Fans Comment
Steve McBride

Form for Formation
7/2/06

We all know we need more cover up front and I was as disappointed as anyone else when it didn’t materialise in January. You can speculate all you want about the reasons why we didn’t get anyone in. Feel free to blame any convenient scapegoat you can find, be it Kenwright, Moyes, Wyness, Peter Johnson or even Anita Gregg; if you think it will ease your sense of frustration then go for it. But credit where credit’s due, we are currently on the best run of form since 1998 (I’m writing this before our customary trouncing at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday) and this is largely down to the transfer policy and tactics of Moyes and Irvine.

One of Moyes’s greatest strengths, and it is often perceived as a weakness, is his ability to experiment. He’s constantly chopping and changing in order to find the perfect formation to utilize the available players to their fullest. I’m not making Moyes out to be some kind of tactical genius — he’s clearly not — he simply uses trial and error in order to find something that works on the pitch. This process can be quite baffling to the fans (remember Joseph Yobo in midfield, for instance) but when you can’t afford to go out and buy the best available players for every position you have to experiment.

Last season Moyes hit upon the 4-1-4-1 formation with Carsley as the holding midfielder, Gravesen the creative midfielder, Bent providing the legs up front and Cahill getting into the box whenever the chance arose to nod in the odd goal or ten. It worked a treat and we ended up with a shot at the Champion’s League. I admit, at first, I thought it was some kind of fluke but, being a pragmatist, after all the shit us Blues have had to put up with over the years, I was prepared to graciously accept a bit of luck for a change.

This season was to be the real test for Blues. I was quite excited by the signings of Neville and Van der Meyde; it was obvious what Moyes was planning. He would use the same formation, but adding a touch of sophistication to the holding role with Neville; goals and crosses would come from van de Meyde; Beattie would be the target-man up front, with pace and efficiency bought to the back line through Krøldrup and Ferrari. The troublesome left-back birth would be filled by Champions League winner Valente. It looked good on paper — in reality, it was a disaster!

Beattie clearly needed to drop a bra size or two before being fit enough to operate as the lone front-man; Van der Meyde never got off the physio’s couch; Neville lacked Carsley’s physical strength and tenacity and was ineffective in the holding role; Valente looked way off the pace; Krøldrup didn’t even turn up.

To make matters worse, we were dumped out of the Champions League after a complete pig of a draw and a truly gutting refereeing decision. And just when confidence couldn’t get any lower, we were routed in the Uefa Cup by Dinamo Bucharest. It was no surprise we lost seven of the first eight league games. For the first time in three years it appeared that some fans were giving up faith in the Moyesiah. But importantly, Moyes never gave up; he never started moaning and crying, he just kept plugging away.

After a false dawn in November, our luck eventually returned. Since the last-gasp winner against Sunderland on New Year’s Eve when we were fortunate to win, the Blues haven’t looked back. Nine games undefeated encompassing a marvellous victory against Arsenal and a home draw with Chelsea and we’re in striking distance of the top ten, any relegation worries are rapidly receding. So what’s changed?

There are many factors in the turnaround: Valente has found his feet; Beattie is at last starting to look like a £6M player; Stubbs has returned to take control of defence; and confidence has returned to the team. The most important factor, as far as I’m concerned, however, is that Moyes has once again hit upon a formation that works.

Moyes has realized that, without Carsley, we have no natural holding midfielder and has reverted to a flat midfield four. He’s moved Arteta to the right to provide balls into the box and the extra man, freed up from not having a holding midfielder, has been deployed further up field in the form of Leon Osman, producing a 4-4-1-1 formation.

Osman has been tremendous over the last few weeks, reminiscent of a young Zola: his movement, fast thinking, and incredible first touch give him that extra yard of space, drawing in defenders and allowing more room for Beattie to operate in. The result hasn’t been a goal glut. What we’ve seen are a number of tight games that our superior organization and effort have allowed us to just shade.

And I’m not trying to make out that Moyes has finally cracked it. Football is a game of cat and mouse; no sooner than one team develops a tactical advantage, the other teams develop countermeasures — we’re certainly not out of the woods yet. What I am saying is this: we are very lucky to have such an innovative young manager as David Moyes; please don’t drive him away. Yes - he will make mistakes along the way, but be patient – we’re still moving in the right direction.
Steve McBride


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