Positional numbers

Superphil · Jul 31, 2017

I think some South American teams used to give the number one shirt to their captains regardless of which position they played.

Ninja Elephant · Jul 31, 2017

Argentina went to a World Cup (1984?) and the numbers were alphabetical order, except for their #10.

Squad numbers are now very strange, Guillermo Ochoa (Mexican GOALKEEPER) has taken #8 at his new club. Sheffield Wednesday's second choice goalkeeper was #2 last season and their numbers in general were very odd. Steven Fletcher wearing #6, for example! Madness.

Squad numbers are just extensions of brands now really, James Rodriguez has lost a lot of cash in sponsorship from Adidas because his contracted stated he must wear #10. He has moved to Bayern and Robben is their number 10, so Rodriguez has taken number 11.

BensGrandad · Jul 31, 2017

Seaber said:
Battipiedi, or something like that?

That was the man. Thanks

severnside gull · Jul 31, 2017

With the greatest respect to those who tried to knock him back but Whitelion is perfectly correct.
Referring to personal memory is well and good and entirely justifiable but no excuse for ignoring (or in the case of some posters, disrespecting) history.
The numbering system from the beginning of league football more than 120 years ago was precisely as he detailed it (albeit as in rugby some clubs adopted a lettering system which was quickly absorbed). I've no issue with the OP and subsequent contributors putting personal limits on their knowledge and the evolution of "systems" and concomitant numbering from the sixties onwards is interesting such that with squad numbering they really no longer have any relevance.

Clive Walker · Jul 31, 2017

always have a little chuckle when a player takes completley the wrong number.

ie Milan Baros playing upfront for Liverpool as no 5!

Cowfold Seagull · Jul 31, 2017

Garry Nelson's Left Foot said:
Was 4 not central midfield? I could have sworn Dean Wilkins was no.4. If 4 and 5 are the centre halves then 6 and 8 become a lot clearer.

Nowadays, in this country, it's pretty much this really. Although there is a great deal of fluidity from club to club, and even player to player. For instance Gordon Greer would always demand the squad number 3, even though he was very mujch a centre hnalf, never a left back. Footballers can be very superstitious, the great Bobby Charlton always wanted to wear the number 9 shirt. He scored plenty of goals, but primarily he was an attacking midfield player rather than a centre forward.

Nixonator · Jul 31, 2017

severnside gull said:
With the greatest respect to those who tried to knock him back but Whitelion is perfectly correct.
Referring to personal memory is well and good and entirely justifiable but no excuse for ignoring (or in the case of some posters, disrespecting) history.
The numbering system from the beginning of league football more than 120 years ago was precisely as he detailed it (albeit as in rugby some clubs adopted a lettering system which was quickly absorbed). I've no issue with the OP and subsequent contributors putting personal limits on their knowledge and the evolution of "systems" and concomitant numbering from the sixties onwards is interesting such that with squad numbering they really no longer have any relevance.

Putting personal limits on our knowledge? If the question had been about the history and origination of the numbering system then I'm sure the replies would have been different. See below:

Basically what I'm asking is: Can someone fill me in on the new 1-11 positions and what each number is supposed to do? And what formation this 1-11 plays?

mjking73 · Jul 31, 2017

I think, back in late 80s and early 90s, that Garry Nelson wore No.7 and then Robert Codner No.10?

Garry Nelson's Left Foot · Jul 31, 2017

mjking73 said:
I think, back in late 80s and early 90s, that Garry Nelson wore No.7 and then Robert Codner No.10?

Er, yeah, I think you might be right... :blush:

severnside gull · Jul 31, 2017

Nixonator said:
Putting personal limits on our knowledge? If the question had been about the history and origination of the numbering system then I'm sure the replies would have been different. See below:

Well the OP began by referring to numbering 1-11 "back in the day" and refers to not having personal knowledge pre-80's and 90's - a circumstance surely common to lots of posters on here. Indeed a lack of knowledge pre-2000 wouldn't be an unreasonable expectation for many.
That entirely justified Whitelion's informative response.

Ninja Elephant · Jul 31, 2017

And Ian Culverhouse played most of his games for us at Priestfield wearing the number 7 shirt, and others wearing number 11. Maybe we really WERE that negative and defensive! With legends such as Hobson (5) and the other guy (6) forming a barely acceptable back three.

Gordon Greer wearing number 3 was unusual as well, but that was probably in part a nod to Gerard Pique who wears number 3 for Barcelona and also because Adam El-Abd was our number 6. Greer wore number 33 for Swindon before switching to number 6 the following season.

