Use of a diamond midfield, plus the seemingly imminent signing of Luc Castaignos, means we could be seeing a shift in our "go to" formation
The last time Swansea played two up front on a regular basis, the regular incumbents of the two positions were players like Rory Fallon, Adebayo Akinfenwa, Leon Knight and, of course, Lee Trundle.Fast forward, well, almost a decade and it seems we may be about to witness the first major planned change of formation since Roberto Martinez first imprinted 4-2-3-1 on Swansea City Football Club. I am, of course, referring to Garry Monk's midfield diamond.
We've theorised before (link) that the use of the midfield diamond is with a view to getting the most of both Michu & Wilfried Bony, and the almost done and dusted signing of Luc Castaignos does nothing but strengthen that theory. Primarily a centre-forward, he will provide a partner for Michu when Bony is off at the African Cup of Nations, as well as providing competition for the Spaniard for the other place in the Swansea front two. Front TWO! Mad. As out of the ordinary as it may seem, football is ultimately about scoring goals and with two options of that calibre up top, it's reasonable to assume we'll score more goals than we have done in the last few seasons when using our standard 4-2-3-1 system.
I'm very interested to see what we do in terms of midfield signings this summer. With Jonny Williams rumoured and questions marks over the futures of both Ki Sung-Yeung and Jonathan De Guzman, it's hard to see how we're going to line up until we've finalised our midfield options. I'd imagine you'd be looking at something like Leon in the holding role, with two of Jay Fulton, Ki Sung-Yueng, JDG or Jonny Williams in the centre, and Shelvey or Pablo in the number ten position. Where does that leave our wingers? Hard to say, but they're definitely the ones who are going to suffer is this becomes our normal formation week in, week out.
Wayne Routledge is, I'd say, currently our most in form winger, and he benefits from being the most adaptable (in my opinion) in terms of playing through the centre. I know Pablo seems to get the nod there, but I prefer Wayne as I believe he's more consistent, and you get a much better defensive shift out of him. As for Dyer it's difficult, as he's probably lacking something to play a more central role.
I do think that, assuming the Castaignos transfer goes through, we'll see the 4-4-2 diamond in operation for large swathes of next season. The beauty of it is that, as shown in the linked article (linked again here) it can easily evolve/rotate into a 3-5-2, giving us more midfield stability and natural width. With the entire summer to work on it, I'd be surprised if next season we don't see Leon Britton dropping in between the centre-backs a lot more often, which will allow the fullbacks to get forward, creating a 3-5-2/5-3-2 instantly. Genius.
Whatever the formation, with Bony up top we're liable to score goals. If we can figure out a coherent system which gets the most out of him and the rest of his teammates, well - the sky is the limit!
Well, realistically about eighth is the limit. But you know what I mean...