4-5-1

Depends if you think it is 4-3-3 when attacking. It may be in theory but not in practice.

By the way, I heard a good exchange on R5 last night on a similar issue. A City fan was on moaning about how Mancini plays the wingers on the “wrong” wings. He reckoned Petrov hadn’t beaten a man since being put on right wing when he’s got no right foot, and he’s playing Wright Phillips on left. Waddle reckoned it was a foreign manager thing – they’re not into players getting to the byline for crosses – they want players cutting in and playing 1-2s with midfield/forwards on their best foot, leaving them better able to defend if they lose it. To me that is dull, safety first football, and not an effective way of attacking.

There is no point in any of our wingers putting a croos into the box as we only ever have one attacker in the area being marked by four defenders.

KTF…If you played 4-3-3 properly with wingers on the correct wings, and players doing their job properly you’d have 3 players attacking a traditional byline cross. These would be the centreforward, the opposite winger coming in onto the far post, and the attacking midfielder of the three doing a Platt/Scholes/Lampard/Gerrard and hitting the box.

As Waddle said last night though, this is not the philosophy of foreign coaches in general, who seem to prefer trying to play their way through the crowded middle.