Further Exploration of the 22 (4-3-1-2)

Return To Part.1

Also called 4-4-2 diamond, 4-3-1-2 is quite possibly the most balanced formation. With 5 defensive players and 5 attackers split into 2 semi-independant elements, 4-3-1-2 has the agility and elasticity few other formations could rival. Especially among balanced formations, 4-3-1-2 offers one of the best defensive setup while maintaining very significiant offensive presence.

In 4-3-1-2, the CAM is highlighted at an unpresedented level. This CAM is specifically defined as an "Enganche". Enganche in spanish means "to hook" or "to link" .
Linking is easy to understand, like a connection piece. But what is this hooking? It's the Tango move where the female dancer wraps her leg around the male dancer's body.

If lines are drawn between the CAM and the 4 other offensive players (2 forwards and 2 outside midfielders), they would all be free to pivot around the CAM. Therefore the the Enganche could also be considered a pivot point. Any 2 of these lines pivoting around the enganche then form an angle, so if you connect the 2 players at outter ends of these 2 lines, you have a triangle.

The idea of deploying an enganche is so the 4 offensive players can form many triangles with the CAM, so some routes to move the ball forward would always exist while having the space around the ball under controll.
In order to do this, the 4 players must have a good understanding of their positions in relations with the enganche at all time, so when the enganche reposition himself, these players would know where to go and in what orientation and shape to form these 'triangles'.

One benefit of this cooperation between the offensive players and the enganche is that the connection piece function of the enganche gives extra lateral supports to the offensive players so they can have more lateral freedom and be allowed to position themselves more vertically inline in references to each other.
The lateral freedom allow these players to do alot of diagonal channeling, making them absolutely nightmare for opponents to mark. However, in order to maintain the uniformity of the entire offensive element, they also need to maintain their relationships with the enganche. So the lateral freedom isn't unrestricted, and vertically they must stay at the correct level compared to each other.

Usually one of the outside midfielders need to be more defensive than the other. When the forward element/sub-formation operates, he would usually stay at a relatively lower position than the other outside midfielder. So this midfielder also serves the purpose of a semi-defensive midfielder. Vise versa, the other outside midfielder would be more like an attacking mid.

The enganche must then drag this 'planetary system like' sub-formation around the field by relocating himself (both vertically and horizontally). By doing so, not only was he able to concentrate the players around the bal area, also allowing them to be in good positions for their defensive duties.

While the enganche, the 2 outside midfielders and the 2 forwards work as an integrated and semi-independant offensive element, the rest of the field work as the also semi-independant defensive element. With 4 players forming a tightly spaced backline and a holding midfielder screening infront of it.
Due to the relatively free displacements of the offensive players (especially the enganche and the 2 outside midfielders), the backline need to push forward constantly so the defensive and the offensive elements stay at ideal distance from each other. Then on top of that, one of the fullbacks usually would be choosen from the wingback pool so he could sprint up and add even more complexity to the offense.

4-3-1-2 is a 5:5 formation where at least one of the 5 defensive players (wingback) usually also shoulder some offensive responsibilities. So it requires an excellent holding midfielder to ensure overal quality of the defense. In Argentina's case, Mascherano. Mascherano is stronger than Gago defensively. With 4-3-1-2 the holding midfielder's defensive duties overweights the need to initiate attacks, therefore Mascherano would be more reliable to fill the CDM position than Gago.
The defense player pool of this Copa America team only allow the right side to have wingback function so ideal D-line would be Zanetti, Ayala, Milito and Heinze.

In the midfield, Roman's return indicates that he's the best enganche in Basile's opinion. So first choice CAM would be Riquelme. Aimar can be super sub so if Riquelme failed to perform we would still be able to use 4-3-1-2. Defensive to offensive order of the other midfielders should go like: Cambiasso -> Veron -> Aimar -> Lucho -> Messi. So depend on the team we're against. Against more offensive teams we should use a combination of Cambiasso with Veron/Aimar/Lucho; Against defensive teams we could use Veron in combination with Lucho Aimar or even Messi; Lucho and Aimar or Lucho and Messi would be a even more offensive option, which we probably won't see in this tournement.
Also worth to note, since Lucho has right preference, when Lucho is on the field, the other outside midfielder should start on the left, just a general rule when drawing the formation charts, eventhough the lateral differences of the 2 outside midfielders' starting positions in 4-3-1-2 has minimum impacts, as illustrated in this diagram.

