(This is a column of my observations and interpretations of trends in world soccer.)

Around world soccer, the value of a true attacking midfielder (10, CAM, trequartista, whatever you want to call it) has dropped as has the number of teams that play with an attacking midfielder.

In the span of the last decade, players such as Wesley Sneijder, Mesut Ozil, Mario Goetze, Shinji Kagawa, Oscar and many more have gone from elite caliber to either obscurity or derision.

Meanwhile, others such as David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, Juan Mata, Phillipe Coutinho, James Rodriguez, Roberto Firmino, and Paolo Dybala have had to redefine their own game to either fit into a position deeper in midfield or on the wing.

Formations like the 4-3-1-2 and more commonly the 4-2-3-1 were widely adopted as a multipurpose system that could work in possession and on the counter attack, and both relied on the keystone in the center of it all, the attacking midfielder.

It perhaps reached its peak through coaches such as Jose Mourinho at Porto (03/04 Champions League winners), Chelsea (11/12 though not under Mourinho), Inter Milan (09/10) and Real Madrid and Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund (12-13 runner up).

The 4-2-3-1 became a counter to the dominant 4-3-3 played by Barcelona and Bayern Munich sides earlier in the decade and century, under Pep Guardiola.

The formation seemed to lose favor in the past five years, potentially due to the rise of three and five man defenses made popular in Italy and later at Chelsea under Antonio Conte.

Now, most teams seem to line up in either a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2/3-5-2. Last year in the English Premier League only Everton, Leicester City and Fulham lined up with a #10 on a consistent basis. Meanwhile the top six teams all played either a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 or some variant.

Even teams that played with personnel that suited attacking midfielders tended to place them in positions in a different formation.

David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne at Manchester City learned to play deeper in something more akin to an eight, or box-to-box role. Ross Barkley, who was a 10 at Everton before his transfer to Chelsea, also played deeper in the three-man midfield.

Roberto Firmino, who played attacking midfield for Hoffenheim, is pushed forward into somewhat of a striker or false nine under Jurgen Klopp.

The 10 is no longer in demand in soccer, though the traits that many of the best 10s possess can often transition to other positions on the field.

Many 10s lack the physical size and defensive work rate that would have suited them for a deeper position in the midfield, while others lack the pace and pure dribbling ability to play on the wing, and others don’t have the similar physical or mental traits to be a primary or secondary striker.

But why was this change necessary? So many great players are limited by their skills to one position, what made this one obsolete?

First, it is important to understand the role of the 10. Create and score goals is the obvious answer, but on a deeper level, it was to position between the defense and midfielders. The ideal 10 would consistently be able to control the ball, turn, and run at the opposing defense before making a shot or pass, all while under pressure from back-tracking midfielders.

This role has gone out of fashion for two reasons.

First, that it can be done in other ways. It doesn’t have to be a player whose only role is to get between the lines. Many strikers now can both stretch the field and come short and receive the ball. Luis Suarez is one such example of a player who thrives at getting behind defenses, but is also a menace when running at defenders with the ball.

The inverted winger has become much more common in the absence of attacking midfielders, and it is often the best way to get into that pocket of space. Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Eden Hazard, Neymar, all among the best players in the world, and all are inverted wingers that can cut onto the inside and cause havoc in the middle, while also being a threat to push the ball with pace down the line. By forcing a player centrally, suddenly they lose the wide threat, while also losing significantly more space when receiving the ball.

Of course deeper-lying midfielders can do this job while also taking on more rigorous defensive responsibilities.

I’ve already mentioned how it worked at Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea. But most teams that play with three midfielders rely on one or both of them to be able to power dribble past opposing mid-fields and get into that position without having to start further up the pitch– Pogba, Matuidi, Kovacic, Ramsey, Emre Can, Leon Goretzka, Vidal and Arthur come to mind as deeper-lying midfielders on top teams who possess this trait.

Second is the role of the defensive midfielder.

The defensive midfielder, or the 6, has been tasked with a greater creative responsibility in recent years. Tack on the fact that the defensive responsibility is still huge, and it has quickly become one of the most important positions.

Sergio Busquets at Barcelona is always the first to come to mind for me as one of these players. He dictates how the team plays and at what pace, and also is needed to cut out attacks before it can reach the back line.

Others that have reached that level are Fernandinho at Man City (think about how many times a pundit has mentioned how poor City are without him), Ngolo Kante at Chelsea (we could talk about whether he is a defensive midfielder all day, he isn’t, though he fits here), Nemanja Matic at Chelsea and now Man United, Casemiro at Real Madrid, Fabinho at Liverpool, Miralem Pjanic at Juventus, and Thiago at Bayern Munich.

These players have made it difficult to play as a 10. Often if a 10 goes missing in a match, its because the opposing defensive midfielder keeps him quiet. Fabinho against Messi at Anfield in the Champions League semifinals is one of the best representations of this. Messi struggled to find the ball and play in progressive positions, because Fabinho was so good in the midfield.

This challenge paired with the fact that three other positions can do the same job but take on other responsibilities, it makes sense that the 10 is not as valuable today.

But that takes us to the U.S., where MLS actively plays and promotes its 10s.

A cursory glance reveals that only about eight teams don’t play with a 10 though one could easily argue that a few of those do in fact play with a traditional 10 (Moralez at NYC and Amaya or Cruz at Cincinnati come to mind.)

