What have managers (Mowbray as well) got against this classic formation? Why have English managers sought to impose various versions of 4-5-1 on English teams and English players, particularly considering that most English players are schooled in playing 4-4-2 from a young age? It is completely illogical.
Anyway, time for City to start playing this with a big man / little man combo up front. I think George Thomas would do well alongside a big striker. Bigi and McCann as a solid central pairing.
Sorry mate but a lot of young teams now start with less than 11 players so they are not taught the 4-4-2 system from an early age. If schooled and coached properly kids should/are being taught basic like passing, controlling, shooting and working as a team. I'm afraid 4-4-2 has nothing to do with that.
Most of the best players in the world wouldn't of fit into rigid 4-4-2 systems. From sweepers to defensive midfielders to attacking midfielders and players who just drift all over the pitch or just up top.
4-5-1 allows flexibility and more fluidity on the pitch. It can be a strong defensive unit which can be quickly turned into a 4-3-3. Having 2 players up top can be easier to mark for centre halves as they can pick a player each and the full backs can just let wingers run onto them but 4-5-1 allows attacking midfielders to run between the lines of 2 banks of 4. It also allows the main striker to drift along the line making it harder to be marked.
The problem we have is that we have a manager (not the first) who is unable to adapt during a game. We need a manager who can outwit an opponent if the game becomes a stalemate or who can affect his teams confidence when things start to go wrong. An imaginative manager who has the confidence in his squad to change to any system before or during a game and a team who believe in him and themselves.
We do not have the manager, players or owners who can give us this. People don't like talking about budgets and ours isn't big enough for what we need so we just muddle along changing managers when things turn to shit. Things will never change while the current owners are happy to muddle along. Irrespective of what goes on outside of the stadium and off the pitch, they have had god knows how many years to act like football owners and have failed miserably.
This isn't meant as a bashing of the owners post but where things go wrong and if it's wrong from the very top, it's very hard to then try and correct further down the tree.
Unfortunately the owners, board, manager, squad and team are not good enough and no matter what formation we play, things will struggle to change. The table doesn't lie and people who say we are better than our current position are kidding themselves.
