Not a Footium Blog

The PENULTIMATE formation is here! This has been a super fun journey and we hope you’ve enjoyed it!

The Line Ups

Our Line Up

This was a bit of a mish-mash of a line up. Due to how we’d invested throughout Footium, we had decent players for some positions (DM, AM, CF) but some poor players in other positions (WB’s, CM’s). This was towards the end of the season, so we were also struggling with rotation.

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

Opponent’s Line Up

Oh look, ANOTHER Footium player using 5-2-3. At some point I’d be really interested to try and work out where all the 5-2-3 love has come from, but at this point we’d played against 5-2-3 or 5-2-3A on 13 occasions in 29 matches!

Average Squad Rating: 40.5 (at the time of playing)

This left us with a slight advantage of 0.7 in terms of squad rating.

Real Life Context

This is just about the most defensive formation in Footium. What’s slightly interesting is that in Footium, 5-4-1 uses regular full backs, whereas 5-4-1D uses wing backs. However, this formation is a really weird hybrid, with wing backs, a DM and an AM making a change from regular 5-4-1.

Given the way this formation is set up in Footium, it may actually be considered quite similar to the ‘3-5-1-1’ formation, due to the wing backs ability to push high and wide.

If you’re looking for an example of this, Brighton used it to great effect to beat Arsenal a couple of years ago!

I’m quite intrigued by this formation, and may try it again as it seems truly unique.

Strengths:

• Defensive Performance. This team absolutely slaps at defending, and it’s no wonder with NINE outfield players behind the ball a lot of the time.
• Counter Attacking. You’d expect it playing like this, but this is a key formation for utilising counter attacking.
• Set Piece Opportunities. This is not as specific to this formation, but with a back 5 you really have a chance with 3 big CB’s to score some set piece goals.

Weaknesses:

• Limited Attacking Options. With it being so defensive, you are kind of struggling to attack in traditional ways, other than with counter attacking.
• Possession deficit. You are very likely to not have much of the ball, so players have to work hard off the ball and get comfortable with not having much of the ball.
• Lack of flexibility. You are unlikely to get much flexibility out of this formation, and need to be extremely rigid in the work you are carrying out.

The Match

Finally, an exciting game to tell you about!

In typical fashion, we got off to a bad start, going 2-0 down with goals from our opponents in the 35th and 42nd minute.

We got them in for a big team talk at half time, and we came out fighting in the 2nd half!

We got a goal back in the 52nd minute! Although this was short lived, going further behind again in the 54th minute. At this point, we were 3-1 down.

With a change of plan to attacking mentality, we pushed on. Two more goals for us, in the 62nd and 76th minute, bringing it back up to 3-3!

The lads did what they could to hang on, but our opponents got the better of us in the 86th, leaving the game to finish in a 4-3 defeat!

Stats are below.

You can see this was a pretty even affair, although we had more of the ball.

See you all on the pitch!