And in the front, one forward needs to be the general target person so one of the taller guys should be used. Crespo starting wouldn't be a surprise. The other forward will be chosen between Messi, Tevez and Palacio. If both Crespo and Messi perform well, Tevez, Palacio and Milito might only start for fatigue or injury reasons.


Once the importance of Enganche was understood, scientific guesses can be made in attempt to understand the recent events, namely Veron and Roman's return, and now benching of Cambiasso to yield room for Aimar.

First of all, why Riquelme?
Because Roman is the best enganche in the world!
He had always been Basile's choice, it was determined long ago, just not announced for obvious reasons.

But Roman has the potential to tank games. We know how important enganche is to the 4-3-1-2 formation. If Roman isn't performing, subbing him out would become a priority.

Secondary enganche is Aimar. If Roman sucked, and if at this time Aimar wasn't on the field, then Basile must use a sub to bring on Aimar and replace Roman, which might not of been an option in real matches (used up subs for example).
So a safer option would be starting Aimar on the field at a position other than CAM. In which case if Riquelme started to tank, he could switch positions with Aimar. Roman would still be able to function as left outside midfielder, and enganche would be replaced by a less talented by more consistant Aimar.

But then you face the problem of having Aimar on the wing, which isn't his best position, and there are other Argentine player(s) better suited to the position. This safer option isn't without compromises.

Whether Basile need to employ the safer option depend largely on how the team would function without a proper enganche. If they do ok, then Aimar starting at a wing wouldn't be necessary. If the other way around, then Aimar better start or it would be too risky for tournement matches, especially at knockout stages.

Therefore, Basile's priority in the friendlies would be to test the team with a "not functioning" enganche. This 'not functioning' enganche was played by Messi.

Messi doesn't have the experience to play enganche, and possibly doesn't know how. Enganche role isn't something any good player can play, it takes alot of indepth studies of related tactics and strategies, which isn't something Messi could of done in just a few days.

In the friendlies, the team played ok with the 'not functioning' enganche. but not excellent since Basile subbed in Aimar in both games after all. Something went wrong so he had to put in a real enganche to prevent a lose (possibly to gain a win in second friendly for moral purposes).

Eventhough Aimar had to jump in, apparently these 'ok performances' were good enough for Basile to go for a real outside midfielder, and his choice was Veron.
Basile probably had Veron in mind all along, just needed the chances (friendlies) to make sure he could play Veron (and bench Aimar).

Now, Aimar taking over from Cambiasso issue.
It may well be what the press claimed, that Aimar was performing well and worthy of one of the outside midfelder spots.
But if following the above trend of critical analyzation, this could also indicate that Basile didn't like what he saw in Riquelme over the practices. If such assumption stand correct, then using Veron over Cambiasso could of meant that Basile wanted to preserve more offensive capabilities by sacrificing some defense. It's the US we're playing in first game anyway, not expected to be a particularly tough match.

Return to Part.1
4-3-3
4-2-3-1

To Conclusion

WHAT ABOUT TEVEZ?

On 28th, Basile may be starting with this lineup used in the practice game.

Fans want to see Tevez play, but god damn Basile wouldn't let him (not for Argentina's opening game at least).
But we sooooo want to see Carlito! Is there really no way of playing Tevez in a 2 forward formation with the rest of the gang?

OK, I admit it. "Without totally sacrificing holding midfielders, Basically the only realistic chance of seeing all 4 (Messi Tevez Riquelme Veron) starting is if the Albicelestes played 4-4-3" was a lie, as there's another possibility to play them all in 4-3-1-2.

If there was a key to a Veron + Tevez + Messi + Riquelme solution, it's probably in the hand of Cambiasso. :D And if he does have this key, then there's no way Cuchu will give it up free of cost.

