343 Diamond (3313) (3-1-4-2) vs Away team (4-5-1) - ShareMyTactics.com
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The wingbacks should be capable of creating in the middle as midfielders but their primary function is to create space and give time to teammates by pulling/pinning the opposition. When the wingers are already wide open pinning opponents, there should be an exploitation of the inner spaces. Positional game. Juego posicional. Many coaches don't like their midfielders to align horizontally as it doesn't make sense to have two players at the same height on the pitch. Considering this, in a match with good space exploitation vertically, and with wingbacks wide open (low horizontal range), we couldn't really tell what formation we're playing, if it's whether a 343 or 3313. This flexibility on the players' positions using positional game makes it really hard for the opponent to not change their own formation. For example, when a team plays in a 4213, it is natural that a team will mark them in a 433 if we want to press one on one. But if the team using 433 gets the ball and attacks in 343, if effectively playing the positional game, it's possible that the opposition is gonna mark them on 442 (as recommended by Bielsa's 10 formations). Football is a much more complex game, though, with many ways through the field and many more visions on how to play them. There's no obvious formula and even Bielsa knows it. He explained the game on how he sees and uses formations, but he never said that this is the right way to play. He gave us one way to play against each of those, but that's just one.
