Is 4-4-2 Really The Answer?

[RANGERRAB 3,358]

4-4-2 is outdated. McCoist played it because it was all he knew.

 

The problem with 4-4-2 is when your opponents put 5 in MF. We saw that happen constantly with McCoist & he'd no idea how to change the system he had.

 

Nowadays we play 4-3-2-1 (2 playing wide) which becomes 4-3-3 going forward. One problem we have is you do tend to need a physical presence to play the one up front. Diego Costa is a good example. Kenny Miller is not.

[colinstein 294]

but Garner is

[Davie P 4]

but Garner is

 

Costa has Hazard and Pedro running off and around him; Garner has McKay and MoH/Forrester, who seem to be stuck on the wing! The support for Garner is currently non-existent, hence the clamour for 4-4-2. I actually think that with our existing squad, the Chelsea formation of 3-4-2-1 might suit us better. Kiernan and Wilson as a pairing are a bomb scare, but when partnered with an experienced defender (Davie Weir in the case of Wilson, and Kiernan looks half decent when partnered with Hill), the 3 at the back would certainly make us more difficult to expose. You could then push Wallace and Tav into the midfield, providing the width (both are better suited to going forward than defending), with Halliday and Rossiter playing centrally. McKay would be more effective as a 10 (until Kranjcar returns, at least) and MoH could then use his pace to run onto and past Garner when the opportunity arises. Forrester and Holt can both play in the '2' as well.

Wes

Kiernan, Hill, Wilson

Tav, Halliday, Rossiter, Wallace

MoH, McKay

Garner

 

Never going to happen, I know, but until we can improve the quality of the players (either better signings who are better suited to 4-3-3 or the promotion of youngsters from the U20's who have played the system for a period of time), I think we are going to continue with our inconsistent results.

[JFK-1 1,690]

We have 5 fixtures in just 3 weeks beginning on Saturday then for better or worse we will hit a 3 week break during which our potential lineup is going to change. We will have the January window and maybe even Rossiter will get back to fitness at last.

 

It's a tall order given previous inconsistency but 3 of the 5 are at home and I hope for full points before that break to set us up for the second half of the campaign.

[Oleg_Mcnoleg 50]

Agree it's more about execution than formation. 433 should be flexible enough, quickly shifting to a 451, for eg. But it hasn't been too often. Our wide forwards don't really cover and they can't work out whether they're wingers or forwards. I think they stay too wide but I suspect that they're told to do that to stretch defences. I presume our centre forwards have been dropping deeper to drag centre backs out of position too. But the midfielders and wide players haven't been filling the space vacated consistently.

Of course, this is all irrelevant if we pass the ball the way we did at Tynecastle last week.

[Bluedell 5,376]

If we were going to change from 4-3-3 then the best option would be 4-2-3-1. It looked as if Warburton was going to go that way at the beginning of the season with the signing of Barton, Kranjcar and Rossiter., but he never really used the players in that formation.

[ian1964 10,514]

Tactics!,if the players perform then the discussion on tactics would never be IMO, individual performances need to improve regardless of what tactics are deployed, I think our players have not been performing as they should,they need to up their game, winning individual battles all over the pitch will be a good start