Play 4-3-3 next season?

[BlueLyon 9,359]

The question I ask myself is what formation are we going to play next season? Sure we have rotated between 4:2:3:1 and 4:3:3 this year already, but I think for our counter attcking football and considering how hard we drive ball forward, it might be better to just start playing 4:3:3.

There are few things, we never play with typical #10, Oscar isnt such player and his role is different than #10. To play counter football, the transition of ball from midfield into attack has to be FAST. Matic-Rambo/Luiz/xxx sit deep and they never put ball forward fast enough (well maybe Matic). One thing; we need new CM or B2B who will drive ball forward. Vidal, Pogba or more creative Pjanic/Raktic could do the trick.

Now the midfield would then look

Vidal/Rakitic-Matic-Oscar

The thing with oscar is difficult; he should be our most creative player and Matic is decent at that too. There should be no need for Rakitic (or any other creative CM) then. Vidal would slot perfectly. But since Oscar is not as creative, we might need another deep playmaker like Rakitic. It weakens our defense then, and one might question what would be the role of Oscar then, if Rakitic is our creator...

Another positive thing from 4:3:3 is winger play. In such system, wingers could turn deadly. Unlike 4:2:3:1 where we have no depth and likes of Willian keep going in middle and dont cross. Therefore, our only winger is Hazard (and Schurrle, Salah) but we might need another winger like Vela, DiMaria,...who is much better at giving crosses to penalty area. Wingers play faster and give usefull balla into centre, right onto our attacker. That is fast,efficient and our counters would be much better. Wingers would cooperate with fullbacks better too.

Unfortunely for this system to work perfectly; we would need either 3/4 top players added or have another transition period...

-------------Courtois------------

Azpi---Cahill---Terry/Zouma---Luis?

Vidal/Rakitic?---Matic---Oscar/Koke?

Willian/new winger---Costa---Hazard

Also Willian could play in midfield three, but such players will never be brought here IMO. Too expensive etc..

I think 4:3:3 would work better, but we dont have proper players realy. I hope we get lb, cm and st, then maybe just maybe AM/RW if we sell Oscar who realy looks unfit in this formation, but give him time first.

Any thoughts on this?

[zolayes 14,489]

I would like us to be flexible .. run the whole range ,, 4 4 2 .. 4 2 3 1 ,, 4 3 3 ,, even 3 5 2 ,, but only rarely 4 5 1 and never 4 6 0

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I doubt it considering how many AM's and wingers we have. A 4-3-3 only limits the slot in the line-up for those players.

[ZanSnake 1,211]

I would use the attacking 442 and the 4132.

Cole -- Cahill --- Terry --- Azpilicueta

Matic -- Luiz/new dmc (Chalobah?)

Willian Oscar Hazard

Lukaku --- Costa

442 (OR 4-2-2-2)

Matic --- Luiz

Willian------------------------------Hazard

Lukaku----Costa

Of course that is based on two variables, that 1) Lukaku is apart of the first team (or a Chelsea member) and 2) we sign Costa

[Viper22 2,418]

I personally hate the way we play when we play 4-3-3. Maybe that's the players as opposed to the system, but i'm fairly cautious about it. I'm quite happy with the 4-2-3-1 if we get a decent striker and DLP, which could morph to 4-2-2-2 when needed.