With Heinze being a defensive full back, having another defensive player on the same side would put most of our offensive pressure on the other wing. This unbalances the formation laterally and allows opponents to overload our right wing while man marking our enganche, which if succeeded, would make it extremely difficult for our offensive strategies to function.

Now, opponent overloading one flank CAN result in their other flank becoming less protected as a benefiting side effect. But due to Heinze's inability to sustain offensive pressure or to initiate counter attacks, in such case where our right side got totally shut down, the left will not be a more likely place to see real scoring opportunities. Can't win games without scoring you know...

To ensure offensive success, one approach would be to balance the two wings at the cost of the defensive contribution of Cambiasso. Cambiasso is a very good player, and he can play on either side, but sometime we might just not need the extra defense, so playing a offensive 4-3-1-2 with a attacker playing outside midfield role isn't completely out of the question.

For that possibility, I'm sure many are thinking "Messi+Veron".
But that would of been quite significent a setback to our overal defensive capabilities.

Is there any way of replacing Cambiasso without hurting our defense?
Fans of Carlito would probably say yes. Tevez can tackle very well, and he'd been giving excellent performances on WestHamUnited where he often had to play in the midfield. A 4-3-1-2 with Tevez on one side of midfield should be more efficient defensively than with Messi, while still obtain a significent boost in offensive capability over the 4-3-1-2 with Cambiasso and Veron on the sides.



Need to note, all of above were based on a major assumption that everyone in the lineup will be playing disciplined football under all circumstances.
Kindly pointed out by other fans, this is quite possibly an unrealistic assumption because Tevez and Messi are both so offensively oriented. They have the physical and mental abilities (especially Tevez) to fullfill their defensive duties as midfielders, but will they be willing to do it?

Well, it shouldn't be a big deal after all. Copa America games will be played at ~4 days intervals, which is noticeably shorter than in world cup. There will be ALOT of changes to the starting lineup. If Basile really end up benching Tevez (for the first game), he's probably expecting to go very far in this tournement, and we should believe in our team boss' confidence and root for our players regardless who will be on the field against United States. Just chances not all of them togather :(

So, we give up and go with Basile's practice lineup, shouldn't Cambiasso and Veron switch starting sides so it's better left-right balanced.


I think Veron playing to the right of Riquelme in the practice does not necessarily mean he will be starting on the right. As illustrated above, the 5 offensive players (in 5:5) channel all over the field anyway. In many cases Veron would be playing to the right of Riquelme even if he started left.

The central idea is this

Zanetti will displaces to wing front some times and open up space in the right back region. At these times, Cambiasso (RM) should drop back towards right rear in order to maintain control over that zone. Since only Zanetti (right) side will push up, Veron should then stay generally higher than Cambiasso and give him vertical supports, while Riquelme staying more or less to the side of these 2 to provide lateral supports.

And The Winner of 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup is

USA

Mexico scored first, only to be equalized by RD's PK and then beaten by a wonderful 75 feet volley off the right foot of Feilhaber. For the Aztecs, it's another display of Football Negativity that led to a bitter end. At the begining of second half, they switched from a offensive 3-5-2 formation to a 4-3-2-1 (close to 4-5-1) in an attempt to perserve their one goal advantage, only to find themselves trailing 1-2 and not able to equalize due to the defensive orientation of the formation. Without much offensive midfield representation, Mexico had to rely on the wings in their search for equalize, where they were shut down by US effectively. Blanco coming in at 80th minute indicated their lack of CAM substitution option and this 2nd choice change did next to nothing.



Round of applause to Benny Feilhaber. The game winning volley was beautiful.
Apparently Mexico is gaining the reputation of losing to WonderGoals.
Remember Maxi Rodríguez?

Happy Birthday

Remember this day last year?
We are again at the shared birthday of Juan Román Riquelme and Lionel Andrés Messi!


What could of been a better birthday present than this Gigantic Billboard erected by the organizing committee of Copa America. Vamos Messi!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUGDORS

check out MundoAlbicelestes' article about their birthday celebrations.

