Tactics: Out With The Old, In With The New?

As time has moved on, so has the footballing world, and tactics that teams employ change with it. Gone are the days where near on every team will play a bog-standard 4-4-2 formation, with the likes of Gary Neville and David Beckham playing down one side. Instead there is now the growing use of formations such as a 4-2-3-1, almost as if they are the fashion.

As things stand, the teams remaining in the World Cup are Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Holland, Costa Rica, Belgium and Argentina. Of what I have seen, none of these teams use a standard 4-4-2, instead favouring approaches that allow for more fluid attacking moves or the ability to be strong defensively. The 4-2-3-1 for example, is based on the idea that it is harder for defences to mark an attacking midfielder who operates in the gap between defenders and midfielders, and therefore they should be able to find more space to be a playmaker for their team. It is a formation that has been used fantastically by the likes of Real Madrid and Chelsea in recent times at club level, and is one that looks to be working well Internationally too. Brazil and Argentina, two of the pre-tournament favourites, are big advocates of it, and maybe they are right to be?

A simple image of the popular 4-2-3-1 formation

Another tactic that is being adopted by some teams in this tournament is the use of 3-5-2, with the emphasis on counter attacking football. Holland produced a shock result when they won 5-1 against holders Spain in their first game using this system, and have had more success since. Mexico are another who enjoyed some success with it, progressing out of their group ahead of a strong Croatia, and then the surprise package of Costa Rica have used an adaptation of it extremely well. Be honest, who thought they would get this far?!

What about England? Like I mentioned, back in the David Beckham era it was always a given that we would play 4-4-2, with the famous question of 'who will play in our problem position of left midfield?' In recent times though we have tried to make use of this 4-2-3-1 but just haven't been able to gain much success with it, as our performances in the World Cup showed (although we looked fairly good in qualifying). I feel that this is the right way for England to go, and would personally love to see a front four include Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Raheem Sterling regularly in upcoming England games.

So although you obviously want your team to play an attractive brand of football, maybe going with a solid back line and playing a more reserved style of football is the way to go? Move the ball quickly when you have the chance and be hard to break down sounds easy enough but the ability to actually succeed with this approach is admirable. I guess we will have to wait and see what approach managers will take in the later stages if the tournament and the new domestic seasons.