Problems with 4-3-3

For last few matches, the hottest topic amongst Chelsea supporters is the formation we are playing with. The result of changing the formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 was quite evident at Watford. But we have played with 4-3-3 for almost 5 years now and with a lot of success. So what has changed suddenly that we all are pressing for a 4-4-2? Here is my take on why 4-3-3 is not working anymore.

“Makalele role”: The holding midfield role is called the “Makalele” role for a reason. Claude Makalele mopped up every loose ball and thwarted every counter attack. But his most important quality was that he was the best reader of the game. Now we have Mikel who is quite a good holding midfielder but is still nowhere near Makalele. He is strong and tackled very well this season. But he is not the best reader of the game. As a holding midfielder you have to the best reader of the game in your team. Also we should not forget that he has played almost every game this season and has looked very jaded in last few games.

Drogba Power: To play a successful 4-3-3, you have to have a powerful man up front who will win 80% of the balls in air and will hold up the ball. Anelka is anything but this kind of a player. Put him in the box and he will get you a bagful of goals. But don’t expect him to win anything in air or hold up the ball for other midfielders to make runs. We have a perfect man to do this job in Drogba. But he has been injured, out of form and totally non-committed this season. So I can’t really blame Scolari not playing Drogba as a lone man up front. Also with the kind of start Anelka had this season, we just had to play him. This quandary meant that we had to play Anelka as a lone man upfront in most of our matches and that proved a royal failure as the season progressed.

The other Central Midfielder: Lampard has quite easily been our best player this season. But the other central midfielder has been a cause of concern to say the least. In a 4-3-3, you need your 2 CMs to make late runs in the box and find some defense opening passes. For most of the matches it has been either Deco or Ballack to partner Lamps. Ballack is playing the worst football in his life. He is not winning any tackles, not scoring any headed goals, not giving any defense breaking passes and basically doing nothing. Deco, who made an excellent start in EPL, soon realized that the games are played too fast for his liking. We see flashes of brilliance from him but he has hardly hit his best and most of the times he is just a passenger in the game. With the 2nd CM being such a failure, 4-3-3 is always going to struggle. We are badly missing Essien.

The support strikers: With a 4-3-3, the 2 players supporting the lone man upfront have to be the most skillful players in the squad. They should be fast, able to dribble past defenders, and should always have a trick up their sleeves. The technical abilities of these players compensates for the lack of width in this formation. The players we use for this role are JCole, Malouda, Kalou and at times Deco. JCole is the perfect player to play in this role but injures continue to mar what can be an excellent career. Kalou is brilliant on some days but very ordinary on others and is too inconsistent to make a difference over a period of time. I term Malouda as the worst left winger in premiership. The man doesn’t have pace, cannot dribble past anyone, doesn’t make any runs, hardly hits any good long range shots, cannot read the game and is basically a waste of time space and money. Deco in this role is never going to work because he doesn’t have any pace.

So in short, the reason why 4-3-3 is not working is because of the personnel we currently have and the form they are currently in. So the only option is to go back to the good old 4-4-2. My ideal starting lineup will be:

---------------Drogba--Anelka

---Quaresma----Lampard--Deco------Stoch/Kalou

---ACole-------Terry----Carvalho--Bosingwa

-------------------Cech