The 4-3-3 formation
Chelsea, Formations, Newcastle
The 4-3-3 formation usually places two wingers either side of a centre forward. This approach has been employed with the most success in English football recently by Chelsea. Jose Mourinho introduced this approach upon his arrival to the club and would usually play two wingers next to Didier Drogba or Eidur Gudjohnsen. Mourinho therefore had a significant number of players in his squad who could take on an attacking wide role, namely Damien Duff, Arjen Robben, Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips. This approach has been continued by Avram Grant and in their last Premier League fixture, Cole and Solomon Kalou featured on the flanks with Drogba playing down the middle.
This 4-3-3 is to some extent a variant of 4-5-1 but with the wide players pushed up as wingers rather than wide-midfielders. However, these wingers will retain some defensive responsibilities and the formation may resemble 4-5-1 in a tight game or when a narrow lead must be preserved. With wide attacking players, the midfield under this 4-3-3 should take up a narrow shape to prevent the team from being over-run in central areas. During Mourinho’s early days at Chelsea, Claude Makelele took up the defensive midfield position with Frank Lampard and Tiago the more advanced central midfielders. Therefore, broken down further into its constituent elements, Mourinho’s 4-3-3 resembled 4-1-2-3.
At Newcastle, on the other hand, Kevin Keegan has recently assembled three centre-forwards at the head of the formation. This is the team configuration Keegan has fielded in recent fixtures, which have included the comprehensive defeat of Tottenham at White Hart Lane last Saturday. The three forwards were Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Viduka. In contrast to the 4-3-3 with wingers, this trio are usually associated with central striking roles. Rather than shoehorning these players into a ‘conventional’ 4-3-3 and pushing two of them into wide positions where they may not be comfortable, Keegan accommodated them by playing Owen in a withdrawn role as a support striker. 4-3-3 was therefore 4-3-1-2. Tottenham actually deployed a similar formation in this game and placed Dimitar Berbatov behind Robbie Keane and Darren Bent in attack.
4-3-3 in this instance mutates into a variant of 4-4-2, with a striker dropping to take up a position akin to an advanced central midfielder. However, the midfield may need to take a compact centrally-focused shape to provide defensive solidity. As this is an adjustment of 4-3-3 the player dropping deeper than the forwards is less likely to provide defensive coverage than a regular advanced midfielder under a 4-4-2. Positioning Michael Owen behind the forwards is an attack-minded move and therefore the midfield must provide some counterbalance. Almost paradoxically, the narrow attacking shape requires support from a narrow midfield: if the midfield took up a standard left-to-right spread this would leave the team very exposed in central areas. This 4-3-1-2 approach could thus also be considered to be a 4-4-2 (diamond) with Geremi and Joey Barton slightly more advanced than the holding midfielder Nicky Butt.
A possible shortcoming of Keegan’s approach is a lack of width. Mourinho’s 4-3-3 is predicated on attacking width with the wingers given licence to attack down their respective flanks. With Keegan’s 4-3-3 the forwards are retained centrally, and the midfield must also stay compact to provide counterbalance to the attacking focus. But with three players positioned as forwards there should be sufficient flexibility for one or more to drift into wider areas. The full-backs may also have additional scope to push forward.
Keegan appears to have reinvigorated Newcastle, at least temporarily, and their 4-3-3 formation was certainly sufficient to overcome a lackadaisical Tottenham side. However, I feel the classic 4-3-3 with wingers provides a better balance of central and wide on-pitch coverage; more astute sides may be able to shut down Newcastle’s attacking approach whilst exploiting its shortcomings.
Edward @ March 20, 2008