Paul Brooker was our number 6 when he first signed on loan, then changed to number 11. Gary Hart and LuaLua are our only players to have three different numbers which got bigger each time, for OGH it was 9, 12, 15 and for Kaz it's actually a sequence of 4 - 11, 12, 25, 30.

#numbersnerd

Seaber · Jul 31, 2017

Peculiar numbers XI

1 Edgar Davis
2 Morgan Schneiderlin
3 Asamoah Gyan
4 Kemar Roofe
5 Milan Baros
6 Stephen Fletcher
7 N'Golo Kante
8 Glenn Johnson
9 That Chelsea defender from Mourinho's first spell
10 William Gallas
11 Joan Capdevila

GT49er · Jul 31, 2017

whitelion said:
Completely wrong.

1 Goalkeeper
2 Right Back
3 Left Back
4 Right Half
5 Centre Half
6 Left Half
7 Right Wing
8 Inside Right
9 Centre Forward
10 Inside Left
11 Left Wing

Apologies if I misread your post.

Not in the 80s and 90s it wasn't. Up to about the fifties or early sixties your 1-11 numbering is correct, but by the sixties, 4-4-2. 4-3-3 or whatever, messed it up through having two centre halves (CBs to you these days) not one. 'Traditionally' the two centre halves became nos. 5 and 6 (no.4 being right midfield). This was never set in stone, though. The great Everton team (Ball, Harvey and Kendall in midfield) played their no.10 (John Hurst) as a centre half alongside the no.5. And by the 70s, as someone has already pointed out, Liverpool were playing Peter Cormack in midfield with a no.5 on his back. Those ace strikers back in the day, Keegan and Dalglish, were both no.7s too.
Now of course players are allocated numbers at the start of the season, so although some of the old numbering vaguely remains (first choice GK and FBs are usually 1, 2 and 3) but really now the number on the shirt means nothing. No.35 anybody?

Ninja Elephant · Jul 31, 2017

Seaber said:
Peculiar numbers XI

1 Edgar Davis
2 Morgan Schneiderlin
3 Asamoah Gyan
4 Kemar Roofe
5 Milan Baros
6 Stephen Fletcher
7 N'Golo Kante
8 Glenn Johnson
9 That Chelsea defender from Mourinho's first spell
10 William Gallas
11 Joan Capdevila

Khalid Boulahrouz.

I'm not sure I'd say number 11 is strange for a left back. Darijo Srna wearing number 11 as a right back is stranger for me.

Dean Hammond wearing number 11 for us in his first spell didn't really suit either, not really a central midfielder's number.

Bry Nylon · Jul 31, 2017

Personally I'd love it if it reverted to match day teams wearing shirts numbered 1 to 11 and no names on shirts either. Obviously this will never happen.

1234andcounting · Jul 31, 2017

I think there was a short-lived period, the 1930s maybe, when one team was numbered 1-11 and the other numbered 12-22. Can anyone confirm this?

GT49er · Jul 31, 2017

1234andcounting said:
I think there was a short-lived period, the 1930s maybe, when one team was numbered 1-11 and the other numbered 12-22. Can anyone confirm this?

Can't confirm it, but I'm pretty sure you're right.

Dan Gleeballs · Jul 31, 2017

With squad numbers anyone with a number above 12 can play at any position and it makes no difference. I'm old school and seeing a central midfielder like Morgan Schniderlin playing number 2 seems odd. I may be wrong but this is how I see the 1 to 11 matching up to positions

1 GK
2 RB and RWB
3 LB, LWB, CB and LM at a push
4 RB, RWB, CB and CM
5 CB and CM
6 CB, LB, LWB, CM, LM
7 both attacking flanks and striker
8 CM and striker
9 striker
10 anywhere in midfield or up front
11 both attacking flanks and striker

Perkino · Jul 31, 2017

Seaber said:
I see it as:

1 GK
2 RB
3 LB
4 CM (usually a more defensive midfielder than #8)
5 CB
6 CB
7 RM
8 CM (usually a more attacking midfielder than #4)
9 ST (out and out striker)
10 ST/AM (could be any kind of striker, second striker or attacking midfield player)
11 LM

That's if you're playing 4-4-2, or similar. However, some people to swap the #4 and #6 around.

This is how it should be. A requirement for any decent football management game is the ability to change the squad numbers so they can be like this

Yes Chef · Jul 31, 2017

19.2 Top
18.4 middle

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