In the wake of Saturday's match against Stoke, much was made of the draw representing a complete tactical failure by Kenny Dalglish and Steve Clarke. The key failure in that larger breakdown was meant to be the deployment of three centre backs in a formation nearly identical to the one which had defeated Stoke at Anfield a year earlier, as in the eyes of many those three centre backs represented an overly defensive approach when facing a club with so little attacking intent.

With Lucas out for the rest of the season and Steven Gerrard out until January at the very earliest, Liverpool and Kenny Dalglish face an extended run with their two best midfielders sidelined. The club reacted by recalling Jonjo Shelvey on Wednesday, though few expect he's returning to regular starting minutes at Liverpool despite his success on loan with Blackpool, and even fewer would see him as a direct replacement for Lucas in any case.

Afterwards, opinions ranged from Andy Carroll having finally shown something of his worth as more than a target for long clearances to him having done nothing in particular to rewrite the gargantuan failure narrative he's been saddled with since arriving at Liverpool for £35M in January. Sometimes those wildly divergent opinions even came from the same pundit.

Probable Formations Round 4 Italian Serie A Big Name Update No Alex Pato for AC Milan, their Brazilian striker is to be sidelined for about four weeks with a muscular injury out for 4 weeks as is Fiorentina striker Alberto Gilardino out with a knee from 5-6 weeks. Inter Milan under new manager Claudio Ranieri still looking to claim first victory.

With the new Premier League season about to kick off, a hopeful mood surrounding the club, and a summer full of transfer insanity mostly put to bed, it's hard to believe that less than three months ago the 2010-11 season had only just come to an end. Back then, we did our best to digest all the highs and lows, from Roy Hodgson and Chrisitian Purslow and Joe Cole to Kenny Dalglish and Luis Suarez and Lucas Leiva.

Vålerenga 3 Strand 14′, Ogude 19′, Fellah 94′
Liverpool 4 Carroll 43′, Agger 83′ 88′

A moving ceremony and a Vålerenga side made up of reserves plus three players airlifted in from an affiliated 3rd division club set the stage for an unsurprisingly friendly and low-key start.

So it's transfer season, and everyone is in a tizzy with rumors of whether Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri are going to stay or go, when Clichy, Bendtner and Denilson will say good-bye, and who may or may not be coming to Arsenal to be our saviour with the required mental strength, leadership desire.

Probable Formations Matchday 30 Italian Serie A Saturday 26.02.11 17:00 Lazio vs Cesena Lazio (4-1-3-2): Muslera , Scaloni, G. Biava, Dias, Garrido , Matuzalém, González, Hernanes, Mauri, Zárate, Sculli UPDATE: Lazio up 1-0 after Mauro Zarate scored inside two minutes. Lazio could go fourth in Serie A with victory over Cesena today Cesena (4-1-3-2): Antonioli, Santon , Pellegrino, Von Bergen,.

Probable Formations Matchday 26 Italian Serie A Saturday 19.02.11 18:00 Bologna vs Palermo Bologna (4-3-1-2): Viviano, Moras, Portanova, Cherubin, Rubin, Perez, Mudingayi, Della Rocca, Ramirez, Di Vaio, Meggiorini Palermo (4-3-2-1): Sirigu, Anjelkovic, Munoz,Bovo, Garcia, Migliaccio,Bacinovic,Nocerino, Illcic, Pastore,Miccoli 20:45 Inter Milan vs Cagliari Inter (4-3-1-2): Cesar, Maicon, Cordoba,.

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Wait, no, that sounds pretty bad, too.

Probable Formations Matchday 25 Italian Serie A Saturday 12.02.11 AC Milan vs Parma AC Milan (4-3-1-2): Abbati, Oddo, Nesta, Silva, Antonini, Gattuso, Van Bommel, Flamini, Robinho, Cassano,Ibra Parma (4-3-3): Mirante, Zaccardo, Paci, Lucarelli, Gobbi, Candreva, Dzemalli, Galloppa, Angelo, Giovinco, Amauri AS Roma vs Napoli AS Roma (4-3-1-2): Sergio, Cassetti, Rosi, Juan, Riise, Simplicio, De.

With a run of 4 draws and only 3 wins so far, it's fair to say that 2011 has not started quite how Milanisti envisaged it to. Qasa Alom ponders whether a change of formation could bring about a resurgence of form. Taking a look at the form tables from around the continent at the moment, there are three teams in particular who stand out; Napoli maintain their good form to remain in second place,.

