The formation that I like to call a close relative of the 3-5-2, this formation does basically everything that episode 3’s one does with the caveat of having an extra attacker who has the intention to operate in between the lines and cause havoc for the opposition. Ofcourse, with the extra attacker, this means that your solid three man midfield has been turned into a 2 man conundrum… So, we will have to take that into consideration when we are choosing the most balanced and effective team that we can possibly utilize…
DEFENCE
We start our look at the 3-5-2’s cousin in goal, with the current Spanish no.1 Simón aiming to showcase his ball playing skills from the back. This formation is very centrally biased so the central spine of the XI will be increasingly important. Mattias De Ligt is a traditional ‘B.P.D’ who is good on the ball and possesses the ability to play more riskier passes to his teammates; Konaté and Laporte provide different attributes, with Konaté being more of a defensive stalwart who will keep things very simple on the ball while Laporte is more of a neat player who will look to impose himself in possession.
MIDFIELD
The midfield pivot consists of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Moises Caicedo who may not be the most adventurous on the ball but will always provide a hunger and tenacity to do the best that they can in possession. Caicedo in particular has a knack of running past players so that will become handy from time to time during spells on the ball. The ‘WB’s’ are one of the most important players on the pitch as they will provide both width and attacking chances from a variety of different methods. The one position that makes this formation a potential league winner is that golden AM(C) behind of the front 2. Get this player right and he just might win you the league. In the case of this XI, we arguably have the best player in the world for this position and role as the entire team was built solely around getting the best from him. The width provided from the ‘WB’s’ and the extra protection from both the back 3 and double pivot will mean that Messi has zero defensive work to do and will cause him to be a complete nightmare for his oppostion.
FORWARDS
The 2 F(C)’s main job is to make runs as much as they can while putting themselves into positions to score. Every single aspect of this team’s attack will be going through one man and all the other players have to do is finish the chances when they come to them.
DEFENSIVE TRANSITION
If it’s one thing that this formation allows us to do is to give at least one player that we may deem as a key component for when we’re attacking some rest, since they won’t have to do any sort of defending during the defensive phase. The reason for this is due to the fact that this formation has enough protection from the defence and midfield for you to have what is considered a “Slacker”. Normally, this slacker will either be one of the F(C)’s or the No.10, and in this XI in particular, it is safe to say that Lionel already will not be doing any sort of defending regardless of wether he’s playing within this formation or off the right in a 4-4-2. Everybody else will perform the same defensive work similar to other 3 at the back formations like the 3-5-2 or 3-4-2-1 (Which we’ll be getting into next week…).
And with that, we’ve come to the end of the first week within season 9! Hope you’ve been learning lots, Soccermanagerites!
Have a wonderful weekend, get some W’s, and we’ll see you back here first thing on Monday! ⚽ 💚
The Soccermanager Experience 