Fans are getting fed up of their team packing the midfield out. Is 4-5-1 killing football?

Published 06:06 21/09/09

More and more fans are calling up because they are really unhappy about 4-5-1 and I'm wondering is it killing the game?

On Saturday I thought it was interesting that there were four games in which one of the teams was trying to pick up points playing 4-5-1.

Two of the teams - Wigan and Portsmouth - that played with five grafters in midfield lost, conceding six goals between them.

In the two other games, Stoke played two strikers at Bolton, who played 4-5-1, and should have won instead of just drawing.

And Birmingham started with just one up front at Hull in Benitez, but then brought a second striker in Gary O'Connor, who scored the winner.

That's in the Premier League and I'm amazed by how many teams, from Wycombe to Nottingham Forest, who lost at home playing five in midfield.

Playing five grafters in midfield is happening right down the leagues - from the Championship to the Conference - and I think it's harming the game.

Fans are getting fed up with their team packing the midfield out. It's not as if they are playing a mixture of workers and creative players and they're just packing the team with grafters.

A glance at the weekend's results show that it isn't necessarily working either so what's the point of it?

I just think it's time to go back to having two wide men and two strikers up top. Statistics show that most goals come from crosses, yet more and more teams don't play that way.

Four-four-two worked for over 100 hundred years and since when has it become so discredited? We need to go back to that system, which is naturally more expansive, and create rather than stifle.

I can understand when managers say football is a results business and they will play whatever system works to eke out the points to keep them in a job, but it's turning the fans off.

Managers might point at Liverpool and say they play 4-5-1, but their one is Fernando Torres, a world-class striker, and he has Steven Gerrard, a world-class midfielder, playing off him.

Hull last season played with a version of 4-5-1, but they had Giovanni pushing forward and the goals he scored from that position helped secure the points which kept them up.

Four-four-two is just so much better balanced and provides more entertainment and goals.

The fans love it too because it lends itself more to open and exciting football.

Look at that great spectacle on Friday of the steel city derby and in the first half, Sheffield United scored three goals playing 4-4-2 with two strikers and two wide men.

Sheffield Wednesday had started 4-5-1 and couldn't get a kick. They switched to two up front, scored two goals and nearly got an equaliser.

Teams should have a good striking partnership to occupy the two centre-halves and create problems for the defenders and two wide men putting in crosses for them to feed off.

I think managers need to get over this fear of losing and setting up their teams not to get beat. They need to be more positive and set up their teams to go for the win.

This is becoming a real problem in today's game and it needs to be tackled.

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