Amorim has to change the formation to suit the players. This 343 cant go on.
Has to be 4231 until he gets his own players. He has to adapt.
The formation chat is massively overblown.
Most teams in the league use a variation of 3-2-5 when they have the ball, which is just another way of configuring 3-4-3. 3-2-5 is just what happens when the wide defenders push up to receive the ball.
There are different ways of achieving this shape. For example, Liverpool use their full backs super aggressively. Whereas Pep and his imitators tend to have a full back invert into midfield and push a centre midfielder into the channel. However, most players are used to playing some variant of 3-4-3 when their team has the ball.
The main change Amorim has made has been on the instructions. His approach relies on the wing backs to get into space, which requires the inside forwards to stay in the channel. Our players are much more comfortable doing things the other way, which we saw in the second half against Bodo where Dalot inverted allowing Garnacho to do what he prefers: Isolate a fullback wide.
However, Amorim is not asking the players to do something so fundamentally alien that they should struggle with it. His defensive shape switches between 3-4-3 and 4-4-2, neither of which should be that hard to compute either.
We did not lose at the weekend because of the formation. We lost because at the start of the second half we had, what can only be described as an inexplicable collapse where Onana sat down in front of a straight shot and Licha failed to even move towards a floating ball that went in at the far post.
Where Amorim can take some criticism is that his subs did not positively impact the team. However, the squad we have should be able to execute his tactics. Broadly speaking it has shown the ability to do so. Its just it melts like butter the second the heat is on. That is something he has to try and figure out how to solve long term.
