Tactical Analysis of 442 System
TACTICAL ANALYSIS OF THE 4-4-2 FORMATION AND WHY COACHES STILL USE THIS "OLD FASHIONED" FORMATION.
After the W-M formation, the 4-4-2 is the oldest set up in the game. This system ruled English football for many years before the 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 and a back five became the trend.
Sir Alex Ferguson recorded a massive number of victories at Manchester United with this formation but why do top managers still use the 4-4-2 in modern Football?
Diego Simeone, the biggest advocate of the 4-4-2, regularly sets his team in this way. Former Valencia coach, Marcelino used this setup in his two seasons at Valencia, winning the Copa Del Rey and finishing in the Champions League places in both campaigns.
Pepe Borgalas is performing miracles with Gatefe, his side narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification last season. Borgalas's Getafe plays hard pressing, Counter-attacking and rough tackling football that put them in fifth place in La Liga before the suspension of football.
Leanardo Jardim used the 4-4-2 at Monaco when they won the French League title and reached the Champions League semi-final, eliminating Pep Guardiola's Manchester City on their way.
In this article, we'll discuss, how the 4-4-2 is used in different ways. There is a "usual" way of applying this setup with two strikers ahead of four Midfielders (Atletico Madrid style) or having a diamond midfield behind the front two. This setup was regularly used by Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham and Marco Giampaolo at Sampdoria.
Zinedine Zidane favoured the 4-D-2 during his first spell at Real Madrid. He picked this system to win two Champions League finals (4-1 vs Juventus in 2017 and 3-1 vs Liverpool in 2018). Even Maurizio Sarri, who was stubborn with the 4-3-3 at Napoli and Chelsea, has used the 4-D-2 at Juventus this season.
4-4-2 with a Dimond Midfield
The shape of the 4-D-2 setup⬇
Right back CB CB Left back
Midfielder
Midfielder Midfielder
Mid/For
Forward Forward
The four-man midfield diamond is absolutely brilliant for controlling possession, as most teams play three-Man midfield. Ask any coach or an expert and they will tell you that if you can control the midfield, you will win most matches.
Zidane and Pochettino use this Formation as they love to Control the ball. Pochettino side really played 4 defender, diamond midfield, and two attackers in certain games. While Zidane’s Madrid played 2-3-2-3 during an attack.
On paper, there was a diamond, during the game it was hardly ever there. Meanwhile aside from hunger for possession, Maurizio Sarri is Using the 4-D-2 to get the most out of Ronaldo as the Portuguese do not want to do defensive work.
Along with controlling possession, this formation is brilliant as you can use the pace of your front two to get behind the defence as most modern teams play a high backline. With most teams playing two or three midfielders, the four midfielders of this setup can control possession and the two Forwards can try to Get behind the opposition Backline.
As this is a very narrow system with no traditional wingers, The fullbacks have to provide width in this setup. J.Cuadrado (a winger) has played as a fullback for Juventus this season whereas, Real Madrid's Marcelo is an attacking Left back, so he is perfect for this role.
Liverpool's 4-D-2
Some people will disagree with this point and argue that Liverpool deploy the 4-3-3. But in reality, With Roberto Firmino dropping deeper and very high fullbacks, Liverpool's attacking shape is actually 4-D-2 most of the time. You need proof? well, This is the average position of Liverpool players during their buildup phase.
Mane Salah
↙Firmino↘
Wijnaldum Henderson
Fabinho
⬆Robertson T.A.Arnold⬆
Van Dijk Matip
Now, compare this Liverpool setup to the shape of the 4-D-2 that is mentioned above and you will see the similarities. Let's be clear that Liverpool do not always stay in this shape.
There is a lot of rotation among the forwards, midfield runs and counter-pressing when the Reds attack. But Liverpool does build attacks with a diamond midfield, if someone disagrees with you, show them this article.
Weakness of the Dimond Midfield
Like any other system, the 4-D-2 also has some weaknesses. As mentioned earlier, this setup does not use traditional wingers, so there is a problem for the team to create width in attack. Full backs are used for width but that can work against your team if the opposition decides to attack the space left by your Full backs.
Liverpool has encountered this problem. Jurgen Klopp's team try to get around it by using one of their midfielders to cover the space left by their attacking fullbacks.
Another problem is about covering the opposition full backs. Predominantly, teams using their own wingers to cover the opposition fullbacks. But as the 4-D-2 does not have wingers, so smart coaches will use both of their full backs while attacking against this setup.
