A Growing Obsession with the 3-4-3 Formation
By James Hughes
It got me thinking about how good the formation is and how much success it has recorded over the years. With a bit of research, I found out that it was the trademark of the Ajax and Dutch national teams of the 1970s before Barcelona bought it along with Johan Cruyff. The trophies amassed by those teams is enough proof that the system is efficient at best. Perhaps that’s why more teams are adopting it, more than 30 years later.Conte has used the formation to win back-to-back Serie A titles, and he looks set to win the EPL with the same formation. Juventus still use that formation as they make their way towards another Serie A title, Mourinho employed it as part of his unbeaten run in the Man United’s league campaign and Van Gaal’s Holland enjoyed a good World Cup outing in 2014, with the same formation. Now, more teams are turning to it because…well…it’s efficient.What I’ve noticed about the formation is that it requires 3 defenders who are great at 1-v-1 situations, good in the air and can communicate well with each other. The wing-backs need to have loads of stamina because they will be doing a lot of running up and down the wings. One of the central midfielders has to be defensive-minded and help provide cover when any of the central defenders are pulled out of position by the opposition attackers. The attacking players are to apply pressure on the opposition defenders by pressing from the front.A downside to this is that if it’s not well-practiced, the results could be disastrous (Just ask Barcelona how that worked out). For the formation to work, a level of discipline is required and teams that do not set up with much discipline in their play (erm…well…Arsenal) will suffer when the opposition gets really aggressive.I also think that using this formation can teach a team to be disciplined. Many teams have turned to this formation in an attempt to arrest a poor run of form (Chelsea for instance). Players can learn to stay in games (score-wise) without being blown off the park.A very flexible formation (which can easily turn into a 4-3-3 during a game), it could deliver more trophies this season. I won’t be surprised if more teams begin to try it out come pre-season of 2017/2018.Later.Discover more from NewsBreakers
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