Neutral Numbers

Tactics and formations are the foundation of football, and yet for many they are relegated to being trivial intricacies which unnecessarily complicate the game rather than adding to the rich landscape that makes football what I love.

With England's failure at the World Cup there has been much criticism of Capello's tactics and his formation choice. Many have come out and said that with so many teams playing three in central midfield, the orthodox 4-4-2 is null and void while purists claim that the 4-3-3 is a boring and defensive.

Having considered all of this I have three points to make:

> Formations are neutral, it's how you choose to play that makes you defensive or attacking. As we have seen recently, Manchester City are playing a 4-3-3 with three holding midfielders and two wing midfielders with a single central striker. This, for me, is rather defensive. Chelsea on the other hand are playing with three balanced central midfielders and three strikers in the same formation, and as we have seen they attack relentlessley. Same formation, completely different approach.

> It's all about the players. Every play has different attributes that make them unique, and those attributes are better suited different styles of play and different positions. The formation played needs to work for the players, or the players brought in need to work in the current system. When the Anchovy arrived at Chelsea he tried to play a diamond, but it failed because the players at Chelsea lended themselves to a 4-3-3 formation.

> Any formation can work with the right players. Many have written off the 4-4-2 formation recently, but Tottenham have proven that it can still work. And the way they have done that is by playing it exceptionally well. This is down to the players working exceptionally well within the system. The AC Milan of five years ago proved the power of a diamond (a formation I suspect Ancelotti may be moving towards once again) while Barcelona and Chelsea make an extremely strong case for a traditional 4-3-3.

At the end of the day it really is eleven men kicking a ball around, and a manager has to find a way to fit them all together.