I was reading through a book on tactics through the various eras today, and I was wondering if it's practical that older formations could ever make a comeback. I don't mean in a pure sense, as (say) a 2-3-5 would get completely destroyed by the traditional 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. But I am wondering whether the concept of weighting more towards a specialised large attack could make a comeback. Could (say) you essentially remove the need for a large midfield by having one or two true liberos, who are able to play the role of initiating play and moving the ball upfield? You could then divert your midfield players into a comprehensive attacking unit of 4 or even 5 pure forwards. With that many pure attackers it would allow some of those more complex attacking plays of the '30s-'50s to make a comeback. I don't know, I'm just spitballing here. I just thought it was an interesting concept to consider. After the era of catenaccio football has over the decades gradually opened up again, with defenders being required to be more and more flexible, and a shift to stacking the midfield. Could stacking the forward line be the next logical step, and if it was possible to make it work without overly compromising defensive integrity would that give a team a potential advantage? Or is the era of the swollen midfield here to stay?
I think from limited personal experimentation the trick to getting three defenders to due the job in a 3-2-5 is they need to circle so the opposing attackers never get in a rhythm-you follow? The attackers never see the same looking defense twice. Defense in all sports is about breaking rhythm. This requires a defense to be the most fit on the team because they are in constant movement, whether it be a walk, trot, or all out sprint. In this strategy the defense is NOT reactive; The defense is proactive. Try it sometime. The three defenders wheel, counter-clockwise is my preference, evenly spaced, circling in a large triangular formation in from of the goal. Can you envision it? Like a big wheel with three spokes spinning out in front of the goal. The philosophy is like that of shark- TO STOP IS TO DIE. I witnessed a 45 year old man and two 12 year olds hold off an entire team of twenty five year old Poles in their prime with this strategy-for about 22 minutes. The upside is if it works the attackers in your 3-5-2 get a lot of chances at goal. Good luck!
I think it is certainly possible, but the players (and coaches) will need to have a different mentality than they currently do, and that could be hard to achieve. For example, currently most teams have 4 or even 5 man backlines, so there is not much urgency for midfielders and especially forwards to drop back into defense. With only 2 men on the backline, you need a group of players who is willing to play forward but also understand that as soon as they lose possession they have to sprint back because if they don't the defense will be overrun. Also they have to adopt the mentality that conceding goals is "okay" to some extent, because with fewer defenders, obviously it is going to be harder to prevent goals from being scored. So instead of trying to win 2-0 they should maybe be trying to win 5-3 or something.
Good points, seems like a 2-3-5 formation would be suitable to the teams that can play Total Football. Everyone has the ability to attack and defend and the fitness to keep it up for 90 minutes (or more).
I think we contributors to and readers of this thread deserve some self-congrats for being ahead of our time for contributing to the discussion of reviving total football. The Spanish National Team with it's False 9 system has essentially validated the concept of "everyone attacks, everyone defends". Not exactly, precisely what we discussed but pretty similar conceptually. Next...how to defeat the False 9???? I have been developing a scheme on paper I call the "Rolling 55" that might do the trick. 5 defenders who circle in a wheel to keep the attack out of rhythm. They can join the attack individually sometimes also. And then 5 midfielder-forwards who also circle in a big wheel any and all of whom can attack. Again as in any total football scheme fitness is key.
Yeah I think more teams are developing and modernizing now and you don't really see one formation throughout and entire game. Teams tend to switch dependent on situation throughout the game.
[It all depends because what was essentially the British/Irish version of the "classic" formation (which is what most people think of when they hear the phrase "pyramid formation") didn't actually look ANYTHING like a "2-3-5" once the match kicked-off...]
[It's also interesting that you mention the "False 9" if you happen to understand the most common/prevailing version of the the centre-forward in the "pyramid"...]