Not Quite A 4–5-1

Don Howe has an attempt at explain­ing the 4–5-1 system that is dom­in­at­ing the Eng­lish Premi­er­ship, over on the BBC’s foot­ball pages. Howe misses the mark through not adeqately out­lining the trans­ition roles in attack and defence. More import­antly, he fails to grapple with the fact that modern sys­tems employed by teams like Chelsea, Bar­celona and Brasil have 4 banks of play­ers, not 3. How Chelsea play is not adequately explained either by ref­er­ence to 4–3-3, or 4–5-1, but is more accur­ately a 4–2-3–1, or 4–3-2–1, depend­ing on the day. I’ve been an advoc­ate of 4–2-3–1 for many years now and as the European season pro­gresses I’ll make some time for a few more posts on foot­ball tac­tics and systems.

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