3 - 5 - Poo
Its a well known fact that I am a huge fan of the England national football team. However even I have to agree that last nights performance in Zagreb was diabolical.
The 3-5-2 formation seemed like a decent idea on paper. England have a wide birth of talent in midfield (Lampard, Carrick, Parker) so it makes sense to use this to attack and flood the middle of the pitch with bodies.
Off paper, the idea fell flat. With the 3 defenders (Carragher, Ferdinand, Terry) never looking comfortable at the back and allowing Croatia a massive 15 shots on target.
After going 2-0 down (lets try and forget the 2nd goal) substitutions were made and the team fell back to the more comfortable 4-4-2 style of play. Almost straight away the style of play improved, coincidence? I’m not sure.
I don’t pretend to be a football expert in any way shape or form but as effective as the 4-4-2 formation is I prefer to see teams making changes and moving to more ‘experimental’ formations that would perhaps spook the opposition and maybe find a new, perhaps better, match formula. For me, the improvement was mostly psychological with the players obviously feeling more comfortable playing 4-4-2.
So where does this leave 3-5-2? Would the formation work with a fit Owen Hargreaves and an un-banned Steven Gerrard? I don’t know. And the problem now is, we will NEVER know as the manager will never, ever, ever dare to use it in competition again.
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Rubbish, all of it.
Comment by Japan — October 12, 2006 @ 3:12 pm