I feel it’s such a shame we won’t be seeing this again for a long time.
Let me make it clear first that I’m not against 4-5-1 or 4-2-3-1 (whichever you call it) and I think it’s brought us great success in the league and there’s a reason most teams still use that formation.
It is frustrating though that in certain games we never even attempt to start with 2 strikers. In games like against Villa it was perfect. They were never going to dominate our midfield even with the extra player in there and we could also see they were dreadful defensively.
I think the reason Moyes refuses to go for 4-4-2 was that awful night against Bolton last season, where he was forced to use it through lack of options alongside a lack of form. Hardly a fair chance, it was a freezing night, we got caught out with 3 injuries in the game and in the first place we were starting Saha and Strac upfront (equals 0 goal threat), Osman and Donovan on the wing (for 4-4-2 you need pacey/tricky wingers) and Heitinga and Neville in the middle (Errr, what can you say).
When you look at the team we could play now:
You’ve got a good defence. You’ve got tricky or pacey wingers and then the full backs to overlap. You’ve got an extremely strong central midfield with good passing abilities and finally you’ve got two strikers who can get goals but are also willing to put a shift in. If the worst came to the worst and we were playing terribly, it wouldn’t be difficult to switch it around with Anichebe capable of dropping back into a wing position to go back to 5 in midfield.