The Truth behind False 9

Football is always evolving so are the thoughts and the tactics related to it. With the exceptional increase in the medical facilities, growing professionalism in every strata of the game and the sheer cut throat competition has goaded teams to conjure up something different, something out of the box to put off their opponents. One such attempt is the False Nine.What is a ploy manufactured by the modern football it won’t be wrong terming Johan Cryuff the emblem of Rinus Michel’s Total Football squad as the False 9 of the era due to the non conformity of the fixed position that the system propagated.

Cryuff:the first false 9?

The term is self explanatory; the old school squad number nine, generally put aside for the Centre Forward is used as a camouflage and the player donning number nine plays out of his usual position, in a deeper role that is some what similar to an archetypal Number 10 i.e. the play maker of the team. But if the striker starts deep why isn’t he called an attacking midfielder/second striker/play maker/Trequartista which is probably the position he is going to play throughout the match? Beyond me, perhaps that’s why they are called tactics.

Messi waltz his way to score against sturdy Madrid

Whatever the name of the position is it surely is one of those maverick inventions that have taken the modern game to a different level. The most prominent users of the position today are Barcelona and Manchester United. It’s Lionel Messi who is the supposed false 9 in the Catalan setup, marked as a striker in the line up Messi is way deeper than where he should be playing. This license to roam anywhere clubbed with the TIKI-TAKA way of football envisaged by the Catalan giants has helped Messi and Barcelona as a whole to dictate teams time and time again. Messi plays through the middle in a three men attack with both the wide forwards( David Villa and Pedro Rodriguez) capable of coming inside thus his job becomes simpler that is to drift deep and create for the converging wide players. The deeper Messi plays the more difficult it gets for the opposite centre back that have to make a decision whether to maintain their position or go with the player thus leaving space behind them that can be utilized by clever little runs by the midfield players and wide forwards.

Where as the similar scenario goes awry in the case of Arsenal, who employed a false 9 in the shape of Robin Van Persie who when and if plays deep robs off the team of the target man as the wide players hardly move to replace the void left by the striker. This has become a bit of a characteristic of today’s arsenal side. The ball being whipped into the box but there is no one to meet the cross. Thus the tactic has a lot to do with the team formation and the kind of players in the team. For Barcelona it looks a much easier fit with the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovich they hardly have an old school Centre forward. Looking at the barrage of “El Clasico” at the end of last season as case study helps us find that not even the most astute of the manager i.e. Jose Mourinho could negate the tactics though he tried his level best by deploying Pepe as a sweeper in front the back four only to mark the Barca number 10.But Real Madrid’s lack of perseverance and rashness on the field clubbed with some questionable antics by the Barcelona players saw them go down in the champions league as well as La Liga.

critical component of the United machinery

Manchester United have a sort of different approach with them usually playing with two strikers up front and the wingers supporting the strikers thus practically when they attack it’s a four man attack somewhat a reminiscent of the Arsenal’s invincible squad who had Henry, Bergkamp, Ljungberg and Robert Pires as the fearsome foursome. But they can also resort to a three men attack or a five men midfield as the case may be with the current bench having the likes of last year’s revelation Chicharito and the Epl golden boot winner Dimitar Berbatov on it. Thus there is lot of mix and match that can be done. But for me the best thing that they have done this summer is purchasing Ashley Young. The former Aston Villa speedster has cutting edge skills and has quickly adapted into the United system. The genuine pace of the squad is one the biggest merit. Here Wayne Rooney plays almost as a part of midfield rather than a forward. The more he gets involved in the game the better it is for the team as a whole with Nani and Young both more than good finishers and the emergence of another prospect in the shape of Danny Welbeck gives them a lot to be excited about. Ironically Rooney also played in the same role for Capello’s English squad in the Euro qualifier against Wales but was not at the same level as at Old Trafford. Rooney is perhaps much more flexible than Messi in the position because he can lead the line with same prowess as he can create from midfield whereas Messi is more of Right winger/second striker.

The false nine which has super ceded the playmaker is somewhat of a much more complete position in the respect. Tacticians have always labeled the talismanic Argentine playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme as the last of the dying breed of clichéd playmaker. Riquelme who in his prime was so much of a central figure to all that was good in Argentinean football was also blamed for being rigid in his style and forcing the team to adapt a system that accommodated him. The playmaker who was vested with the duty of creating those opening for the forwards and the killer balls is all but dead in the modern game where you have to multitask on the pitch and just can not afford sitting behind the strikers and be the reservoir of creativity rather one has to be either a complete midfielder like the current crop of Spanish guys i.e Xavi and Cesc and even Modric or be more lethal and more adventurous on the attacking front like Sniejder, David Silva, Nasri, Young, Rooney and sundry. Thus the 4-4-2 which was a staple few years ago has been shunned by majority of the clubs as they have switched to various variations of 4-3-3 and 4-5-1.