I've seen him play there for Argentina, and he's played there a few times for us, but he's far better down the middle.The Man With The Stick said:Doesn't Aguero play on the left of a front 3 for Argentina?Shaelumstash said:Well it depends on whether you consider Tevez and Aguero to be forwards or attacking midfielders. Personally I'd call them forwards who can drop deep, but the variation of 4-4-2 that we play is much more similar to how a 4-2-3-1 system works than a traditional 4-4-2 shape like The Shite play.NoahCity said:pretty sure we play 4-2-3-1.
I agree with an earlier poster though, if we change to a traditional 4-3-3 our forwards aren't really suited to it at all. None are very good from wide, and only Tevez is great as a lone striker, Aguero and Dzeko are much better with a partner.
I don't think Barca have been figured out, they've just stopped playing how they used to. The way Dortmund pressed us, not giving us a second on the ball, that's what Barca used to do under Guardiola. They didn't do that at all against Bayern. If you're playing a high line and there's no pressure on the ball, you're incredibly vulnerable to the counter attack, which is how Bayern scored 3 of their 4 goals.nice neil said:I hope we haven't missed the boat with this Barcelona style. Utd have had more success this season sitting back, letting the better teams have the ball, then scoring with their first attack. Bayern spanked barca this week doing more or less the same thing. Interesting to see how Bayern play under Guardiola ! Has the tippy tappy passing , slow build up had it's day ? The better teams seem to have sussed how to nullify us, and maybe barca too.
Shaelumstash said:I don't think Barca have been figured out, they've just stopped playing how they used to. The way Dortmund pressed us, not giving us a second on the ball, that's what Barca used to do under Guardiola. They didn't do that at all against Bayern. If you're playing a high line and there's no pressure on the ball, you're incredibly vulnerable to the counter attack, which is how Bayern scored 3 of their 4 goals.nice neil said:I hope we haven't missed the boat with this Barcelona style. Utd have had more success this season sitting back, letting the better teams have the ball, then scoring with their first attack. Bayern spanked barca this week doing more or less the same thing. Interesting to see how Bayern play under Guardiola ! Has the tippy tappy passing , slow build up had it's day ? The better teams seem to have sussed how to nullify us, and maybe barca too.
Also Messi was about 10% fit and they are completely reliant on him for goals. I keep seeing this phrase "tippy tappy" I'm mot really sure what it means, but if it means passing to feet and moving in to space, that style of football has been used by the best teams in the world for the best part of 50 years, so I wouldn't expect "Hoofy doofy" football to now become fashionable just because Barca have lost a CL semi final.
Solihull Samba Boys said:Interesting to see we've gone with this formation in the last few games (Wigan at home onwards), in all likelihood with next season in mind. We seem to be creating more clear cut chances, with the wide forwards in the front 3 ensuring that the final third doesn't get as congested as it does when we play 4-2-3-1/4-2-2-2. Silva in particular seemed to revel in it yesterday in a similar front 3 role he plays in with the Spanish national team, and his interplay with Nasri was considerably better than it has been. I would like to see the front 3 press the ball more, and the full-backs were exposed a bit too much for my liking, but hopefully that will be addressed in pre-season.
All in all I've been pleasantly surprised how well we've implemented it given an obvious lack of preparation time, and with the right additions in summer (a mobile defensive midfielder, attacking midfielder in the 3 and a world class forward) it could really suit us. What do we reckon?