Hey, it's the fully coach here. Throughout the history of professional football. Formations have been a big talking point amongst fans and pundits in the media. Why is Z playing 433? Should be playing 442 today. Why don't we play with 3 at the back and make sure we're doing this and that? And you hear it all the time. And to be fair, formations have been important in a visual representation of what a football team is up like. Since the olden days when there was the WM formation and you had two setbacks, three midfielders and five attackers to Brazil's 442 and Johan Kreuz total football which brought in the 433. All of these are just representations of how teams would play. And I'm just here to tell you today that formations are not important at all. Got some great examples for you of why formations are not important. First of all, we're just going to start off with some of the more dominant teams that we've seen in the last 10 years, 10-15 years. Starting with the Real Madrid side here, they're set up here in a 433 formation, you could call it. And the way they'd play was the two fullbacks Marcel and Carvelle would be flying up the pitch. Karim Benzema would be dropping in as number 9, which is why he didn't score as many while Christian Ronaldo who scored a lot of goals. Obviously he was playing as an inside forward on the left hand side with Bale on the right hand side. Again, Bale was scoring goals as well. Now if you dropped Benzema here and Christian Ronaldo and Bale went up here, this would change his formation into a 442 diamond. So what formation did this dominant Real Madrid side play? Were they playing 433? Was it a 442 diamond? And that's a problem with formations because what these players were doing on the pitch was deta-ed. Not by the formation, not by the structure, but what their exact roles were. You had Casamero, whose job was to break up play, but also to start play, who's doing a similar role to what Busquets was doing at Barcelona. Or be it not as elegant on the ball, Casamero was still a world class defensive midfielder, and he was great at building up play too. Cruiser and Modrich were the ones who all the passing was facilitated through. They'd keep the ball, they'd rotate the ball, and they'd look for their attackers in opportune moments. The fullbacks used to get up the pitch, and you know, they were flying up the pitch. Sometimes, Ramadrid would have a 5-man attack on two semi-backs. So what formation would that create? It's not about the formation, it's about the roles that these players had. You can go back into time now, to the early 90s with Chris Barcelona. This was a magical team, you know, the dream team, three at the back. But if you know your early 90s football, you'd realise that Sergi, Ferreira, they're playing here in a three-man defence. Yeah, both of them are fullbacks. Ramadrid was a centre-back, but he was also midfielder. He was one of the best ghost-scoring defenders in the history of football. In this case, he was a lone centre-back. Up top, you had Loudrup as the false nine. Yet their main striker was Risto Storchkov. He never knows his legendary striker, but here he is, nominally in this 3-4-3 wide left, and they've got like a diamond four in the middle, no one out wide. This is when they have the ball. This is how Barcelona used to play under Johan Cruyff. Then when you get to off the ball, here they've got a four-man backline with Pep Guardiola dropping it. Bugresti, Yusebio, playing as two midfielder's and then it's a four-man attack with Loudrup dropping it. Or is it two defensive midfielder's and four midfielder's, so they're playing a four-six-o. So what formation were these Barcelona team playing? Were they playing a three-four-three? Were they playing a four-six-o? Four-two-four-four-two? Doesn't matter. What matters was the roles that they had in the team. We all know Risto Storchkov was the actual striker, and he would be the one in the box who would be scoring the goals, and we all know the Michael Loudrup was their number ten. One of the greatest tens ever actually. So again, the formation does not matter here. It can move on to one of the greatest teams of all time. The Barcelona since 2011, yeah, got this from Eurosport. And Pedro and Vier might be in the wrong places here, but in this team, of course, Messi played as a false nine. Vier played from the left and Pedro from the right. David Vier was a striker. Now, in essence, you could say, just as the Ram Madrid side, Messi would drop in here, and Pedro and Vier were that true strikers, so this wasn't a four-three-three. It was a four-four-two diamond as well. Now, we also know that Daniel Vier would fly up the pitch, and he would create five men in midfield, leaving PK and Mascarona alone. Well, Abidar would also go up the pitch, leaving two men at the back, so two, five, three. What formation is that? It's not a formation. It's just a structure here, and this is something that is prevalent through all football teams. In fact, what players do on the pitch is dictated by what roles they're given. Sergio Busquets here was playing as a deepest midfield, as a defensive midfield that we call it. He was also a playmaker from there. He would allow Barcelona to build up from the back and to break through any teams that tried to press him. He could have played easily further up the pitch, where in Yester and Javier playing as well, but his role in the team was that. So he was stuck there. Well, Daniel Vier's role was more of a right midfielder, right-winger. He was flying up the wing, but this was when they had the ball. Off the ball, he'd be back here at right back. So off the ball, maybe Barcelona did set up like this, but again, this is why the formation is not important, and roles are more important. Finally, we could take a look at modern day side, and let's take a look at the Lonely and Beaton team in Europe at the moment, which is by Le Vercousin. They play with a three at the back. You've got Tar, Kossanoo, Hinkapi sometimes, Jacques, Palacios in midfield, Grimaldo, Frimpongue, the wingbacks, and Shik or Boniface with Florian Wertz as a ten left-winger. Jonas Hoffman, doing the same thing here. It's a three-four-three, right? So Javier London's formation is a three-four-three. However, this is how they are playing when the balls here with the center back and they're being pressed. Center back said like this and aligned, so they're able to pass the ball out. These two midfielders are coming in close like this. Here's Grimaldo, the wingback. Normally, he's here sometimes to allow this to happen, and Frimpongue stays high up to Jonas Hoffman, Drops here, Wertz Drops here as well, and it's like this. It's kind of, I don't know what this formation is, but the reason they have this is so that they can break the press and then, you know, quickly play it out. Maybe it goes there, Maldives here, they're out here. Then suddenly, they're like this with the entire team of the pitch and Kossunu actually gets forward as well because Frimpongue ends up up here. Now, what they've got is when they're in the opposition half, they've got two man defense and Grimaldo is up here, maybe sometimes he's even in on the inside. And that's his role in the team. Kossunu's role in the team is to get forward. It was from center back, so this is a two-four-three-one, let's call it. Kossurrian Wertz in the formations that you see before the game is this is a left-winger, but he's always playing in these inside spaces here. He's their creator. He's the one they tried to get the ball to to create chances. So what position is he in that three, four, three, is he actually wide-left? Or is he playing as a number ten? How do you represent that in those pre-game graphics? So the role is more important. And I'm saying this to you as a coach and a manager. A formation is there sort of as a structure for how you are going to tell your players how you're going to play, how you're going to tell the public. This is how we play, we play this way. But in essence, we're not trying to build a house when you're playing football. When you're building a house, an architect develops a blueprint and it's precise because that's how the house should be built. Formations are like blueprints, but they're imprecise because football is a game of fluidity and it's a game with roles, players have roles and your tactics decay. What those roles are, formation is just a small part of it. So when you hear someone complaining that the team should be set up in a four, three, three or a four, three, two, one or a four, two, three, one, that's not what, that's not what is important, what's important is the roles that you have within that team. This has been a different video to what I normally do. Hope you've enjoyed it. Obviously I don't have the tactical boards that are one of the other YouTube gurus. Do have, if you did enjoy the video, please do like and subscribe and as always, thank you for watching. you