There was no doubt in my mind that football was becoming more defensive in a tactical sense. I?m too young to remember the 2-3-5 days first hand but in this day and age its hard to imagine that such free-flowing gung-ho attacking football ever existed, and Real Madrid seem to prove why all-out-attack has lost it?s way in the game. But I can could see how 4-4-2 naturally progressed as the biblical football formation, with its solid defence, the chance for attacking wingers on the flank, an engine room with the choice of defensive or attacking options and the opportunity for a deadly strike partnership.

But I thought even the trusty 4-4-2 were sinking without a trace as the 4-5-1 formation was donned more and more regularly. And yet again it makes sense, the game is won and lost in midfield so there?s the flexibility of more players in the middle of the park and and yet more choice for creating or shielding players, and the wide men have the flexibility to be defensive in defence or to join up as a front three when in attack. All in all much more solid and flexible.

However, one criticism of the 4-5-1 is the death of an effective strike partnership. So here?s my campaign for this old art to return.

From the top of my head here are my top five strike partnerships from the Premiership (in no particular order):

1. Cole and Yorke
2. Shearer and Sutton
3. Phillips and Quinn
4. Hasselbaink and Gudjonsson
5. Shearer and Bellamy

As I say this list is purely off the cuff so any suggestions of other partnerships are welcome.

Many suggest that a little and large partnership is ideal for a front two, although less than half of those in the top five fit into that category, but a little and large partnership does offer good variation, stereotypically the small guy has pace and decent finishing and the striker has strong aerial prowess and can hold the ball up. I believe the epitome of this is Phillips and Quinn, both above average players but neither I would argue were world class, and yet together they took the Premiership (and Division one) by storm and lifted an average side into the top seven in 1999/2000. And with the retirement of Quinn, the injuries to Michael Bridges and the acquisitions of players like Lillian Laslandes the club went into freefall.

I do agree that the little and large strike partnership can be brilliant, but am in more support of the forward/striker partnership. The creative forward and the target man, a la Shearer and Sutton and Hasselbaink and Gudjonsson. Personally I consider the latter the best strike partnership of the Premiership?s history. Gudjonsson with his creativity and finishing linked with Hasselbaink?s powerful strikes were unstoppable and I seem to remember at least one of those two being on the score sheet every weekend.

Look at Liverpool now for example, Bellamy and Crouch could form an effective little and large partnership, as could Kuyt and Bellamy with Kuyt holding the ball up and Bellamy more advanced. But I feel the best strike force for the ?Pool is Crouch and Kuyt, I feel this partnership has creativity, aerial threat and finishing ability. Some may argue that these two should play as Bellamy isn?t as good as Crouch and Kuyt, but I feel Bellamy can definitely hold his own with Crouch (after all I?ve seen both play for my club ? guess the club!) although I believe Kuyt is one of the best strikers in the Premiership. But its all down to personal opinion isn?t it. Although I did read recently that someone thought Bellamy was a flop at Newcastle and will be a flop at Liverpool. Maybe my memory is playing tricks but I?m sure Bellamy and Shearer were a great partnership when they both played.

Which brings me to the final partnership in the top five. The odd one?s out being Cole and Yorke, both of which are out and out strikers, they seemed to follow a telepathic reading of the game (which can be explained by their natural striking instincts knowing where the other one would be running into the space) and they both were deadly in the air. Which in my opinion was the fulcrum to Manchester United?s success of that era.

In that 4-4-2 there was plenty of ammunition from the flanks in Becks and Giggs so Yorke and Cole had plenty of crosses to attack. Add to that the perfect balance of attack minded Scholes and defensive general Keane and you have a perfect balance. I believe that since then Manchester United have had better players in their teams, Van Nistelrooy, Veron and Rooney but what the team does lack is the balance of that ?90?s team.

Take now the current Chelsea team. Ranieri proved that you can?t win the league by just buying expensive players. You need a team spirit and balance in the squad. Mourinho has bought young players (except this season with Ballack and Shevcheko, and Makelele of course) and gelled a team from it as the squad is manageable and he has also developed a team with balance. The midfield has the options of holding players like Makelele or Essien and attacking options with Lamps or Ballack. There is plenty of width with SWP, J Cole and Robben (who Mourinho currently holds as aces on the bench to torment tired defences) and there?s now the strike partnership of Shevchenko and Drogba.

I?ve never been a fan of Drogba, but he did fit perfectly into the 4-5-1 system. They never relied on Drogba?s goals as Gudjonnson, Lampard and Cole could all be relied upon to score regularly. Now though the shape has changed but the balance still remains. With a midfielder in the diamond (Ballack, Joe Cole or Robben) supporting the front two of Drogba and Shevchenko. Some argue that Sheva is not performing that well, but believe me he is a very effective cog in that machine, giving Drogba supreme confidence to play alongside such a creative player and Drogba for me is the player of the season so far. In my opinion Drogba and Shevchenko has all the attributes to be the best strike partnership of Premiership history. But at ?55 million plus you expect it don?t you!

Long live 4-4-2!!!

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 at 12:16 pm and is filed under General Football Articles. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.