ok this post is by no means FOOTBALL MANAGER RELATED ok, i actually thought about this carefully during a boring lecture in uni. the only case i would actually want a 4-4-2 to be played if the following happens. they r not impossible but they will need certain changes in juventus management menatality ( secco, and raniri in partiular)
1- we need two wing backs who are really realy good ( like the zambrotta at his prime with us)
2- int he mid feild as i pointed out earlier in a post in this thread we need one dm who plays as a holder and does not move forward all he does is help put the defense and try controlling the mid field ( defensively) while the second dm should be one who can pass, and actually contribute to the forwards ( the exact same scenrio arsenal did when they played us int he cl) the second dm's job will be recieving passes and then distributing them either to the flanks or to the forwards or even move up and shoot should the chance come up. only then would a 4-4- 2 work for us.
but what capello used to do andw hat ranire does is play 4-4-2 with two defensive midfielders who do there job defensively and control our midfeild to a great extent but fail to convert our defense on to an offensive counter by distibuting the ball to the forwards/ or wingers. thats why we usually control games but fail in setting up our own pace to the game bec we end up playing in our own midfield most of the periods. but i think a 4-4-2 would work but we just neeed to change how we approach it.
and offcourse every formation has its advantages and disadvantages depending on theplayers at disposal and how yr opponents play.
What we also need if we want the straight 4-4-2 to work is a set of great wingers who can take on opposition defenders and beat then one versus one. This is something we don't have. Manure can play the straight 4-4-2 because of Ronaldo and Giggs on the wing, Arsenal with the likes of Hleb and Rosicky, and Lyon with Ben Arfa and Keita. We don't have these sort of players. While Camoranesi is certainly good going forward, he's not all that fast and doesn't have the speed to break through defenses.
Since we don't have any capable wingers right now, the burden of creativity rests on the forwards because Nocerino and Zanetti can't create anything. All they do is make the easy passes, most of which out to the wing. But then once the ball is with our supposed wingers, they are forced into crossing the ball first time because they don't have the skill to take players on. So they go ahead and fire a cross in, but we forget that these supposed wingers cannot cross the ball worth a damn. Marchionni, Hasan, Molinaro, etc are all horrible crossers of the ball.
This entire setup is why we have 38 crosses in a game and only one goal. Such numbers are particulary ugly and scream at us, "THE STRAIGHT 442 DOES NOT WORK," but nobody seems to be listening.