Re: Serie A Thread - 2009/10 Season
gerd said:
I don't really trust Maradonna as a person.
i don't think there's a single person that trusts maradona, mate
ok, the following was supposed to be a reply to a pm abou sent me. but since it wasn't really a "private content" conversation and since the topic might actually interest some of u guys i asked abou if i could reply in here (instead of sending him a pm).
hope u don't mind Auwais
the topic of the conversation was the evolution of the number 10s in football. that was his question.
abou said:
What do you think about the lack of Number 10s in the game today?
They've usually had to find new positions as wingers or inside forwards and there're very few around today who play in that position (Gourcuff is one I remember off the top of my head).
Is it the evolution of tactics? The increased speed of the game today?
well mate, the fact that u mentioned the growth of the pace, the evolution of tactics and the need of number 10s to find themselves a new spot, already tells me u know what we're talking about. so i'm not gonna waste your and mine time telling u things u already know.... i'll go a bit deeper and try to tell u something about the place of number 10s in football history. that will make u understand why they became such an important asset in some times, and why they became almost a problem to fix today.
but first things first. what does the number 10 really refers to? most of the people tend to link the number 10 to the trequartista.... it's the simplest way to define a number 10 and i have to admit i do it too sometimes. but truly, the number ten doesn't refer to a role, but to a conception of football. the number 10 is the number of the
fantasista, the player who gives fantasia to the game, the creative player, the genious, the one who lives the game on a different tempo than his teammates, the one who can foresee the future development of the play and anticipate..... and also the one with the highest technique.
the fantasista of the team is most of the times the trequartista. but it doesn't always have to be the trequartista.
infact, in the very beginning it wasn't.
the primeval number 10 (back in the '40s\50s) was the
regista. the central midfielder who had the highest quality in the team, the one who had to lead the team with his visionary passing game.
then something happened. in the '60s, while the rest of europe was experimenting with the "new" 4-4-2 in all his shapes and sizes, italy took a different path. the catenaccio system required a very strong and muscular midfield that could apply some serious pressing. the midfield those days was formed by a mediano (a holding midfielder) and a regista. now a regista isn't exactly the kind of player u would ask to press (afterall the genious is lazy by definition). so many italian coaches decided to go for a 2 mediani midfield (that could give all the phisycal strenght and pressing they needed), moving the number 10 upwards.
and that's how the fantasista of the team (the nr. 10) became a trequartista (namely a player whose spot is on the "trequarti".... the 3/4 of the pitch).
u remember this pic don't u? it's the one i used to explain to u the basics of catenaccio. this time i also added the forwards to make u understand how the evolution of the nr. 10 (from regista to trequartista) worked.
that's the most basic form of catenaccio with a regista and a mediano at midfield. mind u that's not the only catenaccio... it's just the simplest. catenaccio is like 4-4-2.... it's not a formation, it's a system, hence it's opened to many different interpretations.
now as i said, in order to give more strenght to the midfield, some coaches put another mediano in the regista's place (so u have 2 medianos covering at midfield). but u can't just bench such a quality player as the number 10, the fantasista, the one who actually builds the plays. so those coaches decided to line up just 1 forward in order to create space for the number 10. that really didn't make the formation more defensive (although that's what the rest of the world thought those days).... it was just about subbing a pure forward with a more talented player (the number 10) and putting this player slightly behind the cf.
a new role was born: the trequartista.
in the invention of the trequartista there's all the genious of the italian tactic. follow me. the most used formation in europe those days was Chapman's WM.
looking at the pic u can clearely understand why this formation was called "WM".
anyway the WM formation had 3 defenders, who used to man mark (zone coverage is yet to come)
now, if u try to match that 2nd catenaccio image (the one with the trequartista) with the WM formation image, u'll discover something crazy.
the trequartista has no one marking him.... he's completely free. just think about this. the 2 side fullbacks are on man marking over the italian "inside forwards" (those 2 midfielders on the sidelines), while the central fullback is on man marking over the italian cf.
20 meters ahead of them there are the halfbacks (wich are 2 holding midfielders)... but they can't take care of the trequartista either, coz they have to battle with their italian counterpart (2 italians medianos).
so the trequartista is completely alone. and mind u, u can't use today's logic to analyse that football. today a defender would notice the trequartista is heading to the box unmarked, so he would leave his assigned man to mark to go on coverage and stop the trequartista...... but people didn't even know what the word coverage mean those days (the only ones who were already discovering the concept of coverage were the italians with their liberos). the defenders only concern was to follow their assigned opponent like a shadow. and that was all they had to do. they couldn't switch the man to mark, they couldn't leave him... not even if their man was not involved in the current play and there was another player (the trequartista) heading to the box with the ball.
as u can imagine, by inventing this new role, italy (once again) changed football as it was conceived. it was not anymore just a matter of bombing ahead the ball to allow the wingers or the inside forwards (btw the inside forwards were the closest thing to an italian mezz'ala) to cross the ball to the 2 cf.
