Football: Premier League teams play two games

The Premier League remains Europe's most international multicultural top flight league in terms of players and managers, yet it seems that football often looks like an old school.

For example, Pep Guardiola spoke of the importance of facing the second winning balls, while Jurgen Klopp spoke of the need to deal with bad weather.

Tactically, things are a little different: we are at the time false forgery and gegenpressing, rather than long balls and the use of 4-4-2 formations.

But the last two weeks have seemed like a kind of regression, with several teams having used two central strikers in advance, often with great success.

The most interesting example is that of the penultimate weekend, between Arsenal and Manchester United in Emirates. This encounter is always reminiscent of the 1990s and, tactically, the two teams started the match with two attackers, but in very different formats.

Arsenal started with a 3-4-1-2, with Mesut Ozil behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Manchester United started with a 4-4-2 with Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford, respectively No. 9 and No. 10.

These remain the two main ways of deploying a two-man strike force, especially because the midfield diamond – as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has sometimes used – now means that both attackers are flanking, too away to combine regularly.

The difference, of course, was that Arsenal had a designated playmaker to steer things from the back of the lines, while the Manchester United duo had to fend for themselves.

And while Arsenal triumphed and Solskjaer felt compelled to change training to match Arsenal and strengthen him in the middle of the field, it was Manchester United's tandem that worked more effectively. Lukaku and Rashford played well together, both playing in-depth, network play and looking for their partner.

A ball start from Lukaku forced Sokratis Papastathopoulos to defend the far post long before Rashford was able to leap. Rashford then made a short pbad and shot Lukaku, who bypbaded Bernd Leno but could not quite finish. Later, the same combination – pbading from Rashford, Lukaku in the race – forced Leno to make another intelligent stop with his leg extended.

The three Arsenal backs, in theory, should have been able to face two attackers, but Rashford and Lukaku seemed to be on the same wavelength. They may not be at the level of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole yet, although the familiar sight of Solskjaer on the bench offers a link between the two that the manager will surely mention.

Lacazette and Aubameyang have a curious relationship. Off the field, they are extremely close. in the field, they can work together on the same side, although their combination is not particularly remarkable. One also wonders if the 3-4-1-2 is suitable for other players of Arsenal. Ozil has not particularly prospered in his No. 10 role, although this is his best position on paper.

Wolverhampton Wanderers, who has been to Stamford Bridge for the past two weeks, is two minutes behind Chelsea and beat Manchester United 2-1 at home in the FA Cup quarterfinal.

After respecting the 3-4-3 during the first months of the campaign, Nuno Espirito Santo decided to acquire an additional midfielder, which earned him two offensive advantages.

First, it means that wolves have more and more runners. Secondly, the partnership between Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez works perfectly. They were both on the right track in the Manchester United win at Molineux.

Their second objective summarized the efficiency with which they work together; The wolves made a direct pbad through the center to Jimenez, who released Jota behind. The Portuguese striker beat two United defenders, cleared and superbly defeated Sergio Romero.

Jimenez and Jota are at their best by doing just that: combining through the center of the field, and this was especially evident for the Wolves' goal in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge last weekend.

After spending the whole match parked on the edge of their own box, Jota and Jimenez suddenly broke through the middle of the field, trading pbades against Antonio Rudiger and David Luiz – it was not just a doubled, but over a three-four.

The previous weekend, Jota and Jimenez had created goals for each other during a 2-0 win over Cardiff. The first match was particularly good: Jimenez centered on the right, Jota choreographed, then put the ball back in place of Jimenez, who had slipped into the net to turn into an empty net.

But it's actually the opposite of their combination: Jimenez excels with his return to the goal with a game of intelligent mesh, while Jota chokes eternally in space. They work well together, precisely because they are very different.

The same could be said of Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez, who brilliantly combined for Newcastle last weekend by turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win over Everton. Rafa Benitez had initially started with a 5-4-1 system, but for the second half he went to 4-4-2 and Newcastle was long.

Their combined play for the first goal was excellent, with a long ball finding Perez, who nodded to Rondon. He recovered the reversals, found Perez and wrote a nice pbad to allow Rondon to hit the house a volley of the left foot. As the first game of the Wolves against Chelsea, it was a three-four.

After Perez got a rebound to equalize, this combination brought the Newcastle winner, again from an aerial ball – Rondon shot the ball with his thigh, while Perez was on hand to break it in the net.

Was it an intentional help? Maybe not, but the presence of two attackers in the playing area has proved crucial.

And finally, two players remain the alternative for most Premier League teams.

Watford is one of the few leading teams to start with a two-man strike force. However, during his trip to Manchester City two weeks ago, he lost 5-4-1, posting only Andre Gray.

In the second half, while Watford led 3-0, Javi Gracia decided to go back to the old system, which allowed Troy Deeney and Gerard Deulofeu to play together. In less than 10 seconds, Watford had scored a goal in return – a long ball towards Deeney saw him give way to Deulofeu for him to finish, the clbadic combination man-man-man.

Nicolas Otamendi was found out of goal, as he still had not adapted mentally to face two attackers.

This is undoubtedly the essential here.

Central defensemen are so used to playing against a single striker – taking turns to follow him, then put themselves in a cover position – who, forced to face two against two, have trouble getting done because they are presented with an unknown problem.

Two players are not at the rendezvous, but they remain a valuable weapon in the tactical arsenal of a camp capable of causing serious problems to the defenders.

This article was first published on ESPN.com.