The Shape of Things to Come
This week, Harry’s received praise in some quarters for his willingness to make drastic changes when things are going wrong. Comments like that will seem strange to a lot of us, as we often complain that he waits until the horse does a runner before bolting up the stable door. Granted, he had nothing to lose last Sunday when he reverted to a 3-5-2, the near-forgotten formation made trendy in the late 90s and early 2000s, but the change so nearly did the trick.
A mate of mine has been a fan of the 3-5-2 since the beginning of time. Even now, get a couple of beers down him and the old 3-5-2 argument comes out again. Personally, I’ve always had sore misgivings. I still have nightmare visions of the likes of Anthony Gardner and Goran Bunjevcevic, and the sadly departed Dean Richards, being pulled apart like polarised pinballs whenever a ball was played into the channel. But last Sunday, the impetus we gained after converting to this formation very nearly rescued a game that looked dead and buried. And with any luck, we’d have got at least a point. It makes me think that there are other situations where it might serve us well.
In the last couple of years, we’ve fallen victim to one of the least desirable compliments in football – visiting teams putting everyone behind the ball for 80 minutes, briefly throwing men forward to catch us off guard and then sticking everyone behind the ball again. In the past, it was a tactic notably employed by ‘progressive’ managers such as George Graham. Now that he's tried the 3-5-2, Harry might want to employ something similar when we're faced with teams who congest things. Three central midfielders allow us to match up with the opposition while Bale and Walker tear down the wings. We can also have Rafa in the side at the same time as two strikers. It might even end up looking more like a 3-4-3, with one of the three centre backs having license to get further forward while his two partners deal with a lone attacker. If the opposition respond by putting another man up front, we can easily readjust our formation by dropping Walker back to right-back and shuffling the other defenders across. By this time, of course, there should be more space in the middle. Even if it means having a centre back at left back, Bale can occupy enough men to take the pressure off him. You might still say that it needs a comet to hit the Earth before Harry makes big changes, but don’t be surprised if he starts doing it earlier in games that aren’t going our way.
We’re going to need more than flexible formations – and four-leafed clovers – to achieve the required PAOK-assisted miracle tonight, but at least there’s a benefit whichever way you look at it. Either we pull off the near-impossible and keep alive our dreams of European glory, or we get to focus our efforts on the Premier League campaign and the coming FA Cup. Let’s not forget, Lyon went into their last Champions League group game needing a seven-goal swing to get out of jail. And they only went and got it.