2nd Practice Lineup

According to Olé, second practice game before Copa was carried out today with following starter side lineup:



This lineup features some different offensive players compared to my previous guess (in this article). Here were my initial thoughts:

Veron: Veron is accustomed to the right midfield and is a strong possibility for that position. (Part.1). Having Veron playing RM in a practice match probably is the best way to test the chemistry between him and other starters.
So, it came at no surprise that Veron played with Riquelme for the most part of the practice tonight, the two still need to dial in for Veron to have a realistic shot at starting in Copa.

Tevez: I think him playing on the sub team was a balancing act, to bring out some games from the weaker side. Also Tevez's ability as left forward has been proven, so there's really no need to further test him at that position.
On the sub side, Tevez played with Palacio and Milito in a 3 forward formation, so perhaps we'll be seeing some 4-3-3 after all?

Messi: was playmaker in both the recent friendlies. However, he had experience playing both right forward and right midfield in a 4-3-1-2 steered by Riquelme (06' World Cup). So IMO, Messi just played RF tonight for the hell of it. It's just a practice after all, he could be a ball boy, move around some cones, or simply fuck around. I doubt Basile focused on training Messi tonight.
Communication with Veron might be something he could practice on. He haven't had much experiences with the bold asshole so how well they cope with each other isn't certain.
I still think messi will be shouldering more midfield duty in this competition. He should only be starting right forward either when Veron was playing RM, or if they played 4-3-3.

After a closer look at the situation, I've realized that the fundemental problem here is the inability to play Tevez, Messi, Riquelme and Veron all at the same time in most formations. (I didn't count Aimar because eventhough he's a very capable player, he's probably destined to be a SUPER SUP for enganche role and replace Riquelme if he failed to perform. We know Roman isn't an easy player to interprete, I think same goes for his teammates, and that might be part of the reason why he couldn't do well in some past NT matches. )

And the center of this problem is Veron.

The way I look at it, Veron specialized in lobing long passes. I didn't watch a lot of italian games, but base on what i've seen him do in England and with Estudiantes, he is almost a pure passer who isn't fond of dribbling.

If this observation stand, then in order to play Veron you will need to use a person to partner up with him laterally so they could do 1-2 or man release or something. Therefore your choices are:

1. You play like what basile did in practice. No Tevez because Messi can't play right wing when it's occupied by Veron.
2. You play Veron as the enganche in a 4-3-1-2 diamond.
On paper, he failed to bring changes to Inter when he was loaned there, where he played enganche in a 4-3-1-2.
3. You play flat 4 midfield like Estudiantes so another CM will work with him. he could be either the other CM or steer from one wing. This way of using Veron was successful as Estudiantes had demonstrated.

Note: in any of these cases, one of the forwards from Crespo-Milito group should start so someone taller and physical can be in the box.

In the first case, Tevez can't start. There are basically 3 options to sub him in:
a: sub out Veron, let messi drop to Veron's position and Tevez go RF.
b: sub out Cambiasso, Veron to other side, Messi drop back and Tevez up
c: sub out Messi or Crespo directly with Tevez.

option a is worse than not playing Veron, unless this is a late late sub which has no meaning for Tevez's moral.
option b drops a more defensive player and forces the enganche to shoulder defensive responsibilities with veron and messi -- neither of them very defensive player. the damage to offense with this option overwhelms the benefits from bringing in Tevez. Unless again, if it was a late game sub meaningless to Carlito's moral.
option c is plain stupidity. The consequences of subbing out Messi with Tevez are obvious. But do we need Crespo up front? Crespo is physically stronger and taller than these little people and better suited as target person. Basile brought in not just Crespo himself, but also a sub for him (Milito) to ensure a target person will be avaliable, at the cost of bringing in only 7 defenders with one of them possibly not at 100%(Ayala) and forfeiting options such as LWB, dedicated RFB (right full back) and extra defensive sub!

2nd case.
The best outcome for Riquelme in this case would be to support Veron from a wing. Which isn't something Roman would like to do nor could he guarantee to do well.
Or you not play Roman at all, then Riquelme supersub for Veron, and Aimar 3rd sub enganche? you know, alot of national teams can't play 4-3-1-2 because their entire country cannot supply even 1 capable enganche us benching 2 would be criminal in the eyes of their fans.

