Coaching the 4-2-3-1 PDF

Most of the coaches I know look at the trends at the highest level of the game for ideas of what might be effective for their teams.

In the last 10 years the most popluar system has been the 4-3-3.

The Dutch have been using it for much longer it became used more widely by clubs like, Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto and later Chelsea FC as well as Barcelona FC, AS Roma, the US Women’s National Team and many others.

As this shift occured at the top level we began to see more youth, high school and college teams move to this highly flexible system.

The 4-3-3’s flexiblity is one of it’s most attractive qualities.

The formation can be adjusted to fit the qualities of the players on the team.

A team with a lot of attacking personalities can keep their three forwards very high, have one defensive midfielder and two attacking midfielders while also encouraging their wing backs to push up when their team is in possession.

This means that they are attacking more like a 3-4-3.

But that same team can easily switch to two defensive center mid’s and pull their wingers back to defend a lead and it looks like they are playing a 4-5-1.

The ability to mold the formation to suit your team has created a number of very popular variations. The most common recently being the 4-2-3-1. 

Clubs like Bayern Munich, Liverpool FC, Manchester City, Inter Milan, Arsenal FC, Sevilla FC and Valencia CF as well as the Spanish and German National teams have all adopted the 4-2-3-1.