The 4-3-3, drawn on a pitch that is the right size
Soccer · Formation · 11 of your players
A back four, a single pivot with two eights ahead of it, and a front three holding the width. Open it in the designer and drag the runs your team actually makes.
Opens on a soccer pitch with the shape already drawn. Free, no signup.
How the shape works
Eleven players in four lines: a goalkeeper, four across the back, a single pivot in front of them, two central midfielders ahead of the pivot, and three forwards holding the full width of the pitch. What makes it a 4-3-3 rather than a 4-1-2-3 is that the midfield three are close enough to cover for each other — the pivot screens the space in front of the centre backs, and the two eights take turns going past them.
The width is the whole idea. Both wingers stand on the touchline, which pulls the opposition full backs apart and leaves a corridor between their centre back and full back for your striker or your overlapping full back to run into. That is why the wingers in this drawing are drawn right on the paint rather than tucked inside: a winger who drifts five metres infield has closed the gap the shape was built to open.
When to use it
Use it when you want the ball and you have the legs to press when you lose it. The front three start high and central enough to cut a back four's passing options in half, and the midfield three arrive behind them. Against a team that plays two banks of four it gives you an extra body in central midfield; against a team that plays three at the back it can leave your single pivot outnumbered, which is the moment one of the eights has to drop and make it a 4-2-3-1.
It asks a lot of two positions. The pivot has to read which of the two eights has gone and cover the other side, and the full backs are the ones who make the front three a front five when you have the ball.
What to coach
- Rest defence. When the full backs push on, the pivot and the two centre backs are your whole defence. Drag those three players and nobody else and you have drawn the picture your team keeps getting caught by.
- The pivot's first look. Draw a run from the pivot into the space behind whichever eight has gone forward, then animate it. Players believe a shape when they see it move.
- Wingers, one-on-one. Mark the touchline positions and leave them there. The argument at training is always about whether the winger comes inside; the diagram is where you settle it.
Open this template in the designer, move the two or three players your team does differently, then draw the runs on top and send your squad the link.
Also known as
- single pivot
- front three
- wingers
- possession
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Put the 4-3-3 on a pitch
It opens with the shape already drawn. Move the players your team does differently, drag the runs, and send your squad a link that animates.
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