4-4-2
Yesterday, I was too 'emotionally tired' too contribute anything to this embryonic page. Alex Ferguson was beginning to wear thin on whatever tenuous nerve endings populate my shaking torso. Like most armchair SkySports customers and fans of Manchester United, Wednesday night was about as frustrating as missing last orders by 5 minutes. The game was there to be taken, but the means of getting the result was locked behind a metal grille. The metal grille in this instance was 4-3-3.
Chelsea won last years premiership playing 4-3-3. For the uninitiated that involves the following. From your 10 outfield players you are now assigning 4 of them to defensive duties. you have a left full back, two centre halves, and a right full back protecting your goalkeeper. Fine. The full backs take care of the opposing 'wingers' whilst the centre halves manage the two opposing centre forwards or 'strikers'. Simple!
Your midfield consists of 3 midfielders. Two to play centre midfield to take the ball from the defenders and distribute it creatively to your attacking players. The third midfielder, and this is where the flaw lies, sits in front of the back four to protect them from opposing midfielders coming through.
Straight away your team is now biased towards defending. Your three forward players are playing without wing support which can only come now from the full backs making 100 yard advances, which cannot be done quickly and/or as a counterattack. What invariably happens is that one or two of the attackers come back towards the midfield turning the formation into a very narrow 4-5-1. Chelsea did this last year and ended up winning most of their games 1-0. The conceded feck all goals and scored feck all. Overall, it was the most boring championship winning display since George Graham's Arsenal won in 1989.
With 4-4-2, you are trusting your 4 defenders to deal with the oppositions attack. You have two central midfielders and 2 wingers playing in front of the full backs. These wingers are crucial. They supply the crosses for your two strikers, and they turn defenders. If you turn a defense to face back towards their own goal, you immediately have them at a disadvantage, they can't see the runners coming in from the midfield so your passing options upfront increase dramatically.
That's how Man Utd used to play when they won more Premierships that any other team in history.Why change to mimic a negative Chelsea? It's not like we don't have any wingers? Giggs, Ronaldo, Park and Richardson are all well capable of doing the job. You only need 2!
I'm at my wits end. We have a difficult trip to Liverpool on Sunday at noon, and if the old enemy see a 4-3-3 (4-5-1) formation I can only fear the worst. Another 0-0 draw like Wednesday's display against VillaReal could send me over the edge. i don't know where the edge is, or what's over it, and I truly hope the depths of despair are not reached come 2pm on Sunday.
We need to start creating chances. We didn't against City last week or against VillaReal on Wednesday. Chelsea don't create chances, but they are expert in creating 2 chances in 90 minutes, taking one of them, and no one seems to have a clue how to break them down. We don't have the quality in defense that they do. we don't. But we do have much more creative players. Ronaldo, Rooney, Park, Scholes, Giggs. All players capable of turning defenses or playing a defense splitting pass, or crossing deftly to Van Nistlerooy, who will get you goals if you give him chances.
I'm not advocating we take the Real Madrid stance of "We don't care how many goals you score, we'll score one more than you", but please Mister Ferguson, can we attack down the flanks. Please.
On a parting note. Portugal, Greece and The Czech Republic were the 3 most successful teams in Euro 2004. Why? Because they were the only 3 teams to play with wingers. here endeth the lesson...
Chelsea won last years premiership playing 4-3-3. For the uninitiated that involves the following. From your 10 outfield players you are now assigning 4 of them to defensive duties. you have a left full back, two centre halves, and a right full back protecting your goalkeeper. Fine. The full backs take care of the opposing 'wingers' whilst the centre halves manage the two opposing centre forwards or 'strikers'. Simple!
Your midfield consists of 3 midfielders. Two to play centre midfield to take the ball from the defenders and distribute it creatively to your attacking players. The third midfielder, and this is where the flaw lies, sits in front of the back four to protect them from opposing midfielders coming through.
Straight away your team is now biased towards defending. Your three forward players are playing without wing support which can only come now from the full backs making 100 yard advances, which cannot be done quickly and/or as a counterattack. What invariably happens is that one or two of the attackers come back towards the midfield turning the formation into a very narrow 4-5-1. Chelsea did this last year and ended up winning most of their games 1-0. The conceded feck all goals and scored feck all. Overall, it was the most boring championship winning display since George Graham's Arsenal won in 1989.
With 4-4-2, you are trusting your 4 defenders to deal with the oppositions attack. You have two central midfielders and 2 wingers playing in front of the full backs. These wingers are crucial. They supply the crosses for your two strikers, and they turn defenders. If you turn a defense to face back towards their own goal, you immediately have them at a disadvantage, they can't see the runners coming in from the midfield so your passing options upfront increase dramatically.
That's how Man Utd used to play when they won more Premierships that any other team in history.Why change to mimic a negative Chelsea? It's not like we don't have any wingers? Giggs, Ronaldo, Park and Richardson are all well capable of doing the job. You only need 2!
I'm at my wits end. We have a difficult trip to Liverpool on Sunday at noon, and if the old enemy see a 4-3-3 (4-5-1) formation I can only fear the worst. Another 0-0 draw like Wednesday's display against VillaReal could send me over the edge. i don't know where the edge is, or what's over it, and I truly hope the depths of despair are not reached come 2pm on Sunday.
We need to start creating chances. We didn't against City last week or against VillaReal on Wednesday. Chelsea don't create chances, but they are expert in creating 2 chances in 90 minutes, taking one of them, and no one seems to have a clue how to break them down. We don't have the quality in defense that they do. we don't. But we do have much more creative players. Ronaldo, Rooney, Park, Scholes, Giggs. All players capable of turning defenses or playing a defense splitting pass, or crossing deftly to Van Nistlerooy, who will get you goals if you give him chances.
I'm not advocating we take the Real Madrid stance of "We don't care how many goals you score, we'll score one more than you", but please Mister Ferguson, can we attack down the flanks. Please.
On a parting note. Portugal, Greece and The Czech Republic were the 3 most successful teams in Euro 2004. Why? Because they were the only 3 teams to play with wingers. here endeth the lesson...
posted by Derek Keogh | 3:34 PM
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