World Cup Soccer: Tactical trends that came out of 2010 World Cup - by Jonathan Wilson

It is a process that has been going on for the better part of a decade, but this, surely, was the tournament at which 4-4-2 drew its last breath, at least as an attacking formation. As Johan Cruyff pointed out last week, the key to maintaining possession is the creation of triangles, and 4-4-2 simply doesn't lend itself to that. Or, to give theory more axiomatic form, when attempting to maintain possession, a triangle will always beat a line.

That's the theory; in practical terms, of course, the reason why 4-4-2 was so popular for so long was because it offered a sound defensive structure -- only rare examples, such as Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan, had the discipline both to achieve the balance of structure and fluidity to play a pressing 4-4-2 as an attacking formation -- and as such, a broken team of eight plus two, it may endure. Its decline has been hastened, though, by the liberalization of the offside law.

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