TomClare
24 Jun 2007, 05:45 PM
Just to expand a little on the formations Tom has shown - as we know today there are often different ways of displaying this. Back then the common formation was the "W" formation thus:
Left wing--------Centre forward--------Right wing
----------Inside left--------Inside right
-----------Left half---------Right half
Left fullback--------Centre half-------Right fullback
--------------------keeper
The "W" refers to the formation taken up by the front five and the inverse "W" taken up by the back five. Today we would probably call it 3-4-3. I'm not sure if the stats bear this out but, as you can see, there's a close one on one balance between defenders and attackers which I suspect led to more attacking play and goals.
Tom quite rightly makes a big point about Ernie Taylor in the post Munich team. What should be another claim to fame for Ernie, but seldom is, is that he was in fact the true dominating player for Blackpool in what is known as "The Matthews Final". It was Ernie who sprayed the passes around, particularly for Stan Matthews, for Blackpool to come from 3-1 down with 20 minutes to go to win 4-3 in the the 1953 FA Cup Final against Bolton.
I couldn't agree with you more about "The Mathews Final" as it was called. Stan got all the praise but without little Ernie's glorious passing from midfield, Blackpool would have lost that final. Ernie kept going deep to retrieve the ball and would then get the ball out into Mathew's path as quickly as possible.
Left wing--------Centre forward--------Right wing
----------Inside left--------Inside right
-----------Left half---------Right half
Left fullback--------Centre half-------Right fullback
--------------------keeper
The "W" refers to the formation taken up by the front five and the inverse "W" taken up by the back five. Today we would probably call it 3-4-3. I'm not sure if the stats bear this out but, as you can see, there's a close one on one balance between defenders and attackers which I suspect led to more attacking play and goals.
Tom quite rightly makes a big point about Ernie Taylor in the post Munich team. What should be another claim to fame for Ernie, but seldom is, is that he was in fact the true dominating player for Blackpool in what is known as "The Matthews Final". It was Ernie who sprayed the passes around, particularly for Stan Matthews, for Blackpool to come from 3-1 down with 20 minutes to go to win 4-3 in the the 1953 FA Cup Final against Bolton.
I couldn't agree with you more about "The Mathews Final" as it was called. Stan got all the praise but without little Ernie's glorious passing from midfield, Blackpool would have lost that final. Ernie kept going deep to retrieve the ball and would then get the ball out into Mathew's path as quickly as possible.