Who needs a centre-forward? Taken from Robbo's book "Tactics, Systems and How To Surprise The Opposition"
A False 9 is a decoy centre forward in a side deliberately set up without a dedicated striker.
Instead of playing as the furthest man forward in his team’s set-up, the False 9 is a lone forward employed to drop deeper, back into midfield at every opportunity. He does this to evade defensive markers and link play, generally with his back to goal or on the half-turn. The theory is that the central defenders don’t know who to mark or how to mark him and as the 9 drops off and into midfield the opponents’ back four is drawn out of shape allowing runners to flood into the gaps.
Novak will not play for us again, I expect our ill equipped management team will be unable to fill the void with so little time left. The PR team will do well to sugarcoat this one.
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A False 9 is a decoy centre forward in a side deliberately set up without a dedicated striker.
Instead of playing as the furthest man forward in his team’s set-up, the False 9 is a lone forward employed to drop deeper, back into midfield at every opportunity. He does this to evade defensive markers and link play, generally with his back to goal or on the half-turn. The theory is that the central defenders don’t know who to mark or how to mark him and as the 9 drops off and into midfield the opponents’ back four is drawn out of shape allowing runners to flood into the gaps.
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Don't believe anything doing on Stevenage's Matt Godden to #cafc.