Did Lincoln City Struggle Against Certain Formations, And What Does The Championship Hold?

Lincoln City in 2025/26 was almost flawless. It was as close to perfect as any EFL side has got over a 46-game campaign, even the great Reading side of 2005/06.

We had one of the longest single-season unbeaten runs ever, with more points per game than any of those runs around us. We won, and we won, and nobody could stop it in the end, like a ten-tonne lorry with the handbrake off, rolling down a hill. Get in our way, get brushed aside, and onto the next.

In our Patreon Discord chat, I was asked to look at how we did against teams in certain formations, to see if there was a single formation we struggled with, and then to maybe correspond to those in the Championship.

I think this is a nuanced debate, but I have looked anyway. Initially, my thoughts were these: formations feel rather arbitrary now, as if trying to label a team based on where their players stand sometimes is wrong. Take us, for example. 4-2-3-1, some might say, but in some situations, that is a 4-4-2, or a 4-5-1. We’re fluid, and in some games we’re 4-2-3-1, then switched to 3-5-2 to see games out, so to identify a single setup is to rely on one team playing a rigid formation for an entire game.

Then, there is also quality. If the Stacey West FC charity team lined up 4-3-3 against City, we’d likely get an education. When Reading do it, they’re more likely to get a result based on the levels. Of course, everyone in this list is an EFL club (bar the EFL Trophy games) but even between top and bottom, you’d expect quality to make a difference in the outcome of the game almost as much as tactics.

The Results

In terms of actual results against formations, this is how things look. It is worth bearing in mind that for some of these numbers, there is a single game. Only Huddersfield in the EFL Trophy played 4-4-1-1, while only Wigan in the league played 4-3-2-1. Also, because we lost so few games, the defeat at Wimbledon makes it look like we’re a little more susceptible under 3-4-3, but in truth, we lost one game, with ten men, and won the other three.

Obviously, we do seem to deal with a 4-3-3 very well, and a standard 4-4-2, but there are so many variables that these are probably guides and of general interest, more than an indication of what we might struggle with. When you’re a side that doesn’t struggle with anything (other than struggling to lose), picking out trends can be fairly difficult.

What do Championship clubs do?

The honest answer to that is change, quite a bit. Of the clubs we’ll definitely be playing next season, 12 had their ‘preferred’ formation for 50% of their game time or less. Of course, that could be a number of factors: in-game shifts, managerial changes, injuries, or it could be their approach to shift a lot depending on their opponents. That’s the case for the Premier League duo we’ll face – Burnley seemingly preferred 4-2-3-1, but played it for 25% of their minutes, the other 75% spread across different set-ups. The same goes for Wolves, 5-3-2, but for 23%, still the highest percentage.

A few teams are fairly rigid when it comes to set-up. Norwich, Birmingham, Stoke and Portsmouth certainly liked the 4-2-3-1, and when you consider three of those were in relegation danger, that’s quite promising. Honest truth coming – we’ll be in relegation danger all season, but those teams stuck to their principles and got out of trouble.

That said, Oxford played 4-2-3-1 for 50% of their matches, while Leicester played it for 81% of their games, so maybe there isn’t quite as much in that!

Anyway, for comparison, here are the formation Championship sides preferred, and for what percentage of their games.