00:00What strategy do you think is the most effective in soccer to win games?
00:06Okay, I'll tell you my favorite formation.
00:08It has to be a 3-5-2.
00:11This is...
00:11Oh, you know what?
00:12Let me...
00:12Let's pull it up.
00:13Let's pull it up.
00:14Yeah, look at this.
00:15Ay, ay, ay.
00:16Boom.
00:16Oh, not that one.
00:19Not that one.
00:193-5-2.
00:20Then you have it, then you have it, my friend.
00:22Break it down for us.
00:23This is a bit of a controversial formation, right?
00:26But who do we know that played the 3-5-2?
00:28Argentina, 1986 when they won the World Cup.
00:32This is the type of formation you can see.
00:33A lot of width in the middle, right?
00:35A lot of people in the middle.
00:37And this is my favorite part about it.
00:38Being a wing-back.
00:39What are the wing-backs?
00:40You can see the left wing-back, right wing-back,
00:42the people all the way on the width.
00:44This is naturally going to stretch the field.
00:46This is why I love it.
00:47It creates more space in the middle.
00:49It's not as congested.
00:50Therefore, stretching the other team's defense.
00:52Do you need a specific type of players to make this work?
00:55Absolutely.
00:55You need strong players on the side, right?
00:58You need players that can not only run up when you're in the offense,
01:01but when you lose the ball and we're defending,
01:03people can also book it all the way back.
01:05It's called box-to-box defense.
01:06So that's the thing.
01:07When you have so many people in the middle,
01:09they have to double dip, right?
01:10They can't be just committed to one side or the other.
01:12No, they have to come up and they also have to do the back.
01:15Because also another pro,
01:16if you have the players with that kind of endurance,
01:18you're going to have a 5-back really quick.
01:20And that's really hard for the other teams.
01:23You know, if they're playing with your classic 4-3-3,
01:25you're only going to have three players up there against five defenders.
01:28It's really hard to break through that defensive line.
01:31Oh, and you've got to have good hands.
01:32I mean, this is like a good handle.
01:34You mentioned Argentina.
01:36So not a lot of like long passes.
01:38You kind of build.
01:39It's tiki-taka, tiki-taka.
01:40Absolutely.
01:41When mentioning that 86 team for Argentina, who did they have?
01:44Maradona.
01:44Yes.
01:44That's the type of player.
01:46It really gave him a lot of confidence,
01:48a lot of freedom up there to have the space to do what he does.
01:51But you need a creative player.
01:52And then it allows the center midfield to go up
01:55and become a top three attacking team
01:58or come back and drop and do defensives.
02:00And then you suddenly have a six-people line there holding the attack.
02:05But also, one of the things that this scheme has going for it,
02:09you can play a high line, pushing the other team to their half,
02:14putting them away from the goal and containing them.
02:16Because like you said, it's stretching.
02:18But I am an old school guy, my friend.
02:21So let me pull my favorite one.
02:24The classic 4-2-2, my friend.
02:27Actually, it's 4-4-2.
02:28Yeah.
02:29We have two lines of four that you can actually move
02:32to become a diamond on top with a false nine like Messi plays.
02:36Or you can be very organized two blocks of four players in the defensive,
02:40four players in the midfield with two attacking, true attackers, two nines.
02:45Normally, this is the idea of the false nine.
02:48You have two nine, you know, positions which are the attackers.
02:51But one of them plays right behind with a creative player like Messi,
02:56like Maradona, like this big.
02:57Examples of this.
02:58Let's see.
02:58This is a more, in my opinion, a little more straightforward, right?
03:01A little bit more cookie cutter.
03:03It's not a bad thing.
03:04For example, if you look at like the Premier League, English players,
03:07It's a lot of this.
03:08It's very structured.
03:09It's very, you know, straightforward, you know what you're doing.
03:12Reliable, a lot of area coverage, right?
03:14Like each of these players, they're in charge of an area of the pitch,
03:18and you take care of your quadrant, and that's what you do.
03:21You don't move around like in the 3-5-2.
03:23Another key factor for this, coaching, right?
03:25Yes.
03:25Who is coaching behind this?
03:27I know my coaching experience.
03:28It all depends on the type of players you have.
03:30You can't go into a team thinking, oh, I want to play this formation.
03:34Really?
03:34Yeah, absolutely.
03:36Now, you coach middle schoolers.
03:37Yes, I've coached all the way from as little as three years old,
03:40four years old, to around 14 in middle school.
03:42So you have, obviously, your favorite offense in mind,
03:46but when you see what you have, you've changed.
03:49You have to change, right?
03:51You have to change.
03:52You can't go in.
03:52I think that makes the best type of coaches, the kind who are creative,
03:56the kind that can be flexible, because at the end of the day,
03:59even if you want to play a 3-5-2, if you don't have the midfield for,
04:02if you don't have the players who can be, you know,
04:05have that endurance on the wing, you can't play it.
04:07Are the midfielders the most important?
04:08Because everybody focuses on strikers, right?
04:10When they look at a roster, they're like, who's the striker?
04:12Who's the striker?
04:12But when you're more educated...
04:14Every position is important.
04:15Yeah.
04:15Honestly, it is true.
04:16If, for example, any team, you're going to might have a team
04:19that's stronger in the defense.
04:20You might have a team that's stronger in the offense.
04:23For example, if you have a team that's very strong defensively,
04:25you know that maybe like in the 3-5-2,
04:27you can rely on only having three in the back.
04:29But if you're, you don't have those strong defenders,
04:31you're going to have to play with the 4-back.
