Man U vs. AC Milan - Could we learn?

[Craiglistee]

There has been a lot of talk about an alternative tactic to 442 with 451 being touted with some frequency. The absence of a play maker sitting back deep makes that impossible to play.

AC Milan is an interesting team for me. I supported them in the Serie A way back in the 90s when they were winning everything. They are a team consisting mainly of 30 year olds right now, not the early 30s, but the mid 30s. Think Seedorf, Beckham, Favalli, Nesta etc. But yet they are playing at the top level all things considered.

So they play a 433 with three man midfield and two winger/forwards with one lone striker. Perhaps we could immulate this formation with Modric and Lennon as our two wingers, Kranj sitting back with Hudds and Palacios.

This way, we play Defoe against slow defenses and Crouch against fast ones. We will no longer have to see the following sequence of

1. defender lumps ball towards crouch
2. Crouch nods it down
3. ball falls behind defoe
4. opponent launch counter

[Tottenham-ManU]

well its an interstin thought u got there ...maybe u should be a coach someday :P

[USspur]

Great idea. I'm going to see how that goes on Fifa. Could be a great way to play as Spurs. Very attacking, though I don't know if we would be able to pass though the center of the field which would lead to us getting bogged down in the midfield. I feel it would have to be more of a 4-2-1-3 though with Thudd and Palacios in the holding positions in front of the defense.

[stroud_jm]

if we had to put our 11 best players on the pitch, this would be how to do it. Not sure we're quite ready for it though I'd love to see us try under the right circumstances.

I grew up watching the late 80s and early 90s Milan teams, and they just swarmed teams with that 4-3-3. It helped of course that they had Van Basten, Gullit, Rijkaard, Baresi, Maldini, and on and on.

Still watch Serie A a lot, and these days Milan do tend to give away lots of goals in this lineup as we saw Tuesday.

It does put a premium on possession, which we're pretty good at keeping, because otherwise, you're wasting Modric. Very many times when Milan aren't playing well in Serie A, Ronaldinho just gets stuck out on the left with no service.

You also have to have a very well-organized back four, with really good lock-down defenders on the wing, because that's where the space is. Maicon shredded them on their left in the Milan derby a few weeks ago.

I also think Willy's not quite ready to play the role that this formation would require. But tbh, I'd like to see us roll the dice on something like this in these games where we're bossing possession.

[mattspurz]

i say we pick up wayne rooney so we can start scoring class goals ^_^

[US_Spurs_Fan]

I can't help but think our current squad doesn't really match up well with a 4-3-3, but then again I don't really think there is a formation that does fit us real well. If we were to do it I would see it as something like this... with the biggest issue in my opinion being that we don't have a box to box CM.

Modric ---- Defoe ----- Lennon
Bale ----- Palacios ----- Bentley
BAE ---- King/Bass ---Daws --- Corluka

[Niko19HS]

-----------Defoe---------------

Modric ---- ------- ----- Lennon

-----------Kranjcar-----------

-------Hudd -------Palacios-----

Bale --- King ---Daws --- Corluka



... tasty

[1990Hotspur]

Could one of our Croatian friends answer a question i have...

I have noticed when ever one of these 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 threads come up, it seems the majority of you Croatians put Modric on the left and Kranjcar through the centre. Why is this? To my understanding, Modric was/is seen in Croatia as the Croatian Xavi, is this wrong?

Obviously the Croatian league and the EPL are completely different, so does that influence your decision when selecting a team?

[grandgramparabbi]

Could one of our Croatian friends answer a question i have...

I have noticed when ever one of these 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 threads come up, it seems the majority of you Croatians put Modric on the left and Kranjcar through the centre. Why is this? To my understanding, Modric was/is seen in Croatia as the Croatian Xavi, is this wrong?

Obviously the Croatian league and the EPL are completely different, so does that influence your decision when selecting a team?

I think this is because Modrić is faster and able to go up and down the line and Kranjčar is more of a goal threat. In the NT they play the other way but I would really like to see them both on the pitch for Spurs, one on the line, one in the middle, doesn't really matter, they can interchange.

Also, someone said we should get Rooney for class goals? I think Scholes' goal was the class one. Did you see how he fooled everyone that he was going to shoot with his right? Totally on purpose.
Rooneys goals were just taking advantage of old men, tiring at the end of a game. Seriously, if you played two halves of 30 minutes, Milan would gain be world champions...

[SirBillyNick]

we played 4-5-1 under Pleat and 4-2-4 under Ardiles, team formations should be adaptable during a game and not from game to game otherwise we're stuffed

[stroud_jm]

we played 4-5-1 under Pleat and 4-2-4 under Ardiles, team formations should be adaptable during a game and not from game to game otherwise we're stuffed

spot on. especially when we're having so much trouble breaking teams down.

I'm not a Crouch hater, but our commitment to keeping him on the pitch does make it difficult to change our shape going forward, because he has to have another striker playing close by to be effective IMO.

[Craiglistee]

I think I have the perfect solution actually.

1. Sell Jenas for 7-8 million to Mourinho
2. Sell Pav for 12-14 million to Russia/Ukraine/Italy
3. Take 5 million and buy Mr. Ronaldinho Gaucho from AC Milan
4. Take 17 million profit, 8.5 million goes to capital gain's tax, other 8.5million goes to installation of automatic seat warmers at White Hart Lane. You know the ones they have for toilet seats in Japan? Same technology! Oh and also pull out TV screens in case we play long ball and things get boring, we could watch old clips of Arsenal losing.

Line up
Gomes
Corluka Bassong Dawson Bale
Huddlestone Palacios
Kranj/Modric
Lennon Defoe Ronaldinho

Defoe finishes low crosses from left and right flanks, if that doesn't work, just spread their back line wide and allow Kranj/modric shooting opportunities.

SIMPLES!

[BigDub]

Biggest thing I learned? We need to sign fookin Ronaldinho and Rooney as soon as fookin' possible!!!


oh and all that other stuff that you guys said.

[Javi]

Well they all sound like interesting ideas but as every human being is different so is a team so what works for one probably could not work for the other what we need to do is find that magic that we used playing villa and stick with that.

[stroud_jm]

We need to sign fookin Ronaldinho and Rooney as soon as fookin' possible!!!

I hereby nominate BigDub for club chairman.