Do you like this post?
At the top end of modern football it has been much discussed about the death of the 4-4-2 and the rise of the 4-5-1. The movement of a striker into a midfield position has shown a big difference in what we have seen in the World Cup with Spain, the Champions League with Barcelona and the success of Manchester United and Chelsea in the Premier League. There are many variations of the 4-5-1 and some of the other common uses I may come back too, I would like to concentrate on the Mourinho style 4-3-3/4-5-1 system, but may make reference to other 4-5-1 systems along the way.
The following post was sent out to those who signed up for the FM Pundit newsletter. It is the first issue, I thought that I would post it here to give everyone an idea of the type of content that I will be sending out. This will be the only time that I will post newsletter articles on the blog and the rest will remain exlusive.
NOTE: If you are using an adblocker you are unlikely to see the signup form. To signup disable your adblocker and refresh the page.
The Modern 4-3-3/4-5-1
The advantages of the 4-5-1;
- The ability to create triangles, the ideal shape to create good passing options. Naturally the formation is made up of close triangles around the midfield.
- This also helps create an advantage in midfield a 5v4 against a 4-4-2, 3v2 in the middle of the park. This helps control the midfield and possession.
- It is defensively solid. Allowing full backs to get forward while a DMC can act as a libero and drop deep when needed to support the defence, or move forward to support the midfield. A large presence in the middle also forces the opposition wide where they can be pressed more efficiently.
The Defence
When the 4-5-1 first arrived successfully in England in 2004 Mourinho boasted the best defensive record in Premiership history, conceding only 15 goals in 38 games.
The 4-5-1 has developed in order to maintain possession and comfort on the ball. Barcelona and Spain will do this for much of the game without looking threatening until that one chance arrives, safe in the knowledge that by keeping the ball they will prevent the opposition from scoring. Your defenders therefore need to be comfortable on the ball, able to support for the midfield if the ball needs to be played backwards. Good composure, decision making, passing ability and dribbling skills are ideal for players in this role.
It can still be debated whether the winger has died once again in modern football, but it is the full back that is picking up the work. Athletic players who can get forward to support the midfield offer width and can cross the ball when called upon. Good full backs can be vital in the 4-5-1 system in offering any sort of width in the system. This is because of the rise of the inside forward that will look to attack the goal and cut inside and putting a shot in. Full backs will need to posses the technical ability of a winger as well as being able to perform defensively with the stamina to keep it going for 90 minutes.
With your full backs bombing up and down the wing this can potentially leave you with gaps at the back Walcott showed Croatia what can happen if they aren’t patrolled properly. But this is why you want a good strong DMC who can fall back into the defence and when the opposition counters will protect your defence, while also looking to win the ball in midfield.
The Midfield
The major difference with the evolution of tactics from the 4-4-2 to the 4-5-1 is the removal of a striker in favour of an extra man in the middle of midfield.
Alex Ferguson sums this up “The idea behind the 4-5-1 is that you can control the midfield and keep possession of the ball – that’s always your aim when you use that formation. I believe the team that has possession of the ball has more opportunities to win the match. As for the 4-4-2, there is more emphasis in that formation placed on playing the ball forward…playing 4-5-1 requires a lot of patience.” Quote cited by zonalmarking.
Old style formations have often relied on a destroyer-creator model. But the 4-5-1 introduces a new paradigm to the midfield which has seen the destroyer (Masherano, Fletcher), creator (Iniesta, Gerrard, Lampard) joined by the passer (Carrick, Xavi, Denilson, Busquets). Constantly the passer will act as a link between play, looking to keep possession always being available as an option in helping control that midfield.
This will offer balance to the midfield as, I often play with an anchor man (passer) play-maker (creator) and ball winning midfielder (destroyer). The passer when playing against a 4-4-2 will have space between the lines lying in a DMC position.
Mourinho was aware of how a player like Makelele if he was between the lines then he could see the whole field in front of him to pick out a pass (good decisions, flair, passing and vision needed) if he was put under pressure he had plenty of support around him to move the ball simply. You can invert the triangle in the middle to offer deeper options, similar to what we have seen with Spain in the World Cup 2010 with an Anchor Man/Deep Lying play-maker.
Patience is needed and the passer allows for that, sideways passes are fine throughout the team, waiting for that break. That is why the 4-5-1 can be often seen as a pragmatic formation. Short passing will allow this to happen and ensure you see more of the ball given you have the right players as Barcelona have shown the same system can easily be entertaining and attacking. Although after Mourinho’s Inter Milan we also saw at the World Cup how negative other sides have become to combat this style of play.
The Forwards
Although you now have one lone striker, you now have an added threat of two other inside forwards who will look to move infield and unleash shots; they will be good dribblers, creative and have a decent shot on them. Taking advantage of the extra space they are afforded in this role. These strikers may not have been able to lead the line normally due to lack of strength to use their technical skill against big strong centre backs.
“It’s funny when I see centre-forwards starting off in the middle against their markers and then going away from goal. Strikers going inside are far more dangerous, I think. When Henry played as a striker, and sometimes when Wayne does, they try to escape and create space by drifting from the centre to wide positions, when that actually makes them less dangerous.” Quoting Fergie once again
While you have the full backs offering the width, this allows the inside forwards to cut inside and create a 3 man front line. This has given space to strikers who if tried to lead the front line maybe crowded out. But playing between the lines they also can draw defenders out and creating space for the lone striker.
But this also puts a lot of pressure on a lone striker. He has to be strong, technically gifted and intelligent enough to occupy two defenders. This is something we see from all the popular 4-5-1 teams that there is an all round quality striker leading the line. Rooney, Torres, Drogba. Many might think that Torres did little at the World Cup 2010, and admittedly he didn’t look at his greatest. But it is also no surprise that Villa did not score in any of the games that Torres didn’t start. Torres occupied defenders giving space to Villa who used his own technical ability to come inside from the left and score some fantastic and important goals for Spain.
Why popular at the top?
But why has this formation become so popular at the top? Well like any formation it has become popular through success at the top. The chain started with the Total Football of the Dutch that is still deep rooted in the Nou Camp culture, Van Gaal’s influence on possession football where Mourinho worked as an understudy. Mourinho a master of the detail was able to adapt his ideas to the talents he had available at Porto and Chelsea adapting on a game-by-game basis. Guardiola another man who worked under Van Gaal then took the system to the next level with Barcelona.
But it relies on technical and intelligent players who know how to pass, when to make a simple pass or a risky killer pass while being comfortable and composed on the ball, including the centre backs.
Also needed is an ability to move around offering options in triangles, stamina to press hard all over the pitch and a great striker. This is why it has worked at the highest levels and looks to continue for some time while the 4-4-2 makes way. It is an argument that Capello makes to his use of the 4-4-2 that England just don’t have the technical ability to play a 4-5-1.
NOTE: If you are using an adblocker you are unlikely to see the signup form. To signup disable your adblocker and refresh the page.
{ 1 trackback }