Squad Numbers - 2022/23

[levets]

Guessing you’d agree Colin Bell’s position in the team was more similar to Kevin DeBruyne than Mahrez?

Similar yes, but I remember Colin to be a bit more forward. Don’t forget, he was an inside right forward. I’d say between the positional place of KDB & Mahrez. We hadn’t really grasped the concept of a ‘Midfielder’ yet. Took a while to adapt after the World Cup in 66

 

[JGL07]

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.

In modern day terminology, Colin Bell was a number 8 (certainly very similar to De Bruyne) and Neil Young a number 10. Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee would frequently swap positions with Lee most commonly in the number 9 place and Summerbee wide right. Although Summerbee did actually wear the number 9 jersey for a couple of seasons with Lee at 7.

As for Pardoe, he was anything but a conventional full back. He was basically an attacking midfielder playing at number 3. He spent much of his time in midfield. That is remarkably similar to Zinchenko now.

 

[WARBABY]

I think there won't be much change, squad numbers are more a personal thing now and not related to what position a player plays in

 

[Shaelumstash]

In modern day terminology, Colin Bell was a number 8 (certainly very similar to De Bruyne) and Neil Young a number 10. Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee would frequently swap positions with Lee most commonly in the number 9 place and Summerbee wide right. Although Summerbee did actually wear the number 9 jersey for a couple of seasons with Lee at 7.

As for Pardoe, he was anything but a conventional full back. He was basically an attacking midfielder playing at number 3. He spent much of his time in midfield. That is remarkably similar to Zinchenko now.

It’s mad how football goes in cycles. When I was a kid, every single team played 442. There really wasn’t any teams you played in or against who played any different, and I can’t remember any professional team in England playing any differently.

My dad grew up in the Colin Bell era, and me and my mates used to piss ourselves when they said things like “Wing half” and “Inside forward”, they might as well have been speaking Latin.

But fast forward 30 years and City are dominating football with Inside Forwards (number 8s) and I don’t even know what to call Cancelo’s position, but I guess going off what you’re saying, he’s basically a wing half, (or whatever Pardoe was).

Nowadays teams playing 442 look like relics from a bygone era. And for the last 30 odd years when England were playing 442 getting passed off the park by the top international teams, it’s become blatantly obvious why, how did it take us so long to realise?!

 

[rodsantos]

It’s mad how football goes in cycles. When I was a kid, every single team played 442. There really wasn’t any teams you played in or against who played any different, and I can’t remember any professional team in England playing any differently.

My dad grew up in the Colin Bell era, and me and my mates used to piss ourselves when they said things like “Wing half” and “Inside forward”, they might as well have been speaking Latin.

But fast forward 30 years and City are dominating football with Inside Forwards (number 8s) and I don’t even know what to call Cancelo’s position, but I guess going off what you’re saying, he’s basically a wing half, (or whatever Pardoe was).

Nowadays teams playing 442 look like relics from a bygone era. And for the last 30 odd years when England were playing 442 getting passed off the park by the top international teams, it’s become blatantly obvious why, how did it take us so long to realise?!

The funny thing is, Guardiola has been experimenting with a weird 4-4-2 hybrid these past couple seasons with two false 9s pushing up to press out of possession. It worked really well in that PSG semi second leg.

 

[Shaelumstash]

The funny thing is, Guardiola has been experimenting with a weird 4-4-2 hybrid these past couple seasons with two false 9s pushing up to press out of possession. It worked really well in that PSG semi second leg.

That’s what I mean about cycles, shapes and styles come in and out of fashion, the game is always evolving.

I remember Italy winning the World Cup in 2006 playing 4231 and it became the fashionable way to play.

Now teams like United play like that and look horribly old fashioned because high pressing is so popular, and it’s harder to press with 2 holding midfielders.

 

[Ethan23]

1. Weaver
2. Crooks
3. Edghill
4. Wiekens
5. Morrison
6. Horlock
7. Cooke
8. Bishop
9. Goater
10. Dickov
11. Kennedy

 

[Deleted member 77198]

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

Not in the way we play under Pep. Under Pep we play the original football formation: 2-3-5 or 2-3-2-3 or ‘W-W’

Walker and Cancelo aren’t backs, they’re half backs so can’t be right back and left back, they should be called right half and left half. They’d only be backs in a 4-4-2 or 4-3-3.

Rodri is a centre half in the traditional name of a centre half back. A centre half back is what we call a defensive midfielder today.

What we call centre backs today were called full backs originally.



When people call de Bruyne and Bernardo midfielders, they’re wrong in the traditional sense. They’re forwards…inside forwards. The midfielders are the half backs.


(obviously, here, from one game last season, Foden is also playing as an inside forward and we have no centre forward, but you get the gist of it being the same as the traditional positions of football otherwise)

 

[vin]

Wonder who takes Raz #7? Alvarez maybe?

 

[kun]

No 7 was outside right Sterling
No 8 was inside right de Bruyne
No 9 was Centre forward Agüero
No 10 was inside left Silva
No 11 was outside left Sané
These players were classed as ‘forwards’ (Attackers)

Centurions