The 4-3-3: A Revolution, Triangles and Arrogance

Sushen Mitra

20th February 2021 | 12:52 AM

Art by Charbak Dipta

On the 16th of July, 1950, a great crowd surged into a seatless, concrete grandstand in Rio to watch a football match. It was supposed to be a trivial impediment that would be easily overcome, a simple victory for the home team being the overwhelming public prediction. Many had gathered to sing and dance at the carnival that would inevitably follow, the game itself being an added bonus.

In the decades to follow, Maracanaço — “the Agony of Maracanã” — would haunt the Brazilian psyche. It was the final of the 1950 World Cup and, overwhelmed by a sudden tactical adjustment in their Uruguayan opponents, Brazil faltered and were beaten on home soil. “Silence at the Maracanã,” the losing coach Flávio Costa would later remark; two hundred thousand spectators stunned by what they had just witnessed. 

They had witnessed the beginnings of a revolution.

Until that point in spite of experiments here and there, the dominant formations in top-level football were a 3-2-2-3 (abbreviated popularly as the WM) and the more antiquated 2-3-5 (also known as the Pyramid). For the final, Uruguay innovated. A fullback was pulled deep and operated almost as a sweeper behind the defence and the two inside-forwards were withdrawn into a shape that resembled a 1-3-3-3 — essentially a 4-3-3 with a libero

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