son of a teacher man

Maybe Real don’t think he’s good enough?

Doesn’t even need to be a prime Gerrard. Teenager Gerrard, LA Galaxy Gerrard are all getting that shirt ahead of Mr Soft Wool

If I’m right - and sorry if I’m wrong - but I guess you’re American so think of it as:

10 = the quarterback and is the creative force
4/5 = linebacker / tackle
7/11 = wide receiver
2/3 = cornerback / safety

Hope that helps a bit

Sometime just be an aggressive nut job who goes round kicking people - either works but one is more fun and the other better to watch

The 2 and 3 don’t need to be tall - but need to match up with the 7 and 11 for speed so they can stop them.

The 8 as we said is an all rounder

And the 6 basically needs to stop the 10 from being creative. They can do this with size and athleticism - like a Gravenberch - or….

This isn’t always the way - but 10s tend to be small and skilful and 9s big and strong. But I’m sure there are hundreds of examples of small 9s and bigger 10s

Going back to the centre backs - the 4 and 5. They need to be big and quick enough to stop the opposition number 9.

As you said - a number 9 is the traditional goal scorer. If we’re talking a typical 9 he needs to be strong enough to hold off defenders, big enough to win headers and quick.

When we say a number 9 you’re talking about the buy who scores the goals and gets the girls

A number 10 also traditionally can score and create and is a traditional playmaker. Salah also CAN do this but hasn’t really ever played as a 10

Salah - the 7 here (confusingly he wears 11 but squad numbers are basically just whatever is available now) is a winger while Wirtz (who wears 7) is a 10.

Traditionally wingers need to be fast and good a dribbling and crossing. Wirtz obviously CAN do this but…

Most centre backs - the 4 and 5 here have grown up playing as either the left or the right side (mainly depending on if they are left or right footed). Van Dijk basically always plays left side - swapping them round would just make the a bit uncomfortable to what they are used to.

So of the three what we would call midfields the ‘6’ is the most defensive. The 10 is the most attacking (having at one point been the one playing as a second striker in a 4-4-2) and the 8 as both attacking and defensive - something of an all rounder.

Finally - the move to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 would be
1
2 4 5 3
6
8 10
7 9 11

Now - this is different for different countries as football developed - but one of the 4 or the 6 dropped back next to the 5 (traditionally in the UK it was the 6 but in Europe it was the 4). The 8 dropped back a little the 10 didn’t and the wingers did

1
2 5 6 3
7 4 8 11
9 10

So you had:

1
2 5 3
4 6
8 10
7 9 11

So - 2 and 3 were called full backs
5 was a ‘centre half’ and 9 was a centre forward

Over time the centre half moved backwards to a centre back and the 8 and 10 moved back to be midfielders

Oooh. I’ll have a go at the numbers stuff…

Originally soccer teams played a 2-3-5 formation written down as follows ( with 1 being the Goalie):

1
2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11

I’d watch this

That’s even worse 🫣. Birthday and Christmas, same year, same relative

It’s like someone gave him a tie as a present and it’s the only one he owns

YouTube video by TheSpecialsOfficVEVO The Specials - Racist Friend (Official Music Video)

It’s time to pick sides.

youtu.be/gqH_0LPVoho

Make a band singular:

Wing

In t-shirt form at least…

www.adidas.co.uk/archive-cutl...

😂

Seedlings in any draw and uncompetitive. Everyone wants to see the bigger teams meet in the first round and a smaller team get a favourable route to the final

Top level trolling.

enshittification definition covered in ads

Hugh Bonneville started his live ITV London News interview on Downton Abbey by talking about Gaza.

Absolutely extraordinary and accurate speech which should be widely spread around British social media and television. Cf. @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social

purple aki's died! one of the weirdest criminals the uk has ever produced.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purple_...