false nines

• plural

  plural

  The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.

  of false nine.
  false nine

  noun

  a center forward player who drops back into the midfield to receive the ball, creating space and opportunity for teammates further up the field by drawing the opposing team’s defense out of their positions.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

false nines

The return of the 4-4-2, false nines, and set-pieces – the World Cup has already thrown up both familiar and new tactical ideas.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

On the international stage, Spain have historically found joy using midfielders as false nines rather than traditional strikers.

From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026

In the first leg he played Gabriel Jesus on the wing and used Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne as false nines.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 7, 2020

He might plump for a strikerless system to make use of his collection of false nines.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 26, 2014

For 60 years, English football has been bedevilled by other kinds of attacker: false nines, hole-lurkers, string-pullers.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 27, 2010

More Suggestions

• false ribs
• falsies
• false arrest
• false cirrus
• forty-niners
• false-negative
• Apennines
• Pennines
• canines