NOTATION
Defenders come first
A 4–4–2 means four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards. The goalkeeper is not counted, and the numbers always add up to ten.
Read a formationFOOTBALL DOODLES, EXPLAINED
Draw the team,
read the game.
Every formation is a little drawing.
Read a formation
4–4–2count from the back
- Goalkeeper not counted
- Defenders first
- Laws shape the drawing
- A century and a half on the board
Circles on a pitch, counted from the back: four defenders, four midfielders, two forwards. Those numbers tell a story, from the all-out attack of the 1870s to the crowded midfields of today, and one law change in 1925 redrew the lot.
Updated
THE SHORT ANSWER
Count from the back,
leave out the keeper.
Formation numbers run from defence to attack.
They only began in the 1950s.
HISTORY
From seven forwards to two
In the first international, in 1872, England played seven or eight forwards. The 2–3–5 Pyramid was standard by the 1890s.
The first drawings
THE LAW
1925 redrew the board
Offside changed from needing three opponents to two between attacker and goal line. Goals rose, and a new shape, the WM, followed.
See the numbersA QUICK FORMATION READER
How many players
are up front?
Pick a formation to see what its numbers mean and when it was in fashion. The bar shows how many players start as forwards.
Formation dates and descriptions from Wikipedia's article on football formations, which notes some claims need better citation; the notation itself is standard.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
One law change,
a lot more goals.
One figure on what the 1925 offside change did,
one on how the very first international ended.
6,373 goals
Goals in 1,848 League games, 1925–26
The same number of Football League games produced 4,700 goals in 1924–25, the season before offside changed from three opponents to two.
AFTER 1925 · FOOTBALL LEAGUE
0–0
Score, Scotland v England, 30 November 1872
England lined up with seven or eight forwards and Scotland with six, yet the first international match ended goalless.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL · 1872
Today's Law 11 still uses the two-opponent idea: a player is offside if nearer the goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. Since 1990, level with the second-last opponent counts as onside.
FOUR STEPS TO DRAW A FORMATION
Paper, pencil,
ten circles.
A formation doodle is the quickest way to see how a team is set up, and it is how coaches and fans have explained the game for well over a century.
Draw the pitch
A rectangle with a halfway line and two goals. Put your goalkeeper at the bottom, the convention used today.
Place the back line first
Formation numbers start with the defenders, then midfield, then attack. The circles should add up to ten.
Split the midfield if it helps
Modern shapes such as 4–2–3–1 split midfield into deeper and more attacking players, giving four numbers.
Add arrows for movement
Players do not stay in lines: arrows show who pushes forward and who covers when the ball is lost.
THE FIRST DRAWINGS
Shirts numbered
by the shape.
An 1887 match programme printed both teams in their 2–3–5 lines, and that pyramid shape gave rise to the convention of shirt numbers increasing from the back and from the right.
Early diagrams put the goalkeeper at the top and numbered him 1, working down to the forwards. The habit of describing a team by numbers such as 4–2–4 only began in the 1950s.
Questions
Questions people ask
What does 4–4–2 mean?
Four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards. Formation numbers run from the most defensive players to the most advanced, and the goalkeeper is not included.
Why do formation numbers add up to ten?
Law 3 allows each team a maximum of eleven players, one of whom must be the goalkeeper. The formation describes the other ten.
How did the 1925 offside change affect formations?
It reduced the number of opponents an attacker needed between himself and the goal line from three to two. Play became more stretched and the WM formation, with an extra centre-back, was created to cope.
Did more goals follow the 1925 change?
Yes. The Football League saw 4,700 goals in 1,848 games in 1924–25 and 6,373 goals from the same number of games in 1925–26.
When did people start describing formations with numbers?
Wikipedia's history of formations says the 4–2–4 of the early 1950s was the first to be described by numbers. Earlier shapes such as the 2–3–5 were numbered later, looking back.