My 442

[gechal]

There has been a few threads lately about the flat 442. I thought I'd share mine, a simple 442 that is doing really well.

TEAM TACTICS

A simple enough set up. I wanted there to be plenty of natural width to enable space in the middle of the park for my advanced playmaker. The full backs both have the get forward at all times ppm. I have tried advanced playmakers before in formations that included three central midfielders, and it has never really worked. Now I realise that it was because it was too cluttered. Seeing this formation in play, it works so well for my advaced playmaker. He actually plays like one, linking play high up the pitch.

MY KEY PLAYER

A good little player for this level, and perfect for me to be an advanced playmaker.

TEAM AVERAGE POSITIONS

From our most recent game. As you can see there is plenty of width here, which means that when Rojas gets the ball (he is the number ten in the centre circle) he has plenty of options to pass to.

ROJAS PASS MAP

He has plenty of the ball, and makes plenty of passes in the right areas.

[gechal]

Having the two forwards on attack duties helps to push the oppositions back line deepr, giving the advanced playmaker more space ahead of him. My target man is also working a treat, thriving on the crosses that are being sent in from decent areas from the wingers/fullbacks. These wide players are getting plenty of chances to put quality in the box, based on the passes they are getting from Rojas.

I thought I may as well try to put in a few pictures showing how it works in action. Again, this is all based on our most recent match.

Rojas gives it to the right back.

Who gives it back to him, he then lays it off for his CM partner

Who passes it to the target man who has dropped deep to collect. Rojas, meanwhile, is moving to get into position to receive another pass.

Eventually Rojas gets it back, and he has options on the right. He is looking to link the play.

[gechal]

He plays the simple obvious pass to the winger, who this time gets a cross in but it is defended away.

I'm just trying to illustrate what I think the playmaker should be doing. Linking up play, being in the right place to receive the ball, moving it on. Nothing overly fancy, but effective. He is involved here with all areas of his team. The right back, the centre midfielder, the target man and the right winger.

Our formation is vulnerable sometimes against teams who have an extra man in the middle, our players can get dragged round a bit. Sometimes when I feel things are tough there, I either go to counter, to get them to drop deeper, or lose a forward and stick in an anchor man. What forward I lose depends on the pace of the oppositions back line. If it is slow, I will leave the pacy advanced forward on , to get onto through balls. If not, the target man to hold things up.

I do not start off with any shouts, the way I see it, if I have wingers on, and a player in the middle who can pass, I don't need to tell them to exploit the flanks. They should do that naturally, based on where each other is.

RECENT RESULTS

Its going well. A simple 442, quickly set up, using the right players in the right positions.

[tomoneil118]

Nice Post

I find 4-4-2 hard to get right. I am currently Newcastle and have been trying 4-2-3-1 and 4-1-2-2-1. Might give this ago looks good and simple

[danny_123]

was playing this but changed my DLF support to TM attack and things have improved big time

[gechal]

I guess that's because a DLF support and an advanced playmaker would end up in similar spaces. Like this with the two forward pushed up against the defensive line most of the time, when the playmaker gets the ball it gives him more space and options compared to having a forward dropping deep all of the time.

[RTHerringbone]

Really nice opening posts. The 4-4-2 is a bit of a black sheep these days, so good to see it getting an airing now and then.

[danny_123]

how do you feel this works away ? so far i have still had to switch do a different tatic to win away

[Captain Bob]

Gechal,

Sorry cant quite see from the screen shot but do you have the use target man ticked? Also do you always play standard or change for away games or certain opposition?

[gechal]

Hi captain bob.

No I don't have the target man ticked. The only time I use that is if I have to take my target man off because we are getting over run in the middle and keep my advanced forward on. Then I will tick him , have the supply as "run onto ball" an maybe use the pass into space shout.

I always start with a standard stategy, and maybe change it during the game to counter ifI feel the defence is getting turned too often. Only once this season have a started with a counter strategy, that was in the away fixture to Newcastle after we got smashed 4-0 at home earlier in the season. They were so much better than us even in the second game that I had to change things during the match. Those two games , and what happened , is the next thing I want to add to this thread.

