Could we line up like Spain?

[Shaggy]

Their formation last night was mad, with no wide midfielders at all. They lined up with Senna holding, Xavi just in front of him and Alonso in a narrow right sided position. Yet he played his normal central role, with the wonderful Iniesta in a tucked-in left-sided position. The width on the right came from the buccaneering Ramos, and on the left Capdevilla and latterly Arbeloa also showed tremendous attacking ambition.

And all this with two out and out centre-forwards in Torres and the slightly withdrawn Villa.

I think we need to score more goals and maybe up the ante attacking-wise. Is there any way we could adopt a similar formation? Shoe-horning Alonso, Mascherano and Gerrard into a central triumvirate á la Alonso, Senna and Xavi? Obviously at present we don’t really have the personnel to play two up front, but a move for David Villa in the summer could perhaps see this formation work for us? The sublime Xavi Hernandez is obviously central to Spain’s play and we don’t have a player like him, but still…

Thoughts?

[Darkon]

It would be an interesting formation, but as you point out we don't have the strikers for it, nor the midfield backup to play so many central as our standard formation.

Another weakness we would suffer on is that we don't, besides dossena, have any real wingbacks, which would be needed. Our RWB would be a particular problem for that formation, as arbeloa is not good enough to be placed further up pitch.

But with gerrard, alonso, mascher we would have the foundation to do it.

It is much like the AC milan formation they have been playing for years now, and it does work because of the narrow space for the opponents.

[dww]

Ultimately I don't think you could in the Pl and certainly not without substantial personnel overhaul. The system relies on having exceptional tight control and passing - we have no equivalent of Xavi or Iniesta in our squad and there are very few of them around. I also think that in the PL where defences are more tigerish and better organised than England's (and to be fair most in international football) it would be hard to make the formation as effective.

I think Gerrard would be less effective in that formation.

[1 True Red]

Ultimately I don't think you could in the Pl and certainly not without substantial personnel overhaul. The system relies on having exceptional tight control and passing - we have no equivalent of Xavi or Iniesta in our squad and there are very few of them around. I also think that in the PL where defences are more tigerish and better organised than England's (and to be fair most in international football) it would be hard to make the formation as effective.

I think Gerrard would be less effective in that formation.

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[Tee]

Their formation last night was mad, with no wide midfielders at all. They lined up with Senna holding, Xavi just in front of him and Alonso in a narrow right sided position. Yet he played his normal central role, with the wonderful Iniesta in a tucked-in left-sided position. The width on the right came from the buccaneering Ramos, and on the left Capdevilla and latterly Arbeloa also showed tremendous attacking ambition.

And all this with two out and out centre-forwards in Torres and the slightly withdrawn Villa.

I think we need to score more goals and maybe up the ante attacking-wise. Is there any way we could adopt a similar formation? Shoe-horning Alonso, Mascherano and Gerrard into a central triumvirate á la Alonso, Senna and Xavi? Obviously at present we don’t really have the personnel to play two up front, but a move for David Villa in the summer could perhaps see this formation work for us? The sublime Xavi Hernandez is obviously central to Spain’s play and we don’t have a player like him, but still…

Thoughts?

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I believe it is a formation we can adopt and use quite effectively but we would need a really clever second striker to play behind Torres... someone like Diego of Werder Bremen.

[Matt]

I'd love to see us line up like, and play like Spain but I have my doubts - nice idea though.

I think the 4-2-3-1 formation suits our personnel at the moment and certainly Torres looked a lot freer for Spain too when they reverted to a 5-man midfield in the Euros.

[DeeTheDog]

I think our current formation gets the best out of our best players, Torres is not the same player for Spain as he is for Liverpool. You could see last night he made several runs early which went unheeded by Spain as they maintained their excellent, slow passing bulid-up.

[wiw]

I think had we bought Barry, and had our fullbacks not crashed and burned so spectactularly, we would see something not far removed from what Spain did

Xavi and Iniesta are out of this world though

[Reece]

I think had we bought Barry, and had our fullbacks not crashed and burned so spectactularly, we would see something not far removed from what Spain did

Xavi and Iniesta are out of this world though

Bit harsh on Arbeloa no?

[wiw]

Sorry the new ones I mean - Dossena and Degen. Imagine if we had Alves

[Reece]

Alves annoys me intensely. Great player, but the slightest touch and he rolls around on the floor like he's been snipered. It's pathetic.

I would probably put up with it though

[Shaggy]

Yah…I was just throwing it out there and I agree with Dave, DeeTheDog and others – Gerrard, as brilliant as he is, is no Xavi, Torres works best as a lone striker and certainly our current preferred formation gets the best out of our best players.

I would just love us to play like that. I could watch Spain pass the ball all day. The game was a fairly dull affair really, yet I was still mesmerised by Spain’s wonderful movement and touch.

Our young, injury-jinxed Spaniard Francisco Duran is apparently cut from the same cloth as Iniesta and it would be great to see him firstly stay fit and then progress into the first team squad and offer us something different. I don’t really feel we have enough intuitive, technical players.

[Harv]

nope. Our fullbacks are nowhere near good enough.

I think this is the style Rafa wanted when he first arrived though. But he has discovered you need width in England, and not many fullbacks are good enough to both bomb forward and be rock steady at the back too.

[Harv]

Yah…I was just throwing it out there and I agree with Dave, DeeTheDog and others – Gerrard, as brilliant as he is, is no Xavi, Torres works best as a lone striker and certainly our current preferred formation gets the best out of our best players.

I would just love us to play like that. I could watch Spain pass the ball all day. The game was a fairly dull affair really, yet I was still mesmerised by Spain’s wonderful movement and touch.

Our young, injury-jinxed Spaniard Francisco Duran is apparently cut from the same cloth as Iniesta and it would be great to see him firstly stay fit and then progress into the first team squad and offer us something different. I don’t really feel we have enough intuitive, technical players.

Its a joy to watch isn't it Watching Spain for as long as i have, its been a frustrating road. They are often alot like Liverpool....massive possession, but little end product. But this current side can just carve teams up at will.

[dww]

Our young, injury-jinxed Spaniard Francisco Duran is apparently cut from the same cloth as Iniesta and it would be great to see him firstly stay fit and then progress into the first team squad and offer us something different. I don’t really feel we have enough intuitive, technical players.

It would be great to see those sort of players come through here. The trouble is that the great gift of Xavi and Iniesta is that they can do it all under pressure and I worry how good the reserve league is at emulating real competitive match pressure.