Why the 3-5-2 is Failing to Work in England

After Juventus' magnificent campaign last season which saw them go unbeaten whilst conceding just 20 goals, teams have tried to emulate their system, to nowhere near as much success. Antonio Conte, who was recently banned for 10 months for match fixing with former club Siena (awful news for the Old Lady who have finally won the scudetto after their infamous calciopoli scandal which saw them relegated to Serie B) employed a 3-5-2 system which proved to be very strong defensively, as Buffon was protected by Giorgio Chiellini, Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci - a defensive which was again seen for the Azzurri in the European Championships in which they reached the final before Prandelli's side were beaten 4-0 by Vicente Del Bosque's Spain.

The 3-5-2's Success in Italy

The 3-5-2 has been the second most common formation in the Serie A this season so far, behind the 4-3-3 (stats from WhoScored). Narrow formations such as the 3-5-2 are commonplace in Italy, with the 4-1-2-1-2, 3-5-1-1 and 4-3-2-1 being some other common systems in the top division.

This meant that the 3-5-2 rarely came up against it's main (and few) weaknesses; width. This flaw was exploited by Croatia however, when Slaven Bilic made a smart tactical switch at the half-way point to earn a point. In the first 45, Croatia lined up with both of their widest midfielders Ivan Perisic and Rakitic were fairly narrow, which did allow Srna and Strinic the room to roam forward, however it limited their threat on the flanks greatly. Mandzukic was also positioned very high and almost alongside his teammate up front Nikica Jelavic, which played perfectly into Prandelli's hands, as the 3 man defence easily dealt with the two man attack of Croatia, as they were both man-marked which allowed one free Italian player to cover.

The change saw Mandzukic drop deeper and to the left of the attack, in the position an inside forward would take up, whilst Rakitic, who had his spot taken up by Mandzukic, dropped deep into the defensive midfield role alongside Vukojovic to create a sort of 4-2-3-1 shape. Both full-backs were also given more freedom to roam forward. With two players marauding down either flank, Italy's wide men Maggio and Giaccherini were outnumbered which led to the equaliser from Croatia when a cross came in from the left flank and Chiellini made a mistake to give Mandzukic the goal.

With just one man on either flank, the 3-5-2 can easily be undone by simply being outnumbered out wide if the opposition full-backs push forward to support the wingers, as Bilic took advantage of. The Serie A isn't known for it's brilliant wingers, and is more known for it's defenders and elegant passers in midfield (Pizarro, Pirlo, and Sneijder to name a few) which makes for narrow formations as WhoScored showed with their stats. The 3-5-2 was perfect for both Juventus, and the Serie A.

 

And it's Lack of in England

Obviously this system can't have brought much success to a side this season given that it's just reached November, however no side has looked good to say the least. Manchester City is the main side who have used this formation however they're among quite a few English clubs who have experimented with this new (to them) system (including my own Huddersfield Town) and nearly all of them have failed under it. In a Premiership which has the talents of Gareth Bale, Luis Nani, Lukas Podolski and many more on the flanks, backed up by full-backs such as Maicon, Ashley Cole and Leighton Baines, the 3-5-2 would be very unlikely to find success. As I stated earlier, it's main weakness is it's susceptibility to wide attacks and in a league which hosts some of the greatest traditional wingers in the World, if there were to be one formation which would not work in it, that system would be the 3-5-2.

4 out of the 5 most common formations in the top English division also have 1 striker (the one without is the 4-4-2, as you'd have probably guessed) which is what the 3-5-2 finds difficult defending against as shown in the example of the Italy vs Croatia match.

The 3-5-2 allows teams to pack the midfield, which is probably one of the reasons why Conte chose this, as it allows him to use a quality midfield of Andrea Pirlo, Claudio Marchisio and Arturo Vidal whilst maintaining an attack of two. Against formations with just one up front however, their numbers in midfield are matched (five midfielders in 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-1-4-1, and [debated] the 4-4-1-1) so they don't gain from one of it's main advantages. Also, one centre-back will have nothing to do (one CB marking striker, one covering behind) which could cause a lack of concentration, but mainly, there will be one player who is arguably wasted, and think of how much more difficult it is for a side who are down to ten men.

The Premiership is also known for it's very fast 'end-to-end' tempo which is in a tactical sense mindless (in my opinion anyway) at times therefore it will be hard for a side to go from a kick-and-rush 4-4-2 to a far more complex 3-5-2 and it will not work initially (another example of this is Rodgers at Liverpool). On the other hand, the Serie A is known as the 'tactical league' and the players will have much less trouble playing in the convoluted system.

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