The W-M(1925)

The 1925 amendment of the offside rule meant that an attacking player need
only keep 2 opponents in front of him and not 3 as stated before. This made
the offside trap a much more challenging proposition. If one defender made a
mistake, then the goalkeeper would be left on his own to defend the goal...
Unsurprisingly, the number of goals scored in the English First Division rose
by 43%, from 1,192 to 1,703.

The perceptive Arsenal manager Herbert Chapman, along with his captain
Charlie Buchan, devised a system to stop this problem after a 7-0 drubbing by
Newcastle. They noticed that it was the centre-forward doing most of the
goalscoring. Thus, the centre-half was pulled back to become the stopper, or
the centre-back. To fill up the gap created in midfield, the two
inside-forwards were pulled back to create a four-man midfield which the
Italians called the magic square. The team thus had the general shape of a W
of defensive players and an M of attack-minded players, giving rise to the
name W-M. The typical W-M centre-forward was brawny and could score well.  

Arsenal's W-M was very successful because of a few special touches that
Chapman put in: Firstly, his defensive W was a lopsided one. This meant that
when an attack began on the opposition's left flank, Arsenal's rightback
would come in for the challenge, while Arsenal's defensive right midfielder,
stopper, defensive left midfielder and leftback moved to respectively deeper
positions as shown in the diagram to your right. Secondly, the Arsenal
wingers could also cut in to score goals. Thirdly, one of the inside-forwards
was used as a playmaker, to fill up the gap from the loss of the centre-half.


Brazil's version of the W-M in 1950 was the diagonal system, with only 2
fullbacks, covering the centre and right part of the defensive third of the
field, the left flank being the job of a withdrawn left midfielder who was
expected to help out in attack. This led to some defensive vulnerability, but
lots of attacking firepower. Its vulnerabilities were only exposed once, by
the Swiss, which held the Brazilian team to a 2-2 draw with their bolt
system. This was enough, and the Brazilians switched to an orthodox version
of the W-M, which proved very successful, taking them to the Final where they
lost to a highly adapted Uruguayan team using a sort of metodo which was
really more like a 4-3-3.

Advice on the W-M: To use the orthodox W-M successfully, the defense has to
be alert, and passing within the team must be good. In other words, as with
all other formations, teamwork has to be strong so that communication is done
efficiently. Scoring must not be a difficulty to the forwards as there are
now less forwards up front, and where attacking play is concerned, the
midfield has to help out as well as the movements upfront have to start with
the midfield.

To use the Arsenal version, your wingers should have about the same skills as
a 2-3-5 centre-forward, for scoring goals is another of the new
responsibilities of the wingers. You can use all four midfielders as a bridge
between the defense and offense, as the role of playmaker will be taken up by
one of the inside forwards. For the Brazilian version, strong defenders with
lots of stamina are the thing to have because if the withdrawn left
midfielder gets caught out, then the two backs will have to cover the entire
defensive third of the pitch.
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