What is the best formation for a football team?

The football season is in full swing. Managers are starting to understand their best teams after the end if the transfer window and the shape of the season to come is upon us. The two Manchester clubs have carried the best form into the international break and sit neck and neck at the top of the league. Pep Guardiola has gone for the style that brought him unheralded success at Barcelona while Jose Mourinho across the city is straying a little from the defensive formula that has followed him throughout his career.

The formations that these two coaches have chosen is the most interesting aspect of the season so far. The signing of Nemanja Matic was the sign that Mourinho was going to cover his defence with a defensive midfielder or two. Pep spent a lot of his summer budget on fullbacks, to go back to the formation that he worked so well at Barcelona – also with a central defensive midfielder ahead of the back four.

There are so many different ways of setting out your team and the ideas of the big managers differ wildly – and not just in the Premier League. Think about how these guys set up their team –

• Antonio Conte
• Zinedine Zidane
• Jurgen Klopp
• Diego Simeone

It looks like both of these managers have a similar formation of 4-2-3-1 and this is the success of the season so far. The Chelsea surge in the league last season was built on three centre backs, wings backs and Ngolo Kante covering. Other teams followed suit. This season four-at-the-back is back in vogue.

The football fan and formations

Social442 is the perfect website to test out the formations you would use for your club and all the big teams in the leagues. Whether you agree or disagree with Pep and Jose, you can try out the different formation with the Social442 Football Formation Creator and have hours of fun in the process.

Think that you can do better than the top two? Give it a go. Have some ideas to help our crystal Palace at the bottom of the league? Well, I’m sure Roy Hodgson will appreciate your help.

But Social442 is about far more than the Formation Creator. You can keep up with all the latest news in the beautiful game. Don’t miss a beat with Social442.

Check it all out at https://www.social442.com/football-news

Can you pick a better England team from those playing every week?

I've been looking at the next England squad for the upcoming internationals in October and there are more and more problems mounting for Roy Hodgson in his future selections. Only ten to fifteen years ago Sven Goran Eriksson would see a player playing for a Champions League team as the main criteria for being selected for the team, if not the squad.

We haven't got a great record in this year's Champions League as it is, especially after last night's poor showing by both Arsenal and Chelsea, but even ignoring that fact we have a very small pool of players that are starters for Champions League teams. For that matter we have very few players that are starters for Premier League team at the moment.

Below are the players that could be possibly considered as England internationals that actually started for their clubs in the last round of Premier League fixtures-

Manchester United
Chris Smalling
Michael Carrick
Wayne Rooney

Manchester City
Raheem Sterling

Tottenham Hotspur
Kyle Walker
Eric Dier
Harry Kane

West Ham United
Carl Jenkinson
James Tomkins
Aaron Cresswell

Arsenal
Theo Walcott

Leicester City
Jamie Vardy

Everton
Phil Jagielka
Ross Barkley

West Bromwich Albion
Saido Berahino

Crystal Palace
Scott Dann

Liverpool
Nathaniel Clyne
James Milner
Daniel Sturridge

Aston Villa
Scott Sinclair
Jack Grealish

Southanpton
Ryan Bertrand
James Ward-Prowse

Swansea City
Jonjo Shelvey

Chelsea
Gary Cahill

Newcastle United
Jack Colback

Stoke City
Jack Butland

Now, of course this is a snapshot and it ignores players such as Joe Hart (slight injury worry) and the likes of Phil Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Keiran Gibbs that suffer with rotation at their clubs.

I'd like to think that being first choice for your team is a pre-requisite for selection for the national team, and based on that criteria here is my England team for the next internationals, whilst looking to the future.

