Another formation thread but 442 is having a revival in European football, Leicester won't a league playing it, Real Madrid are playing it, Barcelona are playing it, Juventus in the second half tonight, Fergie would be in his element if he was still in charge. Could it be something we take on?
---------------De Gea---------------
Valencia--Bailly--Smalling--New LB
Lingard--New CM--Matic--Pogba
--------Lukaku------Sanchez--------
What do you think CAF?
A variation of this is the 4-2-2-2, and defensive 4-4-2 with 2 CDM.
If just purely flat 4-4-2,
EPL imo is a no go, but CL games can be effective against some sides. Could be a useful formation with the right settings i.e. systematic roles for each player.
A big problem is for me we don't have the right combination of good form and available players for an effective starting 11 for this formation.
(Lingard and Sanchez tend to cut in and play narrow where they could make best damage. Lingard is not impressive as a side midfielder. For the side, only 3 players are on paper are suitable; Pogba, Mata and Rashford. The option is very limited. Martial is similar a bit to Ronaldo here, eventhough he improves his defending, Martial is a far better LW or LAM than an LM. The fullbacks are very important here, as they need to overlap and stretch the wings always, which we doesn't have much option. Pogba works best with a natural attacking LB so Shaw in this case. Problem would be having our LB exposed defensively on the left. Mata and Valencia is fine on the right. Herrera and Matic combo on the centre should work. Defensively especially the side would be more exposed, so need two excellent on form CBs that can sweep left and right, Bailly to cover Valencia, and Rojo to cover Shaw. Sanchez would attack the left and drop deep behind Lukaku like what Rooney often do playing with RVN/Saha. Lukaku would attack both centrally and the RW and be the target man.)
Probably a better version than those:
---------------De Gea--------------
Valencia---Bailly---Rojo---Shaw-
Mata---Herrera---Matic---Pogba
--------Lukaku-----Sanchez-----
Subs: Romero, CB??, Young, CM??, SM??, Rashford, Martial.