Not a Footium Blog

Wing backs are back!

The Line Ups

Our Line Up

In case it was not already obvious by this point, we had not invested very heavily in our wing backs. They were both common, and I’m pretty sure we just got the cheapest ones we could!

Average Squad Rating: 41.2 (at the time of playing)

Opponent’s Line Up

They went for a lovely little 5-2-3A. Very attacking, very wide, and ready to rumble.

Average Squad Rating: 39.8 (at the time of playing).

This left us with a slightly advantage of 1.4 over our opponents.

Real Life Context

5-2-1-2 was a bit of a weird one, as it was hard to find many real life examples of teams using it.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta have been known to use it, but they play an incredibly fluid formation, often varying between 3-4-3, 3-5-2, 5-3-2 and 5-2-1-2, depending on the match they are playing, or whether they are in or out of possession.

Strengths:

• Attacking potency. With an AM, two CF’s and the ability for WB’s to push high and wide, this is a formation that can generate chances.
• Solidity at the back! With 5 defenders and 2 DM’s, there is very regularly 7 players behind the ball when playing 5-2-1-2, a really great way to protect the keeper.
• Possession. With 5 non-defenders operating relatively centrally (2 DM’s, AM, 2 CF’s), it can be a great way of preserving the ball in the middle of the pitch.

Weaknesses:

• Potential for exposed wingbacks. With only the wingbacks operating truly on the flanks, there is a chance they can get exposed against a wide formation.
• Depending on the AM. With one AM being the key link between defence and attack, if they get marked out of the game it can be hard to truly push forward.

In this match I was relatively concerned about coming up against quite a wide formation.

The Match

I was back to balanced for this one, looking at trying to stay solid at both ends of the pitch.

We conceded first (what’s new there!), but managed to equalise in the 2nd half, coming out with a pretty even 1-1 draw.

Stats are below:

You can see that this was actually a surprisingly open ended game! 38 shots across both teams, with us having more passes, whilst they had more shots and more possession (slightly!)

Scored with a penalty, but very happy to get the point.

See you all on the pitch.