Does 3-5-2 suit our players better than 4-2-3-1?

[flb]

Disgaree about Milner fella, hes got enough pace to patrol the right side of the pitch,It often becomes a flat five in the middle in that formation so again i disagree about enough tacking ability-we hardly have a Gerry Gow in the midfield as it is now-do you class Barry and Yaya as tacklers?

Barry's a tackler. Milner is. Garcia and Rodwell are supposed to be too.

Ya Ya isn't.

I can't stand to see him in the holding role for that reason.

Milner had a decent game at wing back against Chelsea but he's a tackling, battling midfielder, not a wing back, for me. He's dead slow too. I don't like seeing him played in the wide attacking role he's been mainly used in at City, either. He adds a bit of battle and pressing to the team overall but doesn't crate enough for me.

Its all opinions on the players, 352 allows Yaya to play in his most devastating position on the pitch, which im sure you agree is where hes at his best, theres enough cover with fullbacks who can cover the midfield positions,i just feel a 352 gives us more options to attack wider ala Maicon at the weekend.

The opposition have to play a lot narrower against a 352,Bale hardly got a sniff at the weekend, nor did Chelsea's Hazard in the Charity Shield and of course United in lasts years FA Cup tie.

352 can be devastating if played with discipline,Juventus who have already been mentioned have it mastered.


We are again catching up with the continent when it comes to formations-luckily for me Bob is willing to comply.

time will tell.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Disgaree about Milner fella, hes got enough pace to patrol the right side of the pitch,It often becomes a flat five in the middle in that formation so again i disagree about enough tacking ability-we hardly have a Gerry Gow in the midfield as it is now-do you class Barry and Yaya as tacklers?

Barry's a tackler. Milner is. Garcia and Rodwell are supposed to be too.

Ya Ya isn't.

I can't stand to see him in the holding role for that reason.

Milner had a decent game at wing back against Chelsea but he's a tackling, battling midfielder, not a wing back, for me. He's dead slow too. I don't like seeing him played in the wide attacking role he's been mainly used in at City, either. He adds a bit of battle and pressing to the team overall but doesn't crate enough for me.

Its all opinions on the players, 352 allows Yaya to play in his most devastating position on the pitch, which im sure you agree is where hes at his best, theres enough cover with fullbacks who can cover the midfield positions,i just feel a 352 gives us more options to attack wider ala Maicon at the weekend.

The opposition have to play a lot narrower against a 352,Bale hardly got a sniff at the weekend, nor did Chelsea's Hazard in the Charity Shield and of course United in lasts years FA Cup tie.

352 can be devastating if played with discipline,Juventus who have already been mentioned have it mastered.


We are again catching up with the continent when it comes to formations-luckily for me Bob is willing to comply.

time will tell.

That's the thing, mate. Mancini must lie in bed at night with his head spinning, sometimes. No matter what formation we adopt someone is not being played in their strongest position. There are so many different permutations available!

 

[Akira]

Taking if we are 100% familiar with both formations, each formation suits and plays into a player differently.

Example, players like Maicon, who would be slow to catch up on the counter-attack, would be very well-suited to the 3-5-2, as he would have lesser chance of getting compromised and can freely attack.

 

[sh249]

352 will never be our first choice formation in the PL. As a second choice it will only work when conditions are optimal as they were on Sunday against Spurs.

So I realise it doesn't really answer your question but it doesn't matter whether it suits our squad collectively in terms of player characteristics or not ... it's only a plan B ... and as a plan B it's very limited as well.

If we are losing and we need to change the system it can work great like the spurs game just gone, it also worked well against Chelsea in the charity shield... I agree it won’t be or first choice formation in the premier league, maybe champions league?? I still think 4-2-3-1 is our best formation IMO

I also thing that 4231 is our best formation overall, and the 4222 we play quite regularly can work, but not always. Everyone keeps quoting Chelsea as the high water mark of the 352 but they forget that they only had ten men and had one up front, thereby allowing us to push the two wide centre halves out like fullbacks, so that the wingbacks could effectively play as midfielders. Against good sides (hint, like Real Madrid) this is hugely offset by the space you leave them to exploit out wide. As another example, see Liverpool away this year.

Against poorer teams who we can't break down I agree it's an option to get us wider. That's what happened at the weekend.

Pretty much sums up how I see the 3-5-2 - great to see it work and us look more comfortable playing it, but best used as an option to get us more width against poorer sides, in games where we're well on top in terms of possession etc. Or - as a 5-3-2 - as an out-and-out defensive tactic.

For the rest, I prefer the 4-2-2-2 - I think that is when we are at our best in an attacking sense. But the 4-2-3-1 with Yaya more advanced is also a great option to have, either as an attacking or more defensive move. I'd also like to see us try playing Yaya and Nasri either side of Barry in midfield, with Silva playing from the right, Aguero down the middle and Balotelli or Tevez from the left.

 

[blue wang]

How about...

