The World Cup proves it. It really does. For well over four seasons Rafa Benitez persisted with the tactic of playing 4-2-3-1 and everyone kicked him for it. ‘Too defensive’ they crowed, ‘players don’t know their roles’, they bleeted.
Well, these sheep-birds can all go and take a walk. The one thing everyone (seemingly) agrees about the 2010 World Cup is that 4-2-3-1 is the way to go. As a result of this formation bombshell, one of the biggest talking points that will surround football for the coming months is…which formation is best?
People have been coming out saying that 4-4-2 is the formation of the past, that it is too rigid, too easy to break, too easy to pass through, too blah. Step forward the dynamic formation that allows full-backs to push on, the whole team to be protected by two holding players, thus allowing an attacking six (striker, three attacking midfielders and then the full-backs) to torment and pull about the opposition defence. And with the right personnel…it works rather well.
And sometimes it takes a game like the World Cup Final for everyone to go ‘oh yeah…’
Have Spain finally put the nail in the 4-4-2 coffin?
Spain were bleeding good. And not just because they kept the ball (stupidly well) but because of the formation they played. It is the formation the Dutch played, the formation the Germans played and the formation the Brazilians played. And now it will be the formation that any team that aspires to succeed must play. At least I feel that will be the case at the very highest level.
England refused to adopt it, so did the Italians and the Argentinians – heck, apparently they didn’t really need a ‘formation’ (or a right back), they could just play the bestest players in the world!!! and win. Wrong.
Which makes Benitez right. Right? Wrong. Well, sort of. Admittedly I spent many a match last season rolling my eyes at Liverpool only playing one up front against Stoke, Wolves, et al., and this is an issue for teams like Liverpool. Perhaps the Premier League with its multitude of opponents and ability to get held to 0-0 draws requires a more gung-ho approach.
Indeed, Spain needed extra time to win the final and all their knock-out matches finished 1-0 (in fact, they only won one game by more than a single goal…against Honduras). Fine margins, no matter how well you play.
So where does that leave us? Well, in difficulty. I think it is fair to say that at the highest echelons of football 4-4-2 is dead. But against the ‘weaker teams’, well maybe there’s a calling for 4-1-3-2? Does a ‘great’ team playing a ‘rubbish’ team need two holding players? I’d argue rather strongly they don’t. But then, and this was something Benitez always struggled with, how do you manage two formations being interchanged all the time? Especially when you’re a fastidious bearded Spaniard.
Whatever the solution, there is a definite sense that football can and will change and the tactics of the game, in this time of über-analysis and über-attention to detail, will need to smarten up a bit. RIP 4-4-2.
