The diamond formation and its variations

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?

“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The two forwards would play a little wide and Messi would play the role of a false nine, a withdrawn striker if you like.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.

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.”