For all of the fanfare that is given to football in England, surprisingly few tactical innovations have been made in the country. With financial ruin threatening the clubs that try and fail to innovate, it’s pretty understandable that any new ideas introduced have to be proven outside of England. The days when Ossie Ardiles could try to play five strikers at the same time at Tottenham and utterly fail are long gone now. This wasn’t always the case though.
After Brazil’s success in adapting a 4-2-4 formation that had emerged from Hungarian football in winning consecutive World Cups in 1958 and 1962, it was not long before every major team was playing some variant of 4-2-4. As hosts for the 1966 World Cup, Alf Ramsey’s England did not have to worry about qualification, which allowed them to experiment. Most of the buildup, England played a lopsided 4-3-3 formation with wingers, though it was ultimately a distraction to what Ramsey really wanted to play.
Finally he introduced what would become the 4-4-2 formation in their final warmup game against Poland, though it was really a 4-1-3-2. Ramsey went back to the 4-3-3 formation for the group matches at World Cup, but reintroduced his new formation in the quarterfinal against Argentina. Narrow wins against Argentina and Portugal followed before they triumphed in 4-2 in the final against West Germany behind Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick.
With ETU’s form collapsing going into this episode, defeat against Niigata was seemingly inevitable as the fight against relegation begins in earnest. Elsewhere, Osaka and their Dutch manager put on an absolute show in beating a Kofu side ETU couldn’t beat 8 (eight) -0. The focus of this post will be on Tatsumi’s curious choice of striker against Niigata, Osaka’s Tsubaki clone and what ETU can do to beat Osaka.
Hoof it to the Big Man
Natsuki’s reintroduction to the first team had little impact on the results. Four consecutive draws seemed to sap the morale of the team, some of whom were glad they were not losing, while others wanted to push on and win more matches. On a rain-soaked pitch in Niigata, Tatsumi persisted with Natsuki up front on his own even with Gino absent with a minor injury. That the team continued to try to play short passes along the ground when it wasn’t suitable for conditions was another surprise.
As I watched the first half of the match unfold, I could not help but think that this would have been a perfect match to start Sakai and Natsuki up front together. Long balls would suit Sakai as a target man, while Natsuki could use his strength to hold up play. This would minimize the effect of the conditions, though it would be conceding tons of possession. That Sera was able to make an impact in the second half was another surprise, but since that was unseen, we will never know how he was able to do so.
Bizarro Tsubaki
In the midst of Osaka’s demoltion of Kofu, something peculiar struck me about their forward Kubota. It wasn’t just his resemblance to Tsubaki, but it was the way he responded to his teammates. While he was able to show that he is a technically gifted player who is able to deliver the perfect ball, he wasn’t exactly thinking anything. He seemed uncertain of anything unless he was ordered to pass the ball.
Compare that to Tsubaki, who while not the most technical player is given the freedom to try things that most often do not work, but can be spectacular when they do. Kubota is in the Osaka side because he creates numerous chances for their strikers, but is unlikely to create anything for himself. Tsubaki, on the other hand, can create for himself and others, but there are fewer chances because ETU aren’t as good.
Dulfer’s Total Football
Osaka’s Dutch manager is for the most part a stereotype of a typical Dutch manager. The fact that he plays 4-2-4, rather than the conventional 4-3-3 common in Holland just highlights how attack minded he is. After the show his team put on against Kofu, little will be expected of struggling ETU after their defeat to Niigata. The stage is set for an interesting match, however.
As revealed in the preview Tatsumi has decided to play 2 strikers against Osaka. I think this inevitably leads to some form of 4-1-3-2, which has advantages against a 4-2-4. Murakoshi would be assigned to take care of Osaka’s playmaker Shimura, while the other key matchup in defense would be how Kiyokawa deals with Kubota. Of course, there are still other key decisions to be made by Tatsumi like, who does he partner with Natsuki as well as whether the Gino-Tsubaki-Akasaki trio will have the opportunity to pull something off in midfield.
Thoughts: I think there will be minimal match action in the next episode as most of the time will be spent questioning what Tatsumi is thinking. Overall, I think this was a good episode in expanding on what happens outside of ETU. Dulfer’s dedication to attack is admirable in a way, but it probably explains why he is managing in Japan rather than anywhere in Europe. Actually, the pay may have something to do with it as well.
Lower Mid-Table 
Great post, great ep, great show. The two forward formation was inevitable I thought, though when I was playing FIFA games on the Playstation I actually turned my sides into a single striker unit so my pet player can score all the goals LOL (even though that was the era of the the 2-forward units like del Piero|Pippo, Yorke|Cole).
I can relate to that, since in my current game of Football Manager I play a single striker just because he’s good for at least a goal a game. Though when he gets injured it becomes horrible since none of the other strikers have played any matches.
Both forwards are viable options. Sakai has the experience and height advantage, which makes him good to play off of. I think Tatsumi will go with Sera though, both because it helps the plot and because he needs someone who will play balls-to-the-wall all game long.
On the other hand, he could put one in and whichever he chooses gets injured more seriously than a simple sprain. I definitely wouldn’t put it past the writer to make a difficult situation even harder to deal with.
I think Sakai had his chance and utterly wasted it against Urawa. I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was some major injury that happened soon that took a player out for months.
You should know that the tradition of the dutch 4-3-3 system is more or less evolved into a 4-2-3-1. Holland played like this during qualification en nearly converted it into winning the world cup. Other countries are already copying this system, like Germany in the world cup and Bayern Munich (Louis van Gaal) also.
Which is why I found it somewhat strange that the Dutch manager depicted here was playing a 4-2-4 here. That Germany, Spain and Holland played 4-2-3-1 at the World Cup showcased how flexible it can be.