jmancubsfanThis is what you might call my "Sunday League" dilemma. I've created a solid back four and most of my opponents here in my little American league prefer the "diamond D." We've seemed a little too defensive in a 4-1-2-1-2 so I'm looking to put more players in the attacking third and exploit their weaknesses.
06.07.2010
yolesa regular 4-3-3 should do the trick if you give your fullbacks offensive freedom , but i don't know your player's profiles
06.07.2010
FeriAtsYou might cosider pushing your back 4 about 10 yards forward if you want your team to be more attacking. Of course there's a risk that you might be exposed to faster forwards. Do you have anyone in defense who's quick?
06.07.2010
jmancubsfanI'm glad you said that FeriAts. I do have one center back who is just as fast as any of the strikers he faces and the other, his brother, isn't far behind. My keeper is also quite good and has become aggressive on through balls despite not seeing many with my sagging deep defense. I thinking pressing a little more with my back four will fix a lot of things. Now I just have to figure out how to promote that and make a smooth adjustment. I have to be careful about telling them we're playing a 4-3-3. My teammates are likely to think that would mean a left, center and right mid rather than a combination of holding and attacking center mids. Obviously, especially at this level, I feel it's very important to encourage the central midfielders. Nobody is gonna beat us because they were left with space on the wing at midfield. They will take advantage of space in the hole however.
07.07.2010
SpaceGhostIt is always tricky communicating tactical ideas to most players in the U.S., as the common interpretation of some terms is totally different in the U.S. than the rest of the world. For example, the 3-5-2 you have depicted above is almost always called a 4-4-2 in the U.S. and is the default formation for all but the highest level teams (although that is changing).
I played on a new men's team this past spring and got them to switch to 4-3-3 and had many problems with the midfield. First, the RM and LM played like side mids. Then they all played central, but no one stayed back as a holder. And the three forwards always wanted to play as three central strikers.
One trick might be to tell the holding mid he is a "stopper" and the two other mids are CM's. And you could call players 7 and 11 "wings" which probably equates in their minds to side mids, but make sure the players are lazy defenders and they'll stay high and wide.
08.07.2010
jmancubsfanI had success with a 4-1-2-1-2 in the last two seasons but many of my players in the front half of things will change. The stopper idea does work in that situation. I used it in my diamond mid last season. I had one holding mid who was quick and could sweep in front of the defense even helping the outside backs. It really works well to almost flip the script and play your fastest defender as a holder in front of the back four as long as he plays laterally and doesn't get tempted to join the attack too quickly. I am naturally a left winger that played left back to allow some strictly attacking players to play up front so I'm looking forward to the change in personnel and a change to a 4-3-3 or as you're suggesting, I may tell them it's a 4-1-2-3.
08.07.2010
