G+A & The Death Of The №10 — Is The Art Of Football Getting Lost In The Data?
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, I had just finished my class X examinations along with the undiluted pressures & stress that the class X ICSE examinations in India are built up to be for 16 year olds across the country; perhaps the earliest introduction to the nature of success & failure in a make or break world.
The turbulent preparation for those “make or break” exams as they’re touted at that impressionable age, had got to me; I sneaked out of home two weeks before the board exams & smoked a cigarette for the first time.
I rushed home with a head rush I’d never ever felt before & slept perhaps the longest I’d ever slept in my life as a teenager up until then.
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We played at Barnes International School, in Devlali, Maharashtra in the ICSE Anglo-Indian U16 tournament, dubbed “Anglos” by us just after our board exams finished. I was a right winger back then, I had played for my school (St. Mary’s ICSE, Mumbai) since the age of 9. Starting out as an inside forward in a 4–3–3 wearing the no. 9 jersey of my favourite striker Ronaldo Nazario. Of course at the time, it was just called “left-out” in school, or an LF. But I was skillful, lightning quick & could finish in those early years.
I recall my first goal — a first-time sidefoot volley with my left foot(my weaker foot) at the Parel ground in Mumbai after a cross came in from the right wing. My first goal for school that got my name in the papers; the Mumbai Mid-Day in a tiny subsection of the local sports page.
Another one I remember was almost Lampard vs Barcelona-esque as my cross went into the net from a zero degree angle. I told them I meant it.
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Anglos. I’m on the right wing, we’re playing Cathedral in the group stage & we’re Xth graders while they’re monstrous XIIth graders. The jump in testosterone & the physical jump between the age of 16–18 in boys is perhaps the most stark one. Those guys were twice or thrice our size. We were down 2–0 but drew the game 2–2. My long ball/cross from somewhere near the half-line fell perfectly to one of our forwards Ronak, who finished to draw level. But we didn’t qualify for the knockouts on goal difference. I had a decent tournament, a cup tournament, I got 3 assists & scored a goal too — a header from a corner; the last thing I’d expect because of how bad I was in the air, despite my height.
After the game we dormed opposite the boys from the Bombay Scottish School. We laughed, got to know each other, bonded etc. It was Man United vs Arsenal in the Premier League in 2005/06 & we crowded the dorm’s common TV room to watch the game. One of the fiercest, Roy Keane & Vieira going at each other.
Park Ji-Sung & Rooney gave United the 2–0 win. One dude from Scottish was wearing a Park Ji-Sung jersey. Banter & laughs at the end. We were in splits!
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We’re sitting around my friend’s place & glued to the TV for the late night kick off watching the 2006 FIFA World Cup. It’s France vs Brazil in the quarter finals. Perhaps one of the greatest Brazil sides of all time — Ronaldo Nazario, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Roberto Carlos et al. But that game was all about one player — Zinedine Zidane.
With a body-swerve & a little deft flick, he was away. A back-heeled pass, expert ball-control, a feint, a dash of pace, a killer pass. A touch here, a trudge there. Walking past the Brazil players as if they weren’t there as he tore apart the Selecao, but like an artist tearing up a canvas; it was almost always like time slowed down for Zidane when he was on the pitch. Only for him. Only for him. I was captivated.
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I would eventually become a no.10 attacking midfielder during my peak playing years in college, for MIT Manipal, modeling my game around Zidane, my idol. By then I had lost the pace but developed my intelligence. I won the player of the tournament award in our first outstation tournament in BITS Goa in 2009. Which is why I feel so deeply about the no.10…. but it’s a dying position….
(End reel)
Has the meaning of why we love football & what we glorify about the game changed over the course of time? I have strong reason to believe it has. I read some Twitter thread about some of these youngsters berating Zidane because of his lack of G+A. Bracketing Zidane into the confinement of a box; to narrow down all Zidane did & achieved into mere numbers; every dribble, every moment the Bernabeu would gasp, cheer & cry in wonder at his every touch. Captaining France to the World Cup & the Euros. I was aghast. “Don’t know why Zidane was considered a GOAT?” “Zidane is nowhere near Ronaldo & Messi”….
Is this part of a wider systemic problem we’re encountering as the game is evolving now in its iteration in 2024?
Recently, Argentine 2022 World Cup winning manager Lionel Scaloni hit out scathingly at the situation of “over analysis” we find ourselves in at the moment elaborating on what young kids are being taught at the youngest ages at the grassroots level all over the world.
