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.

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.

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.