Football Formations - 4-4-2

To keep this blog more alive and active, I have decided to include weekly articles by coaches around the world on football formations. Feel free to leave your comments as you see fit. Since this is the first article, we should explore the most popular formation: 4-4-2

The 4-4-2 is probably the most popular and commonly used of all the soccer formations in the modern game.

So the defence therefore consists of a left back, a right back and two centre backs. The midfield then is made up of a left midfielder (or winger), a right midfielder (or winger) and two central midfielders- one of whom will probably be more defensive than the other.

Four defenders: you are well covered at the back without detracting from the numbers you need in attack. If you had five defenders then you may not have as many attackers as you'd like, but with this there is a good balance.

As for the midfield, in soccer it is crucial to dominate your opponents in the middle of the park because then you can direct the game. Four in midfield gives you sufficient numbers in midfield and should cover both wide positions and central ones. Perfect! As for up front, two strikers should normally be fine. You'll often get one out and out goal scorer and another to just play off the main striker.

With a diamond formation, one of the central midfielders drops back to become a defensive midfielder sitting just in front of the defence. The other pushes on to support the strikers and sits just behind them as a sort of play maker. The two wide midifielders are then brought more inside to close up the gaps and the full backs might then be the ones expected to attack down the wings.

Team Analysis:

Personally in a 4-4-2, the problem we will have is who to start in the center two? Although Max is currently doing the defensive mid's job, it is Jason that provides more variety, i.e. he can attack from deep as well as defend, as opposed to Max's one track-minded batter-them-down approach. And then who do we put at the head of the diamond? Would it be Siang or Poay or Derek? Not to mention we still have Benni! Each individual brings something different to the game. Poay has a lot of flair but lacks the stamina... Siang has great vision and his passess are first class, yet he's not as pacy... Derek's an intelligent player in the mould of Scholes (simple short passess) with amazing fitness, but our playing style prefers fast-paced-pumping-the-ball-to-Wes Brown tactic - so would that be suitable? Then there's Benni who's like David Ginola... a footballing genius when his mood permits him to be so. But the formation favors Heng and Brown as Heng holds up the ball for Brown to get into space, thus reducing him being off-side (mostly). It's kind of like Heskey and Owen for England... a big target man to compliment the 'lil guy.. err.. except Brown's not really tiny. Plus, it's great for Keon and Ming to capitalize on the gaps made by Brown's running. However, for it to work... Heng needs to get the ball and the midfielder's need to pass him the ball. Sometimes, all we do is pump the ball over the defence for Brown to sprint.. bypassing Heng! Which makes Heng disoriented.

Ramblers Win Free School Derby!

The challenge was thrown down to Barcelona by a (manager) Michael full of confidence after his hat trick two weeks. Let's play. Two weeks later, the local (Saturday) Free School derby took place. Although not as intense as the Fla-Flu, AC-Inter, Rangers-Celtic, Arsenal-Spurs or even Singapore-Malaysia, it was still a match neither side wanted to lose with pride at stake - if only for the fact that they would see each other every Saturday for the next year!

Orange had to play 'away' on the smaller rugby pitch would perhaps suited the older Barcelona side more as they were familiar with the pitch and had less space to cover. The Ramblers players arrived incredibly late - I thought there would be many a willing player who wanted to be part of the occasion. After driving from work like Xavi sorry Fernando Alonso, I was only the 7th player available! Players dripped in as the seconds ticked on and it was a formidable team to face the Orange of Barcelona with Fajar making his first appearance in 2009 alongside Chard at the back with Poay making a (rare) effort to be there to add creativity alongside the Gattuso-esque Max and Au. An attacking trident of Ming flanked by Heng & myself saw off the line up and it was one with pace, experience and energy.

Considering the close rivalries between the two teams, it was a surprise to see the first half completely dominated by the team in pale blue. By the time the referee blew his whistle for half time, the only surprise was that there was only a one goal difference between the two teams. The goal had a whiff of controversy about it as Barcelona stopped in anticipation for a free kick after Ming had pulled down/accidentally collided into Wong, Barca's central-defender. However Heng concentrated on the task at hand and whilst everybody else had stopped, he took the opportunity to control the bouncing ball and ram the ball hard and low past goalkeeper Alex.

There were many other chances before that - Derek had the first one but dragged his shot wide of the far post, Ming with his energy had the defence at his mercy twice but failed to work the goalkeeper sufficiently both times whilst Heng travailed hard on the left. However he did get his reward! The midfield worked well enough to crowd out any passing opportunities by Barcelona and it was rare to see them string 3 passes together. I think it was an almighty shock to their team system and I'd imagine they wouldn't like to play against the hard working duo of Max and Au every week. I always thought that Barcelona would struggle to come up with a plan B if plan A didn't work and this proved to be the case.

