The 4-4-2 or 4-4-3 formation has built-in flexibility — the LB or RB can act as a winger, and one of the midfielders can drop back and take their place. The 4-2-3-1 also has that advantage.

Chelsea’s biggest problem this season has been goal creation. They are a great possession team, with great passing. Anelka has made a lot of goals this season, but (imo) not when they were most needed. With the return of Drogba, I expect Chelsea will kick things up a notch.

This is not South America where most of the play comes through the middle. This is a league where you need your full-backs to hold the opposition’s wingers and the wingers to hold your opposition’s full backs. This is a league where you do not want Ronaldo and Evra against Bosingwa only with Riki covering.

Defensively this formation is a nightmare, prone to counter-attacks and lacking in width. Stick with the 4-4-2 if you 4-5-1 does not fly or maybe go with the 4-3-3 which was so goo during the Special Era…

Not consistent wing play? We won the title because Robben and Duff absolutely terrorized English defences for two years.

Bosingwa could play in a 3-5-2, but Ashley Cole most definitely cannot. He is a one-footed, one dimensional attacker – he relies on playing 1-2 balls and using pacey runs to run down the flank. When the opposition cuts that off, the left side of the Blues attack for the most part, is shut down.

Lampard is not talented enough defensively to cover for Cole should there be a counterattack, and the only true midfielder able to cope with this formation would be Michael Essien.

It’s a bit too soon to start asking for ANOTHER change in formation from Gene Hackman…

There’s also the fact that the most successful teams in the history of English football all played a 4-4-2. ManU, who have been the benchmark for most of the PL era have always stuck with it. But I think there is one key difference.

Utd have always had two quality wingers (Olsen, Sharpe, Giggs, Blomqvist, Kanchelskis, Beckham, Ronaldo, Nani) and the width and pace has set them apart.

My criticism of Jose when he was at Chelsea was that, although he bought wingers, none of Duff, Robben (yes, often injured I know) or Wright-Phillips ever seemed to get a consistent run in the team and now, Malouda isn’t of the required quality.

With a wealth of talent in CM Jose more often preffered fielding his ‘best’ players at the expense of formation i.e. width. Even Joe Cole isn’t what you’d call an orthodox winger.

You may argue that a 3-5-2 solves the problem but I’d argue that Chelsea should retain what’s an outstanding back-four and add a world class right winger.

And to round it off, throwing in someone like Benzema up-front would be scary (for a Utd fan anyway!).

………….mikel…………..
j.cole…….deco……..ballack
…………lampard………….

……..drogba……..anelka