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4-4-2: Why Do They Treat You So Bad?

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I think every formation opinion is entitled. Even the most inadequate or delirious.

But I can’t understand why everyone is so critical and abusive about the greatest and the simplest of all formations: 4-4-2.

Fans say that it’s last century, we’ve moved on from this; pundits say that it’s rigid and easy to break down as you lack a man in the middle and play with two banks of four, straight lines.

Hell, even my neighbour who’s never been to a stadium or watched a game on telly and only plays football on his PC, when challenging me to a game of PES (which I had never played before) said that I was stupid to use this system as it’s for ‘noobs’!

So, I asked myself if I was wrong. Maybe it’s outdated, rigid, etc? So, I had a look through it. Back four seems ok. You have got balance all over, attacking runs and cover for the others when they lose the ball.

Two centre-halves must have perfect understanding and slightly different roles: one – organiser who marshals the defence, and the other who would listen to him. More often than not one of the two is a big guy whose heading is second to none and another is more clever, reads the game anticipating every opponents’ move. And every defender must be ready to put himself on the line for the team.

Two in the middle seems fine, too. One is a defensive midfielder who works his socks off and does the dirty work whilst the other is rather more creative, who gets into the opponents box, moves the ball, controlling the play. It doesn’t mean that defensive midfielders won’t go forward and the attacking one gives up defending, no. Just that each one has his responsibilities on the pitch. I don’t think the game is too complicated: defenders defend, attackers attack. But let’s continue the analysis. Two wingers who work down the flanks from one corner flag to the other seems not too bad to me. You put a guy with pace on the wing who can beat one or two and puts a decent ball in the box, and you guarantee goals.

And two up front: one who drops off and one in the mix. The one who drops off should be quick and with ability to pick out a pass for the one up front to finish, but also be able to put the ball in the back of the net himself when needed. And the lad up front more often than not; big and powerful with the ability to hold the ball and bring others into play and also scores plenty.
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That’s as good as perfect for me. Maybe tiki-taka, total football and other ideologies are popular and deemed as progressive but I don’t think so. The greatest manager in the Premier League (who’s unfortunately a Manc) used it and still does – it does him no harm winning trophies year in year out. The great Liverpool side of 70’s and 80’s won 4 European Cups and numerous championships playing this way. The poll on the website reads: Greatest LFC striker partnership with is Dalglish AND Rush as no.1. That’s two up front. No false number nines or any of that nonsense.

That’s how I would play. But I’m not the LFC manager and never will be. Brendan Rodgers is – and he has gone with tiki-taka; as yet creating absolutely no goals from open play in the league – the formation should be called false XI!

Here’s some food for thought on one of our most popular anthems – the lyrics are:

All round the fields of Anfield Road,

Where once we watched King Kenny play – AND COULD HE PLAY! (not false number nine!)

We had Heighway on the wing, (not a small midfielder with 90% pass completion in his own half)

We had dreams and songs to sing,

Of the glory round the fields of Anfield Road.

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10 comments

  • SuaRed says:

    Get your head out your arse and your arse back to the 21st century.

    We don’t score enough goals because we haven’t enough goal scoring quality. Simples

  • RedRoy says:

    If i were Rodgers i’g go for 4 in midfield and get his strikers closer together,to steady the ship, as we don’t have tiki-taka players, and never will under FSG.

  • Heethster says:

    Anyone who has played as a centre half or holding player will tell you it’s MUCH easier against 2 strikers. Firstly, they are predictably selfish as they only pass to players to get it back. Second, the only decisions a centre half need think about is when to swap with his colleague (or pass on) the striker. Ironically, 1 up poses many more questions for the big guys, starting with “Is he mine?” 1 up means both centre backs AND holding player have to think about the striker (who has more passing options if he does get ball). 2 up only works with 2 technically gifted and physically strong players. Most teams have just one of these. We – Liverpool – now have none.

  • Heethster says:

    4-4-2 is also less flexible than other systems. 3-5-2 would be better if you must go 2 up.

  • Souey's 'tache says:

    It could be Roy Hodgson talking…

  • clement says:

    Lets kip our fingers cross

  • Mike says:

    For all it’s worth, LFC needs the ffg

    1. BR must go: he’s not tactically astute! LFC is no swansez, and we are not going to copy barca’s style. Why? We’ve got ours. It’s called pass and move

    2. Ayre should be demoted to his former post of commercial director

    3. Brian Barwick should be made CEO. Why? He’s been a life-long LFC fan (over 40yrs), and a seasoned asministrator. He will be able to curb any manager’s excesses, something ayre could not do with dalglish due to the gulf in status

    4. Bring in either Rafa Benitez or Ottmar Hitzfeld as manager. They’re tactically astute and have the pedigree to attract brilliant footballers even without champion’s league

    5. We need to heavy financial investments in the team, say about £45m in January, and another £150m in the summer. If FSG can’t bankroll this, they had better looked for Al Waleed Al Saud to buy from them.

    6. We don’t need top players, we need brilliant players! There are loads of them in South America and Europe; (elkeson, paulinho, pedro franco, casimeiro, damiao, leroy fer, kevin strootman, marcus henriksen, jordan rhodes, isco, ander herrera, markel susaeta, siem de jong, …). These are players that will cost between £3m and £18m tops!

    6. Anfield upgrade to about 78,000 with ultra-modern facilities (£185m)

  • i don’t know but our player now, is to weak to play tiki taka … lack of pace, lack of determination, lack of pressing … so maybe will need moretime to see LFC success addopt the tiki taka style

  • chima says:

    i dnt think BR wil take us any where we need a mananger who can lead the game coach players like hidink, benitez..

  • Nicky Cuzin says:

    Greetings to everyone!

    Fantastic to hear from you, guys! Very astute comments about the article. I’d like to ask a couple of questions.

    How come LFC don’t have good enough players for tiki-taka and Swansea do?

    Why 4-4-2 system won more trophies than any other in football history?

    Actually, I’m a centre half, Heethster. Didn’t know that it was easier to play against two than one 🙂

    Looking forward to hearing from you!

    P.S. Mike, real football has nothing to do with Football Manager series you take your inspiration from 🙂

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