4-2-3-1

[jay_mcfc]

I don't know how many times we have to be successful with this for it to not finally sink in that this is the way we play at our best.

I was always big on us having four top class strikers but I honestly think it has worked against us this season. Playing 4-4-2 does not suit us and never has. People say we haven't had a plan B but that is because we've been playing plan B all season. Plan C is 3-5-2. We need to stick to plan A!

It doesn't mean you can't play two of the strikers together, it just means one of them has to play out wide, something which Aguero and Tevez are both capable of. Our title win was based on the fluidity of the movement from the front 4, something we seriously lack when we play 4-4-2 and which hasn't been the same for the entirety of this season.

 

[sergiokun]

I agree mate i would always play this with Sergio behind Tevez

 

[Nevizade]

Said this on Twitter last night. Certainly IMO our two best 'big game' performances came last night and at home to Chelsea. Both wins were throughly deserved and it seems to bring the best out of our midfielders. Milner especially excelled in both games.

In Mancini's defence, whether it was against his will or not, on September 1st he was left with 4 'first team' strikers. As a result it would have been very difficult to establish this as our primary formation whilst using 5 midfielders. He's tried it a few times using a forward on the left of the 3, and whilst it could be a useful method to change a game, it's not ideal to start with. See Sunderland at home and West Brom away (Mario) and Ajax at home (Tevez/Aguero), it doesn't give great balance to our side with those players in question as they're not best used there. Certainly in the home game against Ajax in the first half there was very little attacking cohesion.

I think Rodwell could be key to this. Barry and Garcia aren't mobile enough and tend to sit too deep when they play together. An ideal setup for me for the rest of the season would be as below, I think Milner is better out wide as his short passing game isn't good enough to be a central midfielder the way we play:

Rodwell-Barry/Garcia

Silva/Milner-Yaya-Milner/Silva

Aguero

What I would say is, the fact that it seems to be our best formation makes it all the more puzzling as to why we look like we're after Cavani/Falcao. Surely either one of those two would lead to a two central striker formation alongside Aguero. I'd much rather see someone of the ilk of Jovetic/Suarez/Neymar if we are going to spend big on a striker, someone who is comfortable playing in that '3'

 

[City Raider]

The insistence on playing 2 up top cost us in the CL, we never controlled the midfield in any game. It's as if it was hard to leave 3 big name strikers on the bench.

Call it arrogance or overconfidence but to go to places like the Bernabeu with 2 forwards is crazy, even if one is playing from wide.

Of course the irony is it nearly worked and last night's winner came with 2 up top.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

What I would say is, the fact that it seems to be our best formation makes it all the more puzzling as to why we look like we're after Cavani/Falcao. Surely either one of those two would lead to a two central striker formation alongside Aguero. I'd much rather see someone of the ilk of Jovetic/Suarez/Neymar if we are going to spend big on a striker, someone who is comfortable playing in that '3'

Carlos might want to go elsewhere at the end of this season. Unless he's passed his driving test!

 

[Nevizade]

What I would say is, the fact that it seems to be our best formation makes it all the more puzzling as to why we look like we're after Cavani/Falcao. Surely either one of those two would lead to a two central striker formation alongside Aguero. I'd much rather see someone of the ilk of Jovetic/Suarez/Neymar if we are going to spend big on a striker, someone who is comfortable playing in that '3'

Carlos might want to go elsewhere at the end of this season. Unless he's passed his driving test!

As we all know Tevez has linked up (really) well on occasion with Aguero, I just think it'd suit us more to get a wide forward in, in the mould of the players I've mentioned above in order to get the best out of Yaya.

As opposed to a wide forward in the mould of Big Bob Taylor ;-)

 

[sh249]

I don't know how many times we have to be successful with this for it to not finally sink in that this is the way we play at our best.

I was always big on us having four top class strikers but I honestly think it has worked against us this season. Playing 4-4-2 does not suit us and never has. People say we haven't had a plan B but that is because we've been playing plan B all season. Plan C is 3-5-2. We need to stick to plan A!

It doesn't mean you can't play two of the strikers together, it just means one of them has to play out wide, something which Aguero and Tevez are both capable of. Our title win was based on the fluidity of the movement from the front 4, something we seriously lack when we play 4-4-2 and which hasn't been the same for the entirety of this season.

I agree about last season's success being based on the fluidity of the front 4, but that included, more often than not, two strikers (Aguero plus Balotelli, Tevez or Dzeko) playing fairly centrally. I suppose you might argue the toss whether Tevez would be counted as one of the '3' in a 4-2-3-1 or as one of the '2' in a 4-4-2 - doesn't really matter either way.

The most important thing for me is the Yaya-Barry partnership. The control they give us, their ability to get the ball forward is just crucial to the way we want to play, and we've seen that again last night. We completely dominated the game because of those two. Don't get me wrong, I rate Milner and Garcia, but they aren't as good on the ball as Yaya and Barry. And as much as Yaya can be effective further forward, for me, we as a team look so much better with him pulling the strings from deeper.

Play Zaba (Micah) -- Kompany -- Nastasic (Lescott) -- Clichy, Yaya and Barry in front of them, and then 4 attack-minded players. Whether 4-2-3-1 like last night (Milner--Silva--Nasri behind a striker), or 4-4-2 (or 4-2-2-2) with Silva and Nasri/Milner, and Tevez and Aguero - I'd back us to beat (almost!) anyone.

 

[Anonymous]

House!!

oops sorry , thought we were playing bingo for a moment there !

 

[Deleted member 52846]

Formations are fluid anyway.

When we had the ball last night our formations were anything from 2-6-3 to 3-5-2 to 2-1-3-1-2-1.

When they had the ball we seemed to hold the 4-2-3-1 formation but also had a back four with two wingbacks at times making it a 6-3-1 formation.

 

[jay_mcfc]

Last season we played two strikers a lot but the formation was still 4-2-3-1 because Balotelli was great in that left forward role. It is the reason why we do need a Hazard, Neymar type now rather than an out and out forward like another poster said.

-----Hart

Zab---Kompany---Nasty---Clichy

------Yaya--Barry

Milner---Silva-----Tevez/Nasri

-------Aguero

That to me is a title winning team/formation. You can take out both Tevez and Nasri by playing Garcia or Rodwell and having Yaya in Silva's place and Silva where Tevez/Nasri would be. You could also switch Yaya and Milner.

With that formation we could change from defence to attack and vice versa very quickly. The front 4 (5 if you include Yaya) can move around and change position or flanks. It can also quickly becaome a 5 man midfield where we can dominate possession like last night.

It's criminal this has been used more this season. United have been relentless and we have suffered a lot of injuries. But we deserve to be where we are because too many of the mistakes we've made have been our own fault.

I hope that if Mancini is here next season he realises the mistakes we've made.