.... and I am so glad it worked out well vs Newcastle. The thing is that it is tactically sound if the opponent plays with a high defence, since their two central defenders will have a hard time trying to figure out who is going to make the deep run. In theory it could be any of the 6 midfielders ... not to forget any of the fullbacks, that makes it a total of 8 possible threats. Against a tight and deep sitting defence it doesnt work that well unless you have physical tall midfielders who can make the run into box and "occupy space". We hardly have any of those. Denmark played a sort of "4-6-0" back in 92 when they won the euros resulting in most goals coming from midfielders. The good thing about the 4-6-0 is that you have 8 pressing players and its easy to get a counterattack going if the wingers are extremely fast, it also helps with very fast midfielders ... but again we lack a bit of pace in the central midfield. From what I have seen Canas seems to be the fastest .... without actually being that fast. What we have though are technically gifted players and I do believe we should play this formation more often against teams who are superior on paper. Once Pozuelo and Dyer understand that if they dribble past one opponent it doesnt mean they dribble through the next 3 waiting I truly believe this is a formation we should use against "superior" teams.
I know what you mean but I did notice that without a target front man we often had nobody in the box when the wingers got forward. That's a drawback of the system. But it did work well last night. Laudrup's view is here. He's specifically asked about it at 9.30 if you want to skip: [video=youtube;C13nau0uJMU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C13nau0uJMU[/video]
Strangely enough Michu being injured is the best thing that has happened to us as I have seen a change in attitude the past few games where the players seem to be working harder as a unit as they don't have the option of relying on Michu to score etc. If we keep playing like we did last night when Michu and Bony return, then things will be looking good. As for Jonjo, he's starting to look like a really good player now
I agree valley, but we need to build on this now, and go on a run of a few good wins before the Christmas break!............. Daniel good post, and some very good observations by you, but it does have it's limitations, and you cannot guarantee a result like last night, and don't forget Newcastle were awful after the second goal, it surprised me how easily they capitulated against us, with no real front row to talk about!........
Poz definitely does this too much and loses possession unnecessarily. I thought we looked more creative and dangerous with no front man It'll be very interesting to see what Laudrup does with everyone fit again. Things are definitely looking up though.
Good Stuff But I don<t agree with you. Yesterday when we played without a striker we did<ent create (real) chances in first half (what so ever - much play but no chances) until a lucky goal forced NewCastle to drop their defensive formation. First then when NewCastle had to puch forward could we counterattack and our 4-6-0 formation worked perfectly.
