From one man's role to a team-wide system
The next major evolution moved the false nine from a specific player's job description into a structural choice a manager could build a whole season around. During Manchester City's 2020-21 Premier League title run, Guardiola frequently left recognized strikers Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus out of the XI altogether, instead pushing a midfielder into the middle. City's top scorer in that league campaign was Ilkay Gundogan, a central midfielder, not a forward.
City won the title playing what was effectively a striker-free system for long stretches, and the false nine stopped being a special occasion for a genius playmaker and became, for one of the best-resourced clubs in the world, simply an option on the tactics board.
