David Platt-Tactics.pdf

David Platt

Tactics

Contributed by David Platt, former England U21 National Team Coach and now head of AFKUK.

The Importance of Formations

The English Premier League is being criticized because apparently, the insistence of so many teams to play a 4-5-1 formation, has made it

boring. When England’s national team then played Wales and ‘leaked’ to the media that the formation would be 4-5-1, the performances

against the Welsh and then Northern Ireland added weight to the ‘boring’ argument. It confuses me that the leaked formation by England

was not labelled 4-3-3, especially given the fact that Wayne Rooney and Joe Cole, two o ensive players, were actually the wide forwards in

those games but the fact of the matter is that formations are not as important as many people seem to think they are.

The 4-5-1 is not a new formation. When Manchester United had Eric Cantona on their playing sta , they were labelled a 4-4-2 team, yet

Cantona played behind Andy Cole who was the striker playing high. Upon losing possession, Cantona would drop in to bolster the mid eld,

and if the game had been frozen at that point, United would have been labelled a 4-5-1. When Cantona retired, Sir Alex Ferguson bought

Teddy Sheringham to replace him, a player in the same mould. Dwight Yorke then joined the club, and though on the surface he had di erent

characteristics to those of both Cantona & Sheringham, tactically he was required to drop in to aid the mid eld when out of possession.

Tactically, as we see in the following diagrams, United dealt with situations in the same manner.

Schm e ichal

P allister

Bruce

Irwin

Neville

Scholes

Keane

Beckham

Cantona

Giggs

Manchester United with Eric Cantona playing behind Andy Cole.

Cole

Schm e ichal

P allister

Stam

Irwin

Neville

Scholes

Keane

Beckham

Sheringham

Giggs

Manchester United playing the same formation with Teddy Sheringham

taking over the role of Cantona.

Cole

Tactics

David Platt

Schm e ichal

Brown

Stam

Irwin

Neville

Scholes

Keane

Manchester United in the same formation, now with Dwight Yorke

playing behind Andy Cole.

Beckham

Yo r k e

Giggs

Cole

Barthez

Manchester United in the same formation, now with Paul Scholes playing

behind Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Neville

Ferdinand

Silvestre

Irwin

Sir Alex Ferguson was criticized for playing Paul Scholes behind the striker

when they played in Europe. This was merely to further strengthen his

mid eld with the defensive characteristics of Scholes against opposition

that although tactically were only slightly di erent, they kept possession

better, and were more dangerous than the typical teams that United

came up against in the Premier League.

Keane

Butt

Beckham

Scholes

Giggs

van Nistelrooy

van Der Saar

When I played at Arsenal, we had a similar situation regarding Dennis

Bergkamp playing behind Ian Wright, yet Arsene Wenger, the media and

the supporters would all have said we played with a 4-4-2.

Neville

Ferdinand

Silvestre

Heinze

Keane

Manchester United today are labelled as a 4-3-3 due to Cristiano Ronaldo

and Wayne Rooney supposedly playing wide as two wingers with Van

Nistelrooy as the lone striker.

Scholes

Giggs

Ronaldo

Rooney

van Nistelrooy

To the right we see a classic situation of today’s Manchester United

attacking.

David Platt

Tactics

van Der Saar

To the right we see a classic situation of today’s Manchester United

defending. We would all have di erent opinions of the formations that

this team is adopting.

Neville

Ferdina nd

Silvestre

Heinze

S choles

Keane

Giggs

‘Football is a simple game’ is a cliché that is often used and in e ect

we either have the ball and are thus attacking, or the opposition have

the ball and we are defending. O ensively, teams will look to get

players making runs behind the opposition defence, try to stretch them

both vertically and horizontally, create and utilise space whatever the

formation they adopt as a starting point. Defensively, marking positions

and covering positions remain unaltered regardless of what formation is

chosen, leading to similar positions of players on the eld dependent on

where the ball is with a 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2, 4-1-2-1-2……

Ronaldo

Rooney

van Nistelrooy

Schmeichal

Pallister

Bruce

Neville

Irwin

Looking again at Manchester United, who supposedly now play with a 4-

3-3, when they had Cantona in the team and were attacking they would

get into the following type of positions on the pitch.

Keane

Beckham

Scholes

Giggs

Cantona

Cole

Schmeichal

Pallister

Bruce

Neville

Irwin

Manchester United forward Eric Cantona could combine with fellow

forward Andy Cole or mid elders Paul Scholes and Roy Keane.

Keane

Scholes

Beckham

Cantona

Giggs

Cole

David Platt

Tactics

When I joined the FA as England Under 21 coach, there was a strict guideline for

the youth teams to play 4-3-3, with clear guidelines of how to set up the team

when our Goalkeeper had the ball. The back 4 had to split, with the 2 centre halves

getting to the corner of the 18-yard box and the fullbacks further advanced.

With the fullbacks getting advanced, this pushed the wingers up the pitch also.

The lone striker would get as high as he could.

This then left the mid eld 3 who would be required to get into the following

positions, one to initiate play, one to be available and the other to clear the space

for those 2 to operate and also be in a supporting position for when the ball goes

forward.

The characteristics of the players I had at my disposal meant that my team would

be better suited to theoretically operating with a 4-4-2. However, I went to great

lengths to explain that there would be no di erence to the tactical plan that had

been set out for the youth teams but found it di cult to convince people otherwise.

My shape for my ‘4-4-2’ changed only in the fact that my number 10 came from high

up the pitch into the hole behind the striker (as shown), whereas, with the 4-3-3 he

came from the mid eld to get into exactly the same position.

Even when we look at the tactical positioning of a 3-5-2 against a 4-3-3, two formations which would seem miles apart, there are common

similarities, especially when defending.

This is because the tactical needs when defending require a team to mark correctly and apply the right cover for your team mates.

As a coach, I believe that it is essential that your focus is on the tactical issues of the game and not about formations. Formations will not win

games. They will provide a base from which to implement your tactics and strategies, and whatever those tactics and strategies will be achieved

easier if the formation suits them. Another factor to look at when choosing a base formation is the characteristics of the players. Indeed, this is

the primary decision to make for the coach as those characteristics will come to the fore instinctively on a football eld and thus it makes sense to

t the formation around the players.

In summary, look at your players characteristics, choose the strategy and tactics that you feel would suit those players, and then choose the

formation that better ts these issues.

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