We are going to Ibrox in just over a week and we need a win.
There will be a long of talk between here and that game about the tactics we should play and the team selection itself.
In some ways it is not really a conversation for the here and now, because we have two hugely important games to come before we go there, but those two games should be used to get us into fully familiarised with the system we will use when we get there.
It seems manifestly obvious that it would be insane to go there with a 3-5-2.
If we don’t have natural width they are going to get Tavernier up one wing and Barisic up the other all day long, and that is going to be absolutely hellish for us to deal with.
Their system is an adapted 4-3-3.
Do you really reckon it makes a blind bit of sense for our defenders to go man for man with their forwards, and for us to allow their full-backs – who are amongst the best assets in their team – full reign? It would be disastrous.
For all that, it seems readily apparent that we have to go with two men up front.
Their defence will easily deal with a stupid tactic based on us lumping the ball down the wing and trying to cross it into a packed penalty box.
They could do it in their sleep.
The system we went with the other night – the straightforward, no frills, 4-4-2 seems to offer us the best chance we have of success.
This article will explore the reasons why.
They Won’t Expect It
Even if we play the next two games with the 4-4-2 I do not believe for one second that Gerrard will expect us to go to Ibrox and play in that style.
He and his coaching staff might do some sort of cursory presentation on it, but they will not take it seriously.
Lennon is prone to changing his tactics depending on the games.
Even when we were going 3-5-2 he would switch back to the 4-2-3-1 whenever we faced a potential banana skin match. I think Gerrard and his coaches will have a reasonable expectation of facing exactly that formation. If they think Lennon is in the mood to gamble they might reckon on the 3-5.2.
But the 4-4-2 is the smart stratagem and that’s why Lennon should opt for it.
It’s also why they won’t believe he’ll go for it.
There are selling points to the 4-4-2 which aren’t readily apparent.
These guys think they have Lennon’s number … and besides, Gerrard is as wedded to his own 4-3-3 as Lennon seems wedded to Rodgers’ favourite system.
I am wagering that Gerrard won’t want his own tactical system to change.
They will prepare for the 4-2-3-1 because that’s what his system is geared to beat.
I don’t rate Gerrard and his coaching team; I’ve made that pretty plain.
I think they’ve stumbled onto something that gets results against SPL teams and certain mid-ranking European sides and I think they will stick with it past the point of sanity. This is what will ultimately cost them points.
Only truly great managers can change their tactical approach on the fly; this is why I think Lennon has to work on this for a few weeks first.
So a mixture of things will come into play here; Gerrard will set his team up in a certain way as much in hope as in expectation. He will not want to believe that we’ll go with something different, and so I doubt he’ll prepare overmuch for it.
We can surprise this not only with the system itself but how well it works.
Their Defence Hasn’t Faced Two Celtic Strikers
This is something not many people realise; Gerrard has not faced two Celtic strikers before.
He is used to going up against our sole man up front, and so he knows exactly how to counter it.
One of the reasons I was looking forward to our game against them in the last campaign, the one Covid got called off, was that I wanted to see twin strikers against their defence.
I still believe the Ibrox defence is there for the taking, their decent run of games without conceding notwithstanding.
In Europe it’s a little more impressive; in the SPL it’s no more than we’ve been doing for the last few years ourselves. The media never talks about that.
Gerrard struggles against teams who get in his side’s face. You can see the panic in their ranks. The one thing that genuinely gives me hope is knowing that their defence wont’ handle it if we play football on the deck and try to pass our way through them.
They were built for defending high balls into the box.
It’s the standard SPL tactic against them, and it’s the reason they are so successful at the moment.
Any side which tries to play through that defence finds that it’s child’s play.
We can have a lot of luck if we play Eddie and Griffiths; Leigh in particular is due a goal against them … and Eddie raises his game when it counts.
If Lennon is brave I feel that we can get our rewards.
We Can Play A Solid Midfield Four
4-4-2 has endured as long as it has because it is a sturdy system.
With the personnel we have we can make good use of it. It will let us play a solid block middle four.
The system I see being useful here is the central midfield diamond; now, our 4-4-2 allows us to put Callum wide left and Christie wide right, but it also lets us play Callum and Christie in the middle where their running and energy will be useful, pushes Turnbull in behind the strikers and let’s Soro or Brown (and it’ll be Brown, of course it will) drop back to protect the defence.
The solid midfield middle three – with Brown pushing forward into it – will have their midfield three on their toes.
It will give Gerrard a decision to make; does he drop one player back to cover Turnbull or does he hope his defence can do that job instead?
It would be easier for them if Turnbull wasn’t also supported by two front men instead of one.
That might make it seem like an easy decision for them.
But if Gerrard does drop the one man back, we’ll have his two outnumbered by our three.
This game will be won and lost in the middle of the pitch.
A 4-4-2 diamond is an excellent system for putting the blockers on them.
And because if we play narrow, we can, if our players are focussed, cut off all the passes their midfield usually plays to their full-backs.
That requires a deeper look … so let’s take it now.
We Can Strangle The Service To Their Full-Backs
Their entire game is built around getting the ball toe Barisic and Tavernier.
