Before football matches they usually show the formations of both teams, including who plays where, on TV.
As far as I am aware, according to the rules teams only have to provide the names and shirt numbers of the 11 players (+subs) they field.
So supposedly it only is know who will play, but not in what formation or where each player will play within that formation. This makes sense, because a formation can change at any moment, while the line up itself won't.
So how does the broadcasting TV channel and commentators know those details?
- Do the teams usually give out this information to the media? Wouldn't that be a tactical disadvantage?
- Or does the media just guess the formation?
The latter seems most logical, but from what I can tell it is almost always correct (for Bundesliga matches at least), even when unusual choices are made for a match. Today one team put five defenders on the pitch, but one of them ended up playing as a midfielder. The media announced this correctly when showing the line up.