LAFC is the best example of a team succeeding without a 10, but the other teams are Vancouver (12th), San Jose (5th), Sporting KC (10th), and in the east, NYC FC (5th), Montreal (6th) and Orlando (9th), Cincinnati (12th). San Jose and NYC will probably continue to rise in the standings, but the teams playing without a 10 aren’t exactly dominating the league.

To the conscious viewer of both MLS and European soccer, it would appear that MLS is behind the curve when it comes to these kinds of tactical decisions.

Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy.

MLS is indeed a new league – just over 25 years old. However, it isn’t exactly a league that is trailing behind the world. The long attached “retirement league” epithet is finally starting to fade.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney and Bastian Schweinsteiger are the only names that could fit that label, but Ibrahimovic joined after scoring 25 goals in 39 appearances with Manchester United, and Rooney joined after scoring 12 goals for Everton from a midfield position. Schweinsteiger is a more difficult case as he plays defensive midfield and center back, but also more closely fits that label after being relegated to playing with the youth team in his time at Manchester United.

A big reason why the 10 is still so valued in MLS is exactly that, the value tied up in them.

Every team wants a big name creative midfielder who can create a second of magic with a shot or pass.

Alejandro Pozuelo ($3.8M), Nicolas Lodeiro ($2.5M), Diego Valeri ($2.4M), Carles Gil ($2.3M), Marco Fabian ($2.3M), Nicolas Gaitan ($2.3M), Albert Rusnak ($2M), Maxi Moralez ($2M), Darwin Quintero ($1.75M), Ezequiel Barco ($1.4M), Federico Higuain ($1.1M), Sacha Kljestan ($1.1M) (Shkelzen Gashi ($1.6M), Yura Movsisyan ($2.3M) Giovanni Dos Sanots ($6.5) no longer play in MLS but are still paid their contracts), are all in the top 50 highest paid players on the MLS payroll.

Most of the list is made up of strikers, attacking midfielders and wingers, with a spattering of big name defenders, midfielders and goalkeepers.

While big European teams have discovered more success playing with an attacking midfielder, MLS hasn’t.

MLS has stuck to the 10s not only because they are big names that can put buts in seats, but also because most if not all have the traits to play other positions as needed.

Higuain, Quintero, Pozuelo, Fabian, and Valeri are five that more closely resemble a second striker in their play style. They tend to get in the box and finish like most strikers, but drop deeper to pick up the ball. In the case of Higuain, Quintero and Valeri, their clubs’ 4-2-3-1 ends up resembling a 4-4-2 in defense, in which case they also defend like a striker. But on offense, most of these players have positional freedom. Some like Valeri and Pozuelo might drift wide, while others like Higuain and Fabian stay centrally.

Kljestan, Moralez, Rusnak and Gil are four that more closely resemble center midfielders. In fact, all have had to play in a deeper midfield position at some point this year for their clubs. They have not shirked from defensive responsibilities and have the passing range to distribute from deeper positions. Moralez is an interesting case, as he switches between playing as a midfielder and a second striker in Domenic Torrent’s system at NYC FC.

Meanwhile, Gaitan, Barco and Lodeiro are three that play more like wide midfielders, and often do play there for club and country. Gaitan was a former winger who has played centrally for Veljko Paunovic in Chicago. Barco is better as a center attacking midfielder, but as he often has had to compete with Pity Martinez and Miguel Almiron in Atlanta. He even played on the wing for Argentina at the U-20 World Cup this summer.

Nico Lodeiro is similar to Diego Valeri in that both players tend to drift wide from a central position and create opportunities away from the center of the field. He even played left midfield with Uruguay at the Copa America, but he tends to perform at his best when starting centrally and moving wide on his own accord.

A deeper look shows us that while the 10 is alive and well in MLS, most who play in that position are more versatile than the likes of Ozil or Sneijder, who never truly adapted to a new role. If any of their respective MLS clubs decided to switch from a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-1-2, all of these players have the traits and abilities to transition to playing striker, winger or central midfield.

It just happens that these stars are all at their best in a traditional 10, and until that role is deemed less valuable, it probably won’t go anywhere.

While not the highest paid players in the league, I also wanted to point out Marc Rzatkowski, Tomas Martinez, Pity Martinez, Frankie Amaya, Favio Alvarez, Paxton Pomykal, and Cole Basset as other 10s in the league and ones that play not because they are expensive, or because they are big names (except maybe Pity), but because that is how they are best utilized for their respective teams.

Lastly, it should be pointed out that MLS isn’t at the level of the top leagues in Europe. It is unfair to constantly compare MLS to the Premier League or La Liga.

The players that come into MLS as attacking midfielders tend to be of a higher level than that of the rest of the league. This is why there are so many who are highly paid, and why we play Lodeiro, Pity, Barco and Rusnak as 10s despite the fact that they play in other positions for their national teams or former club teams. These are players that can play attacking midfield at MLS level, where it would likely be too difficult to do so at a higher level.

There is nothing wrong with acknowledging that MLS is behind many other leagues. In fact, understanding that can help the league grow, and discover where money should be spent.

In the past three years, more money has been spent on developing other positions like defensive midfield, where players such as Jan Gregus, Haris Medunjanin, Eduard Atuesta, Everton Luiz, Eric Remedi, Junior Moreno, Saphir Taider, and Leonardo Bertone have made huge impacts for their team since joining the league.

Maybe as more money is invested in midfielders, the impact of an attacking midfield will lessen, and as the league develops this will certainly eventually happen, but there is no reason to force trends on MLS if it doesn’t actually improve the product on the field or more importantly a teams’ results.