Cod Almighty | Diary

Diamonds are forever

26 August 2013

Miss Guest Diary writes: Now I’ve never taken much interest in football playing formations. I know enough to toe the party line at Cod Almighty: 4-4-2 is good and 4-3-3 is bad. But I have only been going by results and not because I really understood the difference, so I was pleased to see an article on this topic in Saturday’s Guardian. At last, I might begin to really get what everyone was on about.

No chance. With all the talk of "constructing lopsided diamonds", creating "midfield overloads" and "exploiting zone 14", I was more confused than ever. Zone 14? Isn’t that where they hide all the aliens in the Nevada desert? What I did gather is that playing three in midfield is supposed to create more scoring opportunities.

So how come Town only scored three goals against Alfreton on Saturday, when in the previous two encounters at Blundell Park we scored four and five, respectively? I think there are a couple of reasons. Firstly, for the system to work effectively, the opposition have to buy into it. If the opposing midfielders don’t co-operate by getting dragged out of position, then it’s hard for the strikers to get behind the defence. This was demonstrated in the coaching session watched by the Guardian writer, when Patrick Vieira and a bloke who used to be Hereford’s goalie were able to thwart the opposition simply by remaining static in front of the back four.

I think familiarity is the second reason. I know from my own experience – not of playing football, but of tai chi – that when you are very familiar with a routine it is easy to concentrate on effectiveness and proper technique. When your head is preoccupied with trying to recall the correct moves, everything else goes out of the window. I suspect it is the same for footballers when they change from the familiarity of 4-4-2 to the more complicated, and unfamiliar, system of 4-3-3.

But a win is a win and sends Town into tonight’s game against Hyde on a positive note. And we know that the management duo like for everyone to be positive. So here is positively the best preview of the match you’re ever likely to read.