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Eleven bodies, one soul, one ball together in a wide field, coordinating their mind and body, that’s what the active game of football is in brief. Running with the ball is not mere the game, rather it winds in itself a complex and strategic level of tricks and tracts to reach the end zone. Let’s now widen our concept of the game of football, dribbling through football positions and their roles.
There are different positions in football. It is basically a team of 11, where one is the goal keeper. Each player has their own sole responsibility to tackle with in the ground. Though assigned to certain positions in football, none of the player except the goalkeeper, is confined to a single space and action. They can run around from one place to another anytime during the match. Let’s kick in into the different football positions on field.
First and foremost is the goalkeeper. An important and ardently responsible football position. Well, we can say, the fate lies in their hands! Their role is to be vigilant, conscious and act in lightning speed.The sole responsibility is to resist the ball of opposing team from getting into the post and serving a goal. Jump, crawl, slide, run do anything but stop the ball!
Apart from this the goalkeeper must imbibe the quality of a good kicker. They have to kick the ball accurately over a quite long distance. But not every balls are under their arena. Only those which are within their penalty area are the one’s which they can handle. Once the ball is released, hands back! Kick the ball with the feet. If a teammate deliberately passes a ball to the arena, the goal keeper cannot handle the kick.
Everything works with a series of passing, kicking and running around but with strategic moves. Offensive positions, as they sound include 5 variants.
In this football position, the player receives the ball from center either pass it on or run with it. And this marks the beginning of the huddle. This is one of the most challenging position in football.He/ she have to initiate the accurate play to kick on the defense’s weakness on point.
These players are the receivers. They stand just behind or beside the quarter back and does it all by blocking, running, catching or passing it on in the exact time and space. So yes, the players have to the swift- the quick runners.
These players can either be left back or right back according to the football positions on field. So they act as the barriers, exactly, their main role is to block the opposition from scoring. They may have to run with the ball, for a short distance, pass on all the hurdles tackling it effectively.
This tight end football position is where strong and biggest players’ lines up. These include the players who covers up the lines.
Center player, the one who blocks the ball and snaps it to the quarter back
Left guard and right guard, they serve the quarter back from either sides by blocking and protecting them
Left tackle and right tackle, these players block the ball, outer side of the offensive line.
The wide receivers are the pass catchers of the team. Mostly, players assigned in this soccer position must have blazing speed and awestruck coordination. Their major role is to throw blocks while on a running play or run pass routes from sidelines near quarter back, consciously awaiting a pass any time any moment.
They tackle the role of defensing in the game. Thus their major role is to prevent the offense from scoring by tackles and turnovers with the ball. So the defensive part includes 4 different positions, each having their separate roles.
The defensive line has three to four players lining up just opposite to the offensive line. They are the Doppler’s of offensive line, strong and big. They have to shed the ball and pass the ball tackling all the barriers. Thus the defensive line includes two positions
Defensive tackles, whose attempt is to break through the gaps, by stopping the offensive liners to tackle and reach out the quarter backs.
Defensive ends, akin to the right or left tackles of offensive lines, these players serve the outer part of defensive line. Their solo motive is to tackle quarter backs by slipping around and blocking offensive lines.
These players, as the name suggests who lines up behind the defensive lineman are the team’s best tacklers. They are supposed to be extremely strong and vigilant rushing the passes and defending the runs by tackling carriers.
Apart from all the blocks and tackles, it is also cardinal to manage safety guards and positions in the field. Thus their motto is to safeguard the line after defensive line and are positioned there. There are two different safety positions
Strong safety, they usually line up from the tight end and completes the gaps of blocking quarter back from either sides. The players are also expected to come up in run support
Free safety, commonly considered as the center fielders. To acquire the task of quick running, to respond to pass plays, these players are mostly placed farther back from the scrimmage line.
Most of the time, the fastest players are placed in this football position. Their role is to cover the wide receives as well as support the run. But with their quick and smooth pace, they are mostly expected to tackle the carrying pass with maximum speed.
Positioned between attack and defense the midfielder handles the center portion of the field. They act as the route maps who determines the direction of the play by grabbing the possession of the ball. There are four midfielders in a game, placed evenly on every part.
Defensive midfielder, their role is to tackle the opposite team, therefore accurately placed in front of the defenders. Apart from defending, these players focus on all the strong attacking players of the opposite team and conveniently disrupt them by tackling.
Central midfielder, these players understands the strategies of the game and fight for gaining the possession of the ball within them, thus directing the game towards their part.
Attacking midfielder, these players helps in opening up opportunities for their team to strike. They do this by standing just behind the strikers in the midfield sections.
Wide midfielder, to add width to the midfield section and carry on a smooth and tactual passing, these wide midfielders are placed in the outer sections of the field.
These players are the key to score goals. Thus they are always stationed near the goal posts. An attacker must be the complete pact of accuracy, aim, control, power, speed and strength.
These players are also known as the forward attackers. He / she is the one who is expected to score the most number of goals in the game. Their sole aim is to pass out all the hurdles with the help of other teammates and position themselves to score a goal, either by a pass or a serve of themselves. In most of the game, there is a second striker who act as the wing man of the main striker. This second striker who is quick in his moves and acts, serves as buffer for the striker to target and score a perfect goal.
Sweepers are the free players who intercept the ball from the opponent and blocks it or pass it over if the opponent team gets the ball into their defense home line. The consciousness and fervor predictions are extremely important for a winning in football.
In this part the player is placed exactly behind the striker as well as in front of the midfielder. These players should be extremely aware of the specific tricks and moves of other players. This is because the sole duty of the player behind the striker is to create space and dig out good chances for the main striker to score a goal without any hurdles. The major advantage of these players is that they have the free space compared to others to move in between striker and midfielder and thereby act more productively with dazzling speed.
These are different positions in football. Though these literally sounds to be confined, football positions are never rigid and water tight. Once in the ground, the literal phase elevates to practicality. In the game, no player is going to stop midway and be stable beyond a specific border or boundary, just because it is not his/her prescribed position. Rather they bounce back flexibly to their former position sufficing other roles around the ground.So now, each and every position and their roles, let’s head to the ground and kick the ball up!
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