England Football Formation

Lineup (3-5-2)

I say this formation is 3-5-2, but no formation ever stays constant in football, so it will often appear to be a 5-3-2, or even a 3-3-2-2. Firstly, David James is the obvious choice in goal. secondly, the three central defenders are made up of John Terry playing on his preferred left side next to Cole, Ferdinand with his aerial prowess is in the middle and Jamie Carragher is on the right side of the three. This is because he can often play right back, so should be comfortable engaging with the oppositions wide players, and will be able to work with and cover David Beckham as he is not usually deployed as a wing-back. Ashley Cole is playing left-wingback allowing him to attack more then if he was playing as a traditional fullback, and Beckham will be supplying early balls from the right.

The central three of Scholes, Gerrard and Lampard, will work as a rotation system. Ideally, It would have Scholes sitting and dictating the play whilst Lampard and Gerrard make the forward runs, but this is very flexible. I believe that playing this way could have solved the problem of Gerrard and Lampard 'not being able to play together' and avoided Scholes being wasted out on left of midfield. The two strikers Rooney and Owen then speak for themselves.