One of the aspects that made Jose such a great manager (on top of many things) was that he fitted his system of play around the personnel at his disposal. So the most obvious system to play with Lamps and Drogba in the side was a 4 3 3 with Drogba playing the strong centre forward and Lamps running on to his lay offs while originally having wingers pacing down either side and cutting in at will (Duff and Robben). This did go t]ts up when he was forced to accommodate Romans signings into a system and had to play a diamond.
No the problem i see at the moment is we dont have the personnel to play 4 2 3 1, due to mostly a lack of a playmaker. And yet we keep persisting with it to the detriment of results and the talents of the players we do have. Does anyone have any suggestions for formations that would be a better fit?, I really do think we are only using 4 2 3 1 because it suits the high profile signings rather than the team and also because it is fashionable
Edit: this article wasn't meant to suggest we go back to 4 3 3 (that was an example of using our strengths to our advantage) just pointing out the weaknesses in the current system
Can we even play this formation?
posted on 18/12/12
I don't really think we can play 4-3-3 that well either to be honest. It may suit our midfield more to an extent, but I'm not sure we have a good enough striker to play upfront alone.
There is also the problem of Mata. I'm not sure how effective he would be cutting in. He seems to lack the stamina required to be a winger. He may leave us a bit exposed on the right side (assuming Hazard plays LW).
posted on 18/12/12
Is this to favour lampard or to get best out of team,
posted on 18/12/12
no its genuinely to get the best out of the team, Lamps is now most definitely a squad player
posted on 18/12/12
4-3-3 would suit Ramires and maybe Oscar more, but it would not suit our strikers and Mata. Mata also struggles with tracking back though that is a problem with both formations. We have the personnel to make either formation work TBH, they both have drawbacks and advantages. It's just right now our players are in poor form or unavailable.
posted on 18/12/12
The only position I can see Lampard in a 4-3-3 is as a regista: Ramires-Lampard-Oscar
He doesn't have the legs/stamina to get up and down the pitch anymore in the box-to-box role.
Also the fact 4-3-3 would use all our available midfielders makes me a bit wary.
posted on 18/12/12
My main problem is that 4231 has been exposed defensively by most teams who play it against United, they have been having a field day using their wingers against exposed full backs
posted on 18/12/12
4-3-3 probably wouldn't change that though.
Might even make it worse..
posted on 18/12/12
Rafa out before he.ruins oscar
posted on 18/12/12
I think with the personnel we have got available now our best formation would be 5-2-2-1 and this would be my team:
..............................Cech..............................
Azpilicueta...Ivanovich...Luiz...Terry...Cole
..................Mikel.............Oscar..................
..................Mata...........Hazard..................
.........................Torres................................
We can use both Azpilicueta and Cole to give us the width we desperatly need while also giving both Mata and Hazard the freedom they both need to perform at the top of their games.
posted on 18/12/12
^ Negative lineup.