Not a Footium Blog

Bit of a weird one?

I’ve never really got on with 3-5-2. 3-4-3 I can stand by, but 3-5-2 I’ve never really understood the merits of. However, I was more than willing to try it out for the sake of KNOWLEDGE.

The Line Ups

I really hadn’t bought for this formation, so was forced to play our AM out of position as a CM. Weirdly enough, he still managed to be the highest rated CM on the pitch!

Our players are starting to tire, but let’s see how they go.

Average Squad Rating: 39.8

Opponent’s Line Up

They were running classic 4-2-3-1, with some quality spread quite evenly across the squad. Their CF was one to worry about for sure!

Average Squad Rating: 41.3

This puts their Average Squad Rating at 1.5 above ours.

Real Life Context

Sorry, England fans, but this 3-5-2 is partly responsible for the Argentina team that had one Diego Maradona playing in it! It is widely credited with coming from that 1986 Argentina squad.

It’s another team formation that allows for two ‘W’ shapes to form on the pitch. This was an emerging trend in formations of this era and before, as it allows a great balance of attack and defend and great flexibility.

Strengths:

• Flexibility. One of the key components of this is the wing-backs, who can create overloads and push on, or drop back into a back five to allow more defensive stability.
• Possession. Due to a lot of players in the central position of the pitch, it really allows teams who are possession based to dominate.
• Crazy CB runs. This does happen from time to time, but one of the joys of the game is watching a CM drop in, to allow a CB to run straight through the middle of the park. Watch this!

Weaknesses:

• Congestion. If the wing backs don’t remain wide, it can cause loads of congestion in the middle and make it hard for players to move the ball around.
• Defensive gaps. Even though this is a solid defensive formation, gaps can open up if both wing backs are bombing forward.

The Match

Things were back to normal as we conceded first. It’s good to see some normalcy back in the world!

We were 1-0 down in the 21st minute, with their CM scoring a banger.

Again we fought hard, getting an equaliser before going 2-1 up in the 69th minute.

I kept the team balanced, which was probably a mistake, and they equalised in the 76th minute. This is how it finished!

Stats below:

We’re on the right, but overall you can see just how even a game it was.

Happy with 2-2 against a stronger team.

See you all on the pitch!