5-3-2: Is it all that? - My post game thoughts

Following an uneventful performance yesterday against a solid MK Dons side, many of the travelling City fans came away disheartened at what had been a rather limp display. No creativity, an inability to pass and a lack of movement were the cries from the deterred Sky Blue Army (Especially from those on Sky Blues Talk), with some still calling for the return of ‘God’ (that’s Carl Baker to the non-believers) to ‘make things happen’. For me the main reason for the performance yesterday and those previously, stems from the 5-3-2 system Pressley has chosen to deploy, a system that has come into prominence following Louis Van Gaal’s inspired use of it throughout the Netherlands successful World Cup campaign.

5-3-2 is in no way a flawed system however it is only needed in certain situations, in certain games. Van Gaal initially implemented it to counter the tiki-taka style of the Spanish in their opening game, the way they soaked up possession and at specific moments broke out in slick counter attacks, worked so well that Van Gaal saw no reason to change it. His loyalty to the system almost lead to an embarrassing exit to minnows Costa Rica, who were afforded far too much time on the ball which lead to them maintaining sustained periods of possession. The Dutch squad contained the players to romp to an easy victory over the Costa Ricans, in theory, however Robben, Van Persie and Sneijder were left unnecessarily isolated as seven Dutch individuals (The back five and two defensive-midfielders) sat ignorantly behind the ball. I’d seen this Dutch team ease to qualification destroying equally matched teams to Costa Rica, (Romania, Hungary and Estonia) playing the classic Dutch style of 4-3-3 and yet for some reason they had decided to set up in an overly defensive system against a weak opposition (In reality a surprisingly naïve mistake from an experienced manager).

This is where Pressley needs to be a touch shrewder, in my opinion it is perfectly fine playing a 5-3-2 system away from home against opposition that will be fighting with us for a place in the play-offs (I consider the point gained yesterday a very good one indeed). Against lesser teams and especially at home however, we need to go out and attack teams like we did last season, whether this be in a 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 it doesn’t really matter. What is key to our success this season, is setting up in a way that enables our forward players to get into the areas where they can positively affect the game, which is unachievable in a 5-3-2. For the majority of yesterday we had eight men behind the ball, the five at the back are relatively flat and the wing backs attacking threat is rather limited. The midfield three are similarly flat and find themselves passing sideways and inevitably backwards to a centre half, who ends up putting his foot through the ball and thus possession is lost.  

The strikers in our ranks all look more than comfortable on the ball and have scored goals at some point in their careers (barring McQuoid), what they are not is target men, they need support, they need advanced wingers to give them service, they need to be given the opportunity to turn and run at the opposing defence and ultimately they need options. Jordan Clarke doesn’t possess an attacking bone in his body, so we are relying on an 18 year old novice to provide any width in the team, which highlights the attacking limitations of this system. One of John Fleck’s best attributes is his ability to switch the play with consummate ease, however in this system he cannot do this, his options are to pass left to Swanson or right to O’Brien who then concede defeat and play the ball backwards. These players are creative but they can’t get into positions where they can use this creativity, which leaves the strikers with little to play off, barring their own individual brilliance. From a defensive point of view we have improved marginally, however a lot of our defensive errors are down to individual mistakes (As was evident with Webster yesterday). If it wasn’t for Reda Johnson we could have easily lost the game, he exudes everything you want from a captain and with this in mind I’m positive he could marshal a back four just as well.  Listed below are the possible alternatives open to Pressley, each offer us a more balanced style of play in which we can remain defensively stable whilst carrying a consistent attacking threat.