does it? I dont watch a lot of PSG, but looking at their recent starting formations, they're playing Marquinhos and Andres Herrera in midfield alongside another defensive mid in general, with Di Maria/Mbappe/Neymar/Icardi up front
Dont get me wrong, yes, you can do it with enough sheer attacking talent so that the opponents ALWAYS have to stay on the back foot in case they get wrecked - I dont think Lautaro/Sanchez/Lukaku offer that. PSG also have a far more defensive midfield than, say, Sensi-Barella-Brozovic
PSG played two formations usually:
4-2-4: Marquinhos + Verratti in the middle usually but he rotates Gueye, Paredes, Herrera etc. Di Maria, Neymar on the wings, Mbappe and one of Icardi/Cavani up front.
4-3-3: Marquinhos + Veratti + Herrera/Gueye with Di Maria, Neymar, Mbappe trident.
The first one basically has 4 players that do not play behind the ball and do not really qualify as defense help. They do their share of pressing, but that's about it.
The second one is counter attacking football usually and everyone is behind the ball, except the three up front.
It's obviously an exaggeration, but PSG are playing with a weird style that doesn't grant them possession, unless Di Maria or Neymar hold the ball, for a very long time, but they can kill you when they are attacking. It's a bizarre style that has been shaky for PSG but it's led them to the CL final.
The thing is, if a coach believes that his team's strengths lie somewhere, he'll adjust the whole team to highlight that. Our main strengths for example is the middle of the pitch, where we can slot Brozovic, Eriksen, Barella, Sensi and even have guys like Vecino, Gagliardini and Valero to get some minutes. Instead, we are highlighting our wing backs which is our most talentless position and have used at least for one minute: Candreva, Biraghi, Lazaro, Dimarco, D'Ambrosio, Young, Moses, Asamoah while I don't remember if Politano was ever used at that spot, think not. We also used Perisic in the pre-season and he was expected to stay until he threw tantrums at Conte for making him work around like a donkey. That's 8 players used for 2 positions. We've also used 8 players for the 3 central midfield spots (Brozovic, Barella, Sensi, Gagliardini, Vecino, Valero, Eriksen with Agoume being #8).
We can improve substantially on the central midfielder part with the addition of Tonali and the exclusion of Valero and at least one of Vecino/Gagliardini that would bring us a hopefully better player. But we'll still focus on our wing backs with the current setup, no matter how bad they may be. [Surely Hakimi is a good transfer, but we still have an awful lot of players there].
10 years of FIF
Nostradamus
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