[gechal]

I want to try and spend a bit of time explaining how sometimes my 442 struggles against opposition who , to put it simply, have better players than we do. TO also explore the options available to try and deal with the threats that having only two players in the middle can bring sometimes.

It has been a great season so far, but there is one result that sticks out like a sore thumb ;

Horrible result.

FORMATIONS

What is interesting here is we both play a 442 flat. So in the middle at least we should have equal numbers and be able to control the space. That's what I thought anyway. I didn't take into account the superior quality and movement of the opposition, and one player in particular, who I will get onto shortly.

THE FIRST NEWCASTLE GOAL

Walcott on the right wing has time to turn and lay it back to Tiote, who hass dropped off into space.

Tiote has plenty of time and space to pass it back to Walcott , who has run in behind my defensive central midfielder and is dragging the left back with him.

[gechal]

Walcott waltzes past and slots it into the corner. Tiote sits back and enjoys the view whilst savoring the beautiful simplicity of his work. Also the position he is in, if that ball got cleared somehow, he poses a real threat if it came out to him.

NEWCASTLE SECOND GOAL

Here my right winger has gone to close down their left back, my playmaker has gone accross to cover the right winger for some reason. My right back looks very uninterested in the whole affair which is a shame. Possibly a fault with me defensive set up? But what this situation does is free up that man Tiote , who gets the ball and looks forward.

With no opposing central midfielders in sight, Tiote has the time to hold on to the ball and release it at the right time for his partner in the middle who makes a driving run into the box, leaving his opposite number for dead. This chance leads to a corner , from which Newcastle score.

Both goals Tiote has been the instigator. He is sitting back, not getting ahead of play, but finding space to cause damage from deep. My two in the middle cant cope. In the second half I went attacking, tried all sorts, including putting a third striker on, but we got killed as a result.They were far too strong at the back, we couldn't get through in the air or on the floor. They won 4-0, but their centere back won man of the match.

I will update later on, including how I tried to correct these mistakes in the return fixture without losing my 442 shape.

[gechal]

So for me, the difference in this game was Tiote and how he managed to get time and space to start off passing moves in my half.

EXAMPLES OF TIOTE HAVING SPACE

He drops deep to get the ball all too often. If my midfield pushes up to close him down, he can pass in behind them. If they drop off, he has all the time n the world to pick a pass out. He has the green circle, my midfield two have the red.

After getting the ball Tiote gives it to his partner in the middle who drops to collect

He gets it back from him and plays a one two with the full back

Then passes it to the right winger.Who is now in behind my midfield and with some good options ahead. So simple. So easy. But yet my midfield two are being dragged about all over the place by the Newcastle players movement, leaving gaps to exploit with short simple passes.

This is very early on in the game. I should have spotted this, and tried to do something about it. I left any changes until we were two behind, and by then it was too late anyway.How could I have changed it? Maybe adjusted my CM defend into a ball winning midfielder, put my advanced playmaker on attack duty instead of support. Pushed up a bit more. Closed down a touch more. Would it have worked? I think we would have got done by the pace of Walcott and others in behind.

Although I start every match the same, standard with no shouts, I made a the decision that for the return fixture, I would have to change things to avoid a repeat of this disaster.

[gechal]

THE RETURN. NEWCASTLE 1 COLCHESTER UNITED 0

It would have been nice to report on a return fixture that I managed to win! But, I made some changes, adjusted earlier and got what I believe was a moral victory....

Again, we match up position for position. On paper anyway. Mr Tiote starts again.

I wanted to keep my 442. I know it works. Sometimes it struggles, as does every formation at times. Also , leaving one up top and defending for our lives was not going to work at St James park, with the quality they have. So I decided to leave everything as it is, bar one small change. Go to "counter" instead of "standard" starting strategy. The idea being that hopefully the midfield will be compact, with few spaces between it and the back four. Two up top, to play the ball out to and start attacks from, with lots of space behind their back line to exploit. Keep an eye on the Tiote situation, and deal with it if it arose again.

IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG

So far so good. Tompkins has the ball for them, there is little space between the midfield and defense, Tiote and his mate in the middle are tightly marked.

