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Formation Analysis: 3 at the back

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"Three at the back" formation is often construed as an attacking minded formation which reduces one player from the traditional 4 man defence. Well, its not quite as simple as that. The 3 man defence is way more complex and serves way more purpose than allowing a team to flock bodies up front.

We have seen the Italian national team and its Serie A clubs such as Juventus and Napoli employ this 3 man defence stratergy. For both Italy and Juventus, We have Giorgio Chiellini at Left Centre Back, Leonardo Bonnucci as the Sweeper, right on top of the keeper (Gianluigi Buffon) and Andrea Barzagli as the Right Centre Back.

Andrea Barzagli(left), Leonardo Bonucci(centre) and Giorgio Chielini(right)

Lets analyse the merits of the 3 man defence formation:

1. Full Backs freedom to attack:

This formation used by Juventus, Allows players such as Stephan Lichtsteiner and Mauricio Isla (down the right) and Kwadwo Asamoah (down th left) freedom to concentrate not only on their defensive but also on their offensive duties. They are utilised as support wingers and also as a defensive cover essentially classifying them as midfielders and not defenders. Basically, using this formation enables the teams to use the full width of the pitch with great ease.

Here it is seen Marchese and Izco are not merely performing defensive duties.

2. Ample defensive cover  to keep counter attacks at bay:

 It is often seen that when clubs like Barcelona and Arsenal flock bodies in midfield and attack to turn all the possession they enjoy into something fruitful, but, this makes them very susceptible to a quick counter attack. This is due to the fact that both full backs from their usual 4 man defence are caught out of position and leaves the team only 2 men to defend against swift attackers. A strategy to counter or atleast minimize risks of such tactics, where the defensive midfielder drops back to the role of a sweeper with the two centre backs on his either side, a  tactic used effectively by Roberto Martinez against Manchester City in the FA cup final where James Mcarthy was the man who dropped deep to support the centre backs giving Maloney and Mcmanaman support in form of the full backs. This makes the team harder to penetrate.

CDM drops deep to support CBs


3. Overload midfield:

Often when chasing a game, the 3-4-3 formation is used where the midfield is overloaded with the extra man from defense.Even though this may seem as a very attacking formation (which it is), teams with remarkable ball retention abilities do well with such a formation and are often rewarded for their risks.

Overload Midfield

While defending, a team observes 5-3-2 and while attacking it immediately switches to 3-5-2. This quick transition from defense to attack and vice versa makes a team observing the 3 man defense formidible opponents. They're tough to break down while at the same time, the have more avenues to exploit the opponents defences.



Author:

-Kartik Reddy.

Follow me on Twitter - @FeXperimen
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email us at - tbegame@gmail.com or follow us at @tbegame

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