Not a Footium Blog

Life gets in the way sometimes!

Apologies that we have not posted for some time! Sometimes life gets in the way, and I’ve been so busy that blogging has not been the priority. However, we’ve been plugging away nicely on getting through these formations!

The Season So Far…

We thought it would be a good time to recap on the season so far. In terms of squad strength; MV = Marrouck Villa (us!) and OS = Opposition Strength. We have calculated squad strength using the average rating of the starting 11. The brackets number is how much better (or worse) our average starting 11 player was!

Look at the season so far below:

• Drew 3-3 Using 3-4-3 vs 4-1-2-1-2-WB. MV 39.2 vs OS 39.3. (-0.1)
• Lost 0-1 Using 3-4-3A vs 5-2-3. MV 42.5 vs OS 40.3. (+2.2)
• Drew 2-2 Using 4-2-2-2 vs 4-5-1DM. MV 42.6 vs OS 35.5. (+7.1)
• Lost 0-6 Using 5-2-3A vs 5-2-3A. MV 36.7 vs OS 40.1. (-3.4)
• Won 1-2 Using 5-2-3A vs 5-2-3. MV 36.5 vs OS 33.5. (+3.0)
• Drew 3-3 Using 4-3-3D vs 4-2-3-1DM. MV 39.5 vs OS 36.4. (+3.1)
• Drew 2-2 Using 4-5-1DM vs 4-3-3. MV 44.6 vs OS 44.5. (+0.1)
• Drew 2-2 Using 3-5-2 vs 4-2-3-1. MV 39.8 vs OS 41.3. (-1.5)
• Lost 2-1 Using 4-2-3-1 vs 4-3-3A. MV 38.7 vs OS 41.4. (-2.7)
• Won 3-0 Using 4-4-2H vs 4-4-2. MV 44.2 vs OS 37.5. (+6.7)

Leaving us 11 points out of a possible 30 at this stage of the season. Not good but in the name of KNOWLEDGE.

The Line Ups

Our Line Up

3-1-4-2 is not a formation I’d be pulling out for my Sunday league team! But here it is in Footium!

Average Squad Rating: 40.4

Opponent’s Line Up

A nice little 5-2-3. Wing backs seem to be proving all the rage in Footium, so we were a bit worried about coming up against them.

Average Squad Rating: 38.4

This means Marrouck Villa going into this game with an Average Squad Rating 2 higher than the opponents.

Real Life Context

3-1-4-2 came into the world as a very simple variation of the classic 3-5-2; with one CM dropping back to become a DM sitting in front of 3 central defenders.

It was used extensively in the Premier League in the 1990s, but has had a bit of a resurgence through clubs like Atletico Madrid.

Strengths:

• Balance. This is an incredibly balanced formation, between defence and attack.
• Flexibility. Depending on the circumstances, the wing-backs/wingers can get further forward and attack extensively, or drop in to be more solid in a back five.
• Midfield Dominance. With a midfield 4 and a DM backing them up, there is a good opportunity for control through the middle!

Weaknesses:

• Limited width. With only two wide players, there’s a danger that the team lacks width going forward and defending, so can be overrun on the flanks.
• Congestion. Like many formations that use a lot of midfielders, there is a danger of congestion in the middle of the pitch.

The Match

This was quite an interesting game; despite going into the game with a slightly stronger team, there was a lack of possession and attacking prowess from our team throughout.

Despite this, we pulled off getting a foul in the box, and scoring a mighty penalty in the 32nd minute!

This is how the game remained, with us pulling off a 1-0 win!

As you can see from the stats, we had less possession, less shots, less passes. But strangely enough, we drew 11 fouls and had 11 free kicks and a penalty!

I wonder whether it was just a strong defensive performance pulling us through, but we were very happy with the win.

See you all on the pitch!