For Example, Zidane deployed this setup in the 2-2 draw against PSG this season. Thomas Tuchel, the PSG coach, instructed his full backs to attack relentlessly, Juan Bernat was especially involved in attack from Left back.
The diamond midfield has a glaring weakness in the defensive shape, when a switch of play happens, because this shape is very narrow. Therefore some teams decide to defend in a straight 4-4-2 instead of in a diamond. Additionally with a 4-D-2, as you usually have an overload in midfield there are teams that press inside instead of outside (For example Jose Mourinho’s Inter).
The positions the strikers between the centre-backs and the fullbacks and press them with curved runs to force them to dribble into midfield, where the 4-D-2 has a 4v3.
Another huge problem that a team can run into is If their forwards have a bad day. As this setup is extremely reliant on the two forwards in the attacking phase, so, If the forwards miss a few opportunities, then your team will struggle big time.
Diego Simeone's 4-4-2
For all the talk about innovation and new tactics, Diego Simeone still uses a tried and tested 4-4-2 at Atletico Madrid. Los Rojiblancos have reached two Champions League finals, won two Europa League titles, one Copa del Rey, a European super cup as well as a historic La Liga crown in 2014.
Simeone does use the 4-3-3 occasionally but Atletico mostly goes with two strikers, four midfielders, who work Extremely hard and a solid back four. In this system, one of the two strikers helps out in midfield (Griezmann did this a lot), while the other forward stay upfield for counter-attacks, a reason why we see Atletico scoring lots of goals on Counterattacks in European competitions.
Simeone's 4-4-2 These Days ⬇
Morata Felix
Correa Saul Thomas Koke
Lodi Gimenez Savic Trippier
At their best, Atletico Madrid is a combination of solid defending and ruthless Counter-attacking. It was demonstrated in the 4-2 aggregate win against defending European champions Liverpool this season.
This strategy works sensationally well in the Champions League as the likes of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus look to control possession but Atletico just back their defence and look to hit the opposition on fast transitions. However, this strategy can be a double-edged sword sometimes.
Before upsetting Liverpool, Atletico scored only 43 goals in 36 games in all competitions. But Simeone has been particularlyly vocal this season about Atletico sticking to their values and he mentioned that they have always been a Counter-attacking team and they must stick to it.
The four midfielders in Simeone's team have to put double shifts. They have to drop deep to make a wall of four in front of the defence and then they must support the attack.
That's why Simeone has sold the likes of Carrasco and Arda Turan, who did not like to run too much. The two central midfielders of Atletico are responsible for creativity and to shield the back four.
Simeone’s 4-4-2 is not entirely an old-fashioned 442. A major difference is that old-442’s played with ‘real’ wingers that stayed on the sides. However, Atletico mainly positions their wide forwards in the half-spaces.
This gives them much more of a central presence and allows them to create more central overloads. In addition it puts them in better positions for counter-attacks.
As Simeone uses attacking midfielders (Lemar, Saul, Koke) instead of wingers in his 4-4-2, so a new attacking trick that Atletico are using this season is to Push trippier high on the right, with Koke covering for him.
Many people were surprised when Atletico signed Trippier this summer because the England fullback has defensive weaknesses but Simeone has signed him to attack from the right wing and almost play as a winger.
Here is how the Atletico shape forms, when they push Trippier to put crosses in the box.
Morata Costa
Correa↗ Saul Trippier
⬆️Lodi Thomas
Koke
Gimenez Savic
Crystal Palace's 4-4-2
Roy Hodson's 4-4-2 is a bit different as he uses Wilfred Zaha (a dribbling obsessed winger) along with a striker. It is extremely rare to see a two-striker partnership in modern football anyway.
Roy Hodson, because of limitation of his squad at Palace and his own limitations as a coach, has frequently used this setup. The reason for using Zaha in the front two is to limit his defensive duties.
Zaha is by far the best player at Crystal Palace and he has the freedom to Roam around.
Conclusion
Even with new tactical innovations, the 4-4-2 can still do a brilliant job.
The setup may not produce the most beautiful football. Diego Simeone at Atletico and Borgalas at Getafe have had to deal with some criticsim after their respective wins against Liverpool and Ajax.
The 4-4-2 is brilliant for counter-attacking football and some national team coaches have used this formation where they had a restricted amount of talent.
Even though very few teams use the 4-4-2 as an attacking formation, a very big portion of teams use it as their defensive formation.
Ernesto Valverde's Barcelona and Guardiola's Manchester City defend in the 4-4-2. So I would say it may be one of the most used formations at the moment, especially in the defensive part of the game.