3rd case.
this case is an legitimate option
but
it means benching definitely Mascherano, and quite possibly Gago at the same time. Remember, the fundation of these assumptions is that Veron will need assistance from another midfielder.
Tevez, Messi, Riquelme and Veron can play togather here, even Aimar. But at the cost of Mascher!

Without totally sacrificing holding midfielders, Basically the only realistic chance of seeing all 4 (Messi Tevez Riquelme Veron) starting is if the Albicelestes played 4-3-3.



Continoued Here
____________________________________________________________

Also to note, Ayala's leg felt a little uncomfortable so he was subbed out by Burdisso, it turned out to be nothing, whew! On the other hand, this incident assured us that Burdisso will be the primary sub for CB instead of Diaz, so only when Burdisso was occupied would Diaz have a chance to sub in.

In other news. Cambiasso was feeling loney so he went to play with Roman and Veron on the right side. Very undisciplined! Bad Cuchu bad!

Also in other news, Mexico scored at 66th min to tie the retro match(these old people sport only last 70 minutes) with Argentina at 1-1. Had nothing to do, I sat through the match, and realized that watching old people sports could be really bad for mental health.

Further explorations of the 22 (4-2-3-1)

Return To Part.1

4-2-3-1 is a variation of 4-5-1. So in order to evaluate 4-2-3-1, we need to take a look at the pros and cons of 4-5-1 first.

4-5-1 is the result of dropping the 2 outside forwards in a 4-3-3 to midfield. This formation was not discussed in Part.1 due to its defensive orientation. With 5 midfielders, the center pitch is packed so opponent offense wouldn't have much room to work with. Also, the tight spacing between the midfielders would make it difficult for opponents to maintain possession while pushing the ball forward. However, due to the lack of presence in upper midfield, opportunities are only created from the high wings or from defenders' long drop passes. Needless to say, 4-5-1 isn't very ideal for offensive plays and requires very well disciplined midfielders to prevent goals.
On top of that, the center forward usually need to be very physical so he could fight for the balls that can go both ways. Chelski's way of using Dragba is one of the prime examples.
4-5-1 is commonly used when the team wants a 0-0 draw or if it's ahead by a little and needs to preserve the narrow margin. This NEGATIVE FUCKING THINKING led Argentina from a 1-0 win to a PSO lost in 2006 WorldCup 1/4 Final.

6.30.2006 was A DARK DAY FOR POSITIVE FOOTBALL.
Pekerman did a tripple substitution @ 70th minute: Leo Franco for injured Pato; Cambiasso for Riquelme; and Julio Ricardo Cruz for Crespo. As shown in the picture below, we went instantaneously from a perfect 4-3-1-2 to a 4-5-1. Pekerman's intention was more obvious than a fat lady with a pink hood, he wanted to keep the 1 goal lead, even if it meant risking a draw and PSO against the king of WorldCup PK on their home turf! Pekerman did it because he's a fucking PUTO. He saw Germany giving up everything for an equalizer and chickened out. How pathetic!
Few minutes after the substitutions, Germany started to fall back. Partly due to the congestion in midfield, but quite possibily as a strategy to lure Argentina into attacking mode. If there was a trap, we fell right in (thanks to Peckerman's coaching). It's like a bear fell out of a tree in central park... Argentina was under heavy attack, but held our ground till Pato got hit. The attack was pushing into our box at this point which I persume was what scared Peckerman and forced him to choose his set of substitutions. Now Germany falling back and giving some breathing space, it wasn't a total surprise to see our boys switching gear. But by having the 2 wingers pushing up to assist attack, only 3 players were in the midfield without a CAM or even CM to link the front and back. Room suddently opened up for the Germans to infiltrate.
Anyroad, @80', Ballack gets through the midfield from their left wing and crossed in a ball that found 3 forwards ready to head it...
At this point the Argentines started pushing forward in an attempt to avoid PSO. But without Riquelme in the CAM position, they couldn't move the ball up into the box even when the entire backline was in the German half. So everyone started taking long shots. Lucho shot, Maxi shot, even Coloccini was shooting. And in the end, we could not score because the formation was just too defensive to provide enough opportunities.

