What do LI, RI, LH, CH, RH mean in old soccer positions?

Question

I am reading an old newspaper published in the 1940s about a soccer game.

The positions were GK, RB, LB, RH, CH, LH, RW, RI, C, LI, and LW. B is for backs and W is for wings which are obvious, but I can't figure out what H and I mean.

Answer 1

This is the standard 2-3-5 formation, which was the most popular formation in the sport from the 1890s until about the 1930s, but which is now extremely archaic.

• As you mentioned, the RB and LB are the right-back and left-back, the two defensive positions. They would have been positioned similarly to the two center-backs in a modern 4-4-2 system.
• The RH, CH, and LH are the right-half, center-half, and left-half, collectively known as "half-backs". These, at the time, were analogous to modern midfielders, but over time they moved backwards into defence and the full-backs were moved wider to accommodate them. "Center-half" is now an archaic synonym for "center-back", while the concept of "right-half" and "left-half" no longer exists in the modern game.
• The five upfront players were the outside-left (or left-wing), the inside-left, the center-forward, the inside-right, and the outside-right (or right-wing). In your newspaper article, "RI" would denote the inside-right and "LI" would denote the inside-left - again, these are concepts that no longer exist.

Answer 2

What you're looking at here is the pyramid formation or a close variation. In modern terms, we'd denote this as a 2-3-5 formation:

• GK is the goalkeeper
• [R/L]B are the right and left fullbacks, essentially what we'd call the defenders today.
• [R/C/L]H are the right, centre and left halfbacks, what we'd call midfielders today.
• The forward line is from right to left the right winger (RW), the right inside (RI), the centre forward (C), the left inside (LI) and the left winger (LW).