The evolution of football

Damn right!

Won us two titles, you guys shed loads, even Leicester this year was more a 442 than anything else.

I've wants to see a 2 man midfield for a while now, some of the best teams in recent years have operated doing so.

2016 is about being a team

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 12 minutes ago
It's purely about players suiting their positions in a coherent tactical shape.

442 is dead apparently apart from most of the winners of the PL champions playing it. Ditto Atletico.

No style or formation is better than any other, it's just sum of the parts.
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This, with bells on. Great big f'kn bells.
Big Sam please. A man who has continually made good teams despite ''the sum of it's parts''.
It may well not always be pretty but who cares, it's not as though it's every Saturday and the results can hardly be any worse!

It's always been about having a coherent team, I think the difference now is that tactics have advanced and you can find good players from all over the world, places in Africa, US, Asia, that wasn't the case 30 years ago.

Teams tend to have a go a bit more now, they've figured out how to frustrate the "big teams" with the "big names" AND how to move up the pitch and actually create some decent chances.

On Sam Allardyce, watching Iceland in this tournament really does remind me of his Bolton side from around 2005-2007.

They do knock it into the channels at times and work on set pieces and defensive shape a lot like his team's do but I think this has been a really underrated aspect of coaching for about ten years now.

Any manager that talks about being organised and hard to beat seems to be labeled as negative, when in reality, defensive organisation is just as important as attacking play.

I mean, who would you rather have as your manager, Allardyce or Martinez?

I think ultimately we will look back on this era as being complete crap.

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 56 minutes ago
It's purely about players suiting their positions in a coherent tactical shape.

442 is dead apparently apart from most of the winners of the PL champions playing it. Ditto Atletico.

No style or formation is better than any other, it's just sum of the parts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Said during the Poland-Portugal game, Poland started well and looked well drilled, playing a 442/4411 formation. By the 2nd half Portugal switched to a similat formation.

Hodgson was a dyed-in-the-wool 442/4411 man. Until he got the England job and moved away from it because he seemed to think he had to please the masses and move to a sexier formation and play flavour of the month players.

If he'd stuck to his principles and had us playing a dour, compact 442/4411 system that served him well throughout his career then we'd have done better at the last WC and we'd have just been playing Belgium in the QF's.

comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 1 hour, 12 minutes ago
It's purely about players suiting their positions in a coherent tactical shape.

442 is dead apparently apart from most of the winners of the PL champions playing it. Ditto Atletico.

No style or formation is better than any other, it's just sum of the parts.
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My word.

there is intelligent life on planet earth

i can breath again

Would love to see us go 442 again, if for no other reason than I think Martial and Rashford could be the new Yorke and Cole. They have a great understanding, are both quick and skilful and can score goals despite their age.

comment by Serge Muhmenthaler (U15867)
posted 55 minutes ago
comment by meltonblue (U10617)
posted 56 minutes ago
It's purely about players suiting their positions in a coherent tactical shape.

442 is dead apparently apart from most of the winners of the PL champions playing it. Ditto Atletico.

No style or formation is better than any other, it's just sum of the parts.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Said during the Poland-Portugal game, Poland started well and looked well drilled, playing a 442/4411 formation. By the 2nd half Portugal switched to a similat formation.

Hodgson was a dyed-in-the-wool 442/4411 man. Until he got the England job and moved away from it because he seemed to think he had to please the masses and move to a sexier formation and play flavour of the month players.

If he'd stuck to his principles and had us playing a dour, compact 442/4411 system that served him well throughout his career then we'd have done better at the last WC and we'd have just been playing Belgium in the QF's.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

That was why annoyed me more than anything. Had hodgson stuck to what he was good at (two banks of four, players setting up in pairs), he would have been fine.

Instead, he pandered to the press in going adventurous, put players in the wrong position and lost all coherent shape.

A strong personality that sticks to what they know is all that is needed, not to try and prove themselves as they will inevitably fail.