Not With these set of players, Absolutely not. A system demands over all balance in the team and the squad not just in midfeild and in the first team. Supposedly If we sign Matic as a DM And pair him with pogba That would be a balanced midfeild but in that case our Wingers lack work rate and work horse nature and energy to be effective on the wings both offensively and defensively at the same time Against a top quality opposition which was evident all season with struggling wingers and full backs who were offensively nullified by other teams defenses. Also a player like herrera is then benched for most of the season . Martial MKH Shaw Lingard Mata have all struggled to cope with that work rate demands and defensive duties loaded on to them in a 4231, therefore that system will still lack balance and force the players which needs to play to be benched.
Also When one of the Midfeilder in Pogba or New Dm gets injured or rested than No other Midfeilder on the bench can fill in their spot properly and the midfeild too will lack balance along with the wide wingers. So the squad and bench steength is also not capable of playing in a 4231 without sacrifizing the team balance.
In a 433 Wide players can be freed of defensive duties which makes them push higher and higher and they are more effective in attack Without having to track back while the midfeilders can contribute defensively and win the ball back to launch a counter with wide players who are already forward and have to run Just 50 m instead of 100 m to attack. Also in case of injuries a 3 man midfeild is still balanced with the players on the bench, Where carrick has lost that legs to win the ball back against energetic and more mobile midfeilders and fellani lacks Positional dicipline and vision to effectivey play in a 2 man midfeild so they are also both better off in a Midfeild 3.
Also there are top managers in epl now with top teams in top 5 Who Has Planned against a 4231 system Which was most widely used in epl and have top players to get their system working So a 433 is a better system to play against the likes of chelsea liverpool city and arsenal in the league and also in the champions league . For Example Antonio Conte's Chelsea Solved the Unbalanced chelsea with mourinho's problem and planned against a 4231 with his 343 to make 4231 obsolete and make his chelsea squad more balanced with those set of players. So playing in a 4231 system against chelsea will get us nowhere against them or city or arsenal or liverpool because they are better balanced team. That's why Mourinho had to revert to 352 against chelsea at home to beat them because it provided better balance and space for our forwards.
This is how conte stopped 4231 and won the title
So Overall 4231 is an unbalanced system with these set of players and the overall squad and other top 5 teams have their systems in place already to make it obsolete Including european top teams.
Most of our games will be played against weaker opposition and thus we should not base the choice of the base formation on our most difficult oppositions but on the most common. A 4-2-3-1 gives you an extra attacker in the final 3rd while 4-3-3 gives you an extra person in central midfield. Given most oppositions are weaker than us, and our profligacy in front of goal, a 4-2-3-1 is better suited as our base formation with a 4-3-3 used when needed.
In Pogba, we have potentially the most complete and dominant midfielder the game has seen. With Pogba aided by a very good DM, we are likely able to control the midfield against all other 2-man midfield and most 3-man. That extra man should be utilized elsewhere on the pitch and not wasted in crowding the midfield further.
Assuming Pogb + DM are first choice, then Herrera goes to the bench, which to me is a very good thing, cos Herrera can fill in for either position in the dual pivot and he is good enough that there is a low drop in quality when he plays. In the rare scenario that we lose 2 of the 3 preferred choices ( i.e. DM, Pogba and Herrera), we can start 2 of Fellaini, Carrick or Pereira in a 4-3-3. Whereas if we played a midfield trio, we would need to use one of Fellaini, Carrick or Pereira as replacement more often. The drop in quality is much wider in this case and the team performance will suffer for it.
In a 4-3-3 vs 4-2-3-1, the wingers are not freed of defensive responsibility, as they are still required to track the opposition fullbacks. The 4-3-3 simply gives a numerical advantage in central midfield.
Against weaker opposition the wingers have less defensive duties and thus the argument for needing higher work rate wingers becomes moot. What is more valuable is an extra AM to add creativity and goal threat. In a 4-3-3, the attacking trio bear the burden of breaking down the opposition and scoring goals. We currently dont have that kind of quality upfront and an additional attacker would go a long way in making us more potent. We already have Mata who can play as a #10, and Mkhi can also play there if needed. As wingers, none of our current players present the kind of attacking threat needed to make the 4-3-3 successful.
Every formation has its strengths and weaknesses. Saying one formation is unbalanced, simply better than another, obsolete and/or is dying is a silly notion in my opinion. There is very little that is new in football formation and the more important factor is the suitability of the formation to the players available and the quality of execution. Chelsea were successful cos the system was suited to the players and the philosophy of the coach.
A key element to the success of Chelsea last season was the existence of Hazard, who for most teams can not be limited 1v1. The need to help against Hazard is what starts the tilt in opposition defence and which seems to give chelsea an extra man in attack. When Herrera was successful in taking out Hazard, the system was showed its frailties.
If personnel are of similar quality, a 3-4-3 is actually weak against the 4-2-3-1 on paper. In central midfield, its 2v2 which can be called even. On the flanks, you have 2 wingbacks going against two wingers, with the battle more likely to be fought in the wingbacks half. On one end of the pitch you have 3 attackers going against 4 defenders and while they can attack the channels, a good defence would know to shift accordingly. On the other side you also have 2 attackers (CF+AM) going against 3 CBs, which on paper should favor the defence, but the issue is that the AM can choose where he joins the attack to create an overload. Now if a wingback wins his duel and joins the attack, the defence still has 4 defenders to match up, but if the winger wins the duel the AM can join the attack on that side to create more overload. Of course in reality, there will nbe back and forth with wins and losses on both sides.
In a 4-3-3 vs 3-4-3, the former has a numerical superiority in central midfield but, given that it is 3v3 at the other end, a dynamic CM is required to exploit the advantage and join the attack.
<might be some typos - am too lazy to review>
You must be high? At what point did I imply Real are the ONLY team that play without a 10 in center midfield? Nor imply that they don't ever use a 10? You have simply conflated me mentioning Real as an example of the template I highlighted with all these assumptions you've made on your own. Creating one inane straw man in the process