Anyroad. 4-2-3-1 is the result of pushing up the center center midfielder in 4-5-1 into CAM position. LCM and RCM would then drop back a little and effectively reposition into CDM. Consequently, there's now more space between the 2 CDM and outside midfielders, making the outside midfielders more or less wingers.

4-2-3-1 remained relying on the congestion in midfield to disrupt opponent possessions, just like in 4-5-1. The formation therefore is also relatively defensive. But in comparison with 4-5-1, a CAM is now presented to support the attack from center, and more space had been free'd up on the wings giving LWM, RWM and the forward higher degree of freedom. On defensives, since the CAM and wingers still need to have solid contact with the 2 CDM in order to make the congestion in midfield effective, they cannot be pure attacking wingers and leave the midfield like in 4-3-3. This should be kept in mind when reviewing our midfield options for 4-2-3-1. Vise versa, the outside backs can join attack since 2 CDM will be screening, therefore by playing this formation we also could benefit from the wing ability of Zanetti and Ibarra.

Keep in mind, due to the defensive nature of 4-2-3-1, it shouldn't be Basile's first choice because ARGENTINES PLAY OFFENSIVE FOOTBALL .
But in the case we need to deploy a defensive formation, 4-2-3-1 will likely be the choice.

The 2 CDM of 4-2-3-1 must join the attack with CAM to maintain midfield formation, so they need to have good offensive capabilities instead of pure defenders. This requirement is similar to those of the CDM in 4-3-3. Except here we need 2 of them.
First elimination is again, Lucho. Because he's too offensive and not suited to holding midfielder role. Gago is ideal choice for one of them, leaving Cambiasso and Mascherano for other spot.

Mascherano isn't offensive at all. He likes to stay home and chase down the balls even if they were going deep into our defensive territory. I can't see Argentina in a position to start out a game with 4-2-3-1 where Mascher and Gago both played, but Gago and Cambiasso togather is still possible as the formation would look more like the offensive variation of 4-4-1-1, where Gago and Cambiasso line up more diagonally so wingers will get to play at higher positions.
Mascherano should only appear in 4-2-3-1 from a substitution to perserve advantage.

The outside midfielders in this case need to be disciplined wingers that can pull back to maintain their defensive formation. So our choices are: Lucho, Veron, Messi, Riquelme, and Aimar, in that particular order... Lucho should play right since that's his natural side, so Veron could take up the left spot in order to free up Riquelme for CAM. In the case a substitution was made to morph some other formation into 4-2-3-1 in order to maintain a lead, Cambiasso could be free'd and would be ideal for one of the wing positions, so for the 2nd lineup option he should be LWM... In this case, Lucho should be right wing and there's no need for Veron.

Riquelme is the first choice for CAM position in 4-2-3-1, but for the purpose of indicating his capability to substitute in at the positions, I'll put Aimar at CAM on the optional lineup.

The only real forward in this formation is obviously a target person. Crespo is the ideal choice, and Milito 2nd.


Return to Part.1
4-3-3
4-3-1-2

To Conclusion

Further explorations of the 22 (4-3-3)

Return To Part.1

4-3-3 is one of the most confusing formations, partially due to its resemblance to the result of a catching-up substitution to a 4-4-2. When teams playing 4-4-2 were losing, coaches often bring in an offensive player to take over from a midfielder.

In fact, the common 4-3-3 is an evolution of 4-2-4. In a 4-2-4, 4 defenders are lined up closely to provide good coverage left to right; The 2 midfielders are actually half backs to screen for the defenders and support them vertically; This 4-2 setup making it very defensive (like 3-4 in NFL). At the same time, there are alot of space in the midfield so both midfielders need to know how to initiate attacks, or the ball will never get to the 4 forwards up top. Some of the forwards also need to back track in order to have better connection with the midfield. Compared to 4-2-4, the common 4-3-3 pulls back 1 forward so the midfield could be stagged and have better connections with the front. When playing 4-3-3, the midfielders would usually stay in formation and move across the field like a screen, so 4-3-3 is actually also a defensive formation like 4-2-4 where attacking routines are usually initiated in the midfield.