Jack Butland
Nathaniel Clyne
Gary Cahill
Scott Dann
Aaron Cresswell
James Milner
James Ward-Prowse
Jonjo Shelvey
Raheem Sterling
Jamie Vardy
Harry Kane

I know that there's a lot of attacking intent in this team, and I'd look to a 4-3-3 formation with Vardy and Sterling working back along the wings to provide cover for the midfield three of Shelvey, Milner and Ward-Prowse. I think that we need to get over the early hurdles at European Championships and World Cups and this consistent failure is because of a few reasons-

Too little competition then too much competition
We have gone through many qualifying competitions where we've had no real opposition to stretch us and make us think about how we approach games and play the game. WE then go from this straight into a competition where we play good teams and fail. The FA has tried to deal with this for the upcoming European Championships by setting up friendlies against Spain and France and reports of friendlies against Germany and the Netherlands. I think that's all we can do as a nation to prepare. But we need to take the friendlies seriously and out out our best team, play competitively and try to win.

Not enough preparation time
This is a problem that's brought about by the popularity of the game and the money-making activities of the Premier League and the Premier League clubs. Chasing the dollar by having post-season tours, pre-season tours and friendlies does damage the quality of the product by increasing the quantity. This is going to have to be part of a root-and-branch review of the game at the top level and something will have to give - either the FA Cup, the League Cup, the Europa League, dropping the number of teams in the Premier League or limiting the off-season activity of clubs. I can't see any of these things happening.

Picking players that play
This is the idea from the list above. I have looked at players that play football for their clubs week-in, week-out as potential representatives of their country. There are 27 players in my list above and they would make a reasonable international squad. More importantly they would make a squad of players that are playing football at the top level in the country and you can filter the 27 down to the 11 with the best form to move the country forwards. I always liken the situation to the way Greece won the European Championships in 2004 with a team of "nobodies." But they were a team that worked hard together, knew their game plan and won by playing to their strengths.

We can do this with the work-rate of Vardy, the speed of Sterling, the goals of Kane and the possession of the midfield 3. If Greece did it, then why can't we?

My hopes for Sunderland's team next season

Assuming that we keep the same formation that we've played for the last two seasons (4-5-1 when defending, 4-3-3 when attacking) then this is the team I'd like to see us put together for the start of next season-

Pantillimon

NEW Right Back

Van Aanholt

NEW Centre Back

NEW Centre Back

Cattermole

Larsson

Rodwell

Defoe

Giaccherini or Adam Johnson

NEW Attacking Left Midfielder

In terms of the changes, some are players I don't see as having a future with the club and others are players that I only see as back up to the first team. For instance - Billy Jones and Steven Fletcher fit into the second category, Wes Brown and Connor Whickham fit into the first.

There is still the fact that the club haven't found a manager yet, but I believe that Lee Congerton should be looking at sounding out targets and getting the obvious gaps in out squad filled. Dick Advocaat reported to Congerton, Byrne and Short that the squad needs quality first team players, and I'd look at the following solutions-

Steven Caulker from QPR as a ball-winning centre half. He's a threat from attacking corners and has more pace than O'Shea or Brown.

Sebastian Coates from Liverpool as his central defensive partner. I think we saw enough from Coates during the run in to think that he can do a respectable job for us, on the basis that the transfer fee and wage demands aren't too high.

OR

Johnny Evans who has been told he's surplus to requirements at Man Utd. He's got form for Sunderland and would complement a Caulker-type centre back well.

Leroy Fer from QPR was one of the very few bright spots in their season and I think he's a quality player with Premier League experience at two clubs (although with 2 relegations under his belt.) He could play in one of the wide roles or in central midfield and scores a few as well.

Kieran Trippier looked solid defensively and reasonable going forward for Burnley last season. If the bookies are correct and Sean Dyche becomes manager then maybe he could persuade Trippier to come to us. I think he's better than Billy Jones, although Jones did end the season well and I'd keep him in the squad.

I've made the attacking right midfielder role in my team as shared between Giaccherini and Adam Johnson as I think Johnson may miss some of the season and Giaccherini's injury record is atrocious.

Any additions to this wish list would be in a loan basis from one of the big clubs. I'd live to take Patrick Bamford from Chelsea, Danny Wellbeck from Arsenal and either Adnan Januzaj or James Wilson from Manchester United.