How To Play Soccer Soccer Formations

By Nigel Reed

To the uninitiated, soccer formations might sound complicated. But with the help of a few practical examples, you can learn about the 4-4-2 formation right up to the more obscure ones at the other end of the scale.

A soccer formation is the way that the coach arranges his eleven players on the field. Generally these rotate around the four cardinal soccer positions for football formations: goalkeeper, defense, midfield, and attack. The formations given in numbers are simply the number of defenders, midfielders, and attackers in the line-up. (There’s no need to provide the 1 at the start for a goalkeeper as it’s pretty much a given that every team needs one goalie!)

Formations make a difference as they can cancel out what the opposition coach has planned, as well as serve the strengths of your own soccer team. For example, if you have three great forwards, you might try a 4-3-3, or if you have some very fast, fit, small players, you can attack up the wings in a 4-4-2.

With that in mind, we’ll take a look at some of the popular soccer formations below.

4-4-2: Every aspiring soccer coach has the 442 as his trusty standby. This classic formation grew popular in the mid-to-late 20th century and features four defenders, four midfielders, and two forwards. Within this there is variance, but generally the players who are in the middle are more defensive while the creativity comes from out wide. Tall, commanding centre-backs can pass the ball to swift full-backs, who play at either side of the defensive ‘four’, and they will in turn feed the ‘wingers’ ahead of them, while the central midfielders will play the simple passes and also tackle the opposition. Up front are two strikers whose job it is to hold the ball up and wait for support, or simply to put it in the back of the net!

4-4-2 Diamond: This 4-4-2 variant places more emphasis on central play, with a ‘playmaker’ in the middle of the midfield four supporting the forwards. This must be a player of vision and with a great pass. The full-backs have to support the forwards, too, with bursting runs, while the remaining three midfielders have a lot of defensive work to do.

3-5-2: The 3-5-2 works similarly up front to the other two, but other than that it varies due to a change on the wings – the wide part of the field. The five-man midfield generally contains two ‘wing-backs’, who combine the role of the full back with that of an attacker. These players must be very fit as they’ll be running up and down those lines for a full 90 minutes! As soccer lineups go the 3-5-2 is becoming unfashionable, but with the right wide players available, not to mention a tough-tackling defensive midfielder in the middle of the five, it can work very well.

4-5-1: A very ‘negative’, defensive formation, the 4-5-1 ironically gives a great deal of work to the lone attacker up front. This striker may have to do a lot of dribbling, holding up the ball, and passing backwards to gain the support of his midfield. Still, with wingers, it can be a fine formation with which to practice the ‘counter-attack’ (breaking forward to score while the opposition are

About the Author: Nigel Reed has been involved in soccer during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s as a player and has been coaching youth soccer in Australia since 2000. Learn more on

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