Not a Footium Blog

Back to planet Earth! After the amazing time spent working on the Cheackippleigh blog, we are back cracking through the Using All Footium Formations series.

We were getting through the formations at pace at this point so thought best to do a bit of a recap!

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)
• Won 1-0 Using 3-1-4-2 vs 5-2-3. MV 40.4 vs OS 38.4. (+2.0)
• Won 3-2 Using 3-4-1-2 vs 3-1-4-2. MV 41.7 vs OS 33.9. (+7.8)
• Lost 3-0 Using 4-4-2 vs 5-4-1DM. MV 40.5 vs OS 40. (+0.5)
• Lost 3-1 Using 4-1-2-1-2 vs 5-2-3. MV 40 vs OS 38.2. (+1.8)
• Drew 1-1 Using 4-1-2-1-2WB vs 5-2-3A. MV 38.8 vs OS 39.8. (-1.0)
• Drew 2-2 Using 4-5-1 vs 5-2-3. MV 41.2 vs OS 37.6. (+3.6)
  

This leaves us with 19 Points from a possible 48 in these games. Not great, and we were in a relegation scrap, but learning a lot about the game!

The Line Up

Our Line Up

I was slightly frustrated at the requirement to rotate and not having everyone in their preferred positions, but this is how we finished the game. The players that were subbed off were 53, 49 and 38 rated.

Our Average Squad Rating (across all 14 players) was 43.1.

Average Squad Rating: 43.1.

Opponent’s Line Up

It’s nice to go up against 4-4-2. Feels like we’ve got big Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch running at us.

Average Squad Rating: 39.5

This left us with a squad rating 3.6 higher than our opponents.

Real Life Context

Whilst 4-2-3-1 is incredibly common, this specific variation with 2 DM’s and 3 AM’s is not particularly used. It is however, relatively similar to classic 4-2-3-1 but lacks a lot of width.

Going into this game against 4-4-2, we were particularly worried about the opposition wingers as they would be straight onto our fullbacks, and if their fullbacks attacked we’d be exposed.

Strengths:

• Balance. We have talked about balance a lot, but this is perhaps the most balanced formation out there. Because of the two pivots and two centre backs, there generally tends to always be good defensive cover, even if the wing backs bomb forward.
• Possession. It gives teams a great opportunity to build possession, with pivots, wingers, full backs, the attacking midfielder and the striker being able to find pockets of space throughout the pitch.
• High press. If the CF & AM’s stay forward, the press can start with 4 players and quickly win possession high up the pitch.

Weaknesses:

• Wide midfielders. This is a stretch, sure, but if the two wingers aren’t great one or one, or have poor movement, they can become the weak links on the pitch.
• Congestion. Similar to a lot of formations with wingers and three midfielders, if they all crowd the middle of the pitch it can become incredibly congested.

The Match

Whilst we haven’t yet gone back over the data fully, there’s definitely an anecdotal feeling that very narrow formations struggle in Footium.

For example, when we used 4-2-2-2 with a far stronger squad, we could only draw with our opponents. When we used 4-1-2-1-2 with a stronger squad vs 5-2-3, we lost 3-1.

Maybe something in that?

This game started as a tight affair, and we conceded first (in true Marrouck Villa style). We were struggling right up until we made some changes in the 72nd minute. We went from balanced to attacking and made 3 substitutions. And guess what?

It worked (ish!).

We scored in the 74th and the game finished 1-1.

Looking at the stats, I think we did quite well to grind out this result, so was super happy with this!

See you all on the pitch.