Consider the types of formations typically employed by teams in the Premier League and La Liga. Data from Opta Sports show that Spanish clubs used a 4–2–3–1 formation in 57.8 percent of all matches they played during the 2010/11 season, while English teams did so in only 9 percent of theirs. By contrast, the preferred formation of English clubs was a classic 4–4–2 (used 44.3 percent of the time). And while the second most preferred formation of Premier League clubs was a 4–5–1—used in 18 percent of all matches—La Liga clubs used 4–5–1 in a negligible 1.3 percent of games. If nothing else,
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