However (here comes the tricky part), the 4-3-3 formation deployed by Argentina is actually an evolution of 2-3-5! In 2-3-5, the 3 midfielders are also half backs so the formation can mark 5 attackers at the same time. 2 backs mark the 2nd attacker to each wing, other 3 attackers marked by the 3 midfielders. The center midfielder in 2-3-5 could be viewed as a CM and is of great importance because he would need to mark the center attacker at the same time organizing offensives. In Argentine 4-3-3, the 2 side midfielders of 2-3-5 were set into the defensive line, then 2 attackers were pulled back to become midfielders. So in our 4-3-3, the center midfielder had the same job as the CM in 2-3-5, while other 2 midfielders were capable of offensive duties. Outside forwards in Argentine 4-3-3 usually stayed very high up so it remain a 5-5 balanced formation, like 2-3-5.

In this 4-3-3, the center attacker should stay higher than the other 2. With 5 offensive players, it would only make sense if at least 1 of them constantly hangs in the box. This is the primary difference between 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 diamond.

So, the 4-3-3 played by Albicelestes is a balanced formation that uses 2 outside midfielders to assist the CM in ball transportation. The CM is also a CDM and must mark center attacker of opposite team.

We have 4 midfielders that are capable of CDM position. Lucho's recent performance probably hurt his chance at such important role. Mascherano is the best defensively but not as good as Gago or Cambiasso in offensive organization and ball distribution so only Cambiasso and Gago are suitable for this position. Between these 2, Gago's defensive techniques seemed more refined than Cucho, but Cambiasso is probably little more experienced and has a better understanding of offensive composures. The defensive responsibilities of the CM in 4-3-3 should overweight his offensive duties because there are 5 other offensive players. Condition being he must be able to make correct choices of targets to pass to. From this point of view, Gago beats Cambiasso to the position.

Now the 2 outside midfielders. The 2 outside forwards should be allowed to channel and displace freely. So, the 2 outside midfielders must be able to play anywhere from center midfield to opponent corners. The CM also needs their assistance to disrupt opponent possessions. Cambiasso and Lucho should be our 2 defensive choices; While Veron and Riquelme being the more offensive 2. Since Gago will need help defensively (as demonstrated in friendly vs. Switzerland), at least one of the outside midfielders needs to help him. The other guy though, will likely be a playmaker from the side, so we don't risk being cutoff at midfield. I think Lucho in form would be the ideal defensive outside midfielder, that's probably why Basile chose to test him again in the friendly against Algeria despite his poor performance vs. Switzerland. To me, he performed quite well in the 2nd match. If Argentina ended up playing 4-3-3 and Lucho had earned Basile's trust, then I think we can expect to see Luis González on the right.
Then the other outside midfielder will likely be a left playmaker. Veron, Aimar and Roman are the 3 that have experiences in the job. Aimar steers better from center, and Veron is usually more defensive than Roman. On top of that, Riquelme is well experienced with the left playmaking role while Veron had played more towards the center for the later part of his career. I hate Veron, but honestly that's not the reason I would pick Riquelme over him for this spot. Riquelme is simply a better left playmaker.
First pair: Riquelme-Lucho; Second pair: Cambiasso-Veron.

With a left-hammer-right-anvil approach to the 4-3-3 midfield, attack line of the same format should also be expected. Or in other words, if vise versa, Veron and Cambiasso started, then a left-anvil-right-hammer forward lineup should be employed accordingly. Again, the center forward needs to stay high and be the target man. Tevez-Crespo-Messi should be first choice for either orientation.



que haya una ilusión después de Diego ...