football became more "complete". having such a telented player playing right behind the cf gave the italian teams some new offensive options. they didn't have to attack necessarily from the sidelines... they could create something from the center aswell (funnily people all around the world didn't realise this. they tought the italian game was one dimensional and defensive, while the catenaccio with the trequartista was actually more offensive than the WM formation itself in some aspects.... but that's another story.... a story about ignorance and prejudices i won't talk about now).
by putting the number 10 (the fantasista) on the trequarti (3/4 of the pitch) the italian coaches lined up their most talented and dangerous player in a "
no man's land". the trequartista was too far from the box to become a defenders's problem.... but was also too far from the midfield to become a halfbacks's problem.
but football's evolution changed this situation. 2 were the factors that determined the end of the trequartistas era.
the invention of zone coverage and
the athleticism of the players.
with the zone coverage invention, the defenders weren't forced to follow their assigned men to mark anymore. they still had to man mark, but they didn't have to mark a specific player: just everyone who enters into their assigned zone. the invention of the zone coverage gave much flexibility to the art of defending. the defenders now can double the marking or slide the marking, according to the evolution of the plays. so now trequartistas aren't free from marking anymore. as soon as they get the ball, they can have 1 or even 2 men marking them. and that obviously has an effect on their impact on the game.
and then there's a second factor.
the atleticism of the players itself. try to compare a picture of a player from the 60s to a modern footballer...... old days players didn't even look like athletes, coz the athletic preparation of a player wasn't that important those days. today fitness is a science and the athletic preparation is as important as the technique education and the tactical aspect. players are stronger, faster, they have more stamina. as a consequence the pace of the game grew drastically.
and obviously the higher is the pace of the game, the smaller becomes the pitch.
that means
that the "no man's land" the trequartista used to live his game in, became smaller and smaller. his vital spaces, his operation zone became smaller and smaller..... till it disappeared.
modern football teams act as a "spring". the distance between the sectors (midfield and defence) can get shorter or longer, according to the plays. u can have a winger tracking back till his own box to provide some coverage.
long story short, there isn't any separation between the sectors. and that means there's no more space, no more room for a trequartista in the modern game.
so it happened exactly the same thing that already happened in the '60s.
the number 10, the fantasista had to reinvent themselves and find a new spot.
that means that the number 10s, the fantasista didn't really disappear. they just moved somewhere else. there are plenty of number 10s today. some of them moved backwards and became mezz'ali (iniesta, veron, riquelme, hamsik, benayoun, joe cole). some others moved upwards and became supporting strikers (del piero, mancini, baggio, miccoli, mutu, jovetic, pandev). some others moved to the side and became wingers (messi, robben, ribery). some others became very unconventional CF (totti, rooney, ibra).
they're not in the 3/4 of the pitch anymore... but they didn't disappear from the game.
finally there's another way to approach this topic (the evolution of the number 10). an anthropological way.
u see the number 10, in his old trequartista conception, was a nightmare to any coach. coaches tend to rationalize the game. it's important for them to be able to control every single aspect of the game from the bench. therefore every player must have some very specific assignements and duties. each player has to give a very specific contribution.
the game must be rational.
but the number ten represents the genious. and the genious is never rational. it's something that flees, escapes from any form of logic, any form of control. it refuses the control. afterall, the fantasista plays with his fantasia (in english: imagination, creativity). u can't control creativity. it's an irrational process.
and that's why the fantasistas, the number 10s tend to refuse any sort of control, they don't tolerate orders from the coach. they just want to be lined up so they can "do their magic". fantasistas are "anarchists" by nature.
this deprives the coaches of part of their power, their influence, their control..... and they don't like it. that's why most of the fantasisti always had problems with their coaches (baggio, mancini, rivera). coaches don't like the idea of a player doing just want he wants, a player who follows his instinct rather than the coach directives.
so moving the fantasisti from the trequartistas area to others (well defined) roles was a blessing in disguise for the coaches, coz it allowed the coaches to demand something more from the fantasista.
today they can say "
hey, u're a winger, hence i expect u to track back in coverage during non possession phases of the game" or "
hey, u're a mezz'ala now, so i expect u to put some pressing on the opponent's ball carrier too! u can't just wander around the pitch, waiting for your creativity to give u the right inspiration!"
by moving the fantasistas to others positions, the coaches turned the fantasistas into "team players".... wich was something "against their nature" back in the days when they used to play as trequartisti.
hope that satisfied your curiosity abou
. Sorry to bring up past comments , but I think Roman was tired of Mourinho tactics too , the attacking of refs(forcing 1 to quit),coaches calling Voyeur Wenger in public is shockingly funny ,but disrespectful! and Roman wants Chelsea to have a class imagine and Mourinho already influencing Drogba w/ it`s a Fxxxing DISGRACE(comments) on national tv is proof even though he left that year.
and stays at the Brown Derby Hotel on sunset Blvd. FFS! Seeing Cech and Snoop at a party is ridiculous ...that`s endangering players inhaling Drugs 
). But he isn't consistent enough to be in the starting 11.
