Formations, Formations !

A brief History of tactical formations.

When football first began, the whole purpose of the game was to attack the opponents goal, there was really no concept of defence or even midfield, other than to get the ball back into the opponents half as quick as possible.

Early formations resembled how children play football at a very early age, all running in a big group around the ball with the odd one or two hanging back ready to kick the ball away should it come clear of the pack towards their goal.

Way back in 1872, when England played Scotland in the first International game, this was certainly the case, as England's formation was 1-2-7 and scotland's was 2-2-6. The six or seven forwards would dribble the ball up the field and when they were blocked out by the opposition they would kick the ball forward for their fellow attackers to chase. The Scottish players departed from 'tradition' by working in pairs and passing the ball to work their way forward.

The more familiar (to the older pundits at least) 2-3-5 formation, was pioneered by Blackburn Rovers in th 1880's and by the next decade was adopted by most teams worldwide. The concept being a more balanced formation, with 5 defenders and five attackers (2 full-backs, 3 half-backs and five forwards).

This formation endured until the mid 1900's, but the seeds of change were sown in the 1920's and 1930's and came about partially because of a change in the offside rule, reducing from 3 to 2 the number of defending players needed between the attackers and the goal.

This rule change (in 1925) resulted in the introduction of the centre-back, a position created to counter the opposition centre-forward, the idea accredited to Charlie Buchan who suggested it to Hebert Chapman, then manager of Arsenal. The player roaming centre-midfield would drop back to become a 'stopper'.

This idea changed the standard 2-3-5 formation to 3-4-3 or 3-2-5 (known as the'WM' formation after the pattern it made on the field spelling out the two letters) and meant the offside trap now became the responsibility of the central defender with the two full-backs pushed out wider to cover the wings.

Of course with any formation, you need the right players to be able to carry-out the responsibilities and it took Chapman several years of perseverance and the signing of quality players such as Alex james, Cliff Bastin, David Jack and ex-Poppy Eddie Hapgood.

The perseverance with the WM formation paid off and Chapman guided Arsenal to their first championship win in 1931. The Gunners followed up with a hat-trick of championships in 1933, 1934 and 1935 (inronically finishing runner's up in League and Cup in 1932). Arsenal's dominance understandably led to the majority of English clubs adopting the proven success of the WM formation.

Variations continued to develop on the WM formation, with one of the inside forwards dropping back into 'midfield' alongside the two wing-halfs creating a 3-3-4 formation. This setup was widely adopted during the 50' and 60's and successfully delpoyed by Tottenham Hotspur during their double winning 1961 side, the middle trio being Danny Blanchflower, David McKay and John White.

Meanwhile in Brazil, the idea of having '6 defenders and 6 attackers' using only 10 outfield players was implemented using the 4-2-4 formation, popularised by the success of the Brazilian national side in winning the 1958 and 1970 World Cups, aided of course by talented and athletic players such as Pele.

This formation meant the skill level needed by the defensive unit was far greater than before. They now had to be able to not only tackle and win the ball, but move forward with it and be creative also, helping out the midfield that was reduced to two players. This also meant a much greater level of tactical awareness was need by the whole team.

The 4-3-3 formation was developed as a more defensive approach than the 4-2-4 with the extra forward dropping back to form a more cohesive midfield unit in front of the defence and the three forwards then expected to 'tackle-back'. The more recent variation of this setup is to drop the two wide players into a 5-man midfield creating a 4-5-1 formation, defending en-masse and hitting on the break.

The most commonly adopted formation at the present is 4-4-2 with the midfielders helping both the defence and the attack, the wide midfielders covering both flanks and getting forward down the touchline to support the front two, as well as one of the central midfielders pushing up as additional support going forward. The England World Cup winners in 1966 no doubt helped with the 4-4-2's popularity.

Slight variations on the 4-4-2 formation are used depending upon the type of players occupying the central midfield roles. The much-debated 'diamond' formation which staggers the midfield into a 4-1-2-1-2 setup was used to great effect by FC Barcelona in winning the 2006 Champions League.

The Italian World Cup 2006 winning team favoured a 4-4-1-1 formation with a striker playing 'in the hole' behind his more forward partner. Add another striker 'in the hole' instead of a midfielder and you end up with the 4-3-2-1 formation, commonly known as the Christmas Tree.

The 5-3-2 formation relies heavily on the two wide full-backs acting as wing-backs to provide attacking options and is also sometimes used employing a sweeper in the centre.

Pushing the two wide backs forward into midfield creates a 3-5-2 formation with the emphasis more on attack, the central midfielder tends to hang back more to prevent the counter-attack. This formation was used to great effect by two World Cup winners (Argentina in 1986 and Brazil in 2002).