Not a Footium Blog

ABC…easy as 4-3-3!

The Line Ups

Our Line Up

I guess it goes without saying for those of you have been playing Footium for some time, but there are a LOT of 4-3-3 variants on here!

This is the 4th one down on the list, out of a total of 5 different versions of 4-3-3!

Average Squad Rating: 41.4

Opponent’s Line Up

Once again playing against someone who’s playing 5-2-3. It’s like someone has established that 5-2-3 is the meta at this point?

Average Squad Rating: 38.4

This gave us an advantage of +3.0 on our squad rating over our opponents.

Real Life Context

It’s 4-3-3 baby! Used by Johan Cruyff, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp; it has been around since the 70s and was one of the most revolutionary formations to ever come out of football.

This variation uses two regular wingers, a DM and 2 CM’s. Perhaps more similar to classic 4-3-3 than some of the other variations on Footium.

Strengths:

• High Pressing. Sometimes called ‘heavy metal football’, it allows teams to press extremely high and badger the opponents into making a mistake.
• Possession dominance. With the midfield triangle, it allows teams with creative players to absolutely dominate the middle of the pitch.
• Flexibility. As we see with teams like Liverpool, the full backs are provided opportunities to push on, either overlapping or underlapping to create overloads on the pitch.

Weaknesses:

• Defensive frailty. If the full backs push up high, it can leave the remaining defenders exposed.
• Drain on players. Due to the need to press high, and the amount of getting up and down the pitch players will be doing, you need players with a lot of stamina!

Against 5-2-3, I was hopeful of performing well in the middle of the pitch, but maybe could face some difficulties getting through a back 5.

The Match

Sometimes Footium matches are lighting fast, bombastic affairs, with goals going in at both ends of the pitch and no one knowing which way the game is going to go.

This match was not like that. It was 0-0.

Stats below.

Looking at the stats on the game, I think 0-0 is probably quite a decent outcome for us! They did seem to dominate us in a few areas, despite having a weaker squad. Maybe 5-2-3 could effectively counter 4-3-3?

So not that exciting this time!

See you all on the pitch!