi himself. He kept scoring and assisting for fun and it is by far his best position—and the reason for that is his superior dribbling, passing and finishing skills.
However, the intricacies of accommodating and making a system work with a false 9 outweigh the advantages. The fact that Barca won 2 trebles playing a pure striker in their system is a testament to the aforementioned fact.
