The pioneer of the formation was former Argentina coach Carlos Bilardo who led the country to World Cup victory in 1986. The formation was used to accommodate the talents of their most talented player, Diego Maradona. Now Liverpool are using a formation which died out in the late 80's and very early 90's, popular tactical analysis site Zonal Marking pointed out,
"The use of a three-man defence is extremely unusual in the Premier League – this was the first time a true three-man defence has been used in 2010/11 by any side (drawing a distinction between three- and five-man defences), and in that respect, it was a very interesting decision."
But why have Liverpool decided to adopt this formation? I'm hoping by looking at their matches against Chelsea and Stoke respectively, I might be able to answer that.
Against both Stoke and Chelsea Dalglish has elected to start with three centre backs. This is feel is a pretty good response to sides playing with a 4-4-2 especially taking into consideration that neither Stoke or Chelsea play with a withdrawn striker. The theory behind this is that playing with three at the back leaves two centre backs in this case Agger and Carragher marking the two centre forwards leaving Skrtel free to sweep up any loose balls. I think that this three at the back also gives the side to make the most of Carragher and Aggers' passing ability from the back, ensuring that less wasteful long balls are played from the back as they were under Roy Hodgson.
On the attacking side of things it frees up wing-backs Martin Kelly and especially Glen Johnson to attack and give their side the width Liverpool have lacked in past seasons. After the sales of Albert Riera, Yossi Benayoun and now Ryan Babel the Liverpool squad has no recognised wingers. The logical step if you have in side with these deficiencies is to do what Liverpool have done which is to play a formation with none. The abundance of midfielders in the shapes of Raul Meireles, Steven Gerrard, Christian Poulsen, Lucas, Maxi Rodriguez and Jay Spearing also made this decision a practical one.
Another attacking benefit of the 3-5-2 Liverpool play is that they have the standard 3 v 2 advantage in midfield against a 4-4-2. But with so many teams playing the modern 4-5-1/4-3-3 Meireles drops deeper to then give Liverpool effectively a 4 v 3 advantage, like he did against Stoke, leaving Dirk Kuyt as the lone striker.
All in all the formation currently suits the way Liverpool play and reflects clearly the kinds of players they have at the club. But will this be a long term switch? Jonathon Wilson in the Guardian put his feelings across when using Napoli as an example,
"So what, then, of Napoli? If 3-5-2 is ailing, how can their success be accounted for? The answer is that they are quite happy to have, in effect, two liberi. Napoli are not a team who need to take the initiative to the opposition; rather – as happened in the early days of catenaccio – they often sit deep, invite the opposition onto them, and break quickly, using the pace of Ezequiel Lavezzi.
It would not work for everybody – probably not for a top, top club, who feel the onus to take the game on themselves – but it works for Napoli."
The thing is, I feel formations don't determine the way a team plays. With Liverpool there are no liberi (sweepers) and they don't defend with a deep line. They also have what was described as a "foraging foursome to fear" in the Guardian by Paul Hayward. He was referring to a foursome of Andy Carrol, Steven Gerrard, Raul Meireles and Luis Suarez but in the last two games it has been a very effective foursome of Meireles, Gerrard, Maxi and Kuyt. All four have pushed high up the pitch when battling for possession and attacking especially against Chelsea today. This in the end pinned Carlo Ancelotti's side back and lead to them giving away possession in their own third.
All in all the formation change has been a success, but the true test will be when this formation becomes a regular occurrence. Teams will then amend their systems to counter it and try to expose any perceived weaknesses. For now I'm just enjoying this deviation in tactics from the usual 4-4-2 and 4-5-1/4-3-3 we've got used to seeing week in week out in the Premier League.
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