Posted September 15, 20159 yr I thought it might be a good idea to open a thread like this. Usually formations and tactics are spoken about in a match day thread, but over here we can discuss our tactics and formation over the course of the season. What are we doing right, what's going wrong, what players should play and in what formation etc.. I'm pretty sure many of you know that Gary Neville is usually spot on in his analysis, so that's why I'll post his analysis of our match against Everton here. By posting it in the Everton thread I feared a lot of people might not see it because they don't want to go back to that horribly depressing section of the forum. https://youtu.be/9jhIqRX7Da0 I guess I'll start with my two pennies worth. For me Mikel is fine as a squad player but he isn't good enough to be in our starting 11. As shown in the video above he does plenty wrong. Now I know that Matic isn't cutting it either at the moment but we all saw what he can do last season. I'd like us to change our formation to 4-3-3. In my opinion our current squad lacks strength and dare I say it ''character''. We are missing players like Lampard, Essien, Ballack, Drogba and so on. Costa loves to pick a fight but he was put in his pocket by Stones the other day. Our only player with strength outside of our defence is Matic at the moment. I hate seeing us get bullied of the park. I'd love to see some more body in our team, like we used to have in the before mentioned. I'd opt for Azpi - Zouma - JT - Baba RLC - Fabregas - Matic Pedro - Remy - Hazard I'm not at all sure Cheek is good enough to be starting for us, but at least he won't get pushed off the ball. Fabregas deserves time on the bench if you ask me. But because of his quality I still put him in there. When Costa is in form he is a better player than Remy in my opinion but I still left him out because I'm a bit done with him picking fights all the time and I have no clue what Remy did to get left out of the team every week. I kind of did all of this in a hurry so I might not have expressed all of my thoughts clear enough but I think you all get the picture. I'm excited to see what all of you think. (if anyone is at all interested in a thread like this).
September 15, 20159 yr I hate the 4-2-3-1 formation. Go back to the old 4-3-3 that was so successful under Jose the first time.
September 15, 20159 yr The best formation is 4-3-3, this formation works excellent for us. Azpi --------- Zouma ------ Cahill ------- Baba ------------------ Matic ------- RLC -------------- ------------------------ Oscar ----------------------- Pedro --------------- Costa -------------- Hazard In my opinion. this is the right team to play. We're in a very poor form and we need to find any possible way to fix this. I think RLC should be a 50-50 player, that would help create counter attacks and always track back to help Matic and the defence. Oscar in front of Matic and RLC would be great because Oscar always working on the pitch, he automatically tracks back once he loses the ball or the other team has a counter attack, he also has a good connection with Hazard and Costa which could help us a lot and revive Hazard and Costa. He can turn into a key player this season.
September 15, 20159 yr If we were to change to 4-3-3 right now then i would go with this. Begovic Azpi---Zouma--Terry--Rahman Matic Oscar Fab Pedro Hazard Costa Terry would remain in the team, Rahman would come in for Ivanovic and Azpilicueta would be moved to RB. Matic would actually sit in the defensive midfield position instead of getting so involved in attack. Oscar would play just ahead of Matic and could cover for the defense and offer a lot to the attack at the same time, playing him there seems like a no brainer for me. Fabregas would play further forward, he can't carry on playing deeper, he can't cover for the defense and he can't offer anything to the attack playing deeper anymore. Pedro, Hazard and Costa would remain the same for now. Edited September 15, 20159 yr by Scott Harris
September 15, 20159 yr Always felt that the 4-3-3 under Jose was a more fluid system. The wingers switched flanks a lot. Maka sat deep which allowed Lampard and Essien/Gudjohnsen/Tiago freedom to bomb forward a lot allowing for late runs into the box. I feel that with the 4-2-3-1 it's a lot more rigid. If either of the holding two go forward they risk leaving big holes in the middle and the front four seem like they're dedicated to a side more than Drogba, Robben and Duff were.
September 15, 20159 yr When Oscar plays we are pretty much 433 anyway. I think the problem is more down to personnel rather than tactics. We lack steel in the centre of the pitch. I think the pogba links were because of this but it's a shame we didn't have a plan b. Probably should have gone in for vidal. I think the only way of moving forward is either rlc steps up, or hazard and costa start dragging us through games again.
