By: COLIN REESE
Jürgen Klinsmann has stated that the United States Men’s National Team will need more than one tactical formation for the World Cup, which means a defensive formation, an attacking formation, and a combination of the two.
World Soccer Source proposes three formation options, and this writer is including Mix Diskerud or Joe Corona or both on the roster for the purpose of this exercise.
It’s possible that neither will make the roster and that Klinsmann will always start a line of three attacking midfielders consisting of Graham Zusi/Alejandro Bedoya, Clint Dempsey, and Landon Donovan.
There’s no way to know who will make the roster, but the underlying principal below is the amount of defensive midfielder and strikers included in the Starting XI.
The amount of defensive midfielders and strikers is the element that changes in the three formations outlined below.
The following formations are a 4-3-2-1, a 4-2-3-1, and a 4-1-3-2:
The Defensive-Minded Formation (4-3-2-1)
A really defensive formation would be to deploy a midfield destroyer in the back of the midfield with both Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley as box-to-box midfielders. This only leaves room for three attacking players who would likely be Clint Dempsey, Landon Donovan, and Jozy Altidore.
This system allows both Jones and Bradley the freedom to attack together so that they can be more involved in the build up play and the creation of scoring opportunities. Of course both would need to be playing a lot of defense, but they would have the safety valve of a Number 6 in front of the Back Four.
This formation uses a midfield destroyer behind two box-to-box midfielders playing more of less centrally with lots of freedom to patrol the midfield to defend, keep possession, or attack. In front of these three would be a striker up top with two attacking midfielders playing behind the striker to link up with the three other midfielders and support the first striker.
Bradley and Jones are Klinsmann’s likely Number 8s in this formation, but his ideal Number 6 has yet to be determined. Maybe Klinsmann would never use this formation, but he views both Bradley and Jones as capable attacking players, which is a correct assessment.
Assuming Geoff Cameron is being used as a defender, in this system, the Front Six would be as follows:
Jermaine JONES, Maurice EDU/Kyle BECKERMAN, Michael BRADLEY; Landon DONOVAN, Clint DEMPSEY; Jozy ALTIDORE.
How would they line up?
JONES EDU/BECKERMAN BRADLEY
DONOVAN DEMPSEY
ALTIDORE
The Balanced Formation (4-2-3-1)
A balanced formation would likely still use a defensive midfielder and a box-to-box midfielder because there would still be room in the Front Six for four attacking players.
This would be the more balanced formation compared to the defensive-minded formation outlined above because there wouldn’t be three defensive midfielders, but the dilemma would be whether or not Jermaine Jones could be trusted to cover for Michael Bradley when Bradley makes attacking runs; Bradley already covers for Jones, but Jones prefers to just keep attacking, which dumps all of the defensive duties on Bradley.
This 4-2-3-1 formation would deploy a defensive midfielder, a box-to-box midfielder, two wings, a playmaker, and a striker. This ideally would use Donovan and Dempsey as the wings, but Klinsmann views Dempsey as the ideal player to play the central attacking midfielder role.
In this system, the Ideal World Soccer Source USA Front Six would be as follows:
Geoff CAMERON, Michael BRADLEY; Landon DONOVAN, Joe CORONA/Mix DISKERUD, Clint DEMPSEY; Jozy ALTIDORE.
How would they line up?
CAMERON BRADLEY
DONOVAN CORONA/DISKERUD DEMPSEY
ALTIDORE
The Attack-Minded Formation (4-1-3-2)
This formation hinges on deploying Michael Bradley as the lone defensive midfielder where he would play directly in front of the defense where he would be heavily involved in both the USA’s passing and the USA’s defensive coverage of the Back Four.
This position still involves an enormous amount of running plus lots of touches on the ball. While this position is called a defensive midfielder, one of the main requirements is being able to orchestrate the team’s passing, help to control possession, and switch the point of attack. This puts Bradley in the middle of the action for the full 90 minutes.
The other key element of this formation is the starting of two strikers up top, which would mean starting Jozy Altidore with Aron Jóhannsson. Juan Agudelo could also be one of the strikers started up top depending on whether or not he makes the World Cup roster.
Using Altidore and Jóhannsson is the common preference, but using Altidore with Agudelo would really stretch the opposition’s Back Four. Altidore and Agudelo starting together as center forwards would make any defender have to work really hard to prevent those two strikers from slipping in behind them.
This is a way to make the opponent have to worry about two strikers, which would leave Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan single-marked.
The 4-1-3-2 formation deploys a defensive midfielder between a central attacking midfielder flanked by two wingers with two strikers spearheading the attack.
In this formation, World Soccer Source’s Ideal USA Front Six would be:
BRADLEY; DONOVAN, CORONA/DISKERUD, DEMPSEY; ALTIDORE, JÓHANNSSON.
-Agudelo would be a quality striker option if he is even included on the team.
How would they line up?
BRADLEY
DONOVAN CORONA/DISKERUD DEMPSEY
ALTIDORE JÓHANNSSON/AGUDELO