Wednesday, February 20, 2008

4-5-1

Warning, this may turn out to be a rant!

I have been browsing the football forums following the 1-1 draw with Lyon tonight, and am somewhat amazed to hear Man Utd fans complaining about the use of 4-5-1, a formation which apparently has never worked for us.

Were they watching Saturday?!? We beat Arsenal 4-0, mainly because of the 4-5-1 system. Having a lone striker meant that the Arsenal central defenders, both well renowned, failed to pick him up, enabling Rooney to be freed up to play open football and make runs etc. I might even concede that they could have picked a better formation tonight the idea that 4-51 has never worked is absurd! It is also worth noting that Van Nistelrooy often played an effective 4-5-1 and it didn't stop him either!

So what was the problem tonight? I'm not sure, I didn't even see the game! And it doesn't matter. The point is that 4-5-1 is a very useful formation and fits very well with the current Man Utd squad, with so many attacking midfielders. Just because one game we didn't win whilst playing that formation does not mean that Sir Alex is stupid and has no idea anymore and should be sacked. Besides 1-1 isn't that bad a result!

Gah i hate football fans!
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3 comments:

Emmie-lou said...

Hehe...Timmy is angry at the silly football fans who are obviously just poor losers!!! (Not that they 'lost' just didn't win)

12:57 PM
Andrew_tM said...

It depends how 4-5-1 is utilised. It can result in a midfield stalemate if you don't have the appropriate incisiveness in the midfield.

I think the criticism regarding Ferguson's use of it is that he has traditionally built a 4-4-2 side, and these same players don't necessarily work as well for a 4-5-1 format.

The main problem as far as I see is that there is no main target-man.

Compare to Everton, who have been utilising it for a few seasons now, and you have players like Yakubu who is the classic targetman, and a great foil in Cahill who is the midfielder arriving late in the box that you need to avoid being outnumbered. You also have attacking midfielders on the wings who will break into the box.

The problem isn't that Manchester United can't play 4-5-1; in my mind it's because some of their players aren't instinctively suited for it. But they should be.

4:18 PM
Anonymous said...

UPDATE

12:07 AM

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