Season 2011-12
The Mail Bag
The Death of the 4-4-2
13 Comments: I spotted this interesting article on the "think football" website.
http://thinkfootball.co.uk/the-decline-of-the-4-4-2/
It's a fairly thoughtful piece on the decline of the 4-4-2 formation, and as a consequence the end of strike partnerships. We still get many toffeewebbers criticising Moyes for being defensive (often correctly) and linking this to his stubborn persistence in using 4-5-1.
The article helps explode this myth. 4-5-1 is not necessarily defensive. It simply is a better formation than 4-4-2 given modern fitness levels and the ability of full backs to play the attacking flanking role. Most teams now use this formation. Moyes was one of the first to adopt it ? out of necessity as we only had one striker at the time ? take a bow Marcus Bent who set us on the way to Champions League qualification. Things got worse when we signed a second striker ? James Beattie ? who could not make the transition to the 4-5-1 formation.
I wonder just how much of Everton being the strikers graveyard has to do with this transition from 4-4-2 to 4-5-1? Strikers who can play in a partnership up front are not always able to play the solo role. AJ and Beattie both fall into this category and maybe it just took us a while to work out which strikers can fit in with the new formations.
Other strikers have faded before their time during this tactical transition, eg, Michael Owen.
David Ellis, Posted 14/05/2012 at 04:34:03
Comments
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The problem Moyes has is that he often plays formations which he doesn't have the personnel for... The 4-5-1 with Cahill has been pretty useless for quite some time.
The Holy Trinity team of 69/70 played 4-5-1 with Royle as the lone striker and Wright and Newton as the 'flying full-backs'. Alan Ball was usually the midfielder who got up to support Royle, hence his great goal tally for a midfielder. Everton were the first British team to play this formation.
The great thing about 4-5-1 (as long as you have the players who can manage it) is that it can be defensive if it needs to be, it can tranform to 4-4-2 or even better to 4-3-3 when you're really on top. Surprisingly, it's very often 4-4-2 shapes that end up with huge gaps between midfield and the strikers when teams are under pressure as the four midfielders drop back. (This happens with England quite often when they play with two up front) In a 4-5-1 formation, if it's played well, there is usually a midfielder who can do something to fill the gap.
It's not new, we were playing it 42 years ago!
The type of player and the mentality of the coach dictates if you're an attacking or defensive outfit.
Redknapp always buys creative players and lets them play (anyone remember Bale not getting picked by Jol) the likes of Mcleish, Mcarthy and certain others (guess who?) employ grafters and caution first.
Numbers on a board mean fuck all.
Fellaini is a much better player than winning flick on's with his head. His 1st touch, chest control, ability to bring others into play. I can see him being very successful in that position behind Jelavic. Jelavic, Fellaini, Pienaar, Osman. All good footballers who like the ball at their feet.
I don't like 2 out-and-out forwards. Football goes through cycles and 4-4-2 has gone for the moment.
My wish for this close season is a backup to Jelavic, some pace on the right and Pienaar signed up.
Sell Vic, Coleman, Cahill if possible.
Right now Everton are playing 4-5-1 and despite the weakness on the right it looks lovely! So it is the best system for us.
Anybody who thinks 4-5-1 is defensive is deluded. Doing a rough count on my fingers Everton have scored 20 goals in the last 7 league games playing it. That is virtually 3 goals a game!
The advantage of 4-5-1 is that, depending on the players you have, it so flexibly morphs into any other combination or formation you want without wholesale repositioning or replacement of players.
4-3-3 (or even 4-2-4!) used to be determined as the most adventurous way to play football. But 4-3-3 is just 4-5-1 when you're attacking. There were moments yesterday when we were actually playing 4-2-4 with both Fellaini and Osman getting up to the opposition area consistently and hanging about up there with Neville and Gibson looking after the midfield.
4-5-1 offers much more flexibility on the proviso that you have the players for it and right now we very nearly have. My ideal 4-5-1 (from the players we know rather than wishful thinking) would be:-
Howard
Hibbert (in lieu of somebody better)
Heitinga
Jagielka (arguably Distin?)
Baines
Pienaar
Gibson
Neville (Barkley?)
Fellaini
Donovan
Jelavic
So, IMHO, keep Pienaar, get Donovan, get a right back half as good as Baines, bring Barkley out of the cupboard and into the daylight and we'll challenge!
I dont think we should have played with wide men all season as we simply dont have the players to play out wide effectively.With the players we've had this year I think we were more suited to 4312 formation.
Donavon in particular would need replacing after a couple of seasons and without a resale value (due to his age) we are unlikely to be able to replace him. Pienaar is a must and then a right winger, but it has to be someone in their early 20's or younger, so that we can either keep them for years to come (obviously a preference if they turn out to be quality) or sell them on and replace them with the proceeds.
4-5-1 as it should be essentially has 4 wingers with the fullbacks coming forward.
If you count Pienaar for the last half season, we have two active wingers in the club that Moyes trusts on the field. Hibbo is shit, and Neville is not a fantastic attacking fullback (stepovers notwithstanding).
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843 Posted 14/05/2012 at 09:27:33
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