Speaking to Marca recently, Scaloni said:
“There is too much analysis in football, too much. Nowadays everyone knows how the opponent plays, there is so much information that in the end the most important thing, which is the footballer, is controlled by remote control. And in our case, I don’t know with other teams, you run the risk of losing the essence, of taking away from the player what he has best. If you are constantly telling him what to do, you run that risk. We transmit what is fair, what we believe we have to transmit, what is really important, so as not to overwhelm you with information. We are losing the essence of football, and not only at the professional level, but at the children’s level as well. My children play in Spain and they are overwhelmed with information. They receive the ball and are already being told what to do.”
“There are no dribblers because if they barely receive the ball you say “Pass it!”… Imagine if Messi, when he was eight years old, had been told all the time “Pass it!” his coaches, today we wouldn’t have him. Since football has ended up being such a big thing, everyone reads, studies, and believes that with that they can lead. You tell a 7 or 8 year old child to make a run, to make the coverage… he is seven years old! Let him play ball, make mistakes, and when he is 14 or 15 we start correcting him. It is a message for the future. This is a sport and the beauty of football should not be lost.”
Mechanical players, more drilled routines, more emphasis on tactical structures, data, data, data: xG, xA, G+A, PPG, PPDA, the list goes on…We have a massive availability of data, but are we using it correctly? And where does the data begin to overpower our natural intuition, notions & philosophies of the modern game? Furthermore, how does it impact the naturally gifted young football players growing up right now? And where do we begin to draw the line?
In another recent report I came across, former England, Liverpool & Real Madrid striker Michael Owen was also quick to point out, that players have now transitioned into athletes & that the pure footballing ability has taken a backseat:
“I think footballers were more pure back in the day. Now you have to be an athlete, you have to be able to run, you have to be big and you have to be fast. If Matt Le Tissier, one of the most gifted players of our time, were playing today, would he even get into a team?”
“Back in the day there were loads of great players that were absolute ballers, properly talented footballers. Now, if you can just run a bit further than everyone else and pass the ball from A to B, then you can have a decent career in the Premier League. You don’t even have to be that good anymore.”
“You used to have to have real skill and attributes to be a top player — you had to be a footballer. Now you have to be an athlete.”
The no. 10 position or the CAM or the attacking midfielder (as you prefer) has seen its evolution through the years. The position & the number have been donned by the greats. But now, it’s been reduced to just a number; because of the numbers. And the actual grooming of players to play in that position is dwindling.
The no.10 was that creative genius, that creative spark & gifted player w/ touch & control & finesse. That player who could unlock defences with a dribble or a pass or a first touch. Through balls that split defences open, playmaking high up the pitch — the goals & assists came later.
The freedom the 10 had on the pitch, was in many ways artistic. The 10 was given freedom to roam, to take up any position on the pitch, the pockets, the half-spaces. But now, the modern tactical frameworks & approaches have deemed the 10 as “unnecessary”. This is leading to a huge mismatch of players of the CAM/no.10 profile being played out of position.
In an old report from 2017, James Rodriguez, a gifted 10 in his own right, began suggesting this shift in the modern game in conversation with the Bundesliga press during his spell at Bayern Munich several years ago.
As AS reported back then, James said:
“I don’t think there are any №10s left in the world. Football today is tactical and very physical, with no place for a №10,”
“When I arrived at Porto, they told me clearly: ‘We know you’re a classic 10, but here you’re going to play as a forward’.
“From that moment, I started working as a “false 9”, also running towards the centre. Eight or 10 years ago it was different, because attacking midfield was a regular position. Today, those who have a 10 on their back are normally centre-forwards or complete midfielders,”
In a more recent video, Rodriguez further explained his point:
The evidence is everywhere. The no.10 is dying is being replaced by casting aside players in the no.10 ilk & mold out onto the wings or being played as a false 9.
The fallacy of the false 9 is a glaring one; in some instances it does work — think Guardiola. But it’s the stringent tactical & data-driven decisions that are pushing players who are archetypal CAMs into roles on the pitch where their abilities (& might I add genius) is severely underutilised & heavily criticised because of the lack of goals & assists.
It’s all about G+A & efficiency now. Efficiency & ouput. Do you check all the stat performance metrics? That’s it.
From current players who spring to mind, Joao Felix is a player who exhibits one of the most no.10 traits & flair out of all young players in the modern game. But Felix couldn’t make his move to Chelsea from Atletico Madrid a permanent one. Online, fans & journalists hit out at his lack of goals & assists critcizing & attacking him for this lack of output.
Personally, it was brilliant watching Joao play for Chelsea with those lovely first touches, accurate & piercing defence splitting passes, dribbles, not by pace but with skill, proper skill & his all round game sense & awareness, in the proverbial kick-and-rush Premier League.
Fast forward to this season & Felix was offloaded to Barcelona from Atleti on loan, & faced similar stick from huge sections of the Blaugrana & the Spanish press.
