#SOCCER NUMBER POSITIONS 11V11 PROFESSIONAL#

It was here that he began advocating for the 4-2-3-1 shape.īut how exactly does this formation look in practice? 4-2-3-1 is made up of a back four, 2 defensive midfielders, a more advanced midfield 3 including two wide midfielders, and a lone central striker. A largely unknown but nonetheless revolutionary coach, Lillo was a major early influence on Guardiola, having taken charge of his first La Liga club, Salamanca, in 1992, aged just 29. Juanma Lillo, a Spanish coach currently working as Pep Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City, is credited with being the first proponent of this system.

However, this iconic international side wasn't the first-ever team to use 4-2-3-1 (although it did originate in Spain). In fact, their success with it (they won 2 European Championships and 1 World Cup during this period) led to it becoming probably the world's most popular formation for a number of years.

#SOCCER NUMBER POSITIONS 11V11 PROFESSIONAL#

This is the favored structure of tons of club and international teams across the world, so having a good understanding of exactly how it works can seriously improve your ability to analyze and observe professional matches.īetween 20, Spain dominated world football by finetuning the 4-2-3-1 system, pioneering the rise of this formation into the mainstream.

Each system has its pros and cons, which is why today we'll be focusing on the key aspects of another popular shape: the 4-2-3-1 formation. Recently, we've produced a number of formation explainer pieces, including one on the strengths and weaknesses of the 4-4-2 formation. Today, professional strategies are complex, and one of the most important aspects of any coach's approach to a match is the formation they choose to play. Things have developed a lot since the early days of the sport when teams were organized in pretty basic ways, their play relying on the skill and creativity of individual players. Tactical strategy and coaching is absolutely crucial to the modern game of soccer.

Soccer number positions 11v11