One of the interesting aspects of 4-3-3 is that in the case Argentina pulling out this formation, Messi would likely be starting at the same position he had played all year long with his club team, Barça. In the 17 league games Messi played after coming back from his injury, he totalled 14 goals; scored his hatrick against Real Madrid with a 10 men Barça to equalize the game; duplicated Maradona's goal of the century (in fact there are quite a bit of differences between the 2 goals, perhaps some discussion around this subject should be brought up in the future); and steered the team without Ronaldinho to a 2-2 draw against city rival Espanyol (scoring both goals only to be equalized by opponents in the 90th minute) - all from the right front position of this 4-3-3 formation. How well he understands the position isn't even a legitimate question, and it's definitely an asset if we play 4-3-3 somewhere during the Copa. The question is, whether the advantage gained from playing Messi at his usual position can offset the generic shortcomings of 4-3-3 formation.

Fans of messi often talk about his similarity to Diego, especially now with the goal against Gatefe and the Mano de Dios 2007. I agree that some the things can't be ignored, but deep down, I still believe messi's style resembles a different classical footballer who played mostly in this 4-3-3 formation modified from a 2-3-5, and that is no other than
the most famous exponent of the football philosophy known as 'TotalFootball', the legendary flying dutchman and three time golden ball winner, Johan Cruijff.




I also believe it was no coincident that Messi plays for Barça which had been under so much Cruijff influences. On top of that, he plays in the 4-3-3 formation made famous by Cruijff's 70' Holland national team.

Regardless of the differences and similarities, there's no doubt Messi will get better and better, and there will be more incinerating displays of football at its highest level from our boy.

*A note to those yelling "Messi is a hype" or "He's a cheat that uses hands", I would like to say: "You are watching football from a totally different dimension than the one we live in. That's why you can't overlook the little imperfections and enjoy living in the same age with these colossals." The bottom line is, one can't argue that the performances from players such as Messi and Cruijff make our hearts pump and blood boil, and this is why we love the beautiful game so damn much!





back to the topic.

when the 2 offensive midfielders of 4-3-3 push upfield, the CDM and the entire backline also need to push up, so the spaces between the lines remain ideal. This also means the formation would be more susceptible to counter attacks, and consequently threatened by enemy breakaways, fouls, cards and set plays.
However, even with Frank Rajkaard's resurrected 4-3-3 Barça failing over and over at stopping counter attacks, we should not allow ourselves to show leniency towards negative football! As a reminder, please repeat the following three times: Negative -- Football -- Is -- Baaaad.
Counter attack is not just killing 4-3-3. Many other modern four back formations also require the entire backline to push up in order to allow more offensive plays, and therefore suffering similar fate.

But with only 1 defensive midfielder, and not a pure one, 4-3-3 definitely has the disadvantage in this area, similar to 4-3-2-1, which was used in the recent match against Algeria.
Argentina scored 3 goals only to conceive 2 from successful counter attacks and got a 3-2 out of the friendly. In that game a variation of 4-3-1-2 was used and we had 60% possession with 80% of the game played in opponent's half!

Offensively, that game was quite successful and we didn't get more goals only because some the chances weren't taken properly. But defensively it was quite a disaster. The friendly exposed some serious problems with the NT backline. We can only wish that coco's selection and this short period of training were enough to fix these problems in time. having them exposed in the friendlies though was absolutely a good thing as these sync errors would of hurt us hell lot more in real matches.

4-3-1-2 is actually more defensive than 4-3-3 as the CM in that formation will be more of an CDM than the guy in 4-3-3. But 4-3-3 is more offensive and offers more attacking options, so it's hard to say whether 4-3-3 would of done better or worse in the recent friendlies.

We should also avoid measuring our defensive capabilities purely by the performance from those two friendlies. The team needed time to sync, reform and become more organized. In international competitions, the teams that showed remarkable condition early on usually couldn't go far because their synchronization were forged by long term practice as a unit. To gain such experience, the players need to be mostly or all of domestic origins. In many cases, these players were avaliable for training but not necessarily the most technically gifted, and often lose eventually to teams made up with very talented players who weren't very familiar with each other at the beinging of the tournament but managed to find their form and sync'ed up during course of the competitions.

GoTo:
4-2-3-1
4-3-1-2

To Conclusion