Time to abandon this 4-2-3-1

Its not about the formation. Its about getting players in front of the ball in possession and press the hell of out the opposition when we are not in possession. We are failing at both after actually being better at both things after OGS took over.
This can be done with a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 or with a 3-4-3 which was/is Bielsas preferred formation, who is the father of offensive football. The importance of the "formation" is so overrated. Too much FM for some people.

Johan07 said:

Its not about the formation. Its about getting players in front of the ball in possession and press the hell of out the opposition when we are not in possession. We are failing at both after actually being better at both things after OGS took over.
This can be done with a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 or with a 3-4-3 which was/is Bielsas preferred formation, who is the father of offensive football. The importance of the "formation" is so overrated. Too much FM for some people.

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Of course formations come from FM :-). I surprised coaches even talk about formations as they are clearly irrelevant.....

On a serious not it obviously we have not got the personal for this formation especially with pogba both out and not chosen for the '10' when he is fit. HE is the only player on current for who could play it. As mentioned above you also need quality in the '2 midfielders' which we are struggling for. Combine that with us not having a forward who can hold the ball up to be '1' or the wide players who would fit in the wide spots in the '3'. Have I missed anything?

If we played a 4-3-3 it would help the midfield compete and give them 3 fast options up front allowing the style of football Ole wants to play. I'm struggling to understand why it's not his goto formation especially with the current lack of options. Formations should complement the play style we are going for - fast transitions and counter attacks would work much better with 3 forwards instead with have AM's who can't pass forward and one forward who isn't running channels for said passes and who can't hold the ball up for midfielders to run beyond.

I've reached a point where I'll just be happy to see some forward passes.

This is where Bruno Fernandes could've been interesting. No point having 90% pass completion when no one is taking initiative and risk. And to be honest if passing forward is seen as some sort of maverick risk taking adventure then you can see why we're fecked.

Playing the "United Way" indeed.

GazTheLegend said:

That cnuts woke up this morning thinking he’s a tactical genius

His sides shite and it makes it even worse somehow that it’s him and his brand of football that have seriously smashed our season to pieces once and for all

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What has Bruce done to deserve being called a cnut? His record with us shits on all of our players combined as far as dedication and results are concerned.

Kostur said:

Doesn't matter if it's 4321, 433, 451, 442, 343 or some other shit.

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The bottom line is, these players are simply not good enough, either in talent or in their attitude.
Of course, it also doesn't help that so many are played out of position, and that's an accusation that Solskjaer is responsible for.

Completely agree with this thread. We need to scrap the double pivot. The system is too rigid and we don’t have a number 10 with enough quality to play it.

I’d look at going back to a 4-3-3 and potentially even a 3-4-1-2.

By going to a 3-4-1-2 we can have AWB and Shaw providing us with width, a false 9 playing the ‘1’ Martial and Rashford and Janes wide.

I’d love to see this line up vs Liverpool:

De Gea

Lindelof
Tuanzebe
Maguire

AWB (RWB)
Shaw (LWB)

Pogba
Mc Tominay

Martial

Rashford
James

NinjaZombie said:

This is where Bruno Fernandes could've been interesting. No point having 90% pass completion when no one is taking initiative and risk. And to be honest if passing forward is seen as some sort of maverick risk taking adventure then you can see why we're fecked.
.

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I think that there is something of substance to this, and it's not a recent development, its been at United since before SAF retired.
Thinking back to the CL finals against Barcelona, after those games, I thought it was noticeable that we tried to play more possession based, patient football, and we've been trying to do it ever since.