Compelling Soccer

In the last few days we've talked about formations in light of the loss of Charlie Davies. It began with the 4-4-2, the standard formation the US puts out. Yesterday we looked into the possibilities of the 4-5-1, since the US might be down to one competent striker. But today we do a complete 180 and look at what might happen if the US went with a 4-3-3.

4-3-3? Yeah, I know, it sounds crazy. It's an offensive formation, something the US has historically shied away from because they have never had the talent to run it. Plus, you don't have a lot of strikers, you lose one, and you want to add another to your formation? Sounds counter intuitive.

The trick is of course that the US might have strikers, but they're already in the lineup in the midfield. Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey both are capable of playing up top. In the other formations, the fear of putting them up top is because you lose something in the midfield. Are you better of with Donovan/Casey or Donovan/Robbie Rogers in the midfield? It's not a clear cut answer. But if you reduce the number of midfield spots because you've shifted players up top and you have Donovan/Bradley, things become a little more palatable.

The idea of playing both Donovan and Dempsey up top with Altidore is intriguing but we'll table that for a bit. First we'll go with the look that I think would be the most likely:


---Donovan------Casey------Altidore----------

-----Holden----Bradley------Dempsey-------

-Bocanegra--Onewyu--DeMerit---Cherundolo-

---------------Howard----------------------

You may be surprised to see Casey in this format. He's fulfilling the target striker/holding forward role in this attack. Casey isn't fast, but hopefully the extra forwards cut down on the area he needs to be in. If you take out his footspeed issues and limit the amount of dribbling he'll have to do, then he should work fine. All he has to do is be a target for crosses and play on the ball when he doesn't have any thing. The creativity from the forward spots will come from Donovan and Altidore. Honestly, I could see either Donovan or Dempsey as the third forward.

The replacement in the midfield would be Jose Francisco Torres in my book. But I don't run the US national team, so I think it would be Stuart Holden. Since this would require Holden to play more in the middle of the field, it's possible the set up could work for him. He's not a wing player after all. Bradley takes the other midfield spot and will have a lot of responsibility to track back on defense.

But suppose for a moment, we decided that we don't want to remove the creativity from the midfield. It's within the realm of possibility that Donovan/Holden isn't as appealing as Donovan/creative forward.


---Cooper------Casey------Altidore----------

-----Donovan----Bradley------Dempsey------

-Bocanegra--Onewyu--DeMerit---Cherundolo-

---------------Howard----------------------

Casey remains in here, as Torres comes out. Donovan is shifted back to the left side and Cooper heads up top. Again, despite his size, Cooper isn't a prototypical target striker. He's much more of a big finesse player, which is perfectly fine in my book so long as people realize what he is and play to his strengths. Here he's less expected to just stand around and use his size and given more space by which to create. The advantage is that if Cooper is good up front, it allows Donovan to return to the midfield. A midfield of Donovan/Bradley/Dempsey is a pretty solid one offensively. The flaw is defensively as neither of the Ds are known for tracking back on defense. That could leave the US very vulnerable and puts a lot of pressure on the defense. With Oguchi Onewyu's injury potentially having a longer recovery time than people originally expected, that might be too much to ask of the US backline.

Note that we want a creative forward here. That precludes using both Casey and Brian Ching. It's one or the other but not both. Eddie Johnson remains on the fringes, but right now Cooper is the default "creative" player not in Altidore/Donovan/Bradley crew.

Anyway, how do we overcome the defensive problems?


---Donovan------Altidore------Dempsey----------

-----Bradley----Jones------Torres------

-Bocanegra--Onewyu--DeMerit---Cherundolo-

---------------Howard----------------------

To compensate for the defensive woes, the US could go with a set up like this. This puts probably the most talent up front for the US. Dempsey has been solid up top for the US in the past and Donovan plays striker in MLS. The situation here is trading offensive support in the midfield for defensive types. Bradley and Jermaine Jones are holding midfielders. This formation is certainly not perfect; it lacks width and will concentrate the US attack in the center of the field as none of the mids are wing players. For wing play, the US would probably have to ask the right and left backs to contribute to the play, leaving the squad in danger from counters. Maurice Edu is also remains a possibility if you aren't sold on handing Jones a spot.

So those are some 4-3-3 ideas. Any other incarnations of this tickle your fancy?

Formation Fun: 4-4-2

Formation Fun: 4-5-1