Death of 4-4-2?

[Garrick]

Something that really became apparent during the good ol' Coppa Del Mundo last summer.

Quite frankly- where are all the strikers? Of the 8 quarter finalists at the World Cup only one team- Columbia- took to the field with 2 out-and-out goalscorers, one of whom- James ‘is it James, is it Hamez, is it Jammez’ Rodriguez- ended as the tournament’s top marksman. Seems to me that this developing trend is now comfortably the status quo. Almost all the 'top' teams (and not-so-top teams) in Europe fancy a 4-5-1, or 4-3-2-1, or 3-2-4-1 or some such nonsense.

Mexico, Costa Rica, Netherlands, all ran 5-3-2. Not necessarily 2 at the top in the traditional sense, I think for all 3 of them one would sit deeper than the other. The US also flirted with a 4-4-2 diamond but didn't end up really using it at the 'Cup.

Atletico won the season last year with 4-4-2
City love a 4-4-2
Liverpool came close last year with 4-4-2

It isn't dead. But you need the personnel to play the system.
Just like we need the personnel to play our desired system. We don't have em. Should we try 4-4-2 and see how that goes?

Yeah actually, I'd be all for it.