I think the "false 9" suits those teams that have an abundance of attacking midfielders/wingers, but no top level target man, and prefer to dominate possession.
As Cruyff said "I love to play in diamond in midfield, with a false 9/offensive midfielder at the top. But if you play with a World Class striker like Van Basten or Van Nistelrooy you dont put them in a diamond. They're World Class in the box so you dont put them out of the box."
Firmino is the one that amazed me in terms of the last 5 years Someone who knows how to play between the lines,press high and even how to interpret space(Like a raumdeuter would) He also knows how to play in the midfield and help retain the ball I think he's arguably one of the main reasons teams have started to use false 9s again
People should see this to understand players like Messi. He is always criticized for not scoring as much as with Argentina as he does at barcelona, but he is a false 9 that needs to focus on creating danger because Argentina has no other playmaker (di maria has recently been on the bench, he should play more)
I think football is favouring more dynamic forward in the middle whether or not they are false 9 or centreforwards. For example, in Conte's Inter Milan both Lukaku and Lautaro had to drop deeper to help the team to defend and to leave their own half and they both are centreforwards. I think it's just that static centreforwards who only act as a pivot and finisher for attacking plays are not as favoured by good coaches.
Atalanta also used two false 9s during their first Champions league season in the knockout games. against Valencia Gasperini used Pasalic as a Traqartista and Gomez Ilicic as false 9s
False 9 will cause a re-emergence of the traditional 10 role once someone finds a way to shut down these counter-attacks. Regardless its a legit tactic when you have the chemistry and talent needed.
If I remember, Mourinho once use Pepe as defensive midfielder, to mark man on man Messi. And they made a draw I think - at least they dont lose. To counter a false 9, I think "follow him lika a shadow" is a good plan.
@@vincesalamander5980 go and watch the video of mourinho explaining his tactics of famous 3-1 victory over barca in 2010 UCl semifinal with inter..He came over false 9 messi by 2 players attacking messi whenever he gets in possession
@@farhaankhan5868 I watched it But it was with Inter what you talk about. Mourinho said he wanted to be more offensive with Real - that's partly why he was destroy 5-0 the first time. If I remember with Inter it was Cambiasso and Motta ?
I am actually a number traditional 9 and since I started to become more thecnical I am a false nine and for me this suits me cause I love to pass shoot from anywhere plus dribble and defending for me as well I find the false 9 is very underrated but effective once you study it everyday i just can't wait to break messi 91 goals record as a false 9
I live in wasco California. Really enjoy your videos. I like to put my 9 to stay right or left of the sweeper. It pulls back the stopper so it pulls back the two cm’s as well. So it’s easier for me to attack and putting the opponents against there goal. It all starts by pinning their sweeper.
False 9 is kinda nice actually to give a tactical break to the normal 9 tactics. Juventus right now?? Tactically can use Chiesa in a false 9, or Vlahovic in his traditional 9 role. False 9 is kinda fun cuz it rotates around your attack minded players. Keeps players running into spaces n throws off the defenses!!
Another great informative video. Liked and commented as well so it gets pushed by the algorithm. I think the false 9 role will continue to evolve. A lot more players are blurring the fixed roles between the traditional no.9 and the attacking midfielder. Might not even be any one player with that special role. Increased skills and fitness from sophisticated coaching and exposure to FIFA / Football Manager stats means younger generations of players are able to perform more complex roles. Look at the success of attacking trios in the later stages of this season's Champions League.
Great comment thanks for the support! Yeah I think you're right, the idea of "total football" feels like it's becoming increasingly more relevant once again and I'm curious to see what could change in the next few seasons
A False 9 is today a centre-forward (deep-lying forward), CF plays between the Striker and the Attacking Midfielder. In the past Centre-Forward was the term used for Striker. A wide Centre Forward (in 4-3-2-1 and 3-4-2-1 Formations) is an Inside Forward also a past Position which still exists in my opinion, in FIFA 22 the Inside Forwards were the “LF and RF” positions which were removed in FIFA 23. They’re now CFs. But everything behind the Term CF describes a Second Striker. I don’t understand why FIFA doesn’t use SS. I think Firmino, Messi(2009), and Benzema are good players who played in this Position.
