Howdy my beloved soccermanagerite! Hope all is well ( As a matter of fact, why not share how your feeling in the comments?) As I stated in a previous episode, there are A LOT of different variations of the 4-4-2 formation, and today we’re going to take a look at yet another one. Yep, that’s right, the 4-4-1-1 is indeed a 4-4-2 variant! This formation, consisting of 4 Defenders, 2 Central Midfielders, 2 Wide Midfielders, 1 Supporting Attacker and 1 Forward, rose to prominence back in the early 90’s as teams were looking to find a way to gain an advantage against their 4-4-2A counterpart. So, some smart bloke deciced to make an intelligent risk and play one of his forwards in a more “widthdrawn” position. Alas, the 4-4-1-1 was then born! With its birth came a lot of confusion for opposition Central Midfielders and Centre Backs as that Support Attacker ( also called “Second Striker” or Shadow Striker) would constantly operate in an area that we now call ‘between the lines’ leaving himself a lot of space to cause a lot of havoc. In today’s version of the 4-4-1-1, I have to say the king of this formation has got to be Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid. Between 2010-2017, Atleti would normally opeate using this formation in an era when majority of teams were playing in a 4-3-3, and in both variations of the 4-2-3-1 ( which we’ll discuss in upcoming episodes). Thanks to Simeone, we were able to see the likes of Griezmann, Correa, David Villa, and recently Joao Felix all blossom under his tenure in that Supporting Attacker role.
PROS
• The Supporting Attacker can have a variety of roles ranging from Advanced Playmaker, Deep Lying Forward, and Shadow Striker (with the latter also being known as a “Dummy Runner”
• Formation can easily be converted into a 4-2-3-1B
• Formation allows more stabilty in the center of the park compared to 4-4-2A
CONS
• Formation is still susceptible to teams that play through the middle (as most 4-4-2 formations are except for the 4-4-2C and 4-2-2-2)
• The Supporting Attacker cannot be a number 10 ( like a Maddison or a James Rodriguez) as the player needed for this role must be comfortable playing as a F(C)
• To get the best out of the Support Attacker, he needs to be paired with a more physically dominant Target Man
I really like this formation (mainly because I’m a huge fan of Simeone’s Atleti) and I believe its one that’s absolutely worth taking the risk and playing.
The Soccermanager Experience 