So I’m doing this. Today is Day One! And away we go …

Today’s topic is the Squad Numbering System for “proper” football. You know, how the goalkeeper wears number 1, the forward wears number 9, and so on and so forth. In a modern 4-4-2, the numbers work out like this:

1  Goalkeeper
2  Right fullback
3  Left fullback
4  Central Midfielder (or “Holding” Midfielder)
5  Centre-half (or “center back,” although this is disfavored; see below)
6  Centre-half
7  Right Midfielder
8  Central Midfielder
9  Center Forward
10 Support Striker / Attacking Midfielder (depending on how withdrawn)
11 Left Midfielder

Which ends up looking something like this:

———-9————
——-10————-
11———- 8——7
——-4—————
-3——6—5——2-
———-1————

This doesn’t seem to make sense, until you understand how the numbering came to be. For the full, extremely detailed answer, read Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics by Jonathan Wilson. See Page 329 and the accompanying text to see just how badly Bob Bradley got his tactics wrong in the USA’s 2010 World Cup loss to Ghana, who were playing an African 3-back system specifically designed to beat the traditional 4-4-2 that Bradley employed. But I digress …

When the numbering system was first employed, the system of the day looked like this:

-11—10—9—8—7-
—————————
—-6——5——4—-
—————————
———3——2——-
—————————
————-1————

1  Goalkeeper
2  Right fullback
3  Left fullback
4  Right halfback
5  Centre halfback
6  Left halfback
7  Outside Right (or Right Winger)
8  Inside Right
9  Centre Forward
10 Inside Left
11 Outside Left (or Left Winger)

This old-school pyramid seems insanely attacking or “positive” by today’s standards, unless you’re talking about Barcelona who more or less run something like this when attacking a team who’s keeping 10 men behind the ball (so pretty much everyone …). Anyway, it made sense back then when there was very little passing the the offside rule had not yet been liberalized. But again I digress …

So that’s the basics. In later posts I will cover the evolution from the old-school pyramid, to the Herbert Chapman “W-M”, to the Brazilian 4-2-4, and so on and so forth … Until tomorrow.