Zabaleta - Kompany - Clichy

Maicon - Milner - Barry - Kolarov

Silva - Yaya Toure

Aguero (or take your pick really)

Silva can also move forward for 3-4-1-2.

Clichy's not a centre half, Kolarov isn't a wing back. Maicon had a great 15 minutes at the weekend but I wouldn't like to see him doing 90 against a good wide man. Barry and Milner would be good holding players with Yaya ahead of them - that's probably our best midfield structure. But 352 in it's classic fashion has two strikers and you've got Silva as one of them. I've seen Spain play him there I suppose, but I sense Mancini's persistance with 352 is partly an attempt to get two strikers on the field with a playmaker behind them. I suppose your version is about the only way we could shoehorn both Silva and Ya Ya into attacking roles so it has some merit.

that is 3 perfect back three for this formation, as they need to be more technichaly savy and disciplined in a positional sense.

If we play 3-5-2 with this 3 it will be a lot more solid than any other back 3 combo's. i agree about kolorov , he needs to be able to hold the ball better, and get his stimina way up before we can trully exploit he flanks with out being exposed. Micah maruading down the right could be intersting. Jury is still out on maicon

 

[daztrueblue91]

The thing is using either of these formations in Europe isn't working because our midfield cannot dominate a game like we do in the league. And its not just our team either look at Chelsea and United they do not dominate teams either I just think the premiership is not as technical as other leagues and we need to use this at our advantage. There is not many teams we can outplay in Europe like we do in the league so we need to go back to basics and counter attack. Like when Mancini first took over we had a shit defence and all he concentrated on was keeping a clean sheet. Since then we have had the best defence in the league for 2 years running. We must take this approach in Europe, and let our opposition take the game to us. I would like to see us pack the midfield and play with one up front and even when we do play a defensive formation when we have the likes of Yaya, Silva and Aguero we are always a threat counter attacking.

 

[SWP's back]

Why's it limited? It's worked against Utd, Chelsea and Spurs.

That's a wildly subjective way of looking at it.

How many competitive games have we won from making the switch to 3 at the back?

How many have we lost because of it?

 

[sergiokun]

Did we use it in Ajax and it just didn't work?? took Lescott off i think

 

[taconinja]

How about...

Zabaleta - Kompany - Clichy

Maicon - Milner - Barry - Kolarov

Silva - Yaya Toure

Aguero (or take your pick really)

Silva can also move forward for 3-4-1-2.

Clichy's not a centre half, Kolarov isn't a wing back. Maicon had a great 15 minutes at the weekend but I wouldn't like to see him doing 90 against a good wide man. Barry and Milner would be good holding players with Yaya ahead of them - that's probably our best midfield structure. But 352 in it's classic fashion has two strikers and you've got Silva as one of them. I've seen Spain play him there I suppose, but I sense Mancini's persistance with 352 is partly an attempt to get two strikers on the field with a playmaker behind them. I suppose your version is about the only way we could shoehorn both Silva and Ya Ya into attacking roles so it has some merit.

Honestly there's a lot of shoehorning in that lineup I posted. It's not ideal. My ideal with players we were linked at the least would be more...

Kompany - Thiago Silva - Nastasic (miraculously aged a couple years)

Maicon - Yaya Toure - De Rossi - Clichy/Kolarov

Silva

Falcao - Aguero

The thing is using either of these formations in Europe isn't working because our midfield cannot dominate a game like we do in the league. And its not just our team either look at Chelsea and United they do not dominate teams either I just think the premiership is not as technical as other leagues and we need to use this at our advantage. There is not many teams we can outplay in Europe like we do in the league so we need to go back to basics and counter attack. Like when Mancini first took over we had a shit defence and all he concentrated on was keeping a clean sheet. Since then we have had the best defence in the league for 2 years running. We must take this approach in Europe, and let our opposition take the game to us. I would like to see us pack the midfield and play with one up front and even when we do play a defensive formation when we have the likes of Yaya, Silva and Aguero we are always a threat counter attacking.

Having Silva back solves a lot.

 

[Anonymous]

What a refreshing thread. Really interesting as well ... taking on board what everyone's saying about their preferred line ups and positions - it's true what DD says - Mancini head must spin at times trying to pick his best XI.

Overall I think the 3 at the back formation is one he's taken on board because of his aversion to wingers. I suppose it's some consolation but really I'd rather we had Hazard or AN Other proper winger in the squad who Mancini trusts rather than shoe horning ourselves into a 352 to give us more width.<br /><br />-- Tue Nov 13, 2012 7:33 pm --<br /><br />

Did we use it in Ajax and it just didn't work?? took Lescott off i think

Using it in Ajax was the height of naivety from Roberto. Actually, he did two things which were as bad as each other. First, in his rage at Lescott he subbed him even though the set piece aside we were well on top for the first 15 minutes of the second half. Then he switched to 3 at the back against a team who were pressing us very high up the field in large numbers, and who were playing with orthodox wide men.

As soon as we made the switch two things happened almost at once - our defenders panicked because they knew what was coming - and Ajax upped their tempo a little bit more because they sensed the panic.