Surely it doesn't matter what a Manager/Coach's preferred formation is. As soon as you realise you haven't got the right players to play one you change to the other. Mid-Season isn't the time to try and change the Players you have to playing a system they're not familiar with. It strikes me that JM (ours not ManUre's) either can't or is so stubborn that he refuses to change from his beloved 433 when we have the basis of a team that could happily cope with 442.
His tactics are crap. 433 does not suit us at the moment with the players we have but yet he does not want to adapt. And when he has gone 442 during games he is constantly insistent on playing people out of position.
We rarely played 4-4-2 under PH this season, it was often a variation on a 4-5-1 system which isn’t all too dissimilar to a 4-3-3 in that you’ve still got three central midfielders so I wouldn’t exactly say 4-3-3 is an unfamiliar system. For what it’s worth I don’t think we have the players to play 4-4-2 but these next two games are cup finals and anything can happen in a one off game irrespective of the system or personnel deployed.
people aren't moaning about this or that formation, we are moaning because he has no idea what he wants the team to do, are we counter attacking? are we possession? are we high pressing? are we long ball? nobody knows so it's just left to the players to go out and see what happens on the day
It's definitely not any kind of pressing! If we'd just have closed teams down in every game and stopped them from playing, we wouldn't be in this mess now.
I don't hold with this idea that we don't have the personnel for 4-4-2. When things go awry, it's the system we should revert (and stick) to. It's the system that we grew up playing, that we played Sunday League - same will apply to these lads. Players understand it - it's ingrained. Did you ever go out to play footy with your mates and do 'owt other than 4 at the back, 4 across the park and two up front? It's simple, adaptable and effective against most other formations if played properly. We over-complicate things. Possibly too late to get this shower to play it well enough to save us, but going forward, I'd nail it down sharpish. 4-4-2, pass and move, find space - either to receive the ball or pull oppo players away from another recipient. Players should ALWAYS be looking to make summat happen. Movement, movement, movement - something we've criminally lacked this season. Wide players push on when the ball's that side, full back making up the midfield numbers. Central midfielders to hassle, niggle, break up play when out of possession, then drop one deep, one forward when we're on the attack. Your two up top can switch between a straight two or one in behind, with one nominee to bolster midfield as needed. It's not bloody rocket science.
3 - 5 - 2 for me, with the two wide men of the five being wing backs. Five needed in midfield as whenever we play 4 4 2 we seem to get overrun in the middle of the park. It also enables us to have McBurnie more central in attack to complement big Kieffer.
3/5/2 would be my preferred system. I think 4-3-3 is better for us than 4-4-2 but we aren’t playing a genuine 4-3-3 our players are too close to the touchine and are in effect wingers rather than supporting forwards. Whatever system you play you play McBurnie centrally not stuck out on the wing.