Tompkins doesn't mind though, and plays it to Tiote who has accelerated away, left my CM for dead. Now tiote has time to turn and play some nasty balls in behind.That one little run has opened up space again between the lines. Luckily this time, he is not too adventurous and plays it square to his right. But the warning signs are there.

Shortly afterwards. The striker has the ball. But look how deep Tiote is. Maybe too deep to cause harm there, but he is always an out ball for the forward players, able to help out in retaining possession. All he has to do is step up with the ball into our half and it could be trouble. My midfield are deep because of our counter strategy at a guess, and my number 4 is marking thin air. Should he have gone with Tiote? Also my strikers are starting to look isolated.

[gechal]

A few minutes later, but the pressure is really starting to show allready. Tiote is recieving the ball here from the left back. Rojas the number ten, one half of my CM team, has let his man go past him.

Rojas catches up with his man, but it doesn't matter as Tiote has other ideas, and plays it to one of their strikers who drops off, just as my number 4 finally gets to within touching distance of Tiote. Any sort of protection offered by my midfield duo to the centre backs has evaporated. Even though they are deep and relatively compact. They are getting pulled about all over the place, as before. Time for a change.

I was determined to keep 442 here, because although putting an anchor man in here would have helped, we would have had no threat what so ever in the offence. We would have conceded I was sure. So what I decided to do was to get my target man, a Mr Jack Mendum, to man mark Tiote. So when we didn't have the ball, he would try his best to stay with him, and when we had the ball he would leave him and go back to his normal position to lead the attack. Hopefully break up the dominance Newcastle were displaying.

Newcastle right winger on the ball - looking for an out. Mendum (20) is close to Tiote. Its not a simple pass to him now. he is under pressur from my no 4 , and no 10 has the other CM under cover.

The winger takes too much time and get tackled. The ball runs free to a spot where normally Tiote would take and recycle possession.But Mendum is on the case.

[gechal]

He gets there first and the danger is gone and we have the ball.

I like this one. The Midfield are in position, tight to the defense, not a lot of space between the lines. Zabaletta get the ball from the winger and looks for what to do.

He is put under pressure by my winger. Usually he could pass to Tiote, because Mendum would be where the number 5 centre back is, leaving the deep lying Tiote free. But in making Mendum mark him, the spare player is now the number 5 centre back. A far less dangerous passing option, obviously. That is where Zabaletta decides to pass.

The number 5 brings the ball out and has no where to go. Thanks to a supreme effort from my number 8 in getting over to put him under, he passes back to Zabaletta, who in turn has no choice but to pass it back to the goalie.

Again, we have dealt with the Tiote problem before it even got going here. Without Mendum there it could have been so different. We were pretty comfortable after that, even had a few chances and some decent possesion. Such a turnaround from the game before. So a slight change in strategy, and a small tweak as to what my target man does when not in possession, enabled me to compete using the 442 against a team with much more quality.

Ok we conceded a goal, but it was a farce and had nothing to do with the above. Not a lot I could have done about it -

[gechal]

My gk takes a free kick

Tompkins rises and clears. It falls the the number nine to feet, who turns and runs.

Striker gets hold of it runs at the flat defense and tucks it away.

Nothing like the other goals I conceded against them. a moral victory, if I do say so myself. I really don't know what I could have done about that goal. A real shame, that would have been a real hard earned, satisfying point. Far more rewarding than some of my easier victories.

[Captain Bob]

Hi captain bob.

No I don't have the target man ticked. The only time I use that is if I have to take my target man off because we are getting over run in the middle and keep my advanced forward on. Then I will tick him , have the supply as "run onto ball" an maybe use the pass into space shout.

I always start with a standard stategy, and maybe change it during the game to counter ifI feel the defence is getting turned too often. Only once this season have a started with a counter strategy, that was in the away fixture to Newcastle after we got smashed 4-0 at home earlier in the season. They were so much better than us even in the second game that I had to change things during the match. Those two games , and what happened , is the next thing I want to add to this thread.

Thanks. Good post and screen shots.