Time to stop the formation tinkering

Stick with it
By Chris Kirwan
August 31 2002

Everton tasted defeat for the first time this season as they failed to break down Manchester City, even when they were reduced to ten men. Nicolas Anelka was the architect of Everton’s downfall, striking a hat-trick, but the Blues will be left to rue the chance to add to their 5 points.

It must be a worry to Moyes that we haven’t added more points to our tally, as we haven’t faced any of the top teams in the division. Moyes once again fiddled with the formation, reverting back to the 4-4-2 from the midweek 4-3-3, with Alexandersson replacing Rooney.

I feel that we need to stop changing the system and stick with 4-4-2; although we have plenty of strikers and a lack of creative midfielders the side can only suffer when it is constantly re-shaped game to game. We cannot change formation purely to accommodate Rooney and Radzinski, but hopefully when (or if) Duncan returns we will stay with 4-4-2, as I cannot see us playing 4-3-3 with Dunc and Campbell (and whatever anybody says dropping Campell is both unlikely and a bad move).

With 4-3-3 I don’t believe that we get the best out of our strikers; the strikers often make the same runs and we lack quality ball from midfield. Also, despite the fact that when playing 3 in midfield we pack it with hard-working midfielders, we are always overrun in the middle. So we don’t get enough possession, and when we do have the ball we don’t possess the quality to make best use of it. One of the possible reasons for playing 4-3-3 is that we don’t have a wealth of creative midfielders in squad, so we attempt to pack the midfield and create chances through movement of our forwards. However, I believe that the formation merely makes our midfielders even more wasteful. At least when we play 4-4-2 they can work the ball sideways and maintain possession, whereas when playing 3 up front all of the midfields options are in front of them.

Therefore I strongly believe in reverting back to a solid 4-4-2, as we did at the tail of last season with some success, and in playing Niclas Alexandersson in such a formation. Alexandersson has consistently underachieved for the Blues since signing from Sheffield Wednesday, and hasn’t lived up to the potential he showed in early Championship Manager games when at IFK Gothenburg! But he is a wide player who can get quality ball into the box, yet it is he who is sacrificed for the 4-3-3. If we combine him on the right, and play Unsworth and Naysmith down the left (or Pembo, or even McLeod) then the side has a much better balance to it. 4-4-2 also gets the best out of Radzinski, who has more room to use his pace to good effect, and the formation also results in less wasted possession from the full-backs.

We have a break for the forthcoming internationals and this gives the Blues a chance to take stock of the season so far, and hopefully settle on a formation. The poll asking which is our best formation on this website suggests that most Evertonians agree that 4-4-2 is the way forward. I feel that if we stick to that formula, and work hard at it then we will prove ourselves to be a solid mid-table side, which is what we all want out of this season.