⚽Why Formations Are Overrated

Fussball Coach
January 26, 2025

Hello and welcome to the latest edition of our newsletter! In this issue, we’re focusing on the following topic:

⚽Why Formations Are Overrated
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⚽Why Formations Are Overrated

Formations are often overrated in tactical analysis.

Knowing that a team defends in a 4-4-2 formation when out of possession tells you almost nothing about their behavior on the pitch. Are they applying attacking or defensive pressing? Do they operate with a zonal or man-marking approach? What pressing triggers does the team use?

All these critical questions arise from tactical analysis, not from the formation itself. If you want to analyze a team’s tactics, the first step is to focus on their tactical methods. A formation alone reveals very little about a team’s strategy.

Of course, formations cannot be entirely dismissed. They serve as a basic framework, giving players a general idea of their roles on the field and how their teammates are expected to behave.

For the players, it makes a difference whether their team operates in a 4-3-3, a 5-3-2, or a 3-4-3 formation. The spaces they need to occupy shift accordingly, as do the opponents they will face.

In essence, the formation provides players with a structure that helps them understand their position on the pitch, the positioning of their teammates, and the placement of their opponents.

Adaptations of the Formation:

Football is not a static sport. Players are not fixed to their formation like foosball figures stuck on a rod. To use a military analogy: the formation is like the battle plan that a general gives to their troops. However, in the heat of battle, they must independently decide when to stick to the formation and when to deviate from it.

This is why it’s incredibly rare for a team to rigidly stick to a single formation. Instead, the formation is constantly in motion, adapting to the dynamics of the game.

Players frequently move out of their positions for various reasons. It’s often difficult to pinpoint whether a team is playing with three, four, or five defenders, as defenders frequently step out of position, and the defensive structure is constantly shifting.

In fact, this is one of the advantages of a five-man defense: defenders can step out without leaving too much space open in that area. Teams that play with a five-man defense often use the concept of the defensive triangle when a player steps out. The remaining four defenders can close ranks and continue to cover the width of the space effectively.

Inzaghi’s Inter Milan is a prime example of this strategy.

However, this is just one example of how a formation can shift. Sometimes a defender moves into the midfield line to disrupt an opponent, or an outside forward drops into midfield to help out in their own half. In practice, teams are constantly transitioning between different variations – this is a tactical choice. As a result, formation labels are always just rough guidelines and are rarely clearly identifiable on the field.

Defensive vs. Offensive Formation:

When a team plays with a five-man defense, commentators often say, “They’re playing a mix of a five-man and three-man defense.” This rarely refers solely to the defensive formation. More often, it highlights the difference between the team’s formation when the opponent has the ball and when the team is in possession.

Defensive Formation

Few teams set up the same way when in possession of the ball as they do when the opponent has it. In the specific example of switching between a three-man and five-man defense, this means that the outside defenders push up into midfield or even into attack when the team has the ball. So, the team plays with a three-man defense when in possession and a five-man defense when the opponent has the ball.

Offensive Formation

Conclusion:

The formation is a framework, not the essence. In modern football, it’s not the arrangement on paper that matters, but the dynamics, flexibility, and interplay on the field. To truly understand the sport, one must look beyond rigid terms and recognize the tactical subtleties that define a team. Football thrives on movement – the formation is simply the framework for a complex, constantly evolving game.