The Free Role

by Ahmed Deen-Swarray
(England,Dagenham)

A free role position allows a soccer player to move freely behind the strikers and across the midfield allowing him to string together passes coming short and distributing from various positions in the oppositions half. These players are often called the artists because they are so skilful and the crowd simply loves them.

To succeed in this role you will need to pose exceptional speed, great dribbling and passing skills combined with a touch of brilliancy. This is why many of the best soccer players in the world are playing on this position because they pose all these abilities and skills. But there are negative things with this position as well.

The main one is that you will need to perform your very best game after game. This is of course very hard which means that once you start to perform poorly you will usually get criticized (especially if your team fails to win).

If you want to study a great example on how a free role can decide a cup final you should get a copy of the Barcelona vs. Manchester United Champions League final 2009. In that game, Lionel Messi who whilst using the free role had vast amounts of possession of the ball and helped out pass and outplay Manchester United.