Mike, let's clarify one thing. Do you think the formation is to blame for the presumed defending with eight players or the instructions Dybala receives from Mister to save his energy?
I can give you plenty of examples of teams defending the same we do.
1. Barcelona 2015.
Do you want to tell me that all three MSN sacrificed in defence? They had Iniesta, Busquets and Rakitic behind who are not some defensive powerhouses neither.
2. Atletico
They play the old school 442 with two strikers upfront.
3. Bayern
Lewandowski, Muller, Robben, Ribery
Plus, we almost conquered Europe playing 4231 destroying Barcelona on our way.
You mentioned our loss at home to Real but mind you we had Alex Sandro playing LWF who's a natural LB.
Wysłane z mojego FRD-L09 przy użyciu Tapatalka
2015 Barcelona has such a viciously dangerous attack that caused most teams to compensate to be more defensively structured. Or go full offensive and fail.
Our 4231 worked cause Mandzukic has the workrate of a defensive midfielder, while beeing a winger and a forward at the same time, and Cuadrado has the lungs of 3 players and is actually a fullback
Bayern also defends as a 451. Robbery doesnt work extremely hard, but they do their positional coverage and tracking back, while the cam and cf do considerable work aswell.
Athletico, like juve, has a formidable organisation and sits extremely deep
- - - Updated - - -
And Dybala contributed in those 'big games' too
Winner against Spurs
Winner against Lazio
Match winning assist against Inter
The goal against Lazio swung the pendulum in our favor. It was the first time in the season i believe, we toppled Napoli from 1st place.
Yeah but, as said before, he's in a position where he's ought to perform, beeing carried as much as he is.
Reason i'm going for costa is that its unfair to consider his period of adapting. And once he did, he completely became unstoppable.
We cannot excuse dybala for bad periods, he wasent out that long. But you can take into consideration a period of adaption and after that Douglas was only insane
For me, his emergence was THE highlight of the season, player wise.
Imagine if we had two of them. left and right costa, backed by sandro and cuadrado