By Soren Schamberg
When using the 4-3-3, most teams are opting with the formation to use and control the midfield as a means of dominating possession. The back four provide a stable back line to deal with opposing wingers and the midfield 3 can form up in a triangle midfield to add to both defense and attack as the phase of play allows.
As the formation evolves, we now see teams such as Manchester City use this formation and utilize the wide players in the back four in a different way. Usually, the wing backs are charged with getting up the field in their respective channel and support the attack or provide overlaps to penetrate the oppositions back line. Instead of the traditional role, Man City uses what are called inverted wingbacks referring to the forward movement of the wide players not up the field, but to move into the middle of the field around the center circle. This adds a extra line of players vertically up the field and “mushrooms” the midfield and forwards out wide creating space both on the wings and in the midfield while simultaneously allowing overloads to be created by the Man City players wherever the ball is in the opposition’s half.
This also causes a lot of problems for the opposition as they have a hard time marking the players and closing down space as the Man City players are constantly on the move, opening channels, one touch passing and moving the defense with passes. This is what allows Man City to usually dominate possession statistically for most of their games.
An apt example of the use of these inverted wingbacks is during the game against Everton during match week 12 in the Premiere League.
After a fiery start from both teams, with a lot of back and forth, in the 20th minute a picture of this becomes clear.
Here we can see 9 of the 11 Man City players in Everton’s half.
Here you can see that even with 9 of their 11 on the field, Everton are still giving up space as Man City pass the ball around.
A few seconds on in this sequence of possession and you see space opening up in other areas, all the while, Everton have to continue to adjust and keep track of their opposing players and to fill space.
The challenge for this Everton player is to decide to move forward or to his left to close the space or to stay where he is.
A poor pass from Man City causes them to have to retreat back into their half and start the forward movement again. But one can see how the inverted wingbacks moving to the middle of the field causes some real problems for side.
Moving forward into the second half and the 55’, Man City play the ball out of the back in a sequence of passing that brings the ball out to the left flank of their attack.
As the ball is crossed into the 6 yard box it bobbles around and is seemingly cleared from the danger area.
However, the inverted wingback, Rodrigo, is following the play and coming into the Everton half and the poorly cleared ball rolls out in his direction. Due to his high position, he seizes the opportunity to run on the ball and fire the second goal into the net - It’s a goal any football fan would like to see.
The development of the inverted wingbacks can really add a layer of complexity to the possession and attacking portion of a 4-3-3 formation.
By Soren Schamberg
