I think what he's getting at is that in a 442 you apply extra defensive duties to the wingers, creating two banks of four when we lose the ball with the strikers taking care of the opposition defenders if they want to come forwards. In a 4231 system the wingers do the defending higher up the pitch to pen in the opposition fullbacks because there's only one striker, which means that the defensive 2 of the 3 in the middle need to be more solid because it's easier for the opposition to try to exploit the gap between the full back and the winger. For visualising, when the defence is 10 yards in front of the penalty area in 442 you've got 4 midfielders just about on the halfway line, with 4231 you've got 2 sat on the back of the centre circle and 3 running across the pitch at the front of it. It's a valid point normally, but I think it's undermined by the fact we appear to be instructing our wingers to man mark their wingers, which quite often sees them reluctant to advance too far ahead of the full back when we've got the ball, and even has them dropping in behind them the second we lose it.
I've got fun and games, but heading out the opposite way. Flying to SFO the day after the Leicester game then landing Heathrow at 10:40 on the day of the Coventry match. It's going to be touch and go getting there in time.
