When you put it like that then I would have to agree. But when you put all those individual players together in the same team and ask them to play 4-4-2, I think you'll find they won't work as well as you'd think or that much better than they would in 4-3-3, if at all. And I'll tell you why - for us to get success in 4-4-2 those wingers and forwards need service and we lack someone in midfield to provide the service, i.e. a playmaker. Don't mention Emre, his passing is poor as is his selection of passing, he prefers to run with the ball anyway. He's actually more suited to a 4-3-3 formation. Barton doesn't look like a playmaker to me either, he's more of an action man type midfielder, box to box. Butt is a destroyer and Geremi isn't your man either. In short we don't have the players to keep the ball and feed those wingers and strikers.
Up front we don't quite have the forwards either who will put away those crosses and get into the box, Viduka hasn't the legs to get in there these days or the fitness to stay in the team, Owen doesn't have the fitness either and can easily be marked by a good defender. Keep him outside the box and he's pretty much a wasted shirt. As for Martins, he doesn't have the brains to make the right runs for crosses. We can't thread them through either because we don't have a player in midfield to do it while even on the flanks, our crossing is average to say the least and in Milner, we have the wing version of Owen really. Push him back and he's a wasted shirt as he lacks the pace to pin his marker back. This isn't helped by a lack of pace and attaking flair at right-back. At least on the left with Milner and N'Zogbia we can pin the full-back deeper into his own half as we did with Sagna, an electric attacking full-back. The others? Smith isn't a penalty box striker and Ameobi, well...
Sorry but I just don't see how 4-4-2 will work for us with the players we have. On paper and individually speaking it could as you've highlighted, but in practice, the results have been mixed. Indeed we've done better with 4-3-3 and that's because it masks our weaknesses and actually allows us to benefit from them. 4-3-3 squeezes the opposition and can force them deep where we can exploit them from set play or by ariel bombardment, we don't have to have good heading ability in there, the idea is to force the opposition into making mistakes which our extra numbers due to the 6 attacking players will capitalise on. You don't need a playmaker or wingers in 4-3-3 to get some joy from it either. Because the opposition sits deep, their own attack therefore gets cut off so they revert long or their passes fail to reach the forwards, meaning the ball is coming back to us without us having to win it, increasing our possession despite the team not being the best with the ball which we have enjoyed the majority of in quite a few of our games, even against Arsenal. In 4-4-2 you have to scrap for the ball first and when you win it keep it and look for openings, always open to the counter or being outplayed in the middle. In 4-3-3 you don't have to be great on the ball as the opposition will give you it back if you force them deep. You don't need to be great on the wings either because that ball being flung in doesn't have to be precise and you don't need pace either as you're penning the opposition in and picking them off.
That's what happened against Arsenal basically and Fulham away. It's not pretty but it works. Ideally we'll get width, creativity and mobility in Jan and beyond, which will make us stronger and able to play in a number of ways going forward. For now though 4-3-3 as it is better than 4-4-2 as it is, for me anyway.
Good post, it's clear we don't have the personal to pull a 4-4-2 off at the moment, not just that, with all the new players we have it's much easier to play as a unit playing 4-3-3 in comparison to a 4-4-2.
