Originally Posted by
Valeron
4-2-3-1 is just a modified 4-3-3
they are just a starting point anyway. The question to ask is how do you look like when you attack, how does it look when you defend, what roles does each position have, where is your line of confrontation, do you high press, low press, are your wingers inverted, do you use your fullbacks for width or for defensive solidarity, do you overload on the wings or are you more central, are you looking for crosses with a big man in the box, or maybe you use your wingers to get the endline and cut the ball back across the box, do you use a staggered midfield, a flat midfield, do you use a free roam player (ala Messi)...
many other questions and tactical ideas to ask. Anyway, the formation is just a starting point