Should point out that I'm not against 4-4-2 (it the most effective counter to 3-4-3), but its not the be all and end all of football formations
Should point out that I'm not against 4-4-2 (it the most effective counter to 3-4-3), but its not the be all and end all of football formations
Sounds as though there are some good ideas in there. For the young boys you need to pitch the balance of fun, training and competition just right.
There is nothing wrong with coachin 'passing' though. It's a basic skill, and if a young player cannot get any of the basics right he needs to be cut loose.
I also think we need to work on fostering a winning mentality too. McLean had a good reserve line up, and every player at United knew where they stood. The strong competition to win a 1st team jersey at United brought on a lot of boys like Paddy Connolly, Christian Dailly, Clelland, Bollan et al and kept those in the Jersey on their toes.
I've seen to many lightweights turning out for United since those days. Competition is healthy and helps drive the right type of players on.
I hope the trendy new training styles work for us. But, personally I feel that the return of a proper reserve league would be the most beneficial thing SPFL clubs could do to help transition prospects into 1st team players.
Doesn’t matter what formation we play but I’d rather start with a formation(442) and if it’s no working have the flexibility to change to a formation that can turn a game in our favour.Basically formation to suit players rather than shoehorning players in a set formation and expecting them to be good.
Don’t care if I’m classed a dinosaur but ye love Saturday 3pm kick offs 😁
I think saying Leicester didn't play 442 is a bit revisionist tbh. Even Ranieri said he was playing 442.
If you're playing a holding midfielder slightly behind a midfield 3 and one of the two strikers slightly ahead of the other to me that is still 442. Some like to call that 4132 but it's still two banks of four = 442
I'm not a formation geek by the way, just joined in to basically say they all have a place if you have the right players for them, except maybe Leveins 460 although you could argue Barca learned from that lol
But it's opinions that make us all tick!
Iceland beat the mighty Engerland with it at EURO 2016.
I think it's what Dyche is using at Burnley too.
It's a great article and thanks for posting it.
I'm on the one hand excited by what we're doing but on the other hand a bit concerned at the investment v returns. The heavy payroll investment we're making has to pay for itself at some point surely, unless the owner is happy for it to be loss making.
It seems the Academy managers, and there are many of them, are going to be looking for even more investment according to the text here, copied and pasted below
"In time, he wants there to be a “dedicated team beneath Steevesy, with skills coaches, technical coaches and position-specific coaches.”
I'm not against this, far from it, it's a good direction for the club to be going in but we need to remember we don't have the income of Bayern or Barca and at some point the Academy has to fund itself through player sales.
As I always say, Utd will never sign a 5 million pound player but they can produce them. The original article rings with something I was reading about one of the top European clubs or nations, they were essentially saying they had started to produce these technical robots, but these robots had lost the the individuality/imagination to think for themselves on the pitch.
Bringing through youngsters should always be United's signature, it just has to supplemented with good experienced pros, and if the youngsters aren't ready then revert to plan B of going with a more experienced team for a year or two until the next batch is ready.