A typical striker has 2 defenders marking him with good tackling and heading, while the fast wingers and insider forwards are normally one on one vs a fullback with average tackling. Against a double pivot like 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, the False 9 with good ball skills can sit in the square space drawing all the attention while letting the inside forwards/wingers and full back build the attack. I feel like the Poacher or line leading striker is slowly dying out, to make way for more fluid creative passing strikers that help link up play
Very good video, I can't say something on the popularity of false 9. But if you could give the tactical analysis of the match atleti Barça and city Chelsea this weekend I will be very happy
Thank you! I would love to do it, unfortunately I always have work over the weekend and don't have time for a match analysis after the game.. it's something I am working on and hopefully in the near future I can start doing individual match analysis
Advantage for false 9 is any forward can score goal and freedom in move anyway to create chance. For example is havertz who is cam who have vision, creativity but at the same time he is very clinical in scoring. They only cf on paper but they take number 10 role too
From what i saw, one particularly high requisite to be a false 9 is higher intelligence, allied with higher experience. You need to know where and when to move in, otherwise you gonna be just a dead weight to your teamates. The team i cheer to have a CF called Luiz Adriano, that in 2021 have been playing as false nine. Problem is, he cant help the construction neither step in area to finish or look/create spaces. It seems like hes not fit to that position, making harder to the team to either get out of pressure or scoring goals
I'd say the main difference is that the shadow striker doesn't drop as deep as a false 9 would. Think of Joao Felix as a Shadow striker with Luis Suarez. Felix will hover around the box and try and get on the end of any knockdowns, but doesn't move into the midfield as often as a false 9.
I was a false 9 before I even knew what a false 9 was as a kid but unfortunately never had a coach who used me properly.. Like this video explains if you do this properly their defenders are just lost. I never had a coach who tried to really exploit the space I left behind though, instead I played under wannabe mourinhos who played 10 behind the ball. In my region most teams played with a back 4 so even if I had one defender wildly out of position the other one was ready when he got beat, and it's hard to thrive 2v1 with 0 runs supporting me against strong fast physical cbs. You can call me corny but I have game footage recorded from back then and the amount of space I left to be exploited was disgusting. Just never had a coach who understood to send runners from midfield or on the wing.. Stupid really.
why people didnt mention firmino? he is literally the "obvious" false 9 for last three years. He played this role really nicely but still people dont rate him...
Messi isn’t a full false 9 bro, he like to go in from the sides but how can you talk about false 9 without mentioning Karim Benzema? He’s the perfect example of this role
Is benzema not a false 9 I have noticed something any tactics you explain on you never mention anything about real Madrid only city Liverpool and Barcelona 😂😂
It's pretty hard to sum up the intricacies of a "False 9" system in 9mins. There needs to be an understanding of the midfield shape behind the 9; does one or 2 break the line centrally, past the 9 when they drop in / do the wingers become 9s in half spaces between CB and FB / how does this then all effect where the attacking FBs go (how high, wide or inverted etc). A "False 9" system is more pieces required, than a standard 433 system, than just the False 9 themselves. Then there are the variations on who plays there, based on a teams defensive set up and queues. Again, this is also driven by more parts - generally the overall athleticism of the team - than just the False 9.
It's kinda fun to bring a midfielder into a defensive libero role fer a match tactically. I've seen Vidal and De Rossi drop in to a Libero/Regista role
Switch to a back 3 with wingback support and put One dedicated Defensive Midfielder with good speed and/or movement to screen or man mark the False Nine and the Role becomes just another playmaker that doesn't pull apart any defensive lines.
Depends because now there is still am overload in midfield if playing 4-3-3 plus wingers can pin the wing backs so the full backs can push up and join the midfield
Question: At 1:17 the presentation discusses the scenario that the center forward drops back but the center defenders don't follow him. Next the two wingers also drop back and pinch-in next to him so that the midfield is now over-loaded... However, wouldn't the four defenders (red) now simply move up (i.e down in the depiction) to close the gap and possibly man-mark the midfielders (blue); the main downside would be that there is now more space for a through-ball behind the defensive line?
