We've played good football recently, but for me the main tactical change is less the one from 451 to 442, but rather the shift from very rigid to fairly fluid.

We defend in the classic 442 shape, but with Eze floating in off the left, Schlupp making effective runs into the centre from the right, and Mcarthur getting up in support from deep, we are harder to mark and less predictable in possession. Add in Benteke suddenly remembering how to play as a focal point and Zaha gets far more freedom, space and options. We then see attacking combinations rather than isolated individual efforts.

Roy has played precisely this way before. Swap Eze for Loftus-Cheek and this is basically the side that was in very good form over the second half of the 2017/18 season, playing much the same way.

For me the lesson here is that it's not about Roy's preferred tactics as such. It's to do with having three or four attacking players in decent form rather than relying on the one. We've rarely had that over recent years, but Hodgson can accommodate it when we do.

Edited by TheBigToePunt (15 Dec 2020 9.45pm)

Proof, if it is needed, was the sight of Wardy legging it up the wing making the extra man and putting in some good crosses, one from which Benteke scored. Previously when we sat deep and conceded possession he hardly crossed the half way line.

Edited by southnorwoodhill (17 Dec 2020 10.00am)