I would suggest that your ‘indifference’ to the location of the 11 is it is the “one left over” when lining up the team. In a ‘4-1-3-2′ formation, if I can call it that, the 11 falls naturally onto the left wing. But if you try to play ’strictly’ with 2 central midfielder (4-4-2 with a diamond midfield, or 4-1-2-1-2; probably too many numbers, but you get the idea), putting the 11 on the left seems unnatural, from the perspective of higher number, further up the pitch. In this case, 8, 9 & 10 end up further up, which looks odd; having the 8 on the left of the diamond, 10 at the apex and 11 as left sided striker appears more rational, hence your flexibility.

Regarding the 12-25 numbers, I’m less convinced. 12 as the reserve keeper kind of makes sense on it’s own, but to me it would make sense to have the second squad (out field players at least) numbered as per the first, plus 10; so 12 at right full back, 13 at left back & so on. (It is a bit unfortunate from this point of view that we don’t work in base-11, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undecimal). This would leave 12-25 for the remaining outfield players and goal keepers, but to say that they need to be strictly defined may be taking it a bit too far!

Chris – I see what you're saying (although I'll stick to the World Cup '94 tape, far more memories ), but do you not think that squad numbers help bring at least a bit of cohesion and order to matters on the pitch?

Previously, if you went to a game involving two teams you knew nothing about, at least you could be pretty sure that, for example, the number 2 was a right back playing out of position rather than an out-and-out striker?!

I think behind the light-hearted banter and reminiscing there is a fairly important point to be made about the identification of players on the pitch. Correct me if I'm wrong…

A squad number has no importance to the man behind the scenes. A manager does not identify his players by the numbers on their shirts but by the qualities they possess as players in order to justify which position they could possible fulfill.

Sadly I think the nostalgia of the football fan and their relationship with the number on the back of the shirt is one of a dying breed and irreverent to the game and the pace it is constantly involving at.

Either accept this or get left behind watching your Italia 90 VHS collection, reminiscing about your Lothar Matthaus number 10’s………….rip.

My favourite squad number has to be the number 10 – the mythical 'El Diez' as they say in Argentina. That was my position as a kid and I remember looking up to the great Del Piero who wore the number 10 for the Azzurri with such grace.