Leeds’ new manager Thomas Christiansen has revealed that he likes to favour a 4-3-3 formation.
The 44-year-old was officially unveiled as Garry Monk’s replacement on Monday afternoon and the Dane touched upon a number of topics ahead of the forthcoming Championship season.
One of the questions raised to Christiansen was his style of play and what type of football the Elland Road faithful could be watching next term.
The former Spain international, who won Cyprus’ first division title with APOEL, admitted that he will have to be “flexible” with his tactics.
“I have to be flexible,” said Christiansen, as quoted by Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Phil Hay on his personal Twitter account. “I played a 4-3-3 [formation] at Larnaca and wanted to do the same at APOEL but the squad wasn’t right for it.”
TC on his style: I have to be flexible. Played 4-3-3 at Larnaca and wanted to do the same at APOEL but squad wasn't right for it. #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) June 19, 2017
During his one season in charge of the Whites, Monk opted to utilise a 4-2-3-1 formation, with striker Chris Wood being the main man up front.
Added with that, the likes of Liam Bridcutt, Ronaldo Vieira, Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips would be deployed as defensive midfielders, protecting the centre-back duo of Pontus Jansson and Kyle Bartley, who had the experienced Rob Green between the sticks.
Monk’s direct style of play resulted in Leeds missing out on the top-six by five points but when analysing the season as a whole, they did progress significantly from previous campaigns.
Leeds’ new man in charge will be without Bartley for the forthcoming season because the highly-experienced defender returned to his parent club of Swansea when his loan spell expired last month.