Why there are illegal formations?

[casper™]

Spain 1-1 Italy: Spain start with no striker, Italy use a 3-5-2
June 10, 2012

True.

Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque opted to start with six midfielders instead of a recognised striker, effectively playing a 4-6-0.

Spain starting lineup v Italy Euro 2012:- Casillas, Arbeloa, Pique, Sergio Ramos, Jordi Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Alonso, Silva, Fabregas, Iniesta
Italy starting lineup v Spain 2012:- Buffon, Chiellini, De Rossi, Bonucci, Giaccherni, Marchisio, Pirlo, Thiago Motta, Maggio, Cassano, Balotelli

[SimplySimon]

Serious tactical analysts acknowledge that both Spain and Barcelona played 4-5-1 last year, with a 'false 9' up front. That role is a forward who drops deep into midfield in an attempt to a) provide more passing angles in that area and b) draw the central defenders out of position using intelligent movement to allow space for inverted wingers to come inside and threaten. This in turn leaves gaps on the wing for attacking full backs to exploit. Busquets plays very deep, both to pick up possession and begin attacks and also to act as an auxiliary defender if the full backs get caught up field - at this point the players would be lined up approximately in a 3-4-3

This year, with Villa back, Barca have tended to be a bit more lop-sided and it's often Jordi Alba coming across from left back to help out the central defenders and provide cover, while Iniesta drifts out wide left and Villa can drop inside to support Messi. Alves rages forward from right back as always

For both Spain and Barcelona, Fabregas sometimes fills the 'false 9' role, because he is an intelligent user of space. The problem is that he's not as threatening in and around the area as Villa or Messi so both teams look less likely to score when he's there instead of one (or both) of the other two - such as Barca-PSG last week

(Opta and Prozone support what I've said above, if you care to research it. Sorry to bang on but I'm a football coach IRL and this stuff interests me)

But this is quite advanced and T11 is in essence a simple game with a simple engine. Why do illegal formations exist? Because they need to have some basic rules to stop people, for example, just overloading the middle with players and dominating games that way

Getting this right is like having a blanket that's a bit too small to cover all of you, if you pull it to cover one area it exposes another one. So sometimes a formation that you wouldn't really see IRL, like 3W at the back, becomes effective in the game