The Diamond Midfield, and Why It'll Get You in Trouble

Someone always asks about the diamond midfield. Usually after they've watched a clip of it working with players who cost more than your clubhouse.

Let me tell you what it is, then why it'll bite you. A diamond is four midfielders stacked — one holding, one at the tip, one each side. Lovely central control. The problem lives out wide. A diamond has nobody on the touchlines, so your full-backs have to do the entire flank, both ends, ninety times a match. With grown professionals who run for a living, grand. With your lot, the full-back's blowing out of his backside by half-time and the gap behind him is where you concede.

Carlo Ancelotti ran a famous diamond at Milan with Pirlo sat at the base, spraying it everywhere. People copied the shape and forgot the bit that made it work: world-class engines either side who covered every blade of grass. You copy the drawing, you don't copy the lungs.

The honest question before you ever draw one: have you got two full-backs who'll get up and back all game without sulking or dying? If the answer's no — and at grassroots it's almost always no — you're better with a flat four that keeps your width.

Monday, if you must try it, play it in a small-sided game first and watch the flanks. You'll see the holes inside ten minutes. Better to learn it there than at 0-2 on a Saturday.

It's not that the diamond's bad. It's that it asks for things a simpler shape doesn't. Ask the Gaffer whether your two full-backs can pay the rent on it. We go again.