Glossary Category: Roles

What is a Target Player in Football?

A target player is a forward or attacking player who, due to their physical presence and heading ability, serves as a focal point for long balls or crosses to secure the ball, lay it off, or take a shot themselves.

Why is a Target Player Important?

Target players are crucial for occupying opposing defenses and creating space for advancing players. They enable teams to quickly bypass the midfield and establish possession in the opponent's half. Their ability to hold up the ball under pressure and lay it off accurately is central to initiating further attacks or escaping pressing situations.

How zone14 REPLAY Helps You Analyze:

With zone14 REPLAY, you can precisely analyze your target player's actions. Use tagging to mark every ball reception, header flick-on, or block of defenders. Create playlists to evaluate your target player's effectiveness and positioning, while Heatmaps in STATS visualize their preferred areas of action and the panoramic view shows their involvement in combination play.

What are wing-backs in football?

Wing-backs are versatile wide players who handle both defensive and offensive duties on their side of the pitch in a back three or back five, covering the entire sideline.

Why are wing-backs important?

Their role is crucial for balancing defense and offense. They allow teams playing with a back three to cover the width of the pitch defensively while also creating danger on the wings in attack. This demands peak physical fitness and a keen tactical understanding, as they constantly shuttle between defensive and attacking thirds.

How zone14 REPLAY Helps You Analyze:

zone14 REPLAY is ideal for analyzing wing-back performance. Use the panoramic view to track runs and positional play across the entire sideline. With tagging, you can mark offensive and defensive actions like crosses, dribbles, or duels. Heatmaps and STATS also visualize running performance and action radii to assess the physical intensity of their role.

What is a False Nine in Football?

The False Nine is a tactical role in football where a nominal striker drops from the front line into midfield to create numerical superiority and disorganize the opposing defense.

Why is the False Nine important?

This role is crucial because it leaves the central attacking position vacant, thereby luring or occupying opposing center-backs out of their positions without a direct opponent. This creates space in the center of the attack that can be exploited by advancing midfielders or wingers to take a shot on goal and create numerical superiority in midfield, which facilitates build-up play.

How zone14 REPLAY Helps You Analyze:

With zone14 REPLAY, you can precisely track the runs and positional play of the False Nine in the panorama view. Use the drawing tools to visualize the emerging spaces, and with the tagging feature, you can mark moments when opposing defensive lines are disorganized. Heatmaps also show you which zones the player occupies and operates in most frequently.