Welcome back to a brand new week of your favorite Soccermamager content brought to you by the good people over there at S.M.B! 😎 Hope you’re ready, since we’ll be diving into today’s episode as swiftly as Eden Hazard used to glide past oppostion defences all over Europe…
We continue our look at the ‘3 at the back’ series with one of my personal favourite 3 at the back bonanza. The 3-4-2-1 is a formation that is all about playing some of your better technical diminutive players along side more traditional hardworking players who will do most of the off the ball job while your central front 3 causes havoc upon your opposition with their technical capabilities. This formation has been used for quite a while now, but the one team that I have to say was an integral part of making it a modern sensation was Antonio Conte’s Chelsea that normally consisted of a front 3 of Hazard, Willian/Pedro and Diego Costa. If you remember anything about this team, you’ll know that they were absolutely incredible to watch when in possession (which was ofcourse aided by having some very attack midned ‘Wingbacks’ in Marcus Alonso and Victor Moses who were then protected by N’golo Kante, Nemanja Matic and the very difficult to break down back 3 of David Luiz, Cahill and Aszpilicueta). You should consider obtaining a very similar player profile within your use of this formation, but not to worry as we’ll be diving into what I personally believe will be the most balanced XI to get the most out of this brilliant formation.
As I’ve been mentioning within a few episodes last week, season 9 is all about identifying the most balanced XI for every formation within Soccermanager. So, there will be no going over what tactics to implement, throughout the entire season
In the centre of the park, we have the creative juggernaut that is Jorginho (who I believe is a very underrated creative player) partnered with the legs of Scottay Mctominay who will run for 90 minutes without fault. As I mentioned earlier, Conte got his Wingbacks playing quite effectively and you can expect the same from the very attack minded Dumfries and DiMarco.
FORWARDS
In the front 3, we have players who are all about creative brilliance in both Bernardo and Felix who will have a lot of license to roam around and do whatever they please with the added incentive of knowing that Jorginho is the man tasked with being the conductor from deeper positions. Their tasked with providing their main F(C) with as many balls as they possibly can and in Alvaro Morata, they have a player who has good movement and is always willing to stay on the shoulder of his defender to open up even more space for his attacking partners in crime.
DEFENSIVE TRANSITION
This formation is arguably the most flexible in terms of allowing a manager to change it’s shape based on the defensive scenario of a match. It can comfortably be converted into a 3-4-1-2, 3-5-2, 3-4-3, and a 5-4-1 when out of possession which will be dependent on your tactical set up, ofcourse. For the case of this starting XI, it is likely that the formation will be converted into a 3-4-3 or 5-4-1 due to the players at our disposal and the match situation. With the 3-4-2-1 having so much versatility, it will also help to have some versatile players who have a good amount of football intelligence within your starting XI (well, that’s an actual necessity for every formation now that I think about it, lol)
What a great way to start off the week, and we can’t wait to have you back here for tomorrow’s episode! 🌟
The Soccermanager Experience 