Cruyff's 3-4-3

[House of Flies]

We have a squad that is capable for a dream team return of 3-4-3

we have seen glimpses of that in this season as one of the side backs is always defensive... and also given the fact that abidal is on his way out and sylv's age along with the factor of not getting a good lb and having plenty of capable defenders... do you think this tactic will return to the forefront?

we could definitely see this dream team formation part II next year

valdes
puyol-marquez-pique
alves-toure-xavi-iniesta
messi-villa-henry

or

asenjo
henrique-milito-caceres
alves-busquets-xavi-keita
messi-bojan- iniesta

we have the squad depth and kinda the perfect 4-3-3 to easily transform it to a 3-4-3. If this change occurs, I would be really curious about how much we overwhelm the opposition by.

 

[Barca!]

That's quite interesting. My only concern would be if Alves would be as effective in the midfield as he is from the back.

 

[House of Flies]

thing is that alves isnt effective in the back as he spends all this time attacking... we are usually defending with a defensive minded leftback and two center backs with dm...

i would love to see a reincarnation of this tactic which has sadly disappeared from modern game.

 

[FCBNOF]

That's quite interesting. My only concern would be if Alves would be as effective in the midfield as he is from the back.

Alves is a natural winger not defender, and he's better suited attacking.

We played against Boca juinors this season in the friendlies 3-4-3 and almost lost the title to Boca if it weren't for 2 late heroic goals.

 

[nebeer]

Very interesting thread you have started here mate. Just now I was wondering about different tactics and different formations as I was trying to work out my Perfet XI for the other thread. I was also toying with the idea of three center backs and perhaps 5 players in the midfield and 2 up front. Though 3-4-3 is very interesting to ponder as well. What I genuinely wonder is why 3-4-3 formations are so hard to find these days. The use of 4 players at the back has become rather very very common these days. As far as I can guess, a line up with 3 solid center backs and a DM should not find it difficult to cope with the opposition's attack. The only problem might be to counter the wingers from cutting in or putting crosses in the box. An advantage of this formation can be that the right and left midfielders can combine with the respective wingers on both flanks to play through both the wings. I honestly think that managers today may perhaps experiment with this style of play and bring in a little variety into the game. We should try to find out whether this formation can work in today's football.

 

[Andres Iniesta]

I think guardiola needs to think about this... imo it could be a good change but only in games we need to score, our actually 4-3-3 give us almost the same options, we put yaya on midfield on is right position and with a more attacking player in our left defense we have almost the same.

 

[House of Flies]

the reason why we were crap during the 3-4-3 against boca was that our style didnt mature into what its today. this team oozes total football from its pores. the fact that our front three pressure so much along with the fact that we spend so much time in the opposition half, i think next season and i do hope that guardiola does this is to reincarnate the 3-4-3...

as seen as in the formations that i posted... we would need 1-2 players maximum with the technical ability to match this squad and the workrate. the reason why this tactic would work is highly dependent on workrate... if we do bring 3-4-3, every guy/man/dog will rave about barca.. no doubt in my mind that we would plummet every opposition.

 

[VivaBarca]

We could give it a try but we should stick to 4-3-3 in my opinion.

 

[Warik]

Played something similar earlier in the season, against Shakhtar away for example.

----------------- Valdes ----------------

----- Pique --- Marquez --- Puyol -----

Alves ---- Toure ---- Xavi ------- Keita

---------------- Iniesta -----------------

---------- Eto'o -------- Henry ---------

Just change around which players were in what position slightly.

It didn't really work tbh.

 

[AnfieldEd]

I think you'll get ripped to shreds with that formation. Unless you have Rio Ferdinand, Sergio Ramos and Chiellini as your defenders..........

Your current formation works - why fix it if it ain't broke...

 

[Beast]

and who said Barca play 4-3-3 ? you haven't even played 4-3-3 at all under Pep, not even once this season.. your formation is strictly 3-4-3 with 3 CB and Alves plays more upfront then at the back ..

i remember praising him earlier this season for deploying some of the Italian tricks @ the defense on another forum.. the LB hardly move forward he is more a CB deployed on the left role.. Alves is seen in the defense rarely ...
so u do play 3-4-3 all season.. hell even PES 2009 update in Feb/March adjusted Barca formation to 3-4-3 (just check the default for Barca now )

 

[evilhita666]

It really depends on the workrate as said above, not to mention a lot of practice... What concerns me the most about this tactic is that long balls could really kill us...

Rijkaard used this tactic sometimes, but not always to great success, so it depends too on the mindset of the team, right now we have the right mentality and strenght to try, so Pep could experiment it in not so important matches...

 

[House of Flies]

rijkaard was a pure idiot when it came to tactics... warik that formation that you posted would kill us on the width...

3-4-3 with width is a potential killer tactic... and edward, some of us like soccer not the boring 4-5-1 that liverpool plays and still manages to not win anything with

 

[Warik]

rijkaard was a pure idiot when it came to tactics... warik that formation that you posted would kill us on the width...

I know, what I posted is what we played against Shakhtar away from home back in October...and we did get killed in that game from the flanks. Point was we have tried a more traditional 3-4-3 but it doesn't work.

------------------- Valdes ---------------------

------------ Pique ------- Marquez ------ Abidal

Alves -------------- Toure ----------------------

------------- Xavi ---------- Iniesta ------------

Messi -------------- Eto'o ---------------- Henry

Is what we have played most of this season and as Beast points out that is pretty much a 3-4-3, or as close as you can get to 3-4-3 without being suicidal in modern football.

 

[Metaphysical]

pep is awesome.

what I'd love is if we could sign a wmd left-back so that we don't ALWAYS have to play alves to play the 443/343.

and then in home games when we wanted to go for it we could play both wmd's.