Felix has 4 goals and 2 assists in La Liga & 3 goals & 1 assist for Barcelona in the Champions League this season, at the time of writing this piece. But is a player as gifted & with as much guile & finesse as the Portuguese playmaker fit to be criticized this heavily just solely by his numbers?
Another player who is, in all sense, a 10 is Kai Havertz. Havertz is a 10. No matter what Arsenal or Chelsea fans may argue. He did excellently at Leverkusen, Chelsea swooped him up. To be fair, he did pretty well at Chelsea but his numbers 32 goals & 15 assists in 139 games for Chelsea meant that his stint in West London was criticized heavily. He also scored the winning goal that led Chelsea to their UEFA Champions League triumph against City under Thomas Tuchel, in what was the final trophy of the Roman Abramovic era.
Havertz had all the makings of a classic 10 who can score & create. But he has been thrown under the bus by journalists, pundits & fans alike all joining in the meme party of “lol” culture because of his lack of output. Again, G+A.
He’s been played all over the front three & even in defence (dear God!) by Arteta & it further highlights how the CAM position is being bypassed & overlooked even by the smartest & the topmost managers. This is the modern game. This is its implications.
Being played out of position is difficult, no matter what level of the game you’re playing at & the constant media & social media glare at the top level makes matters worse. The psychological aspect of this G+A culture also severely impacts players rather negatively. Some can handle it, some can’t. Havertz, to be frank, did an admirable job at Chelsea despite Tuchel playing him as a false 9 majorly.
A no.10 is a no.10, but in this overblown race for the most G+A figures we’re losing some of the world’s finest playmakers every year.
On the flipside, Chelsea’s Cole Palmer has blossomed. He’s a proper 10 as well. Vision, awareness, pausa, dribbling, passing, finishing & the likes. But he has managed to adapt while being played all over the front three by Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino. Palmer has been a revelation at Stamford Bridge this season.
But that’s the thing. Some players can handle it & adapt but others can’t.
Is this the shape of things to come? Will the no. 10s of the future be pushed out to the flanks or be deployed as false nines? Even last night, Palmer was played as a false nine by Pochettino against Liverpool, & he failed to make any sizeable impact in a humbling 4–1 loss at Anfield being the end result.
This shift in thinking by managers at the highest level, I’m assuming is because of this huge repository of data & the entire data evaluation that’s working at top clubs behind the scenes. Apart from this data-driven decision making, the psychological effect of social media & the internet, further leads to no.10s not being able to freely express themselves on the pitch & leads to compartmentalizing their diverse skills & abilities, by only gauging their performances by goals & assists.
Players who are born & naturally gifted to playing as an attacking midfielder are being stifled in their growth & being told that they’re irrelevant in the modern game. As a result, we’re losing out on the creators & visionaries of football.
Imagine if Zidane was asked to play as a false 9 or striker. Or perhaps Riquelme leading the line up as a false 9. Pablo Aimar being pushed into the false 9 role & asked to score regularly. Guti replacing Raul at the top of the pitch. Or Pirlo, a deep lying playmaker or regista being asked to play out wide.
The positionist & relationist philosophies could bring about some new, unique roles & positions on the pitch, but we have to stop letting data drive every managerial decision.
The modern game is snowballing into a landslide of numbers-driven decisions. We’re now seeing the ramifications of the mathematical nature of evaluating football in the 2020s, and we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Where do we draw the line? And where do we tell the data & the data proponents that this is a game of skill, with the ball & without the ball & a thinking game, to be played with the head first & the feet later; to master time & space; the artistry of the game — the beautiful game.
This undue, loathsome & incessant estimation of a players’ value & performance by their numbers glorified by stats merchants & the lesser informed strata of football fans is all culminating into a giant mess of forgetting the beauty & the simplistic skill & appreciation of the game & more critically, the abilities of players. Yes, winning is important, paramount in fact in football — a results game in the end. But we’re losing the artists for the mechanics.
This needs a rethink. This needs a hard re-think, at all levels of the sport from the upper echelons of the game to the grassroots level. We need to be modest about the data, & more pro-active in keeping the natural artistry & skill of the game intact. Philosophies need to promote the flair & talent youngsters show & worry about the mechanics & tactical drilling later, or we could lose out, as Scaloni suggests on the next Messi.
It’s societal to a large extent as well. Followers, popularity, numbers, figures, algorithms, data: football is just one aspect of life that’s being negatively impacted by this fascination of the measurable, computable & quantifiable.
Of course, technology is not to blame. But it’s rather the way we use it. However, right now, a kid who could be the next Zidane is being told to play on the wings or as a false 9 by his U13 coach, or worse yet, finding himself/herself marginalised in their youth squad because they are deemed unnecessary.
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