In a lot of countries 5 a-side soccer is used as one of the steppingstones in educating young players on their path to the full 11v11 game. In some countries it is the first type of soccer they play while in other they play a couple of years 3v3 before they start with 5v5. Even though individual development should be the primary objective at this point in the players soccer experience, there are some benefits to knowing what you can do with 5v5 soccer formations.
Another reason that it is good to know a thing or two about these formations is that futsal is always played 5v5. I know a lot of teams (including La Masia, Barcelonas academy) use futsal as an activity to further players technical capabilities for much older players.
Futsal is also a big sport for adults, where most countries have their own national team. In recent times it has gained a lot of popularity. Now the best futsal players actually make a decent living from the sport.
So there are plenty of reasons to have an idea of the different 5v5 soccer formations!
Why are these 5v5 soccer formations important?
Remember that a formation is first and foremost the defensive starting point for a team. In other words: your formation is the shape that your team should have when you have all players between the ball and your own goal. This means that what when you are looking at the illustrations in this post you have to realize that you are looking at a static illustration of how the players should be positioned when the other team has the ball in the center of the field.
From this static starting point you can do different dynamic adjustments to how you attack and to how you defend if the ball is for example played past one of your lines.
So, if everything is dynamic, why is it important to know these 5v5 soccer formations? The answer is that both in attack and defense starting positions matter a lot because they provide the opportunities and limitations for which spaces your team can cover and exploit.
As an illustrative example we can look at a situation where your team is playing 4-0-0 and the opponents have the ball. Lets say that one of your players win the ball just outside your goalkeeper area. How can you now start an attack? You are basically forced to either play backwards or sideways as this formation dont have any debth to it. If you instead played a 3-0-1 formation, you would at least have one player to pass to that is further up the field.
The 5 a-side formations
In this post I will outline seven (more or less) different 5 a-side formations with their respective pros, cons and demands. I will also give my opinion on which 7v7 that the 5v5 system transitions well into. I also have a guide about 15 different 7v7 soccer formations that is well worth a read if your team is transitioning into 7 a-side.
So lets just jump straight into it…
5v5 Soccer Formations
3-0-1 (The Wall)
I see a lot of writers and coaches refer to this formation as a purely defensive formation. They claim that it is best applied if you want to sit back and prevent the other team from scoring.
Ofcourse it CAN be used to “park the bus”, but i think you have to consider a more dynamic approach where the left and right back can move up the field when your team is attacking. Using quick players in these positions can be a really powerful weapon on counter attacks.
1-2-1 (The Diamond)
In futsal this might be the most used formation at higher level. It is also a formation that is highly relevant for more complex forms of soccer. Teams often try to create this exact shape in 9v9 and 11v11 games. A known example is the 4-4-2 formation where the midfield is set up with a diamond shape.
If you break it down even more, you can see that there are a lot of triangles in that diamond. A triangle is also an important shape in soccer.
As you can see, it is not very different from the 3-0-1. Moving the players on both sides a bit higher up gives your team better starting positions for an attack, but it also gives up more space close to your own goal for the other team to exploit.
My main priority when using this formation (and i use it a lot), is that I make sure that the defender is a player who has the discipline to not rush in attack all the time. If that happens, my team will be very vulnerable to counter attacks if we lose the ball.
In my opinion, this is the best and most useable formation for 5v5 soccer.
2-0-2 (The Square or The Box)
This is the most classic of all 5v5 soccer formations. In the good old days, almost every team used it.
It still has some merit because it has some of the key characteristics that are good in all forms of football. Since you have two lines (the defensive line that consist of your defenders and the attacking line that consist of your attackers) you automatically have good debth. Also since both the lines are split in the middle you have good width.
In defense you can imagine that the two lines is the same as two midfielders and two central defenders working together in 11v11 or 9v9 soccer. This is actually the shape that you should try to have in those forms of soccer.
In attack the starting point for the attackers should be high and wide. They should utilize a lot of movement and cross runs to find space.
This is a 5 a-side formation that is hard to use if you want to play possession-based soccer because of the large distances between attackers and defenders. It is more suitable for a direct style.
It is worth noting that this is a really good formation for beginners as all the positions should be really easy to understand.
2-1-1 (The Pyramid)
This is also a widely used formation. It has a decent shape with both attacking and defensive qualities. You will have to depend on the 1v1 qualities of your striker and midfielder to score more than a handful of goals. If you have a good striker and midfielder and a couple of good defenders, this might be the 5 a-side formation you should choose.
1-0-3 (The Hail Mary or All or Nothing)
I rarely see teams in this shape, but it happens from time to time. It is obvious that the teams using it has little focus on the defensive part of the structure and hopes to score a lot of goals.
In most cases I see it used it is by teams that expect to be much better than their opponents. Another situation is when a team needs to score goals late in a game and are willing to risk more.
If you want to use this as a standard formation you have to be sure that your 3 front players are good at pressing and wins the ball relatively often.
1-1-2 (The “Y”)
A bit more defensive than the 1-0-3, but still not a lot of defensive thoughts here. The advantage of having one player behind the two up front is that he covers a bit more space and is able to block passing lanes. This midfield player will be really important to get this 5v5 soccer formation to work. He needs to be able to run a lot to support in both attack and defense. In addition he needs to be tactically smart.
4-0-0 (The Line)
You cannot get more defensive than this. Every player in one line defending more or less as a back four in 11v11 or 9v9.
You can use this formation to train a back four, but i dont think it has much merit. The players still has a couple of years of 7v7 to play before getting into 9v9.
I find that the biggest problem with playing a formation like this with kids is that it requires a lot of discipline. It is also boring for players that most of all wants to score goals. Keeping clean sheets can be fun for adults, but usually not for kids.
There is situations where it can be used though. If you lead by one goal against a good team and just wants to make sure that you win the game it can be used. Still, i would probably go for something like the 3-0-1 in situations like that.
Best 5v5 Soccer Formations – Conclusion
As you now know, there are plenty of options to choose from. Some attacking, some defensive and some more neutral. Whatever you choose, you need to make sure that you take a dynamic approach to the formations. They are only to be considered default positions for the players when the other team is in possession.
Also remember that you want to expose the players to a lot of different soccer situations. For the development of skills they need to be challenged with new tasks as often as possible. This involves using different formations, letting the players try different positions on the field and letting them explore the game for themselves with you as a guide. Speaking of development, you should also check out my post on 7 a-side soccer formations so that you are ready to take the step when the time comes.
