World Cup 2026: Tactical trends to adopt 4-4-2 as Brazil joins others

While the 4-4-2 will be used extensively at this World Cup, football tactics are constantly being developed and analysed.

Premier League football in the early 2000s was characterized by a 4-4-2 formation. The gaps between players were large with slightly lower blocks and less dug high presses.

This gave attackers more time and space to express themselves.

Teams, perhaps due to conditions and lack of coaching time, have reverted to a similar 4-4-2 formation, which explains why games are open.

Many teams are opting for this form of possession, including Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Brazil, Haiti, Scotland and Japan.

In their 4-4-2, teams are choosing times to press high, but for large parts of the game they choose to defend in central defense – rather than defending deep or pressing consistently high.

If international sides choose to simply sit back and defend in depth, they are ultimately giving away a level of control over the game.

Especially against big nations, allowing them to have long attacking possessions in your box basically gives them the type of game they want to play.

Cramming all the games so hard will be less effective given the sweltering heat and humidity, but it’s paid off for the likes of Mexico, Morocco and Germany after a few moments.

This then puts the teams defending in the middle of the field in a 4-4-2 formation.

The formation is wide and provides coverage in a balanced way, but it leaves gaps between the lines that the teams were able to exploit well in our next trend.