There's been a lot of discussion lately about Liverpool's use of a three man defence in the past two matches, and so perhaps it's been easy to forget, but up until Stoke there was a clear preference for four defenders in a 4-3-3. There's room for both systems, of course, but over the course of a season a side will tend to have a primary system something that suits them best, and that they can use to impose their style of play on most opponents when either the level of the opponent and some special threat don't require a radical change of approach.

Alessandro Matri made a winning visit to a stage he knows all too well as the Bianconeri finally returned to winning ways at Cagliari's Stadio Sant'Elia and he has been rightly lauded for his performance against a club he spent four years calling home. His transfer to Juventus, this display and his tally of Serie A goals now at thirteen for the season has seen him.

Divide the pitch into three equal zones: offensive, defensive, and midfield. Divide each zone into a further six sectors, three across the pitch and two deep. Zone one is the left back sat in defence, and counting right and up the pitch zone eighteen contains the opponent's corner flag as attacked down the right wing.

Probable Formations Matchday 22 Italian Serie A Saturday 05.02.11 Udinese vs Sampdoria Udinese (3-5-2): Belardi, Benatia, Zapata, Domizzi, Isla, Pinzi, Inler, Assmoah, Armero, Sanchez, DiNatale Sampdoria (4-4-2): Curci, Zauri, Volta, Martinez, Ziegler, Mannini, Palombo,Tissone, Guberti, Maccarone, Macheda Cagliari vs Juventus Cagliari (4-3-1-2): Agazzi, Pisano, Canini, Astori, Agostini, Biondini,.

What a difference one result makes and more importantly a change in formation. Don't we all feel a lot better today? It wasn't just the three points won at a very tough place to go to and it's not like we were at our fluent best but the sight of seeing two strikers on the pitch, albeit one of them being Crouch and the other Defoe, who I thought enjoyed one of his worse performances in a Spurs shirt, gave us all renewed enthusiasm for the remainder of the season.

Everything is connected. Everything is related. The system works because it is the perfect system for the opponent and the players are effective in their roles, not because any one player grabs the game by the scruff of the neck and carries the team to victory.

i.

In defense, three central defenders comprehensively negate Stoke's solitary target.

Probable Formations Matchday 22 Italian Serie A Saturday 29.01.11 Lazio vs Fiorentina Lazio (4-4-2): Muslera, Lichsteiner, Diakite', Biava, Radu, Ledesma, Brocchi, Kozak, Gonzalez, Mauri, Floccari Fiorentina (4-3-3): Boruc, DeSilvestri, Gamberlini, Kroldrup, Gulan, Montolivo, D'Agostino, Donadel, Santana, Gilardino, Ljajic Catania vs AC Milan Catania (4-3-3): Andujar, Spolli, Alvarez,.

Probable Formations Matchday 21 Italian Serie A Saturday 22.01.11 Palermo vs Brescia Palermo (4-3-2-1): Sirigu, Cassani, Munoz,Bovo, Balzaretti, Migliaccio, Bacinovic, Nocerino, Illcic, Pastore,Miccoli Brescia (4-3-3): Acari, Berardi, Zebina, Martinez, Dallamano, Konè, Cordova, Filippini, Possanzini, Caracciolo, Lanzafame Parma vs Catania Parma (4-3-3): Mirante, Zaccardo, Paletta, Lucarelli,.

Probable Formations Matchday 20 Italian Serie A Napoli vs Fiorentina Napoli (3-4-2-1): DeSanctis, Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica, Maggio, Gargano, Pazienza, Dossena, Sosa, Lavezzi, Cavani Fiorentina (4-3-3): Boruc, DeSilvestri, Gamberlini, Kroldrup, Pasqual, Donadel, Montolivo, D'Agostino, Ljajic, Santana, Gilardino Inter vs Bologna Inter (4-3-1-2): Castellazzi, Maicon, Lucio, Cordoba,.

Probable Formations Matchday 18 Italian Serie A Juventus vs Parma Juventus (4-4-2): Storari; Sorensen, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Grosso; Krasic, Melo, Aquilani, Marchisio; Quagliarella, Del Piero Parma (4-3-3): Mirante; Zaccardo, Paletta, Paci, Gobbi; Valiani, Dzemaili, Morrone; Giovinco, Crespo, Candreva AS Roma vs Catania Roma (4-3-1-2): Julio Sergio; Cassetti, Méxes, Juan, Riise; Simplicio,.