Juan Mata has revealed how the number 10 role has gone extinct in the modern day game.
“This type of player, this pure No 10, is … how do you say? Extinct? Maybe not extinct, but not as used as before,” Mata said in an interview with The Athletic.
”In the past, there was always this pure No 10, behind the striker or the two strikers, depending on the team.
“With different systems now, that position has evolved into a different one but these are players I like, where natural talent brings the best of them and they can change a game with a pass or something that nobody else sees.”
“It’s probably more because the game has changed and it now demands more on the physical side,” Mata added.
“Because the game is quicker, you need to be physically more ready for that. If you speak to players who played in other years, they will tell you that now it’s quicker, so there’s less space and you have to be more ready in that sense.
“I guess it depends how you see it. As with everything in life, you can have a different answer for almost every opinion. I was in the Spanish national team and we won the World Cup and European Championship playing football that I think was very attractive. So that’s for sure but I don’t think that was the norm. There have been other championships where teams that didn’t play as attractively have won.
“So… yes and no. I think there are many people positive about that in football, realising that you can play a certain type of football and that it’s normally an attractive type of football. But I also have the sense — and I think it’s human nature — that in football these days, many people feel that the fear of losing is much bigger than the joy of winning, especially in a sport where the responsibility and the social repercussions of winning and losing feel so high.
“Sometimes you feel that if you lose, it’s a tragedy and that if you win, it’s a relief. You feel that, rather than happiness, especially if you play for a big club. But I can understand why some managers can try, in that sense, to be a bit more compact and wait for the mistake of the rival and things like that, which is another way of understanding the game.”
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