Their tentative plan B was to hit the ball long which was ridiculous with the pace of Fajar and the reading of Chard protecting Chris. Keong was having no trouble on the right with Derek covering him for extra protection whilst I thought they might use speed of Rajiv to test the legs of Michael on the left. Strangely it was a tactic that they underemployed and whilst they had limited success, Chris really found himself with nothing to do but admiring the sunset behind the opposition's goal. However the best plan of the first half was the pre-determined incredibly short corner routine that Derek and Heng copied from Rooney and Giggs (ManUtd vs Chelsea). It was probably too good - none of the Ramblers's players even mentioned it after the match - which they surely would have if Heng's left footed delivery had been as good as Giggs's!

The second half saw a better Barcelona team come out but whilst they did better in midfield, they found themselves exposed to the pace of young Ramblers's players on the counterattack. However it was old man Derek who gave them early warning but subsequent runs saw Ming with just the keeper to beat whilst Ah Or had a hat-trick of similar chances. The problem with missing chances when you are 1 nil up is that however badly the other team are playing, they will always get themselves one chance - and that could be all they need. Fajar provided that chance with his extravagant gifts failing him as he attempted to dribble through two opponents... on the edge of his own penalty area! After I saw him getting caught and seeing the ex-pro Barcelona striker advance on goal, I had resigned myself to the fact that we would have to fight back to regain the lead.

However Chris did incredibly well to stand up and not give any obvious spaces for the striker to aim for so the striker did what all strikers are trained to do - aim across the goalkeeper for the far post. However Chris's leg deflected the ball out and whilst we were breathing a sigh of relief, he was able to get up on his feet again to save another shot from the rebound. And that was really all he had to do the whole match - it was a sign of great concentration that took Ramblers to the finishing post.

Both teams sensed that was a crucial chance spurned (rather like Darren Bent's 4 yard miss several hours later) and that it was going to be that sort of day. Whilst Barcelona threw men into attack, the defence & revamped midfield fought resolutely (nearly literally in Chard's case!) to give no semblance of a clear chance to the team wearing orange. However the team formerly known as Orange were able to sign off the year of the Rat with a victory & claim the bragging rights to Free School's strongest team... until the next game!

(written by reporter Derek)

Paya Terubong cut down

A spirited Paya Terubong side was cut down by goals from Heng, Ming, Au, and Ah Or in a friendly match that was anything but vintage Ramblers. Although the opponents gave us quite a fight, hitting 2 goals past Chris, they were powerless to stop a rampaging forward line out to prove themselves in the absence of several first-team regulars. Heng (pic) got the ball rolling by thumping a low left-foot shot into the bottom corner of the post to give us the lead in the first half. However, with CRC's Siu Keong on their left-wing, Paya Terubong mounted several promising attacks of their own, but sadly with despairing results. The back-line of Tee Oon, Michael, Adrian and Keong held firm throughout with Chris virtually impenetrable in goal. Their only real threat was when Chris failed to hold on to a low shot, letting it squirm under his body to roll towards goal only for Adrian to recover and clear of the line.

In the second half, with desperation on their faces, Paya Terubong attacked from the get-go. The raids were coming in thick and fast on our right. But with Keong (Max called him Mad Dog/Seow Kau in Hokkien) "unleashed", Paya Terubong's only real threat was nullified. However, they did pull a goal back to tie the game when their midfielder floated in a ball from out on the right, with Adrian vertically challenged and failing to head out the danger, the opposing striker cooly chested the ball down and placed his shot low to Chris' right. 1-1.

But our response was swift as it was deadly. A free-kick won on the left allowed Ming to step up and put the ball into the net to restore order ala Christiano Ronaldo. Then minutes later, Au, taking a pass from Ah Or, and making his first appearance in nearly a month, volleyed a sweet 20 yarder into the top corner to make it 3-1. And yet Paya Terubong refused to throw in the towel. With Rambler's back-line flat-footed and flagging for off-side, their substitute striker raced towards Chris' goal and slotted their 2nd goal past him. At this point, Max was getting annoyed. Rallying his troops, Ramblers continued pressing forward to try and end the contest. And Ah Or responded with aplomb.

Final Score:

Ramblers 4 - Paya Terubong 2

Jan 1st Tournament and The Unbelievable Hattrick!

Please read the latest reports on the 2 events by clicking on the above title. You will then be redirected to Derek's blog site. Our blog editor will be back next week. Happy New Year!