A bit pedantic that, it's for ease of reference when typing. We know what people really mean as technically the '2' and the '3' are clased as midfielders. Add that together and you get...
Said we played Barcelonaesque last night. Most players can do it, all they need to do is up the fitness level a bit, practise hard and a manager that gives them the freedom to express themselves. I thought they were playing 4-2-3-1 at the start, but as the game proceeded, you could see they were running all over the place.
I think your find a lot teams Play 4-2-3-1 In attack and switch to 4-5-1 without the ball. While formations tend to be more fluid in attack there will still be some forms of structure, some teams play a very fluid game but these are very disciplined teams where players know to cover the gaps which takes a lot of practice but essentially your right Flyer it's the defense structure which needs to be disciplined. Adel would defend in a 4-2-3-1 formation same as he did on the wing last year he has improved this part of his game massively, I think your being unfair to him.
I agree, he worked his socks off tracking back towards the end of the season, not 100% sure, but I think it was the spurs games where this was most evident.
We played 4231 under warnock and were constantly caught on the break when the whole midfield were forward, 451 is much more solid and the 4231 has a man playing off the front man, as Taarabt used to do it under Hughes weve always had 3 proper midfielders there playing a fair bit further back and usually Derry furthest back of the lot so the former has an attacking midfielder and the latter has an extra defensive midfielder instead.
