Missing 11: Wordle football game and team lineup puzzle from creators of Who Are Ya? explained - how to play

There’s now a Wordle for everything. Or so it seems.

The humble word game, created during lockdown for a bored partner, has grown in popularity and was recently sold to the New York Times for a “low six figures”.

Whether trying to cash in on the game’s success or simply having some fun with its addictive premise, a number of variants have cropped up in its wake, combining everything from sports to maths with letter-based puzzles.

Football fans are already well catered for with Who Are Ya?, a version of the game that has you guessing a certain player based on five key attributes.

But that game was actually created by a team with proven experience in Wordle/football mashups.

Missing 11 was their first take on the Wordle formula, and it’s one that is sure to get footballing fans racking their brains.

Here is everything you need to know about it.

What is Wordle?

Wordle is an online brain teaser which lies somewhere between a crossword and a sudoku puzzle.

Anyone who knows the game Mastermind, which employs the use of coloured pegs, will instantly be familiar with the premise of Wordle.

The objective of the game is to guess a secret 5-letter word in six tries, using a series of hints to figure it out.

• If any of your letters are highlighted as green, that means that you’ve got the right letter in the right place.
• If any of the letters are highlighted as yellow, that means that those letters are in the word, but they’re currently in the wrong place.
• Finally, if any of your letters are highlighted as grey, it means that those letters aren’t included anywhere in the secret word.

How does Missing 11 work?

It might be quite daunting to hear that Missing 11 presents players with 11 Wordle puzzles on a daily basis.

However, unlike other multiple puzzle variants - like Octordle - you’re not juggling all 11 at once, and can tackle each in isolation.

In Missing 11, you’re looking to fill in the starting line-up a team played in a famous game from footballing history.

For example, on the day of writing this article, the challenge was to name all of the players that started for Arsenal in their 4-2 win against Liverpool in April 2004.

Players are presented with a football pitch overlaid with the blank shirts of each player in the position they played.

The number of stars beneath each player corresponds to how many letters feature in their surname; it’s not necessarily all about five-letter words here.

Clicking on a player takes you to their own Wordle-type puzzle page, where you’re given six guesses to guess their name.

Again, letters which show up green are correct and in the right place; yellow letters feature in the name but in a different spot; and greyed out letters aren’t included in the final answer at all.

How can I play it?

The game can be played online - for free - at missing11.com.

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