The creative midfielder who runs the game, creates chances, and controls tempo. Classic number 10s like Maradona and Zidane played between midfield and attack. Deep-lying playmakers like Pirlo and Xavi do similar things from further back. Pure playmakers are rarer now because teams spread creative duties around instead of relying on one player. But the role still gets romanticized as football at its most artistic.
Zinedine Zidane's performance in the 2006 World Cup at age 34 showcased pure playmaking artistry - he controlled matches with elegant touches, defense-splitting passes, and technical brilliance, dragging France to the final almost single-handedly.
Robbie
Jan 19, 2026
"Juego de posición" in Spanish. Players occupy zones rather than fixed positions, maintain good spacing, and create overloads in key areas. Cruyff developed it, Guardiola refined it. The idea is structure over improvisation - everyone knows where they should be relative to the ball and teammates. Unlike total football's constant position-swapping, it stays organized while allowing creativity within that framework.
Barcelona's 2008-2012 era under Guardiola epitomized positional play - Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets would maintain perfect triangles across the pitch, always offering passing angles and creating numerical advantages through precise positioning rather than frenetic movement.
Robbie
Jan 26, 2026
A way of adjusting stats to account for how much the ball a team has. A team with 70% possession will naturally have more passes, so comparing their passing numbers directly to a team with 40% possession is misleading. Possession-adjusted stats divide by possession share to give a fairer comparison. Useful for evaluating defensive actions especially - making fewer tackles might just mean you have the ball more often.
N'Golo Kanté's possession-adjusted tackle numbers were off the charts at Leicester and Chelsea - even accounting for how much time his teams had the ball, he was winning it back more than almost anyone in Europe.
Robbie
Jan 14, 2026
An unbroken chain of passes before the ball is lost. Sequences can be long (tiki-taka style) or short (direct football). Teams are judged on how many long sequences they produce and what they do with them. A 15-pass sequence that ends with a sideways ball is different from one that ends with a shot. The quality of the sequence's endpoint matters as much as the length.
Spain's winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final came from a long possession sequence - patient passing, movement off the ball, and eventually Iniesta arriving to finish. The sequence itself was the tactic.
Robbie
Jan 19, 2026
A measure of pressing intensity. Divide the passes you allow by the defensive actions (tackles, interceptions, fouls) you make in the attacking third. Lower number means more aggressive pressing - you're intervening more often. Higher number means you're sitting off and letting them pass. It's a standard stat now for measuring how much a team presses, though it doesn't tell you how well organized that pressing is.
Liverpool under Klopp consistently posted among the lowest PPDA figures in Europe, often below 8.0, meaning they'd make a defensive action for every 8 passes the opponent attempted in their defensive third - a reflection of their relentless high press.
Robbie
Feb 5, 2026