Word.ws English Dictionary

false number 9

false number 9 noun: an unconventional lone striker or centre-forward who drops deep into midfield.

Noun

false number 9 (plural false number 9s)

  1. An unconventional lone striker or centre-forward who drops deep into midfield.
    • not in his favoured midfield role, either but as a false No 9: the sort of role Guardiola only hands to his chosen, crystalline few: Mario Götze at Bayern Munich (less successfully), Lionel Messi at Barcelona (a little more so).2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian
    Synonyms:
    false 9

Synonyms of false number 9

Forms of false number 9

pluralfalse number 9s

Origin of false number 9

From the traditional use of the number 9 for centre-forwards, and the difference from a traditional centre-forward, who would stay near the line of defenders until an opportunity arose to move past them toward goal.

Questions about false number 9

What does false number 9 mean?
False number 9 means an unconventional lone striker or centre-forward who drops deep into midfield.
What part of speech is false number 9?
False number 9 is a noun.
What is the plural of false number 9?
The plural of false number 9 is false number 9s.

Words near false number 9 in the dictionary

  1. false nines
  2. false northing
  3. false northings
  4. false note
  5. false notes
  6. false number 9
  7. false number 9s
  8. false nutmeg
  9. false owlet moth
  10. false owlet moths
  11. false oxlip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: false number 9 (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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