14 Aug 2014 11:02:25
3-5-2 has now become the latest "fashionable formation" after several successful teams used it at the World Cup. Manchester United will be deploying it under LVG.

3-5-2 has it's benefits sure, you can drop 5 at the back of you're under the cosh, you can flood a 3 or 4 man opposition midfield with 5 players using your wing backs. You have an outright number 10 and of course, the luxury of two strikers up top. I still feel Arsenal need to play four defenders with one DFM, 2x CM, 3 x Attacking players and a striker up top. This would be a 4-1-2-3-1 that is essentially 4-3-3 also.

We all know that Arsenal won't play 3-5-2 because that would actually require us to have THREE centre backs!

What are everyone's thoughts on formations?

1.) 14 Aug 2014
Greeny, 4 1 2 3 1 means you have no keeper. Glad your not my accountant! You would need to drop one of your CM's or attacking players but agree otherwise.

2.) 14 Aug 2014
4-1-2-3-1? No space for Szczesny? :/

3.) 14 Aug 2014
Lol that has made me laugh Greeny. I think like you say we need to stick with the 4-3-3. Get the DM in and build the foundation from that.

4.) 14 Aug 2014
14 Aug 2014 11:35:11
Liverpool played it last year and had to change back to a flat back four. The problem with wing backs is that your always going to get hit on the counter and get exploited on the sides. Thinking Utd will struggle if they play 3-5-2 the whole season. Just have to play 2 vs 1 against the wing back and the whole formation will crumble

5.) 14 Aug 2014
My thoughts are 4-1-2-3-1 means we have one to many players on the park.

6.) 14 Aug 2014
4-1-2-3-1?
In that formation are we not ganna play wit a GK?

Cuz if we do we'll b having 12 players on th field.

7.) 14 Aug 2014
I think you'd do an amazing job to get your 12 men on the pitch in a 4-1-2-3-1 formation.

8.) 14 Aug 2014
Never been a big fan of the 3-5-2 formation Greeny. I like to watch football dominated by attacking players, so the idea of having 5 defensive players on the pitch leaves me cold. Unless of course the 2 wing backs were Theo and Sanchez style wingers rather than converted full backs. I think a manager would be brave to try that though!

9.) 14 Aug 2014
Ha! I'm a doctor not a mathematician!

Apologies! We're so good we don't need a goalkeeper, but you catch my drift?! Ish?!

10.) 14 Aug 2014
That's why we have pharmacists to count the pills Greeny -:)

11.) 14 Aug 2014
Indeed YYC! It's been a long night on shift! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

12.) 14 Aug 2014
3-5-2 requires a lot of tracking back by the wingers, and absolute concentration on the task.

a player getting past the wingback means the central defender has to come out wide taking his positional advantage away, if you have a speed demon in the middle then the task gets even harder.

the way the game is going, especially with defenders turning into strikers and strikers turning into one hit wonders, having a backline to handle the pressure and spread the pitch is vital.

Dani Alves bombing down for barca does not have the advantage it once had about 4-5 years ago.

bayern also faltered many times with the same strategy.

while LVG has won all his pre season games I don't think most united fans will agree they have been outstanding.

while I do agree if they land Vidal they would have a player who plays on both ends with an abundance of energy and will drop deep to cover any lapses from central defenders.

my formation of choice is 4-1-4-1

however this relies on havig a striker upfront who has an abundance of pace to use the wing play, or a striker who can bring the midfield into play while creating a open midfield with interchanging positions.