Five talking points from the Premier League weekend
The second week of the Premier League saw Chelsea and Manchester City march on, while title rivals Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United stumbled. Spurs are starting to express themselves, while the wheels are slowly coming off at QPR and amidst all the action and excitement there was still room for two nil-nil draws.Here are the major talking points from another exciting round of fixtures.
#1 Back three isnt for everyone
One of the reasons why the back-three formation was seldom used by many teams is the onus it puts on the defenders. To perfect the system, not only do you need highly mobile centre halves who can get around and turn into auxiliary full backs, but also wing backs who burst forward at every opportunity, making it a back three instead a of a back five. So it certainly was a surprise to see four teams- Manchester United, Southampton, West Brom and QPR join Hull in playing a three-man defence.
At least on the evidence of the weekend’s games, it is safe to say that the formation isn’t for everyone. When you play Rio Ferdinand and Richard Dunne, who are now highly immobile centre backs as two of the three central defenders, you certainly have a problem on your hands and that is precisely what happened as QPR were thumped 4-0 by Spurs.
For Manchester United, the problem wasn’t with the centre backs, rather with the wing backs. Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young rarely ventured forward and converted an offensive 3-4-1-2 into a defensive 5-3-2 and merely invited trouble. Aside from Hull, nobody seems to have perfected playing a three-man defence so don’t be surprised if it vanishes the way it came.