Soccer is a team sport. It is not something that you can play alone because, well, the other team will destroy you. It is a game that is played by passing the ball around. Think of it as a game of chess, you are trying to find the opponent’s weakness or create those cracks yourself. So, how many players are on a soccer team?
A soccer team will consist of 11 players on the field. One of those is the goalkeeper which is a fixed position while the 10 other players are known as “outfield players” On the bench, you will have between five and seven players. Of those, a coach can use 3 or 5 substitutes depending on the league regulations.
In this article, we are going to start by talking about the roster of a team. I think it is vital that if you are considering soccer as a sport, hobby, or even a future profession that you get familiar with this type of information. So, for everything that you need to know about how many players a soccer team has, keep reading.
How Many Players can A Soccer Club Have On Its Roster?
This might depend on what league a team is playing in but if you look at the major leagues such as the MLS and the Premier League, the limit is around 30 players on the roster. These players need to be announced before the start of a season. There is a window during the season where the roster can be updated.
Of those 30 players, a coach must announce his starting 11 players along with his substitutes which can be between 5 and 7 players. All of the players need to be announced before the start of the game. If at any time before the game the coach wants to swap players, let’s say a substitute for what was supposed to be a starting player, he may do so.
The coach also gives a rough idea of what formation he will be using. If at anytime between announcing the team for that game and the game starts, they can change formations as they wish
It is important to remember that a soccer club can have more than 30 players. In fact, most clubs that have any sort of reputation will have a lot more than 30 players.
You can start with the academy where they will have a bunch of youngsters coming through the ranks. Then you have the youth leagues such as the under-15s,16s, and the under-18s.
After that, you have the women’s teams who also play in their own prestigious leagues. Finally, you have the men’s team which would comprise of all the players that we hear about daily.
Ok, so if a team is only allowed 11 players on the field, then why can they have 30 players on their roster? Well, you need to account for things such as injuries, suspensions due to picking up too many yellow cards in a season or picking up one red card which is normally a one or two game suspension.
Finally, you need to account for the fact that some players might have a dip in form. When this happens, he/she will be replaced until their form returns.
How Many Soccer Players Are On The Field
On a soccer field, there will be 22 players. Each team will have 11, one of these players will be the goalkeeper. So, when you hear people talking about formations, you will see that the numbers always add up to 10. This is because a goalkeeper is a fixed position and there is no point in counting them in a formation.
A lot of people don’t consider indoor and Street soccer to be part of the traditional game that is played on a big field. However, in indoor soccer and street soccer, you normally have between five and seven players on the field for each team. This amounts to roughly 10 to 14 players in total.
How Many Substitutes Can A Soccer Team Have And Use?
So, we stated that a soccer team must announce their roster that consists of a set of players that the team plans on using during the season. Of the group of players, the coach would normally select 18 players for a game.
Seven of those players are for substitutes. Now, some leagues only allow 5 substitutes on the bench but this is becoming outdated and seven is becoming the New Normal.
In the MLS, a coach can use up to five substitutes if he chooses to do so. The coach would often use two substitutes during the game for tactical reasons and if his players are playing well, the last one will be used to waste time near the end of the game.
What Positions Do The 11 Players Play In Soccer?
So, this section might not seem like it but it has everything to do with how many players are on a soccer team. This is because the formation is how you fit all of those players into that team and the formation consists of all the positions that a player could play in. We are going to make a list of these positions.
A lot of these positions are not used very often. However, there are still positions that a player could play in so we have to include it in the list. In total, there are 19 positions that I am aware of that a player could play. Let’s take a look at these positions.
- GK: Goalkeeper. This is a fixed position.
- LB/LWB: Left-back, Left-wingback. Also known as ”fullbacks”
- RB/RWB: Right-back, Right-wingback. Also known as “Fullbacks”.
- CB: Center back.
- CDM: Central defensive midfielder
- CM: Central midfielder. Often used as a box-to-box player.
- CAM: Central attacking midfielder
- LAM: Left attacking midfielder
- RAM: Right attacking midfielder
- LM/LW/LF: Left midfield, Left-wing, Left-forward
- RM/RW/RF: Right midfield, Right-wing, Right-forward
- CF: Center forward
- ST: Striker
Positions such as the LAM and RAM or not so relevant in the modern game. It is also important to remember that some players will slightly change positions depending on what the coach wants for every game. For example, a central midfielder could be switched to a central defensive midfielder during a game or in a new one.
What Is The Lowest Number Of Players Allowed In A Soccer Team?
For youth leagues and lower leagues, this could be different. However, for the majority of major leagues across the world, there is a minimum amount of players that you can have on the field.
If your team picks up red cards so that there are only seven players left on the field, your team will be disqualified and the game will be stopped. You will basically be forfeiting the game.
This is extremely rare and if I am being honest, I have never seen this happen before, not even playing Sunday league football.
With all of that being said, most leagues and associations will not allow you to start a game if you do not have 11 players on the field with the set amount of players on the bench.
Conclusion
You get different types of people who love to watch and play sports. On one hand, you have those that love individual sports such as golf, tennis, surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding. Then you have those that love team sports such as soccer, basketball, and American football.
Team sports require tactical setups and they require everyone on the team to work together because if there is one weak link in that team, everything will fall apart.,