It was 4-4-2, a traditional style from back in the day. Except if one of your big men is also fast, then this can be a real problem for the defence of the oppo as we saw. In addition, Dykes drawing them into the middle where they did not want to go ala Harry Kane style worked well. If one of the oppo's CB's follows him, then Armstong is 1v1 with space to run into behind, hence all the lobbed balls in the corner. If they don't then Dykes can be an extra person in the middle to feed Chair or Willock. It worked so well in that game that Paal and Cannon didn't even have to come forward so much to do 1:2's to get down the flanks for crosses as they have had done so much in the past. This also means if the oppo gets the ball, then there are few gaps to play players through onto as our whole back 4 is already in place. Works great, as long as the dropping forward can hold the ball and pass, which Dykes did really well, and the other forward has the pace to run onto the corner lobbed balls, which Armstrong does. If, we can improve that a lot more, I am not sure how defences will be able to counter it. Everyone drops deep, except Armstrong, Cook or JCS lob it into the corner for Armstrong to run onto 1v1. Or played into Dykes who is free in the middle to then feed out to the wings. This could get us a lot of goals if its doable again. We shall see. | |