Not a Footium Blog

I’ve got a confession to make…

Upon reviewing this match, I realised that as opposed to being pragmatic and going for a balanced mentality, I’d spent the entire match on Ultra Attacking mode!

Let’s see how it went.

The Line Up

Our Line Up

4-4-2H is what we went for. Great for us in terms of using some of our best players, in the positions they are best at.

We have underinvested in our strikers this season, so that’s the key area of weakness here.

Average Squad Rating: 44.2

This is our strongest squad of the season so far, so hoping for a good result.

Opponent’s Line Up

They went for a regular old 4-4-2, using regular CM’s instead of DM’s.

Average Squad Rating: 37.5

This leaves our average squad rating at 6.7 higher than our opponents.

Real Life Context

It’s 4-4-2! What’s not to love. Some of the most iconic teams of all time have used 4-4-2, especially the classic big man/little man combinations. Jermain Defoe & Peter Crouch, Michael Owen & Emile Heskey and the mighty Kevin Phillips & Niall Quinn.

At one point, it was the biggest formation in world football, but times change and it’s not as common as it used to be.

From Sean Dyches’ Burnley, to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester, there have still been some iconic 4-4-2’s in recent memory.

Strengths:

• Counter Attacks. This formations is great at soaking up pressure, then breaking quickly and going up the other end. This was the most iconic element of the title winning Leicester team, and helped them to victory.
• Defensive Strength. As there are two banks of 4 in front of the goalkeeper, this allows 8 outfield players to remain back and make themselves really hard to break down.
• Strike Partnership. Defending against a striker partnership is really difficult, so having one in the game is a challenge less teams are used to in this era.

Weaknesses:

• Possession. If you’re a team that wants a lot of the ball, 4-4-2 might not be the formation for you!
• Outnumbered in the middle. With only two midfielders, in an era where you will be coming up against teams playing 3 or more in the middle very often, your midfielders may find they are trying to win the ball back a lot.

The Match.

Unlike most of our other games, this one had no surprises.

We won 3-0. Smashed it.

Stats are below:

Despite having loads less of the ball, I’m super happy with our attacking statistics. Other than having less of the ball, we had far more shorts, and more free kicks.

Great to get a win!

See you all on the pitch.