The diamond formation and its variations

What exactly is the diamond formation? The diamond formation is called so because of the shape of it’s four midfielders. It isn’t too complicated actually. You’ve generally got four defenders, four midfielders positioned in the shape of a diamond and two strikers of course. The diamond consists of the head, which is the attacking midfielder, two wide central midfielders and a defensive midfielder. Seems pretty easy to implement, doesn’t it? Well, that would be the greatest ever fallacy to be told in football.

The diamond was quite popular among European teams during the 70′s and 80′s. You don’t see too many teams playing the diamond these days though, except for a few clubs in Italy. Is it because we don’t have too many tactically astute managers these days? Or maybe there aren’t players with the required skill set to fit into the diamond?

Carlo Ancelotti

One of the more recent success stories of the diamond would be Carlo Ancelloti with Milan and then with Chelsea. King Carlo preferred a rigid diamond, with players generally sticking to their assigned roles.

A motivation for Ancelloti to play the diamond at Milan must have been the availability of two world class strikers in Inzaghi and Shevchenko. Rui Costa’s excellent technique, vision and passing made him the ideal player to have behind the two strikers and he was the head of the diamond before a certain Mr.Kaka took over the position. Pirlo, the architect, played as the deep lying play maker and held the diamond together.

The combative Gattuso stamped his authority in midfield and the crafty Seedorf completed the diamond. The defense was a flat line that included Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta, two of the best defenders ever to play for Italy. This was a legendary team.

Here is a look at how AC Milan’s diamond shaped up in the 2003 Champions league final against Juventus, a match that they won on penalties.

ac milan

Carlo Ancelotti did play the diamond successfully for a few months at Chelsea too, before switching to a more standard 4-3-3 as the season progressed. Although the 4-3-3 did bring him a lot of success, the diamond was something special. Chelsea genuinely were in command of the game and looked very organized in midfield.

For the brief period of time that Deco was fit, he played at the head of the diamond. He was an absolute delight on the pitch and added a lot of flair to the Chelsea attack. Essien played as the pivot and Lampard and Ballack were the box to box midfielders. All these four players were the kind of players Ancelloti liked and they used their experience to fit in beautifully into the diamond. The stars of the show however, were the two men up front- Drogba and Anelka, who combined very well to form a deadly partnership.

chelsea

Just like Milan, Chelsea possessed world class center halves. The diamond brought stability to the team. Not only were they scoring goals for fun, they were very solid as a unit and proved to be difficult to break down. Chelsea perhaps played their best football in their history under Carlo Ancelotti.

While Carlo Anceotti has received several accolades for his diamond formation, one of the pioneers of the diamond was the Dutch genius- Johan Cruyff.

Johan Cruyff - Pioneered the diamond formation?

Johan Cruyff – Pioneered the diamond formation?

“You always think you help someone by going towards him, but you help him the most by walking away from him.” -Johan Cruyff.

Cruyff extends this very concept to “his diamond”. Do these ideas have anything to do with his idea of total football? They kind of do actually. While pundits emphasize on maintaining the shape while you play, fluidity most definitely adds a whole new dimension to football.

Cruyff’s diamond is a little different. He prefers to push the attacking midfielder forward and move the strikers wide. The idea behind this is that when you have a player who possesses so much quality inside the six yard area(such as himself), play him there! This pseudo forward, or the false nine is a specialized player who must have remarkable skill and footballing intelligence to drop deep and make perfectly timed forward runs.

“Er is maar één moment dat je op tijd kunt komen. Ben je er niet, dan ben je óf te vroeg, óf te laat.”

Translation: “There is only one moment in which you can arrive in time. If you’re not there, you’re either too early or too late.”

So, you could say that some teams playing a 4-3-3 knowingly or unknowingly shape up into a diamond. A classic example would be Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.

Pep Guardiola

The two forwards would play a little wide and Messi would play the role of a false nine, a withdrawn striker if you like. What made this strike force so deadly was the willingness of the forwards to cut inside and swap positions, making them very difficult for the opponent’s defense to handle. Even the midfielders moved around. Xavi and Iniesta seemed to be everywhere, with every passage of play going through them.

The roll of the full backs becomes critical as they are going to be ones who provide width during play. The full backs, or rather wing backs would have to be players with remarkable pace and work rate. While in an idealistic team you would like to have Franz Beckenbauer as your sweeper, Sergio Busquets did a pretty neat job for Barcelona.

This Barcelona team was an amalgamation of talent and technique.

Barcelona

As a manager you probably won’t get the ideal set of players to play the diamond. Pep Guardiola, a man of who is a strong believer in his footballing philosophy, has incorporated his ideas in this current Bayern Munich side and traces of the diamond are still evident. Robben and Ribery like to play wide and cut inside, Thomas Muller or Mario Gotze play as the false nine, Schweinsteiger and Kroos as the midfielders and Lahm uses all his intelligence to play as the libero. It works quite nicely.

Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelloti are among the few successful managers left in modern day football who haven’t let football management become all about shrewdness and mind games. They are true tacticians. Their work is a tribute to the footballing culture they were part of as players.

Football is such a beautiful game and all these technical nuances only add to its beauty.

A great man once said, “Voetballen is heel simpel, maar het moeilijkste wat er is, is simpel voetballen.”

Translation: “Playing football is very simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.”

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Edited by Staff Editor