She Kicks Tactics: The 4-4-2

The first instalment of a new series sets out to explain tactics to players, parents and fans who are assumed to understand them already, beginning with the 4-4-2. Alena Moulton covers the fundamentals: what a formation is, why coaches and pundits talk about them, and whether they are rigid. She lays out the classic shape’s strengths, width and two central strikers and clearly-zoned defending, and its weakness, being outnumbered in central midfield against a 4-3-3, then the 4-4-1-1 and diamond variations. Lee Burch takes it into practice through Lewes, whose mid-to-low block and counter-attacking pace produced five 1-0 wins and a highest-ever fifth. A closing panel asks who Team GB would have to leave out to play a flat 4-4-2 in Tokyo.