Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...
Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...
International Weekzzzzzzzzzzzzzz: the worst weeks in the football calendar
The Week In Ball
International Break. Not for the women's game no, but the men have been on their jaunts around the world for various flavours of game from World Cup qualifiers to Nations League matches.
The first thing to mention is that, following their less than ideal performance in the Euros, France managed to bag the Nations League after beating Spain 2-1 with a controversial goal from Kylian Mbappe.
England, Wales and Scotland have all managed at least one win, with the second matches for England and Scotland yet to be played.
As an aside, this is a very nice little video featuring some of the England squad
Elsewhere the rest of the results went pretty much as expected. Germany won their games and the Netherlands, despite thumping Gibraltar 6-0, also had this disallowed goal from Wout Weghorst
Away from the international matches, the takeover of Newcastle United by, basically, Saudi Arabia, was completed leading to an outpouring of every emotion known to man. I've not read much about it but my ill informed opinion is that this is gross and yet another vile example of sportswashing by a revolting regime. With so much money sloshing about in football it long lost any claim to be a pure business with stand up ethics and no shady dealings but having such an explicitly murderous state involved sticks in the throat.
For a satirical yet pretty good potted summary of the situation I recommend reading David Squires this week (as I do every week to be fair.)
Kick Off
This week we're going to tackle another formation, the 4-2-3-1, sometimes referred to as the Christmas Tree formation, pretty!
The formation consists of four players in defence, a left-back, right-back and two centre-backs, a five man midfield with three more defensive/centre mids and two attacking and finally a lone striker. Due to the compressed nature of the midfield this is a narrow formation with width provided solely by the full-backs.
Take a look at the diagram above though and you will see that there are ways in which it could be stretched, The attacking mids can be asked to play wider, leaving the central midfield to be patrolled by the centre mids. You will see of course that when the attacking mids stretch their positions the formation becomes more akin to a 4-3-3 which we discussed last week. You could also ask the wider two of the three centre mids to stretch their position as a when the game play dictates.
The main benefits of the formation are its flexibility and the way it packs midfield with five players. At any point you can easily move into another formation (as alluded to above) without causing too much disruption to the positions of the players (as we know all manner of things can go wrong if a player is played out of position).
Having a packed midfield means you can dominate possession and stretch and break down the opposition simply by passing the ball about via the many channels open to you. All you then need to do is have your striker find an opening so they can do their business.
So then, another requirement or at least preference, for the 4321 is a world class pure striker. This article talks about how this formation was used by Jurgen Klopp during his Borussia Dortmund days, a time in which he led them to a Bundesliga victory, but that it wasn't fully unlocked and used to its full potential until the arrival of one Robert Lewandowski from Polish side Lech Poznan. I don't think that needs any further explanation!
Naturally, the advantages detailed above can also be disadvantages. With a crowded midfield you have fewer players elsewhere on the pitch. In addition, with the only width being provided by the fullbacks, any team playing against this system can take advantage of the spaces left. Because of the lack of options up front it makes fast, counter attacking football difficult and is therefore a fairly defensive structure.
It's fallen out of favour lately and was last used consistently by Milan under Carlo Ancelotti in 08/09, being a defensive minded formation it will come as no surprise that these last users are Italian, nor that it's crept back on occasion in the Italian leagues.
I hope you're enjoying these forays into tactics, I'm certainly learning lots as I research this section. As always let me know if you want anything in particular covered.
The Offside Thirst Trap
With the news that he might be making his first start for PSG against, ironically enough, Angers, this week's Thirst Trap is ex-Real Madrid bad boy Sergio Ramos. You can hate him for what he did to Mo Salah, you can cheer Eric Dier for the crunching tackle he made on him, you can think he's ostentatious, arrogant, a bully but fuck he's hot. From first appearing properly on my radar in the 2008 Euros with his fresh face, long hair and lack of tattoos, he's aged like the finest of wines. He cut his hair, covered himself in some incredible tattoos, grew his hair again, had a nose job (sure sure, it was after he was injured, OK) and is now the delicious beast we see before us. I could go on but you know, you're probably reading this before the watershed and some thoughts should be kept private.
Football 'eritage
Touching briefly, as I did, on Newcastle earlier, let's remember better times for the club and the 95/96 season where they ran Manchester United close.
The campaign has become infamous for one thing above all others and that's Kevin Keegan's rant against Alex Ferguson which has been parodied and quoted more times than I've had hot dinners.
Irked by Fergie's suggestion that Leeds and Forest weren't trying against Newcastle and might even deem to throw the match to allow Newcastle to win, Keegan lost it during his post match chat with disgraced Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
Perhaps the most bizarre thing, which I've only just noticed, is that Keegan repeatedly refers to Forest as Notts Forest??? As any football fan knows, it's Nottingham Forest or just 'Forest' and Notts County and never the twain shall meet.
Anyway, below is a bit of background with footage of Fergie's trolling.
Extra Time
This week I've got a few things to share:
Firstly, I am a convert. I was skeptical but now I am reborn. Yes, I've watched all of Ted Lasso. If the only thing you've seen of it is the clumsy, joke filled trailer that came out before the first series then I can understand your desire to steer clear. However, like thousands of people before me, I'm here to tell you that it's so much more than that. Sure it has its schlmaltzy moments but it also has so much heart and joy and warmth. Yes there are funny moments but they're actually funny and there are other deeper and more adult moments that stop it becoming too much. I binged both series from Friday to Sunday and cried through almost the entire thing and I can't even explain why. The music and some of the moments are definitely contrived to elicit an emotional response but others made little to no sense! I've queried this reaction on Twitter and everyone agrees that it just gets you that way. It's also the quickest in a long time that I've become entirely invested in the fate of the characters put before me. Oh, and the football stuff is fine! None of it is embarrassingly bad or wrong, it's simply as you would expect: sanitised and reduced to its essence. The TL:DR is simple - watch it.
Other stuff to mention this week is this incredible tale of a Championship player thrust into the one of the most intense footballing spotlights, South American team fandom, and having a ball with it: Read Ben Brereton-Diaz's story here.
Something I'm enjoying a lot is the Athletic's X vs Y debates including such gems as smart vs scruffy, tall vs. short and bearded vs. clean shaven.
Finally, although it's not up at the time of writing, this week sees the release of a special 50th Episode episode of Wrighty's House, which you just know is going to be good.
Incidentally, on the 25th of this month Musa is curating a night at the Social in central London culminating in a chat with Ian Wright. I've got a ticket so why not join me!
For comments, clarifications, questions or corrections drop me a line at thewayutalkaboutball@gmail.com
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