Was it still the diamond?

[Mahogany 0]

While I don''t think we can read too much into the performance last night, one thing that I did notice was an evolution of the diamond. We''ve always played with very attacking fullbacks in this formation but I have to say last night I don''t think I ever saw us with 4 at the back.

During the first half Tierny seemed to be playing in a defensive winger role, more often in their final third than ours. Russell Martin seemed to be in a similar role, though maybe slightly less attacking. When Palace had the ball it seemed the Johnson would drop back to form a central 3, whilst Martin and Tierny would stay slightly further up letting the centre backs push wide to cover most of the time.

Now this can be explained some by how small Palace''s pitch is and how little they offered in terms of an attacking threat, but might this also point to a change in formation? If I had to describe it I''d call it a 2-3-2-1-2, or maybe even a 2-3-2-3 as C.Martin spent most of his time up front whilst either Jackson pushed wide or Holt chased the ball further back.

Whatever it was it created a lot of space, especially for Tierny. Given sharper passing and crossing we could have run away with the game.

How it would work against teams with good wingers in another matter.