👋 Welcome..
..to The Tap-Inn. Where you can tap in to the world of soccer with me, your first-gen Irish Tap-Inn bartender, Joe.
It’s Friday, my dudes. On tap today:
What to know when you see 4-2-3-1 on a teamsheet 📝
The real reason I’m going to Machu Picchu on my next holiday ✈️
What £635,000 got you in 2008 💰
Ready? I thought so. Let’s pour.
🥃 TOP SHELF
4-4-2. 4-2-3-1. 3-5-2.
The Manchester Derby starting lineups last Saturday.
No, they’re not international dialling codes.
They’re soccer formations. They determine a team’s style of play, what players are in the line-up and can even impact how opponents will line up themselves.
Formations explain the number of players operating in each area of the field and therefore can indicate a more offensive or defensive display.
“and tell me Joe, these areas of the field would be?…”
Defence, midfield and attack — the bread and butter of any team.
Let’s take a look at some of the most commonly used formations in soccer and how those numbers play out on the pitch.
🛠️ 4-4-2: Four defenders, four midfielders and two forwards. Each foursome here is comprised of two central players and two wide players in this simple, old-school formation. Modern managers avoid for fear of being overrun with just two players in the middle of the park.
🕸️ 4-1-4-1: The lone centre-midfielder dictates the tempo with the four ahead push high to box opposing teams in. For Manchester City above, it gives them counter-pressing, and territorial control. When the two wide midfield players push further forward, it turns into the formation below.
🏃♂️ 4-3-3: Three forwards stretch the pitch, the midfield three run the show. Fast, attacking, and used by the likes of Liverpool and Barcelona.
🧱 3-4-2-1: Three center-backs, a protective midfield four featuring two wing-backs flying up and down either side of two defensive midfielders, and two playmakers supporting a lone striker. Compact in defense and creative in attack. Great on paper, difficult to execute in reality.
🕹️ 4-2-3-1: A manager’s go-to when they want balance. Two defensive midfielders protect the back line and three creators play behind one main forward. Stable and structured — see Manchester United in the graphic above.
⏰ TLDR
Soccer formations are the blueprint for how a team plays. Those numbers like 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 show how players are spread across defense, midfield and attack.
PS I lied. 3-5-2 absolutely is an international dialling code. A massive entschëllegt to all of our Luxembourgish readers.
📝 TRIVIA ON TAP
Back to a time when soccer players wore proper coloured cleats.
Nice parking
Who famously coined the phrase “park the bus” after criticizing their opponent’s ultra-defensive display in a 0-0 tie, saying they "brought the team bus and they left it in front of the goal"?
Answer at the end. 🚌
🌎 WORLD CUP TRACKER
Countdown: 139 days
If you were planning on squeezing in a quick World Record for the fastest unsupported row across the full Pacific Ocean before the World Cup kicks off in June, you’d want to get a move on.
It took three Scottish brothers exactly 139 days to row non-stop from Peru to Australia last August, covering 14,000 kilometres in the process.
One man banking on a slightly less choppy next 19 weeks and 6 days than the afforementioned however, is Brenden Aaronson.
The Leeds attacking midfielder is hitting form at just the right time with three goals in his last three league games, proving himself an integral part of Leeds’ upturn in form.
Here’s hoping for boatload more goals and a splash of plain sailing between now and the WC this summer.
🔥 QUICKFIRE
Sound like a pro
The runs you’ll typically see your box-to-box midfielders making.
Phrase: "Box-to-box"
Origin: Evolved with modern tactical demands in the 1990s-2000s, describing midfielders who cover the entire vertical length of the pitch, from their own box to to their opponents.
Definition: A midfielder who operates across the entire field—defending in their own penalty area one moment, arriving late in the opposition box the next. They're basically the team's engine room.
Usage: "Roy Keane was the ultimate box-to-box midfielder.”
On this day
As good as it got for Ebbsfleet.
23rd January 2008: Over 17,000 members of MyFootballClub voted to buy fifth-tier English club Ebbsfleet United for £635,000, making them the first internet-owned soccer club.
It was all fizz and no pop, however. Despite an FA Trophy win (competition for tiers 5-8 of the English soccer pyramid) in 2008, Ebbsfleet struggled in the following years and were relegated in 2010. Membership fell and debts rose, leading MyFootballClub to sell their stake in 2013.
Stadium of the week
*drools in Spanish*
Nestled in a tiny town next to Machu Picchu in the Peruvian Andes is this absolute belter — the Estadio de Aguas Calientes.
With a capacity of 1,000, the field is surrounded by several steep, forested slopes and an abundance of building windows perfectly ripe for a shattering.
In a town where horizontal ground is in short supply, the locals decided that it would be a great idea to take up pretty much all of it with a soccer pitch. And I’m sure glad they did. Check it out on Google Maps here.
📝 TRIVIA ANSWER
The self-proclaimed “special one” always has had a way with words.
José Mourinho
Who else? 🤷♂️
Mou claimed Tottenham Hotspur had pulled a fast one with their team motor in 2004 after a 0-0 draw. It wouldn’t matter for much in the grand schemes of things that season though — Chelsea went on to win the league with a record-low 15 goals conceded, and a record-high 173 box office quotes from José. 🍿
And that’s where we’ll park this one.
Until next time…
Thanks for stopping by The Tap-Inn.
If you enjoyed this, forward it to that friend who knows nothing about soccer and help spread the good word.
I’ll be behind the bar every week, Monday and Friday, serving up soccer. Sláinte.
— Joe