What Is The Most Important Position In Soccer?

What is the most important position in soccer? If you are a soccer player, it is likely that this question has ever popped up in your mind.

Soccer is a game that involves several positions with each of them having great importance.

However, three positions seem to stand out from the rest and could potentially penalize a team if those positions are empty.

In this article, you are going to find out the top three most important positions in soccer.

What Is The Most Important Position In Soccer?

The Central midfielder, the centre back and the goalkeeper are the most important positions in soccer. Although each position is important and has a unique role, every team can play without a striker, full back and wingers, but never without a CM, CB or a goalie. The midfielder is the mediator between the defence and the attack, the centre back is the last man protecting the goalie, and a goalie is essential in the goal. Therefore, these positions are essential in every game, making them the most important.

Before moving further, you have to understand that when we refer to the most important position in a team, we look at whether a team can play without any of these positions.

We know all soccer positions are important. But what position can negatively affect a team if you remove them in a team or a game?

Answering that question will help you find the most important position in soccer.

No team can play without a goalie, a centre back or a central midfielder.

In the next section of this article, I am going to go into more detail about each of those positions so you have a better understanding of why they are considered the most important positions in soccer.

1-The Goalie

The goalie is inevitably the most important position in soccer.

It is impossible for a team to play without a goalkeeper. A soccer game is composed of 10 players + the goalie and there is a reason for it.

Would you imagine a game starts with 11 players and the cage empty? Of course, not.

The goalie needs to be there in every game, making it the most important position.

Plus, FIFA and UEFA would not accept a game to start without a goalkeeper in the cage.

Likely, you have watched games where the goalie is sent off and the game cannot continue until the penalized team manages to get a new goalie or someone else in the cage.

The same thing happens when a goalie gets injured during a game. The game cannot continue until the goalie gets up and feels better.

This shows how important a goalkeeper is in a team.

2-The Centre Back

The centre back is the second most important position in soccer.

Just like the goalie, it is difficult for a team to play without a centre back. Although there is no rules or regulations that make the use of a centre back mandatory, no team would want to play without a centre back because this is a very important position.

Without a centre back in a team and a game, a team could leave much space to the opposition and concede many goals.

Look at the pic below and imagine this team without the three centre backs. Could you imagine a team using this system?

Well, I don’t think so.

No matter what playing style, strategy or tactics a team is using, they can not play without a centre back. The centre back is needed to prevent the opposition from scoring goals.

3-The Central Midfielder

The Central midfielder is the third most important position in soccer.

As mentioned before, a midfielder links the defence to the attack. A team that plays without a central midfielder won’t have possession of the ball the entire game and might potentially lose.

The central midfielder is also considered the hardest position in soccer and there is a reason for it.

This position is so important because it allows a team to control the game. Remember, it’s in the middle of the field, meaning the ball has to pass through that position every time to reach the defence or the attack.

Leaving this position empty might ruin your chance to dominate the game and have possession.

Plus, have you ever seen a team playing without a central midfielder the entire game? Let me know in the comment below.

You can also read, what do midfielders do in soccer?

But, why not a striker or any other forward? You might ask.

Well, I got you covered.

Why Not The Striker Or Another Forward Position?

The truth is that every team can play without a striker.

The main role of a striker is to score goals. Although this skill set is not given to anybody, defenders and midfielders can score goals as well.

It can not be considered the most important position because if you remove a striker from a team, it won’t necessarily affect the team negatively.

The perfect example to illustrate this is with the Man City team. Pep Guardiola use a system without a striker. Plus, he stated that Man City plays better without a striker.

He is not the only one. Most teams seem to use the false 9 system in modern soccer nowadays.

The same can apply to wingers. A team can play without wingers and just use a right and a left midfielder to compensate them.

Why Not The Full Back?

The right-back(RB) and left-back(LB) are considered full back in soccer.

Just like the striker, a team can play without full-backs without penalizing the team.

In this position above, there are no full-backs. This formation is good if you want to play an offensive game.

Once again, this shows that this position can not be considered the most important.

Final Word

At the end of this article, it should be remembered that there are three most important positions in soccer: the goalie, the defender and the midfielder.

They are considered the most important soccer positions because no team can play without including any of them in the line-up.

Of course, each person can have their own opinion about this topic. Some will consider their position as the most important because this is where they play.

But this article has done a good job at explaining why a position is considered important and others not.

I hope you have gained value from this article.

If you have any questions or you would like to add something else, do not hesitate to leave a comment below and I will answer you as quickly as possible.