September 16, 20159 yr Basically I reckon we should try and score goals while at the same time try to avoid conceding them. Should we do that I think we have a good chance of winning. Sorry, hoping that some media executives are reading this topic in search of the next pundit
September 16, 20159 yr Rearranging the figures in midfield is pointless when 9 times out of 10 our goalkeeper is required to kick the ball over then.
September 17, 20159 yr Basically I reckon we should try and score goals while at the same time try to avoid conceding them. Should we do that I think we have a good chance of winning. Sorry, hoping that some media executives are reading this topic in search of the next pundit
September 17, 20159 yr I think the way we played today is what Jose wants. High line with the ball, fullbacks attatcking, ball on the floor, high energy. Very similar to Swansea game. He hasnt had the personnel to do it until now and I think hes realized JT cant play that way game in game out. Oscar has been out and hes had to play the ghost of Ivanovic.
September 17, 20159 yr When Oscar plays we are pretty much 433 anyway. I think the problem is more down to personnel rather than tactics. We lack steel in the centre of the pitch. 100% I don't know where some of these guys come up with the 4-2-3-1 being 'rigid' or wanting to 'go back' to the 4-3-3. The reason the 4-2-3-1 is very popular and a favourite of Jose's, is because it is a hybrid system. The personnel and instructions are key to determining how the tactic is carried out. Make Hazard the 10, use Ramires and Oscar on the flanks - and it becomes a 4-4-2. Use Oscar as the 10, play Matic and Mikel/Ramires/RLC and it's a 4-3-3. The reason why the old system worked so well is because we had experienced players who were interchangeable in the system. Fabregas is playing the position of what would traditionally be the box-to-box role, but he does't play that way. He generally plays in the final two-thirds. He played more passes in the final third last night than any other player in this round of CL games. This is a problem if we have any other no.10 than Oscar in the team, as he is the most tactically astute of all the AMs. Fab touches last night: If we lose Fabregas in deeper midfield, our distribution suffers massively. If we use him and don't have Oscar, our defensive organisation suffers. We are on a tightrope tactically because of the qualities of our first-choice players, and the lack of quality in our squad players. Jose of course knows this, and I'm sure we'll see it addressed as and when suitable players become available in the market. Solution - Pogba or Koke
September 17, 20159 yr As Gary Neville notes we're not defending collectively currently and we are being exposed accordingly. We need that bedrock back to finish top four. Matic is key for me. He has been poor so far.
September 18, 20159 yr 100% I don't know where some of these guys come up with the 4-2-3-1 being 'rigid' or wanting to 'go back' to the 4-3-3. The reason the 4-2-3-1 is very popular and a favourite of Jose's, is because it is a hybrid system. The personnel and instructions are key to determining how the tactic is carried out. Make Hazard the 10, use Ramires and Oscar on the flanks - and it becomes a 4-4-2. Use Oscar as the 10, play Matic and Mikel/Ramires/RLC and it's a 4-3-3. The reason why the old system worked so well is because we had experienced players who were interchangeable in the system. Fabregas is playing the position of what would traditionally be the box-to-box role, but he does't play that way. He generally plays in the final two-thirds. He played more passes in the final third last night than any other player in this round of CL games. This is a problem if we have any other no.10 than Oscar in the team, as he is the most tactically astute of all the AMs. Fab touches last night: Capture1.JPG If we lose Fabregas in deeper midfield, our distribution suffers massively. If we use him and don't have Oscar, our defensive organisation suffers. We are on a tightrope tactically because of the qualities of our first-choice players, and the lack of quality in our squad players. Jose of course knows this, and I'm sure we'll see it addressed as and when suitable players become available in the market. Solution - Pogba or Koke Great post. I think we place too much emphasis on formation, especially when we talk about 433, 4231, 451, and 4321. They are all really similar, and we are switching between these formations during matches, depending on the situation. Even 442 becomes 451 when you don't have the ball. I think player roles and instructions are more important.
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