Certainly at a glance, playing two defenders seems like tactical suicide. However, at a closer look at the setup, the players involved and the philosophical viewpoint of the manager, Jorge Sampaoli, it becomes more and more clear. It's so crazy it may just be brilliant.
First of all, when we talk about Sampaoli, we need to look Argentine football as a whole. In a sense Argentina sums up the dilemma of football managers all over the world; 'Simply to win, or to play beautifully?' In Argentina these two different philosophies are categorized as Bilardismo and Menottismo after the managers responsible for Argentina's two world cup triumphs. Those categorized as Bilardistas will set out to create a team of minimal risk. That means that everything the team does is planned out meticulously. The system's primary function is to stifle the opposition, before breaking forward in small numbers, again to keep risk to a minimum. This will give very little creative freedom to the players and will often result in very few goals scored...but hopefully even fewer conceded. Those categorized as Menottistas will seek to play the game the way that would make the football purists swoon. The idea is that the team believes in its own ability to outscore the opposition; with individual skill, slick passing and fluid movement, reliant on the intelligence and teamwork of the eleven on the pitch. The focus is on outscoring your opponent, with high creative freedom given to each of the players. It is a production of a style that seeks to excite the fans.
But where does Sampaoli fit into all this? Somewhere in the middle. Modern football has taken the route of attack. Many of the successful managers of today; Pep Guardiola, Mauricio Pochettino, Jürgen Klopp and Zinedine Zidane each try to play positive, attacking football with a high degree of creative freedom given to their players. However, gone are the days of the kamikaze attitudes of the Menottistas. The idea that it didn't matter how many goals the team conceded, because it would always score more. Nowadays everything has a purpose, each movement is worked on, it is planned out, and if a defender goes forward it is always for a tactical purpose. The system is everything and discipline is key.
The 2-3-3-2 only works if tactical discipline is implemented. This falls under the category of Bielsismo; the compromise of Menotti and Bilardo. Sampaoli, said to be Bielsa's closest disciple, employs many of Bilardo's tactics into this system. For instance, Sampaoli's defensive plan is to always have one more central defender than the opposition has strikers. Here the tactical virtue is obvious. The prominent formations in football are 4-3-3 with two wide men and one lone striker and 4-2-3-1 with a lone striker and a number 10 behind him. The 2-3-3-2 has the perfect cover for both of those formations. Both opposition wingers are covered by Sampaoli's wingbacks, leaving the opposing centre forward double marked by two centre backs. Against the 4-2-3-1 Sampaoli has the centre defensive midfielder covering the opposition's number 10. In attack the advantage is obvious aswell; two wide shuttlering midfielders, two strikers and a creative midfielder in the hole gives Sampaoli a five man attack. Against opposition playing a five man defense this eliminates the one man advantage the opposition has at the back.
Defensively, the wingbacks can invert to cover the opposition's centre midfielders in the 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, and offensively can provide attacking runs, either inwardly to free up forward players or overlapping runs which encourage the wide midfielders to occupy the half spaces creating a numerical advantage in the central areas.
The creative midfielder in the offensive position will not be a pure 'number 10'. This one will be more of a creative number 8 who will provide some work defensively as well as creatively. Part of the attacking setup is that you have two creative players playing up the pitch; one in the hole and one lined up in the attacking two, playing as second striker or 9 1/2 if you will.
The 2-3-3-2 can therefore be interpreted as an odd looking 4-4-2 with high fullbacks. Ultimately when it comes to defending it is down to the manic pressing regime that any and all Bielsistas implement into their teams. Pressing is very much a feature of the modern game, and this formation provides the perfect platform to do it effectively. The 3-3 creates a six in midfield, again giving us a one man advantage against most other teams, who will tend to have only five in midfield. It also provides us with four forwards to press the opposition back line, restricting how far their players can position themselves, effectively containing them in their own half.
Whether that's to win the ball back early by pushing the wingers up or to prevent the opposition getting to far up the pitch by keeping the wingers deep, the formation can cover both options. Of course the danger is obvious, two centre backs would be in trouble if the opposition bypassed the midfield. However the idea is that the compact shape of the 2-3-3-2 gives little room for the opposition to pass through.
Also, the defensive midfielder has to be someone of good technical ability as well as someone with a keen sense of danger. Sampaoli used both Lucas Biglia and Javier Mascherano in this position at the world cup. His tendency to favor Mascherano was arguably one of his biggest tactical failings. Throughout the games it seemed that Argentina lacked that creativity in midfield. This is partially down to the fact that Mascherano is not technically gifted enough to play in this role. Lucas Biglia on the other hand. provided much more creativity as well as defensive cover and all in all when he played, Argentina looked better.
The numbers 7 and 11 won't be so much wingers as they will be wide shuttlers, who can tuck in to form a midfield diamond whilst the team is in possession. Sampaoli tended to opt for Angel Di María and Maximiliano Meza in these roles. Though Di María is comfortable playing out wide (where he's been playing for PSG, and where he featured for Real Madrid), his favoured position, and the position he spent the prime of his career in, is as a free roaming midfield 8. The fact that he can play both centrally and out wide makes him the perfect midfielder for this kind of role. Maximiliano Meza on the other hand, is natural attacking midfielder, with little to no experience out wide. This showed, in the world cup as he was often caught isolated and was kept mostly quiet throughout the games. Even when Sampaoli abandoned the 2-3-3-2 in Argentina's first two world cup games, he played Di María and Meza out wide, but this time more as traditional wingers than false number 10s. This highlighted a problem that Argentina have had for many years now; too many good players in the same position and not enough quality in other areas of the pitch.
