Do you think you’re in good shape? Good enough shape to run 12km in a 90 minute soccer game if you play center midfield? If you play the wing, are you ready to make fifty 35-yard sprints up and down the field? These are some of the distances and speeds professional soccer players will run.
A reader asked if I could write on the position of the roaming center midfielder. The roaming center midfielder position typically not a position that a person can say they play each and every game. It is a position that is only used in certain formations and to be played against certain teams. The player that plays this position is often a very skilled and offensive minded player.
The fullback, aka the left or right back, plays a very crucial role in modern day football. It is not to say that it never played a crucial role, it suggests that in today’s day and age, the fullback is given much more room to maneuver, but much more responsibility as well.
In the modern day 4-4-2 formation, the fullback has very little support from a defensive standpoint. Because the defense is arranged in a flat line and the two central defenders have the responsibility of marking the two forwards, the fullbacks are left to fend for themselves in many regards.
Many wingers think their sole responsibility is to run up and down the field, take throw-ins, corner kicks and be fast. However, there is more to being a midfield winger than this. Depending on the formation your team plays you will have different duties.
4-4-2: in this formation the wingers’ main offensive responsibility is to provide through-balls to the forwards, cross the ball into the 18 yard box when in the attacking third of the field, attack defenders with the ball and a lot of runs off the ball to receive passes from your teammates, specifically center midfielders.