You played Wellbeck in the left a lot last year and it effectively created a lopsided 4231 with Rooney dropping deeper. I'm finding it slightly ironic that people are slating it considering you actually moving away from it was one of the reasons your style wasn't as fluid last year.

People need to get over this slating of 442, it's absolutely fine if the right players (it's what we still play, and did in our title winning season).

Hazard and Moura are wingers. If they can't play in a 442 formation then they aren't good enough
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They are not traditional wingers. Plus judging a players ability on outdated 4-4-2 formation is unfair. Do you think Ribery and Robben will be this much successful if Bayern play trditional 4-4-2?

Slating 442, that should have said

But whenever he has played against us he has ripped us to shreds
.................
Really??,
He did it once when he came on in the 2nd half of the FA cup match at old Trafford

Hazard, mata, willian, Oscar, kdb, shurrle,

Future looks good doesn't it

comment by my chelsea is back(LegendOsgood) (U7946)
posted 1 minute ago
Hazard, mata, willian, Oscar, kdb, shurrle,

Future looks good doesn't it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You aint got anything on Welbeck, Cleverley, Buttner, Macheda, Bebe and Giggs

And giggs

People need to get over this slating of 442, it's absolutely fine if the right players (it's what we still play, and did in our title winning season).
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I dont agree with it. There are inherit flaws in that formation that can be exploited by teams play 433-451 or 4-6-0. Main flaw is its difficult to keep the ball.

Teams like City and United can get away playing 4-4-2 against weaker teams but they get spanked evry time they come against a stronger team. United against barca and City against Bayern are two recent exaples

comment by my chelsea is back(LegendOsgood) (U7946)
posted 7 minutes ago
Hazard, mata, willian, Oscar, kdb, shurrle,

Future looks good doesn't it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Especially when your cb's allow atackers to stroll past them and score, step forward mr david luiz

Yeah well done W&R pick our worst players.

Don't mention the likes of Kagawa, januzaj, rafael, ddg, jones, smalling, Hernandez etc. some of the very good youngsters we have

And there are inherent flaws in a 433 or a 4231 that a 442 directly exploits as well, it is about the quality of players at that level and how well they suit whichever formation is used.

And there are inherent flaws in a 433 or a 4231 that a 442 directly exploits as well, it is about the quality of players at that level and how well they suit whichever formation is used.
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what are those inherent flaws? Inherent flaws of 4-4-2 against 443/451 is obvious but cant really think of any flaws of 451 against 4-42.

If 2 teams with equally talented players play against each other, one playing 4-4-2 and other playing 451/433 im sure team that play 4-4-2 will get beaten more often than not.

there is a reason why non of the top teams in europe play 4-4-2. It doesnt work

"what are those inherent flaws? Inherent flaws of 4-4-2 against 443/451 is obvious but cant really think of any flaws of 451 against 4-42"

Surely it is just as obvious? If you push your fullbacks up, then you already have more space on the wings. If they are playing a 4231, then if you get the ball past their attacking line quickly, you actually have a numerical advantage in midfield still.

For possession, then a 4231 or 433 tends to be better. If you go up against Barca with a 433 and match them, you will lose. It is better to play fast counter attack and exploit the wings, that is what they struggle against, so playing a 442 can work.

Any formation is only as good as the players that go in it. Bayern and Barca have the perfect players for their formation. For Europe, United or City don't. We don't have natural (which is why we bought Navas), you don't have a box to box midfielder. That is why the football doesn't look great, it's as much the players as the formation.

Wide men it meant to say for Navas.

meltonblue

The flaws outweigh the pluses when comparing 433 against 4-4-2. 451/433 allows the team to keep the ball better. more often than not team playing 451 against 442 ends up having around 60% possession.

As you said fullbacks push forward so a team playing 4-4-2 can exploit the wide areas. Even if wingers do that they have to cross the ball to create a chance. Crosses are easier to defend than through balls and every time the team cross they loose possession.

442 is only effective when plying against weaker teams. stronger teams can flood the midfield and starve the opposition of possession

Well, that depends on how a 442 is set up though and why we play silva/Nasri, as they tend to move centrally to enable greater possession and increase the amount of through balls, we still play a 442 though as that is the generic shape we have without the ball.

You're writing it off too quickly for me, it is as valid a formation as it ever was, there is just more inside forwards nowadays than wingers, which is why it has died off a fair bit.

It doesnt matter City/united use it. 442 is not effective. That is one of the reasons why City is under performing in Europe. 442 involves lots of crossing and doesnt assist quick short passing football.

Firstly its difficult to keep possession when playing 4-4-2. Less ball you have less the chances created. Even when a chance is created its mostly from crosses which are easier to defend. 451/433 is designed to exploit the deficiencies of 442.

Almost all the teams that won CL in recent times did not play 4-4-2 including relatively weaker teams like chelsea. there is a reason for it. even with best crossers and best targetmen I dont think anyone will beat bayern/barca with 442

Oddly enough at the time he went to Chelsea you all said he was a mercenary b**stard, no feckin good and not a patch on Kagawa.

Really, we ALL said that?

He is a mercenary bastąrd though I'll give you that.

comment by Earl Brutus (U1449)
posted 59 minutes ago
comment by my chelsea is back(LegendOsgood) (U7946)
posted 7 minutes ago
Hazard, mata, willian, Oscar, kdb, shurrle,

Future looks good doesn't it
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Especially when your cb's allow atackers to stroll past them and score, step forward mr david luiz
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Or when the cb's pass it to the opposition for a 1 on 1, step forward Mr Vidic

comment by Diggler (U4142)
posted 18 seconds ago
Really, we ALL said that?

He is a mercenary bastąrd though I'll give you that.
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Word is 250k a week Rooney and Van Persie are at United because they love the club

yes

That's right, I remember them both signing, pimping themselves out across Europe in stupid Youtube videos, real classy like

I remember seeing their visual pride and love for man.utd when they signed their 250k p/w contracts