Today, we come to the end of the 4’s series with a formation that can actually be considered a ‘cousin’of my beloved 4-3-3’s ( I also have a love affair with turning formations into relatives…). The 4-3-2-1 is a narrow formation that has a very similar set up to the 4-3-3. Often called the ‘Christmas tree’ formation, it consists of 4 Defenders, 3 Central Midfielders, 2 Advanced Midfieders/Supporting Attackers and one Forward. This formation is yet another one that has a primary task of allowing its user to dominate the centre of the park. Similarly to the 3-4-2-1, The 2 Supporting Attackers can be played by a wide variety of players with various different roles. This formation suits a posession dominant manager who wants to overload the centre of the park with as many numbers as possible, thus causing the opposition to be pulled out of their defensive positioning due to the constant rotations of your attack minded players.
The 4-3-2-1 was actually introduced to the football world back in the early 2000’s thanks to the “Don” himself, Carlo Ancelotti. Don Carlo played this formation, alongside the 4-3-1-2 back when he was the manager of that famous AC Milan team. A quick note on that AC Milan team, as they were freakishly strong back then. Most people say that the greatest club side ever was the Barcelona team between 2009-2011, but I would put my money on the Milan team of 2004-2007 being better. I get it, that Barca team won 2 Champions Leagues, but when it comes to player vs player theres no way that the Milan team from 2004-2007 would be beaten. As a matter of fact, if we were to go player for player based on both of their strongest X1’s, here’s how’d it will look:
GK: Dida vs Valdez ( Its got to be Dida) 🇮🇹
RB: Cafu vs Dani Alves ( As much as I love Dani Alves, there’s no Alves without Cafu) 🇮🇹
RCB: Nesta vs Puyol ( That’s 3 for 3 from Milan) 🇮🇹
LCB: Stam vs Pique ( Most people will choose Pique due to his popularity, but Jap Stam is the modern day Virgil Van Dyk. Don’t believe me? Check out his highlights on YouTube. Milan 4 Barca 0) 🇮🇹
LB: Maldini vs Abidal ( Sorry Erik, but you’re up against the greatest Defender of all time mate) 🇮🇹
DM: Pirlo vs Busquettes ( The hardest decision on this entire list. I honestly don’t know who to pick so I’m going to choose based on personal preference. Uhhh, it has to be Busquettes, who behind Messi and Xavi, is Barca’s greatest player of that generation. Barca are on the board! Milan 5 Barca 1) 🇪🇸
RCM: Gattuso vs Xavi: that’s 2 for 2 from Barca as there would be no soccermanager blog( or no soccer in general) if it wasn’t for my childhood favoutite, Xavi. The man that made me fall in love with football. Let’s not sleep on Gattuso tho, as he was the heart of this Milan team brining aggressiveness, bite, energy and great attitude. Gattuso was a freaking pitbull but Xavi is the greatest Midfielder of all time… 🇪🇸
LCM: Iniesta vs Seedorf: Barca are making a comeback here! There’s not a lot to separate these 2 honestly, but Iniesta was a different breed of player man. Milan 5 Barca 3 🇪🇸
LF/LW: Villa vs Kaka: Milan has just knocked Barca’s momentum as they’re back on the board with 2007 Balon d’or winner Kaka. A fantastic player! This man was the most un Brazilian player you’d ever see. No skills, No flair. Just pure efficient genius. But let’s put some respect on David Villa because If it wasn’t for Messi, he’d probably have been considered Barca’s poster boy at the time. What a player! 🇮🇹
RF/RW: Pedro vs Gillardino: A very interesting match up indeed. Amazingly, both of these men would be considered the least talented or least popular out of every other player in each position, but both would start in almost every other team at the time. It’s got to be Pedro tho, right? A selfless player that every team needs in order to be great, and when it comes to trophy cabinets there’s not a lot of players that can compare to the little Spaniard. Milan 6 Barca 4 🇪🇸
CF: Messi vs Shevchenko ( Shevchenko’s reputation was tarnished due to his poor spell at Chelsea but, mark my words, this man was one of the top 3 Strikers in the world back in his prime. He was an absolute nightmare to play against. Strong, accurate, devilishly quick and a master finisher. Shevchenko absolutely deserved his balon d’or back in 2003, but it was always a non contest honestly. I just had to give him his props because he was never even in contention. As a matter of fact, there’s no other player (besides CR7) who can be spoken about in the same elk as Messi. What else can I say that hasn’t been said about the Argentine? The best finsher in the world, best passer in the world, best technical dribbler in the world. The 2nd greatest player ever ( behind the 🐐 ofcourse. #SIUUUUU!). 🇪🇸
Wow! Well that was entertaining, wasn’t it?! Almost went completely off topic there. But it was actually closer than I thought with the final score ending at 6-5 to Milan. I’d still always choose that Milan team tho because once they get in front, you could have 6 Messi’s on your team and you still won’t get through that defence. Alrigty, back to the 4-3-2-1 formation…..
PROS
• Very effective against formations that play with a 2 man midfield
• A lot of bodies in midfield makes it very possible that the centre of the pitch is dominated
• CM can be any type in this formation
CONS
• Formation is susceptible against teams that play down both flanks
• Wing backs have to be excellent going forward as they need to provide width as well as attacking threat from out wide
• Formation not suitable for Wingers and Wide forwards
What a great way to end the 4’s series! The fun is not over tho as we still have 6 more formations to go through. Any one up for some high ‘5’s? Stay tuned soccermanagerite! ✌️
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