If we can stop those two in their tracks, we will win the game. Simple as that.
A midfield four will make their passing game difficult to pull off.
And whenever Tavernier gets the ball on the left he’ll be going up against Laxalt/Taylor and Callum McGregor. W
ho do you reckon would win a duel between Tavernier and McGregor?
On the left, Barisic will not only be going up against Ajer – presuming he’s at right back – but he’ll be going up against the hardest working man in Scottish football, Ryan Christie as well.
This is what we sacrifice when we play the 3-5-2 or the 4-2-3-1 … we miss that cover; we miss the doubling up that the 4-4-2 allows us to do better.
Any time one of their midfielders has the ball he has two options; to pass it forward through Christie, McGregor and Brown or to play it wide. If he tries to play it wide he’s still got to get past McGregor on one wing and Christie on the other, and we will have the full-backs to give them support.
In the 4-2-3-1 our wide players are too far up the pitch to cover for the full-backs, and worse is that they cut inside the box which means the full backs invariably end up covering them … and we are cruelly exposed at the back time and time again.
The 4-4-2 lets us position ourselves better in the middle of the pitch.
It lets us cut out those balls through the channels … it is the key to winning the game.
We Can Better Protect The Defence
The 4-4-2 can win the midfield battle.
But in a narrow system it can also build an impenetrable wall in front of the defence. That might be massive for us.
A narrow 4-4-2 can switch, when under pressure, to a counter-attacking 4-3-1-2.
I think that system could open up the Ibrox team like a Stanley blade through a masking tape seal.
The central defence maintains a rigid shape, the midfield three of Brown, McGregor and Christie sit in front of them and the full-backs cover their defensive positions when we don’t have the ball.
Win the ball back, and we have the full backs tearing up the pitch with Christie in support and Turnbull, Griffiths and Edouard already waiting to receive the killer pass.
I don’t believe they could stop us if we utilised that particular tactic.
I think they’d be all over the place and totally unable to handle us.
A good counter attacking system could pick them off all day long.
I’m not suggesting that we sit back and let them have the ball, but when they do have it we can simply get in front of them and give them nowhere to go with it.
This is basically the tactical approach which has secured Jose Mourinho a trophy at every club. People who say it’s not pretty to watch aren’t looking at it from the purist’s standpoint; if you analyse it as a straightforward system for victory you can see why he’s won so much.
Our Players Definitely Suit The System
As I said the other night when I saw the team, the 4-4-2 has a nice structure and balance to it, and better than that, it absolutely suits the personnel we have to work with.
There are no square pegs in round holes to worry about here.
Christie can easily play wide right and he is accustomed to playing through the middle as well.
He spends a lot of his game running and covering for people, making tackles, working hard.
We know that Callum McGregor can play wide left and that he has many times.
We also know he can play as an attacking midfielder to give support and as a defensive one as required.
Turnbull can play as a deep-lying player or in the hole behind the strikers; his delivery is superb and his vision and work-rate made him a critical player for Motherwell.
Brown is Brown. If we can devise a system where he doesn’t have to run around all day and just sits in his appointed spot, in the middle of the pitch, with the full backs and the two other midfielders covering him he’ll do just fine.
If Soro gets the start, no problem.
But all these guys know how to do this stuff, just as full-backs know to stay back unless we’re counter attacking, Turnbull knows how to come deep and get forward as required, the two centre backs know to hold their positions and the strikers know how to score goals.
There is nothing complicated about the 4-4-2, no overloading the players with “oh if this happens do this and if this happens do that” … it’s all pretty obvious.
And that applies equally to the manager …
4-4-2 Is A Tacticians Strategy … But It’s Also A Very Simple One.
For the reasons I’ve already stated, 4-4-2 is a tactician’s strategy, one for the old school purists.
It is especially good at countering Gerrard’s 4-3-3 style.
4-4-2 is not a tactic which has had its heyday; like everything else, tactics come and go in and out of fashion as managers come up with new twists on the old system.
How do we know that the 4-4-2 is back in vogue?
Look at the league where it’s most popular as a defensive and counter attacking style.
And which league is that? Only the best in the world, La Liga itself.
A report from June this year suggested that no fewer than 12 teams in that league are using the 4-4-2 or a variation of it as their primary defensive and counter attacking tactic. The system is valued for its flexibility; you can turn a 4-4-2 from defence into attack more easily than just about any other formation, and we just so happen to have the personnel to do it.
Lennon often worries about whether or not he gives the players too many instructions or not enough; it’s the worry top tier managers never have, but here, again, is where we might have gotten lucky; the 4-4-2, even as its most complex, doesn’t require great explaining or an in depth understanding to comprehend.
It’s as simple for the coaches to set up as it is for the players to play … and this is the final strength that we have to bet on, and big.
So, come on Lennon, Kennedy and Strachan; spend the next two games working this stuff out.
Suss out when to go narrow and when to stretch the game.
When to play with the diamond and when to switch to something defensive or something more expansive.
The 4-4-2 lets you do it all.
So for God’s sake, let’s do it.
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