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3-4-3
​Played well and set-up to perfection, the potentially exciting and daring 3-4-3 can be a beautiful thing to watch that operates like clockwork. Get it wrong and it can look like an amorphous blob of mess with players out of position and your team more exposed than the occasional streaker that gives the stewards the slip every now and again.
3-4-3 has three centre-backs blocking the goal with a left centre-back (DCL), a centre-back in the middle (DC) and a right centre-back (DCR). In front of them are two central midfielders (MCL and MCR from left to right) while either side of them you will find a soon-to-be-over-worked left midfielder (ML) and right midfielder (MR). Up front you have three strikers with one on the left (STCL), a middle one (STC) and one on the right (STCR).
3-4-3
GK
DCL
DC
DCR
ML
MCL
MCR
MR
STCL
STC
STCR
Goalkeeper
Left Centre-Back
Centre-Back
Right Centre-Back
Left Midfielder
Left Central Midfielder
Right Central Midfielder
Right Midfielder
Left Striker
Central Striker
Right Striker
The relative lack of notable 3-4-3 successors at the highest levels – compared to other formations – won’t be because the system itself is bad or out-dated; in fact it’s a very fluid and flexible one indeed. It’s more likely that the lack of trophies filling club and national team trophy cabinets (as a result of extensive use of the 3-4-3) is because the 3-4-3 is so damn hard to pull off compared to other formations, with managers perhaps taking this into account and shying away from it more often than not.
We can see how playing the 3-4-3 requires a midfield that has the legs and versatility to fulfil different roles in different areas at different times.
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Wide midfielders (ML and MR) have to get up and down the whole length of the pitch and one of the keys to any success with 3-4-3 is being able to cover them if they get caught out on the counter-attack (and it’s likely they will). Players primarily responsible for doing this covering are the two in the middle but the outside centre-backs (DCL and DCR) also have to be prepared to go out to the flanks to provide the same defensive cover.
Attackers have to move around too by dropping to provide better passing outlets for the midfield or drifting to the flanks to help take the attacking weight of the wide midfielder’s shoulders.
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It’s clear that attributes like anticipation, off the ball, positioning, work rate, acceleration, pace and stamina are in demand across the board in order to make a success of this formation.
ADDING DEPTH TO THE ATTACK
​​When you use the standard 3-4-3 the attackers can be found right up front in the STCL, STC and STCR positions either playing more as forwards or out-and-out strikers; great for keeping all three of your star strikers happy but it doesn’t allow for much depth in attacking areas and your midfield might be struggling to get the ball forward as a result. To alleviate this, there are some other and more used ways you can use your offensive three-man force:
​You can drop the centre-most of the three into the central attacking midfield position (AMC) to make a 3-4-1-2. The formerly striking individual - now attacking midfielder - helps to provide easier passing options for the rest of the midfield and there's two strikers ahead waiting to get on the end of any through balls that he has to offer them.
Bear in mind that the man in the hole might need to drift towards the touchlines to ease the wide midfielder’s attacking load and combine with them through one-twos, wall-passes, that sort of thing. A more static role like the Enganche wouldn’t be suitable. A better role might be the attacking midfield one or the advanced playmaker but a Trequartista role would be great if you can get the star number ten who can perform this.
​If your team has a real abundance of creative attacking midfielders, then you can be really extravagant and play with two of these players roaming around in a 3-4-2-1 formation. This leaves a solitary striker up front on his own but surely they won’t be complaining about a lack of chances!
Alternatively you could still play with three strikers and simulate the 3-4-1-2 and 3-4-2-1 by tagging support duties onto the relevant strikers, perhaps with the instruction to roam from their position as well.
PACKING THE MIDFIELD WITH 3-4-3
​​You may be a bit worried about the lack of numbers in the middle of the park but still be faced with the conundrum of having a lorry-load of players at both ends of the pitch (centre-backs and strikers) and a dearth of wide players in your squad; the sort of squad that lends itself to playing something like the 3-4-3. Now it’s reasonable enough to say “well why not play 3-5-2?” but depending on what you’ve got in your squad, you can stock more players around the centre circle yet still commit to something like a 3-4-3.
Perhaps the “easiest” way to cram the midfield with a 3-4-3 is to make the most of the sheer number of players in your squad who can play as central or defensive midfielders and have a box midfield in front of the defence to make a 3-2-2-3, although it can also be also construed as 3-2-4-1 or even 3-6-1. Note that the attackers spread to balance things out.
Figure (a)
Asking the centre-backs to stay wider or giving them the wide centre-back role creates space to play out from the back.
3-4-3 is geared towards playing out from the back anyway but with the midfield square getting involved, it’s even more of a nudge for managers to set up their tactics to encourage all of this. Starting with the build-up from the goalkeeper, you can ask the centre-backs to stay wider or even play the wide centre-back role (a). Doing this creates an M shape from which possession can be maintained at the back until an opening into the midfield arises.
Against two strikers, you might want to keep the DCL and DCR in the half-spaces and ask the goalkeeper to send the ball straight to the wingers (b).
You could try playing wide centre-backs and give both defensive midfielders the half-back role so that the DMCL and DMCR fill in while those talented and creative DCLs and DCRs on the outside persevere with their forward expeditions with a support duty or even an attack duty as they get closer to the enemy’s goal (c).
Spreading out like this can create more of a 5-4-1 shape and can also get your team out and away from high defensive pressure when building from the back.
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The two MCs play a shuttling or ‘Carrilero’ role to provide a bit of width and create a nice V-shaped set of paths from the covering centre-back (DC) from which the ball can be played out to the wingers (d).
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Defensively, the two MCs can cover the flanks and take the load off of the defensive midfielders and the centre-backs on the outside since a shuttling role sends them out wider to start with. Anticipation, teamwork, positioning, work rate, acceleration, pace and stamina to cover the DCL or DCR who are more likely to get pulled out towards the flanks with less support from anyone else on the flanks likely forthcoming.
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Alternatively if you want to play neat little exchanges along the floor through the centre then you can also ask the striker to play a withdrawn role, perhaps as a false nine if intelligent and creative enough. When the striker drops, the wingers come inside by playing an inverted winger or inside forward role (e).
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The role of the striker actually determines whether attacks are focused out wide with crosses after build-up from the back or down the middle in a pure technical-based game.
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Having a diamond in the middle of your 3-4-3 is the more difficult choice, but it did work for Johan Cruyff with his Barcelona outfit in the early 1990s – even if their success with it didn’t extend beyond the Spanish borders during that time.
This choice could be called a 3-3-3-1 or 3-6-1.
You have to make sure that your defensive midfielder has sky-high levels of anticipation, teamwork, positioning, work rate, acceleration, pace and stamina to cover the DCL or DCR who are more likely to get pulled out towards the flanks with less support from anyone else on the flanks likely forthcoming. Once again, the same importance of these attributes also apply to the two central midfielders.
One of the beauties with this sort of 3-4-3 is that you can focus attacks down the wings or the centre without changing the structure of the system.
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