Old Football - FAO old f*****s like Murph

[sutty]

read a book about Liddell - weird reading about football in those days and how different it was.

 

Anyway, I had a fundamental question..

 

This whole 2-3-5 formation and the half backs and all that. How the f*** did that work then?

[New York Red]

There were many things that made this possible.

 

Big brown leather football boots.

 

Heavy, sodden footballs.

 

Really long shorts.

 

Woolly socks.

 

Team shirts that looked like shirts.

 

A good diet of lots of meat and potatoes, plum pudding, and lots of relaxing cigarettes.

[sutty]

Yes but were there genuinely only 2 defenders?

 

Yet there were a fair few tight games.

[Woodsyla]

read a book about Liddell - weird reading about football in those days and how different it was.

 

Anyway, I had a fundamental question..

 

This whole 2-3-5 formation and the half backs and all that. How the f*** did that work then?

I'm not that old but I believe it was more akin to a 4-6-0 than 5 up front. The 2 were the full backs, the 3 were half backs (2 centre backs and a holding player) and the 5 were the forwards. The 2-3 marked the opposition 5.

[Mike]

Yes but were there genuinely only 2 defenders?

 

Yet there were a fair few tight games.

 

 

no there were at least 4 - you still had full backs and possibly a sweeper

 

woodsyla has got it right

[Noel Street]

he hit the ball so hard he caused a fire or something

 

and he went to aigburth methodist church when i was at boys brigade didn't do any coaching though

 

wasn't he also the only player to play for two exhibition teams in the 40s/50s i.e. rest of the world etc

[Mike]

he hit the ball so hard he caused a fire or something

 

and he went to aigburth methodist church when i was at boys brigade didn't do any coaching though

 

wasn't he also the only player to play for two exhibition teams in the 40s/50s i.e. rest of the world etc

 

no it was pre war and post war and he shared it with stan matthews, it was the gb team

[sutty]

he hit the ball so hard he caused a fire or something

 

and he went to aigburth methodist church when i was at boys brigade didn't do any coaching though

 

wasn't he also the only player to play for two exhibition teams in the 40s/50s i.e. rest of the world etc

 

Him and Stanley Matthews are the only 2 to have played in both official GB games

[sutty]

no there were at least 4 - you still had full backs and possibly a sweeper

 

woodsyla has got it right

 

So it wasn't really a 2-3-5?

 

It was more like a 4-1-4-1?

[Ripley]

read a book about Liddell - weird reading about football in those days and how different it was.

 

Anyway, I had a fundamental question..

 

This whole 2-3-5 formation and the half backs and all that. How the f*** did that work then?

You should read the Jonathan Wilson masterwork, Inverting the Pyramid. All is explained.

 

In the 19th century, in football's infancy, 1-1-8 was the norm.

[Woodsyla]

So it wasn't really a 2-3-5?

 

It was more like a 4-1-4-1?

Except the wingers tended to be the most advanced players on the pitch. So more a 4-1-2-3, however the 1 was a bit like a sweeper.

[johngibo YPC]

and he went to aigburth methodist church when i was at boys brigade didn't do any coaching though

 

I went to that Boys Brigade. We never got anyone good

[fred milne]

no there were at least 4

That's not right. Only around the turn of the 60's did you start getting 4 at the back. Before that you had two fullbacks and centre-half. Even earlier you had just two fullbacks.

[sutty]

You should read the Jonathan Wilson masterwork, Inverting the Pyramid. All is explained.

 

In the 19th century, in football's infancy, 1-1-8 was the norm.

 

I'll give that a read, cheers.

[Mike]

I went to that Boys Brigade. We never got anyone good

 

but boy could they play

[Murphman]

That's not right. Only around the turn of the 60's did you start getting 4 at the back. Before that you had two fullbacks and centre-half. Even earlier you had just two fullbacks.

 

 

Correct.it was like two 'w's.

 

 

RB

[Molby]

in 1978, our PE teacher was still setting our under 11 school team up in a 2-3-5 formation

 

he was a WW2 Spitfire pilot who still had a bit of shrapnel in his head

made him squint a lot

[Mike]

straight out of ripping yarns that.

[Noel Street]

no it was pre war and post war and he shared it with stan matthews, it was the gb team

 

 

knew it was something along those lines

 

what is the story about the shot causing a fire, my imaginations not making that up is it?

[Murphman]

That's not right. Only around the turn of the 60's did you start getting 4 at the back. Before that you had two fullbacks and centre-half. Even earlier you had just two fullbacks.

 

 

Correct.It was sort of like this when I first played for the primary school team.

 

 

RB ............ LB

 

....... CH

 

RH ...........LH

 

 

... IR .... IL

 

 

RW ....CF .......LW

Edited September 21, 2009 by Murphman

[Woodsyla]

Correct.It was sort of like this when I first played for the primary school team.

RB ............ LB

 

....... CH

 

RH ...........LH

... IR .... IL

RW ....CF .......LW

One could argue though that as the RB and LB mark the RW and LW and as the CH marks the CF and the RH and LH mark the IR and IL it's actually 5 at the back not 2.

[Mike]

That's not right. Only around the turn of the 60's did you start getting 4 at the back. Before that you had two fullbacks and centre-half. Even earlier you had just two fullbacks.

to be fair - i said at least 4, i always thought the right half and left half were like having 5 at the back.

[Murphman]

One could argue though that as the RB and LB mark the RW and LW and as the CH marks the CF and the RH and LH mark the IR and IL it's actually 5 at the back not 2.

 

 

I was 10 Woody, undoubtedly there was much fluidity in the system but when you're 10 you just learn where you're supposed to stand. I'd just started secondary school when england won the world cup, of course from 30th july 1966 4-3-3- was the only system we wanted to learn.

[fred milne]

to be fair - i said at least 4, i always thought the right half and left half were like having 5 at the back.

Wing-halves didn't play in defence. For instance, Stiles played wing-half.

[Murphman]

Wing-halves didn't play in defence. For instance, Stiles played wing-half.

 

 

Stiles was an old school Mascherano, the best man marker in the game, defensive midfielder nowadays.