Squad Numbers - 2022/23

[Donmcfc]

When I started watching City in the early 1960's the numbers were:
1 Goal keeper
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

All teams, from schoolboys, through the leagues and up to international level played the same formation. The City team of 1968 played this way and they were brilliant to watch.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

When I started watching City in the early 1960's the numbers were:
1 Goal keeper
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

All teams, from schoolboys, through the leagues and up to international level played the same formation. The City team of 1968 played this way and they were brilliant to watch.

That’s how we play under Pep.

——————————————1 Ederson——————————————-
———————————2 Stones———3 Dias————————————
———————4 Walker———5 Rodri———6 Cancelo——————
7 Mahrez—8 de Bruyne—9 Haaland—10 Bernardo—11 Foden

 

[Shaelumstash]

When I started watching City in the early 1960's the numbers were:
1 Goal keeper
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

All teams, from schoolboys, through the leagues and up to international level played the same formation. The City team of 1968 played this way and they were brilliant to watch.

Were right half and left half basically like a modern day holding midfielder?

Also did the centre half play in line with them, or was he the deepest player?

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Were right half and left half basically like a modern day holding midfielder?

Also did the centre half play in line with them, or was he the deepest player?

The full backs were the defenders who stayed back the most. In our team Stones and Dias are the full backs.

How when or why full backs became what they mean today I’m not sure. To call Walker and Cancelo full backs is wrong. They’re either right and left halves or wing backs.

The halves are half backs because they aren’t fully backs nor fully forwards, they get forward a fair bit but defend a fair bit.

 

[Shaelumstash]

The full backs were the defenders who stayed back the most. In our team Stones and Dias are the full backs.

How when or why full backs became what they mean today I’m not sure. To call Walker and Cancelo full backs is wrong. They’re either right and left halves or wing backs.

The halves are half backs because they aren’t fully backs nor fully forwards, they get forward a fair bit but defend a fair bit.

Yeh it’s mad how positions evolve and the names change.

An “Inside Forward” became a number 10, and more recently for teams like us and Barca, became number 8s (DeBruyne, Silva, Xavi, Iniesta etc)

Now you hear people calling wingers who cut inside “Inside Forwards” (Sterling, Mahrez, Sala, Mané etc)

But Colin Bell was an Inside Forward, and from everything I’ve ever heard about him, he played in exactly the same role as DeBruyne, and nothing like the role of Sterling.

 

[Donmcfc]

Were right half and left half basically like a modern day holding midfielder?

Also did the centre half play in line with them, or was he the deepest player?

Defending was a bit like man for man marking. Our centre half marked their centre forward. Our full backs marked their wingers. The two full backs and the centre half would play as a back three to set the offside trap.
The midfield was a battle between our left and right halfs defending against their more creative inside forwards and vice versa when we had the ball. The wingers would usually try to get past on the outside of the full backs and cross the ball from the byline for the centre forward to attack. Occasionally the wingers would vary the play by making a short pass to the inside forward to see if they could continue the attack.
England won the World Cup playing pretty much the same way as all of the First Division teams.

 

[JGL07]

4 and 6 in the old days of 3 5 2 were wing halves, so Doyle and Oakes in the late 60’s, I suppose closest now is defensive mid. 5 was centre half, so George Heslop when I was a kid. Mike Doyle became a centre back late in his career, early 70’s I think, but then again I am a senile FOC

That is correct. Doyle was certainly a wing-half, generally a very attacking wing-half for his early years at City. Oakes played slightly deeper. Initially Heslop, and later Booth played at number 5. That was apart from the matches Doyle played with a number 9 shirt! Doyle scored lots of goals coming through from midfield on the burst. They were generally not typical central defenders’ goals.

Later in his career, Doyle appeared to move to become a more conventional centre-half, although I saw few of the matches then having moved away from Manchester.

 

[urban genie]

When I started watching City in the early 1960's the numbers were:
1 Goal keeper
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

All teams, from schoolboys, through the leagues and up to international level played the same formation. The City team of 1968 played this way and they were brilliant to watch.

In the 80/90s 4-4-2 tradition


1-goalie
2- right back
3- left back
4- holding/central midfield
5- centre back
6 - centre back
7 - right winger
8- attacking/central midfield
9 - main striker
10- second striker/target man
11- left winger

 

[urban genie]

That’s how we play under Pep.

——————————————1 Ederson——————————————-
———————————2 Stones———3 Dias————————————
———————4 Walker———5 Rodri———6 Cancelo——————
7 Mahrez—8 de Bruyne—9 Haaland—10 Bernardo—11 Foden

Shirley it would be if traditional

1- eddie GK
2- walker RB
3- cancello LB
4- rodri DM
5- stones CB
6- dias CB
7- mahrez RW
8- de bruyne AM
9- haaland STKR
10- bernardo AM
11- Foden LW

 

[Shaelumstash]

Defending was a bit like man for man marking. Our centre half marked their centre forward. Our full backs marked their wingers. The two full backs and the centre half would play as a back three to set the offside trap.
The midfield was a battle between our left and right halfs defending against their more creative inside forwards and vice versa when we had the ball. The wingers would usually try to get past on the outside of the full backs and cross the ball from the byline for the centre forward to attack. Occasionally the wingers would vary the play by making a short pass to the inside forward to see if they could continue the attack.
England won the World Cup playing pretty much the same way as all of the First Division teams.

That’s a really good insight, thanks for sharing that.

When did things change towards 442 and a back 4 zonal marking instead of man to man?

I’m guessing after that Brazil 1970 team everyone tried copying them?