Personally, I have a belief that generally, in the short to medium term, a coach needs to adapt his preferred formation to fit his the personell he has available. Some ways of playing demand a particular type of player. Okay, in a perfect Dutch valhalla, all players would be able to play all positions in 'total football' but that is not what we tend to get. In the longer term recruitment can aim to get in what you need.
Here in Australia in my twenty years of involvement I have tended to use a sweeper in 95% of teams I coach. This, for many years, was probably a more popular stategy here than worldwide but gradually we are seeing a world resurgence of its use. To go with the defensive libaro I use two marking mobile centre backs making up a three at the back. In addition to three at the back I employ two wing backs. What is a wing back? Think Gareth Bale and you have the picture. More of a 200 or 400 runner than a sprinter, able to go up and back multiple times including recovery runs to the corner flag to pick up the opposition wide player. Two points should be made here. As I said earlier, such players need to be available in the squad...if you don't have them you will be ineffective playing wing backs. A second point is that you will probably need three such players in the squad because wing backs by their nature tend to get used up quicker that more central players. The Asquith All Age winning 5 year dynasty was built around 3 5 2:)
Having chosen to play wing backs it is usually supplemented by three central midfielders to make the formation 3 5 2. The main variation here being 2 and 1 or 1 and 2 in the central midfield. This decision is largely driven by the game situation and who you have available. Occasionally the most attacking midfielder may be pushed on to make a third striker in a 3 4 3.
I remember a cup semi-final one day when we were 2-0 down. I asked how much time was left and mistakenly heard the reply to be 4 minutes. In response I reorganised on the run to go with a 3 3 4! In the event we scored...then scored again and then again. I asked again, "how much time do we have left" and to my astonishment the reply came as 7 minutes! Obviously I had heard wrong first time:) What to do now? Keep it the same......we had totally overwhelmed them and I saw no point trying to go safe....we went through to the final 3-2.
Having already said I like the old 3 5 2 line up probably the preference for 5 midfielders leads me to go 4 5 1 as a second preference.This in itself can give problems because to play up front alone takes a special player. I suppose Drogba would be as good as anyone in this role. Strong, athletic,a good touch and possessing that ability to tie up the central defence.
In Australia I have only had two or three players who could do this job.
Anthony probably was best left alone up front because he had that individual goalscorers edge and it was difficult to get anyone else to stand up top and listen to his moaning:)
Tom McAlister was a supreme athlete, fantastic over 100 and 200 metres and a great finisher. He played for SPX 1st XI from Year Nine, recovering from a bad leg break to score 27 goals in his senior year.
This season 2011 with a young U15 side we actually went 3 6 1! The reason being that I had a multitude of small skilful midfielders who were still developing physically and one tall player able to play aross the front line on his own. Unauthodox but minor premiership winning effective:)
As can be seen from the formations link (excuse the soccer reference) there are truly multiple variations available to coaches.
http://www.soccer-training-guide.com/soccer-formations.html
Ranging from the stock standard flat 4 4 2 to the increasingly popular 4 3 3 (advocated so much by pundit Craig Foster, who believes that our whole Australian coaching system should be built around around this shape) there is a smorgasbord of choice.
Chelsea and more laterly Citeh go with this 4 3 3 shape. Again for me it does come down to personel available but Citeh do have 2 players for every position. The key is enough diversity in the squad for change. Dzeko, Ballotelli, Aguero, Silva and Nasri certainaly give Mancini plenty of scope for change and that is without two world class forwards in Tevez and Adebayor he fell out with!
At Spurs Harry has changed his 4 4 2 habits of a lifetime to generally play five midfielders. VDV has been the catalyst for such change...he has made Harry rethink. Such players have brought the term 'false number 9' to prominance. To me Spurs now play a 4 5 1 or a variation of it. Some observors have claimed to read more into it than me. They come up with 4 2 3 1 or 4 3 2 1. Perhaps it may be that but the key is the five midfielders and truly in a game the shape will change depending on the need. Few teams, Barcelona aside, can dominate a whole match and shuffling of personel is necessary, leading to the 2 and 1 or 1 and 2 in the central midfield mentioned earlier.
As ever possession is key. Here in Australia the most sucessful side at the moment is Central Coast Mariners, coached by ex-socceroo and Northern Spirit boss, Graham Arnold. Having seen him over the years I must say this a bloke who has truly improved working on the job. At Spirit I thought he was awful. Unimaginative, slow to adapt within a match and frustrating. Well Graham certainly learned a lot form his time as assistant to Guus Hiddink on the national squad. What does he play at Mariners? An Adapted 4 4 2 with a narrow diamond shape in the midfield....it is working very well for them largely because he has coached New Zealand wide international Mcglinchey and young Aussie Bozanic to play narrower. Luckily for Arnold he has two marauding full backs in Bojic and Rose to give the width. The diamond is made up of a deep defensive midfielder (Hutchinson or Griffiths) and an attacking midfielder the flame haired Amini who has been picked up by a major German side and loaned back to the Mariners.This young bloke will hopefully have a big role to play in Australia's next World Cup campaign.
To me three at the back and /or three up front, are two positive if not necessarily mutually dependent changes we are seeing in the game. As ever being a left footer is great but being both is better. Utility players will always have a role in the game...Gary Stevens of Brighton / Spurs went all the way as a player making the World Cup by being versatile. For youngsters asked the question "Where do you play", the answer would ideally be 'Where do you need me to play?" The formations/ lineups used by coaches are diverse and players need to be flexible to remain in a starting eleven.
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